SACRAMENTO — After complaints from U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa and others that their latest agreement was being crafted in secret, agencies planning the removal of four dams from the Klamath River announced a public meeting for March 16 to discuss the plan.

The Klamath Basin Coordinating Council will consider formally amending a set of 2010 agreements on the future of the Klamath Basin and take public comments during a 1 p.m. meeting at the California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Sacramento.

The meeting comes after PacifiCorp, the states of California and Oregon and two federal agencies announced plans in February to set up a private entity to handle the four dams’ removal by seeking a go-ahead from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The new pact drew vocal complaints from LaMalfa, R-Calif., after two of his staff members showed up at private meetings scheduled to discuss the proposal and were asked to sign confidentiality agreements, which they refused to do.

LaMalfa criticized the Klamath proponents for scheduling their meeting in Sacramento rather than the Klamath Basin or Yreka, Calif., which is near where three of the four dams operate.

“Thanks a lot for having it six hours away from the people who are affected by it,” LaMalfa said. “It makes me furious that they haven’t had any public meetings at all and now their best effort is to have it in Sacramento at the highly guarded EPA building.

“They need to have it in Yreka,” he told the Capital Press. “We’ll press for that. It doesn’t end there.”

Ed Sheets, the meeting’s coordinator, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

LaMalfa has ruffled feathers in recent days after grilling Deputy Secretary of the Interior Mike Connor during a hearing in Washington, D.C. about the agency’s role in the latest dam removal proposal, which was crafted after Congress’ failure to pass an authorization bill caused the original agreements to expire at the end of 2015.

When asked if he believes his complaints prompted the public meeting, LaMalfa said, “It couldn’t have hurt because I know they’re not very pleased that we’re publicizing what they’ve been up to.”

LaMalfa’s gripes follow those of Oregon state Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, who said the plan to set up the private entity to handle dam removal should still require congressional approval because it’s an interstate compact.

Whitsett’s argument is based on a legal opinion he received from Oregon Legislative Counsel Dexter Johnston, who told him in a letter that “any interstate compact that creates a joint entity, or that affects matters explicitly reserved to the federal government … is unconstitutional unless approved by Congress.”

The senator also complained about the proponents’ perceived secrecy.

“I am at a total loss for how the staff for the governors of Oregon and California and the Department of the Interior can meet behind closed doors” to discuss policy, Whitsett told the Capital Press.

Proponents of the agreements say they’re fundamentally a legal settlement that aims to resolve long-standing differences and grievances over various issues, including tribal rights, water rights and the fate of PacifiCorp’s private assets.

“These settlement meetings have always had confidentiality agreements that the parties have signed,” said Beatty, Ore, cattle rancher Becky Hyde, who represents the Upper Klamath Water Users and has worked on the pacts since their beginning. “That’s just the way these settlements work.

“It is about my water rights, and how my water rights are affected by somebody else who has legal rights,” she said. “Personally I could care less about a confidentiality agreement, but these are people’s legal rights. … At some point PacifiCorp is trying to figure out what to do with a very big part of its portfolio.”

Such agreements “are common and even expected in all sorts of settlement discussions,” PacifiCorp spokesman Bob Gravely said in an email, noting that new parties who joined the discussions recently have agreed to abide by the same rules.

Hyde vehemently rejects the notion that the process has been secretive, noting that LaMalfa chief of staff Mark Spannagel and field representative Erin Ryan were welcomed into two of the planning group’s meetings. During the second meeting in Portland, Ryan was texting updates to LaMalfa on the proceedings, Hyde said.

She said charges of secrecy have long been part of the playbook for those in the Klamath Basin who’ve resisted settlements over water.

“There has been this thing I’ve watched play out in the last 18 years that’s starting to just replay itself over and over again, and I don’t trust it anymore,” Hyde said. “People who are not focused on finding a settlement in the Klamath Basin and Siskiyou County … have repeatedly played this card of closed-door, secret meetings.

“We’re tired, and frankly my water is going to get shut off this summer again if I don’t have an agreement with the Klamath Tribes,” she said. “My community is already going broke and I’ve had it with these people … I am fine with their point of view, but it is no longer fine to just lie.”

The latest controversy continues more than a decade of division in the Klamath Basin over the agreements, which were first unveiled in 2010 and whose 42 signatories included Oregon and California officials, federal agencies, local water districts, water users’ groups, environmental groups, tribes and other entities.

Continued opposition from LaMalfa and other House of Representatives Republicans caused authorization bills to languish in Congress since 2011. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., a longtime opponent of dam removal, unveiled an eleventh-hour draft bill in December to move forward on other aspects of the agreement while putting approval of dam removal in the lap of FERC, but no efforts were made to merge it with one by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., which included dam removal.

PacifiCorp has been collecting a surcharge from ratepayers to raise $200 million for dam removal and now plans to cover any further costs with non-federal funds, including money from California’s Proposition 1, a $7.5 billion water bond passed in 2014.

The March 16 meeting will be held in the Sierra Hearing Room on the second floor of the California EPA Building, 1001 I St. Visit http://www.klamathcouncil.org for details.

MONDAY, MARCH 7

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Jason Langlois and Will Bladh are in the early stages of making plans for their summer 2017 wedding, and they don't want their excitement pierced by the pain of being rejected by a venue, florist…

SATURDAY, MARCH 5

February’s warm weather reduced the snowpack in Oregon’s mountains, but for now the water supply is projected to be near normal or better this summer, the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service said in its monthly bulletin.

As of March 1, the snowpack statewide was 90 percent of normal, NRCS analysts reported. While warmer than usual weather is predicted for the next three months, intermittent storms can bring more snow to the mountains and replenish the snowpack, the NRCS said.

“Snowpacks are dense and consolidated throughout the state, meaning they are at the tipping point between remaining frozen and melting,” the agency said. Keeping warmer temperatures and mountain rainfall at bay for the next few weeks could preserve the snowpack, NRCS said.

“March and April weather will ultimately shape the peak of the snowpack season and set the stage for the summer water supply season,” NRCS said.

The Harney and John Day basins in Southeast Oregon had the highest March 1 snowpacks, according the bulletin. They were measured at 107 percent and 106 percent of normal, respectively.

The Willamette River basin, home to much of the state’s agricultural operations, had the lowest snowpack at 82 percent of normal. The Hood, Sandy and Lower Deschutes basins stood at 84 percent of normal.

The figures are low even though the basins have had heavy precipitation all winter. But much of it fell as rain rather snow, illustrating the “influence of temperature on snowpack,” the NRCS concluded.

Capital Press

SALEM — A bill to speed up urban growth boundary expansions on 50-acre parcels in two cities has passed the Oregon Legislature despite opposition from farm and conservation groups.

House Bill 4079 will create two pilot projects — one in a city with fewer than 25,000 residents and one with more — that would be exempt from certain land use rules, with the goal of creating more affordable housing.

Opponents of the bill, including the Oregon Farm Bureau and 1,000 Friends of Oregon, argued that it would short-circuit the UGB expansion process and allow housing developments to sprawl onto farmland.

Sen. Lauri Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, said the bill wasn’t well thought-out and was unclear on who would pay for connecting “infrastructure” to housing built at the margins of larger cities.

“More and more Oregonians want to live at the center of their communities, not at the edge of the UGB,” she said.

Several counties — including Clackamas, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Washington and portions of Jefferson — aren’t eligible for the pilot projects.

Bill sponsor Rep. Duane Stark, R-Grants Pass, said HB 4079 was not designed to be a “ruse to burst open the UGB,” as claimed by opponents.

The bill contains several “siderails” aimed at preventing unintended consequences like shoving low-income residents to the outskirts of cities where they’d have inadequate access to services and transportation, he said.

Under the bill, Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Commission is required to select pilot projects that are near public facilities and services and that minimize adverse impacts to agriculture, Stark said.

“There’s all sorts of stuff out there that’s not farm or forest lands,” he said.

Rep. Knute Buhler, R-Bend, said Oregon faces an affordable housing shortage due to a “mismatch between supply and demand” and a cumbersome UGB expansion process.

By allowing the 50-acre pilot projects, lawmakers will take a “small bite at the apple” toward correcting this problem, he said. “It allows us to experiment on a small scale before making big changes.”

The bill passed the House 31-25 on March 1 and the Senate 16-11 on March 11 and now awaits the signature of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.

Critics of HB 4079 say that Oregon’s land use laws already require a 20-year supply of buildable land available for housing within a city’s UGB.

If a city doesn’t have enough affordable housing, it can “upzone” certain areas from single-family units to multi-family units, thereby increasing supplies within the UGB, critics argue.

While the 2016 legislative session in Oregon was often dominated by controversies over the minimum wage and renewable energy, lawmakers also passed several less controversial bills that will impact farmers and ranchers.

Following are some agriculture-related bills approved by the Legislature this year:

• Hemp: Growers will be able to cultivate hemp in greenhouses and propagate it from cuttings under House Bill 4060, which eliminates the requirement that the crop be directly seeded in fields of at least 2.5 acres.

The changes are aimed at providing farmers with more flexibility in producing hemp for cannabidiol, a medicinal compound, in addition to industrial products such as oil and fiber.

• Wetlands: The conversion of farmland into wetlands will receive additional oversight from local government officials in Tillamook County under Senate Bill 1517.

Wetland conversions are currently allowed outright in Oregon farm zones, but farmers have complained they alter drainage and spread weeds, among other problems.

The original version of the bill would have required such changes to be approved by local governments throughout the state, but the scope of the bill was reduced to the 10-year pilot project in Tillamook County.

• Drought: A task force aimed at minimizing the adverse impacts of drought in Oregon was created by House Bill 4113, which also appropriated $25,000 for it.

Oregon’s governor and legislative leaders will appoint up to 15 members to the task force, which will identify tools and data to mitigate drought effects.

Another piece of drought-related legislation aims to reduce unnecessary water usage during times of scarcity for irrigators and the environment.

Under Senate Bill 1529, irrigation requirements imposed by homeowner associations and similar planned communities would be rendered unenforceable during droughts declared by Oregon’s governor, state water regulators or local governments.

• Firefighting: Rangeland protection associations, which fight wildfires in remote rural areas, may be authorized by county governments under House Bill 4007.

Previously, such associations could only be sanctioned by the Oregon Board of Forestry. Under HB 4007, new county-approved rangeland protection associations will be eligible for the same insurance benefits as those authorized by the board.

All of the bills are headed to Gov. Kate Brown for her signature.

Oregon State University is warning that a relatively new pest, winter cutworms, could damage grass seed crops, grains, golf courses and lawns.

The cutworm was noticed in large numbers in the fall. It moves in packs and can quickly damage crops, lawns or turf by “mowing, clipping and cutting off” plants at ground level, said Amy Dreves, an OSU assistant professor and research and Extension entomologist.

The cutworm is “gregarious,” meaning hundreds of worms can be found together, eating their way across fields.

“The question of the day is what to expect in the spring,” Dreves said. “Spring could be a big feeding time.”

Dreves urged growers, golf course superintendents and homeowners to scout for cutworms in March and April.

An integrated pest management approach might be the best way to handle them, OSU recommends in a bulletin issued in February.

“Reduced risk” insecticides should be used rather than broad-spectrum products, OSU said, and rotating among products reduces the chance winter cutworms will develop resistance.

Growers also should consider rotating crops and removing weeds and plant residue along the edges of fields to reduce egg-laying and feeding sites, according to OSU.

Dreves said a light tilling exposes overwintering pupae and larvae to birds and other predators. Other types of cutworms are somewhat controlled by parasitic wasps, flies, nematodes and bacterial and viral diseases in addition to general predators, and that may help against winter cutworms, according to OSU.

Winter cutworms are a Eurasian pest and may have hitchhiked to North America with plant shipments or other trade items. They were first blamed for U.S. damage in 2007, when large numbers were found in hayfields and around homes in Michigan. They damaged winter wheat in Idaho in 2009. The first damage reported in Oregon was to grass seed fields, golf course greens and lawns last fall.

Winter cutworms are up to 2 inches long and can be identified by black dashes down their sides, with a light-colored underline. The pupae are reddish-brown; the moth that emerges is called the large yellow underwing moth.

Dreves said the moth is a strong migratory flier, capable of traveling 80 miles in a year. While the moths have been present in Oregon for at least a decade, they were primarily considered a nuisance until the damage caused by crawling larvae last fall. Mild winters may have contributed to their increased numbers.

Online

Winter Cutworm: A New Pest Threat in Oregon

https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/files/project/pdf/em9139_1.pdf

SALEM — Oregon lawmakers have ratified the removal of wolves from the state’s list of endangered species, nullifying an environmentalist lawsuit against the delisting decision.

House Bill 4040, which holds that state wildlife regulators correctly delisted wolves, passed the Oregon Senate 17-11 on March 2 after earlier winning approval from the House.

Proponents claimed the bill was necessary to prevent implementation of the state’s wolf management plan from being hijacked by litigation.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission delisted wolves last year but several environmental groups have challenged the legality of that decision before the Oregon Court of Appeals.

By affirming that the commission followed the delisting process properly, HB 4040 voids the environmentalist argument that the decision was unlawful.

Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, urged the Senate to vote against the bill because it was “troubling” that the legislature would preclude judicial review of an agency action.

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel qualified to be able to decide whether or not the right science was used in the agency making this decision,” Dembrow said.

Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, said the legal challenge against delisting would only increase the hostility between ranchers and environmentalists, hindering the process of planning for wolf recovery and management.

“Environmental lawsuits are sure to deepen the divide and mistrust,” he said. “At some point, we have to stop this cycle.”

While wolf advocates claim their lawsuit is based on scientific concerns, its true purpose is to gain leverage in upcoming revisions to the wolf management plan, Edwards said.

As chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, Edwards had a significant influence on the bill’s progress after it has passed out of the House.

Apart from scheduling a public hearing and work session that prevented HB 4040 from dying in committee, Edwards cast the deciding vote in favor of the bill that allowed it to reach the Senate floor.

Supporters of HB 4040 worried that livestock groups would be left out of a potential legal settlement between environmentalists and the state government, short-circuiting public involvement in setting wolf policy.

Edwards said the bill’s passage will moot some of those worries without disrupting how wolves are managed in Oregon.

“The bill does not endanger wolf recovery in any portion of their territory,” he said.

Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, said that Oregon’s wolf population was recently found to have grown 36 percent in a year, to at least 110 wolves.

At that trajectory, the state can expect a wolf population of more than 700 before 2020, he said. “Does that sound like an endangered or threatened species?”

The presence of wolves decreases the ability of livestock to gain weight and reproduce efficiently even when they don’t actually kill cows or sheep, Whitsett said.

Death losses from wolves are not only costly but horrific, with the predators eating livestock while it’s alive, he said. “These are the warm and fuzzy creatures everybody seems to be so enamored with.”

MILWAUKIE, Ore. — Bob Moore has a question for the George Fox University students visiting his Red Mill. They are business students, MBA candidates, sharp young people. Later, Moore agrees the country will be in good hands. Any time you doubt that, he says, go talk to students.

But now he stands before them like a stern corporate logo come to life. He is ramrod straight and looks exactly, intentionally, like the trademark image on his whole grain products: White beard, glasses, touring cap, bolo tie and bright red company vest.

He’s been featured on a Diane Sawyer ABC News segment and written up in The New York Times, among many other publications. His “people before profit” mantra made Bob’s Red Mill one of the most admired companies in the U.S. On his 81st birthday he began the process of conveying the company to his 400 workers through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, in which all employees were issued stock certificates. It didn’t cost them a cent. The first round six years ago gave employees one-third ownership; transfer of a second third is in the works.

Moore is a friend to Pacific Northwest agriculture, buying immense quantities of grain, nuts, seeds and berries from farmers who meet his quality standards. He is an evangelist for whole grains and healthy eating. He’s been known to pound a table and tell his managers, “We have to get this good food to people.”

He recommends starting the day with oatmeal made from his steel cut oats. Raises the blood sugar slowly, he says, and keeps you contented, even “euphoric,” until lunch. Maybe toss on some fruit and a handful of flax meal. He autographs his biography with the salutation, “To your good health!”

Much of the flour, meal, beans, breads, baking mixes and soup mixes he sells are organic, and the company has a growing line of gluten-free products. Bob’s Red Mill won’t use GMOs; it tests every shipment of corn and soybeans.

He buys locally and sells internationally. Bob’s Red Mill products are on the shelves in 80 countries, from Kenya, Egypt, Australia and Mexico to India, China and throughout Europe, Southeast Asia and South America. Labeling machines at his mill are capable of printing ingredient and nutritional information in languages ranging from French to Farsi.

That’s what the George Fox business students have come to ask about, but first he has a question for them.

“Where’s all the cookies?” he demands, and breaks the generational ice.

If Portland’s self-reverential foodie movement traced its roots, it might find itself off Highway 224 in the blue-collar suburb of Milwaukie, 8 miles from downtown. Bob’s Red Mill was locally sourced and offering organic and gluten-free products before they became hipster buzzwords.

Farmers and co-ops who sell to Bob’s Red Mill find the company firm but fair.

“They don’t fool around,” says Tom Williams, who with his brother, Ray, owns Williams Hudson Bay Farm in Milton-Freewater, Ore. They farm about 3,000 acres on the Oregon-Washington border and sell organic wheat and corn to Bob’s Red Mill.

Williams says his farm had corn for sale when the mill needed it, and kept sending wheat samples for testing until they finally were accepted. They’ve been selling to Bob’s Red Mill for about 10 years, and it is their biggest customer.

“They test everything, it’s very, very complex,” Williams says. “If it meets their standards, they want it. If it doesn’t, they could care less.”

The mill and distribution center cover 320,000 square feet and is self-contained, with lab work, grinding, mixing, bagging, marketing, graphics, sales, construction and maintenance done in-house. The glass doors proclaim it Bob’s Red Mill “World Headquarters.”

A mile up the highway is a combination retail store and restaurant that is packed six days a week, closed on Sundays. On Fridays during lunchtime, Moore and longtime executive assistant, Nancy Garner, drive over from the World Headquarters and play duets on matching Steinway grand pianos. Bob often sings. “I couldn’t live without music,” he says.

‘People before profit’

Using a red laser pointer to highlight a PowerPoint presentation, Moore reviews his oft-told story for the George Fox students, His first business was a service station. He had a grain mill in Redding, Calif., then retired and moved to Oregon intending to study Greek and Hebrew so he could read the Bible in its original languages. He stumbled across a mill for sale and couldn’t resist starting up again. He was doing well, then an arsonist burned it down in 1988. Started over, and here he is today.

“I wouldn’t recommend failure,” he says dryly. “But if you have it, it’s not the end of the world.”

He lets that sit for a moment.

“The story I’m going to tell is about success.”

Moore tells the students he quit reading Forbes, Fortune and other business magazines. The end point of every article, he says, was the accumulation of more money.

“That’s not the goal of my life,” he says.

He says it is his responsibility as an entrepreneur to create sustainability and permanence through competitive wages, health-care benefits and profit sharing. Doing so makes the employees vested in the company’s success, he says.

Moore shares with the community, as well. Among many gifts, he and his wife gave $25 million to Oregon Health & Science University to establish the Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition and Wellness. They gave $5 million to Oregon State University for the Moore Family Center for Whole Grain Foods, Nutrition and Preventive Health. They gave $1.35 million to support programs at the National College of Natural Medicine. They gave $250,000 to Zenger Farm of Portland, which hosts school tours and trains beginning farmers.

Moore clicks the PowerPoint controller to display what he calls the “crowning Scripture,” Matthew 7:12, the Golden Rule.

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and prophets.”

Moore uses the laser pointer to circle the name of the man who said it: Jesus Christ.

“It comes from high authority,” he tells the students.

Jan Chernus, vice president of international sales, takes the Bob’s Red Mill image overseas. Everything about Bob’s appearance, of course, but also the commitment to quality, the story of profit sharing, the ESOP and how to treat employees.

“We tell that story, we definitely tell that story,” Chernus says. “You have to get that message out. Without that, it’s a bag of flour. It’s a really good quality bag of flour, but it’s a bag of flour.”

It works. Moore has visited many of the countries where his product is sold. He’s been recognized on a double-decker bus in London, approached in airports and hailed from passing cars.

The Bob’s Red Mill story is one Justine Haigh wants her George Fox students to hear. Haigh, a marketing professor, also directs the university’s MBA program. Too often, students are directed to focus only on the bottom line, she says.

“Bob’s whole stance of people before profits is a great thing for our students to think about,” she says. “For them to hear that first-hand is really meaningful.”

It’s Feb. 15, Bob Moore’s 87th birthday, and he is celebrating with his customers at the retail store and restaurant. He’s hired a band, headed by longtime friend John Bennett, to play for the occasion. Moore estimates he’s had four pieces of cake.

Customers line up to greet him and wish him well on his birthday. One of them, Heather Choy, says her message to Bob is simple.

“I want to tell him thank you for revolutionizing the way people eat, and for making healthy food accessible,” she says.

Moore rises to thank the crowd and says it’s “so nice to be appreciated.”

“I hope to make it a couple more,” he adds with a chuckle. “Ninety is my goal right now.”

During his last trip to South Korea, a woman approached him out of the blue and, through an interpreter, asked to read his palm.

Moore laughs about the encounter. The woman studied his lifeline and declared he would live to be 100.

“I think about that every day,” he says.

He has long been on top of the business world, He’s made millions and given them away. He’s admired, respected, even loved. Employees, unbidden, say he’s like a father to them. Many have been with him 30 years.

He still comes to work each day. He leads a tour and turns it into a three-hour lesson on milling. He visits his managers and peppers them with questions. He’s ordered 22 new automated bagging machines and knows every detail of their installation.

When he hired a woman as the plant operations manager, the first female in the post, he told her to let him know if the men were giving her trouble. He told her he would knock heads if he had to.

“I want to know every little thing that’s going on here,” he says.

He has no plans to step down. He says Nancy, his executive assistant, will probably come into his office one day and find him on the floor, and that will be it. He laughs about that, too.

“Why would I want to do anything else?”

COOS BAY -- Registration forms are now available for the 15th annual “Fertilize Your Mind” garden seminar set for Saturday, March 26, on the campus of Southwestern Oregon Community College.

BANDON -- The community has an opportunity to support the Bandon Swimming Pool program and enjoy an evening that includes a great meal, interesting silent auction items to bid on, and a night of special entertainment with its first Spring…

SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown signed landmark legislation Wednesday to set a three-tier minimum wage increase schedule around the state.

The plan, which establishes a higher minimum wage in the Portland area and a lower amount in areas with a struggling economy, is the first of its kind in the nation, said Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland.

“I am so delighted to be here today to celebrate the achievement of my top priority for the short session to raise Oregon’s minimum wage,” Brown said. “Over the past few weeks, I’ve done a lot of talking about how important it is for hardworking Oregonians to get a much needed raise in order to keep up with the rising cost of housing, rent, food and other necessities.”

Dembrow and Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, crafted the plan, contained in Senate Bill 1532, after a year’s worth of research, meetings with stakeholders, public hearings and negotiations.

The plan hikes wages over a period of six years. The amount differs in each of three regions and is set according to a county’s population, median income and cost of living. In Portland, minimum wage will reach $14.75 in the Portland area, $12.50 in rural and coastal counties with struggling economies and $13.50 in the rest of the state by 2022.

The first pay bump starts in July, from $9.25 to $9.75 statewide.

President Obama commended the Oregon Legislature and Brown Wednesday for approving the plan and called on Congress to follow suit. He said more than half of states now have wages higher than the federal minimum.

“Since I first called on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage in 2013, 18 states and the District of Columbia have acted on their own,” Obama said in a statement. “These efforts will boost the paychecks of hardworking Americans and help support millions of workers trying to make ends meet.”

Brown said the plan would help the state avoid “a number of potentially problematic ballot measures.”

It is still unclear whether all of the initiative campaigns are dead.

The Raise the Wage coalition announced Monday that it has suspended signature gathering to place a measure on the ballot to raise wages to $13.50 statewide during a three-year period. That measure also would have lifted a ban on cities and counties setting higher wages. Chief sponsors said early in the campaign that the union-backed initiative was intended to spur the Legislature to action.

“While this proposal diverges from our initial plan for raising the wage, it is overwhelmingly a win for Oregon workers — in large part because it gives a raise to over 100,000 minimum-wage workers this July,” said Andrea Miller, executive director of Causa Oregon. “Most notably, this bill contains no carve-outs or exceptions for different classes of workers, like farmworkers or restaurant workers, or for people just starting out in their career.”

The $15 Now campaign is still an unknown.

“We are still in discussions with our partners of which there are many,” said chief petitioner Jamie Partridge of Portland. They are figuring out how to go forward. We are trying to determine our capacity to go to the ballot and wage a winning campaign.”

The plan approved by the Legislature is “too low, too slow and too little, too late,” Partridge said. “It’s not enough to bring people out of poverty.”

Anthony K. Smith, Oregon state director for the National Federation of Independent Business called on the governor to publicly oppose the $15 Now campaign.

“It’s bad enough that this unfortunate law will prompt small-business owners to halt hiring, start cutting back hours for workers, start eliminating overtime, or even make layoffs, but her silence on the ballot initiative only adds to the anxiety Oregon’s entrepreneurs are already experiencing,” Smith said in a statement.

As signatories to the original Klamath Basin water agreements try to reassemble their team, an Oregon state senator says he doesn’t think their new plan for removing dams from the Klamath River is legal.

State Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, says he believes a plan by PacifiCorp and four government agencies to set up a private entity to handle the four dams’ removal would still need congressional approval. Under PacifiCorp’s plan, the entity would seek a go-ahead from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to remove the dams.

Whitsett’s argument is based on a legal opinion he received from Oregon Legislative Counsel Dexter Johnston, who told him in a letter that “any interstate compact that creates a joint entity, or that affects matters explicitly reserved to the federal government … is unconstitutional unless approved by Congress.

“If the agreements fail, any modified or later compact or other agreement providing for facilities removal would still require congressional approval,” Johnston wrote.

“PacifiCorp and the government agencies appear poised to manipulate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s administrative process in order to bypass congressional approval of the agreement,” Whitsett said.

However, PacifiCorp spokesman Bob Gravely said most dam-removal proposals are handled by FERC and that the Klamath project was unique in seeking approval from Congress because it was thought that the project would need federal funding.

PacifiCorp has been collecting a surcharge from ratepayers to raise $200 million for dam removal and now plans to cover any further costs with non-federal funds. A “non-federal” private entity is being formed to obtain permits, insurance and contracts for removing the dams in 2020, Gravely said.

“We’ve tried to involve Congress in this for the last six years and they apparently don’t want to be involved in dam removal at all, which has put us on this course,” Gravely said. “As a result, the way we’re looking at doing it now is the formation of a non-federal entity, a private corporation. PacifiCorp and the private entity would jointly file with FERC this summer for transfer of the license from PacifiCorp to the new entity.”

PacifiCorp, the states of Oregon and California and the U.S. Departments of Interior and Commerce outlined their plan in an agreement in principle unveiled last month. Since then, the company and agencies have been crafting an amendment to the 2010 Klamath agreements and hope to have the 42 original signatories on board by the end of this month, Gravely said.

The parties “are making good progress and on track to reach an agreement” with the larger group, Department of the Interior press secretary Jessica Kershaw said in an email.

The Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement and Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement expired at the end of 2015 after failing to win approval from Congress — a key element of the pacts. Various bills to authorize removal of the dams have languished in Congress since 2011.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., a longtime opponent of dam removal, unveiled an eleventh-hour draft bill in December to move forward on other aspects of the agreements while putting the approval of dam removal in the lap of FERC. However, the bill received a cool reaction from proponents of the agreements, and no efforts were made to merge it with one by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., which included dam removal.

“As Gov. (Kate) Brown said when the agreement in principle was first announced, Congressman Walden took a step forward by drafting legislation late last year, and the dam removal plan is part of a broader movement to work with him and others to get the Klamath Basin agreements back on track,” Chris Pair, the Oregon governor’s press secretary, said in an email.

Whitsett said it’s politically “poisonous” for any politician in the Klamath Basin to be seen as embracing dam removal.

“I think what (Walden) was attempting to do was remove the dam removal part … so the rest of the issues could be quite easily resolved,” Whitsett said. “If you want to lose an election in Klamath County or Siskiyou County, support taking the dams out.”

Proponents of the agreements say they’re fundamentally a legal settlement that aims to resolve long-standing differences and grievances. Over the years, the parties have sought to identify solutions and build goodwill throughout the basin, they argue.

While he would prefer that the dams remain in place, Whitsett said he understands that PacifiCorp has a right as a property owner to remove them.

“What I have a problem with,” he said, “is trying to force the ratepayers and taxpayers to pay for it.”

THURSDAY, MARCH 3

Thursday, March 3

ONTARIO, Ore. — During a contentious meeting March 1, farmers and irrigation district officials challenged USDA’s recent agreement with Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. to manage a genetically engineered creeping bentgrass that escaped from field trials in 2003.

The grass has taken root in Malheur and Jefferson counties in Oregon and Canyon County in Idaho.

Farmers and others expressed concern about the 10-year plan between Scotts and USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“They created the problem. They let it escape. Now you’re dumping it on Malheur and Canyon county,” seed grower Jerry Erstrom told Sid Abel, assistant deputy director of USDA’s Biotechnology Regulatory Services.

Scotts, in conjunction with Monsanto Corp., was developing a genetically modified creeping bentgrass for use mainly in the golf course industry.

Since the grass escaped from grower field trials near Parma in Idaho and Madras in Jefferson County in 2003, it has taken root in those areas.

Scotts was fined for the incidents and signed a consent agreement in 2007.

Erstrom, chairman of the Malheur County Weed Board, and others said that because the grass is genetically engineered to resist Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer, it is hard to eradicate and is causing problems in waterways.

Erstrom said the grass has also invaded pastures, which is a problem for anyone raising organic livestock, and if it gets into a shipment of hay or grain, the shipment can be rejected for overseas markets that don’t tolerate traces of genetically modified organisms.

“It has a lot of potential ramifications for the county,” he said.

USDA’s agreement with Scotts, approved in September, requires the company to continue to survey for the grass in the affected counties in 2016 and try to eradicate it where possible.

In years 2 and 3, the company will provide technical assistance to affected farmers and irrigation districts and provide incentives for the adoption of best management practices to control the grass.

Scotts will also conduct outreach and education programs.

In years 4 through 10, the company will pull back a little but still continue to analyze the situation, educate growers and provide technical assistance, Abel said.

Scotts will also continue working with Oregon State University researchers to try to identify herbicides that can effectively manage the grass.

Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba expressed concern about the plan in a Feb. 17 letter to USDA that prompted the Ontario meeting.

In her letter, Coba said the plan “passes the burden for management of (the grass) onto affected stakeholders.”

The letter says that ODA “is concerned that Oregon ranchers, growers and irrigation districts will have limited tools and resources available to ... manage this herbicide-resistant grass effectively.”

Clint Shock, director of OSU’s Malheur County experiment station, told Abel that Scotts approached him about conducting bentgrass trials there and he refused the project because he didn’t believe the plant could be contained and should never leave the laboratory.

“What you’re proposing is to (take) all the burden and loss off of APHIS and Scotts ... and (put it) on to the community,” he said. “That’s really what it amounts to.”

Erstrom said the agreement is “nothing more than a plan for Scotts to get off the economic hook of fixing what they broke.”

That prompted Bob Harriman, Scotts’ vice president of biotechnology, to stand up and defend the company.

“We have a history of being an honorable company,” he said. “Judge us on the actions we’re taking (and) the progress we’re making. We want to do the right thing.”

Abel rejected accusations that USDA and Scotts were walking away from the situation and said the plan can be changed if necessary.

“No, USDA is not walking away, nor is Scotts,” he said. “We are in this for the long haul. I ask you to give us a chance. Let this plan evolve and work and we will change it if necessary.”

Poachers shot and killed three wolves last year in Eastern Oregon. In one of those cases, a Baker City man turned himself in and pleaded guilty.

The other two incidents, however, remain unsolved. What’s more, they weren’t mentioned by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife or Oregon State Police until after ODFW published its 2015 wolf report on Monday.

The news riled some conservationists, including Steve Pedery, conservation director with Oregon Wild, who said it appeared ODFW was trying to tamp down the controversy.

“It really adds to the cynicism of a lot of folks in the conservation community who feel ODFW is hell-bent on getting out of their responsibility to protect these animals,” Pedery said.

Russ Morgan, ODFW wolf coordinator, said the department is following up on the shot wolves, but state police are in charge of handling those investigations.

“It’s just the way they’re being investigated,” Morgan said. “It’s not out of any attempt to not be forthcoming.”

The first case of poaching came on Sept. 7, 2015, two months before the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to remove gray wolves from the state endangered species list. OR-34, a wolf from the Walla Walla pack, was shot on private property within the pack’s home range.

One month later, Brennon Witty of Baker City shot OR-22 in Grant County after he said he confused the wolf with a coyote. OR-22 had previously wandered into the area after dispersing from the Umatilla River pack. Witty was fined $1,000, ordered to pay restitution and forfeited his rifle to the state.

Finally, on Dec. 23, OR-31 of the Mount Emily pack was killed on public land near the boundary of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. By then, wolves had been taken off the state endangered species list. Sgt. Tim Brown, with the OSP Fish and Wildlife Division in Pendleton, is investigating the two open cases. He said they are not related, and both happened in remote areas with limited access.

“We’re trying to investigate as thoroughly as we can, and protect any clues we have,” Brown said. “We have leads we’re following. Some of that stuff just takes time.”

Brown said OSP typically doesn’t issue releases on these cases unless police think the public can provide additional information. Since these two wolves were found in such isolated country, he said they didn’t feel it was necessary. By no means were they trying to deceive the public, he said.

“As isolated as they were, the individuals who shot those wolves in both these cases are likely the only ones who know about it,” Brown said.

Pedery, though, said it sends the wrong message to keep quiet about poaching cases while publicizing every incident of livestock predation — especially as the legislature is considering whether to affirm the state’s decision to delist wolves.

“I think for anyone looking at how the last few months have gone down, it should be disturbing that these two poachings were buried down in this report,” he said.

The 2015 wolf report highlighted a 34 percent population increase in Oregon, reaching a minimum of 110 wolves by the end of the year. The number of wolf attacks on livestock confirmed by ODFW actually decreased for the second year in a row.

ODFW also found a new pack of wolves in southern Umatilla and Morrow counties, located in the Heppner unit. Morgan said they made the discovery on Jan. 18, and biologists will try to catch and collar at least one of the five wolves to learn more about them.

“They’re in some pretty remote area,” Morgan said. “Undoubtedly, the adults dispersed from other packs. That’s how this works.”

The pack hasn’t yet been named. Morgan said they were spotted west of Battle Mountain.

SALEM (AP) — Gov. Kate Brown has announced the resignation of the director of the Department of Environmental Quality.

Brown said Tuesday that Dick Pedersen is stepping down as Oregon’s top environmental official for health reasons that she did not identify.

Pedersen’s resignation comes amid a public outcry over discovery of hazardous levels of cadmium and arsenic near two glass-making facilities in Portland. Questions have been raised about whether the environmental agency took too long to respond to discovery of the toxic hot spots.

Pedersen has been with the agency for two decades and became director in 2008.

Deputy Director Joni Hammond will step in as interim director until a permanent replacement is named.