PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A change of plea hearing has been scheduled for a man arrested following the Ammon Bundy-led occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon.

Jason Blomgren, 42, of Murphy, North Carolina, is set to appear in a federal courtroom in Portland on Thursday. He earlier pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States and possession of a firearm in a federal facility.

Blomgren was granted pre-trial release in March after his attorney argued that he needed to go back to North Carolina to help care for a son who has autism. Blomgren joined the occupation about a week in after reading about it online.

Court records show a federal judge approved spending for Blomgren’s transportation from North Carolina ahead of Thursday’s hearing.

More than two dozen occupiers were arrested after the 41-day standoff that ended Feb. 11. Two of them — Corey Lequieu and Eric Lee Flores — have already accepted deals in which they pleaded guilty to conspiracy in exchange for the dismissal of the firearm charge.

Prosecutors have recommended a 2½-year prison sentence for Lequieu, who has a prior felony, and six months of home detention for Flores, a first-time offender.

Bundy and his remaining co-defendants are scheduled to appear in court Wednesday for a status hearing in their case.

The trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Sept. 7, but U.S. District Court Judge Anna J. Brown on Monday granted a motion for three men to be tried later. They are Sean Anderson of Riggins, Idaho; Jake Ryan of Plains, Montana; and Jon Ritzheimer of Peoria, Arizona. All waived their right to a speedy trial, likely pushing their cases into 2017.

Brown’s order says she will wait until August to set a trial date for them and any other defendant who seeks to waive his or her right to a speedy resolution.

The armed takeover and ensuing standoff at the southeast Oregon bird sanctuary began Jan. 2 and included the fatal shooting by police of rancher and occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum during a traffic stop.

Bundy and his followers wanted the federal government to relinquish control of Western lands and free two Oregon ranchers imprisoned for setting fires. Those demands were not met.

It’s been a “very strange season,” but Oregon’s berries are doing quite well so far, crop consultant Tom Peerbolt said.

Record rain over the winter and unseasonable heat waves interspersed with stretches of cool days have posed some puzzles for Oregon growers as they harvest crops that have a combined annual farmgate value of nearly $200 million. Berries, like many other crops, are about two weeks earlier than usual due to the weather swings. In some cases, different types of berries are coming ready hard on the heels of other types.

“The earliness of everything has thrown everybody off center a bit,” Peerbolt said. “It’s hard on logistics when everything comes at once. It’s hard for growers and processors to handle everything, but as long as it stays cool they can hold in the field longer.”

Peerbolt is co-owner with his wife, Anna, of Peerbolt Crop Management in Portland. The company consults on strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, primarily in Oregon but some in Washington as well.

As strawberry harvest wraps up, harvest of Duke, Bluecrop and Draper blueberries is underway and growers are about 10 days into raspberry harvest, Peerbolt said.

He said the traditional start of harvest for Marion blackberries, still Oregon’s premier type 60 years after it was introduced, has always been the day after the Fourth of July holiday. This year, he expects harvest to begin two weeks earlier. Harvest of Black Diamond and Columbia Star blackberries, thornless cultivars that may gradually replace Marions, will begin sooner still.

Quality is holding up, however.

“Boy there’s beautiful berries out there,” Peerbolt said. “The quality is very good.”

The harvest was early last year also, but the difference this year is “lots of moisture” through the winter and spring and cooler periods instead of an extended hot spell, he said.

“Very good quality and very good size – mainly in blueberries but in caneberries as well,” Peerbolt said. “On canes, it will not be a bumper crop, but it will be a good crop.”

Pest pressure, as it has for the past six years, comes primarily from Spotted Wing Drosophila, a tiny fly that saws into ripening berries and lays its eggs inside. The larvae feed on the berries, causing them to collapse in a gooey mess.

“Growers, unfortunately, have gotten very familiar with it” and spray to control it, Peerbolt said.

Oregon ranks first nationally in blackberry production, third in raspberries and strawberries and fourth in blueberries and cranberries.

Pendleton Grain Growers, the local farmers’ cooperative that dissolved earlier this year, has reached an agreement to sell the assets of its grain division to United Grain Corporation, based in Vancouver, Washington.

A deal has been in the works for months between the two companies, and includes all of PGG’s upcountry elevators, terminals and grain piles, along with all remaining inventory and contracts. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the agreement “includes the promise of future investment in the facilities,” according to a release issued Tuesday.

“The PGG Board of Directors has been seeking a buyer for the cooperative’s grain assets that would serve as a strong partner for our agricultural community,” said Tim Hawkins, board chairman. “We believe UGC is that partner and will provide the best possible outcome for members, our employees and the community.”

According to the release, UGC will be opening local offices and retaining a majority of PGG employees. A spokeswoman for PGG said their goal is to ensure facilities are up and running during next month’s harvest.

Founded in 1929, members of PGG voted to dissolve the co-op in May. That comes after years of financial struggles where the co-op had overstated its earnings by millions of dollars, and become entrenched in red ink.

The members of two Oregon farm cooperatives, Wilco and Hazelnut Growers of Oregon, have overwhelmingly voted to merge their operations.

The combination of Wilco, which focuses on farm supplies and fuel, with HGO, which processes and markets hazelnuts, is planned to be complete by Aug. 1.

A major result of the merger is the expected relocation of HGO’s facility in Cornelius to a new plant before the 2018 harvest that’s more centrally located in the Willamette Valley, the nation’s major hazelnut-growing region.

Construction of the HGO’s new processing plant will be made smoother due to the financial stability provided by Wilco, which generates about $220 million in annual revenues through its 17 farm stores, seven agronomy centers and bulk fuel sales service.

Together the two cooperatives will have about 900 employees, though some positions may be cut due to redundancies when a portion of HGO’s office functions are moved to Wilco’s headquarters in Mt. Angel.

Doug Hoffman, Wilco’s current CEO, would remain as chief of the merged cooperative while HGO’s CEO, Jeff Fox, will head its hazelnut division.

Farmers will earn equity and dividends in the combined cooperative based on their purchases of farm supplies as well as their hazelnut deliveries, though the pools will remain separate.

Among Wilco’s members, 79 percent voted for the merger while 99 percent of HGO’s membership’s supported it.

An Oregon farmer wants a jury to render a decision in the federal government’s lawsuit that accuses him of violating the Clean Water Act.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed a complaint against Bill Case of Albany, Ore., for unlawfully stabilizing a riverbank with large rocks beginning in 2009.

The EPA is seeking up to $37,500 per day in civil penalties as well as a court order requiring Case to restore the bank of the North Santiam River to its original condition.

Attorneys for Case have now filed an answer to the EPA’s allegations and requested a jury trial, which is considered unusual in Clean Water Act cases.

In his answer to EPA’s complaint, Case argues the agency’s lawsuit is barred because of his “reasonable reliance on representations by the United States Army Corps of Engineers” that the work didn’t require a Clean Water Act permit.

Case has previously told Capital Press that the Corps told him the bank stabilization project didn’t fall under Clean Water Act jurisdiction because the rocks weren’t placed in the river.

When asked about the jury trial request, Case said he’d have to consult with his attorney before commenting. Capital Press was unable to reach Case’s attorney as of press time, and the EPA’s attorney cannot comment on pending litigation.

Jury trials are rare in such cases, as Clean Water Act litigation is more commonly decided by federal judges on motions for summary judgment, said Bill Funk, an environmental law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School.

It’s likely that Case is counting on a jury to commiserate with his predicament of facing conflicting interpretations of the Clean Water Act by different agencies, Funk said.

“I assume the thinking is he will seem like a sympathetic defendant,” he said.

Under a legal precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court, defendants have the right for a jury to decide whether or not an activity violates the Clean Water Act. However, the amount of civil penalties and any injunctive relief must be decided by a federal judge.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Voters in a rural Oregon town are receiving ballots in the mail for a recall election targeting a judge who opposed the armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge earlier this year.

Harney County Judge Steve Grasty decided to fight the recall even though he is retiring this year.

The recall has stirred passions in Burns, which held the national spotlight for weeks during the standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Ammon Bundy and others occupied the refuge this winter to protest federal land policy and the imprisonment of Dwight and Steven Hammond, two ranchers sent to prison for starting fires.

The 41-day standoff ended Feb. 11 and included the fatal shooting by police of rancher and occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum.

The recall election is June 28. Though his title is judge, Grasty’s position is essentially chairman of the county commission.

He was outspoken in his opposition of the occupation and the ranchers holed up in the refuge. Their supporters blamed Grasty for not doing more to protect the Hammonds.

Some Burns residents are rallying around Grasty as the recall election draws near. About 100 people attended a rally for him last week and an ad running in the local newspaper this week will list the names of up to 150 supporters.

“I think he’s done a really good job for us,” said Jeanette Vinson, a nail technician who supports Grasty. “It’s ridiculous. Why go through all this? Why put the county through this?”

Kim Rollins, who initiated the recall and gathered enough signatures to get it on the ballot, declined to comment.

Grasty said he’ll be relieved when the election is behind him, no matter the outcome.

“I’ve always had good solid communication and relationships with folks and it’s very humbling to go to the grocery store, to go to the hardware store and every time someone expresses support,” said Grasty, who’s served in his position since 1999.

The occupiers wanted the federal government to relinquish public lands and free the Hammonds. Neither demand was met.

Two of 26 defendants indicted on a conspiracy charge after the standoff have accepted plea deals.

A September trial has been scheduled for the remaining 24 defendants, including Ammon and Ryan Bundy.

A Portland attorney and a Southern Oregon environmentalist are asking the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to take industrial hemp off the federal government’s list of controlled substances.

The petition, filed June 13, is the latest move by people who believe industrial hemp could be a viable agricultural crop if the federal government didn’t classify it as an illegal drug. They have long contended hemp can be used to make food, medicine, clothing, lotions, construction material, oils and other products.

Some states, Oregon among them, allow licensed hemp cultivation but keep it tightly controlled. The petition notes that 30 other countries allow hemp cultivation, including Canada. The petition letter says state economies, the environment and national security “would greatly benefit from the re-commercialization of industrial hemp in domestic agriculture and manufacturing.”

Industrial hemp is a variety of cannabis, but lacks the THC level that makes pot smokers high.

The petition asks the DEA to declare a cannabis plant is industrial hemp, not marijuana, if its THC level does not exceed 1 percent. THC is the substance that gives users a buzz.

Industrial hemp is low in THC but has higher levels of Cannabidiol, or CBD, which some advocates say can be used to treat seizures.

West Virginia uses the 1 percent THC content level as its hemp definition, while other states, such as Oregon, say THC in hemp cannot exceed 0.3 percent.

The petitioners maintain that keeping the THC limit so low limits the number of cannabis varieties that can be bred and cultivated for traits that may be desirable in certain uses or products.

In an attempt to steer around controversy, the petitioners’ letter to the DEA says they take no position on the legalization or decriminalization of medical or recreational marijuana, or on whether CBD has medical uses.

The petition from Oregon residents is the second to hit the DEA in June. Earlier, the Kentucky Hemp Industries Council filed a petition to remove hemp plants from the Controlled Substances Act.

The chief petitioners are attorney Courtney Moran, of Portland, and Andy Kerr, a figure from Oregon’s spotted owl timber wars who now heads an Ashland conservation entity called the Larch Company. Others among the two dozen co-petitioners include the North American Industrial Hemp Council, Oregon state Rep. Floyd Prozanski of Eugene, and Anndrea Hermann, a Canadian cannabis and hemp technologies consultant who also teaches an industrial hemp course in the College of Forestry’s Wood Science Engineering Department at Oregon State University.

Farmers who won a lawsuit invalidating a ban of genetically engineered crops in Oregon’s Josephine County are now seeking $29,000 in attorney fees from the ordinance’s supporters.

A state judge struck down the county’s prohibition in May, holding that Oregon law pre-empts local governments from restricting biotech seeds.

Voters in Josephine County approved the ordinance in 2014, which was challenged last year by Robert and Shelley Ann White, who wanted to grow genetically modified sugar beets.

While the county government took a neutral position in the litigation, supporters of the ordinance — Oregonians for Safe Farms and Families, a nonprofit, and Siskiyou Seeds, an organic farm — intervened in the case to defend the ban on genetically modified organisms.

The intervenors claimed that the Whites lacked standing to file the lawsuit because they were “hobby farmers” who didn’t have a financial stake in growing GMOs.

Supporters of the ordinance also argued that Oregon’s pre-emption law was unconstitutional because lawmakers created a “regulatory void” by disallowing local rules for GMO crops without imposing their own regulatory scheme.

Josephine County Circuit Judge Pat Wolke rejected those arguments and overturned the GMO prohibition, finding that the conflict between state law and the local ordinance “could not be more clear.”

The plaintiffs’ attorneys are now seeking $29,200 from the intervenors, but not the county, because several of their legal claims “had no objectively reasonable basis.”

For example, the intervenors cited no legal precedents from Oregon to support their argument that the pre-emption statute was unconstitutional and instead pointed to a ruling from Ohio, the petition said.

Though the amount represents less than 20 percent of the plaintiffs’ legal costs, they’re seeking the award in part to deter similar arguments in a future case, according to the petition for attorney fees.

“An award of fees in this case will discourage those similarly situated to abandon meritless claims and to concentrate on those issues which they might impact in a responsible way,” the petition said.

Mary Middleton, executive director of OSFF, said it “would very negatively impact us to pay attorney fees for the other side,” but her attorneys don’t think such an order would have legal precedent.

The group is still deciding whether to appeal Wolke’s ruling but doesn’t think it will impede others from seeking GMO-free zones.

“The movement is growing across the country,” she said.

As for the petition for attorney fees, Middleton said it’s likely an attempt by biotech developers to thwart such efforts.

“I can only speculate, but the way it looks on the surface is they’re trying to scare counties and scare people who object to their agenda,” she said.

SISTERS, Ore. (AP) — Officials on Sunday lifted all evacuation notices for residents in about 900 homes near wildfire burning in central Oregon.

The Oregon Department of Forestry says the fire has scorched nearly 2,100 acres, or about 3 square miles, and was about 72 percent contained as of Sunday morning. No structures have been lost.

Residents throughout Oregon are being told to prepare for the fire season by being ready to go in case of an evacuation. Fire officials urge residents to get ready by assembling emergency supplies, planning escape route and taking other measures.

The cost of fighting that fire has hit about $2.3 million.

More than 600 personnel and five helicopters have assigned to the fire, which was ignited by lightning Tuesday.

Lava Beds National Monument could soon be recognized as one of America’s “best of the best.”

On June 22, Discover Klamath Executive Director Jim Chadderdon and other stakeholders will meet with California Sen. Barbara Boxer to ask her to support designating Lava Beds as a national park.

According to Chadderdon, a national park can come into existence in one of two ways: by presidential proclamation or by an act of Congress.

He said partners along the Oregon-California Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway will ask Boxer to draft a bill upgrading Lava Beds classification in the park system.

The Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway is 500-mile stretch of highway that runs between Crater Lake National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park in California.

Chadderdon said he and stakeholders who belong to the Volcanic Legacy Community Partnership — a nonprofit group that advocates for and markets the volcanic byway — believe the new designation could boost tourism in Southern Oregon and Northern California.

“People want to see the best of the best so national parks get a lot of exposure and a lot of visitation,” Chadderdon said. “Our national park system is the envy of the globe.”

Chadderdon noted that out of hundreds of scenic byways in the U.S., only 31 — including the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway — are designated as an “All-American Road,” meaning it is one of the nation’s most scenic routes.

Chadderdon said about 80 percent of the economic impact from Lava Beds’ tourism accrues to Klamath Falls. He noted that Lava Beds gets about 140,000 visitors per year. Crater Lake gets about 600,000 visitors per year, he said.

“We’ve always marketed this as a ‘two-fer’ — go one day to Crater Lake and one day down to Lava Beds,” he said.

Chadderdon estimated the new designation could increase Lava Beds visitation by at least 15 percent, and boost Klamath Falls’ tourism economy “substantially and sustainably.”

He said Klamath Falls tourism economy generates about $150 million per year. With a new national park in the area, that amount could increase by 5 percent.

Chadderdon said it would not cost the National Park Service if Lava Beds’ classification was upgraded.

“Really, the only cost is that they have to change the signs,” he said.

The 46,000-acre Lava Beds monument was established in 1925. Chadderdon noted that Lava Beds 700-plus caves and lava tubes and history associated with the Modoc War make the monument a good fit for national park.

“The questions is, ‘Is it worthy of being a national park?’ “ Chadderdon said. “I’ve had a few people tell me it’s not, and I’ve had more than that tell me it is. My own judgment tells me it probably is.”

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Firefighters trying to put out an early-season wildfire in central Oregon were assisted by rain showers and low winds on Thursday, and a plane used in the battle blew a tire while landing, causing the regional airport to temporarily close.

Disruptions at the Redmond airport were minimal while the plane was removed from the runway, said airport operations manager Winton Platt. He said no one was injured in the incident.

Airtankers were being used to drop fire retardant to prevent afternoon winds from pushing the flames past containment lines toward homes on the north end of the 1,930-acre fire, the Oregon Department of Forestry said on its Facebook page. Light rain produced higher humidity and favorable conditions for firefighters, who were using bulldozers and hand tools to fight the so-called Akawana fire north of Sisters and near Lake Billy Chinook, the department said.

Authorities said Thursday evening the blaze was 44 percent contained two days after it started.

About 900 homes are still considered threatened and residents must be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice, the forestry department said.

“The winds here have subsided quite a bit,” department spokesman Tom Fields said Thursday morning over the phone from a staging area in Sisters. “Yesterday, winds were greater than 20 miles per hour.”

Some 550 firefighters and support staff were working on the fire, backed by helicopters dropping water on the flames, forestry officials said.

On Friday, crews expect to mop up hot spots from containment lines into the interior and strengthen lines on the northeast corner of the fire.

Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday authorized firefighters and equipment from around Oregon to fight the wildfire.

Fields said that because of cooler conditions and the snowpack, the 2016 fire season had been expected to start later.

“This is the first major fire of the season,” Fields said. “It is much earlier than expected.”

Lightning sparked the blaze Tuesday and it was spread by strong winds. Downed trees, some killed by beetles, added fuel to the fire.

The Department of Environmental Quality urged residents in central and southern Oregon to limit their exposure to smoke by keeping windows and doors closed.

The USDA is heading a trade mission to promote U.S. farm goods in a couple of unlikely locations: Ukraine and Romania.

The Eastern European countries rank 86th and 82nd, respectively, as destinations for exports of agricultural and related products from the U.S.

Last year, the U.S. shipped $75 million of farm goods to Ukraine and $81 million to Romania — collectively less than 1 percent of the amount purchased by Canada, the top U.S. trade partner.

However, the two nations have gained in geopolitical importance due to tensions with nearby Russia.

While the military conflict in Ukraine has been highly prominent, Romania has also drawn the ire of Russia over a U.S. missile defense system within its borders.

The trade delegation, scheduled for June 13-17, is led by USDA Acting Deputy Secretary Michael Scuse and joined by several representatives of state governments, companies and organizations, including Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Though Oregon doesn’t currently ship many farm goods to Ukraine or Romania, Coba said the trade mission is an opportunity to explore those markets and show U.S. support for the two nations in light of their problems with Russia.

The trade mission will include meetings with government officials from the host countries and U.S. embassies, as well as tours of facilities owned by multinational agribusiness firms ADM and Bunge.

Coba said she hopes to learn about the state of each country’s middle class, which represents a potential market for Oregon’s high-value farm products.

The value of U.S. farm exports to Ukraine has plummeted from its most recent high of $321 million in 2013 to last year’s level of $75 million, according to USDA data.

Fish products and planting seeds are among the major U.S. commodities shipped to Ukraine, though they’ve decreased along with total exports in recent years.

Oregon would benefit from the demand for these products, so it will be useful to learn whether the drop-off was caused by tariffs, political turbulence or other barriers, Coba said.

Pork, poultry and eggs have also been among the top farm exports to Ukraine.

Exports to Romania have fluctuated widely over the past decade, between $47 million and $96 million, with shipments increasing nearly 60 percent over the prior year to $81 million in 2015.

Soybeans, tobacco, planting seeds and distilled spirits are among the most prominent ag-related exports to that country.

The U.S. had a trade deficit in agricultural goods with both countries in 2015, importing about $158 million from Ukraine and $154 million from Romania.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Firefighters backed by aircraft dropping fire retardant have a wildfire in central Oregon 30 percent contained.

The Oregon Department of Forestry says about 900 homes are still considered threatened and residents must be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. As of Thursday morning, the size of the Akawana fire north of Sisters and near Lake Billy Chinook was 1,930 acres.

The fire was caused on Tuesday by a lightning strike and was spread by strong winds. Downed trees, some felled by beetles, added fuel to the fire.

The Central Oregon Fire Management Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Jefferson and Deschutes County Emergency Management agencies are involved.

Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday authorized firefighters and equipment from around Oregon to fight the wildfire.

As Oregon’s berry season unfolds, breeder’s work is worth savoring

By Eric Mortenson

Capital Press

FOREST GROVE, Ore. — Jim Love can’t help but admire the Marion blackberries now gaining color at Love Farms, which he owns with his brother, John. They planted this particular block in 1965 with their father, and it’s the oldest remaining block among the 75 acres of Marions they tend and harvest.

Their dad, Melvin “Peck” Love, actually started the farm’s transition to Marions in 1961 after visiting a neighbor who was growing a relatively new variety released by the USDA berry breeder stationed in Corvallis. “That thing is a really good berry,” Peck Love announced when he returned. “I think we’re going to plant some.”

All these years later and Marion blackberries — also known as Marionberries — keep coming on: Good-sized, juicy, deep purple to intense black and better tasting than any other blackberry, before or since. A marketing campaign once described them as the “Cabernet of blackberries.”

New varieties, thornless and more cold-hardy, may eventually surpass Marions, Jim Love said, but he suspects they will always retain a market niche among growers and consumers.

“George Waldo did a good job when he developed these originally,” Love said. “Hoods were the same way. Golly, that was our main berry for a long time.”

It is those two iconic varieties — Marion blackberries and Hood strawberries — that established Oregon as a premier berry state, today ranking first nationally in blackberry production, third in raspberries and strawberries and fourth in blueberries and cranberries.

And as the state harvests its array of berries this summer — crops with an annual farmgate value approaching $200 million — it can give a tip of the field cap to that berry breeder, George Fordyce Waldo, a quiet man who worked with the straight-laced fervor of a berry evangelist.

In a 33-year career with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Corvallis, working in partnership with horticulturists at Oregon State University, Waldo bred and introduced the state’s best known, even beloved, berry varieties.

In 1943 he released the Willamette raspberry, which was widely planted for 50 years. He crossed strawberry selections OSC 2315 and Puget Beauty to produce Hoods, which were released in 1965 and retain something of a cult following among consumers for their color and outstanding flavor.

Marions were destined to be his most enduring, commercially successful work. Drawing in part from the invasive Himalaya blackberry that takes over rural hillsides and empty city lots, Waldo developed the trailing blackberry cultivars Chehalem and Olallie and crossed them in 1945 to produce what was first called OSC 928. He released it as Marion in 1956, naming it for the county where most of the test plantings had occurred.

Marions, which like other trailing blackberries are grown on a trellis system, rapidly replaced Evergreens, an upright variety that couldn’t compete with Marion’s flavor. Trailing blackberries also have smaller seeds, which don’t have to be removed during processing, and are more aromatic than erect blackberries.

At its height of popularity, Marions made up half of Oregon’s blackberry acreage. In 2014, Marions alone accounted for $19 million in farmgate value.

Chad Finn, a USDA-ARS research geneticist who now holds Waldo’s berry breeder position in Corvallis, said much of Waldo’s work was “classical plant breeding,” which is “always a combination of art and science.”

Waldo understood the inheritance of plant traits, and had to be able to recognize which berry selections would make good parents, Finn said. He said Waldo’s work in developing trailing blackberries may be overlooked.

“One of the things that I think is lost, really, is that he created a whole crop that never existed before,” Finn said. “That’s remarkable. We would be dead in the water without him or somebody like him.”

George Waldo probably wouldn’t have described himself that way. Finn, the USDA breeder now on station in Corvallis, has studied the work of his predecessors and said Waldo strikes him as a reserved man who didn’t seek the limelight.

Jim Love, the Forest Grove berry grower, said he occasionally saw Waldo in the halls at Oregon State University when Love, now 73, was a student there in the 1960s. Waldo appeared quiet and business-like, Love said.

Waldo was a longtime member of the Corvallis First Baptist Church, and of Gideons International, the group that leaves Bibles in motel rooms. According to one story, when Waldo and associates would tour growers’ fields and stop for lunch, Waldo wouldn’t eat at a place that served beer.

Waldo was born Dec. 2, 1898, in North Dakota, and moved with his family to Oregon in 1913. He graduated from what was then Oregon Agricultural College in 1922 and earned a master’s degree in science from Michigan State University in 1926.

He was hired by USDA and in 1932 was able to return to Corvallis to work in “small fruit investigations” at the experiment station, a partnership of USDA-ARS and Oregon State.

That formal partnership — coupling innovative USDA berry breeders with university horticulturists — is the only one of its kind in the world, said Bernadine Strik, OSU Extension berry crops professor and the berry research program leader at OSU’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora.

The partnership is more than 100 years old and is funded by USDA and OSU, which jointly release new berries, Strik said.

“That facilitates adoption of cultivars of commercial significance in the Pacific Northwest,” she said.

“A lot of the berry crops grown here were bred for this region by this program,” Strik said. “Growers are fortunate to have a public breeding program that is so productive.”

Elsewhere, much of the berry breeding work is done by private companies, she said, and the genetic material is not available to the public or to growers who are not contractually obligated to the company.

The partnership has continuity. Strik has been at OSU since 1987; Finn arrived at USDA-ARS in 1992. Finn decides which selections to cross, and has final say on releases. All the advanced berry trials are managed by Strik at North Willamette.

“My number one goal is to help growers produce sustainable yields of high-quality crops,” Strik said. “In a global market, that’s what you need to be able to do.”

It’s a testament to George Waldo that his best work still grows in Oregon’s berry fields, even though change is afoot.

Hood strawberries sell fast at roadside stands and are in demand from ice cream processors. But the variety most commonly planted the past six to eight years is Tillamook, developed by Chad Finn.

Marion blackberry acreage is in slow decline, dipping from 4,500 acres in 2006 to 3,100 acres in 2015. Processors, worried about liability lawsuits, have fretted for years about the Marion’s fierce thorns getting into jams or pies. Growers wish Marions were more cold-hardy; Jim Love said he “didn’t pick a berry” three times in the past due to cane-killing freezes.

Many are planting new thornless trailing blackberries: Black Diamond and Columbia Star, both released by Finn. Love has some of both, and thinks Columbia Star will be a good one, even if the flavor doesn’t quite match the Marion’s.

“Marions are becoming less (prominent), surpassed by cultivars bred by Chad,” said Strik, the OSU berry crops professor. “That’s what you hope happens; you move forward.

“Oregon continues to be known as the premier blackberry growing region in the world,” she said. “It’s a fact.”

After Waldo retired, he moved to Marysville, Wash., which was nicknamed the “Strawberry City.”

In 1970, the American Pomological Society awarded Waldo its Wilder Medal, given to those who have rendered outstanding service to horticulture.

“Special consideration is given,” the society’s website says, “to work relating to the origination and introduction of meritorious varieties of fruit.”

Waldo died Dec. 22, 1985, a Sunday. He was 87. The family asked that memorials be made to his Corvallis church and to Gideons International, for its evangelical work.

Eastern Oregon wheat fields are already turning shades of amber in the wake of unusually warm weather that kicked off the month of June.

Temperatures in Pendleton reached 96 degrees on Sunday and 100 degrees on Monday, which has the crop maturing about two weeks ahead of schedule. But Mike Flowers, extension cereal specialist for Oregon State University, said there’s still time before harvest and the next few weeks could go a long way toward making or breaking this year’s production.

“This is a critical period,” Flowers said. “If we get cooler temperatures, I think we’ll end up much better than we did last year.”

So far, the forecast looks promising. Marilyn Lohmann, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Pendleton, said a low pressure system has moved in for the weekend, which should push temperatures back down into the 60s and 70s through the end of next week.

Lohmann said the system could also bring rain, though how much is still to be determined.

“It looks like everybody should get something,” Lohmann said.

Every drop of water counts for dryland farmers in June. Flowers said this is what’s known as the grain-fill period for wheat, when plants divert moisture and nutrients to make plump, healthy kernels. Without precipitation, the grain becomes pinched, resulting in a lower test weight and overall yield.

“We need to have moisture during that grain-fill period,” Flowers said. “That’s the million dollar rain.”

Pendleton typically averages about an inch of precipitation for June, though totals may vary depending on location. Areas east of town usually see a little more rain, while areas west of town usually see a little less. Currently, the whole region is down about a quarter-inch of rain for the month, though Flowers said early season precipitation was much better than it was a year ago.

“Our saving grace this year is we’ve had a more normal crop year for average rainfall,” he said. “It’s looking like, with the extra moisture, the crop is going to fare better.”

Not surprisingly, Flowers said the fields are maturing more quickly around Lexington and Heppner, where harvest usually begins sometime around the Fourth of July. In higher rainfall areas, such as Helix and Adams, harvest takes place closer to the middle of the month.

Though he’s based out of Corvallis, Flowers is no stranger to Eastern Oregon, where the majority of the state’s wheat is grown. He was in the area on Tuesday and Wednesday, talking with local growers about conditions in their fields and last weekend’s heat wave.

“It’s going to be another early year for us, just like last year,” he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Umatilla County harvested 11.3 million bushels of winter wheat in 2015, and 3 million bushels in Morrow County. Those yields came after three consecutive years of drought. In 2012, the totals were 16.3 million bushels in Umatilla County and 5.4 million in Morrow County.

If conditions can stay cool, Flowers said he is hopeful they can buck the trend and get back to a closer-to-average harvest this year.

“We hope cooler temperatures will lengthen that grain-fill period as long as we can,” he said. “That will be the crop.”

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has decided against seeking federal funds to conduct on-farm food safety inspections.

The agency will instead wait to see what role the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will play in on-farm enforcement of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

ODA doesn’t have the authority to perform on-farm inspections, though it’s considering asking state lawmakers for that power in 2017, said Stephanie Page, the agency’s food safety director.

“We need to have a conversation with the Legislature before we commit to a grant application to do that work,” said Page.

Farmers are giving the agency “diverse feedback” about whether they’d prefer for ODA to conduct inspections, rather than FDA, she said.

While some farmers would feel more comfortable with ODA, it’s not clear that the agency’s involvement would preclude FDA from doing its own inspections.

For example, FDA concurrently inspects food manufacturers even though ODA also inspects these facilities.

For that reason, some farmers wonder whether there’s any purpose in ODA conducting on-farm inspections, Page said.

“It’s not a done deal we will do inspections. We need to continue to have those conversations with the industry,” she said.

The Oregon Board of Agriculture has affirmed the agency’s decision not to purse inspection funding, voting unanimously to wait until more information is available at its June 8 meeting in John Day, Ore.

While Oregon is only one of a handful of states not to seek FDA funds for on-farm inspections, the agency is asking for about $3.5 million over five years to educate farmers about FSMA.

“I think we need more time to do some more outreach,” said Katy Coba, ODA’s director.

To obtain those funds, ODA must commit to developing a database of farms for the FDA.

If farmers were required to submit information to the database, that would become a public record, which makes some growers uncomfortable, Coba said.

The agency has decided not to pursue a mandatory database and will instead seek voluntary submissions.

The FDA is unlikely to object to the voluntary inventory idea, since the agency recognizes “all states are struggling with how to do that,” said Page.

If the ODA wins grant approval for education and outreach, it plans to create three new staff positions located in major produce-growing areas of the state, she said.

The FSMA rules for farmers only apply to fruits and vegetables that are consumed raw.

If the ODA changes its mind about on-farm inspections, it can apply for that grant in a separate application next spring, Page said.

“That’s a small price to pay to have more time to talk to our stakeholders,” she said.

Oregon’s food processing and beverage manufacturing industries are expected to perform well over the next decade, and the state’s crop production and nurseries will gain as well, according to a new report from the Office of Economic Analysis.

While lacking details, the quarterly economic and revenue forecast by Senior Economist Josh Lehner predicts strong performance by Oregon’s agricultural segments and associated industries, bucking the trend in one case.

Lehner said most Oregon manufacturing will have “very minimal gains” in the coming years. He noted the recent downsizing of Intel, the computer chip manufacturing company and the state’s largest employer, and said the manufacturing’s “cyclical rebound” from the recession has run its course.

“What manufacturing gains are expected are among the state’s food processors and beverage manufacturers, predominantly breweries,” Lehner wrote in the forecast.

Jeff Stone, executive director of Oregon Association of Nurseries, said the report’s projection of an upswing for nurseries is accurate.

Stone said nurseries spent much of the past six years trying to hang on as the state and nation rode out the recession. As conditions continue to improve, the call for landscaping, gardening and agricultural trees and plants picked up with it.

“We have an opportunity to grow significantly over the next 10 years,” Stone said. “I don’t think it will be the rocket ship we saw 20 years ago, but there are shortages out there.

“We’re looking at markets three to five years out, and I think we’re well positioned to grow.”

Depending on the year, greenhouse and nursery products is Oregon’s first or second most valuable agricultural sector, sometimes trading places with calves and cattle. In 2014, greenhouse and nursery products were worth $829 million.

Lehner, the state economist, said overall Oregon continues to see “full throttle” growth rates, with job gains and wage gains outpacing other states. The state is approaching full employment for the first time since 2000, and “underemployment,” the number of people involuntarily working part-time, is back to where it was before the recession. The state’s unemployment rate, 4.5 percent in April and May, is actually below what would historically be considered normal for Oregon during an economic expansion, Lehner said.

Over the past two years, Oregon has added an average of 5,000 jobs per month, a 3.5 percent annual growth rate, according to the report.

Lehner projects continued strong Oregon growth through the end of 2017. The state’s longterm outlook is dampened somewhat by the new minimum wage law, which he said will result in 40,000 fewer jobs by 2025 than would have been the case otherwise.

“Our office is not predicting outright job losses,” Lehner emphasized in the analysis. “However we are expecting somewhat slower growth. Low-wage workers receiving raises in the near term boost incomes. Over time, however, employers will adjust by increasing worker productivity, possibly via capital for labor substitutions.

“The Great Recession caused severe damage that has taken years to repair,” Lehner said in the report. “However, Oregon is now quickly approaching full employment, or a healthy labor market.”

Oregon farmers have prevailed in a legal dispute with a bank over the ownership of radish seed they’d grown but hadn’t been paid for.

Multiple farms in Oregon’s Willamette Valley grew the radish seed in 2014 for Cover Crop Solutions, a Pennsylvania company that became insolvent before taking delivery of the crop.

Last year, the company’s creditor — Northwest Bank of Warren, Pa. — filed a lawsuit against the growers, claiming to own the radish seed they’d produced because it served as collateral for a $7 million loan.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman has now dismissed Northwest Bank’s arguments that growers relinquished ownership of the seed when they delivered it to a cleaner.

The June 6 ruling effectively means they can sell the crop rather than turn it over to the bank.

“It was a total victory,” said Paul Conable, attorney for the farms.

James Ray Streinz, attorney for Northwest Bank, said his client did not wish to comment on the ruling.

The bank had claimed that several seed cleaners effectively acted as “agents” of Cover Crop Solutions, so the radish seed they were storing was that company’s inventory.

When Cover Crops Solutions became insolvent, the inventory became the bank’s collateral because its liens on the crop were of a higher priority than liens taken out by farmers, according to Northwest Bank’s attorneys.

Conable said Mosman’s rejection of this claim shows he understands the functioning of the seed industry.

“It would have changed the seed business if by turning over seed to the cleaner to get cleaned, you were turning it over to the purchaser without getting paid,” he said.

Before reaching a decision on the question of whether seed cleaners were “agents” of Cover Crop Solutions, Mosman dismissed the bank’s lawsuit against several growers who had retained possession of the seed.

In May, the CHS cooperative announced it would license the radish seed variety in question now that Cover Crop Solutions is being liquidated or dissolved.

Future production of the variety will be controlled by CHS, which will also “facilitate purchasing of current inventories and production contracts,” according to a letter the cooperative sent to growers.

Conable said he doesn’t have information about whether CHS will buy the radish seed grown by his clients.

The final water supply report of the season concludes Oregon creeks and rivers will have below normal flows this summer, tightening the amount of water potentially available for irrigation, fish and recreation.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland predicts most streams will be at about 60 percent of normal flow, worse in the southeast corner of the state.

The June Water Supply Outlook reflects an up and down year as monitored by the NRCS snow survey team in Portland.

In a recap, team supervisor Scott Oviatt said heavy winter precipitation helped refill the state’s reservoirs, which dropped precipitously during the drought.

“Water year precipitation (measured Oct. 1 to March 31) has been near to above normal across the state, and has boosted reservoir levels that were near record low at the end of last summer,” Oviatt said in a prepared statement. “This paints a much better picture for water supply this year, compared to last year when reservoir storage was well below average. However, if the summer is hot and increases demand, water users drawing from reservoir sources could still experience possible water shortages.”

Reservoir levels won’t be sustained into the summer by melting snow, because it’s already gone.

About half the state’s snow monitoring sites recorded near normal snowfall this past winter, but the peak of it occurred one to four weeks earlier than normal, the NRCS report said. Then came an early April heat wave, and the snow at most monitoring sites melted one to three weeks earlier than normal, and up to five weeks early at a few sites.

JOHN DAY, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Agriculture has dropped a proposal to give the agency “stop work” authority over food processors and pesticide applicators.

Earlier this year, ODA was considering asking the legislature for a new regulatory tool to prohibit companies from using equipment or taking actions that are potentially hazardous.

These “stop work” orders would be more specific than the agency’s current authority to suspend or revoke the licenses of regulated companies.

After “combing through” existing enforcement laws for state agencies, however, the agency decided to first try using tools that are already on the books, said Lisa Hanson, ODA’s deputy director.

“We feel like we have adequate authority there after a lot of work rethinking the statutes,” she said during a June 7 meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture in John Day, Ore.

It will likely be possible to compel companies to “cease and desist” hazardous activities with statutory tools that ODA has not used in the past, said Katy Coba, the agency’s director.

“If we exhaust those and they don’t work, we can come back and look at new statutory authority,” Coba said.

While the “stop work” idea was scrapped, ODA may still ask for authority to conduct on-farm food safety inspections for growers of fresh produce and manufacturers of animal feed.

Such authority may be necessary if the federal government delegates such inspections — which are required under the Food Safety Modernization Act — to state agencies.

Apart from refining “legislative concepts” regarding agricultural policy, the ODA is also currently examining possible funding requests for next year’s legislative session.

State agencies are expected to face a budget shortfall in the 2017-2019 biennium due to increased costs related to Oregon’s Public Employee Retirement System.

However, state government may obtain several billion dollars in revenue if voters approve a ballot initiative raising corporate taxes this year.

The ODA is conservatively planning for budget cuts if the initiative fails, but the agency has also undertaken a parallel process to identify “asks” if it passes, said Coba.

“It’s kind of a strange budget prep for us,” she said.

The agency will have more specific budget plans ready to submit to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in September, she said.