BANKS, Ore. — Eighteen college forestry students from Norway visited a Banks, Ore., Christmas tree farm June 3 as part of a two-week stint here to study Northwest farm and forestry practices.

The students, mostly seniors, peppered farm owner Mark Schmidlin with questions: How many trees does he plant per acre, they wanted to know. What percentage of the trees make top grade? How much fertilizer does he add and when? How does he harvest the trees? How long does it take to produce a Christmas tree? How does he process and transport them?

From the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the students were primarily interested in forestry operations, but also wanted to see a Christmas tree farm. So tour organizer, Olav Hoibo, who is spending a year’s sabbatical at the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, called Schmidlin and arranged the stop.

Two of the students, including Lars Raaen, said their families are involved in Christmas tree production. And, according to Raaen, many Norwegian families decorate their homes each holiday season with a Christmas tree.

“Christmas trees are as big in Norway as they are here,” Raaen said.

Among forestry stops, the students visited forest products operations in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon.

Birger Eikenes, a forest technology professor at the Norway’s University of Life Sciences and one of three professors to make the trip, said the students already knew a lot about U.S. forest products practices. “But it is another thing to go and see with your own eyes,” he said.

“They wanted to go out and see how forestry is done in other places,” Eikenes said.

“We wanted to see how things are done on the other side of the water,” said Terje Olav Ryd, “and see if it is as big as we expected. We always hear that everything is bigger in America.

“It is,” he said.

The students were next headed to Northern California to view Sequoia trees and Coastal redwoods, Eikenes said.

“There is nothing that size in Norway,” Eikenes said, noting that trees in Norway are more similar in size to East Coast trees.

Of course, there are a lot of similarities between the two countries, the students said, including environmental regulations.

“We have a lot of environmental rules that will shut down areas for a while,” said Ingebord Anker-Rasch.

Also, she said, like here, the industry has mechanized its harvest in recent years, and is recovering from a lengthy economic downturn.

“The last few years, the pulp industry was suffering from low prices,” Anker-Rasch said. “But now there is a big focus on using wood products in construction.”

CORVALLIS, Ore. — About 200 friends, colleagues and family of Kelvin Koong gathered June 5 at Oregon State University’s Oldfield Animal Teaching Facility to celebrate Koong’s 28 years of service to the university.

Koong, who began his career at OSU in 1987 as associate director of the College of Agricultural Sciences Experiment Station, is retiring June 30.

He spent the past three years as executive director of the university’s Agricultural Research Foundation.

Between those two assignments, Koong held several positions, including a two-year stint as dean of the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine, interim dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and interim director of the OSU Extension Service.

Several praised Koong during the celebration for his willingness to take on the different assignments, many for short durations, and for putting his best behind each position.

“It seems like every time we had a sticky job to do, we’d ask Kelvin,” said former OSU President John Burns.

“Some folks in a temporary role would’ve just filled out their time,” said U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., who worked with Koong on establishing a four-year veterinary college at OSU. “Not this guy. He said, ‘Why don’t we have a four-year veterinary college?’”

Schrader, a veterinarian who was serving in the Oregon Legislature at the time, said Koong was able to bring Republicans and Democrats together to back the effort to expand the veterinary college from two years to four years at a difficult budget time.

“This was a bill that we couldn’t afford,” Schrader said, “but somehow, Kelvin Koong found the money.”

Schrader said Koong also was instrumental in eliciting state funds to help back the construction of the now nearly three-year-old College of Veterinary Medicine’s Multi-Animal Teaching Facility.

“He’s very good at making us do the right thing at the end of the day,” Schrader said.

Sharon Harmon, executive director of the Oregon Humane Society, praised Koong for his work in establishing the first of its kind hands-on program for veterinary students to train at the Humane Society’s Portland shelter.

“This was groundbreaking,” Harmon said. “Prior to this, there was no partnership between a humane society and a university in the U.S.

“This program is now in place in 14 universities across the country,” she said.

“Kelvin deeply cares about this institution and the students who go here,” said Katie Fast, new executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, who worked with Koong often in the Legislature in her role in government affairs for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Phil Ward, state executive director of the Farm Service Agency who worked with Koong while serving first as assistant director and then as director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, characterized Koong as “the best relationship builder I’ve ever known. And those relationships have stood the test of time.”

Thayne Dutson, former dean of the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences, said what many believed in closing his comments.

“OSU is a better place now because you were here,” Dutson said. “Thank you, Kelvin.”

Pomp and circumstance

Pomp and circumstance

TODAY

LANGLOIS — The Friends of the Langlois Public Library will present An Evening with Brian Doyle at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 6. Brian Doyle will be reading from his work as well as signing books. B…

Wilcox Farms, a 106-year-old family business, was selected Agri-Business of the Year by the Strategic Economic Development Corporation of Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties.

The award from SEDCOR, the lead economic development group for the three counties in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, is presented annually to a business that achieves excellence in agri-business and maintains the role of ag in the economy.

The company is based in Roy, Wash., and has egg farm operations there and in Aurora, Ore., and a processing facility in Great Falls, Mont. Its products are sold at Fred Meyer, Safeway, Roth’s, Lamb’s, Natural Grocers, New Seasons, Costco and LifeSource Natural Foods stores.

Wilcox was founded in 1909 and now is in its fourth generation of family operation. In recent years the company has committed itself to raise chickens in a cage-free environment and on organic feed. It has been certified by Certified Humane, Food Alliance, Salmon Safe and Oregon Tilth.

SALEM — A bill aimed at encouraging mediation over biotech crop disputes is poised to become law in Oregon, but the original idea has been scaled back substantially.

An amended version of House Bill 2509 is headed for a vote on the Senate floor after earlier passing the House despite some unexpected pushback from critics of genetically modified organisms.

Under the initial version of the bill, a farmer who refuses to engage in mediation but then loses a lawsuit over a biotech crop dispute would have to pay the opposing party’s legal bills.

Although HB 2509 quietly passed the House without attracting controversy, it met with resistance in the Senate, where GMO critics pounced on it as being unfair to non-biotech growers.

Friends of Family Farmers, Our Family Farms Coalition and the Center for Food Safety argued that growers shouldn’t be forced into mediation that could prevent them from obtaining timely legal relief if they’re threatened with cross-pollination from GMOs.

Critics also objected to the lack of time and cost limits on mediation, claiming it could become prohibitively expensive and thus discourage growers from approaching neighbors with concerns.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture’s oversight of the mediation program was also called into question, since some GMO critics claim the agency is biased in favor of genetic engineering.

An amendment to HB 2509, recently adopted by the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, gives farmers the option of seeking mediation through ODA or the USDA.

The time and cost of mediation is capped at four hours and $2,500, and the threat of liability for the opposing party’s legal expenses is removed from the new version.

Instead, if a lawsuit is filed, a judge “may impose sanctions” against a farmer who refuses mediation and “may consider that unwillingness when determining whether to grant or deny a preliminary injunction.”

These changes have convinced Friends of Family Farmers, which is closely involved in legislative negotiations over GMOs, to drop its opposition to HB 2509.

The group was nervous about the attorney fee provision because biotech companies like Monsanto and Syngenta have tremendous legal resources they could deploy to aid biotech growers, said Ivan Maluski, its policy director.

“I don’t think you need to encourage people toward mediation with stiff penalties,” he said.

While Maluski acquiesced to HB 2509, he said it’s “laughable” to consider the bill an important step in state oversight of GMOs.

He would prefer the legislature adopt a proposal that would create control areas where biotech crops are subject to restrictions, such as isolation distances.

“The legislature has really accomplished nothing significant on this issue so far,” Maluski said.

The Oregon Farm Bureau, which opposes stricter GMO regulations, is still supportive of HB 2509 even though it’s been toned down, said Katie Fast, vice president of public policy for the group.

“It doesn’t have as many teeth to push people into mediation” but the bill will still hopefully help them to find ways to coexist, she said.

The Oregon Farm Bureau isn’t aware of any lawsuits over cross-pollination among organic, conventional and biotech growers, so a more drastic approach is unnecessary, Fast said.

More stringent proposals debated this year appear to be a “solution in search of a problem,” she said. “We’re hearing of very few neighbor-to-neighbor conflicts.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A fake life-sized orca that spouts water and plays recordings of its real-life counterparts is being deployed to scare off hundreds of sea lions crowding docks off the Oregon coast, but it ran into a snag its first day on the job.

The orca was brought over land from Bellingham, Washington, on Thursday, but as soon as it hit the water at Astoria, its engine flooded, KGW-TV reported. Officials in Astoria say they have found a replacement motor and the fake orca will make it to the water near the docks within several hours.

The fake orca, named “Island,” belongs to a whale watching business and was originally built in the 1980s. It’s outfitted with a Suzuki eight-horsepower outboard motor and speakers.

The replica orca is actually a boat and will be driven around in the waters near Astoria, free of charge to the port. It will also tow a smaller, 7-foot-long orca behind it.

Sea lions have become a nuisance to the city and commercial fishermen because they damage docks, prevent boaters from using them and eat too many salmon.

In recent weeks, the Port of Astoria tried creative ways to keep the animals away, including installing beach balls, colorful tape, chicken wire and electrified mats — but were not successful.

The sea lion population has increased dramatically in recent decades. The animals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but the law includes provisions allowing for deterrence of the sea lions to protect private property.

Officials said it’s not known if the sea lions will actually be scared of the phony killer whale. Wildlife official say sea lions are smart and might figure out it’s a fake.

“It’s a theory, we don’t know how it will work. An orca is a natural predator to a sea lion. But we don’t know if they will totally ignore it, or swim for their lives,” said Port of Astoria Executive Director Jim Knight.

Knight said one of the sounds the fake orca will emit is a “call to dinner” — usually emitted by the killer whales in the wild after they kill a sea lion or seal.

The famous insurance marketplace Lloyd’s of London is pulling out of the cannabis insurance business.  That’s surprised agents in Oregon who’ve used Lloyd’s for almost a decade to insure medical marijuana businesses. “It had been one of the oldest programs in the country,” said Todd Foster, an agent with Oregon Cannabis Insurance. Foster’s company has offices in Portland, Medford and Bend and provides liability, property and inventory insurance to a wide range of clients -- from warehouse grow operations to marijunana gelato makers. According to Marijuana Business Daily, in a memo explaining the decision, Lloyd’s cited the conflict between federal and state law in the United States.  The company concluded that money stemming from legal state marijuana sales could be subject to federal anti-money laundering laws. Foster said about 30 of his clients are insured through Lloyd’s. The policies protect against risks like general business liability — for example, a customer slipping and falling — and property and inventory loss from fire or robbery.Foster hasn’t yet heard whether Lloyd’s will actively cancel policies or will not renew them when they expire. He is working to switch his clients over to five other insurers who are willing to work with cannabis businesses. The only one Foster is willing to name is Hannover Re of Germany, a large insurer that recently launched a marijuana program to compete with Lloyd’s. “The other four I’m going to keep close to my chest,” Foster said. Amy Margolis, a cannabis attorney and a lobbyist, said the timing of Lloyd’s decision creates a challenge in Oregon where many people are preparing for a legal market and trying to legitimize their businesses.  She expects the OLCC will require legal cannabis businesses to carry liability coverage. That’s among the requirements established in Washington state.  “You can tack this issue up along with the banking issue. We’re asking cannabis businesses to be active participants in a traditional business market. They can’t access banking and now it has become much more difficult to access insurance,” she said.

OPB

In the event of a distant tsunami coming to the Oregon coast, you might not expect boat owners to head out to sea.

But that’s what many commercial and sports fishers do — to protect their vessels from the groundings, capsizes and collisions in harbors when tsunami waves near the shore.  In deep water, a passing tsunami is such an elongated hump that sailors might not even notice.

The state has released the first in a series of local advisories showing coastal boat operators where to go and what to do in the event of a distant tsunami.

Back in 2011, when boat owners heard a tsunami was on its way to the West Coast from Japan, many headed out to sea. The passing tsunami wasn’t a problem for them.  But in Crescent City, California, for example, the fleet couldn’t return because of harbor damage.

Jonathan Allan, with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI), says to make matters worse, a storm was approaching.

“It presented some challenges because people were evacuating quickly and weren’t necessarily adequately prepared, both in terms of having support staff on their vessels, you know fuel, etc. to be out there for extended periods of time, or food etc.,” he said.  “And so they were having to come up with alternative options for where to safely move to.”Those who didn’t have enough fuel returned to Crescent City, but had to anchor in some unusual spots.

Others had to sail to Humboldt Bay or Brookings Harbor, in Oregon, ports that some captains had never negotiated before.

The new DOGAMI advisory’s focus on a distant tsunami is important.

When a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake hits right off the Oregon coast, the resulting tsunami is expected to reach land in about 10 minutes.  So there won’t be time for boaters to head out to deep water.

But if the earthquake happens in Alaska, boat operators will have about four hours; if it occurs in Japan, they have about nine hours.

In 2011, after the Japan earthquake, what boat owners did in the end was keep close contact and help each other out.

Allan says the state’s new advisories focus on Newport and Toledo, but other locations will follow. “The regionally-released map is the first of its kind on the Oregon coast for a specific port community,” he said “It’s providing information to recreation and commercial boat operators as to the types of responses they can take in the event of a distance tsunami taking place.”

Terry Thompson is a commercial fisherman and a Commissioner for Lincoln County, and he thinks the advisory will help boat owners make good decisions. “A lot of people think they’re just going to go a short distance off shore,” he said. “They don’t realize that in a major tsunami, they’ve go to get outside of 100 fathoms. In a distant tsunami - that would be one like in Alaska or Japan - they’re going to have to get a shorter distance.”

In Newport and Toledo, that “shorter distance” could still take a couple of hours to reach. Boat operators would have to reach an area where the water was 30 fathoms - that is water at least 180 feet deep.

Thompson says when the next tsunami hits, boat owners need to take account of more than just the new map — they need to ask themselves questions like: “What’s the weather forecast?” and “How much time do I have?”

“Can you get to port and get up the hill before the tsunami hits, is the question,” he said. “In a distant tsunami, I’d have a chance. In a near shore tsunami and I’m off shore, I may just gamble for going to the deep, but I may be out there for a while.”

Walter Chuck’s small fishing boat was out of the water in 2011, so he didn’t have to make any difficult decisions. But he served on the committee that put the new advisories together.

He said some people wanted more details included. But he disagrees.

“I think if the plan was too detailed and there were too many steps, I think that in essence you would give someone a false sense of security that if you followed this plan, you would be okay,” Chuck said. “And in the event of a disaster, everything is very variable.”

He says when the next tsunami hits, he’ll monitor the marine channels and take advice from the U.S. Coast Guard.

http://www.opb.org/news/article/state-issues-first-local-advisories-for-distant-tsunamis/

THURSDAY, JUNE 4

LANGLOIS — The Friends of the Langlois Public Library will present An Evening With Brian Doyle at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 6. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend.

SALEM — A bill to extend limited canola production in Oregon’s Willamette Valley will move to a vote on the Senate floor over the objections of a specialty seed growers’ group.

House Bill 3382, which allows canola to be grown on 500 acres in the region through 2019, had already passed the House and was approved on June 3 by the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources with a “do pass” recommendation.

Lawmakers contemplated banning canola in the Willamette Valley in 2013 due to fears of cross-pollination with related seed crops but instead opted for a six-year moratorium.

During the first three years, Oregon State University was directed to study volunteer plants, cross-pollination and disease issues associated with canola on 500 acres annually.

Growers who want to continue raising canola are now pressing lawmakers to extend that 500 acres of production through the final three years of the moratorium by passing HB 3382.

The Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Association and the Friends of Family Farmers group oppose the bill, fearing a larger “seed bank” of canola, among other issues.

Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, said that opponents have also expressed concerns with the integrity of OSU’s study, such as the amount of scientific peer review it will receive.

To assuage their concerns, an amendment to HB 3382 specifies that canola can only be grown in the region for another three years if it’s cultivated under the same restrictions as during the OSU study, he said.

Under the amendment, OSU’s study must also be reviewed by experts on vegetable seed production and include data on canola and brassica seed production in several other regions in the U.S. and around the world.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture must also make recommendations based on OSU’s study about what protections are necessary to ensure coexistence between the canola and specialty seed industries.

Opponents of HB 3382 said the revisions weren’t to overcome their objections, stating they’re afraid the ODA will intrepret the bill as authorizing the agency to allow unrestricted canola production after 2019.

Edwards said the legislature will inevitable have to make further decisions about canola after 2019.

Although the amendment did not result in a “Kumbaya moment” of agreement, it nonetheless has enough support among lawmakers, he said.

The committee unanimously referred the bill to a vote on the Senate floor, though Sen. Floyd Prozanzki, D-Eugene, said he will continue to analyze the bill and may ultimately change his mind.

Autumn Althof received the Charlie Jensen Music Memorial for $500, and the Jack and Margaret Dean Scholarship for $1,000 through the SWOCC Foundation.

PORT ORFORD — Though only 20 students make up the graduating Pacific High School Class of 2015, they commanded the stage Saturday night during commencement ceremonies and lived up to their cla…

March 7, 1922 – May 31, 2015

TODAY

SALEM — Farmers will face a lower risk of lawsuits over aviation and agritourism accidents under two bills that seem likely to become law in Oregon.

House Bill 2038, which absolves landowners of liability for aviation-related injuries on their property in most circumstances, was approved unanimously by the Senate on June 1 after earlier passing the House.

Legislation that protects agritourism operators from lawsuits, Senate Bill 341, was unanimously referred for a vote on the House floor with a “do pass” recommendation on June 2 by a key committee. The bill has already been approved by the House.

Both bills have overcome opposition from the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association, which feared the proposals would deprive negligence victims of their day in court.

Under the original language of HB 2038, aviation was simply added to a list of recreational activities for which landowners cannot be held liable unless they charge an entrance fee to their property.

An amended version of the bill clarifies that this protection doesn’t extend to landowners who cause harm to aircraft operators through gross negligence after allowing the use of their private airstrips.

Farmers who own airstrips testified in favor of the bill, arguing they shouldn’t be held legally responsible for pilots who routinely land on their property without permission.

While much of the debate focused on planes and airstrips, the bill also protects landowners from liability for accidents related to aviation sports such as hang gliding and parachuting.

Under SB 341, agritourism operators wouldn’t face liability for death or injury as long as they post notices that warn visitors of the inherent dangers of being on a farm.

The bill wouldn’t apply to growers who demonstrate “negligence or willful disregard” for safety, intentionally harm visitors, don’t properly inspect equipment that hurts someone, know of an undisclosed danger, or don’t comply with land use laws for agritourism.

Supporters of SB 341, including the Oregon Farm Bureau and Friends of Family Farmers, hope that reduced liability will encourage more agritourism and persuade insurers to offer coverage for such activities, eventually lowering premiums.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Oregon is expected to see above-normal wildfire danger starting in July, and fire seasons imposing restrictions on open burning are starting in the southwestern corner of the state.

The National Interagency Fire Center’s latest report on nationwide wildfire potential shows much of Oregon at normal in June, with drier areas of the state moving into above normal. By July, above normal fire potential spreads across the Northwest, and continues through September.

“The focus of above normal fire activity during the core of the fire season will likely be in the Northwest,” the report said.

East of the Cascades, more lightning than usual is expected in July and August, which the report says “will prove to be the deciding factor for the intensity of fire season 2015.”

Last year Oregon saw more than 3,000 wildfires burn nearly 1 million acres — about 1,500 square miles — of forest and rangeland, the fire center reports.

Long-range forecasts from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center call for summer to be warmer and drier than average.

In the short term, late spring rain has moistened trees, brush and grass, but as summer wears on, wildfire activity is expected to become “robust,” the report said.

“This will be amplified by the lack of snowpack at higher elevations, which should allow the conditions necessary for long duration timber fires to occur unusually early,” the report said.

Fire seasons are starting in the southwestern corner of the state. The Oregon Department of Forestry is declaring fire season starting Friday in Jackson and Josephine counties. That is about the same time as the past two years, said Department of Forestry fire prevention specialist Brian Ballou. Fire danger will begin at moderate. Outdoor burning and fireworks will be prohibited on state-protected lands.

“This will be the third drier-than-normal fire season in a row for southwest Oregon,” state District Forester Dan Thorpe said in a statement.

Fire restrictions also went into effect on the so-called wild section of the Rogue River, popular with whitewater rafters, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Six small lightning fires were put out after being ignited Sunday evening in Douglas County.