JUNCTION CITY, Ore. — Hay exporter Jesse Bounds knew it’d be a rough summer when two of his barns burned down in mid-July.

A fire ignited spontaneously in his field and soon consumed the structures, which contained roughly $500,000 of straw.

“It was so windy that day that it blew through the buildings in like five minutes,” said Bounds, who also bales straw and compresses it at his facility here.

Problems with the insurance company left Bounds short of money to rebuild both barns at a time when his income was drastically reduced from the loss of straw, he said. “I’m just bleeding to death.”

Then came a blow from an unexpected direction: Oregon’s Department of State Lands notified Bounds he’d violated Oregon’s removal-fill law by attempting to rebuild in a wetland.

The letter came as a shock. “I was literally sick to my stomach,” Bounds said.

His surprise sprang from the fact the property isn’t identified as a wetland on county maps and he’d received the necessary county permits to begin construction.

“The problem is the county and state don’t work on this issue,” he said. “If they’re really trying to protect wetlands, why would they allow the county to give me building permits again?”

Bounds suspects that DSL’s interest in the property was sparked by a complaint from a neighbor with whom he’s had disagreements, since the agency did not protest when he first built the storage facilities in 2014.

He’s already rebuilt one barn but worries he’ll still be required to spend roughly $57,000 on wetland mitigation on each of the 12 acres that DSL claims are wetlands because they contain hydric soils. Generally, such mitigation involves buying credits from a wetland bank that’s been developed elsewhere.

Bounds said the agency effectively declared the area a wetland and then forced him to prove it’s not.

“They come at you like they’re the police. They automatically think you’re in violation,” he said.

Julie Curtis, public information manager for DSL, acknowledged “the timing of our enforcement action was unfortunate due to Mr. Bounds’s recent fire.”

“However, as a regulatory agency, the Department of State Lands is bound by its statutory and rule responsibilities with regard to protecting Oregon’s wetlands and waterways,” Curtis said in an email. “We always strive to resolve violations in a way that ideally will facilitate accomplishing the applicant’s goals, while meeting the state’s requirements to protect Oregon’s wetlands and waterways.”

DSL acknowledged that a “forensic wetland delineation” on the property would be difficult and therefore the agency was willing to discuss alternative methods for defining the area where mitigation would be required, according to an agency email sent to a wetland consultant hired by Bounds.

The agency has agreed to postpone taking any action in Bounds’ case until the end of the 2017 legislative session next July, when it will be “re-engaging with Mr. Bounds to determine how to resolve the matter,” Curtis said.

Oregonians In Action, a nonprofit property rights group, believes it may have a legislative solution that would solve such problems for Bounds and other farmers in similar situations.

The underlying problem is that state and county maps may show that a property isn’t a wetland, but that doesn’t necessarily mean DSL can’t later determine it’s actually a wetland, said Dave Hunnicutt, the group’s executive director.

“DSL isn’t limited to the places listed on their state and local wetland inventory,” he said. “The maps are misleading to the public and can’t be relied upon.”

It’s unfair to expect landowners to pre-emptively check whether every portion of their property is a wetland, particularly since such determinations are often based on soil tests rather than stereotypical wetland characteristics, Hunnicutt said.

“It’s not a pond, it’s not a marsh, there are no cattails. It’s just a field,” he said. “If you can’t rely on the maps, then why do they have them in the first place?”

It’s also unrealistic for DSL to examine every property that’s permitted for development, which is why the process is largely complaint-driven, Hunnicutt said.

Hunnicutt plans to ask a legislator to introduce a bill clarifying that properties not classified as wetlands on local and state inventories are exempt from the removal-fill law.

In the alternative, the exemption would be narrowed to the rebuilding of agricultural buildings, which would be more specifically tailored to Bounds.

“The Legislature needs to step in and make sure what’s happening to Jesse doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Hunnicutt said.

CROW, Ore. (AP) — An early spring and ideal summer growing weather led to an early wine grape harvest in the southern Willamette Valley.

“It definitely helped ripen the fruit the way we want it,” Sweet Cheeks Winery & Vineyard winemaker Leo Gabica said.

Sweet Cheeks and other wineries nestled in the hills around Eugene had their grapes off the vine by the end of September — typically when the harvest starts.

This year’s harvest is the earliest King Estate, southwest of Eugene, completed in its more than two-decade-long history. “You credit that to the quality and ripeness of the fruit,” Chief Executive and co-founder Ed King said.

Area winemakers and winery owners said 2016 looks to be another great year for grapes, particularly in terms of quality. It follows two memorable harvests, which produced exceptional yields and left cellars well stocked with aging wine.

“It is just astonishing, the quality of the fruit,” King said.

Winemakers still must tally the tonnage of this year’s harvest, but many said it will not be as large as either of the past two record-setting years. Wineries in the southern Willamette Valley harvested 8,618 tons of wine grapes in 2015 and 7,038 tons in 2014, up from 4,731 tons in 2013, according to data from the Southern Oregon University Research Center in Ashland.

Optimal weather for much of the year and an early start to the growing season contributed to the early harvest and fruit quality, experts said. Winter months were not too cold, spring was mild without the types of frosts that can kill grape buds, and the summer had relatively few days of extremely hot temperatures that can ripen grapes too quickly.

“You’d like to have a winter that’s not too cold, but yet has enough moisture to allow the soil to recharge,” said Southern Oregon University professor Greg Jones, a leading researcher of the state’s wine industry. “You want to have a spring that starts off warm and clear with little frost risk. And then you want to have a summer that has the right heat accumulation to ripen varieties, but yet doesn’t produce a lot of heat stress.”

“You don’t want a lot of heavy rain events or hail events, or anything like that,” he added. “And then you want to have a harvest that is happening in the month of September where temperatures are starting to go down at night, but are still a little warm during the day. All of those kinds of things would be ideal for most growers.”

Above average temperatures during the past three years in the southern Willamette Valley regularly matched those optimum conditions, Jones said.

“Grape vines like it to be a little warmer than normal, and they’ve certainly had that for the past few years,” he said.

When grapes start growing determines when the growing season ends, said Morgan Broadley, one of the owners at Broadley Vineyards in Monroe.

“Once you get going in an early spring, even if you just have a normal summer, it is going to be early,” he said.

Jones said 2016 turned out to be “a pretty good year,” for grape growing.

“We had little heat stress compared to previous years,” he said. “This year, July ended up being a little cooler than normal. That made it be less stressful because, sometimes in July, when you have a lot of heat stress events over 100 degrees it can actually damage the vines, and make for lower quality. But this year we just didn’t have very many of those.”

Mild weather in September “allowed people the time to let everything ripen nice and slowly,” Jones said.

At Silvan Ridge Winery — across a country road from Sweet Cheeks — head winemaker Juan Pablo “J.P.” Valot said the quality of the grapes this year is “phenomenal.”

Cool, damp conditions contribute to mildew and mold that blackens grape buds. This year, however, the weather was relatively warm and dry that “keeps the vines more healthy without mildew” or mold, Valot said.

Jim McGavin, owner of Walnut Ridge Vineyard, west of Junction City, said this year’s harvest will produce “an absolutely beautiful vintage.”

The pleasant late summer weather helped the harvest go smoothly, he said. “It was just a beautiful, easy harvest season this year,” McGavin said. “Nice clear, dry weather. No rain pressure when we were picking.”

Like other southern Willamette Valley wineries, Sweet Cheeks buys grapes from other Oregon vineyards to add variety to its vintages. Earlier in October, Gabica and his crew unloaded tons of syrah grapes from Southern Oregon.

The first part of wine making involves sorting out unripe fruit, removing stems and dropping the grapes into a massive tank, where fermentation begins. In nearly two years, the fermented grape juice will be in bottles as wine.

The large harvests of 2014 and 2015 filled many bottles.

For some wineries, another large production year could be a problem, said Jones, of Southern Oregon University.

“Just like any business, you have to realize that your business can only manage so much in terms of production,” he said. “It may be that your sales distributions are limited. Or it may be that you don’t have the infrastructure in your operation to process more grapes.”

But winemakers said their operations can handle the most recent sizable harvest.

“I’m excited for another great vintage,” said Valot, of Silvan Ridge. “And I think that’s great for Oregon.”

KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) — A central Oregon man who put poison on a deer carcass in a central Idaho wilderness leading to the death of a wolf and a dog has been sentenced to 10 days in jail and ordered to pay $10,000 to reimburse the state for investigative costs.

The Idaho Mountain Express reports that Tim Clemens of Hines, Oregon, pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of poisoning animals and one count of unlawful take of big game.

Idaho Fish and Game launched an investigation in January after two dogs were poisoned, one of which survived.

Authorities tied the poisoning to a field-dressed deer carcass in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.

Authorities say tests on a wolf carcass found nearby confirmed it had ingested the poison.

The alpha female of the Silver Lake wolfpack was found dead on national forest land Oct. 6, wildlife officials have confirmed.

The cause of death is unkown. The wolf is being examined at the National Forensics Laboratory.

It was found dead in the Fremont-Winema National Forest near Summer Lake, Ore.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of person killing the wolf. OR 28, the alpha female of the pack, is under federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.

More details to come.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A watchdog arm of the U.S. Department of the Interior says the Bureau of Reclamation lacked the authority to enter into an agreement with the Klamath Water and Power Agency on water use, and that consequently $32.2 million spent by the agency over seven years “was a waste of funds.”

The department insisted that it did have the authority.

The dispute between the inspector general’s office and its own department has been referred to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget for resolution.

In its report released this week, the inspector general’s office recommended that the Bureau of Reclamation discontinue funding water-supplementation activities in the Klamath Basin unless it has specific legal authority. The Interior Department noted that the cooperative agreement with the Klamath Water and Power Agency already ended, on May 2. The Klamath Project is a federal dam project in southern Oregon and northern California to manage the flows of the Klamath River.

The inspector general’s office said parts of the program paid irrigators for idling land and for deepening and drilling wells, and that it largely benefited the irrigators instead of fish and wildlife, the intended benefactors.

In its response, the Interior Department said water savings realized through the cooperative agreement “essentially provided the same fish and wildlife benefits as the acquisition of third party water rights.”

The reduction in surface water demand through land idling and wells, the department argued, increased “the water available in Upper Klamath Lake and Clear Lake Reservoir to meet requirements for the endangered short-nose and Lost River suckers and in the Klamath River for the endangered coho salmon.”

SALEM — Before Oregonians even cast their vote on a $3 billion corporate sales tax proposal on the Nov. 8 ballot, state lawmakers are considering ways to redesign the tax in the 2017 legislative session.

The “gross receipts” tax, contained in Measure 97, requires “C” corporations to pay the state 2.5 percent of their annual Oregon sales exceeding $25 million.

If Measure 97 passes, “this will be the dominant issue of 2017,” said Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, chairman of the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee. Hass’s committee already has filed placeholder bills to address the measure after the election.

While Gov. Kate Brown released some general goals in June to dampen the negative impact on certain businesses, this is the first time lawmakers have spoken publicly about possible proposals they could offer next session.

Lawmakers could make small fixes to the law, such as repealing exemptions for benefit companies, or a complete overhaul such as replacing the gross receipts tax with a different corporate tax scheme.

As long as none of those proposals raise more money than Measure 97, the Legislature needs only a simple majority to approve any changes, lawmakers said.

As written, the ballot measure would bolster state revenue by nearly 30 percent, or an estimated $3 billion annually, and avert a projected $1.35 billion state budget shortfall for 2017-19.

Proponents say the measure would help reverse a trend in which Oregon residents pay an increasing share of state revenue, while businesses pay less.

Opponents argue the tax plan raises prices for consumers and creates inequity in what different kinds of corporations are required to pay in taxes. The measure would tax only “C” corporations with an excess of $25 million in annual sales, while leaving “S” corporations with the same amount of sales untouched.

If the measure passes, lawmakers in 2017 can expect “a cavalcade of 10,000 lobbyists from every industry with valid stories about why their rates should be lower,” Hass said.

The legislation required to redesign the tax measure will likely “be the biggest bill you’ve seen in your life” because of the complicated fixes that might be needed, said Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas.

Lawmakers will have to decide whether they want to consider each of those requests and possibly design different rates for different industries.

Some lawmakers favor overhauling the tax by reducing the rate and expanding the base of businesses that would have to pay.

Hass proposed an alternative to Measure 97 in the 2016 session that would have raised $500 million annually by lowering the tax rate and applying it to a broader group of businesses. However, business and union groups refused to negotiate on an alternative, and Hass said he did not have the needed support in the House of Representatives to advance the proposal.

Other lawmakers are suggesting eliminating the gross receipts tax entirely and replacing it with a different corporate taxation scheme.

While five other states have gross receipts taxes, the one proposed in Oregon imposes the highest rate on the smallest number of corporations.

Our Oregon, a public employee union-backed group, wrote the measure with the intent to target large, out-of-state corporations such as Walmart and Comcast. But the tax also affects nearly 200 Oregon corporations — including the iconic Powell’s Books, Nike, Columbia Sportswear and Intel. Because the tax applies to sales, rather than profits, it would hit high-volume, low-profit outfits particularly hard, said Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland.

Burdick, who is part of a group of lawmakers looking at potential Measure 97 changes, said she would prefer to do away with the gross receipts tax and replace it with something else that would raise equal or less revenue. Burdick said she has no particular kind of tax in mind.

“I’m really trying to keep an open mind at this point,” she said.

Lawmakers also could try to devise a law that would prevent Measure 97 from taxing the same item or service more than once, another problem associated with a gross receipts tax, Boquist said.

Brown recently has been mum about what changes she would make to the measure, saying she is focused on getting the measure passed.

She suggested Wednesday, Oct. 12, at a meeting of the Pamplin Media Group and EO Media Group editorial boards that an exemption in the measure for benefit companies is problematic. Businesses can registered as a benefit company with the Secretary of State’s Office to show customers they have higher standards of transparency and accountability.

The designation was not meant to give businesses a tax advantage, Brown said.

Pat McCormick, spokesman for the “No on Measure 97” campaign, said the problems with the measure has “created a platform for a lot of lobbying activity” in the 2017 session.

“People can’t really be sure what they’re voting on if the Legislature is planning on changes,” McCormick said. “We don’t know what the changes will be.”

The Yes on Measure 97 campaign opposes “any attempt to let big corporations off the hook to pay their fair share, especially if the business lobby attempts to make our small businesses and consumers pay more,” said Katherine Driessen, spokeswoman for Our Oregon.

The controversial proposal has fueled one of the most expensive ballot measure battles in the state’s history. Businesses opposed to the major have raised an arsenal of more than $16 million and counting, and both campaigns for and against the measure have bombarded voters with advertising slots on social media and airwaves.

If the measure doesn’t pass, lawmakers will face the prospect of either making cuts in services or coming up with their own tax package to boost revenue, lawmakers said.

Without additional revenue, those cuts could be 10-12 percent across the board, Brown said.

Weather Underground midday recap for Thursday, Oct. 13:

A wet weather pattern impacted the Northwest on Thursday. A plume of moisture moved onshore over the Pacific Northwest and northern California.

Moderate rain and high elevation snow affected Washington, Oregon, northwest California and parts of the upper Intermountain West. Flash flood watches were issued in Northern California and Southern Idaho.

Flood watches were also issued in parts of Washington.

Tillamook, Ore., reported a midday total of 2.05 inches of rain. Shelton, Wash., reported a midday total of 1.74 inches of rain. Gusty winds also impacted the Northwest on Thursday. Astoria, Ore., recorded a wind gust of 44 mph.

Whidbey Island, Wash., recorded a wind gust of 41 mph.

Cold and dry air settled in northwest of the frontal boundary over the northern Plains and the Midwest. Havre, Mont., recorded a morning low of 10 degrees. Crosby, N.D., recorded a morning low of 19 degrees.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Thursday have ranged from a morning low of 10 degrees at Havre, Mont. to a midday high of 95 degrees at McAllen, Texas.

PORTLAND (AP) — A military veteran who joined Ammon Bundy at the very beginning of the Oregon standoff case wants to withdraw his guilty plea.

Ryan Payne, 33, of Anaconda, Mont., admitted in July that he conspired with others to prevent Interior Department employees from doing their jobs during the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildfire Refuge.

In a plea deal that included talks with prosecutors in Nevada, the U.S. attorney’s office in Oregon recommended that Payne’s likely 3½-year prison sentence run at the same time as the punishment he could receive for his role in a 2014 standoff with federal agents at a Nevada ranch owned by Cliven Bundy. That was expected to be 7-to-12 years in prison.

But public defender Rich Federico said in court papers filed Wednesday that the Nevada plea was only in draft format. Talks broke down, he said, and the offer is no longer available.

“On the date he entered a guilty plea in Oregon, had Mr. Payne known all the terms of the deal in Nevada, he would not have signed the deal in Oregon,” Federico wrote.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Oregon objects to Payne’s request to withdraw his plea. Payne is scheduled to be formally sentenced in February 2017, the same month his trial starts in Nevada.

The desire to withdraw the plea comes as seven of Payne’s co-defendants, including Ammon Bundy, stand trial at the federal courthouse in Portland. A verdict could come as early as next week.

Prosecutors allege the conspiracy began Nov. 5, 2015, when Bundy and Payne met with Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward and warned of civil unrest if he did not shield two local ranchers convicted of setting fires on public lands from having to return to federal prison.

After getting no help from Ward, the men led the armed occupation of the bird sanctuary.

Besides the breakdown of the Nevada plea negotiations, Federico pointed to new evidence discovered after Payne’s plea, such as the extent to which the government used confidential informants to infiltrate meetings at the refuge.

When Payne pleaded guilty, U.S. District Judge Anna Brown repeatedly asked Payne if he was aware of the pros and cons of his decision, and if he believed he was making a rational decision free of outside pressure.

Payne insisted he was.

But Federico contends it was clear Payne had serious misgivings about the factual basis for his plea and if he was really guilty.

“For example, Mr. Payne stated that ‘I have come to understand that folks who were — who work for the government, that the Constitution ordained, perceived my actions as threatening or intimidating.”’

An opinion poll commissioned by conservation groups shows a clear majority of Oregonians favor non-lethal means of deterring wolves from attacking livestock and don’t believe the state should allow sport hunting of wolves.

The results come as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is reviewing its wolf management plan, a work in progress that in 2015 saw the ODFW Commission remove wolves from the state’s endangered species list. Conservation groups such as Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands and the Center for Biological Diversity believe the state acted hastily and maintain the wolf population is too fragile for delisting or allowing hunting.

The commission began the review work earlier this month at a public meeting in La Grande, Ore. Even though the commission wasn’t scheduled to take action during the meeting, 54 people showed up to testify. ODFW staff will present a draft plan to the commission in December.

Among the poll highlights:

• 74 percent of respondents favor compensating ranchers for livestock losses, as is now done.

• 72 percent approve of killing wolves responsible for repeated livestock attacks.

• Almost 82 percent believe poachers pose a greater threat to Oregon’s deer and elk populations than wolves. Rural residents were strongest in that belief, nearly 88 percent. Oregon State Police this week reported two cases of poachers shooting bull elk.

• 67 percent oppose hunting wolves as a means to protect deer and elk, and 72 percent oppose “trophy hunting” of wolves.

The issue of hunting wolves is likely to come up as the ODFW Commission reviews the management plan. Hunting groups are concerned about game population; others point out that Oregon allows hunting of cougars, another predator that takes deer and elk.

In 2015, a retired ODFW wildlife biologists told the Capital Press that healthy deer and elk populations serve as a buffer between livestock and Oregon’s predators, which include 25,000 to 30,00 bears, an estimated 6,200 cougars and wolves, which have grown from 14 in 2009 to more than 100 in 2015.

The survey also probed some misconceptions. Presented a range of zero to more than 1,000, respondents were asked how many cattle were killed by Oregon wolves in 2015. Among Portland-area residents, 29 percent thought the number was 100 to 999.

Informed in a follow up question that only four cows were killed in 2015, 67 percent of those surveyed said wolves do not pose an economic threat to the cattle industry.

Oregon ranchers, however, have always maintained that far more cattle are killed by wolves than are confirmed by ODFW investigators. They say grazing cattle sometimes simply disappear.

The state’s annual wolf report listed three calves killed and two others injured by wolves in 2015. Wolves also killed a herd guard dog, eight ewes and two lambs, according to the report.

The state conducted 33 livestock “depredation” investigations in five counties during 2015. Nine were confirmed as wolf attacks; two were listed as probable; 13 were categorized as possible or unknown; and eight were considered “other” incidents.

The poll was commissioned by the Pacific Wolf Coalition and was conducted Sept. 20-22 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc., of Washington, D.C.

The company conducted telephone interviews with 800 registered Oregon voters who were selected at random from voter registration files. Responses were broken down by age, sex, political party affiliation, and residence: Rural, Willamette Valley and Portland metro area.

Mason-Dixon estimated the poll’s margin of error at plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The website FiveThirtyEight, which analyzes opinion polls, in 2016 gave Mason-Dixon a B+ for accuracy in its political polling work.

Washington and Oregon agriculture departments trapped European gypsy moths this year, but no Asian gypsy moths, a sign that dropping insecticide over thousands of acres in the two states worked, officials said.

Washington’s pest program manager, Jim Marra, said WSDA will need the same result for two more summers to consider Asian gypsy moths eradicated.

“While it is too early to declare the spring treatments a success, this year’s trapping results are very encouraging,” he said in a written statement.

WSDA sprayed more than 10,500 acres at six locations where the department trapped a total of 10 Asian gypsy moths in 2015.

Asian gypsy moths, which had not been detected in the state since 1999, feed on a wider variety of plants and are more mobile than European gypsy moths.

WSDA also sprayed the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle, where 22 European gypsy moths were trapped.

WSDA caught 25 European gypsy moths at 21 sites this year. The heaviest concentration was near the U.S. Naval Base in Kitsap County, where four gypsy moths were caught. No gypsy moths were found in areas that had been sprayed.

ODA this year trapped four European gypsy moths in the Grants Pass area and two about 20 miles east of Springfield, but none in North Portland, where the department sprayed about 8,800 acres after trapping two Asian gypsy moths in 2015.

“We’re very pleased with the gypsy moth results,” ODA spokesman Bruce Pokarney said.

He said the department is still checking traps, though is nearly finished.

European gypsy moths are well established in 20 Eastern and Midwest states, and the District of Columbia and defoliate hundreds of thousands of acres annually. Western states have aggressively sprayed to eradicate gypsy moths for more than three decades.

Solar power technology draws no objections from farmer Sam Sweeney.

In fact, he’s got 600 square feet of solar panels on his property near Dayton, Ore.

“It’s time to explore other options for energy,” Sweeney said.

However, the potential for solar development on prime farmland in Oregon’s Willamette Valley does make Sweeney anxious.

Three solar companies have sent letters offering to lease his property at rates several times higher than other growers would typically pay.

While Sweeney has ignored the offers, he realizes other growers will be tempted by such deals.

“When I saw that, I thought, ‘Gosh, these are probably going out all over the valley,’” he said. “A lot of people are going to think this is really an opportunity. Before we know it, we could have a lot of these scattered about on really high quality soil.”

Those concerns are shared by the Oregon Board of Agriculture and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which plan to formally ask the state’s Land Conservation and Development Commission to re-examine regulations for solar development on high-value farmland.

Currently, the rules allow solar facilities to be constructed on up to 12 acres of high-value farmland as long as the local county government issues a conditional use permit.

Larger projects must undergo an analysis of alternative sites, but there’s a concern that developers might circumvent that requirement with several smaller projects.

“Cumulatively, they may have the same impact as a large one,” said Jim Johnson, ODA’s land use specialist. “They’re doing large-scale operations by breaking them up and having components.”

Originally, the 12-acre threshold was established so farmers could supplement their income, but now that solar companies are looking to develop several properties, it’s time to re-evaluate the rule, he said.

One possibility would be to reduce the threshold to 5 acres, and subject larger projects to an alternative site analysis, Johnson said.

Solar development is more intensive than simply installing some panels — developers generally move soil, add gravel and build fences, said Larry Ojua, executive director of the Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District, which has raised concerns over two recent solar projects in Yamhill County, southwest of Portland.

Once a lease for a solar project expires, the changes raise doubts about returning the farmland to its previous condition, he said. “What if the company goes out of business?”

Unlike wind energy, which is largely compatible with agriculture, solar development entails a greater risk of permanent land conversion, said Barbara Boyer, chair of the Oregon Soil and Water Conservation Commission and vice chair of the Oregon Board of Agriculture.

“You can’t farm underneath them, like you can with the wind turbines,” she said.

Solar companies develop projects in Western Oregon even though the region’s “solar resource” is about 30-40 percent lower than in Central or Eastern Oregon, said Rob Del Mar, policy analyst for the Oregon Department of Energy.

“The solar resource is not stellar, not ideal, but it’s adequate,” he said.

Nonetheless, building solar facilities on the westside is efficient because that’s where most of the population — and energy consumption — are, Del Mar said.

Costs for solar hardware and installation have also declined in recent years, he said. “It’s so much cheaper than it used to be, and the market has really matured.”

Oregon’s “business energy tax credit” expired in 2014, but a federal tax credit for 30 percent of project costs is still available.

The state Department of Energy also dispenses grants for renewable energy projects, with 13 projects receiving a total of $1.5 million from the agency this year. Energy Trust of Oregon, a nonprofit, also provides cash incentives for renewable energy development.

Jeff Bissonnette, executive director of the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association, said he’s aware of concerns about solar development on prime farmland but hadn’t heard about the push for rule changes.

Bissonnette said he’d have to see specific policy proposals before commenting on them.

“That’s always a conversation we’re willing to engage in,” he said.

Prices for electricity aren’t currently high enough to justify a “gold rush” of solar development in Western Oregon, said Alan Hickenbottom, a principal at Latitude45 Associates, which consults on solar projects.

Developing several small projects, rather than one big one, is less efficient because it would require multiple “interconnections” hooking them up to the electrical grid, he said.

“I’m wondering how it would pencil for them,” said Hickenbottom.

GOLD BEACH — Curry County is suing the Department of State Lands over a river barrier on Floras Lake near Langlois.

Capital Bureau

SALEM — Nearly one month before acquisition proposals for a major parcel of the Elliott State Forest are due, more than 30 members of the public gave comments at the State Land Board’s meeting Tuesday.

The sale of approximately 82,500 acres of the Elliott State Forest, which has proven controversial, particularly among environmental groups, wasn’t an item that board members were scheduled make any decisions on.

Nevertheless, an hour-long comment period on the subject was scheduled for the end of Tuesday’s meeting — though protesters had to check their signs at the door under the watchful eyes of state troopers.

Under the state constitution, the State Land Board is required to maximize revenue from the Elliott State Forest and other natural resources the state received from the federal government at statehood. The board is required to put that revenue toward the state’s K-12 public schools.

The Elliott Forest land at issue has, for years, been an asset of the Common School Fund. In recent years it has become a financial liability and the state wants to “decouple” the fund from the forest.

In July, the Department of State Lands estimated that the Common School Fund lost $4 million since 2013 due to new timber harvest limitations on the Elliott State Forest land.

Those limitations were sparked by a lawsuit challenging the state’s logging in areas that are home to the marbled murrelet, which is protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The proceeds from the planned sale of the parcel will be invested in the Common School Fund, according to the department.

The buyer must ensure 40 direct and indirect jobs in connection for the forest for 10 years, and in perpetuity do the following: conserve public access on 50 percent of the area’s acreage, protect at least 25 percent of the trees from harvest and maintain riparian areas of 120 feet or more on either side of fish-bearing streams.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, one of three members of the board, said during Tuesday’s meeting that bidders can exceed these requirements. However, prospective buyers cannot offer more than the state’s price of $220.8 million, determined earlier this year to be the forest’s fair market value.

Speakers during the public comment period, of whom there were about 35, spoke in favor of keeping the forest public.

Several commentors, including children, said they lived in the area and that they feared the potential effect of new ownership on the forest’s rivers, trees and fish.

The land board, however, bears ultimate responsibility for the acquisition decision.

Several dozen entities have expressed interest in buying the land, according to the Department of State Lands. These include public agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Oregon Department of Forestry.

According to State Lands Spokeswoman Julie Curtis, public entities who submitted expressions of interest in accordance with the state deadline can partner with private entities to submit acquisition plans, as long as those who formally expressed interest on deadline are the lead entity on any acquisition plan.

Acquisition plans are due Nov. 15, one week after the general election. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is the only board member seeking reelection.

Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins plans to retire when her term concludes at the end of this year, while Treasurer Ted Wheeler has been elected to serve as mayor of Portland starting in January.

At Tuesday’s meeting, DSL Director Jim Paul said the sale was on track to meet the projected timeline for the sale of the Elliott State Forest property.

After the Nov. 15 deadline, it may take the department up to a week to evaluate all of the proposals for how well they meet the criteria, Paul said, and public comment will again be taken at the board’s next meeting Dec. 13.

In other business, on Tuesday the board also received the department’s annual aquatic resource management report and approved the sale of two state-owned trust parcels — one in Marion County and another in Lincoln County.

The Marion County parcel, approximately 0.68 acres, is being sold to the city of Salem, as it is surrounded by city property in Minto Brown Park. The Lincoln County Parcel, approximately 70.6 acres, is being sold to the Wetlands Conservancy, a conservation nonprofit.

The board also approved “clarifying” changes to administrative rules governing state-owned submerged and submersible land.

ONTARIO, Ore. — Scotts Miracle Gro. experts showed farmers and others how to identify a genetically engineered creeping bentgrass Oct. 10 during an outreach meeting.

The bentgrass, which was being developed by Scotts and Monsanto Corp. for use mainly on golf courses, escaped field trials in 2003 and has taken root in Malheur and Jefferson counties in Oregon.

Some of the plants have also been found in Canyon County in Idaho.

Bob Harriman, vice president of biotechnology for Scotts, said the company has a good idea where the plant is in Malheur County.

However, he added, farmers and others can be the company’s “extra eyes out there so we know where it is and we can hop on it” when it’s found.

The grass has fine, shallow roots and will most likely be found at the water’s edge, especially around irrigation ditches, he said.

“It’s so dry here that if it’s not by a water source ... it’s not going to grow,” he said.

The grass has short leaves and can be identified by its long stolons, which grow or creep horizontally along the ground.

“Visually, the stolons are your easiest identifier,” Harriman said.

The plant was genetically engineered to resist applications of the glyphosate herbicide.

There are conventional creeping bentgrass varieties in the area and if growers want further confirmation that the plant is genetically engineered, they can spray it with glyphosate.

Scotts can also send people strip tests that will show conclusively whether the plant is a genetically engineered variety.

To contact Scotts, call (877) 375-5139 or send an email to questions@scotts.com. People can also visit the company’s website at http://scottsmiraclegro.com/gtcbanswers/

“If you suspect a plant, let us know and we’ll investigate,” Harriman said. “If we find it, we’ll ... take care of it.”

Some farmers and water managers in the area worry that because the bentgrass is resistant to glyphosate and is hard to kill, it could clog irrigation ditches and affect shipments of crops to other nations that don’t accept traces of genetically modified organisms.

They have also voiced concerns that a recent 10-year agreement Scotts reached with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow the company in a few years to essentially walk away from any responsibility for controlling the plant.

Since the plant escaped field trials, Scotts has been responsible for surveying for it and eradicating it when possible.

Harriman said Scotts won’t walk away from its commitment to helping growers in the area eradicate and control the plant.

“We have a history of doing the right thing and we are going to continue to do the right thing,” he told Capital Press.

Bill Buhrig, an Oregon State University cropping systems extension agent in Malheur County, said some of the criticism aimed at Scotts over its response to the escaped grass could have been prevented with better outreach and education efforts in the past.

“Yesterday’s meeting was a great start toward helping concerned folks learn about the plant and how to identify it,” he said.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Motorists do double-takes as they gawk at fields of cannabis plants flowering just outside Ashland.

But what they’re looking at are 40,000 medicinal hemp plants covering 30 sloping acres at the foothills of Grizzly Peak on East Nevada Street.

“There’s a lot of people wondering what’s going on,” said Chris Bourne, one of several partners in this unusual cannabis operation. “People have concerns, people have fears and people are stoked that we’re doing it.”

Instead of growing the more common hemp plants for their fiber, Bourne grows only female hemp plants that barely have any trace of the active ingredient that makes people high.

The cannabis plants look exactly the same as their more intoxicating cousins and are even pushing out purple flowers as they get ready for harvest. They also have a similar odor that annoys some and makes others beam with pleasure.

But smokers would be disappointed at the lack of a buzz.

Typical marijuana plants have tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, that produces the high. Bourne’s plants are being grown for the cannabidiol, or CBD, that many believe is good for pain relief, seizures, Parkinson’s disease and other ailments. In Oregon, hemp plants are limited to a maximum 0.3 percent THC.

“These plants have strong anti-inflammatory properties,” Bourne said.

Bourne said his fields have been tested and found in compliance by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which licenses hemp operations.

“We can sell the CBDs nationwide,” he said. “There’s ways to monetize it nationally.”

He said the oils are used by research groups and clinical trials to determine how effective they are at managing ailments.

Ron Pence, operations manager at the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said he could confirm that Permaag LLC, the name of the company that runs the hemp farm, has an active license.

Pence said female hemp operations are becoming more common statewide, and 80 to 90 percent of growers have told him they are looking to extract CBDs.

“These are big, bushy plants with lots and lots of flower,” he said. “It looks like marijuana, smells like marijuana.”

Pence said most hemp farms are interested in growing organic crops.

He said the largest operation he knows of in the state is 75 acres near Salem, but he said the Ashland farm is a pretty good size as well.

Most passersby on the east side of Ashland are content to observe the hemp farm from their vehicles. But the sight of all those plants tempted someone to steal several over the weekend, leaving remnants of some plants lying on the ground. Bourne reported the theft to law enforcement.

“Those plants were going to go to those with Parkinson’s disease and other patients,” Bourne said. He said additional security steps are being taken to protect the crop.

Because he is growing hemp, his operation falls under a different set of state rules than either recreational or medical marijuana. The largest recreational pot operation can cover only slightly less than an acre, according to Oregon law.

Other marijuana operations bring in soil for growing. Bourne’s hemp plants required a tilling, planting and watering, but no amendments were added to the native clay soil.

The hemp went in the ground late in the season when temperatures hit 100 in July, which resulted in shorter plants, varying from 2 to 4 feet.

Initially, Bourne had 75,000 plants in the ground, but 35,000 of them were males and were pulled out.

“It was a lot of work,” he said. “We have 34 miles of rows of plants.”

He’s also growing without using pesticides or any sprays to combat insects. Bourne said he expects to see more insects next year, but he plans to take steps growing other plants that deter bugs to create biodiversity.

During the winter months, Bourne said he will grow a cover crop to fix the nitrogen in the soil.

When the hemp is harvested and dried in a couple of weeks, the CBD oils will be extracted and processed, Bourne said.

By next year, Bourne and his partners hope to have 500 to 1,000 acres of hemp growing in Southern Oregon, though he’s not ready to disclose the location.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A 55-year-old woman has been sentenced to fines and probation for first-degree cattle theft.

The Salem Statesman reports that Anita Branton pleaded guilty to committing theft of livestock valuing $10,000 or more on or between 2013 and 2014.

Branton was ordered Monday to pay $18,000 in restitution.

Branton’s attorney, Walter Todd, said she would pay the amount on Monday. He says Branton received stolen cattle but did not steal them herself.

Branton will also pay a $200 fine after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges of disfigurement of earmarks on cattle and obliteration or disfigurement of brands on cattle.

Wolves killed and ate most of two calves and badly injured a third in an attack that happened on private land frequented by the pack formed by Oregon’s best known wolf, OR-7.

Whether the Rogue Pack was involved is uncertain, because no pack members wear tracking collars, but the Wood River Valley in Southern Oregon’s Klamath County is part of the territory the pack uses, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. A federal biologist, John Stephenson, added that other wolves use that area as well.

If it turns out Rogue Pack members were responsible, it would be their first known attack on livestock, said Stephenson, who works for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “They’ve had a good record,” he said.

Two calves, one about 800 pounds and the other estimated at 600 pounds, were found dead and mostly consumed Oct. 5. An employee of the livestock operation told investigators he saw three wolves feeding on one of the calves.

A third calf, about 300 pounds, was found alive with bite wounds on all four legs, according to an ODFW report.

Stephenson said the cow herd is scheduled to be moved from the area in a couple weeks, and wildlife officials hope to keep them safe until then.

The Rogue Pack’s alpha male, OR-7, became well known when he dispersed from Northeast Oregon’s Imnaha pack in September 2011. He wandered across the state and into California, becoming the first wolf known to have entered that state since 1924.

After traveling more than 1,000 miles in zig-zag fashion, he settled in the Southern Oregon Cascades and in 2014 found a mate, an unknown female. They’ve since had three litters of pups. OR-7’s tracking collar quit working in June 2015, but he was photographed by a trail camera as recently as June 2016.

Oregon wildlife officials are beginning required reviews of the way they manage wolves and cougars, while researchers are continuing to study how the two predators interact.

Information on the review process was scheduled to be presented to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission at its meeting Oct. 6-7 in La Grande.

In the background is an intriguing study, now in its third year, on wolf-cougar interaction in the Mount Emily Wildlife Unit of the Blue Mountains outside of the city.

Cougars and wolves compete for the same prey, primarily deer and elk. Cougars far outnumber wolves in Oregon — the state has an estimated 6,000 cougars and a minimum of 110 wolves — but are thought to be at a disadvantage because they are solitary animals while wolves hunt in packs.

From July 2014 through January 2016, ODFW and Oregon State University researchers documented 16 cases of direct and indirect wolf-cougar interaction in the Mount Emily management unit, according to research material. The majority of the interactions involved wolves scavenging prey that cougars had killed and hidden in caches, as they are called. There were two cases where wolves chased cougars up trees, one case in which wolves chased a collared cougar off a fresh kill and one case, in November 2015, where wolves killed three cougar kittens.

Since December 2013, researchers have collared 18 cougars in the study area, but four have died — one from unknown causes and the three kittens killed by wolves — and one is missing. Eleven wolves have been collared since the fall of 2013, but 10 have dispersed from their home packs, died, or their status is unknown. “This was not unexpected due to the dynamic nature of wolf packs,” the researchers commented in their report.

Four wolf packs use sections of the Mount Emily unit as their home range, but only one wolf is wearing a tracking collar at this time, the researchers reported.

GOLD BEACH — Curry County is suing the Department of State Lands over a river barrier on Floras Lake near Langlois.

Two Pacific Northwest winemakers won awards in recent weeks, and the Oregon producer involved believes the state’s surging wine industry has the potential to “lift the tide” for many other agricultural products.

Ed King, CEO and co-founder of King Estate in Eugene, said the future will find Oregon “fully arrived as a wine region standing on an equal footing with the world’s greatest.”

King’s 2015 Acrobat Pinot gris was named best buy of 2016 by Wine Enthusiast, an influential industry magazine. The designation goes to wines considered an extraordinary value. Acrobat sells for about $13 a bottle.

The Best Buy of the Year award was a first in that category for an Oregon wine. In 2014, Ken Wright’s 2012 Abbott Claim Vineyard Pinot noir, from the Willamette Valley’s Yamhill-Carlton district, was ranked first in Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 wines.

In an interview, King said he views the award as a parallel development to news that a large California company, Jackson Family Wines, maker of the familiar Kendall-Jackson brand, has purchased its fourth Oregon property in three years.

King said the popularity of Oregon wines is a sign of its “arrival” in the wine world, and the interest of “very sophisticated” companies such as Jackson Family Wines is further evidence.

He said the current evolution and success of the state’s wine, beer, hard cider and spirits sectors may one day be looked upon as a “Golden Age” of Oregon agriculture.

King shared an email he distributed to wine industry leaders this summer in which he predicted Oregon will be “much more heavily planted” to wine grapes in the future, and that the Southern Oregon and Columbia River wine regions will “share in this growth and renown” with the Willamette Valley.

He said the wine industry will become the largest component of Oregon agriculture in terms of dollar value, and will be “politically powerful.”

Wine grapes ranked ninth in value among Oregon commodities in 2015, at $147 million. They were ranked 11th, at $107 million, in 2013.

King said Oregon wine must define itself as part of the state’s “global brand,” which will include fine craft beverages, great food and an “unspoiled environment” to attract culinary travelers.

King also said the state can have world-scale export brands “built around our spectacular Oregon products: wine, beer, cheese, fruits, berries, hops, nuts, meats and grains.”

He warned that Oregon wine must retain the diverse operations and high quality that got it to this point.

“Do not allow a creeping sameness under any guise (to) overtake our diversity,” he wrote his fellow vintners. “We must compete with each other with ferocity, and yet it is also our duty to seek the survival of our littlest, most unorthodox wineries.”

He said Oregon’s winemakers “must stay close to our dirt and our yeast, making our wine with the idea that we, ourselves, and our friends and families will be drinking it in ten and twenty years. We can do this and still be a business.”

The other recent wine prize went to the Walla Walla Valley’s L’Ecole N° 41 winery, of Lowden, Wash., which won a trophy for Best Red Bordeau Blend in the Six Nations Wine Challenge held in Australia.

Online

http://www.lecole.com

https://www.kingestate.com

http://www.winemag.com/buying-guide/acrobat-2015-pinot-gris-oregon