GLIDE, Ore. — Austin VanHouten, at just 15 years old, has developed a business plan. He’s working at developing his sheep shearing skills and turning them into a seasonal job.

To help him in that process, he put together an application, explaining his business plan, and submitted it to the Douglas County Farm Bureau. The application was reviewed by bureau members and then VanHouten was selected as the recipient of the organization’s Young Entrepreneurship Grant.

The grant is for about $1,300. VanHouten will use the money to purchase a shearing motor, clippers and the accessory tools needed for the job.

“On the application, I had to explain why I was applying,” he said. “I want to start up my own business in agriculture. I want to start up my own sheep shearing business. It’s a great way to make money in your free time.”

Following his selection for the grant, the Oakland, Ore., High School student spoke at a Farm Bureau meeting, explaining his plan and his appreciation for the financial support.

VanHouten has a sheep background, helping his grandparents, John and Peggy Fine, with their flock. He has watched his grandfather and others shear sheep so he’s aware that it’s a physical task. And as a member of the Heavenly Ranchers 4-H Club, he has slick sheared numerous lambs for entry at the annual Douglas County Lamb Show.

Matthew Brady, the vice president of the Douglas County Farm Bureau and the coordinator of the Young Entrepreneurship Grant program, said the goal of the program is to give high school aged youth help in getting started in an agricultural project.

“We want to at least help in part these young people overcome some of the monetary obstacles involved in getting into farming,” Brady said. “It can be fairly expensive, pursuing equipment and tools, and these grants can help get the wheels rolling for a young person.”

Brady added that a past recipient of the grant started an asparagus business, using the money to purchase starts, soaker hoses and some other accessories.

To learn how to be most efficient with his new shearing equipment, VanHouten attended a four-day sheep shearing school on the Dawson Ranch in late May. The Oakland High School FFA Alumni Association paid the $225 fee for VanHouten, who then proceeded to shear 50 sheep a day.

“I’m pleased with the progress I made,” the teenager said of shearing. “I learned for a commercial shearing job, you don’t have to make all the lines perfect. You have to know how to handle a sheep properly and to keep the blades on the skin.”

Brady said there is a need for more experienced sheep shearers. He attended the sheep shearing school and was pleased to see the progress VanHouten was making as a shearer.

“Austin saw a need and an opportunity to shear his own sheep as well as others,” Brady said. “It can be hard to get shearers scheduled in a timely manner because there is a shortage. It’s difficult and back-breaking work that is not really attractive to a lot of people. You usually have to wait in line to get your sheep sheared every spring.”

VanHouten has a flock of 15 ewes. His goal is to shear, save money for college and following graduation, start his own sheep, cattle and pig operation.

“I’m really appreciative of this grant,” he said. “I don’t know if I would have been able to start up a shearing business if not for this grant.”

Attorneys for the Trump administration are siding with environmentalists in defending the legality of the Obama administration’s expansion of Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

Shortly before leaving office in early 2017, former President Barack Obama increased the monument’s size by more than 70 percent to about 114,000 acres.

The decision was met with lawsuits by representatives of timber companies and county governments, who claimed a prohibition on commercial logging within the monument violated the Oregon & California Revested Lands Act.

The monument’s enlarged boundary includes nearly 40,000 acres of “O&C Lands” that must be managed for timber harvest under that statute, according to their complaints.

While the legal arguments primarily concern logging, ranchers who operate within the monument also fear they’ll be subject to grazing curtailments.

As part of a wide-ranging review of national monument designations, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended shrinking the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument without specifying how the boundaries should be adjusted.

Litigation over the expansion was delayed several times to allow the Trump administration to implement Zinke’s recommendation but was reactivated earlier this year when the government didn’t take action.

Plaintiffs in three complaints against the federal government — the American Forest Resource Council, Association of O&C Counties and Murphy Co. — have filed motions seeking to invalidate the monument’s expansion onto those 40,000 acres.

In two cases pending in Washington, D.C., attorneys for the Trump administration are now asking a federal judge to deny that request, arguing the expansion decision was within the president’s authority and can’t be reviewed in federal court.

The government has yet to reply to a similar motion in the third lawsuit filed in Oregon.

Even if the expansion can be challenged in federal court, the plaintiffs have “misconstrued” the O&C Act because that law “does not require the agency to manage every tree on every acre of O&C lands for timber production,” the government’s attorneys said.

The Trump administration’s arguments are similar to those made by environmental groups that have intervened in those cases — the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and Oregon Wild.

It’s unclear what the Trump administration’s legal position portends for a possible reduction in the monument’s size by administrative action, said Lawson Fite, AFRC’s general counsel.

“I don’t think this filing rules it out, but it’s hard to say,” Fite said.

The Trump administration is probably defending the Obama-era decision to “defend the presidential prerogative” and preserve the “power of the executive,” he said.

Legal challenges to monument designations and expansions haven’t been successful in the past, but the current litigation is different due to the unique aspects of the O&C Act, which requires a sustained timber yield, Fite said.

“Our view is they don’t have as much discretion as they say they do,” he said.

Between 2013 and 2014, the Wild Rivers Coast, which includes the towns of Bandon, Brookings, Gold Beach, Langlois and Port Orford along Oregon’s South Coast, participated in Travel Oregon’s Rural Tourism Studio program. This was the first time the region…

BEND, Ore. (AP) — A weed-killer that killed thousands of ponderosa pines near Sisters has been linked to the deaths of other trees outside the Sunriver resort community and possibly across Oregon.

An investigation spurred by the incident in Sisters found that the active ingredient in the product known as Perspective may have killed dozens of ponderosa pines outside Sunriver and other trees in central Oregon, said Dale Mitchell, an Oregon Department of Agriculture program manager. The department monitors pesticides and herbicides in Oregon.

“We are looking at gathering additional information on this ingredient,” Mitchell said.

The Deschutes County Road Department sprayed the herbicide along two main roads that lead in and out of Sunriver in 2013 and 2014, the Bulletin reported. The roadside spraying is done to reduce the amount of flammable grass, said Chris Doty, the road department’s director.

Employees for the road department and the U.S. Forest Service found ponderosa pines with brown and ill-formed needles in the area where the herbicide was applied and reported it to the agriculture department.

Results from testing in 2015 showed that the damage had spread, according to a U.S. Forest Service report.

Although it’s not confirmed if the herbicide caused the damage, Doty said some of the tree deaths and damage were the result of root damage or other unrelated issues.

In any case, the damage was much less than in the Sisters incident.

The active ingredient in Perspective, aminocyclopyrachlor, has been linked to deaths of thousands of spruce and pines trees outside of Oregon, according to The New York Times.

Tree damage was also reported in other parts of Deschutes County after Perspective was applied near several roads. But Jean Nelson-Dean, public affairs officer for the Deschutes National Forest, said research shows the damage could have been caused by mountain pine beetles.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the situation. The offices are discussing the possibility of strengthening the language on the label for Perspective.

The county has discontinued its use of Perspective, Doty said.

A program designed to incubate new leaders in Oregon agriculture and natural resources management is seeking applications for its second class, scheduled to begin in November.

The Resource Education and Agricultural Leadership program, better known as REAL Oregon, was established in 2017 and graduated its first class in March. Participants have the chance to learn about farming, fishing and forestry over a series of five sessions held statewide, while also networking with professionals in the field.

REAL Oregon is designed to help members grow into leaders through training in board governance, communication, conflict resolution, public policy work, critical thinking, government interaction, media relations, public speaking and presentations.

Applications for Class 2 are due July 27. The cost is $5,000 per person, of which half is paid by business sponsors.

“We expect it to be a fairly competitive process,” said Greg Addington, REAL Oregon director.

The REAL Oregon board of directors will review application materials in August and announce members of Class 2 in September. Addington said the program will accept up to 30 people. Application materials can be found online at www.realoregon.net.

Bill Buhrig, REAL Oregon board chairman, said graduates from the first class are already making their presence felt around the state, serving on various boards and commissions. Alumni are also serving on the program board and helping to recruit future members.

“I hope it’s a testament to what we put together that people want to come back and help make this program even better,” Buhrig said.

Wednesdays

Four hydroelectric dams blocking fish passage along the lower Klamath River in southern Oregon and northern California are slated for removal under a “Definite Plan” filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The dams — J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gate — were built between 1911 and 1962, and are currently operated by PacifiCorp with a combined generation capacity of 169 megawatts.

FERC is now considering a proposal to transfer the project’s license to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, a nonprofit organization that intends to decommission and tear out the dams. If regulators approve the transfer, dam deconstruction could begin by 2021, opening access for salmon and steelhead to around 400 miles of habitat in the Klamath River and its tributaries.

The Klamath River Renewal Corporation, or KRRC, formed in 2016 as part of the amended Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, signed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, along with the states of Oregon and California, PacifiCorp, local tribes, government agencies, irrigation districts, commercial fishing and conservation groups.

Together, they appointed the KRRC to take ownership and eventually demolish the dams as part of the settlement.

Mark Bransom, executive director of the KRRC, is a former instructor at Oregon State University and senior vice president in water resources and environmental management for CH2M HILL companies, a Colorado-based engineering firm. He said the 2,300-page Definite Plan, submitted June 28 to FERC is a “major milestone” in the dam removal process.

“We believe we have provided FERC with everything they have requested to this point,” Bransom said.

The plan describes in detail how the KRRC will draw down reservoirs and remove the dams, while also protecting fisheries, rehabilitating construction sites and mitigating community impacts — such as replacing a water supply pipeline for the city of Yreka, Calif., that crosses the Klamath River near the upstream end of the reservoir behind Iron Gate Dam.

Estimates peg the project cost at around $398 million, though Bransom said KRRC will hire a construction contractor some time in the next month, which will determine the “guaranteed maximum cost.”

The KRRC has a total budget of up to $450 million, with PacifiCorp ratepayers contributing $200 million and $250 million coming from California Proposition 1, a massive $7.5 billion statewide water bond that passed in 2014.

Removing the four dams should benefit migratory salmon and steelhead, Bransom said, not only boosting upstream passage but improving water quality by restoring a more free and natural flow to the river.

“It’s not hard to appreciate that the Klamath River is a working river,” Bransom said. “It has been overtaxed with regard to allocation of water and other resources in the basin.”

That has led to decades of conflicts and lawsuits seeking to balance water for fish and water for 230,000 acres of irrigated agriculture within Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Project.

In 2017, a federal judge ruled in favor of two California tribes, ordering additional flows in the Klamath River to flush away a deadly salmon-killing parasite known as C. shasta. The bureau released 38,425 acre-feet of water from Upper Klamath Lake in April and 50,000 acre-feet in May to comply with the order, which delayed water for farmers and ranchers until June.

Though the dams targeted for removal on the lower Klamath River do not hold any water for irrigation, Bransom said it may ultimately benefit farmers and ranchers in the long run.

“If the water quality can be improved through dam removal and (create) a more natural flow regime in the river, the flushing flows and dilution flows held in Upper Klamath Lake may or may not continue to be required,” he said. “That is water that could be held in the Klamath Project for agricultural purposes.”

Scott White, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said he wants to believe that is true, though nothing has been guaranteed in writing.

White said irrigators are frustrated to see the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement revived and moving forward, while the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement — another hard-fought agreement that would have guaranteed water for agriculture — has been left for dead after Congress failed to approve the deal in 2015.

The Klamath Tribes also filed another lawsuit earlier this year seeking an injunction for more water in Upper Klamath Lake to protect two endangered species of sucker fish. A hearing in that case is scheduled for July 20 in a federal courtroom in San Francisco.

“The path we’re going down with litigation is not working, and it’s never going to work,” White said. “Until the parties can sit down and talk about these issues face to face, this basin is just going to continue to spiral out of control.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned two ranchers whose case sparked the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon.

Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted in 2012 of intentionally and maliciously setting fires on public lands. The arson crime carried a minimum prison sentence of five years, but a sympathetic federal judge, on his last day before retirement, decided the penalty was too stiff and gave the father and son much lighter prison terms.

Prosecutors won an appeal and the Hammonds were resentenced in October 2015 to serve the mandatory minimum.

The decision sparked a protest from Ammon Bundy and dozens of others, who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near the Hammond ranch in southeastern Oregon from Jan. 2 to Feb. 11, 2016, complaining the Hammonds were victims of federal overreach.

The armed occupiers changed the refuge’s name to the Harney County Resource Center, reflecting their belief that the federal government has only a very limited right to own property within a state’s borders.

Bundy was arrested during a Jan. 26 traffic stop, effectively ending the protest. Another key occupier, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, was fatally shot that day by Oregon State Police.

In a statement Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called that decision to resentence the Hammonds “unjust.”

“The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West,” she said. “Justice is overdue for Dwight and Steven Hammond, both of whom are entirely deserving of these Grants of Executive Clemency.”

The pardons are the latest in a growing list of clemency actions by Trump, who has been using his pardon power with increasingly frequency in recent months.

Trump has been especially pleased with news coverage of his actions, which included commuting the sentence of Alice Johnson, a woman serving a life sentence for drug offenses whose case had been championed by reality television star Kim Kardashian West.

He has repeatedly referenced emotional video of Johnson being freed from prison and running into her family members’ arms, and has said he’s considering thousands more cases — both famous and not.

But critics say the president could be ignoring valid claims for clemency as he works outside the typical pardon process, focusing on cases brought to his attention by friends, famous people and conservative media pundits.

Aides say that Trump has been especially drawn to cases in which he believes the prosecution may have been politically motivated — a situation that may remind him of his own position at the center of the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling.

Many have also seen the president as sending a signal with his pardons to former aides and associates caught up in the probe, or lashing out at enemies like former FBI Director James Comey, who oversaw the prosecution of lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, whom Trump has said he is thinking of pardoning.

LANGLOIS - A family dance party with Micah and Me will be held at 6:30 p.m., Sunday, July 22, at the old Langlois Cheese Factory, 94179 Allen Boice Drive.

LANGLOIS - Interesting Langlois presents local poet and author Martha Schram at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 25, at the Langlois Public Library.

BANDON - Second Street Gallery presents Victoria Tierney as the featured artist at the next Meet and Greet the Artist event. Tierney will be demonstrating watercolors from noon-4 p.m. on both Saturday, July 14, and Sunday, July 15, at the…

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah militia group leader who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a federal cabin in Arizona was ordered to be released on time served Monday after spending two years in jail.

The sentencing of William Keebler, 59, concludes a case that began amid heightened tensions between the federal government and militia groups over control of public land in the West. Keebler appeared on authorities’ radar after spending time with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy during his armed 2014 standoff over grazing fees.

U.S. Attorney John Hubert said outside federal court that Keebler’s case ought to be an example to other groups. “My hope is that it’s more of a general deterrent for likeminded people who may want to act upon their philosophies and beliefs and plan violent acts,” Hubert said.

Keebler, shackled at the wrists and ankles and dressed in a striped jumpsuit, appeared calm as Judge David Sam ordered his imminent release in a federal courtroom in downtown Salt Lake City.

Keebler declined to make a statement in court.

Sam said Keebler had been a model prisoner since his arrest after trying to bomb a Bureau of Land Management cabin in 2016. The judge cited his age and multiple physical ailments, including prostate cancer and heart disease, as reasons for allowing him to be released from federal custody.

“He has expressed what appears to be a sincere apology for his misconduct,” Sam said.

Keebler pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempting to destroy federal property in April.

He spent two weeks at Bundy’s ranch and boasted about his efforts to organize supporters who flocked to Bundy’s defense, prosecutors said.

Keebler then returned to Utah and started a small group of about seven people called the Patriots Defense Force in the desert about 40 miles west of Salt Lake City. Three of his followers were undercover FBI agents, according to testimony in the case.

While organizing his group, Keebler met with Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, an Arizona rancher who was killed in a confrontation with law enforcement officers after occupying a remote Oregon wildlife refuge.

In 2016, Keebler was arrested after planting what he believed to be an active pipe bomb at the door of an empty BLM cabin used to house seasonal workers in a remote corner in northern Arizona near Mt. Trumbull.

Supporters have said he was set up by the government. Undercover agents provided him with the inert bomb and goaded him into targeting the cabin, they said.

More than a dozen letters submitted by family and friends on Keebler’s behalf ahead of Monday’s hearing described the U.S. Army veteran as a community-minded and impassioned patriot who sometimes failed to keep his ego and “big mouth” in check.

Law enforcement officials have said Keebler led the charge as an anti-government extremist. Keebler had also considered attacking mosques, a downtown Salt Lake City office and military facilities before settling on the remote cabin. His behavior would have escalated had he not been stopped, they said.

“He had many opportunities to get off that path,” said Eric Barnhart, FBI special agent in charge for the Salt Lake City Division. “He certainly was enthusiastic about what he had thought he’d done and expressed sentiments that he wanted to move on to other acts.”

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of nearly six years in prison.

After Keebler’s release, he will remain under probation for three years and will have to undergo mental health treatment.

Terms of his release allow Keebler to return to federally managed lands but bar him from bringing a weapon onto them.

DENVER (AP) — An illegal campfire likely ignited another destructive blaze in Colorado, an outcome authorities were trying to avoid across the hot, dry U.S. West by enforcing strict fire rules and closing some public lands.

Several people have been arrested in two Colorado wildfires that burned homes after ignoring local and federal restrictions on campfires, target shooting and other activities aimed at combating and avoiding explosive blazes across the U.S. region.

Parts of Colorado and other Western states have been grappling with heat and severe drought. In Arizona, large swaths of national forests and state trust land have been closed since before Memorial Day, while some national forests in New Mexico are opening up after rain helped ease fire danger that kept popular trails and camping spots off limits for weeks.

A national forest in Colorado fully closed last month for the first time in 16 years to prevent new wildfires started by people. And Rocky Mountain National Park imposed a ban on all campfires starting Friday because of the risk of having a new fire start with firefighters already busy.

Investigators announced Monday that three people were arrested on suspicion of starting a campfire and leaving it unattended in Colorado’s south-central mountains, sparking a blaze that destroyed at least eight homes.

The sheriff’s office in Teller County, which has a fire ban, did not release other details about the allegations against David Renfrow, 23; Kegan Owens, 19; and a 17-year-old boy. Renfrow and Owens were in jail, and it wasn’t clear if they had lawyers. They have not been formally charged yet.

It comes a week after a man was arrested on suspicion of starting the state’s third-largest wildfire in recorded history by not fully extinguishing an illegal fire pit. It has destroyed more than 130 homes in southern Colorado, but firefighters have made significant progress against the 168-square-mile fire.

Flames sparked in ski country also have led authorities to issue arrest warrants for two people at a shooting range accused of using tracer ammunition, which illuminates the path of fired bullets and is always banned at state ranges regardless of fire conditions. Prosecutors say one of the rounds ignited vegetation on July 3.

The blaze destroyed three homes about 20 miles from Aspen, and other shooting ranges have temporarily closed because of fire danger.

More details on large wildfires across the West:

Fires on both ends of the state eased Monday.

Crews gained some ground against flames on the California-Oregon border that killed a person and injured three firefighters. The blaze, which threatened more than 800 structures, was partially contained, but fire officials were concerned about erratic winds later Monday.

The fire has destroyed 81 structures, but officials have not determined how many are homes.

Firefighter Brandon Feller suffered severe burns to his face but was released from a hospital Sunday in good spirits, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The wildfire raging through drought-stricken timber and brush has scorched 55 square miles and jumped into Oregon over the weekend.

In Southern California, several destructive blazes that broke out late last week during an intense heat wave have quieted down.

Firefighters in the San Diego County community of Alpine mopped up remnants of a fire that destroyed 34 houses and damaged 15 others. A commercial building also was lost.

Santa Barbara County allowed residents to return to a neighborhood in the coastal city of Goleta where 2,500 people fled wind-driven flames that destroyed 13 homes and damaged three others.

A fast-growing wildfire roaring through dry grass kept fire crews busy Monday amid heat and high wind in remote northern Nevada.

Flames the size of a four-story building torched nearly 625 square miles of cattle-grazing land and habitat for the imperiled sage grouse near the border with Oregon and Idaho, said Norm Rooker with the fire’s incident management team.

The blaze is feeding on dry cheatgrass that’s 10 times more plentiful than normal in some spots after a low-snow winter failed to tamp down a bumper crop of the invasive grass from last year, he said.

“It’s like they’ve thrown a match on gasoline, it’s burning that intense, that hot, that quickly,” he said.

Police are investigating how the fire ignited and looking for anyone camping in the sparsely populated ranching area on July 4.

The blaze has come close to at least four ranches, but crews have protected them, Rooker said.

Wet weekend weather helped crews fighting a Utah wildfire that torched dozens of buildings and forced more than 1,000 people from their homes.

The fire in a mountain area near a popular fishing reservoir grew to about 78 square miles but containment also increased, authorities said Monday.

Scattered showers and relatively cooler temperatures were expected at least through Tuesday, and some evacuees have been allowed to return home.

Investigators believe someone sparked the fire July 1 and it has burned through timber, tall grass and brush about 80 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

———

Associated Press reporters Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco, John Antczak in Los Angeles and Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City contributed.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A fast-growing wildfire roaring through dry grass kept fire crews busy Monday amid heat and high wind in a remote part of northern Nevada.

Flames the size of a four-story building torched nearly 625 square miles of cattle-grazing land and habitat for the imperiled sage grouse near the border with Oregon and Idaho, said Norm Rooker with the fire’s Incident Management Team.

The blaze is being fed largely by tall, dry cheatgrass that’s 10 times more plentiful than normal in some spots after a low-snow winter failed to tamp down a bumper crop from last year, he said.

“It’s like they’ve thrown a match on gasoline. It’s burning that intense, that hot, that quickly,” he said.

Police are investigating what started the fire and looking for anyone camping in the sparsely populated ranching area on July 4.

The blaze has come close to at least four ranches, but crews have been able to protect them, Rooker said. It’s not threatening populated areas, but the scorched land left behind will likely take years to recover, he said.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling the blaze through rolling, rocky hills with the help of water-scooping aircraft. They’re working through low humidity, hot temperatures and strong winds.

The fire was about 8 percent contained as of Sunday night. But crews are making progress on setting up containment lines to keep it from spreading further, Rooker said.

CULVER, Ore. — Nearly everywhere you look in Maureen Mack Kullman’s cow pens you can see red. Red cows, red calves — all are part of a unique breed called Tarentaise that she has raised for 36 years.

Kullman got her start with Tarentaise cattle in 1982, when she purchased three bred heifers at a sale in Brothers, Ore.

Kullman’s family had a ranch near Maupin, Ore., when she was growing up, where her grandfather raised his Hereford cattle. “He was so proud of his Herefords because they were uniform, they were red — he had the dark red ones — and he would take me out and say, ‘Look at these,’” she said.

The pride her grandfather had in his cattle stuck with Kullman, and as she went through life she always wanted cattle of her own.

By the time she went to the sale in Brothers, she said, “I was finally in a place where I had some land and was finished with school and everything,” and she decided it was time to buy her own cattle.

In 1990, she was looking for fullblood Tarentaise and bought several older cows, and continued to collect them from around the country in the years following.

Today she runs about 40 head of uniform-red Tarentaise on her place in Culver, Ore. At one point she had about 86 head.

Now she says that she has one of the biggest herds of fullbloods in the country, though she still raises some purebreds. Fullblood Tarentaise have 100 percent Tarentaise genes, whereas purebred females have 87-99 percent Tarentaise genes. The bulls in the breed have to be a higher percentage to be considered purebred, possessing 92-99 percent Tarentaise genes.

Kullman has never used a horse to work her cattle. Instead, she has done everything on foot.

“Hundreds of acres, I’d go down and open a gate and say, come on, girls, and they would follow me to the next field,” Kullman said.

The cattle’s disposition is important to her. Kullman doesn’t keep any cows or calves that cause problems.

When holding onto cattle or buying cattle, Kullman said, “You are going to get something safe, and beautiful and gentle and productive.”

Tarentaise cattle are originally from France, where they are still used almost exclusively as a dairy breed because of their high milk production. They are a horned cattle and have an auburn red color. Originally, the breed was brought into the U.S. beef market to cross breed for certain traits, such as their dark eyes, which make them more resistant to pink eye.

On Saturday Kullman was inducted into the American Tarentaise Association’s Hall of Fame.

“Longevity and service,” Kullman said, regarding the reason behind her induction.

Kullman has served on the board of directors for the ATA, on and off, since 1998 and as the president from 2008 until 2011.

In her years raising Tarentaise, Kullman has registered 852 different animals in the breed.

GOLETA, Calif. (AP) — Crews have gained some ground against a deadly wildfire burning on the California-Oregon state line that killed a man and injured three firefighters.

California fire officials say the blaze is 30 percent contained as of Monday morning.

The fire, one of many in the drought-ridden U.S. West, killed one person in their home and destroyed 72 structures.

It also injured three firefighters, including one who had severe burns to his face and had to be hospitalized.

CalFire says the firefighter was released Sunday from UC Davis hospital burn center in California.

The blaze that started Thursday near the community of Hornbrook has scorched 55 square miles. It jumped into Oregon over the weekend.

Authorities say a wildfire that shut down Interstate 580 in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday night is fully contained and all lanes have reopened.

Tuesdays

HORNBROOK, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire raging through drought-stricken timber and brush near California’s border with Oregon killed one person and destroyed multiple structures as it burns largely out of control, authorities said Friday.

No other details were released about the death blamed on the fire that threatened 300 homes near Hornbook, a town of 250 people about 14 miles south of the Oregon border. It’s not clear the flames burned homes or other structures like barns.

It was one of dozens of fires across the dry American West, fueled by rising temperatures and gusty winds that were expected to last through the weekend. Heat spreading from Southern California into parts of Arizona, Nevada and Utah threatened to worsen flames that have forced thousands of people to evacuate and destroyed hundreds of homes across the West.

On the California-Oregon border, the fire ignited Thursday and moved swiftly through the region that is home to many retirees, said Ray Haupt, chairman of the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors.

“It moved so fast I’m not sure how much time lagged between the evacuation and when it hit Hornbrook,” he said. “It hit there pretty quick. We know we’ve lost homes and lots of structures, including livestock and horses as well.”

California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, citing “extreme peril” to people and property.

Farther north in Oregon, authorities urged hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts to avoid forests near the state line. Although the flames have not crossed into Oregon, officials are concerned people in remote areas can’t be reached in case they need to quickly evacuate.

The areas of concern include the Pacific Crest Trail, Mount Ashland and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Fire danger could prohibit rescuers from looking for anyone, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said.

Elsewhere in California, a massive blaze northwest of Sacramento had destroyed nine homes, officials said. Firefighters had begun inspecting the fire zone, which covers an area nearly three times the size of San Francisco.

The fire, spanning 140 square miles, was partially contained, but crews struggled in steep, rugged terrain. With the weather getting hotter and drier, and officials said the fire could grow.

In San Diego County, a fast-moving wildfire burned a handful of homes.

Video from news helicopters showed fire crews running along Interstate 8 in Alpine and trying to quell the flames that were spreading along the side of the freeway as a handful of homes were completely engulfed in flames.

San Diego Gas and Electric says nearly 1,700 customers are without power after the fire damaged the electric system.

In the same county, a new fire on the Camp Pendleton Marine base prompted the evacuation of 750 homes.

In contrast, rain helped slow the growth of wildfires in Colorado that have burned dozens of homes. But the threat of a deluge raised the possibility of flooding at a stubborn blaze in the southwestern corner of the state.

Officials issued a flash flood watch for the 85-square-mile area burned by a fire that started June 1. They say it is just smoldering and rain over the coming days should keep it from spreading.

Rain helped a fire in the heart of ski country that has destroyed three houses, including the home of a volunteer firefighter battling the flames near the resort town of Aspen. Gov. John Hickenlooper visited the area Friday.

It also offered relief in the southern Colorado mountains where a blaze has destroyed over 130 homes and forced the evacuation of at least 2,000 properties. The Spring Creek Fire became the third-largest in state history at 165 square miles.

In a Utah mountain area, a wildfire that destroyed 90 structures and forced more than 1,100 people to flee was growing, but fire officials hoped to gain more control after their work Friday. Many homes and cabins likely burned, while others may be sheds or garages.

The fire spans about 75 square miles near a popular fishing reservoir about 80 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, according to the Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands.

It has forced a 35-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 40 to close since Wednesday, said Sonya Capek, a fire spokeswoman. Officials believe human activity sparked the blaze, but an exact cause hasn’t been determined.

As the 2018 Oregon blueberry harvest season heads toward its peak, all signs point to a record crop and high-quality fruit.

“We should see a pretty big jump this year from a roughly 107 million-pound harvest in 2017 to projections in 2018 of 125, 130 or possibly even beyond 130 million pounds,” said Bryan Ostlund, administrator of the Oregon Blueberry Commission. “This absolutely should be a record crop.”

The current record, harvested in 2016, is 116 million pounds.

The one big factor growers mention when speaking of this year’s blueberry crop is cooperating weather, which has contributed to good quality fruit.

“The mild weather has brought the fruit on slow, which has contributed to good quality fruit, and the dry weather has kept that quality up,” said grower Doug Krahmer of Berries Northwest.

“The cool weather has helped us out quite a bit,” said Jeff Malensky of Oregon Berry Packing in Hillsboro.

Yields, both growers agreed, are well above last year when high summer temperatures hurt yield and quality, and slightly above average.

“We ended up with a short crop in 2017, and usually when you have a short crop, those plants come back in a vigorous way with heavy fruit set, and that is exactly what we have seen this year,” Ostlund said.

“This mild weather also has helped the labor situation, because it gives you a bigger window to get the fruit harvested,” Krahmer said. “I have not heard of any labor-shortage issues.”

“We haven’t been behind in fields,” Malensky said, “in large part because of the cool weather, and also because there is more labor available than folks originally thought.”

Even the price for fresh blueberries has been good to date, growers said, but that could change with British Columbia now coming onto the market. Still, there is some good news on that front in that early projections of a big crop in British Columbia have been scaled back. Current projections out of British Columbia are for an average crop. The bad news, however, as Krahmer put it: “An average crop in B.C. is still a lot of fruit.”

Growers to date have no news on the frozen price for the 2018 crop.

“It is a little early,” Malensky said on July 6. “We are just at the front end of the processed fruit starting to come in, so we will get a better idea in the next 10 days how the processed price is looking.”

Asked to summarize the season to date, Malensky said: “Overall, things are pretty good. Could they be better? Yes. Could they be a lot worse? Yes.”

“At this point in time, I’d say things are looking pretty good,” Krahmer said.

HERMISTON, Ore. — One of Eastern Oregon’s most popular crops is back in season.

Hermiston watermelons are nearing harvest as summer temperatures rise into the 90s and triple-digit degrees. High heat should help to ripen the fruit quickly, and growers anticipate they will begin picking in earnest between July 10 and 15.

“I think we’re pretty much on schedule,” said Patrick Walchli, with Walchli Farms. “Quality-wise, it’s by all indications looking pretty good, as far as the fruit set.”

Hermiston watermelons may be a niche crop in terms of overall acres, with about 750 total, but figure prominently in the city’s identity and civic pride. Driving north into town on Highway 395, the Hermiston logo emblazoned on the water tower features a watermelon backdrop along with the slogan, “Where Life is Sweet.”

It isn’t just the locals who have a sweet tooth for Hermiston melons. Shoppers can find the specially branded fruit in Portland, Seattle and across the West Coast. Some shipments have even gone as far as Texas and Georgia.

The secret lies in the region’s sandy soil and desert climate, which provides a perfect combination of hot, dry days and cool nights. Watermelons absorb heat during the day, which the plants metabolize into sugar for energy. Once they cool at night, the respiration process slows and that sugar is stored in the fruit, hence their exceptionally sweet flavor.

Walchli said this year has been a mostly typical growing season, compared to last year when planting got off to a slow start.

“Last season, we had a colder start and this year we had a more favorable May and end of April,” he said. “It’s hard to predict. Melons are very reactive to the weather, more so than some of the other crops.”

Scott Lukas, assistant professor of horticulture for Oregon State University, recently started a new research program at OSU’s Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center with a partial focus on watermelons. He said growers have reported few issues with disease pressure, and for the most part the vines have been growing well.

“This has been a good season so far,” Lukas said. “I’ve heard the plants are looking good, and they are growing as they should.”

Hired by HAREC in 2016, Lukas has spent the last couple of years studying treatments for soil-borne fusarium and verticillium wilt diseases in watermelons. He plans to expand his program next year to include more irrigation trials using remote sensors to monitor soil moisture and help farmers conserve water.

Precision agriculture and modern technology have led to increased yields which in turn has helped to expand markets for Hermiston watermelons throughout the region, said Chris McNamee, a sales representative for Botsford & Goodfellow.

Based in Clackamas with a field office in Hermiston, Botsford & Goodfellow handles all marketing for Hermiston watermelons. McNamee said watermelon sales have increased every year for the last five years, and the Hermiston brand has become firmly established in major metro areas, including Portland and Seattle.

“They’ve supported us really well,” McNamee said. “It’s allowed us to grow, which is great.”

In 2012, Florida, Georgia, California and Texas accounted for two-thirds of all watermelon production across the country. Though Hermiston may account for just a blip on the national watermelon radar, McNamee said they are undeniably popular in the Northwest.

“They get the sugar right, and they get them picked at the right time,” he said. “It stands out compared to the competition.”

Jack Bellinger, with Bellinger Farms, said he has already cut about a dozen watermelons off the vine and is excited about this year’s quality, which he attributes to a consistent growing season.

“People are getting excited to see them on their plates. And we are excited too,” Bellinger said. “The quality this year I think is going to be really exceptional.”