West Coast lawmakers are set to meet today amid warnings that the Klamath Basin’s water agreements could crumble if Congress doesn’t pass an authorization bill by the end of this year.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who has been cool to the proposal to remove four dams from the Klamath River that’s at the heart of the water pact, will meet with Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and other leaders to “find a path forward” on Klamath issues, his office said Dec. 2.

The meeting will include Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, and California Republican Reps. Tom McClintock and Doug LaMalfa, two vocal opponents of removing the dams.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., will also attend, according to Walden’s office.

“There’s a lot of moving parts to this,” Walden spokesman Andrew Malcolm told the Capital Press. “There’s a lot of people opposed (to dam removal) in the House and the Senate. In the Senate, a bill was proposed this year and has gone nowhere. So we believe a good way forward is to gather everyone together ... to discuss what might be useful.”

The meeting comes as Oregon Gov. Kate Brown recently sent a letter to lawmakers urging their quick authorization of the Klamath pacts, and more than 50 groups — including the Oregon Farm Bureau, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and several local farm groups — signed on to an ad published Dec. 2 in several Oregon newspapers urging Congress to act.

Groups that supported that 2010 Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and two companion pacts warn they could all crumble soon if Congress doesn’t act before Jan. 1, returning the region to the water fights and irrigation shutoffs of decades past.

Already, regulatory agencies are resuming the task of reviewing PacifiCorp’s dam relicensing application, and the Yurok Tribe — a key water right holder on the Klamath River — has withdrawn from the agreements, the advocates say.

The 42 signatories of the pacts that included the dam removals as well as water-sharing and numerous conservation efforts in the basin already renewed the agreements once, in late 2012.

“I think this time is different,” said Glen Spain, northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “We’re a short period of time ... from deadlines when this is all supposed to happen. We’ve done everything that’s been required in this, including finding non-federal money for dam removal.”

Proponents say PacifiCorp’s pledge of $200 million and funding from California’s Proposition 1 water bond will cover the cost of dam removal, although the federal government would be on the hook for fisheries restoration. A task force assembled in 2013 slashed the cost of the overall package to about $545 million, down from an original estimate of $1.1 billion.

However, congressional approval has remained a sticking point, as bills authorizing the agreements have languished since 2011. This year, Widen’s Senate Bill 133 failed to advance beyond the upper chamber’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

WALTERVILLE, Ore. (AP) — Oregon State Police Trooper Anthony Mathews shot the cow dead.

And then he had to do it again and again and again.

“It’s heart-wrenching,” Mathews said at the scene along Highway 126 west of Walterville, where a truck pulling a trailer with 68 cattle overturned Tuesday afternoon. “They’re more or less like pets, and it’s hard, but you have to do what’s right for them and not let them suffer.”

Mathews, a wildlife division trooper with the state police, was assigned to kill a total of 12 injured cows trapped inside the trailer.

Mathews said he’d had to kill animals before, mostly wildlife.

As the shots from Mathews’ handgun rang out, bystanders and emergency crew members winced and plugged their ears. Mathews was equipped with ear protection to cancel out the sharp sounds.

Mathews said there were “many more” animals already dead in the trailer.

Once confirmed dead, the cows were dragged from the trailer with a long metal cable and placed into another trailer. A co-owner of the truck and trailer, Ron Langley of Monroe, said the carcasses would likely be taken to a designated dump, as they could not be used for meat.

“A lot of them have broken legs and bones,” Langley said of the animals. “There’s no way for us to get them up or use them, so we have to shoot them.”

Langley works for Apache Transport, a Junction City company that hauls livestock and construction materials.

The owner of the cows was also on the scene and helped troopers decipher which animals could be salvaged.

The truck driver had minor injuries and was not taken to a hospital, law enforcement officials said.

The truck sheared a tree and also struck a power pole, which downed lines and cut power to several nearby homes and businesses.

Following the crash, several cows escaped to a nearby field through a hole in the top of trailer, according to state police trooper Sgt. Vonn Schleicher, who said he was unsure how many cows were alive, dead or injured. The trailer likely was ripped open on impact, Schleicher said.

The cows that remained trapped inside the trailer could be heard mooing and kicking the metal trailer, prompting officials to decide to shoot the severely injured animals, Schleicher said.

The area where the truck overturned has been the scene of multiple crashes over the years, according to several neighbors.

A driver who crashed his state-owned tanker truck on Dec. 30, 2014, spilled a load of 11,000 juvenile salmon in the same spot. The driver, who struck a power pole, was later determined to have a blood alcohol level of 0.29 percent, state police said at the time.

The scene at Tuesday’s crash was eerily familiar, according to 38-year-old Penny Burns, who said crashes in the area are “a constant problem.”

“That’s the exact same spot the fish truck crashed,” Burns said. “There are so many crashes here. ... I mean look at my fence, it’s had to be replaced because of it.”

Burns said she was the first to call 911.

“As soon as I heard it, I came out and saw one (cow) take off,” Burns said. “They were all mooing and kicking very loudly.”

Burns said the driver got out of the truck quickly.

“The guy was hurt a little, he was bleeding from the head and looked like he may have broken his nose, but he was walking and talking just fine,” Burns said.

Marlin Lay, 56, said he was arriving home just up the street when the crash happened.

“Speeding is what got him,” Lay said. “He hit that tree so hard, he bounced back into the highway.”

Lay, who has lived off Cedar Flat Road for more than 20 years, said the area is prone to crashes because of its curves.

“You’re going 55 (mph), then all of the sudden it’s 45 and the road is curving,” Lay said. “There’s a sign right there that says 45 and they don’t pay attention.”

Police said Wednesday that speed was a reason the truck failed to negotiate the turn. The driver was cited for failing to drive within his lane.

A river health “report card” compiled by representatives from 20 entities gives Oregon’s Willamette River a “B” grade in its upper and middle sections and a C+ as it passes through Portland on its way to the Columbia.

The report made public Wednesday grades the river on five factors: Water quality, fish and wildlife presence, habitat such as streambank vegetation, flow and the impact of people.

Scientists measured the river’s health as determined by multiple indicators. Among them were fecal bacteria levels, the presence of native fish and bald eagles, water temperature, channel structure and levels of toxics.

Overall, it was a surprisingly good show for a river that is the nation’s 19th largest by volume, courses 187 miles through Oregon’s largest cities and highly productive farmland, and is often written off as polluted.

“The river is clean enough to swim in,” said Allison Hensey, deputy director of the Willamette River Initiative, an effort funded by the non-profit Meyer Memorial Trust.

Fecal bacteria counts are low throughout the river’s reach, toxics are relatively low except in the Portland harbor “superfund” contamination cleanup site, and there were no harmful algal blooms in the upper and middle reaches. Algal blooms are rare enough in the lower Portland stretch that the river earned an A+ from the study group.

Water quality in the Willamette is very good from Eugene to Albany, good from Albany to Newberg, and acceptable from Newberg to Portland, the group reported. Native fish and bald eagles, two of the indicators considered, are found in good numbers through most of the river.

But problems remain, Hensey said. The river is too warm, channel complexity is diminished, the flow volume is well below ideal level and native resident fish such as bass and carp — as opposed to ocean migrating salmon and steelhead — aren’t safe to eat in large quantities. Flood plain vegetation, the trees and bushes that hold, filter and cool the river, has been disrupted.

For some emerging concerns — such as traces of pharmaceuticals or personal care products found in the river — the study group had no standards by which to grade the Willamette’s health, Hensey said.

The river has multiple uses, ranging from irrigation to recreation, and five cities now draw drinking water from the Willamette, with more likely to join them, she said.

“This is a river we all rely on,” she said.

Willamette Valley farmers are in good position to help solve some of the river’s problems because their land borders it, said Cheryl Hummon, riparian specialist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s water quality management program.

Farmers and other rural landowners should maintain existing forested areas along the Willamette and its tributary streams, Hummon said. Such work doesn’t take land out of production, doesn’t require a permit and doesn’t need financial or technical assistance. “It is far more effective and efficient to protect what we have than to restore what we’ve lost,” Hummon said in an email.

Hummon was one of the study group members that spent the past year-and-a-half researching the river’s health. Others were from Oregon State and the University of Oregon, ODFW, Oregon DEQ, several cities, utilities and tribal and watershed groups. The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science helped coordinate the work.

SHERWOOD, Ore. — Richard Hostetter wasn’t a farmer, but he knew the international investment game. He knew the big boys were increasingly favoring agriculture over the long haul. People have to eat, after all.

Arriving in Oregon in 2013 after 17 years in Tokyo, where he’d worked for big banks and investment houses, he searched for an opportunity. He figured he was too late to make money in Oregon blueberries or hazelnuts, and the wine industry likewise seemed over-populated.

When someone mentioned cider apples, his response was, “What the heck is that?”

“Initially, I wasn’t interested,” he said. “I didn’t think it had any legs.”

Research and due diligence convinced him otherwise. It quickly became apparent that hard cider was an industry on the rise. Cideries and cider pubs were popping up everywhere, especially in Portland, mimicking the rise of the craft beer industry. Membership in the Northwest Cider Association grew from 17 to 70 in the past three years.

And just like wine grapes, the apples that make the best hard cider are different than the ones people like to eat. The rush is on to provide the bittersweet varieties, including old English and French apples, that make the best hard cider.

There is, Hostetter discovered, “A mismatch between rapidly growing demand and slow growing supply.”

Which is how he came to plant 15,000 cider apple trees on three leased acres outside Sherwood, 20 miles south of Portland.

“I do believe there’s a big opportunity in cider apples,” he said. “I’ve rolled the dice fairly aggressively on this.”

In that sense, Hostetter, 47, represents a couple of truisms in Oregon agriculture. First, the emerging generation of farmers includes people new to the field but with other skills, experience or money. Second, Oregon’s agricultural diversity — the state grows 220 crops — opens doors to unexpected economic development.

Hostetter is engaged in a crash course on grafting, planting and growing fruit trees, all of which is complicated and costly. “Even the wood for grafting is worth a lot of money right now,” he said.

The biggest difficulty has been finding farmland to buy, with water rights. suitable soil and within striking distance of Portland. He has about two dozen varieties growing in close-packed nursery style on the leased land while he searches for property on which to transplant his orchard.

He believes the industry will achieve a high-qualty niche once cider makers have a supply of proper apples.

Ten years from now, he hopes to be known as the owner of a sizable commercial cider apple business.

Richard Hostetter

Age: 47

Family: Wife, Naoko, sons Ryan and Alan, and Reggie the chocolate lab, who has free rein of the cider orchard. Wife is from Japan and family (except Reggie, Hostetter jokes) is bi-lingual.

Background: Grew up on Lookout Mountain, Tenn., a suburb of Chattanooga. Not from an agricultural family, but loved farms and dreamed of owning one.

Education: Bachelor of arts degree from Wheaton College in Illinois; master’s degree in business administration from University of South Carolina.

Professional life: Worked 13 years as an economist in the Japanese foreign exchange and stock markets, four years as a management consultant in Tokyo.

Why farming, why now: International institutional investors are increasingly looking at agriculture as a solid place to put their money. Getting into farming combines two interests.

Why cider apples: The increasing sophistication of American consumers. The demand for fine wine and craft beer is spreading to other beverages and food. With cider apples, there’s a complete mismatch between “rapidly growing demand and slow growing supply.”

PENDLETON, Ore. — The Columbia Basin’s 2015 salmon season is the second-strongest year since the federal dams were built nearly 80 years ago.

A record number of fall chinook salmon returned up the Columbia River past McNary Dam in 2015, continuing on to spawning grounds at Hanford Reach, the Snake River and Yakima Basin.

More than 456,000 of the fish were counted at McNary Dam, breaking the facility’s previous record of 454,991 set in 2013. An estimated 200,000 fall chinook made it back to Hanford Reach, the most since hydroelectric dams were first built on the Columbia nearly 80 years ago.

Both federal and tribal leaders hailed the impressive run as a positive sign of their efforts to improve both fish habitat and passage at the dams. The Bonneville Power Administration is especially pleased with recent projects at McNary Dam, re-routing its juvenile fish bypass channel to provide better protection from predators. Crews also installed weirs at two of the dam’s spillway gates, which lets certain species of fish pass through closer to the surface.

Overall, 2.3 million adult salmon passed through Bonneville Dam near Portland, making it the second-strongest year on record for the entire Columbia Basin.

“When you look at how well salmon did overall is this year, it’s clear the approach of restoring critical fish habitat and improving dam passage is working,” said Lorri Bodi, vice president of environment, fish and wildlife at BPA.

There were 3,485 chinook counted at Three Mile Falls Dam on the Umatilla River near Hermiston. That’s slightly more than the 3,259 in 2014, and less than the 4,117 fish in 2013.

Coho counts fell back to Earth after a monster year in 2014 — 3,076 in 2015, compared to more than 14,000 a year ago at Three Mile Falls Dam. Steelhead were much lower, with just 558 fish versus 1,480 in 2014.

Kat Brigham, who has served on the Board of Trustees for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation as well as the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said such anomalies used to be purely attributed to ocean survival — something that’s no doubt important, but was a convenient way of dismissing environmental damage and flaws in the dams’ passage systems.

“Ocean survival is an important piece, but nobody can really determine what good ocean survival is,” Brigham said. “We still have to look at what needs to be done to protect our fish as both adults and juveniles.”

Brigham said she is excited about this year’s fall returns, which is the result of hard work between the four CRITFC tribes, Northwest states and federal government.

But there are still challenges to reestablishing sustainable populations, she said. The basin still has 13 fish runs listed on the Endangered Species Act, and a changing climate won’t make things any easier.

The CTUIR and Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife began trucking spring salmon up past Three Mile Falls Dam in May this year, much earlier than normal as low flows and warm water put additional stress on the fish.

Coming up with a plan for endangered fish require a holistic approach, Brigham said. No part of the restoration effort is more important than the other.

“If it was a real simple answer, I hope we would have found it and got it done,” Brigham said. “It’s not just the drought. You have to look at everything.”

Brigham said she understands the BPA has to consider costs, and irrigation will always be a part of the basin. They are striving to come up with a balance that will ultimately allow everyone to survive. She said the CTUIR’s Umatilla River Vision is potentially a model for other interests to consider.

“It’s an ongoing project to try and protect the habitat and fish going over dams,” she said. “We are protecting our culture, our way of life and treaty rights.”

Not all Northwest fish runs fared well in 2015. Unseasonably warm temperatures heated river water enough to all but decimate endangered Snake River sockeye, though biologists did release 600 hatchery sockeye into Idaho’s Redfish and Pettit Lakes to spawn naturally. Research shows the offspring of sockeye spawned naturally in lakes return at higher rates than those simply released from the hatchery.

Paul Lumley, CRITFC executive director, said the successes in 2015 highlight what they are capable of accomplishing as a region when everyone works together.

“Yes, there is more work to be done to address things like climate change, water quality and water temperatures, but this success provides the confidence to achieve full salmon recovery,” Lumley said.

A controversial proposal to expand a landfill on farmland in Oregon’s Yamhill County has been dealt a setback due to an adverse land use ruling.

Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals found that, in approving the proposal, the county government improperly shifted the burden to farmers to prove they’d be harmed by the 29-acre expansion.

Due to this error, LUBA has now sent the approval decision back to Yamhill County for reconsideration.

Under Oregon law, certain non-farm uses such as landfills can only be approved if they don’t “force a significant change” in farm practices on surrounding farmland.

In this case, LUBA found that the county incorrectly discounted evidence of harm from the Riverbend landfill on properties beyond one mile from the facility.

The county also erred by disregarding evidence of bird damage because the farmers didn’t quantify the amount of destruction, LUBA said.

It’s up to landfill’s owner — Waste Management — to prove the harm isn’t significant, but the county didn’t fault the company for not quantifying the extent of damage from birds attracted to the facility, the ruling said.

Similarly, LUBA said the county insufficiently considered the impacts of wind carrying plastic bags and other trash from the landfill onto nearby fields, complicating hay baling.

The county also should have considered the negative effects of noise on a nearby pheasant farm as well as “odor and visual impacts” on farm stands and other direct marketing operations, LUBA said.

Ramsey McPhillips, a landowner and longtime opponent of the landfill, said the LUBA decision is a victory because Oregon’s environmental regulators can’t permit the expansion until Yamhill County revises its findings or the ruling is reversed on appeal.

It will be difficult for the county’s commissioners to again ignore evidence of harm to farmers, but if they do, opponents will again challenge the approval, he said.

“We’re not going to give up. We’re going to just keep going and going and going,” McPhillips said.

The best case scenario for opponents would be if Yamhill County turned down the expansion proposal, especially since the legal controversy is prompting landfill customers to examine other dumping options, he said.

“The tide has turned more in that direction,” he said.

Waste Management noted that LUBA rejected most of the “assignments of error” alleged by the opponents, which “shows we are on the right track,” said Jackie Lang, senior communications manager for the company, in an email.

The finding on farm impacts indicates LUBA want more information, but Waste Management hasn’t yet decided whether to appeal that aspect of the ruling, she said.

“We are reviewing the decision now to understand the full intent and determine our next steps,” Lang said. “There have been many steps to this process over the last seven years. We are continue to look forward and take it one step at a time.”

Tim Sadlo, the county’s general counsel, said the commissioners have until Dec. 1 to decide whether to challenge LUBA’s ruling before the Oregon Court of Appeals, but such an outcome isn’t likely.

The ruling held that Yamhill County did not misconstrue land use law by allowing a landfill in a farm zone, which a major point in favor of the county, Sadlo said.

As for the county’s analysis of farm impacts, “that’s the kind of thing that can usually be cured on a remand,” he said.

Sisters, Ore. — A key part of Marc Thalacker’s original job description was drying up the stream from which his irrigation district drew water.

Entirely drying up Whychus Creek in summer ensured growers within the Three Sisters Irrigation District got as much water as possible, but by the late 1990s, it was clear the practice was bound to come under regulatory scrutiny, said Thalacker, the district’s manager.

Steelhead and bull trout were gaining federal protections as threatened species, and it appeared likely the district would face problems under the Endangered Species Act, he said.

“Why wait for the regulatory hammer when you can get out in front of it?” Thalacker said.

At the same time, the irrigation system was inefficient: Of the 35,000 acre feet of water diverted by the district, only 17,000 acre feet were delivered to farmers, he said. “The rest would seep into the ground through our leaky canals.”

Since then, the district has replaced 50 miles of its 63 miles of canals with high-density plastic pipes. When the system is fully piped in about five years, the rate of water loss will fall to 10 percent, down from more than 50 percent with canals.

Farmers are now able to get more water while diverting less from the creek.

Piping provides additional benefits: The irrigation system is pressurized by gravity, which allows farmers to stop pumping and thus save electricity. Last year, the district also installed a hydropower turbine that generates more than 3 million kilowatt hours a year, or enough to power 75 homes.

Money generated from selling electricity will help pay off loans taken out for the piping project. Meanwhile, the district plans to install four smaller turbines next year as part of a demonstration project for growers and invest in a second large turbine by 2020.

While the $2 million cost of the first turbine was heavily subsidized with grants from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Energy Trust of Oregon, a non-profit funded by state ratepayers, Thalacker expects such projects will one day pencil out financially on their own.

As Pacificorp and other major power utilities reduce their reliance on coal burning over the next decade, electricity rates are expected to rise and make such renewable energy projects economically feasible, he said.

“When we’re burning a lot less coal, this will make a lot more sense,” Thalacker said.

Three Sisters Irrigation District is one of seven districts in Oregon that have retrofit their systems to generate hydropower, and another six are examining the possibility as part of broader modernization efforts, said Jed Jorgensen, renewable energy program coordinator at the Energy Trust of Oregon non-profit.

“It is an idea that is just starting to take off,” Jorgensen said.

Hydropower turbines are often associated with piping projects, particularly when a system doesn’t have a sudden drop in elevation — in such cases, pipes are necessary to build enough pressure to power the turbine, he said. For a hydropower turbine to make sense, there has to be enough spare pressure in a system beyond what farmers need to eliminate pumps.

“You don’t want hydropower to be in conflict with how farmers get their water,” Jorgensen said.

Energy Trust of Oregon funds such hydropower retrofits that are on the verge of being financially viable but can’t quite make it on their own, he said.

Even when the revenues from hydropower alone may not make a project attractive enough, districts and ditch companies are drawn to other advantages of irrigation modernization, such as reduced electricity use from pressurization, decreased costs for upkeeping canals and fewer environmental headaches, Jorgensen said.

“That water savings is worth a lot of money and is a tremendous environmental benefit,” he said.

Aside from economic factors, the technology is more accessible because recent legislation has removed regulatory barriers to installing hydropower turbines, said Dan Keppen, executive director of the Family Farm Alliance, a group that advocates for irrigators.

In 2013, two bills — House Resolutions 267 and 678 — were passed into law, which streamlined the federal government’s approval of small hydropower facilities, Keppen said.

Previously, hydropower retrofits were lumped in with larger projects even though they modified existing irrigation systems and had no environmental impact, he said.

The time and expense of obtaining permitting was often greater than building the project itself, but now many of these impediments have been removed, Keppen said.

Irrigation systems across the West are often reliant on gravity, with water being pulled from behind a dam or distributed by flowing from higher to lower elevations, so they’re already designed to accommodate hydropower, he said.

“You’re going to have Mother Nature on your side,” Keppen said.

NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — Land management officials say they have begun reseeding the giant burned area along the Idaho-Oregon border where a wildfire scorched valuable sage grouse habitat and grasslands needed by ranchers.

KIVI-TV reports that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has started drilling grass, forbs and shrub seeds into the ground. The agency plans on dispersing 2.4 million pounds of seed.

Cindy Fritz, a natural resource specialist for the BLM, says that reseeding will help reduce the spread of invasive grass species. However, she added that it will take at least 15 years for the area to return to normal.

The fire earlier this summer charred a 443-square-mile area, often fueled by invasive cheatgrass and burning up to 125 square miles in a day. It easily leapt fire lines put down by retardant bombers.

SALEM – After nearly 11 hours of emotional testimony, back and forth discussion and two timeouts for legal advice from a state attorney, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 4-2 Monday to take gray wolves off the state endangered species list.

In making the decision, commission members agreed with an ODFW staff appraisal that the state’s wolves have expanded in number and range to the point that they no longer need protection under the state Endangered Species Act.

Oregon’s wolves remain covered under the federal ESA in the western two-thirds of the state, and ODFW officials say the state wolf management plan remains in effect and will protect wolves from illegal hunting.

The decision doesn’t close the book on Oregon’s work to manage wolves. Some commission members made it clear they preferred to delist wolves only in the eastern third of the state, where most of Oregon’s 82 confirmed wolves live, but were prevented from doing so by language in the state law.

Meanwhile, conservation groups are expected to file a lawsuit over the commission’s decision.

“I think that’s very likely,” said Amaroq Weiss of the Center for Biological Diversity. “I think they’re in violation of the law. They didn’t pay attention to the science.”

Conservation groups believe Oregon’s wolf population is too small and too fragile to delist, and is present in only 12 percent of its potential territory.

“There’s no other species we would delist when it’s absent from almost 90 percent of its habitat,” Weiss said.

Oregon’s ranchers, who had urged the ODFW commission to follow the guidelines of the wolf plan and the recommendations of the department’s biologists, cheered the decision.

“I’m relieved,” said Todd Nash, wolf committee chairman for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. “This sends a message to cattle producers that the ODFW Commission will stand by its commitment.”

Nash said ranchers would not have supported a partial delisting.

“When we were paying the price (of livestock attacks) in Eastern Oregon, we fully believed we were doing it for the whole state,” Nash said. “And we were proud to do it.”

More than 150 people packed the ODFW hearing room and 106 signed up to testify. Activists opposed to delisting wolves, many of them wearing matching orange T-shirts, made up a majority of the audience. A sprinkling of men in cowboy hats – Eastern Oregon cattle ranchers who have borne the stress and cost of wolf attacks on livestock – clustered on one side of the hearing room.

The testimony echoed the arguments that have been made since Oregon’s wolf population reached the number of breeding pairs that trigger consideration of delisting under the management plan.

Conservation groups and their allied argue that the state’s biological status report on wolves was flawed and should have been peer-reviewed by other scientists. ODFW staff belatedly circulated the report to biologists they knew, but conservationists said that was insufficient.

“If this commission chooses to delist it will make a very sad and powerful statement about who and what it serves,” said Jonathan Jelen, development director for the conservation group Oregon Wild.

Livestock producers, however, argued they’d followed the wolf plan in good faith and expected the ODFW Commission to to the same.

“Oregon ranchers honored their obligation to follow the plan,” said Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. “This is one of the reasons wolves multiplied in our state.”

SALEM — A packed meeting room is expected today as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission decides whether to remove gray wolves from the state’s endangered species law.

Livestock producers strongly favor the idea and conservation groups are just as deeply opposed, and a full day of emotional, conflicting testimony is likely. The wolf delisting is the only item on the commission’s agenda.

State wildlife biologists recommend delisting wolves. Under the state’s wolf recovery plan, the commission can take wolves off the endangered list if they determine:

Wolves aren’t in danger of extinction in any portion of their range; their natural reproductive potential is not in danger of failing; there’s no imminent or active deterioration of their range or primary habitat; the species or its habitat won’t be “over-utilized” for scientific, recreational, commercial or educational reasons; and existing state or federal regulations are adequate to protect them.

Conservation groups aligned as the Pacific Wolf Coalition have described the staff recommendation as flawed. They believe state law requires that the study be peer reviewed by other scientists. The coalition includes Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands and the Center for Biological Diversity.

If the ODFW commission agrees with the staff recommendation, it would mean wolves in the eastern third of the state are not protected under either state or federal endangered species laws. Federal ESA protection would still be in force in Oregon west of Highways 395, 78 and 95.

Delisting wouldn’t mean open season on wolves in Eastern Oregon, however. The state wolf plan would remain in force, and it allows ODFW-approved “controlled take,” or killing, of wolves in cases of chronic livestock attacks or if wolves cause a decline in prey populations, chiefly elk and deer. Ranchers, as they can now, would be able to shoot wolves caught in the act of attacking livestock or herd dogs. None have been killed in that manner.

Oregon’s wolf plan does not allow sport hunting of wolves in any phase of the recovery timeline, department spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said.

Oregon has 82 confirmed wolves. The number stood at 85 in July, but the Sled Springs pair was found dead of unknown cause in Wallowa County, and a man hunting coyotes shot a lone wolf, OR-22, in Grant County. ODFW’s wolf program coordinator, Russ Morgan, estimates Oregon has 90 to 100 wolves and said the population might reach 150 within three years.

Paul Hughes jokes that he hasn’t caused an accident on the road yet. So far, so good, when you’re accustomed to driving on the left in Great Britain and have to adjust to American traffic patterns.

When it comes to making whiskey, vodka and other distilled spirits, however, Hughes will be happy to share his way of doing things.

Hughes, a chemist who spent the past 10 years teaching at a university in Scotland, has been hired as a researcher and instructor at Oregon State University’s Fermentation Center. The program teaches students how to make wine, beer and cheese, and is branching out into the fast-growing distilled spirits industry.

According to OSU, distilled spirits made in Oregon now account for $69 million in gross annual sales, nearly 13 percent of the state’s liquor revenue. Oregon has close to 80 distilleries, up from 12 eight years ago, said Christie Scott, spokeswoman for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

Hughes said one of his priorities is to meet with distillers and establish good relations with the industry.

Hughes also is setting up the first distilling course, which will be offered in January.

“There’s a lot of commonality around the fermenting techniques used in brewing, wine-making and distilled spirits production,” he said in an OSU news release. “But distilling requires additional steps. So there will be a need for additional courses about those techniques.”

Hughes most recently taught and did research at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland,

At OSU, the fermentation sciences program is part of the Food Science and Technology department.

The Oregon Legislature provided money for the distilled spirits position on campus.

PORTLAND — Visiting this foodie city to promote her book and to learn about food system changes, Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of one president and potentially a second, declined to delve into her mom’s ideas on agriculture.

Clinton, daughter of Bill Clinton, the 42nd U.S. president and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who seeks the 2016 Democratic Party’s nomination, suggested people visit her mother’s website for her views on agriculture. Hillary Clinton, the former senator and Secretary of State, has been spending time in Iowa, a key primary state and where farming is “hugely important,” Chelsea Clinton noted.

She said her mother helped start a micro-financing program in Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor, and the first clients were small farmers.

Chelsea Clinton didn’t mention it, but her mother has another agricultural connection in Iowa. In August, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Vilsack has been mentioned as a possible vice president pick, but downplayed that during a visit to Portland in August. Vilsack said he simply believed Clinton is the best candidate.

The younger Clinton, who spent her teenage years in the White House, is 35 now, married and has a 13-month-old daughter. It was while pregnant that she became more acutely aware of the world her daughter and other children will inherit.

Clinton said proper nutrition and exercise are crucial for young people.

“When I was in public school in Little Rock (Arkansas), we had P.E. every single day,” Clinton said. Now, fewer than 10 percent of school children have gym every day, she said, and recess has “largely gone away.”

Clinton’s book, “It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going!” details some of the world’s problems and shares stories of young people who are helping their communities find solutions.

Clinton said her first turn as an activist came when she was a youngster and learned wildlife sometimes choked on discarded plastic beverage container rings. She began “obsessively” cutting them up — “Which I still do,” she said — and convinced her classmates to do the same.

Clinton spoke Nov. 5 at Ecotrust, a Portland nonprofit that researches and seeks sustainable solutions in farming, forestry and economics. Among other things, the organization produced a report this year on problems hindering “Ag of the Middle,” the small- to mid-size producers and processors who are too big to survive by selling at farmers’ markets but too small to compete in the commodities markets.

At Ecotrust, Clinton heard a three-member panel detail work they’re doing to ensure nutritious local food finds its way to schools and to programs that serve needy populations. About two dozen children were in the audience, in addition to adults.

Clinton was introduced by Amanda Oborne, Ecotrust’s vice president of food and farms, who told students in the audience that the “food system riddle” would be theirs to solve.

“The food system you’re inheriting is kind of a mess,” she said.

Children today, when they become adults, will figure out how to feed 9 billion people, adapt to a changing climate and engage in farming, ranching and fishing techniques that replenish natural resources, Oborne said.

A calf was killed and eaten in Klamath County and two others were badly mauled in the first confirmed wolf attacks on livestock outside Northeast Oregon.

Tracking collar data showed a wolf designated OR-25 was at the attack site five times between Oct. 28 and Nov. 2. The calves were attacked in a 100-acre pasture on private land in the upper Williamson River area, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

OR-25 is a male wolf that dispersed from the Imnaha Pack and traveled through the Columbia Basin, Southern Blue Mountains and Northern and Central Cascades. He’s been in the Sprague wildlife management area of Klamath County since May, according to ODFW.

In August, the department designated the region an Area of Known Wolf Activity and encouraged livestock owners to take defensive measures, part of the process required under the Oregon wolf plan. The wolf wears a GPS tracking collar that emits a location signal to a computer at regular intervals.

The livestock attack comes as the ODFW Commission is set to decide Nov. 9 whether to remove gray wolves from the state endangered species list.

The wolf and the Klamath County attack site are physically outside the state endangered species jurisdiction, but the de-listing decision is expected to attract a large crowd and emotional, conflicting testimony. The attack may be seen as additional evidence wolves are expanding in numbers and range, as state wildlife biologists said when they recommended wolves be removed from the state endangered species list.

State Endangered Species Act protection applies to wolves east of Oregon Highways 395, 78 and 95, roughly the eastern one-third of the state. Federal ESA jurisdiction covers the rest of the state west of the highways.

Investigation of the Klamath County attacks began when an unidentified livestock producer reported finding an injured 350-pound heifer in the pasture Oct. 31, the carcass of a dead calf Nov. 1 and another injured calf Nov. 2. The injured calves had severe bite wounds and “massive tissue damage” to their hind legs, according to an ODFW report.

Of the carcass, “very little remained of the dead calf for examination,” ODFW reported. The department confirmed a wolf was responsible for all three.

OR-25 is believed to be alone. The department has no evidence he has a mate or pups, said Michelle Dennehy, ODFW spokeswoman.

Online

ODFW’s depredation report http://dfw.state.or.us/Wolves/docs/dep_inv/151103_Klamath_Depredation_Report.pdf

Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences has submitted an application to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seeking permission to conduct research on industrial hemp production, according to an OSU announcement issued Nov. 5.

Jay Noller, head of the college’s Crop and Soil Science Department, said the university hopes to secure approval from the DEA and the Oregon Department of Agriculture in time to begin the research next year.

The 2014 Farm Bill included a provision allowing higher educational institutions to conduct industrial hemp research in states where hemp production is legal.

The Oregon Legislature in 2009 legalized the production and possession of industrial hemp.

Noller said the research will focus on agronomic production of industrial hemp in Western Oregon.

He said the College of Agricultural Sciences hasn’t identified a particular individual interested in conducting the research, but believes researchers are available that would be interested.

“I think there are agronomists, particularly those who just completed graduate school training, who could come in and perform the field trials,” he said. “My ideal sense is we would be able to secure enough external funds to make it worthwhile for somebody to study this.”

Asked if the college’s interest in hemp research could bleed into marijuana research, Noller said: “I wouldn’t rule that out in the long run if federal actions move that to where it is permissible.

“At this time we are just looking at the question of will industrial hemp varieties grow in Western Oregon,” he said.

According to the announcement, industrial hemp has many uses, including in paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, fuel and health and food products. It also is an environmentally friendly plant that grows fast and requires few pesticides.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Forest officials have voted to expand no-logging buffers along streams on private timberland in Western Oregon to keep water cool enough for salmon.

The Oregon Board of Forestry adopted the rules on Thursday, despite protests from logging interests. Riparian zone buffers would increase to 80 feet on medium-sized streams and 60 feet on small streams, with the option to not cut any trees or to do thinning on part of the buffer.

The new rules won’t apply in the Siskiyou region, which was left out of the buffer expansion.

Currently trees must be left uncut 20 feet from streams on private timberland — though some additional feet are required where a number of trees must be maintained.

Removing too many trees leads streams to warm up, which can harm cold-water fish like salmon, steelhead and bull trout. Logging near streams also eliminates downed logs, which help create deep pools for salmon to escape predators and hide from the heat.

The bigger the no-logging buffers, the more shade, but the greater the economic impact on timberland owners.

Conservationists for years have been trying to get the board to boost the current buffers of 20 feet to 100 feet in order to meet the cold water standard. In recent years, record hot temperatures and drought have killed fish.

Earlier this year, federal regulators ruled that Oregon logging rules do not sufficiently protect fish and water in western Oregon from pollution caused by clear-cutting too close to streams, runoff form old logging roads, and other problems.

The Board of Forestry considered two proposals. One would have increased no-cut buffer zones to 90 feet, while the other would have left buffers unchanged, but would have require approaches such as thinning, sun-sided buffers or staggering harvests. The newly adopted rules were a compromise between the two.

“We feel it’s a modest step in the right direction, but we’re concerned it doesn’t go far enough,” said Bob Van Dyk with the Wild Salmon Center. Van Dyk said the new small stream buffers still won’t meet legal requirements to protect cold water for salmon.

Timber companies said the buffer increase would have big economic effects and is too expensive for loggers. Kristina McNitt, president of the Oregon Forest Industries Council, said the organization sees the new logging restrictions as political and arbitrary. The group represents private timberland owners.

“There is no evidence that modern forest practices harm fish,” McNitt said in a statement.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — An organic seed company and an organization opposed to genetic engineering will be allowed to defend a prohibition against biotech crops in Oregon’s Josephine County.

Circuit Court Judge Michael Newman ruled Nov. 4 that Siskiyou Seeds and Oregonians for Safe Farms and Families can intervene in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the county’s ban on genetically modified organisms.

The seed company should not have to wait to defend the ordinance until its crops are at risk of cross-pollination from GMO varieties, Newman said at a hearing in Grants Pass, Ore.

The judge also allowed OSFF, a group that campaigned for the ordinance, to serve as Siskiyou Seeds’ co-defendant.

The company and OSFF argued that Josephine County’s government won’t defend the ban against genetically engineered crops, so they should be allowed to resist an attempt to overturn it.

The intervenors claimed that it would be prejudicial to exclude them from the lawsuit because the county doesn’t appear willing to challenge a state law that pre-empts most local governments from regulating GMOs.

“This litigation won’t be fully and fairly litigated by the existing parties,” said Stephanie Dolan, an attorney for the intervenors.

The group cited court documents filed by Josephine County, which raised no “affirmative defenses” of the ban on genetically modified organisms and did not question the legal standing of farmers who filed a case to invalidate the ordinance.

Robert and Shelley Ann White, who grew transgenic sugar beets, filed a complaint earlier this year seeking a declaration that the ordinance was pre-empted by a state statute passed in 2013.

In its answer to the complaint, Josephine County said it “takes no position” on whether the plaintiffs are entitled to a declaration that the GMO ban is unenforceable.

Instead, the county joined the plaintiffs in a request that a judge decide whether the prohibition is valid, noting that the ordinance was passed by voters and not the county.

“We have to follow the law. What we want to know is what law: the county law or the state law,” said Wally Hicks, attorney for Josephine County.

John DiLorenzo, attorney for the farmers who filed the case, said Siskiyou Seeds and OSFF weren’t entitled to act as defendants.

“It has to be more than an interested person who wants the laws enforced,” DiLorenzo said.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a similar bid by an anti-gay marriage group that wanted to defend a California initiative defining marriage as between a man and a woman, he said.

In that case, lawyers representing California decided the statute was legally indefensible, DiLorenzo said.

“I don’t know why the county is not actively defending the (GMO) ordinance. It may be because it has come to the same conclusion as California’s attorney general did,” he said.

Don Tipping, owner of Siskiyou Seeds, hasn’t shown “one scintilla of evidence” that his company was harmed by biotech crops, DiLorenzo said.

The GMO ban would not have prevented Tipping from buying corn seed that contained GMO traits, as occurred in the past, he said.

Tipping’s decision to tear out a field of Swiss chard due to the proximity of a biotech sugar beet crop did not amount to harm either, he said.

“He dug it up himself without any evidence of harm,” DiLorenzo said. “His interest is not real or probable. Rather, it is hypothetical or speculative.”

Dolan countered that Tipping suffered a real injury, based on the economic damage he would have sustained from growing and harvesting a contaminated seed crop that was unsalable.

“Given our narrow valleys and the light pollen that can travel for miles, they’re effectively prohibiting non-GE farmers from growing other crops such as Swiss chard,” she said.

Litigation over the county ordinance should not be rushed, but instead the issue of whether state pre-emption is valid should be fully vetted, she said.

“At this stage, the challenge to the state seed law can begin,” Dolan said. “The current parties are not going to fully litigate the constitutionality of state law.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon nonprofit has filed a lawsuit seeking to reinstate a state law that would have allowed people to get driver’s cards if they can’t prove legal presence in the United States.

The law was approved by lawmakers in 2013, but overturned by voters the following year in a referendum.

In its lawsuit filed Wednesday, the Oregon Law Center says it’s illegal for Oregon to enforce Measure 88, because it was motivated by a desire to regulate immigration laws and that’s the federal government’s job.

The group also says the measure is illegal because it targets a group of people based on their Mexican and Central American national origin.

About 120,000 immigrants in Oregon — 3 percent of the state’s population — lack legal status. Most are from Mexico.

The Oregon attorney general’s office declined to comment on pending litigation.

Global marketing will be a hot topic when Pacific Northwest grain farmers get together next week for their annual conference, the leader of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers says.

U.S. Wheat Associates vice president of overseas operations Vince Peterson and representative Joe Sowers will speak during the Tri-State Grain Growers Convention Nov. 11-14 in Spokane.

It’s one of the most popular items on the agenda, since 90 percent of the region’s wheat is sold outside the United States, said Michelle Hennings, WAWG executive director.

Peterson and Sowers will talk about trade relationships, growing markets, world demand and the impact on Northwest wheat.

“Farmers take a big interest in this,” Hennings said. “That’s how they sell their wheat.”

Several representatives of the National Association of Wheat Growers will also talk about the next Farm Bill during the convention, Hennings said.

“We always try to provide educational breakouts they can take away, knowing what to expect in the future,” she said.

Comedian Damian Mason returns as emcee. Keynote presentations include agricultural speaker Jolene Brown, Intrexon chief communications officer Jack Bobo on global agricultural trends, food safety and risk perceptions; and “Market to Market” host Mike Pearson on the outlook for farm markets.

Other sessions include tips for relieving stress on the farm and bringing renewal to the family farm and family life by keynote speaker Brown; conducting and participating in effective meetings by Ray Ledgerwood and ag apps for farmers’ cell phones. Several beer companies will talk about malting barley.

The convention is at the new Davenport Grand Hotel, which opened in June.

“We’re very excited,” Hennings said. “We think this is going to top any of our other conventions.”

Online

http://www.wawg.org/convention/

PORTLAND — Chelsea Clinton, potentially the daughter of two presidents, visits Portland Nov. 5 to promote her book and talk about food.

Clinton will join a panel to discuss topics such as reforming the food system, food security and the farm to school program, which links local producers with school food buyers.

The event is hosted by Ecotrust, a nonprofit involved in food, forestry and social issues. Most importantly to agriculture, Ecotrust works to connect small- to mid-size local producers with institutional food service buyers such as hospitals, schools, jails and prisons, retirement homes and care centers.

Joining Clinton to discuss food issues will be Curt Ellis, co-founder and CEO of FoodCorps; Susannah Morgan, executive director of the Oregon Food Bank; and Gina Condon, founder of the Construct Foundation.

Clinton, of course, is the daughter of Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the U.S., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former senator and Secretary of State who is the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 election.

Chelsea Clinton spent her teen-age years growing up in the White House. She’s 35 now, married and has a daughter of her own. Among other activities she’s written a book, “It’s Your World,” which encourages children to become active in social, political and environmental issues.

PORTLAND (AP) — Oregon and federal officials will work over the next three years on plans to locate, protect and restore sections of cold-water habitat for migrating fish in the Columbia and lower Willamette rivers, according to an agreement released on Tuesday by NOAA Fisheries.

The agreement is included in an updated plan reviewing Oregon’s standards for water temperature. Known as a biological opinion, the revised plan was ordered by a judge two years ago as part of a settlement with an environmental group that twice challenged the standards in court.

According to the plan, the warmest temperatures allowed under state standards may harm nine fish species unless cold-water zones are implemented. The plan concludes the state has lacked a clear blueprint to map and develop these areas, known by the scientific term refugia, and it proposes a detailed framework to implement the work.

Warm water can kill salmon and other cold-water fish as they migrate upstream to spawn, and drought and climate change have exacerbated the problem. This summer, thousands of sockeye salmon died in the Columbia River because of excessively hot water. On the Willamette, water temperatures that were warmer than usual also killed spring Chinook.

Scientists have found that salmon and steelhead during their migrations seek out cold-water zones when temperatures spike during dry summer months or because of climate change.

Officials say the refugia will act like stepping stones in the rivers, allowing fish to temporarily escape lethally hot waters and make it safely to spawning grounds. “With scientists predicting we may have more of those hot years in future... these refugia are going to play an even more vital role,” NOAA Fisheries senior biologist Jeff Lockwood said.

After Oregon adopted temperature standards in 1996, federal agencies concluded they would not harm endangered and threatened fish species, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved them. But a legal challenge sent the agencies back to the drawing board.

When the state revised the standards and the EPA in 2004 approved the new ones, the group again sued. A judge invalidated part of the standards and ordered a new biological opinion.

In its newest plan, NOAA found that most of the standards are protective of fish. But it also found that at 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit), some species in the Columbia and lower Willamette were weak and diseased or died, so they needed refugia to cool off.

To implement the plan, scientists will evaluate temperature-monitoring data, Lockwood said. They’ll document where and how fish use refugia, how many they need and how spaced out they should be.

Although cool water spots already exist, more could be restored, Lockwood said, by reducing temperatures in tributaries, releasing more cold water from dams, reconnecting floodplains or changing forestry and agricultural rules to require larger buffers of vegetation around streams. Such actions may take years, he said.

Nina Bell, executive director of Northwest Environmental Advocates, the group that sued over the standards, applauded the state for focusing on refugia. Bell said they’re critical to fish, and the state has talked about the concept for years, but never implemented it.

But it’s unclear in the plan whether fish escaping the heat into thermal zones would be protected from fishermen who go where fish congregate, Bell said. The biological opinion does not address fishing explicitly, but officials say it’s one of the factors that will need to be considered in the future.

Bell also said there is disconnect between the current plan and the reality on the ground. Her group is also suing the state over the allowed temperatures for water cleanup plans. Those plans were based on a standard that was invalidated by a judge, but they are still in effect.

“The irony is this opinion today talks about 20 degrees being a problem for fish and that it needs to be offset with thermal refuges or cold spots. But the same agencies have already said thumbs up across the state for temperatures that are much higher,” Bell said, up to 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit). Such temperatures are lethal to fish.

EPA officials said the current biological opinion does not address those cleanup plans, and they’re unable to comment on specifics of that case because it’s under litigation.