MADRAS, Ore. (AP) — An animal-rights group says it’s buying billboard space along U.S. Highway 26 to memorialize 14 calves that died last week when the truck they were riding in rolled onto its side outside Madras.

The billboard will feature a cow next to the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the individual. Go Vegan.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals spokeswoman Amber Canavan tells The Bulletin newspaper that the billboard space will be rented for one month, and the organization hopes the advertisement gets at least one person to consider going vegan.

She says the nonprofit bought similar billboards following recent cattle truck crashes in Tennessee and Louisiana.

Oregon’s current water supply outlook doesn’t evoke optimism but early spring conditions were even worse before the severe drought of 2015, experts say.

The average snowpack level is now at about 64 percent of average statewide, compared to about 17 percent of average three years ago, said Scott Oviatt, Oregon snow survey supervisor for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“We really had no snow, especially in the northwestern part of the state,” he said.

Oregon got off to an excellent start last autumn — with snowpack levels at 236 percent of average statewide before Thanksgiving — but the situation has since deteriorated, Oviatt said during the March 15 meeting of the Oregon Water Resources Commission.

Precipitation is at 90 percent of average, which is similar to 2015, he said.

The water supply outlook would have been gloomier this year if not for below-average temperatures in February, which allowed snow levels to build up somewhat, said Andy Bryant, hydrologist with the National Weather Service.

Snow accumulation is much better in the northern Columbia River basin of Washington and British Columbia, Bryant said. “We’ve been kind of left out of the storm activity for most of winter.”

Looking to future weather conditions, there’s “not a lot to hang your hat on” in Oregon’s long-range forecast, Bryant said.

There’s an equal likelihood that temperatures and precipitation will be above average, average or below average in April, May and June, he said. In July, August and September, though, the projection is for rainfall to be below average and temperatures to be above average.

Fortunately, major water storage reservoirs across Oregon are in respectable shape — from about 81 percent of average in the Willamette basin to 131 percent of average in the Owyhee basin, said Ken Stahr, OWRD’s surface water and hydrology manager.

“Through wise management, we had a decent amount of carryover,” Stahr said.

Diminishing snowpacks are a long-term trend in the West, said Kathie Dello, associate director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University.

Since 1955, the region’s snowpack level on April 1 has fallen by the equivalent of Lake Mead — a major storage reservoir on the Colorado River — as measured in water content, she said.

“Our cold winters aren’t as cold as they used to be, and our warm winters are warmer,” Dello said.

Laws governing dam safety in Oregon have become outdated, prompting state regulators to seek upgraded authority to inspect and order repairs to the structures.

In the next legislative session, the Oregon Water Resources Department plans to ask lawmakers to revise dam safety statutes that were originally written nearly 90 years ago.

The ability to enter property without a warrant to conduct dam inspections is one request the agency is considering, said Racquel Rancier, senior policy coordinator for OWRD.

Currently about a dozen dams in Oregon haven’t been inspected by OWRD in recent years because the landowners denied entry to their property, said Keith Mills, the department’s dam safety engineer.

Oregon has jurisdiction over dams that are at least 10 feet high and store more than 9.2 acre-feet of water, he said. The state inspects 969 such structures, while the federal government inspects 285 dams.

More than 25 percent of state- and federally-inspected dams in Oregon are rated as high or significant hazards, which is based on their potential to cause lost life and property damage, rather than physical condition.

Following are other dam safety laws under consideration:

• Landowners may be required to obtain OWRD’s permission to modify or remove dams under the supervision of an engineer, to ensure such changes are done safely.

• The agency may impose a requirement for people building lagoons — such as those storing manure or wastewater — to submit their final designs to OWRD before starting construction. The department now lacks authority for structures that don’t involve water rights.

Currently, OWRD must automatically schedule an administrative hearing when dam repairs are needed, which the agency considers a time-consuming process that could endanger public safety.

The agency may instead require the dam owner to get an “engineering analysis” of the structure without scheduling a hearing, or to hold a hearing only if the owner objects to the repair plans.

Under another proposal, the agency may order the immediate correction of unsafe conditions at potentially hazardous dams by reducing water levels, opening valves or taking similar actions.

“That is something we can’t currently do if we know it needs to be done,” Rancier said.

Imposing civil penalties for dam safety problems would provide an “intermediary” approach to induce needed repairs, rather than the only current option of imposing an order, she said.

“They really only provide a hammer,” Rancier said of current laws.

At this point, these ideas are only in draft form and will be refined based on feedback, she said.

Oregon’s water regulators are rapidly spending the $835,000 they have available for litigation and may go nearly $1.3 million over budget in the 2017-2019 biennium.

A request for more litigation funds was recently turned down by Oregon lawmakers, which means the Oregon Water Resources Department will probably ask the Legislature’s Emergency Board for money later this year.

If OWRD can’t get additional litigation funds, the agency will have to delay replacing employees who have left, though it has yet to determine how many positions would remain unfilled, said Racquel Rancier, the department’s senior policy coordinator.

About $600,000 was spent on litigation within the first seven months of the biennium, which was roughly two-thirds of the money allocated for two full years of legal battles, Rancier said March 15 during a meeting of the Oregon Water Resources Commission, which oversees the agency.

Litigation costs have averaged about $86,000 a month, so funds are expected to run out soon — particularly since several cases may go to trial, increasing the expense, she said.

At the current rate, OWRD is projected to spend about $2.1 million on litigation in the current biennium.

The agency has a legislatively adopted budget of $98.6 million for 2017-2019, down from $107.4 million for the previous biennium.

Litigation over water has increased mostly due to more regulatory calls cutting off water to junior irrigators in the Klamath Basin, where an “adjudication” over the validity of water rights was completed in 2013, Rancier said.

Since the lawsuits are generally initiated against OWRD, the agency doesn’t have control over the costs. The problem is also growing worse: 25 new cases were filed against OWRD in 2015-2017, up from 13 new cases in 2013-2015 and 5 new cases in 2011-2013.

OWRD plans to continue discussing the issue with lawmakers to convey what services the agency can’t perform as a result of delayed hiring, Rancier said.

The agency plays a key role in Oregon irrigation by administering the state’s water rights system, such as approving wells, diversions, leases and transfers.

When the agency issues a water call, a junior irrigator can stay enforcement of that regulation by filing a lawsuit, said Tom Byler, OWRD’s director.

OWRD can lift such an enforcement stay — as it did last year — but the process can take several weeks, during which a senior water user’s rights are infringed, he said.

The ability to postpone water rights enforcement through litigation has long been “on the books,” but has only recently been used this way, Byler said.

“It’s troubling for us because it really undermines the prior appropriations doctrine,” he said, referring to the “first in time, first in right” system of Western water law.

LEBANON, Ore. — After four years of plowing through USDA and EU protocols, Martin and Joy Dally have welcomed the births of the first Valais Blacknose cross lambs at their farm.

The first to import the genetics into the U.S., the Dallys say they are eager to see them flourish in he U.S.

Martin Dally operates Super Sire Ltd., which offers genetics for the sheep industry, and Joy Dally operates Shepherd’s Lane, which deals in fiber, fleece and pelts from their farm.

The Valais Blacknose sheep, a heritage breed native to the Swiss Alps, is small and cute enough to look at home in any toy store. As is most Swiss livestock, the people-friendly Valais graze in the mountains all summer and are brought down to the valleys in traditional sheep drives and kept housed through the winter.

“It was 2014 when we first saw a photo of a Valais, and it was love at first sight,” Joy Dally said. “We knew we had to have them. Knowing that the sheep had recently been imported into the (United Kingdom), we began our search for breeders there.

“Our knowledge of importing genetics was put to work and after countless phone calls, international flights and filling out reams of paperwork, the semen arrived on U.S. soil,” she said. “We now are the first in the country to have lambs on the ground.”

Before he retired and moved to Oregon, Martin Dally spent most of his 25-year career at University of California-Davis directing the sheep research programs at the Hopland Research and Extension Center.

As one of the first people in the U.S. to use laparoscopic insemination as a means of improving reproduction and genetics in sheep — in 1986 — his main love is breed preservation and the development of fiber sheep.

“It is important to pick a foundation breed that has traits similar to the breed you are introducing,” Martin said. “A likely choice would be the Scottish Blackface as they also have the black face, coarse wool and both the rams and ewes are horned. Our Scotties weren’t ready yet so we used the Teeswater and Gotland ewes for this project.”

The Teeswater has similar face coloration and fiber, though the breed is a little flightier in nature than the calm Valais, he said.

“The Gotlands, which have great mothering instincts and milk well, share the Valais’ calm temperament,” he said. “It is going to be interesting to see how the breed develops over the years.”

He is also lending his knowledge and experience to others who have a similar desire to establish high-quality sheep in the U.S.

“I classify myself as a steward of these new breeds and establishing sound upgrading programs is part of introducing a new breed,” Martin said. “Good guidelines are very important as every deviation leads breeders farther away from the breed’s desired characteristics. Creating a sound gene pool ensures the breeds health and success in the coming years.”

Joy is spearheading a group effort to organize a Valais Blacknose Sheep Society and website with the idea of bringing potential breeders together as the new breed gets a foothold in the U.S.

“This isn’t a breed that commercial breeders in the United States are likely to run three to four hundred head of, but because of its visual appeal and calm nature, I do believe it will be one that may be added to the small farm flocks for its fiber and appearance,” she said. “We expect the fiber, which is a little course but has a bright luster, to take dye well and will be well-suited to outerwear, weaving or felt design. I will also caution to add that as good as the fleece is, if you are going to wear Valais Blacknose underwear, you are a real man.”

Online

For more information on Valais Blacknose sheep or Martin’s services visit www.valaisblacknosesheepsociety.org, Super Sire Ltd at www.toprams.com or Valais Blacknose Sheep Oregon on Facebook.

Oregon State University Extension is adding several crop-specific pest management plans to its repertoire, working in collaboration with farmers, researchers, agribusiness and industry representatives.

The latest report on Treasure Valley onions in southeast Oregon and southwest Idaho was published last month in the OSU Extension Catalog. It identifies management priorities and critical needs for major pests including onion maggots, thrips, bulb mites and cutworms.

A 24-member work group met in February 2017 to discuss the issues they are facing at every stage of the crop’s development. Farmers grow 20,000 acres of dry bulb onions in the Treasure Valley, which accounts for 30 percent of U.S. production and up to $140 million in annual farm gate value.

Katie Murray, program leader for the Integrated Plant Protection Center at OSU, said the management plan is not a how-to guide, but a road map for the university and industry to learn what growers need to do a better job.

“We’re trying to open their toolbox,” Murray said. “It kind of helps to show where the gaps are.”

Among the top-priority critical needs were developing a pest management risk index to minimize crop damage, increasing resistance management education for growers and developing more pest-resistant onion varieties.

“Part of what they were wanting was a more holistic view of whole-season management,” Murray said.

Integrated pest management planning is typically funded by the USDA. In 2016, Murray applied for additional funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Crop Protection and Pest Management Program to develop plans that she said takes a different tack on the conversation using the “PAMS” approach — which stands for “Prevention, Avoidance, Monitoring and Suppression.”

“Basically, we’ve changed the way we talk about current management,” she said.

Murray was awarded $215,000 in 2016 to develop pest management plans for onions, as well as cranberries, cherries and hazelnuts. The cranberry plan was completed last summer, Murray said, while workshops for the cherry and hazelnut groups were held in January and February, respectively.

Like the onion plan, the other three crop reports will be published through the OSU Extension Service, Murray said, to maximize their outreach.

“I think it’s very clear the value,” she said. “Not only are we identifying (grower) needs, but getting those met by building a system that can respond to those.”

Murray said they have already received additional funding to continue the work, with plans slated for grass seed, mint, potatoes and pears.

Reports can be found online at www.catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu.

THE DALLES, Ore. — A grower, former fieldman and promoter of dwarfing cherry trees for more than two decades says more growers should adopt an Australian tree system to cut labor costs in half and grow large, top-quality cherries.

John Morton, 70, is bullish on the KGB. No, he’s not talking about Russians, but a goblet-style cherry tree developed in 1993 by Australian grower Kym Green. It is a takeoff of the Spanish Bush cherry tree — hence the Kym Green Bush, or KGB. It’s pedestrian, meaning it is harvested from the ground without ladders.

“The brine industry was the bulk of the cherry industry in Oregon in the early 1990s and prices were collapsing. We had a lot of old Bing and Royal Anns,” says Morton, an Oregon Cherry Growers fieldman from 1992 to 2009 and a grower since 2000.

Part of the problem was a labor shortage. The Dalles has a harder time attracting and keeping pickers since there were few pears and apples to extend picking after cherries, he said.

Looking for answers, the industry helped send Lynn Long, an Oregon State University Extension agent in The Dalles, to Europe in 1994.

“Europe was having the same problems of labor shortages and Lynn came back and reported on dwarfing cherry rootstocks that we didn’t know existed,” Morton said.

The next year, Morton headed a tour of 25 Cherry Growers members to Europe and saw smaller trees were easier to pick and resulted in higher picker production. They met Tobias Vogel, a German grower and extension agent, who developed the Vogel Spindle, a central leader dwarfing tree.

In 1997, Morton met Green at an international cherry symposium in Norway and learned about the KGB.

“John got it. He understood the principles I was teaching because I talked grower language and so did John,” said Green, 62, who spoke with Capital Press on Feb. 15 while visiting Morton in The Dalles.

Morton found Regina and Kordia cherries did well on the Vogel Spindle. Bing, Skeena and Lapin did not, but do well on the KGB.

Morton and Long became Oregon promoters of the two dwarfing systems, enlisting several visits from Green and Vogel. Several smaller growers in The Dalles turned to those systems and the manager of 3,000 acres of orchards for investment companies adopted a version of the KGB, Morton said.

Using the dwarfing systems in his orchards, Morton said by 2003 he was able to pick the same amount of fruit with 35 pickers that previously had required 75.

Morton believes more growers should consider the KGB and Vogel systems for labor savings and fruit quality. A legitimate question, he said, is whether Bing is becoming the Red Delicious of the cherry industry. There’s just too many on the market after the Fourth of July, he said.

“I left 240 tons of Bing on the trees last season because I couldn’t afford to pick them,” he said.

The KGB’s 25 leaders coming off the main trunk a couple feet above the ground in goblet fashion transfer the tree’s vigor from vegetation to fruit, Green said.

Cherries grow in clusters on the vertical leaders instead of horizontal limbs. The leaders have more sap flow, nutrients and water than lateral limbs and thus grow larger, firmer and better cherries, Green said. Summer topping at eight feet de-vigorates the tops and allows more light lower on the leaders, making stronger buds, he said.

It’s about six feet across open space from leaders on one side of the goblet to the other. Double planting rows and 600 trees per acre keeps volume up, he said.

“Some modern systems have 30,000 lineal yards of fruiting wood per hector whereas the KGB has 50,000 to 60,000, so double. It’s a lot more fruiting wood and less structural wood,” Green said. A hectare equals about 2.47 acres.

Growers in Chile also use it, he said.

The UFO (Upright Fruiting Offshoot) developed by Matthew Whiting, a Washington State University plant physiologist, is based on the KGB but is 10 leaders on a single stem in the same plane to form a fruiting wall for mechanical harvesting, Green said.

The UFO has too much vegetative vigor, about 10 percent per limb versus 4 percent for the KGB and 20 percent for a normal tree, he said.

“UFOs are monsters. To get volume you have to go higher and then you’re fighting the tree the whole time. It’s not a pedestrian orchard,” Green said. “Mechanical harvesting is way overrated. It’s like pissing in the wind. It won’t happen in our lifetime.”

Whiting disagrees. He said the UFO was not developed from the KGB, is not too vigorous, does not yield “monster” trees and that mechanical harvesting is a proven possibility.

“Industry adoption is inevitable,” Whiting said of mechanical harvesting, adding the UFO is designed for production efficiency, not just mechanized harvest.

“We have data to show better hand harvest efficiency in UFO compared to KGB,” he said. “I am against any pedestrian system for sweet cherries because it will unnecessarily limit yield and profit.”

He said his observations do not support Green’s per limb vigor percentages.

“The biggest challenge is achieving relatively uniform vigor among uprights and knowing the right balance of uprights per tree to be neither excessively vigorous nor weak in annual growth,” Whiting said.

“The KGB is certainly not better in general. I do not think growers should be turning to any system that does not form a compact fruiting wall,” he said.

Roughly 50 percent of Washington’s cherries come from low-density orchards of large old trees. New plantings are not mainly UFO, but many are V-trellised, Whiting said. There is a great diversity in systems with a clear trend toward higher-density, size-controlling rootstocks and planar systems, he said.

Mark Hanrahan, husband of Ines Hanrahan, postharvest physiologist for the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, is a proponent of the UFO system, which he began using 15 years ago in his orchard near Zillah, Wash. He uses it on 40 acres of Rainier, Santina, Tieton, Cowiche, Early Robin and Chelan cherries.

The UFO fruits on vertical leaders but people let it fruit on laterals as well, he said.

“I’ve seen a lot of train wrecks because of apical (central leader) dominance is so strong. You want the strong leader at the end,” he said.

The SSA (Super Spindle Axis) tree style also is good, and any planar system is better than the KGB because they can be mechanically harvested while the KGB can’t, he said. He also believes cherries will be mechanically harvested.

While there’s still debate over the KGB, UFO and other systems, Morton’s interest in innovation hasn’t stopped there.

He’s experimented with rain netting used in Europe but determined it’s too expensive. It works in Europe because governments pay half the costs, he said.

Morton has been testing new varieties owned by private nurseries but bred in university programs in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary before the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

“A lot of good cherry breeding was done there before the fall of the Berlin Wall but it was never promoted,” he said. “So we’ve been sorting through and testing varieties from there for a number of years.”

It’s a slow process, he said. Material comes in under quarantine to the WSU Clean Plant Center Northwest in Prosser.

John Morton

Age: 70

Origins: Born and raised in Sweet Home, Ore., and spent summers on his grandparents’ wheat ranch near Pendleton, Ore.

Family: Wife, Doriene, a retired nurse, four grown children, seven grandchildren.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering, Oregon State University, 1971.

Work History: Western Farm Service (fertilizer), Athena, Ore., 1971 to 1982; managed center-pivot farms for insurance companies in Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington, 1982 to 1988; spray manager Mt. Adams Orchards, White Salmon, Wash., 1988 to 1992; The Dalles fieldman for Oregon Cherry Growers, 1992 to 2009; cherry grower since 2000.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to time served and two years of supervised release for his role in the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Joseph O’Shaughnessy was sentenced Thursday.

O’Shaughnessy’s lawyer sought one year of supervised release, while prosecutors asked for two. O’Shaughnessy, who was part of the occupation security detail, previously agreed to pay $7,000 in restitution.

He pleaded guilty in the case in 2016 and then awaited trial in the 2014 standoff near Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s ranch.

O’Shaughnessy spent a total of 1 year and 9 months in custody for both cases.

He declined to make a statement in court but told the newspaper afterward that he was pleased with the outcome.

He said he won’t be doing any more protesting.

Ocean conditions off the Pacific Northwest seem to be returning to normal after a three-year spike in water temperature.

It’s promising long-term news for fishermen who are looking ahead in the short term to yet another year of low salmon returns.

A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) outlined the latest ocean observations for the organization that sets salmon catch limits off the West Coast. The Pacific Fishery Management Council will set those limits in early April.

The extended marine heatwave of the past few years has been nicknamed “the Blob.”

“The high pressure system over the North Pacific basically got stalled out and stuck there. And so the ocean warmed up about 6 degrees Fahrenheit,” NOAA’s Toby Garfield said.

Then a strong El Niño came through that reinforced these conditions.

“There have been a number of these events, these marine heat waves, that have occurred in the North Pacific. But the one we had in ‘13, ‘14, ‘15 was the by far the largest in the record going back 45 years,” Garfield said.

And the effect on sea life was serious. Whales, sea lions and seabirds starved because the warm water didn’t support tiny nutrition-rich plankton called copepods at the base of the food chain.

Within the past year, the El Niño effect has dissipated, and other longer-term climate cycles are shifting back toward a more average level.

“We finally saw some of those northern, fat copepods off the coast of Oregon, which was a very good signal,” said Jennifer Fisher, a researcher with NOAA and Oregon State University. “But the caveat to that is that we saw that transition for only a couple months.”

Fisher says they will test again this coming summer to see if the trend holds.

Fisher’s tempered optimism is not unique. Elsewhere scientists are still finding lingering effects of the Blob.

“If you look in the North Pacific, the deep water is still very warm,” Toby Garfield said. “Which means there’s still a lot of heat being stored.”

In addition, last summer, there was a major low-oxygen event that caused crab die-offs. Warm water species, like the gelatinous pyrosomes, continue to linger off the Northwest coast. And the number of reported cases of whales entangled in near-shore fishing gear remained high — an indication they are being forced to find food outside their normal hunting grounds.

Overall, the cooler water temperatures federal scientists began seeing in 2017 should mean some improvement in Northwest fisheries in the coming years — including salmon. But NOAA says it will take a few years for the salmon to respond to the decline of the Blob. 

The return to more normal conditions is promising, but the West Coast fishing industry is still cautious.

“The problem is that normal itself appears to be changing because of long-term climate change. We have a lot of problems in the ocean and a lot of changes in the ocean, and those are very worrisome,” said Glen Spain with the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

The NOAA report flags Oregon’s Port Orford and Washington’s Tokeland as the Pacific Northwest’s most socially and economically vulnerable to downturns in the commercial fishing industry.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and a bipartisan group of senators are pushing legislation that would allow legal marijuana businesses to use banks to store profits.

Murkowski and Democrat Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon have introduced a measure within the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act that Merkley sponsored last year, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported Thursday.

The measure would prevent federal officials from being able to punish banks simply “because the depository institution provides or has provided financial services to a cannabis-related legitimate business.”

Many banks refuse to do business with marijuana growers, processors and sellers because marijuana is still a controlled substance under federal law.

“While there are financial institutions which will bank marijuana-related businesses, many are uncertain about the state of the law,” Murkowski said. “The SAFE Banking Act is intended to resolve these uncertainties, not only for the benefit of the marijuana businesses but also for the states that regulate them.”

Murkowski said that allowing marijuana businesses to set up bank accounts could help states manage the businesses better.

“States that have moved to legalize marijuana did so with the understanding that markets would be well-regulated and transparent,” Murkowski said.

Murkowski said other officials have expressed similar views.

“That is why a number of attorneys general, including Alaska’s, believe that it is urgent for Congress to clarify that marijuana and marijuana-related businesses that operate legally under state law can deposit their receipts in the bank, just as other lawful businesses do,” Murkowski said.

In January, Murkowski spoke out in favor of state’s rights after U.S Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum, put in place by former President Barack Obama to ease federal prosecutions of state-compliant cannabis businesses.

The legislation, currently being discussed by Senate committee, could prove to be a welcome change for Alaska’s cannabis industry.

“If that passes, it’s going to be a huge deal for us,” said Lenin Lau, bookkeeper at GOOD AK Cannabis in Fairbanks. “It’s going to lower a lot of expenses for us if we no longer have to hand-deliver cash to different locations.”

Locks at the Ice Harbor and Lower Monumental dams will return to service a week later than planned due to repairs, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

On March 3, all eight Corps navigation locks on the lower Columbia and lower Snake Rivers were closed to recreational and commercial river traffic for routine annual maintenance, inspection and repairs.

Ice Harbor, near Burbank, Wash., at Snake River mile 10, and Lower Monumental, near Kahlotus, Wash., at Snake River mile 41, were previously scheduled to reopen their locks March 18 but will now reopen March 25.

Work on the lock drain-fill valves at Ice Harbor will require the additional week to complete, according to the Corps. Inspection of Lower Monumental’s upstream gate’s lower seal indicates it has sustained damage from floating river debris and needs to be replaced.

Other locks in the Walla Walla District remain on schedule to reopen as originally planned — McNary at 11:59 p.m. on March 18 and Lower Granite and Little Goose at 11:59 p.m. March 25.

“The additional days are necessary to perform non-routine work, which will require more time to complete than the typical two-week-long routine maintenance outage,” the Corps stated in a press release.

The Union County District Attorney’s Office in northeast Oregon has dismissed poaching charges against a 58-year-old wildlife trapper who shot and killed a juvenile female wolf caught in one of his traps last December.

David Sanders Jr., of Elgin, Ore., appeared Feb. 26 in Union County Circuit Court where the state agreed to dismiss one count of unlawfully killing a “special game status mammal” stemming from the incident. Sanders did plead guilty to one additional count of using unbranded traps, and was sentenced to 24 months bench probation, 100 hours of community service and a $7,500 fine.

Sanders will also have his hunting and trapping license suspended for 36 months, forfeit his firearm and all trapping-related items seized during the investigation, and pay $1,000 to the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Sanders declined to comment when contacted by the Capital Press.

According to Oregon State Police, a trooper first discovered the trapping site off of Highway 204 west of Elgin on Dec. 10 in the Umatilla National Forest. The trooper observed and identified Sanders as the individual who set the traps.

Eight days later, the trooper returned and found a dead wolf that appeared to have been shot not far from the traps. Sanders later admitted he shot the wolf after he found the animal in his trap, though he insisted he was only attempting to trap bobcats, not wolves.

Wolves were removed from the state endangered species list in Eastern Oregon, though it is still illegal to shoot them except in specific cases, such as if a rancher finds a wolf attacking livestock or in defense of human life.

Sanders was also using unbranded traps, for which he had a previous violation out of Baker County Justice Court in 2016.

Union County District Attorney Kelsie McDaniel said the state did not view the case as an instance of poaching, but rather illegal trapping. Based on the investigation, she said it was clear that Sanders was not out to illegally hunt wolves, but made a bad choice regarding his trapping activities. Sanders should have called ODFW right away, McDaniel said.

The incident further demonstrates the fact that the problem with wolves is not going away, McDaniel added. In October 2017, 38-year-old Brian Scott, of Clackamas, Ore., shot and killed a wolf in Union County during an elk hunting trip, which he told authorities was charging at him. No charges were filed in that case.

“We are seeing more and more incidents of wolf predation and human interaction in Union County,” McDaniel said in a statement. “This issue has long been a challenge for local ranchers, and with the number of wolves in the area more visible, people are engaging in recreation and having dangerous and accidental encounters as well.”

Rob Klavins, northeast Oregon field coordinator for Oregon Wild, said McDaniel’s comments were troubling, and appeared to frame poaching as a wolf problem rather than a human problem.

Klavins, who lives and works in neighboring Wallowa County, also questioned whether the punishment Sanders received was sufficient enough to act as a deterrent in future cases. He said the state needs to get more serious about tackling poaching, especially when it comes to wolves, which he said are often persecuted and misunderstood.

“We know poaching is a serious problem in Oregon,” Klavins said. “For far too long, poachers have been able to escape justice in Oregon.”

While poaching is widely seen as a reprehensible crime, he said the conversation tends to shift in some communities around native carnivores, with the prevailing attitude of “shoot, shovel and shut up.”

“It starts there,” Klavins said. “We see the problem then continue on through underfunded law enforcement, insufficient penalties and decisions left in the hands of local elected officials who see poaching as a wolf problem.”

PROSPECT, Ore. — Ted Birdseye admits he has been fascinated with wolves since he was a kid, but now as a rancher, he’s not interested in feeding them.

That was the case, however, in early January on his Mill-Mar Ranch, a cow-calf and hay operation that is located near the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest on the west side of the Cascade Mountains and is several miles from the small communities of Prospect and Butte Falls, Ore.

Standing on the back deck of his home, Birdseye pointed north toward a couple of open pastures and then to the nearby forest. He said those were the sites of three confirmed wolf kills. They were just over a quarter mile from the deck.

On Jan. 3, a 550-pound calf was killed and when found, all of its internal organs had been eaten or dragged away. On Jan. 10, another calf was killed and on Jan. 11 a third calf was taken down. The latter two calves, both in the 300-pound range, were completely devoured, according to Birdseye.

John Stephenson, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the primary wolf specialist for Oregon, confirmed that wolves were the predators in all three cases. These wolves are suspected to be the Rogue pack. Stephenson said there are seven to 12 wolves in that pack.

“What is the answer? There is none,” said the 65-year-old Birdseye, who studied animal and wolf behavior years ago while attending college.

“I’ve read historical trapping and ranching books and they all say the same thing … wolves are the scourge of stockmen,” the rancher said. “They kill. They are an apex predator. That is what they are programmed to do.”

Birdseye said he knew there were wolves in the area because back in November he heard a commotion outside his house at 4:30 in the morning. He stepped out his back door with a rifle and under a full moon, saw some of his cattle wedged in a corner of fencing and looking in the same direction. Through the scope of his rifle, Birdseye saw two wolves about 30 yards away.

“They were staring at the cattle, waiting for one to break away for the chase,” the rancher said.

Birdseye admitted he considered shooting at the wolves, which would have been an illegal act, but instead he shot over their heads. They instantly disappeared into the dark.

Although not confirmed as wolf kills, Birdseye said he has lost several other animals since moving to the ranch two years ago. Those include six cows, two registered Limonsin bulls, two Doberman Australian shepherd cattle dogs and a McNab-red heeler cross dog. He found one of the bulls and one of the cows dead, but has no evidence regarding their deaths or the disappearance of the other animals.

“It’s a paranoid situation,” he said.

Birdseye said he would like to co-exist with the wolves. But he has 200 mother cows and their calves to protect.

With Stephenson and his agency providing the labor and materials, about 2.5 miles of electric wire with red flagging has been stretched around the ranch’s pastures, with more wire still to be installed.

The wolves have not been back in the pastures since the Jan. 11 kill and the installation of the hot wire.

“We feel like it (wire) has been working,” Stephenson said. “We’re trying to get a permanent electric fence around the ranch. We’ve applied for the funding.”

Because a wolf in the Rogue pack has a radio collar, the animals are being monitored.

“The wolves had been visiting the ranch every eight to 10 days in November, December and early January,” said Stephenson who has kept Birdseye informed of the pack’s movements when it is in the vicinity of the ranch.

The biologist said there is still plenty of wildlife in the woods for the wolves to dine on, “but our experience from other areas show when the pack gets larger it is more likely to prey on livestock because there are more mouths to feed.”

“And younger teenage wolves seem to have a tendency to get into trouble,” he added.

Stephenson said there has been a breeding pair of wolves in the southern Cascades since the spring of 2014. In the fall of 2016, there were a couple calves killed in the Wood River Valley north of Klamath Lake on the east side of the Cascades. Stephenson said it is believed wolves were the predators, but it couldn’t be confirmed.

A light system that randomly goes on during the night was used in the Wood River Valley pastures. Stephenson also spent a few nights in those pastures and he did the same in January on Birdseye’s Mill-Mar Ranch.

“We try to give the appearance of human presence in these places where wolves have come into,” the biologist said. “Wolves generally don’t come into pastures if there’s human activity around. They tend to avoid people.”

To co-exist with the wolves and to still make an income, Birdseye said he has considered transitioning to a hay operation only or to having only stocker calves that he would graze through the summer and then ship, limiting younger livestock on his ranch. But he has Forest Service permits that he doesn’t want to lose, and he would if he didn’t use them.

Birdseye also has two Tibetan Mastiff dogs that roam the property and are protective of it. There are also 15 horses, including a couple of mustangs, in the pastures and they also can be a deterrent to wolves.

Stephenson said Birdseye will be compensated for the three calves that the wolves killed. The biologist added that the Mill-Mar Ranch presents a challenge regarding wolves because of its mountainous location and because its livestock is closest to where the predators have been.

“We’ll probably see problems at other ranches over time,” Stephenson said.

Three environmental groups are suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to protect dwindling populations of wild Chinook salmon and winter steelhead in Oregon’s Upper Willamette River.

The complaint, filed March 13 in Portland by WildEarth Guardians, the Native Fish Society and Northwest Environmental Defense Center, accuses the agencies of “missed deadlines, postponed actions and poor communications” over the past decade in managing each of 13 Willamette Project dams for the benefit of fish.

The dams are the primary cause of salmon and steelhead declines in the Upper Willamette Basin, blocking hundreds of miles of spawning habitat and degrading water quality and habitat downstream, according to the lawsuit.

Research conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that, historically, around 325,000 Chinook salmon and 220,000 winter steelhead swamp up Willamette Falls to spawn in the upper river basin. Last year, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife counted 822 steelhead at Willamette Falls — a startling decline of 99.7 percent.

ODFW also counted 36,628 spring Chinook and 3,462 fall Chinook in 2017. However, the groups contend that just 5,880 of the fish were wild born, with the rest raised in hatcheries.

Marlies Wierenga, Pacific Northwest conservation manager for WildEarth Guardians, said hatchery-born salmon are different from wild salmon at a genetic level. Hatchery fish are less disease-resistant, don’t reproduce as well and are less adaptable to the environment, she said.

“Basically, their entire resilience is diminished,” Wierenga said.

Both Upper Willamette steelhead and Chinook salmon were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999. In 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a biological opinion directing the Corps to make structural and operational changes at the dams to stem fish losses. However, the groups argue the Corps still has not fulfilled many obligations set forth in the BiOp.

“Nearly 10 years ago, NMFS determined the Corps’ operation of the Willamette dams was likely to jeopardize Chinook and steelhead unless significant changes to the Willamette dam operations were made,” said Mark Riskdahl, executive director of the Northwest Environmental Defense Center. “NMFS told the Corps that fish passage was a high priority, yet the Corps has dragged its feet in meeting this requirement and others set by NMFS.”

Spokesmen for the Corps and National Marine Fisheries Service declined to comment on pending litigation.

The Willamette Project also stores 80,431 acre-feet of irrigation water for 42,675 acres of farmland. Changes to the system could have a significant impact on downstream farmers, said Mary Anne Cooper, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

“ESA lawsuits around federal system management are very terrifying for farmers,” Cooper said. “We know how quickly they can change the status quo if we’re not careful.”

Cooper said the Farm Bureau is keeping a close eye on the litigation, which could have a ripple effect on water allocation. Marion County leads Oregon in total value of agricultural products as of the most recent 2012 Census of Agriculture, at more than $592 million.

While Cooper argues the system is already being managed largely for fish, the lawsuit claims the Corps has “routinely dodged actions, skipped deadlines and sidelined state and federal agencies to avoid improving fish passage at the dams on the Willamette.”

Wierenga, with WildEarth Guardians, said the dramatic declines in historical fish numbers represent a failure in action and the lawsuit is intended to spur meaningful action.

“It would be a heartbreaking loss if we Oregonians let these culturally important fish, which have adapted and thrived here for generations, slip away from existence on our watch,” Wierenga said.

The walls and shelves in Alexis Taylor’s office at the Oregon Department of Agriculture are lined with framed photographs from her earlier career in Washington, D.C.

There’s Taylor with retired congressman Leonard Boswell from her home state of Iowa, whom she served as legislative director for five years. There’s Taylor next to Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture under former President Barack Obama. And there’s Taylor smiling alongside the president and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House.

All together, Taylor spent 12 years in the nation’s capital, including the last four years with the USDA, where she oversaw Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services — including the Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency and Foreign Agricultural Service.

As her political appointment came to an end in 2016, Taylor began her job search in the Midwest to be closer to her family’s farm outside Holy Cross, Iowa. A friend and co-worker at the USDA then told her about a position in Oregon, leading the state Department of Agriculture in Salem. Taylor had been to Oregon once before, and was intrigued by the wide diversity of farms and ranches.

“That diversity was attractive to me,” said Taylor, reflecting on her first year at ODA. “I thought it would be challenging, but it also opens a lot of exciting opportunities for agriculture in Oregon.”

Despite some initial hesitation, Taylor applied and was appointed by Gov. Kate Brown in November 2016. Taylor arrived the following month for her Senate confirmation, and celebrated her one-year anniversary on Jan. 23.

At ODA, Taylor manages a department with 370 full-time employees and a most recent biennial budget of $114.4 million for 2017-19. The USDA Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service had 14,000 employees across three agencies, with $2 billion in annual salary and expenses.

A big part of Taylor’s first year was simply learning the lay of the land, touring more than 40 farms and ranches across all 36 counties.

“I need that real-life context with farmers and ranchers, so when I’m sitting here in my office with my staff talking about an issue, I’ve gotten to see the people it’s impacting,” she said.

Visiting every county gave Taylor a sense of Oregon’s agricultural landscape, as well as how producers are adapting to remain competitive in the marketplace.

She remembers stopping at Thomas Orchards in Grant County, a tree fruit oasis on the high desert. Another stop in Klamath County revealed how farmers there started growing carrots, something they had never done before, at the request of companies struggling to source the crop from drought-stricken California.

“That willingness to try something new, to be innovative, is pretty unique here in Oregon,” Taylor said. “You don’t find it everywhere.”

Innovation extends to new technologies, Taylor added, whether it’s a dairy incorporating computerized milkers or a vineyard flying drones over blocks of wine grapes to pinpoint pest or water stress.

“It’s a lot of fun to work with an industry that is so willing to look at new technologies and push those bounds,” she said.

Taylor’s outreach has already endeared her to producers and industry groups that work closely with the department.

Barry Bushue, who farms in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains and serves as president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, said Taylor has embraced her role at ODA, along with the challenges and complexity of Oregon agriculture.

“This diversity presents a challenge to anyone new to the state and its regulatory programs,” Bushue said via email. “Despite these challenges, Alexis has started to get her legs under her and has embraced her role.”

Jana McKamey, government relations director for the Oregon Winegrowers Association, said Taylor has taken an interest in their industry, and promoting the Oregon wine brand. Taylor was also the keynote speaker at the association’s annual meeting in January.

“She really dove in and wanted to learn more about us,” McKamey said. “We’re interested in helping to develop these markets domestically and internationally to drive more economic development here in the state.”

The interactions Taylor had during her cross-state road show helped to inform the department’s new five-year strategic plan, a collaboration between staff and stakeholders that was officially announced earlier this year.

Wherever she went, Taylor said the number one concern was challenges facing the next generation of farmers and ranchers. She pointed to the state Agricultural Heritage Program, approved by the 2017 Legislature, to develop grants for succession planning and easements. A 12-member commission met for the first time in February to begin writing rules for the program.

Another strategy is outlined under the ODA Strategic Plan under “Key Objective 6,” promoting agriculture as an exciting career choice for students. Taylor calls this the “agriculture is cool” objective.

Citing a 2015 study by the USDA and Purdue University, Taylor said there will be enough college graduates with expertise in food, agriculture, renewable natural resources, or the environment to fill just 61 percent of jobs available in agricultural fields through 2020.

“You don’t just have to farm. You don’t just have to ranch,” Taylor said. “You can work in logistics. You can be a journalist. You can do policymaking. We need the gamut of people.”

The ODA Strategic Plan goes on to describe how ODA can work more closely with partner agencies and review its policies to ensure farmers’ issues are being addressed across the state, such as water quality and availability, labor shortages and the urban-rural divide.

Tami Kerr, executive director of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, said they have also had discussions with Taylor about challenges with the confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, program. With the industry already hurting from low milk prices, Kerr said it is important to maintain a good working relationship with ODA regulators.

So far, Kerr said she has been impressed by Taylor.

“She’s off to a good start,” Kerr said. “It’s nice that she’s invested time in wanting to meet the producers.”

Ivan Maluski, policy director for Friends of Family Farmers, said his organization has tried to underscore the importance of ODA supporting small farms. While it hasn’t gone perfectly — Maluski was critical of the department’s approval of Lost Valley Farm, a 30,000-cow dairy in Morrow County that is now being sued by the state for wastewater violations — he said it is clear the door is open to small farm input.

“I’m hopeful there will continue to be receptiveness on things the agency can do to support small and mid-size farms and local food systems,” Maluski said. “I think the signs are encouraging on the whole.”

With year one under her belt, Taylor is showing no signs of letting up on her travel schedule.

She intends to promote regional tours around the state to continue meeting with farmers and local officials, holding roundtable discussions and building on her relationships.

“I’m by no means an expert on all issues that touch agriculture in all parts of the state,” she said. “Continuing to learn is going to be key, and getting out there.”

Taylor is also planning a trade mission to China in May, bringing representatives of roughly a dozen companies to Shanghai. China is an exciting market, she said, as the country is poised to add roughly 160 million middle-class households over the next decade.

“That’s a lot of purchasing power,” she said.

Taylor acknowledged there is uncertainty swirling around federal trade policy, but said the state can play a role in helping Oregon companies build their reputation among export markets. This, she said, was her forte working with the USDA. In fact, Taylor said she has visited every continent except Antarctica in her lifetime.

Nathan Jackson, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and general manager of sales and administration at K Bar Ranches in Myrtle Creek, Ore., said he is especially encouraged by Taylor’s experience in international trade, which is key for beef producers to earn top dollar for their cattle.

Overseas consumers use more parts of the steer, such as the tongue and offal, that aren’t as desired in the U.S., Jackson said. That value can add up to a little more than $200 per head.

“(Taylor) knows an awful lot about trade and developing trade in those Asian markets,” Jackson said. “I think that’s exactly what Oregon needs in the department.”

Bushue, with the Oregon Farm Bureau, agreed, saying Taylor’s expertise and passion for international trade are “enormously important” to Oregon agriculture.

Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Nurseries Association, said Taylor came in with big shoes to fill, taking over for her predecessor, Katy Coba, who is now the director of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services and chief operating officer of the state.

However, Stone said Taylor has done a terrific job building bridges and reaching out to every corner of the state.

“She has done a really good job of outreach, not only to the nursery and greenhouse industry,” Stone said. “She has gone to every reach of the state to understand the agricultural community and also its people.”

Taylor said ODA is unique in that it functions as both a regulatory agency, as well as an economic agency. Balancing those two roles can cause tension sometimes, but she said it can also drive them to work toward common sense solutions.

“I guess I view part of my role as being an advocate for agriculture within the governor’s cabinet,” she said. “We want our programs to be nimble, to be flexible, to serve the needs of agriculture.”

A recent $6 million gift intends to bolster wine education at Oregon’s Linfield College, but the school won’t compete head-on with other regional wine programs.

The donation from Grace and Ken Evenstad — founders of Domain Serene Winery near Dayton, Ore. — instead means to help Linfield cultivate its niche in “soft skills and leadership skills” for wine students, said Greg Jones, Linfield’s director of wine education.

“We don’t have the intention of becoming the next viticulture and enology school,” Jones said.

The $6 million will endow the college’s chair in wine studies, the wine program’s operations as well as the construction of a wine laboratory at Linfield’s new science complex building.

Viticulture and wine-making programs have already been established at Oregon State University, Chemeketa Community College and Umpqua Community College.

While Linfield’s curriculum doesn’t ignore vineyard and wine fundamentals, its students focus on marketing, hospitality, tourism and other fields that together contribute to wine industry’s $5.5 billion impact on Oregon’s economy, Jones said.

“Most of that is tied to experience,” he said.

Linfield has discussed its wine program with other regional universities to ensure wine studies credits are transferable among the institutions, Jones said.

Attending more than one program can allow students to specialize their education.

For example, a student with a two-year degree from Chemeketa can then enroll at Linfield to earn a four-year degree that encompasses wine industry management, Jones said. Students also have opportunities to seek advanced degrees at other institutions.

Currently, Linfield offers a minor in wine studies but expects to have a curriculum ready for a major by autumn of 2018.

The college is looking to create unique pathways for students, such as majoring in chemistry and minoring in wine studies, Jones said. That experience would then be useful for a graduate degree.

To obtain a major or minor, Linfield students will be expected to attain a “core knowledge” in wine geography, wine making, wine business operations and sensory analysis, he said.

They’re also encouraged to study abroad, with the possibility of earning credits at schools in the Burgundy, Champagne, Loire and Provence regions of France.

“This will make the broader talent pool the industry needs that much deeper,” Jones said of Linfield’s overall wine program.

Grace and Ken Evenstad were drawn to the broad nature of wine education at Linfield, said Matt Thompson, marketing director for Domaine Serene Winery.

“It covers all bases,” he said. “They really fell in love with the idea of an interdisciplinary look.”

The wine industry requires specialization partly because its sales channels are distinctive, Thompson said. Wine is sold direct-to-consumer as well as through the “three tiered” model of producers, wholesalers and retailers.

“The way you approach these markets is unique,” he said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A new study says the Portland metropolitan area faces mass casualties and billions of dollars in building damages if a large Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake hits off the West Coast.

The report released Thursday by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries says as many as 27,000 people could be hurt or killed in a magnitude 9.0 quake, though many injuries would be minor. The study estimates up to 85,000 people would need shelter and building damages could top $30 billion.

Lead investigator John Bauer says the study employs updated building and population statistics along with the latest mapping and modeling techniques. The region had been relying on estimates from 20 years ago.

The report says damage could be even greater if the Portland Hills Fault has a quake. The low-activity fault runs beneath a large section of Portland.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Environmental groups continue to try to block the expansion of a Columbia River port, the latest in the ongoing debate over natural areas and oil and gas terminals in the state.

With a Wednesday appeal, Columbia River Keeper and another group asked state authorities not to allow the re-classification of 837 acres of farmland near the Port of St. Helens for industrial use, citing both the loss of farmland and the potential for the site to be used for handling crude oil or natural gas.

A port official acknowledged both would be allowed under the broad reclassification, but said commissioners aren’t planning either for the site.

The appeal comes during long-running conflicts between environmentalists and local governments and businesses seeking to take economic advantage of Oregon’s coast and rivers, generally centering around the types of ports where energy companies must build depots to transfer their products to ships.

A 2008 proposal to construct a natural gas terminal in Coos Bay was controversial and earlier proposals for coal facilities at the port of St. Helens garnered objections after emerging in 2012.

The current proposal would only re-classify land, not permit any particular new building - but environmentalists and the port disagree over the potential for it to lead to a gas or oil handling facility.

“Frankly our commissioners have no appetite for getting involved in that,” said Paula Miranda, the port’s deputy executive director. Officials sought the expansion because they need more space, not to allow for any particular use, Miranda said.

Miranda acknowledged oil and gas facilities would theoretically be allowed on the new land, but said the port’s elected commissioners had paid attention to negative community comments about the commodities.

Miranda also said any facility on the re-zoned land would go through its own process, including public comment.

“We don’t approve any lease without an actual public meeting,” Miranda said.

But Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky, a spokesperson for Columbia River Keeper, expressed skepticism that the port would turn away such a development, and said officials’ endorsement of the 2012 coal projects was a sign they’d be open to more.

And Zimmer-Stucky pointed to a Portland Tribune report from 2012, in which Miranda was quoted explaining how port officials, at the time negotiating a proposal for a coal terminal at the site, could avoid the state’s public meetings law.

Along with broader risks that environmentalists say petroleum-based commodities carry, including spills and the likelihood that they will eventually contribute to global warming, Zimmer-Stucky said converting farmland to industry at the Columbia River site would be detrimental to the river’s estuary.

Miranda said the port was sensitive to environmental concerns, but also has a responsibility to make land available to companies that want to do the kind of business that requires access to sea shipping.

“We are one of very few deep water ports in Oregon,” Miranda said.