ONTARIO, Ore. — When the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee cut its checkoff assessment in half last year, it slashed the budget for its promotion committee, from $635,000 a year to $250,000.

The region’s onion industry is still conducting marketing and promotion efforts, only now it’s being done mostly by individual shippers instead of the IEOOC, which administers the federal marketing order that covers onion growers in southwestern Idaho and Eastern Oregon.

Many people felt the committee’s promotion dollars weren’t being used as effectively as they could and the idea in cutting the assessment was to allow growers and shippers to use the savings to do more of their own marketing, Malheur County Onion Growers Association President Paul Skeen said.

The IEOOC in 2015 cut its assessment from 10 cents to 5 cents per hundredweight. Growers pay 60 percent of that assessment and handlers the rest.

“We streamlined and cut the fat out of the program ... where we didn’t feel like we were getting the right bang for our buck,” said Skeen, a farmer and member of the promotion committee.

The committee trimmed its media campaign but still maintains a visible profile in the industry, said Grant Kitamura, chairman of the promotion committee.

For example, the committee has continued its website and social media efforts and printed 1,000 onion shipper directories that it hands out at trade shows.

“We’re working hard to keep (the budget) down and try to get the most bang for our buck,” Kitamura said. “And hopefully ... shippers are moving forward with their own company promotions and marketing efforts. I think it will be a better return (on investment).”

USDA rules governing federal marketing orders tie the promotion committee’s hands in some areas, he said, For example, the committee can promote and market but can’t actually make sales, “which is kind of the ultimate goal.”

The onion industry’s customer base has also consolidated heavily over the years and its customer lists are much shorter now, so it makes sense for individual shippers to go after a few large chains themselves, Kitamura said.

“It just allows more aggressive marketing and sales,” he said of the assessment cut plan. “We will have more flexibility to go directly after customers and hopefully make that sale. You’re not going after a bunch of mom and pops any more, you’re going after one big chain....”

Early indications are that most shippers are using the savings from the assessment cut to do more marketing and promotion, said Kitamura, general manager of Murakami Produce in Ontario.

Skeen said the committee will review the assessment cut down the road but for now, “everybody seems pretty happy with it.”

The IEOOC’s research and export budgets were not impacted by the assessment cut.

ONTARIO, Ore. — Onion growers in Malheur County in Eastern Oregon have joined their Idaho counterparts in receiving special permission to apply an important herbicide through drip irrigation systems.

Idaho growers who produce Spanish bulb onions received permission from the Idaho State Department of Agriculture last week to apply the Outlook herbicide through drip systems, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture granted onion growers in Malheur County the same permission April 12.

Outlook, produced by BASF, was already approved for surface application in Idaho and Oregon bulb onion fields but it wasn’t previously approved for use in drip systems in onion fields.

Onion growers in Idaho and Oregon say Outlook is one of their best tools for controlling the yellow nutsedge weed, which is their top weed challenge and can reduce yields by as much as 60 percent.

Two years of field trials by Oregon State University researchers in Malheur County showed Outlook is a lot more effective in controlling the yellow nutsedge weed when applied through a drip system.

About 60 percent of the 20,000 acres of Spanish bulb onions grown in this region are irrigated through drip systems.

The Langlois Lions Club is more than pleased to announce that our recent Spaghetti Feed and Dessert Auction was a huge success, going beyond all expectations. As a result, we were able to increase our Pacific High School senior scholarship…

LANGLOIS -- Ginger Pearson from Coast Community Health Center will be at the Langlois Public Library from 3-6 p.m. Wednesday, April 20. She will be introducing individuals in Curry County to self-sufficiency programs. These programs include such things as OHP,…

LANGLOIS – The next Interesting Langlois event will feature Bonnie Jensen Cox with a talk on “Searching for Our Past,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 27, at the Langlois Public Library, 48234 U.S. Highway 101, Langlois.

On behalf of the Bandon Community Youth Center and those we serve, I would like to thank all of the restaurants, donors and attendees of the 2016 Bite of Bandon held on March 5 for their generous support. We were…

The Langlois Public Library wants to thank Coast Community Health Center for their continued commitment to the community.

Thursday, April 14

March 2, 1926 - April 5, 2016

Timber industry groups believe the federal Bureau of Land Management’s proposed new forest management plan for Western Oregon is a disaster that locks up 75 percent of the land, will cost jobs and leave forests more vulnerable to fire.

One group called it a “lose, lose, lose” plan for the environment, wildlife, and rural communities.

As it turns out, conservation groups also think the proposed Resource Management Plan is lousy. They say it will increase logging, cut stream buffer zones in half, threaten drinking water quality and harm endangered species.

For its part, the BLM believes it followed legal mandates and successfully split the difference between opposing points of view. In a news release, Acting State Director Jamie Connell said the BLM “achieved an extraordinary balance” between protecting threatened and endangered wildlife and allowing timber harvests that support the economy of rural communities.

Spokeswoman Sarah Levy said the BLM had to follow legal mandates that require the agency to protect threatened species such as salmon and northern spotted owls, protect waterways, provide recreation opportunities and assure sustainable timber harvests on former Oregon & California Railroad (O&C) land it manages.

“It’s really a middle-of-the-road plan,” she said. “I would say both sides can find something in this plan that they like.”

The Resource Management Plan covers about 2.5 million acres that the BLM administers in Western Oregon, including the Coos Bay, Eugene, Medford, Roseburg and Salem Districts, and the Klamath Falls field office of the Lakeview District. It replaces plans that have been in effect since 1995 under the Northwest Forest Plan.

About 75 percent of the 2.5 million acres will be managed as reserves for older, more complex forests and for fish, water, wildlife and other “resource values,” according to the BLM.

Of major concern to many rural residents, the updated plan increases the targeted timber harvest level on BLM land to 278 million board-feet annually. Since 1995, the BLM has administered the region with a goal of annually harvesting 203 million board-feet, Levy said.

The decline of timber harvests on land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and BLM is widely blamed for the widespread mill closures and job losses in rural Oregon. Reduced timber harvests also hurt county governments, as they received money from timber sales on O&C land. Since 1989, timber harvests on federal land in Oregon have declined by 90 percent.

Federal agencies manage 60 percent of the forestland in Oregon, but provide only 12 percent of the annual timber harvest, according to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.

The Portland-based industry group American Forest Resource Council said the BLM had an opportunity to present a “bold, strategic vision” of forest management but instead developed a plan that “regurgitates the failed policies of the past.”

“If the past 20 years provide any indication, this approach is doomed to fail our forests, wildlife and our communities,” group President Travis Joseph said in a prepared statement.

Nick Smith, executive director of the pro-industry group Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities, said the BLM “turned its back” on rural residents.

“This is yet another example of an out of touch federal government, fueling the kind of rural frustration that garnered national attention after the Malheur standoff.”

Conservation groups see other problems.

Cascadia Wildlands, based in Eugene, said the plan offers “weakened stream buffers, increased carbon emissions and relaxed standards for salmon and wildlife, all to increase certainty for the logging industry.”

Executive Director Josh Laughlin called it “unthinkable” that the BLM would reduce stream buffer zones, where logging isn’t allowed, by half.

Increased logging ignores the recreation-based economy in the state, the group said in a prepared statement.

John Kober, executive director of Pacific Rivers, said the BLM puts too much value on “subsidizing” county governments with logging revenue.

“The fact is, our public lands produce far more economic and social value by storing carbon, sustaining fisheries, providing recreational opportunities and delivering clean drinking water. Unfortunately, due to rapacious logging of private and state lands all of the burden for conservation is placed on federal lands,” he said in a prepared statement.

Levy, the BLM spokeswoman, said the management plan will be published April 15, which begins a 30-day protest period. An agency team will be appointed to review the protests, and a final decision is expected this summer.

Online

The proposed Resource Management Plan is at http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/rmpswesternoregon/feis/

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Attorneys say two sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and three other men are due to be transferred in custody from Oregon to Nevada to face charges stemming from an armed confrontation with government agents two years ago.

Defense lawyers in Oregon lost a bid Tuesday for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the move.

Lawyers for Ammon Bundy said they’ve been told arraignments will be Friday in U.S. District Court in Nevada.

Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Blaine Cooper and Ryan Payne have been in federal custody in Portland, where they’re accused of leading an occupation of a U.S. wildlife refuge this year.

In Nevada, they’re facing conspiracy, obstruction, weapon and assault charges for a standoff with federal agents rounding up cattle near Bunkerville.

Cattle will be allowed to continue grazing along the Oregon-California border despite their propensity to “drift” into unauthorized national forest areas.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a request by environmental groups to block livestock grazing on 48,000 acres in the ecologically-sensitive Siskiyou Crest.

An earlier ruling by the 9th Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service had violated federal environmental law by insufficiently studying the impacts of “cattle drift” from California’s Klamath National Forest into Oregon’s Rogue River Siskiyou National Forest.

The Forest Service argued that a federal judge was correct in previously dismissing an environmentalist lawsuit because the effects of cattle drift on the region’s environment are minimal and quickly corrected by ranchers.

However, the appellate court agreed with Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Klamath Forest Alliance that forest managers “provided essentially no information” about grazing in unauthorized areas and overturned that earlier decision.

The 9th Circuit ordered the agency to better account for the environmental impacts of cattle drift, which occurs due to the difficulty of fencing remote areas.

While they won this legal point, the environmental plaintiffs nonetheless asked the 9th Circuit to reconsider its opinion because it didn’t prohibit grazing while the government updated its environmental analysis.

The 9th Circuit has refused that motion and amended its previous ruling to clarify that current Forest Service grazing plans for the region should remain in place.

The environmentalists claimed that vacating grazing authorizations for the Siskiyou Crest would effectively stop grazing, but the 9th Circuit took a different view.

Contrary to these claims, the 9th Circuit found that vacating the existing permits would require the “reinstatement of earlier permits on terms less protective of forest resources.”

For this reason, the current grazing plans should stay effective until the Forest Service decides they should be replaced, the ruling said.

Irrigators fighting a lawsuit over the threatened Oregon spotted frog have won a key battle but face new challenges in upcoming settlement negotiations.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken has filed an official opinion denying a preliminary injunction sought by environmentalists that would have significantly disrupted the operations of three irrigation reservoirs in Central Oregon.

The Central Oregon, North Unit and Tumalo irrigation districts must now strive to protect their interests during in settlement talks with environmentalists and the federal government.

Growers are generally outmatched in terms of time and money in such litigation, which doesn’t help their position during negotiations, said Karen Budd-Falen, an attorney who represents natural resource industries.

“The farmers are going to be under significant pressure to settle even if they end up with less water,” she said. “It really is like David and Goliath, with two Goliaths instead of one.”

Aiken’s recent ruling was no surprise, since she’d already told the plaintiffs — WaterWatch of Oregon and the Center of Biological Diversity — they’d failed to prove such an injunction was necessary during a court hearing in March.

However, the environmentalists then asked the judge not to issue a written ruling, which would have prevented the opinion from being cited in future legal proceedings.

Aiken has now denied that request and issued a decision stating their proposed injunction would “create certain hardship for farmers and ranchers” while its benefits to the spotted frog would be “questionable.”

The environmentalists argue that the Crane Prairie, Wickiup and Crescent Lake dams have reversed the natural flow patterns of streams to the detriment of the frog in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Their injunction motion sought an order requiring the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to alter reservoir operations to promote higher flows in winter and lower flows in summer.

The government and irrigation districts argued the species had adapted to the system over the past 70 years, so the injunction proposal could hurt the frogs as well as farmers.

In her written opinion, Aiken said she would defer to federal biologists rather than “pick and choose among expert opinions,” particularly since the stream flow options demanded by the environmentalists wouldn’t clearly help the frogs.

Aiken noted the environmentalist proposal was “not based on studies or surveys of the frog and the hydrological conditions of the Upper Deschutes River basin over a meaningful period of time. Rather, plaintiffs’ proposals are based primarily on the limited observations of one individual over the course of several weeks.”

“This fact alone renders the requested relief questionable,” the judge said.

Apart from officially denying the injunction, Aiken’s written opinion directs the parties to enter “judicial settlement proceedings” before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin.

Such three-way negotiations are tricky for farmers and ranchers, since environmentalists have greater financial resources and basically nothing to lose in the litigation, said Budd-Falen.

“Even if the environmental guys get only half of what they requested, they’re still ahead,” she said.

While a co-defendant, the government can “print money” and has its own attorneys, so it similarly doesn’t face the same uncertainty and constraints as the irrigators, she said.

Natural resource defendants have also accused the Obama administration of leaving them out in the cold while reaching “sweetheart” deals with environmentalists as part of a “sue-and-settle” strategy.

In 2013, for example, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a settlement over forest species management between federal agencies and environmentalists because the agreement circumvented public rule-making procedures.

COOS COUNTY — Oregon State University has announced students who have earned honors for winter term 2015-2016. To be included on the honor roll list, students must have carried at least 12 graded hours of course work.

PENDLETON, Ore. — Ray Kopacz shouted over the rumbling of the cement truck one recent morning as workers patched up a break in the Stanfield Branch Furnish Ditch that cost farmers a full day’s worth of irrigation water.

The Stanfield Irrigation District had just started pulling water from the Umatilla River on March 31 and already they were faced with an emergency repair. Fortunately, Kopacz said they were able to catch the leak before it caused serious damage and the system was turned back.

“It’s getting to be that time of year everybody wants water,” said Kopacz, SID manager. “Water is like gold. If you don’t have it, this ground is worthless.”

Irrigation season is underway across the Umatilla Basin, and most districts are feeling better than they did during last year’s brutal, drought-stricken summer. Local snowpack is close to average, and so long as it doesn’t melt too quickly, farms should be able to make their stored water last longer into the season.

Right now, Kopacz said growers are focused on watering their wheat and cattle pastures, while getting a head start on vegetables like potatoes and onions. Corn should be planted in the next week or so, he said.

The SID covers about 10,800 acres of high-value farmland. It is something of a special case, since the district has 34,700 acre-feet of water guaranteed through the Umatilla Basin Project — an acre-foot being the amount of water it takes to cover 1 acre with 1 foot of water.

Once the Umatilla River drops below a certain point, the district switches over to pumping irrigation water from the Columbia River. In exchange, the SID leaves its water right from McKay Reservoir in stream to protect native salmon and steelhead runs during periods of low flow. Kopacz said the program, which was passed by Congress in 1988, has been valuable not only to protect fish, but it has also removed a lot of the guesswork for irrigators.

“Before we had the exchange, growers had to ask whether McKay was going to fill or not,” Kopacz said. “Now, they already know we’re going to have water for next year.”

Not everyone has that luxury. The Westland Irrigation District, which has about 14,750 acres within its boundaries, isn’t on the exchange and still depends entirely on Mother Nature for its water supply. Once it runs out, it’s forced to shut off.

District Manager Mike Wick said this year looks much better than last, with the basin’s snowpack at 98 percent as of April 7. Mountain snow is critical because it acts as a natural storage system for water, gradually replenishing streams and rivers into the summer. The longer they can pull live flows from the Umatilla River, the longer McKay Reservoir has to fill and the later into the season they can irrigate, Wick said.

“At this point, we should have an average to maybe above-average year,” he said. “If we run to the end of September, that’s a pretty good year.”

Last year, Westland was forced to shut off its irrigation by mid-August. The district began irrigating this year in early March, and as of April 8, McKay was 86 percent full. Wick said he’d be disappointed if the reservoir doesn’t fill, but he has learned not to try to predict the weather.

District Watermaster Greg Silbernagel said April and May rainfall will go a long way toward determining how the rest of the water year goes. The state allows irrigation on most of the Umatilla River from March through October, though Silbernagel’s office must continue to meet target flows for fish. The cutoff point for SID on the exchange program is 250 cubic feet per second.

The Hermiston and West Extension irrigation districts are also part of the Columbia exchange program, with HID using its flows out of the Umatilla River to store at Cold Springs Reservoir. The 9,600 acre district is then eligible for credits to draw out of the Columbia, if necessary.

HID Manager Annette Kirkpatrick said Cold Springs is about 70 percent full, which combined with the district’s exchange credits should bring them close to a full water year. Irrigation out of the reservoir started Thursday morning.

“This year is going to be better than last year,” Kirkpatrick said. “We’re not filled to capacity, but this year is definitely looking like an improvement.”

Beverly Bridgewater, manager of the West Extension Irrigation District, said they began diverting their irrigation water March 18. She agreed last year was difficult, but said the one positive was it got farmers thinking more about conservation.

“I think we’re going to have a really good season, because we’re all experienced paying attention to our water,” Bridgewater said.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture will begin spraying for gypsy moths April 16 in Portland.

The department plans three applications by helicopter in the St. Johns, Forest Park and Hayden Island areas of Portland, about 8,800 acres total.

An area across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Wash., will be sprayed as well.

Three Asian gypsy moths and two European gypsy moths were found in the area last summer.

Gypsy moths are notoriously destructive, and the concern is they will damage Northwest forests and crops such as Christmas trees if unchecked.

Applicators will use the biological insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki, commonly known as Btk. The agriculture department describes it as a natural-occurring bacterium that has been used on gypsy moths in Oregon since 1984.

The second and third application will be done in May, according to the department. Each will begin about 30 minutes before dawn, weather permitting. Most of the areas to be sprayed are non-residential. To ease concerns, the department held public meetings about the spraying plan and mailed notification to postal customers, as well.

Information

Residents may sign up to receive text messages or phone calls to know when spraying will occur by going to http://tinyurl.com/AGMsignup. They can also hear pre-recorded information about the status of the project by dialing 211. ODA will also provide information on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ORagriculture.

Gary Traynor Willson - 78, of Hillsboro died April 1, 2016, in Hillsboro. Arrangements are pending with Duyck & VanDeHey, 503-357-8749.

Sundays

TURNER, Ore. — An estimated 20,000 people will visit Nosey’s Neighborhood Petting Zoo during this year’s Oregon Ag Fest.

At the petting zoo, visitors will see and learn more about the species and breeds of farm animals than ever before offered.

The petting zoo, popular with children and adults alike, has expanded this year thanks to Cascade High School FFA seniors Austin and Collin Brill, Cascade FFA adviser Becky Bates and Ag Fest board member and petting zoo chairman Craig Anderson.

The annual event takes place April 23-24 at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem.

“I’ve been teaching at Cascade High School for 10 years and our FFA has taken the lead on the petting zoo every year since I’ve been here,” Bates said. “Austin and Collin Brill led their fellow FFA chapter members and a host of other members from neighboring schools in putting it together and we’ve exceeded our expectations. It is definitely going to be the best petting zoo yet.”

The twin brothers have worked their way up to being principals in the planning process. They also breed and raise market and show pigs, which they will bring to the event.

“We focused on expanding the variety of animals this year and we are pleased with our success,” Collin said.

Growers are will bring bottle lambs, kid goats, rabbits, cow-calf pairs, “and we have meat, milk and fiber animals to show and explain their differences,” he said.

Visitors will also see Hereford, milking short horns, Simmental, Jersey, brown Swiss and Holstein cattle as well Duroc, Yorkshire and Hampshire/Yorkshire-cross pigs.

The sheep breeds will include Montadale, Hampshire, Suffolk, Southdown and blackface crosses rather than the less common ones raised just for fiber.

“In addition to all the people it takes to set up and take down pens, lay down and refresh straw and keep it all policed throughout the two days, we will have FFA students in official dress at every pen ready to help with the petting process, tell people what they are seeing and answer questions,” he said.

The Advanced Agriculture students have written all the information that goes on the pen signs, and other classes have made displays that will be placed around the pavilion, he said.

In addition to the petting zoo, about 25 hands-on activities will be available, plus pony rides, toy tractor races, farm equipment displays, a craft and garden display and family entertainment.

A ranch breakfast will be served 8:30–10:30 a.m. Saturday only, The cost is $6 each; children under 3 years old are free. Proceeds benefit 4-H youth programs.

Anderson, the retired Chemeketa Community College Dean of Agriculture Science, lamented that he would miss this year’s event.

“I’ve been volunteering for Ag Fest every year since 1994, but this year the Hereford Conference in Uruguay is happening at the same time,” Craig said. “I’m looking forward to attending the conference but at the same time it kills me to miss it. In my opinion, Ag Fest is one of the most important events we have.

“My only consolation is, that I’m leaving it in good hands,” he said.

Asked if they had any advice for attending Ag Fest, Austin Brill said, “Wear comfortable shoes, wash your hands at the washing stations before and after you pet the animals and come early because once you get here you will want to stay all day.”

Oregon Ag Fest

When: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 23, and 10:30 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday, April 24

Where: Oregon State Fairgrounds

Online: www.oragfest.com

Admission: Children 12 and under are free; $9 for ages 13 and up

Parking: Free

Oregon research projects were awarded nine of 37 grants announced April 7 by the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.

Nearly $2.9 million in grants were awarded for projects in 11 western states and territories, with Oregon proposals awarded $754,721.

The Oregon projects include:

• Extending the winter squash season, Oregon State University, $49,958.

• Evaluating hazelnut orchard cover crops, OSU, $49,997.

• Restoring rangeland soil health, Crooked River Weed Management, $44,450.

• The impact of wheat chaff collection on weed control, OSU, $250,000.

• Soil solarization for weed control, OSU, $247,329.

• Building Integrated Pest Management networks, OSU, $67,802.

• Sustainable grazing in wetland pastures, Coos County Soil and Water Conservation District, $15,237.

• On-farm production costs, farmer Sarah Brown, $9,400.

• Improving water-saving techniques in vineyards and orchards, A to Z Wine Works, $20,548.

Western SARE is funded by USDA and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and is hosted by Utah State University.

Online http://www.westernsare.org/Projects/Funded-Projects-by-Year/2016-Projects