Federal authorities will soon be sharing preliminary findings of a water study of Oregon’s Upper Deschutes Basin with landowners and other affected parties.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and regional partners will use the input to complete their analysis of water management in the basin, whose water supply demands are eventually expected to exceed supplies by 230,000 acre-feet a year.

One component of the report, which is due in mid-2018, will examine the feasibility of expanding water storage in the region.

The possibilities being studied include raising an existing dam to expand the Haystack Reservoir south of Madras, Ore., or building a new upstream facility.

The study is also looking at creating a new “Monner” reservoir east of Madras or restoring storage in the Prineville reservoir that’s been lost to sedimentation.

Water conservation and water transfers are also being examined in the study, said Mike Relf, project manager with the Bureau of Reclamation’s Pacific Northwest regional office.

“Storage is just one part of the basin study,” Relf said.

The goal is to lay out the benefits and challenges of potential storage options, rather than make any recommendations, he said.

“The idea is not to promote any particular idea,” Relf said.

Building or expanding water reservoirs would entail environmental studies and funding processes that would likely require decades to complete, he said. “Storage would by far be the longest-term idea out there.”

It’s worthwhile to take a closer look at storage possibility, the likelihood of actually starting construction is a long shot, said Mike Britton, general manager of the North Unit Irrigation District, which is one of the partners participating in the $1.5 million study.

Aside from bureaucratic and financial hurdles, storage projects are often unrealistic because they’d flood existing infrastructure, such as gas pipelines and power transmission lines, he said.

“Those types of obstacles are potential deal stoppers,” Britton said.

California, for example, has a long list of potential storage options that haven’t been built for decades, he said. “I doubt we’d be that much different here, unfortunately.”

The prospect of expanding the Haystack Reservoir, however, is making at least one landowner nervous.

Kenny Reed, who owns a ranch abutting the reservoir, worries an expansion would disrupt habitat for bald eagles that he’s conserving under an agreement with the federal government.

Reed has expressed his concerns to the Bureau of Reclamation, which has acknowledged there’s a conservation plan for the area.

“The entire ranch is designated as bald eagle habitat,” Reed said. “We didn’t go through a 20-year process to say it doesn’t matter anymore.”

WELCHES, Ore. — State wildlife officials made more than 50 changes so far to a draft wolf management plan and hope to have it ready for public and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission review by the end of the year.

Conservation groups have criticized what they consider a delay in updating the plan, especially as five wolves have been legally shot since August due to repeated attacks on livestock. Groups such as Oregon Wild argue that ODFW should not authorize lethal action on wolves while a management plan review is pending.

Commission Chairman Michael Finley defended the process.

“I will say there is no intention to delay or pause for the sake of delay,” he said by email. “We have a responsible wolf plan in place and are working to replace it with an updated plan that reflects lessons learned and works to recover the wolf.”

At a Sept. 15 commission meeting at Resort at the Mountain, on the flanks of Mount Hood, ODFW wolf program coordinator Russ Morgan said most of the changes are based on input from the public and from commission members.

“To me that strengthens this document,” said Morgan, who is retiring effective Oct. 1 and was making his last report to the commission.

Commission members thanked Morgan for his work in managing a controversial species, a process in which conservation groups and livestock producers hold opposing and hotly debated points of view.

Commissioner Greg Wolley said people recognize “what a tough spot” Morgan has been in.

“What I’ve found is respect for your professionalism and objectivity,” Wolley said. “It reflects on the whole department and on all of us.”

Morgan was questioned about Oregon’s wolf population. The state confirmed a minimum of 112 wolves at the end of 2016, only one more than the previous year after many consecutive years of rapid population increases. ODFW officials maintain the population survey late last year was hampered by extreme weather and that Oregon has more wolves than were counted.

Morgan said new wolves have shown up this year, ODFW placed more tracking collars on wolves than ever before, and he is encouraged by the numbers.

“There was talk of a stalled population, but one data point doesn’t make a trend,” he said. “I think we will see a promising increase in wolves. Oregon wolves, I’m confident, are doing well and will continue to do well.”

The majority of Oregon wolves remain in the northeast corner of the state, but Morgan said they will continue to disperse into the Cascade Mountains and elsewhere.

Tuesdays

TUESDAY, SEPT. 19

The Langlois Public Library would like to thank the following members of the community for the excellent service toward the 2017 Summer Reading Program: Jake Pestana and the Langlois Market, Cairehn McGowan, Kathleen Schaefer, Aimee Fletcher, John Hieda, Jean Shank,…

Overall Winners — Female: 1. Sierra Brown, 22, Jacksonville, 36:16. Male: 1. Rob Pope, 38, Liverpool, United Kingdom, 33:53.

Name;Age;Sex;Hometown;Time

COOS BAY — Steve Prefontaine’s reach is as long as ever. It reaches across both oceans to inspire runners from far away locales like England and Australia, as well as all across the United States who journey to Coos Bay…

SATURDAY, SEPT. 16

BOISE — Irrigation water will flow until the middle of October in many parts of the Treasure Valley of Idaho and Oregon and many irrigation districts will finish the year with a lot more carryover water than normal.

Mountain snowpack reached near-record levels in many basins in southwestern Idaho and Eastern Oregon last winter and the result was a plentiful water supply this year and ample supplies heading into next season.

“It’s been a pretty good water year,” said Tim Page, manager of the Boise Project Board of Control, which provides water to 167,000 acres and five irrigation districts in southwestern Idaho.

Page said the project plans to cease deliveries on Oct. 16, which is about a week later than in recent years.

The project will also finish the year with about 220,000 acre-feet of carryover water, depending on how much demand there is on the system between now and Oct. 16. That’s about 75,000 acre-feet more than last year.

The Owyhee Project, which supplies water to 1,800 farms and 118,000 irrigated acres in Eastern Oregon and part of Idaho, will shut off about the middle of October, depending on demand, said Bruce Corn, a farmer and member of the Owyhee Irrigation District’s board of directors.

The Owyhee Reservoir will end the season with more than 400,000 acre-feet of carryover water for next year, Corn said. The reservoir hasn’t had that much carryover water since 2011.

“That pretty much assures us of a normal water supply for next year,” Corn said. “If we have a dry winter, we’ll still have an adequate amount of irrigation water for next year.”

Pioneer Irrigation District tentatively plans to cease water deliveries to its 5,800 patrons on Oct. 6, although the actual date will be confirmed during a board meeting next week, said PID Manager Mark Zirschky.

As of now, it looks like the district will carry over about 50 percent of its total reservoir storage water into next season, well above the normal 20-25 percent total, Zirschky said.

He said the district was able to get by on natural flow in the Boise River much longer than normal this year and therefore didn’t have to use as much of its reservoir storage as usual.

The Payette River system, which provides irrigation water to about 160,000 acres, will end this year with its reservoirs about 70 percent full, as opposed to about 50 percent in a typical year, said watermaster Ron Shurtleff.

“We’re going to go into this winter very healthy,” he said. “We could weather a real short water year and still come out fine on the Payette.”

The Weiser Irrigation District plans to cease water deliveries on Oct. 15, it’s normal cutoff date, said chairman Vernon Lolley.

The district will finish the year with about 30,000 acre-feet of carryover water, which is “way ahead of where we normally are,” Lolley said.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Eugene and surrounding area wood products companies are tallying the damage as Oregon wildfire season dwindles.

The Register-Guard reports both Eugene-based Seneca Jones Timber Co. and Springfield-based Roseburg Forest Products lost thousands of trees last month in a fire in Douglas County, which has burned through private and federal forests.

Fires throughout the state and extremely hot and dry conditions prompted authorities to impose complete or partial restrictions on logging and other work on public and privately owned lands, hampering timber output.

With recent cooler weather, however, complete bans have been lifted, allowing loggers to return to work.

Firefighting should improve starting this weekend as rain and cooler temperatures are expected to return to much of Western Oregon.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Recently released state records say at least 43 children and seven adults reportedly suffered health problems after they were exposed to powerful insecticide at a Coos Bay day care facility.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the insecticide incident occurred April 29 at the Coos Bay Children’s Academy Inc. The owner voluntarily shut down the day care in May. The newspaper obtained state records and information that have not been publicly shared since the incident.

An Oregon Department of Agriculture investigation found that the day care improperly applied an insecticide inside the facility to exterminate fleas. The state suggested this month fining day care owner Elizabeth Ewing and her husband, Gerald, $1,628 for the incident. The state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed a separate $720 fine for workplace safety violations.

Oregon’s largest wildfire, the Chetco Bar Fire in Southwest Oregon, is still creating smoke and poor air quality around Brookings and Grants Pass.

The fire has covered 185,000 acres so far — that’s five times more than the Eagle Creek Fire along the Columbia River Gorge.

When air quality is poor, even healthy people may experience problems. The best thing to do is limit exposure by staying inside, keeping windows and doors closed, drinking plenty of water, and avoiding vigorous exercise.

About two dozen wildfires are burning around Oregon now. Most areas of the state east of the Willamette Valley have moderate or poor air quality.

The Chetco Bar Fire was started by lightning in July. It’s been burning for nine weeks and was 8 percent contained as of Sept. 13.

Approximately 1,600 firefighters are fighting the fire.

The last 48 hours have been a challenge for firefighters in the Columbia River Gorge.

Warm, dry winds have pushed the blaze over Herman Creek, allowing the Eagle Creek Fire to make a 3-mile run. But authorities say they’re still able to protect nearby communities.

Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese has reduced evacuation orders, which includes lifting Level 1 evacuations for all areas of Troutdale, west of the Sandy River.

People living in about 100 homes closer to the fire have also been allowed to return. But they will have to check in at the Corbett Community Church first to get a permit.

The fire is 13 percent contained and about 1,700 people remain under evacuation orders near Crown Point and in Cascade Locks.

The Oregon Department of Transportation said it will be assessing the threat of landslides for months after the fire. That’s because the roots of vegetation and trees killed won’t be able to hold the soil together.

ODOT said crews are using snow plows to clear fallen rocks and trees from the Historic Columbia River Highway. It’s not yet clear when Interstate 84 will reopen.

One person has been cited for hiking into the area and flying a drone to collect video footage.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — On a typical summer day, Anita Holman, an Oregon State University faculty research assistant, will have around 1,000 tall fescue or perennial rye grass samples waiting in the laboratory for her and 11 student workers to test.

Their goal: to check if there is a toxic level of endophytes in the grass straw.

“After harvest starts, within two to three weeks, I’m a thousand deep in test requests,” Holman said.

Holman works at the OSU Endophyte Service Laboratory, one of the few labs in the world that test for the poisonous alkaloids in endophytes. An endophyte is a fungus that can live within a grass plant. It helps protect the plant from drought and pests. But the same bioactive compound that keeps pests away can also be harmful to animals that eat too much of it.

Past problems with overdoses of endophyte sickening livestock have sparked a heightened awareness among grass seed growers about the importance of testing the straw byproduct of their seed production before using it for livestock feed. The industry has now reached a balance by working together to protect animals and keep costumers happy, along with developing innovative new methods of controlling the toxin.

Three diseases are caused by endophyte alkaloids: ryegrass staggers, fescue toxicosis and ergot toxicosis. The ryegrass staggers cause muscle weakness, tremors and spasms in horses and livestock. Fescue toxicosis causes fescue foot — dry, dead tissue in the extremities; summer slump in which animals develop hyperthermia; reduced food intake; and reproductive and lactation difficulties.

Ergot toxicosis can cause diarrhea, high temperature, rapid breathing, poor appetite and weight loss.

David Bohnert, director of the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center and a professor at OSU, has researched methods of alleviating toxicosis symptoms, such as giving animals seaweed extract or other compounds to help reduce the absorption of toxins.

Researchers, however, have found that while they alleviate some symptoms, they don’t eliminate all.

“There is no ‘silver bullet’ that will solve all the alkaloid problems seen with some varieties of tall fescue,” Bohnert said in an email. “Each product can be part of the overall tool box to help manage high-alkaloid forage; however, risk, cost and each ranch’s available infrastructure will determine what option, or combination of options, is best for that particular operation.”

In addition to impacting livestock, one of the three diseases, ergot, can decrease seed yield by as much as 10 percent, according to OSU researchers.

To combat ergot, they have been studying how weather conditions contribute to it by conducting spore trapping in perennial ryegrass seed production fields in the Columbia Basin. They found that the best time to apply fungicide is between May 15 and June 7 in a typical year.

Earlier this year, the program also received funding to investigate potential biocontrol options to manage ergot.

Oregon farmers grew about 332,000 acres of grass seed worth $345 million in 2016, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Among the varieties of grass seed grown in the state are fescue, perennial ryegrass, annual ryegrass, bluegrass and bentgrass.

Before the 1990s, the straw residue left after grass seed harvest was typically burned to rid the fields of pests and diseases. However, after the phase-out of field burning in most of Oregon, straw is now baled and sold locally and overseas as livestock feed.

At first, some of the straw was exported to countries such as Japan, which reported the first cases of fescue toxicity. In 2000, 5,400 cases were reported in Japan, according to the OSU Endophyte Service Lab.

“The ships got stopped at the port because livestock was getting sick and it was traced back to Northwest feed,” Holman, the OSU faculty research assistant, said. “They wanted proof that the feed was safe.”

A solution was developed: Growers would test their grass seed straw before shipping it. Since 2009, the number of cases of livestock illness has dropped to zero, and has remained stable except for a few minor blips, according to Dr. A. Morrie Craig, a professor of toxicology at the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine. He also helped create the Endophyte Service Laboratory.

When Craig helped form the laboratory, he felt it would become a “world leader.”

From 2005 to 2013 the lab received an average of 3,497 test requests a year. Of the samples tested so far this year, only about 7 percent were positive for high toxin content.

The testing typically takes four days, and rush tests take two. However, the lab has been short one technician, which has slowed this season’s testing.

The test is a “19-step process to get accurate numbers, plus the lab has a second set of eyes to do the quality control,” Craig said.

Roger Beyer, executive director of the Oregon Seed Council, said it’s “essential” for grass seed growers to have a program to test the endophyte level, and that OSU is the laboratory of choice.

“Testing is crucial to the shipment of straw for feed,” he said. “There are other uses for straw, but not really for the amount we produce.”

Beyer said more than 6,000 tons of straw are exported each year from Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

“There’s a lot of unknowns in the world of endophytes,” he said. “Some people think we should establish different levels in varieties to eliminate testing, but every year environmental factors can change the levels of the endophyte.”

Because the level of endophyte isn’t solely based on grass varieties, Beyer said the industry has to test.

“We do our best to meet people’s needs,” Holman said. “It’s hard, it’s a lot of work, very detail-oriented, “but it feels good to know it makes a difference that you come to work every day; what we’re doing makes a difference on a daily basis.”

The same toxic endophytes that can make animals ill can also help prevent airline disasters. East Coast airports such as John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia have discovered that high-endophyte grasses have a natural insecticide that kills bugs. By planting the grasses around the airports, the insect population is reduced, attracting fewer birds. Birds are a hazard to airplanes, as they can be sucked into jet engines and damage them.

James Loudon, principal landscape architect in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Engineering Department, said in a blog created by the port authority that he and his team do “whatever we can to discourage birds, because birds cause the greatest threat to aircraft in flight during landings and takeoffs.”

“By limiting the edible delights of birds and the places they gather to feed and reproduce, we can discourage them from visiting the airports,” said Laura Francoeur, a microbiologist at the port authority. “Which goes a long way towards protecting the flying public from deadly bird strikes.”

Mountain View Seeds in Salem, Ore., is one of the few dealers that sell airports high-endophyte grasses, and has a system in place to verify the levels of endophyte before it is shipped.

“Endophytes are a living organism,” Aaron Kuenzi, executive vice president of Mountain View Seeds, said. “Over time it will just fade away.”

He cited an example of grass seed with a high level of endophyte sitting for five years in a warehouse. It could start at a level of 90 percent, but by the time it’s shipped the level could drop to 20 percent.

Mountain View maintains the correct level of endophyte by storing the seed in a cooler, and testing for endophyte presence before shipping it.

“We want to make sure that when we say it’s a high endophyte that ... it actually is,” Kuenzi said.

While it is possible to develop fescue strains with little or no endophyte presence — typically referred to as “novel” — it is less attractive for grass seed producers because their primary product is the seed, not the straw. The endophytes help protect the grass plant from insects and dry weather.

Kuenzi said that it’s been great to have an alternative place for this seed production byproduct, but “ultimately, if we don’t satisfy the user or consumer of the seed, we won’t have production of the straw either.”

Mountain View Seeds has also developed non-endophyte varieties for its forage market with animal health in mind, but Kuenzi said less than 25 percent of its acreage is dedicated to it.

However, according to Bohnert, the OSU professor, that still represents progress.

“They have started moving away from more toxic endophytes and using the ones with lower (levels),” he said. “So, I think they are adjusting.”

Beyer, the seed council director, said that novel endophyte is the trend that the industry is working toward, especially for farmers who grow tall fescue as forage in their pastures.

“It’s an expensive conversion to get rid of endophyte grasses and put in novel (grasses),” he said. “But growing novel, we can grow it without testing it.”

He said that 17 to 20 percent of forage pasture and livestock regions have converted, and researchers say that acreage is increasing by 2 percent a year.

“We have a ways to go, but we’re working on it,” Beyer said.

Although researchers have yet to find a long-term management solution for endophytes, in the short term “solution by dilution” has been effective in keeping animals healthy.

“It is a good feed product if it’s used safely, but you have to know what you’re dealing with in the first place,” Holman said.

Bohnert suggests switching bales daily if endophyte is present, to give livestock a day off. He said it’s “the easiest (method) by far.”

Also, once farmers know the endophyte level of their hay, they can blend it with other types of hay that don’t have endophytes.

Controlling the endophyte is a delicate balance for farmers and ranchers, as well as for seed producers. Kuenzi has brothers who farm and understands the desire to grow only endophyte-free seeds, but he needs to think of his main customers first.

“It’s keeping in mind the ultimate product in this is the seed that goes to the marketplace, not necessarily the straw that’s harvested as a byproduct,” Kuenzi said. “For us, it’s finding that balance of satisfying the consumer and the farmer that’s growing (the seed).”

The one thing that everyone agrees on is testing for the endophyte toxin is crucial.

“A lot of people have become aware of the situation, the fescue problems are not like they were,” Bohnert said. Since 2002, “people have been very aware of potential problems. All you have to do is test, and if you’re feeding grass seed straw that has the potential of alkaloids, spend the money and have it tested so you can have peace of mind.”

PENDLETON, Ore. — At its heart, the Pendleton Round-Up — like most rodeos around the West — is an ode to the working class farm and ranch lifestyle, and a celebration of the region’s agricultural roots.

So when the Round-Up Association agreed to a three-year partnership with Farmers Ending Hunger earlier this year, both sides agreed it was a natural fit.

Wednesday marked the first ever Farmers Ending Hunger Day at the Round-Up, raising awareness and support for the organization’s mission of eliminating hunger statewide. The group also received cash donations of $5,000 each from River Point Farms and Northwest Farm Credit Services, which were presented just outside the Round-Up Grounds.

Farmers Ending Hunger was founded in 2006 by Fred Ziari, of Hermiston, upon hearing that Oregon was one of the most food insecure states in the country. According to the Oregon Food Bank, about 644,000 Oregonians do not have access to enough affordable, nutritious food, of which 223,480 are children.

Ziari, who serves as CEO of IRZ Consulting, reached out to colleagues and local farmers to see if they would be interested in pitching in to help solve the problem. Without exception, he said the farming community was on board.

“We shouldn’t have hunger in our state,” Ziari said. “Agriculture is our business, but food is all Oregonians’ business.”

This year alone, Farmers Ending Hunger has been responsible for donating 5 million pounds of ready-to-eat food to the Oregon Food Bank. Roughly 80 percent of those donations comes from Eastern Oregon, where farmers grow more than 200 different types of crops.

Top contributors include Amstad Produce, which gives 30 tons of potatoes every month. River Point Farms, the country’s largest grower and processor of onions, also kicks in 20-30 tons of produce every month. Threemile Canyon Farms contributes 20 beef cows every month, which are processed into hamburger meat.

“All the food is given by the farmers for free,” Ziari said. “This is what you buy at Safeway and grocery stores. It’s the same quality.”

What is not free is the packaging and transportation to ship that food to food banks across the state. That’s where Wednesday’s cash donations come in handy. Members of the public can also sign up to “adopt an acre” to help cover those costs.

Bob Hale, president of River Point Farms in Hermiston, said the company has contributed to Farmers Ending Hunger since the very beginning.

“I think it’s in the spirit of agriculture in general,” Hale said. “We want to make sure everybody gets to eat equally. We think it’s all part of the process, to feed people. It isn’t just business. It’s a way of life.”

The partnership with the Round-Up was finalized in May during the annual Portland Rose Festival. Rodeo royalty joined with Farmers Ending Hunger to help pack food boxes at the Oregon Food Bank, which are then distributed among a network of 21 regional food banks and 970 partner agencies, including CAPECO in Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam and Wheeler counties.

John Burt, executive director of Farmers Ending Hunger, said the Round-Up started as an agricultural event, and the partnership between the two groups only seemed natural.

“To recognize the bounty of this area at harvest time makes sense,” Burt said.

Burt made no secret of his excitement for the partnership as he unfurled the large “Farmers Ending Hunger Day” banner, describing it as a huge milestone for his organization. He hopes to see it evolve into an annual celebration;.

“To be sought out and asked by the Round-Up, that is just huge,” Burt said. “To me personally, that means we’ve arrived.”

To learn more about Farmers Ending Hunger or to make a contribution, visit www.farmersendinghunger.com.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Wildfires that are blackening the American West in one of the nation’s worst fire seasons have ignited calls, including from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, to thin forests that have become so choked with trees that they are at “powder keg levels.”

The destruction has exposed old frictions between environmentalists and those who want to see logging accelerated, and it’s triggered a push to reassess how lands should be managed to prevent severe wildfires.

Zinke’s directive Tuesday for department managers and superintendents to aggressively prevent wildfires was welcomed by Ed Waldron, fire management officer at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

Waldron was exhausted after fighting two fires that have been burning since late July in or near the park, whose centerpiece is a lake that fills the remains of an erupted volcano and is the deepest in the United States. But he wondered where the additional resources would come from to hire contractors to thin the fuel.

For now, Waldron and other firefighters have been too busy fighting blazes that forced the closure of a road into the park to thin vegetation elsewhere.

“We’ve been working hard,” he said Tuesday. “It’s day 50.”

For decades, logging was king in the West, notably in Oregon, which is famed for its majestic ponderosas and towering Douglas firs.

But restrictions on harvesting timber from federal lands to protect endangered species and lower demand led to a freefall in the industry starting around 1990. Meanwhile, wildfires — nature’s way of thinning and regenerating forests — were being extinguished instead of being allowed to burn.

The forests grew too thick, and they began to overlap, covering meadows and other areas.

“We’ve allowed forests to develop that never developed naturally,” said John Bailey, a professor of fire management at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

There is now a record amount of fuel for fires, such as brush, and “as a result, we have longer and hotter fire seasons that drive these megafires,” he said.

He advocated thinning forests through logging, prescribed burns and allowing naturally occurring fires to be managed instead of extinguished.

A fire becomes a megafire when it reaches 156 square miles. A megafire in southwest Oregon is the largest blaze in the West, having burned 290 square miles, authorities said Wednesday. It was reported July 12 and isn’t expected to be under control until Oct. 15.

Across the West, more than 12,000 square miles have burned this season, making it among the worst in land scorched.

Oregon state Sen. Herman Baertschiger Jr. called for a work group to revamp fire policy.

“The inability to manage our forest resources due to environmental concerns is threatening the safety and well-being of Oregonians and ultimately damaging our beautiful state,” the Republican said last week.

Residents of several communities in southwest Oregon opposed to a planned federal sale of old-growth trees say logging the fire-resistant timber will increase the risk of blazes spreading to communities. They say younger, uniform trees that will grow densely there will be twice as likely to burn. A coalition of residents will protest the sale Thursday in the town of Grants Pass.

“As fires burn throughout the region, area residents believe maintaining our last fire-resistant, old-growth forest is increasingly critical,” the coalition said in a statement Wednesday.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has denounced inadequate efforts to thin dead and dying trees, calling it a yearslong pattern.

He urged smarter policies, criticized the “broken system of fighting wildfires” and complained that federal funds earmarked for fire prevention are instead used for firefighting.

“The idea of ripping off prevention, which you need most, defies common sense,” Wyden said on the Senate floor last Thursday, standing next to a large photo of flames leaping from trees in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. “Shoddy budgeting today leads to bigger fires tomorrow.”

Bailey, the fire management professor, lamented that Zinke’s directive does not recommend using fire as a tool to restore forests.

Oregon Wild, which campaigns for conservation of roadless areas, suspects an ulterior motive behind the order from Zinke, who oversees more than 500 million acres of federal land, though the Forest Service, a unit of the Agriculture Department, is the nation’s largest firefighting agency.

“Sadly, policy will be all about more logging, not better fire management,” Oregon Wild tweeted.

In Montana, environmental groups last month sued over a proposal by the U.S. Forest Service to allow timber harvesting and some prescribed burning to reduce the risk of severe wildfires in the Flathead National Forest. The lawsuit argued the agency failed to analyze how the timber project, combined with another one nearby, would affect Canada lynx, grizzly bears and their habitat.

Forest fuels are at “powder keg levels,” Paul F. Hessburg Sr., a U.S. Forest Service research landscape ecologist, recently told an audience in Bend, Oregon, a former logging town that has remade itself into an outdoor recreation and microbrew mecca.

“If we don’t change a few of our fire management habits, we’re going to lose a few of our beloved forests,” he said.

Could a revival of Oregon’s timber industry reduce the fuel load in public forests and ease the blistering wildfires that choked much of the state in smoke the past few weeks?

At this point it’s an intriguing question without a simple answer. But it arises as university researchers and industry officials explore advanced wood products such as cross-laminated timbers — called CLT — and mass plywood panels, which can support multi-story wooden buildings, even modest high-rises. Only two Western Oregon mills and a handful of others nationally make the products, but they appear to hold promise.

For one thing, the massive beams and panels can be made with small-diameter logs, the very type crowding forests and contributing to the explosive growth of the Eagle Creek Fire in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and the much larger Chetco Bar Fire in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in the southwest corner of the state.

A recent report by Oregon BEST, a quasi-public entity that funds clean technology startups and links entrepreneurs to university researchers, said CLT and related mass timber manufacturing could create 2,000 to 6,100 direct jobs in Oregon. Income generated from those jobs would range from $124 million to $371 million a year, according to the report. The estimate came from an analysis by Business Oregon, the state department.

Oregon BEST said Oregon and Southwest Washington are “poised as a manufacturing hub for the emerging Cross Laminated Timber market in the United States.” Pacific Northwest forests could easily and sustainably supply the wood needed for production, the report said.

People working in the field issue a cautionary, “Yes, but.…”

“In theory, it makes a lot of sense, but it requires for the forests to be actively managed in that way, and an outlet for that wood to be taken up,” said Timm Locke, director of forest products for the Oregon Forest Research Institute, an organization founded by the Oregon Legislature to enhance collaboration and inform the public about responsible forest management.

Locke said the public forests most in need of restoration and thinning work are east of the Cascades, where much of the milling infrastructure has “disappeared.” It doesn’t make economic sense to move poor quality trees from Eastern Oregon to mills in Western Oregon, he said.

“We need to be thinking about what’s stopping us at this stage,” Locke said. “What are the issues there?”

One of them, he said, is a lack of trust between industry and the public land agencies — principally the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Mills that once depended on logs from public forests were “burned” when the timber harvest was drastically reduced due to lawsuits and policy and regulatory changes over threatened species, wildlife habitat and watersheds. An often-cited statistic shows the Forest Service manages 60 percent of the timberland in Oregon but that land produces only 15 percent of the annual harvest.

“It’s difficult for government agencies to make significant changes quickly,” Locke said. “There’s a lot of process that has to happen.”

Locke believes the Forest Service is on the right track, but noted that conservation groups often oppose increased logging on public land.

“It’s a tricky subject, no question about it,” he said. “Public discussion about public land management — I think we’re ripe for that conversation.”

A Forest Service official said the agency makes 600 million board-feet of timber available for sale annually in Oregon and Washington, and the perspective that it is holding up an industry revival is “dated.”

Debbie Hollen, director of state and private forestry for the Forest Service in Portland, said the agency hopes tall wood buildings provide the market for restoration logging and thinning.

The agency’s Wood Innovation Grant Program provides funding to help create a market for fuel that needs to be removed from the forests.

“Our hope is that it will be the value-add that makes it worthwhile,” Hollen said. “Industry is not there yet.”

The research infrastructure is swinging into place. Oregon State University’s colleges of forestry and engineering have teamed with the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture to form the TallWood Design Institute at OSU. It is the nation’s first research center to focus exclusively on advanced structural wood products.

At this point, the one constant is fire.

John Bailey, a professor of silviculture and fire management at OSU, said the amount of biomass accumulated on forested hillsides is greater than ever before. Whether people see the biomass as scenery, recreation site, wildlife habitat or timber, it’s going to “exit the system” one way or the other, he said.

Humans remove less of the biomass through logging and thinning than in the past, which contributes to the fierce, explosive, “climate driven fire” that has gotten our attention. With more forested acreage closely connected, and with hot, dry, windy conditions prevailing, fires quickly grow large, he said.

Bailey said the Forest Service is doing all the management that society allows it to do, and it’s time to “rethink what we do with the hillsides in light of fuel accumulation” and climate conditions.

“They are going to burn,” he said.

Online

Oregon BEST CLT report: http://bit.ly/2fhpFTd

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Police say a man from Salt Lake City, Utah, has been accused of intentionally starting three wildland fires in central Oregon.

The Bulletin reports 37-year-old Christopher Glen Wilson was indicted Friday by a Deschutes County grand jury on three counts of arson and reckless endangerment.

Court records say the indictment involves three fires started in August; two along U.S. 97, and one east of La Pine, Oregon.

Oregon State Police Capt. Bill Fugate says authorities believe Wilson, of Salt Lake City, is also responsible for a fourth fire in south central Oregon.

Fugate says state troopers arrested Wilson Sept. 3 as he entered Oregon on Interstate 84 driving a stolen car.

Wilson was booked into jail on suspicion of unauthorized use of a vehicle and will be transferred to Bend, Oregon for arraignment.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Wilson had an attorney.

Oregon’s wolf management plan is supposed to be updated this year but that hasn’t happened yet. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission was to get a briefing on that process during its Sept. 15 meeting in Welches, Ore.

The pause in the process comes as ODFW has moved to kill five wolves for livestock attacks this summer and approved the shooting of a sixth. Four wolves from the Harl Butte pack were shot by ODFW staff after a series of depredations in Wallowa County. A Umatilla County livestock producer or an employee – ODFW has not clarified the details – legally shot a Meacham Pack wolf under authorization from the department.

Conservation groups are highly critical of ODFW’s actions, saying it shouldn’t be killing wolves while the management plan review is pending. A coalition of 18 groups asked Gov. Kate Brown to intervene, so far without success.

Meanwhile, a significant change is coming. Russ Morgan, ODFW’s longtime wolf program coordinator, is retiring in October. Morgan said he had planned to retire when the management plan was approved, but decided not to wait.