Two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires on federal lands say they will report to prison Jan. 4, though militia organizations with ties to Nevada cattleman Cliven Bundy are rallying supporters to protect them.

Dwight Lincoln Hammond, 73, and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond, 46, were resentenced Oct. 7 to five years in prison for the fires on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property near Diamond, Ore.

Bundy has had multiple disputes with the BLM in Nevada for more than 20 years.

In 2012, the federal government filed a lawsuit against Bundy, alleging that he allowed cattle to graze on BLM property, despite an earlier injunction barring him from the land.

When the BLM tried to remove Bundy’s cattle, armed militia members surrounded the ranch and began a tense standoff with federal agents.

Bundy’s son, Ammon, posted a Facebook video asking Bundy Ranch supporters to come Saturday to Burns, the county seat of Harney County, where the Hammonds live. Bundy said the Hammonds are being persecuted by a land-grabbing federal government and that their case was “in many ways more important than the Bundy Ranch.”

In an earlier video, Ammon Bundy said, “I feel justified in defending the Hammonds, even they don’t have the strength and courage right now to stand for themselves.”

The Hammonds’ attorney, Alan Schroeder, said Wednesday that the Hammonds appreciate the support they’ve received from groups and individuals, but reaffirmed that militia members do not speak for them and that they intend to serve their time.

Montana resident Ryan Payne, an associate of Bundy’s and who participated in the tense standoff with federal officials at the Bundy Ranch, said Wednesday he hoped the Hammonds will reconsider and accept “protection.”

“They’re not in prison yet,” Payne said.

Payne said he expected “a lot” protesters Saturday. Organizers have asked protesters to bring pennies, nickels and dimes to toss at a county office building to symbolize how county authorities have “sold out” the Hammonds by not offering refuge.

Harney County Judge Steve Grasty said he’s highly sympathetic to the Hammonds and believes their sentence was too severe. But militia groups’ anger at county officials over a federal prosecution is misplaced.

“It doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t know why we’re suddenly the bad guys,” he said.

He said militia members have come into the county, openly carrying firearms and creating an intimidating atmosphere.

“I can’t get in and out of Safeway in less than an hour because people are stopping and asking me about it,” Grasty said. “I just can’t discern local support for what their doing, with very little exception.”

Payne and Ammon Bundy recently spoke at a meeting in Harney County attended by about 60 people, mostly local residents. From that meeting emerged a new group, the Harney County Committee of Safety, with the stated mission of safeguarding individual liberties.

Committee member Melodi Molp, a Harney County rancher, said Bundy “kind of woke a bunch of us up.”

The committee, however, planned to meet Wednesday evening to discuss its relationship with outside militia members.

“The Bundy group seems to be rubbing quite a few people the wrong way,” she said.

Their tactics may be too aggressive for a county heavily dependent on government employment, Molp said. “Bundy’s direction would put more than half of the people in this county out of a job,” she said.

Molp said she planned to watch but not take part in Saturday’s rally. “I’m hesitant to participate. I’ve never been to one of their rallies. It might be a little more aggressive than I’d like to see,” she said.

Payne said that if the local committee asks outside groups to leave, “I think we’d have to have a conversation.”

Payne said the issue was important to the entire country, not just Harney County residents.

“If we allow this to happen then the federal government will be encouraged to label anyone a terrorist,” he said.

The Hammonds were convicted of arson in 2012 after a two-week jury trial. Both were found guilty of starting a 139-acre fire in 2001. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Steven Hammond said he started the fire on private land to burn invasive plants and it spread to public lands. Prosecutors said the fire was set to cover up deer poaching on BLM land. Dwight Hammond also was convicted of setting a backfire in 2006 that burned 1 acre of public land.

The Hammonds originally received much shorter sentences from a U.S. District Court judge, who said the mandatory minimum sentence of five years was far too long. The lenient sentences, however, were overturned by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, leading to the Hammonds’ resentencing.

Harney County Farm Bureau President Rusty Inglis said he doubts outside militia groups will generate much local enthusiasm.

“We don’t support them, simple as that,” he said. “I hope they have their little rally and it stays peaceful and nobody gets hurt,” he said.

The Oregon Farm Bureau has denounced the Hammonds’ punishment, but its president, Barry Bushue, said Wednesday that armed militia members won’t help their cause.

Bushue, a longtime family friend, said he expects the Hammonds will want to return to ranching.

“They want to do it peacefully. They want to move forward, instead of clinging to the past,” he said. “From my perspective, that’s where the community can be most beneficial, instead of making it into a public spectacle.

“I fear it reflects badly on the ranching community and the local community, or at least has the potential to,” Bushe said. “We are incensed by the fact that (the Hammonds) have to go back to prison, but in the end, the rule of law has to be followed.”

PORTLAND — Saying the state acted prematurely, three environmental groups on Dec. 30 challenged the removal of Oregon Endangered Species Act protection for gray wolves.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Oregon Wild and Cascadia Wildlands have petitioned the Oregon Court of Appeals to review the November decision by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission to remove gray wolves from the state’s endangered species list.

The groups are not seeking a stay or injunctive relief, only to have an impartial review of the decision, said Nick Cady of Cascadia Wildlands.

“What we’re challenging is that rule wasn’t based on science,” he said.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife will have to provide all records leading up to the decision, Cady said. He could not estimate how long it would be before the review takes place.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife did not immediately return a phone call.

Oregon currently has about 82 wolves, most of them in the northeastern corner of the state. Ranchers there have faced livestock losses because of wolves attacking cattle, sheep and guard dogs.

“We always knew any decision would be appealable,” said rancher Todd Nash, chairman of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association Wolf Committee. “Our response will be to seek legislation to back up what the commission voted on and put it in law.”

He said the state wolf management plan already dictates how wolves are managed.

“If (the review) doesn’t change what the wolf management plan is, what will it do?” he asked.

In the eastern one-third of the state, wolves are not protected under either state or federal endangered species laws but are managed under the state’s wolf management plan.

In the western two-thirds of Oregon, wolves are also protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The environmental groups allege state wildlife managers violated Oregon’s Endangered Species Act and ignored the best scientific evidence available and the overwhelming number of people who commented against the delisting proposal, said Rob Klavins, northeast Oregon field coordinator for Oregon Wild.

“By their own analysis, wolves are extinct in 90 percent of their range in Oregon,” Klavins said.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — A Canadian renewable energy company is planning to create a solar farm in Oregon.

The Bend Bulletin reports that Saturn Power Corp. of New Hamburg, Ontario, submitted a permit application to Deschutes County in November for a nearly 10-megawatt facility east of Redmond.

The plant could potentially generate enough power for about 1,500 homes a year.

County planners have requested more information from Saturn Corp. before they can consider the application complete. The company is expected to submit additions by early January.

Klamath Falls-based environmental consultant Andrea Rabe says Saturn Corp. has several renewable energy facilities in Canada, the United States and Turkey.

The application says the land was developed for agriculture but not productive because of “marginal soils.”

Two similar solar farms have been approved east of Bend.

TIMBERLINE LODGE, Ore. – Making her way on cross-country skis to take a snowpack reading near this historic lodge on Mount Hood, hydrologist Julie Koeberle stopped to admire the sight of big firs bent silent with weight.

“It’s so awesome to see the snow hanging on the trees,” she said. “We sure didn’t see that last year.”

Irrigators, wildlife managers, hydro-power operators and others throughout the Pacific Northwest and Northern California are expressing similar relief. A series of pounding December storms brought unrelenting torrents of rain to the coasts and valleys and, in the mountains, snow at last.

While skiers and snowboarders celebrate abundant snow for its

recreational aspects, it is the snowpack’s stored water that will help irrigate crops, cool salmon and spin turbines in the summer months to come.

“Snowpack is the lifeblood of the West,” said Koeberle, who works with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland. “This is such a relief from last year.”

As of Dec. 29, nearly 7 feet of snow had accumulated at Timberline Lodge, elevation 5,960 feet, and it contained 21.5 inches of water, Koeberle said. The water content now is greater than the 20 inches measured at the peak annual snowfall in April 2015. The past season’s Northwest snowpack was largely gone by May.

With three to four months of additional snowfall possible this season, the region may ease the grip of drought that’s stunted crops, killed fish and left forests and rangeland dry and vulnerable to fierce fires.

“This is a great way to start,” Koeberle said. “To be already better than last year is a little bit comforting.”

The NRCS maintains 730 SNOTEL monitoring sites in 11 states, 82 of them in Oregon, that electronically report snowfall and water content information. The Oregon sites as of the end of December were reporting water levels that were 150 percent of normal for that date.

Last year, nearly half of Oregon’s long-term monitoring sites measured the lowest snowpack level on record.

Koeberle led a news media tour Dec. 29 of the SNOTEL site near Timberline, and demonstrated how hydrologists take samples of the snow and weigh it to measure water content. The same information is available electronically, but the annual media event gives hydrologists an opportunity to discuss the water supply outlook.

Because of the December snow, the water supply in most of the state is likely to improve this coming year. But Koeberle said it’s too early to declare the drought over.

Some complications remain. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said the rest of the season will be warmer than normal in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.

Koeberle said the region may have “dodged the El Niño bullet” for now.

“Normally, during most El Niños, it would be warm and dry and we just would not have gotten any precipitation at all,” she said by email. “I am concerned that January could bring us warm and dry conditions based on the CPC forecast.”

The Oregon Farm Bureau has made several staffing changes, including hiring two new employees, after a longtime lobbyist for the group left for another organization.

Katie Fast, formerly the Farm Bureau’s vice president of public policy, took a job as the executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an agribusiness industry group, earlier this year.

The Farm Bureau has since promoted Jenny Dresler from government affairs associate to director of state public policy, which is a new position, said Anne Marie Moss, OFB’s communications director.

“It’s more a restructuring than a direct replacement,” Moss said.

Dresler joined the Farm Bureau a year ago after previously working for Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, in legislative and campaign operations. She holds a master’s degree from Oregon State University in environmental science.

Stepping into the role of government affairs associate is Tyler Alexander, who recently graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School and has previously worked for OFB as a law clerk.

Alexander and Dresler will join Mary Anne Nash, who will serve as public policy counsel, in representing the Farm Bureau’s interests at the Oregon Legislature.

The group’s other new hire is Jacon Taylor, who will be traveling to county Farm Bureau organizations level to assist volunteers as a regional coordinator and field representative.

PRINEVILLE, Ore. (AP) — The two single-engine air tankers stationed for the first time this summer in Prineville ended up dropping a large amount of fire retardant around Oregon.

The Bulletin of Bend reports that according to Oregon Department of Forestry data, the two firefighting planes dropped nearly a quarter of all the retardant used to fight fires around the state in 2015.

The planes were part of a $5 million program to increase Oregon’s firefighting fleet. In previous fire seasons, the department used three or four large takers. This year the state used six small tankers and only one large airliner.

The Prineville planes provided air support on about two dozen fires, flying about 250 times this year. Oregon Department of Forestry spokeswoman Christie Shay says they will likely be back next season at Prineville.

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

Selina Heppell, a conservation biologist, is the new head of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University.

Heppell is the first woman to head the department in its 80-year history. The department is the largest within the College of Agricultural Sciences, with nearly 800 students, and among the largest natural sciences department on campus.

Heppell replaces Dan Edge, who earlier in 2015 was appointed the college’s associate dean. Heppell had been serving as interim department head since Edge’s appointment.

In a prepared statement, ag college Dean Dan Arp described Heppell as a distinguished researcher and teacher who had provided “terrific leadership” as interim head of the department.

Heppell has been on the OSU faculty since 2001. She has specialized in studying slow-growing species such as sturgeon, sea turtles, sharks and West Coast rockfish. Among other work, she has used computer models and simulations to study how fish respond to human impacts and climate change — and how they may respond to future climate change.

Heppell and her husband, Scott Heppell, teach a conservation biology course in Eastern Europe and have done fish research in the Caribbean.

EAGLE POINT, Ore. (AP) — The owner of a historic Oregon grist mill that burned in a holiday fire says rebuilding may be possible.

The Mail Tribune newspaper reports the landmark water-powered Butte Creek Mill was deemed a total loss after the Christmas morning fire.

Owner Bob Russell says his first impression is that rebuilding would not be possible. But when he took another look over the weekend, he changed his mind.

He says the new mill would be smaller and won’t produce as much flour, but it may be possible to open in some capacity.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

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ONTARIO, Ore. — A series of snowstorms over the Owyhee Basin has resulted in snowpack levels more than twice their normal amount for this time of year.

That has given farmers in Eastern Oregon who get their irrigation water from the Owyhee Reservoir a reason to be optimistic for the first time in several years.

The basin has experienced four straight years of reduced snowpack levels and the 1,800 farms that depend on the reservoir have had their annual water allotment slashed by two-thirds the past two years.

Water has stopped flowing through the Owyhee Irrigation District’s 400 miles of canals, laterals and ditches in August the past two years, two months earlier than normal.

But as of Dec. 24, snowpack in the basin was at 233 percent of normal for that date.

“I’m really pleased with what I’m seeing so far,” said dairyman and farmer Frank Ausman, a member of the Owyhee Irrigation District’s board of directors. “We’re sitting quite a bit better at this time than we were the last couple of years.”

But Ausman and other farmers said the snow needs to keep falling in order for growers to have an adequate water supply next season.

“It’s definitely ... a good start but it’s a little early to start counting our chickens,” Ausman said.

OID Manager Jay Chamberlin said the storms have laid down a lot of snow proportionally over the whole watershed, unlike last year when the sparse snow the basin received was spotty.

“Keep it coming. This feels good,” he said.

The reservoir provides water for 118,000 irrigated acres in Malheur County in southeastern Oregon and around Homedale and Marsing in southwestern Idaho.

Farmers in this area have had to alter their rotations and farming practices as a result of drastically reduced water supplies the last three years. A lot of farm ground has been left idle and growers have planted a lot more crops that require less water but also bring less income.

While farmers and water supply managers expressed optimism at the current snowpack situation in the basin, they also cautioned that it’s still early in the snow season and the reservoir needs a lot more water.

To guarantee a good water supply year, the reservoir needs about 450,000 acre-feet of storage water, Chamberlin said. It’s holding about 50,000 acre-feet right now.

“We’re going into 2016 in a lot better shape than we did the last three years,” Chamberlin said. “But we have a whole lot of room in an empty bucket. We can take whatever (is sent) us.”

Farmer Paul Skeen likened the current water situation to being early in a football game. While farmers are leading, there’s a lot of ballgame left, he said.

“Yes, things don’t look nearly as bleak as they did last year,” said Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. “But we’re a long ways from the fourth quarter. We’re just finishing the first quarter of the game.”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Maybe it’s time to call crime-buster Elliot Nest to take down that pesky bird of prey “Owlcapone.”

A few blocks away from the state Capitol in Salem, the year is ending the way it began — with an aggressive owl going after people.

At least two attacks have been reported more than a mile north of a park where joggers were attacked in January, said Julie Curtis, spokeswoman for the Department of State Lands.

Dwight French said he was jogging from his office to a parking garage Monday when he felt a bump on the back of his head. He turned around and saw an owl fly into the trees and stare at him. As he crossed a street, the owl hit him again and then a third time.

“At the moment it was just really bizarre and kind of scary for a minute,” he told the Statesman Journal.

French sustained several little cuts. He said it looks like he “got a really violent haircut.”

The January attacks on several joggers got national attention, most of it humorous.

Inspired by a segment from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Oregon’s capital city posted “angry owl” warning signs in the park where the owl was likely defending its nest against perceived threats. The Statesman Journal had an online naming contest, with “Owlcapone” getting the most votes. And, of course, there’s an Owl Attacks Facebook page.

David Craig, a biology professor and animal behavior specialist at Willamette University, said there’s no way of knowing if the owl that attacked French is the notorious Owlcapone establishing a new home or if it’s another barred owl.

He said this is the time of year when owls are courting and establishing their territory, which makes them aggressive. They lay eggs as early as February.

If an owl scratches you and it breaks the skin, Craig recommends monitoring the wound like you would a cat scratch.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Police say an Oregon man angry with his tax situation left a flock of seven chickens inside the state revenue office.

Police in Eugene said in a news release they responded to a report Wednesday afternoon of chickens left in the lobby of the Oregon Department of Revenue.

Police and an animal welfare officer rounded up the fowl, and they were taken to an animal shelter.

Officers gave 66-year-old Louis Adler, of Creswell, a trespass notice requiring him to stay away from the office or risk a citation.

The Register-Guard reports no people or animals were injured.

Adler couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

State agency spokesman Derrick Gasperini told the Guard the staff had prior dealings with Adler and he was “frustrated by the outcome.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An environmental group plans to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over delaying protections for the foothill yellow-legged frog.

The Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday filed a notice of intent to sue; it says the federal government is two and half years late in deciding whether to list the frog under the Endangered Species Act.

The center petitioned to protect the frogs in 2012. Earlier this year, Fish and Wildlife made a positive finding on the petition — but hasn’t finished the status review or made a decision on the listing.

Federal officials declined to comment on pending litigation.

The frogs, which have yellow color under their legs, live in Oregon and California streams. Their population has declined due to logging, mining, livestock grazing, dams and other threats.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon county is looking for non-lethal ways to deter wolves after experiencing its first livestock kills in October.

The Herald and News reports that Klamath County will put together toolboxes of deterrents for landowners with a $6,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The county will also contribute $600 to the project.

The county will work with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to create the boxes.

Officials believe a wolf called OR-25 killed on calf and injured two more in the Fort Klamath area in late October and early November.

Klamath County commission chairman Tom Mallams says the $6,600 won’t be used to compensate the livestock owners. That money will come from the wolf depredation compensation fund.

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

COOS COUNTY — Oregon State University has announced students who have earned honors for fall term 2015. To be included on the honor roll list, students must have carried at least 12 graded hou…