HOMEDALE, Idaho — Dozens of ranchers in Southwestern Idaho and Eastern Oregon are helping battle one of the nation’s largest wildfires.

In many cases, they’re fighting to defend their own livelihoods.

The wind-driven Soda fire had reached 200,000 acres as of late Aug. 12 and was spreading rapidly, driven by high winds, temperatures above 100 degrees and low humidity.

It’s burning mainly in Owyhee County but jumped across the Oregon border Aug. 12, where it has scorched at least 25,000 acres.

According to U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials, several breakout fires moved as fast as 1.5 miles in 8 minutes and some spot fires grew to 1,000 acres in 10 minutes.

The fire has destroyed tens of thousands of acres of grazing land and is threatening ranches that are scattered throughout the region.

Rancher Tim Mackenzie, who runs cattle from Homedale to Jordan Valley, Ore., said the fire has destroyed all of his spring range and it has destroyed all of the spring and summer range of eight other ranchers he knows.

He’s one of about 50 ranchers from two Rangeland Fire Protection Associations — one in Oregon and one in Idaho — who are helping fight the fire.

“It’s had a huge impact on me,” Mackenzie said. “It’s the worst one I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

The fire started close to Paul Nettleton’s ranch near Murphy but he has escaped unharmed so far because winds drove it away from his operation.

He said the fire has been devastating to some of his rancher neighbors.

“This fire is pretty scary,” Nettleton said. “Not only have they lost some ground, but probably a lot of cattle grazing in that area as well.”

BLM officials said protecting lives and property are their top priorities and after high winds caused the fire to explode the night of Aug. 11, firefighters fell back into defensive positions to protect ranches and other structures.

Steve Acarregui, BLM’s fire cooperative coordinator in Boise, said the volunteer RFPAs, which consist almost entirely of ranchers, have proven helpful in fighting the Soda fire.

“The (RFPA) program has exceeded my expectations,” he said about the groups’ efforts on this and other fires. “It’s been going really well.”

Acarregui spent part of the last three days with the RFPAs as they conducted burn-out operations and suppressed direct fire lines with fire engines and bulldozers.

“They have a vested interest in protecting the forage on federal land where they have grazing permits,” he said. “They want to keep that fire as small as possible to protect as much of that forage as possible for grazing. It’s a good deal for them ... and for taxpayers.”

BLM officials said much of the area where the fire is burning is considered primary sage grouse habitat.

The fire was likely caused by an Aug. 10 lighting strike, BLM officials said.

MOXEE, Wash. — This fall’s U.S. hop crop is forecast at 80 million pounds by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

That’s up 13 percent from last year’s 71 million-pound crop and up 7 percent from a 74.5-million-pound estimate for this year given at the International Hop Growers’ Congress in Germany the week of July 27.

The NASS estimate, released Aug. 12, is dated Aug. 1.

Ann George, administrator of Hop Growers of America and the Washington Hop Commission, both in Moxee, said 74.5 million-pound estimate that she gave at the International Congress was based on a survey of growers taken when the crop was just starting to bloom and several weeks earlier than the NASS survey.

She said the NASS number may be more accurate but that no one really knows until the crop is baled.

“I think it will end up being between the two estimates,” she said. “The big message is we don’t anticipate it being smaller (than last year).”

Some national stories speculated about a hop shortage due to heat and drought. In response to that, George said she issued a press release July 29 about the 74.5-million-pound estimate.

“We wanted to reassure our customer base and the public that we wouldn’t have a tremendous hop shortage,” she said.

At the international meeting, it was evident Europe’s hop crop will be down, perhaps significantly, because of drought and wind, Doug MacKinnon, a Yakima hop broker, said at the time.

A shortage in Europe adds market pressures since there’s more U.S. craft brewer demand for aroma hops than there is supply.

Even though U.S. production is up it remains short relative to craft brewer demand, George said.

Some aroma varieties will be short because demand is growing faster than the varieties can be expanded, she said. It takes about two years to get new hop yards into production, she said.

One reason overall yields are forecast to be down this year is that there are a lot of “baby” acres that are not yet producing, George said.

The switch from alpha to aroma varieties affects yields because aroma yield less, she said.

Heat and drought are additional factors reducing yield this year, she said. The larger was heat affecting more of the crop in the Yakima Valley in June when it was blooming, she said. Some hops entered the heat a little drought stressed, she said. Lack of water has been an issue only in portions of the valley served by the Roza and Wapato irrigation districts, not the entire valley, she said.

NASS estimates 57,969,000 pounds for Washington, 11,571,900 for Oregon and 10,447,500 for Idaho. The three states comprise the U.S. crop.

Total area strung for harvest is 43,987 acres, up 16 percent from 2014, NASS said. Yield is forecast at 1,818 pounds per acre, 50 pounds less than last year.

Between 70 and 80 percent of the nation’s hops are grown in the Yakima Valley. Harvest typically starts in late August and runs through September.

Divers equipped with suction hoses will soon begin removing flowering rush from sites on the Columbia river where the irrigation canal-clogging weed was discovered last year.

The invasive species was first found on the Oregon side of the river near McNary Dam in August 2014, but regulatory hurdles prevented it from being dug out immediately.

Flowering rush is already a problem in Washington, Idaho, and Montana, where its thickly growing leaves impede water movement to the detriment of irrigators and fish.

A team of divers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to spend the final week of August yanking the plants, which were previously covered with plastic barrier mats to prevent the weed patches from spreading.

“This is going to be an ongoing thing for a while and there are no easy solutions,” said Tim Butler, noxious weed control program manager for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. “Unfortunately, there are no silver bullets. It’s a difficult plant to control, is the bottom line.”

Before divers were allowed to physically pull the weed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — which has jurisdiction over the Columbia River — had to clear the project under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.

With that process complete, further removals will not have to be evaluated under NEPA or ESA, though new sites will still have to be reviewed for cultural resources under ARPA, said Damian Walter, wildlife biologist for the agency.

The upcoming diving project is expected to cost $50,000, which required the agency to shift funds from other invasive management programs, he said.

Flowering rush remains submerged during winter, so the diving team also had to wait until the plants were at their most visible to begin removal, Walter said.

The weed is a concern for irrigators because it can stop water from freely flowing in canals, hindering water delivery. Its capacity to change ecosystems is also a risk for threatened and endangered native fish, as the plant creates the ideal habitat for invasive pike that prey on them.

Treating the weed patches with herbicides is troublesome because of the plant’s aquatic nature — chemicals are difficult to effectively apply in flowing water, can damage crops and face environmental restrictions.

“The physical removal is probably the best technique we have at this point,” said Butler.

In the long term, researchers from Washington State University hope to identify natural predators in Central Europe, where the weed originates, to help suppress it in the Northwest.

At this point, two potential candidates have been found: the beetle species Bagous nodulosus and Bagous validus, which feed on the flowering rush’s rhizomatous roots, said Jennifer Andreas, director of WSU’s Integrated Weed Control Project.

Attacking the rhizomes is important, since fragments break off and allow the weed to infest new areas downstream, she said. “That’s the part that’s causing the biggest damage. That’s the part that moves.”

Before the insects could be released into environment, researchers must conduct extensive studies to show they would not damage native plant species, Andreas said.

Approval must come from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the process usually takes about a decade, she said.

Biological controls are typically deployed against invasives that are already widespread, but WSU hopes to release a natural enemy before flowering rush gets completely out of control, Andreas said.

“This is a weed that is spreading incredibly quickly,” she said.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A bipartisan effort seeking to change the way the country pays to fight disastrous wildfires has been renewed after stalling repeatedly from lawmakers hesitant to approve letting firefighting agencies use dollars meant for natural disasters rather than money set aside for fire prevention.

Over the years, firefighting agencies have been forced to borrow money set aside for forest thinning and other fire prevention projects as wildfire seasons have ballooned in activity and costs.

Republican Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon announced Wednesday that they are getting ready to pitch bipartisan legislation to Congress this fall.

“This is not a partisan issue,” Risch said at a news conference at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. “Our eastern and southern colleagues don’t necessarily have the same world view. Fire has always been part of the landscape out West and we’ll always have to deal with it.”

Crapo acknowledged that prior attempts to get similar bills through Congress have stalled, but he says this year supporters have the backing of key congressional committee leaders to help move it through.

The bill has also been deemed budget-neutral from the Congressional Budget Office, which has helped ease fears that it would create a “blank check” approach to fighting wildfires, Crapo said.

“It is an emergency, but it is an emergency we can solve,” Crapo said.

According to the legislation, firefighting agencies could use federal natural disaster funds for wildfire suppression, but only if nationwide firefighting costs reached 70 percent of the 10-year average.

This would prevent firefighting agencies like the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service from borrowing funds that pay for projects that help reduce fire-prone regions. This would include removing trees, clearing underbrush and clearing out overgrown forests

Lawmakers at Wednesday’s news conference noted that while natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes qualify for emergency federal funds, it’s up to firefighting agencies to pay for battling the big blazes from their own budgets.

And as wildfires have grown in size and frequency, federal agencies have been spending more than ever to try to keep up. For example, in 1995. wildfire costs were just 16 percent of the U.S. Forest Service’s budget. In 2015, wildfire costs consumed more than half of the overall budget, and by 2025, the agency predicts it’ll take up nearly 70 percent.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Here’s a look at wildfires burning Wednesday around the West:

IDAHO-OREGON

A blaze in southwestern Idaho and eastern Oregon fanned by shifting winds quickly grew to 185 square miles, causing about 50 homes to be under an evacuation notice and burning key sage grouse habitat.

The fire blew across U.S. Highway 95 and moved a mile and a half in 8 minutes, said fire spokeswoman Carrie Bilbao of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The road later reopened.

With no sign of the fire dying down, Owyhee County Sheriff officials sent an evacuation order. As of 3:30 p.m., roughly 30 homes had been evacuated, with that number expected to rise later in the day.

There were no reports of injuries, and just one structure has been lost in the sparsely populated area. No cause has been determined for the fire was about 20 percent contained.

About 40 square miles of the fire is in Oregon.

Authorities are expected to decide this fall whether sage grouse need federal protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Habitat loss is a key consideration.

Elsewhere in Idaho, lighting strikes in forests have started numerous fires. Most have been quickly contained.

In eastern Oregon, dozens of homes south of Baker City have been evacuated in the path of two growing wildfires. Officials say people who live in a rural community and surrounding ranchland were told to leave.

In the central part of the state, officials closed some recreation areas in the Umpqua National Forest because of wildfires.

Also, wildfire near Warm Springs was caused by sparks when an RV’s trailer lost a wheel. Officials said the fire grew quickly to nearly 8 square miles, forcing the closure of a stretch of U.S. 26 and destroying a trailer home.

———

WASHINGTON

A wildfire burning near Spokane has scorched 150 acres, and evacuations are in effect.

Department of Natural Resource officials say the fire is threatening 15 to 20 structures, including homes, and residents should be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

———

MONTANA

High temperatures and low humidity caused the rapid growth of a new wildfire in a remote part of Glacier National Park.

Park officials say the blaze has burned more than 23 square miles and was threatening the Upper Nyack cabin, a historic patrol cabin. Some trails and campsites were closed.

BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) — Dozens of homes in a rural area south of Baker City have been evacuated in the path of two growing wildfires in eastern Oregon.

Officials at the Baker County sheriff’s office and the Bureau of Land Management say people who live in a rural community and surrounding ranchland were told to leave Wednesday afternoon and evening.

Fire officials say the Windy River Fire was moving quickly to the northwest because of high winds. The fire burning in steep rocky terrain had grown to about 9 square miles by Wednesday evening.

Another fire nearby has burned about 23 square miles. Further to the east and north on the Oregon-Idaho border another fire has burned more than 300 square miles.

In central Oregon, U.S. Forest Service officials have closed some recreation areas near Diamond Lake in the Umpqua National Forest because of wildfires.

Another fire, in Warm Springs, Oregon, was sparked Wednesday when an RV’s trailer lost a wheel. The fire quickly grew to nearly 8 square miles and closed a stretch of U.S. Highway 26. A fire spokesman said the fire has destroyed one trailer home.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Beetles are invading areas of Portland and it turns out the government really is to blame.

KGW-TV reports that residents of the Portland neighborhood of Sellwood have reported swarms of tiny beetles taking over yards, gardens and even homes.

Officials say the bugs were released by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the city of Portland in nearby Oaks Bottom Refuge to combat an aggressive and invasive weed called purple loosestrife.

Officials say they have been releasing them successfully for years, but it appears this year the population has skyrocketed. The beetles have eaten all of the invasive weeds and instead moved into nearby neighborhoods in search of food.

Oregon Department of Agriculture officials say the hot and dry weather may be to blame for the spike in populations.

By JEFF BARNARD

Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The State Land Board is scheduled to vote on a plan to find an unusual buyer for the Elliott State Forest: one that will pay a fair market price, conserve older trees, protect threatened fish and wildlife, produce logs for local mills, and leave it open to the public.

The board, made up of the governor, the secretary of state, and the state treasurer, meets Thursday in Salem to consider the 315-page proposal.

The 140-square-mile forest in the Coast Range north of Coos Bay was created in 1930 and 90 percent of it generates money for schools. It once produced $8 million a year but lately has been running $1 million a year in the red. Attempts to ramp up logging to produce $13 million annually for schools failed. Lawsuits continually blocked timber sales on grounds they failed to maintain habitat for federally protected coho salmon and the marbled murrelet, a seabird that nests in big old trees.

Department of State Lands spokeswoman Julie Curtis acknowledges that finding such a buyer is a tall order, but a series of hearings identified all those elements as priorities for Oregon residents. The board rejected two other alternatives, to find a new manager for the forest, and to develop a new plan for protecting threatened salmon and wildlife that would produce more timber.

Curtis said the department has been meeting with representatives of local governments and agencies, timber companies and conservation groups, but so far all are keeping their intentions to themselves. If no buyers emerge, the department goes back to the board in December 2016. Two options would be to retain the forest while accepting losses of $1 million a year, or selling it without the conservation and public access restrictions.

Josh Laughlin of the conservation group Cascadia Wildlands Project said it would favor a public land trust buying the forest and selling it back to the federal government, so it could be returned to the Siuslaw National Forest. That would retain public access and conservation protections, particularly on the half of the forest that has never been logged.

Bob Ragon, director of Douglas Timber Operators, said he could not imagine a private timber company being interested in buying the forest, because of all the conditions being imposed.

“I think (the board has) struggled so hard trying to find a happy ground that would meet everybody’s interest, that the simplest solution would be to sell it to the highest bidder, and put restrictions on it like no log exports, which would keep the highest return for the School Fund,” he said.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Firefighters across the Northwest are bracing for thunderstorms that have the potential to produce several large new wildfires.

The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland on Monday posted red flag warnings for thunderstorms across the region through Thursday.

The highest risk for new fires is in southwestern, central and northeastern Oregon, with an elevated risk throughout the region.

Forecasters say a low pressure system is dropping south off the coast and will kick inland on Thursday. There will be showers with many of the storms, but some dry lightning as well.

There are currently eight large fires burning in Oregon.

Pacific Ag, a Hermiston, Ore.-based business that sells wheat, corn, grass seed and other crop residue to biofuels plants and other uses, received a $7 million funding boost from Advantage Capital Agribusiness Partners.

Pacific Ag will use the investment to continue its growth in the Northwest and elsewhere, including Kansas, North Carolina and North Dakota, company CEO Bill Levy said in a statement.

Levy said the company is seeing rapid growth in demand for large quantities of crop residue, and is positioned to respond to the market.

In addition to providing cellulosic feedstock to make ethanol, the company also sells crop residue as livestock feed and to make mushroom compost, erosion control products to “tree-free” pulp and paper.

In an April 2015 interview with the website Biofuels Digest, Levy said his company partners with 600 growers across the country and this year will harvest more than 450,000 tons of biomass. He said the company owns the largest fleet of harvesting equipment and supplies cellulosic refineries operated by companies such as DuPont and Abengoa.

The investment is part of a USDA effort to steer funding into agricultural enterprises. Advantage Capital Agribusiness Partners, based in St. Louis, is a $154 million fund licensed as a rural business investment company by the USDA. The fund is a joint venture by Advantage Capital Partners and nine banks or other lending organizations that are federally chartered to serve ag businesses through Farm Credit Services.

Pacific Ag, founded in 1998, first focused on providing crop residue as cattle feed for domestic and export markets. In the Biofuels Digest article, Levy said the company recognized about six years ago that “feedstock supply for bio-refineries was a huge market opportunity, and one that we are uniquely able to serve.” The company now describes itself on its website as the nation’s biggest supplier of agricultural biomass supply chain solutions.

A dead ewe found dead in Northeast Oregon Aug. 4 was killed by members of the Mt. Emily wolf pack, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Investigators said the sheep was mostly consumed when they examined the scene and probably had been killed the previous night. Bite marks on the carcass and large paw prints found around it were consistent with wolves, according to an ODFW report.

Data from GPS collars showed three wolves from the Mt. Emily pack were in the area when the attack is believed to have occurred. The same pack was blamed for a June 22 livestock attack 5.4 miles away, according to ODFW.

ALBANY, ORE. — SnoTemp Cold Storage, which added 100,000 square feet just five years ago, will break ground this month on the eighth expansion of its Albany plant since 1974.

The work, expected to be done by May 2016, demonstrates the company’s continued commitment to production agriculture and local food and beverage processors, CEO Jason Lafferty said.

The company freezes and stores bulk vegetables and ingredients for repackers such as NORPAC Foods Inc., the farmers’ cooperative, and provides frozen or cold storage for other customers ranging from ice cream and dessert makers to craft breweries.

The company’s storage capacity is the equivalent of 15 football fields, each piled 25 feet high with frozen food, Lafferty said.

SnoTemp, which began in Eugene in 1957 and still has storage facilities and administrative offices there, will expand the Albany cold storage plant by about 20,000 pallet positions arranged in vertical racks. The work will make it easier to accommodate small to mid-size processors that struggle to gain a foothold in the marketplace.

“In a bulk warehouse environment, bringing in a pallet or two or three is a challenge,” Lafferty said. “We’ve had to say no to the smaller folks. We’ve been protecting space for our core customers.”

The additional storage space may benefit processors, for example, who have put all their capital into kitchen facilities.

“What they need to get to the next step is cold storage,” Lafferty said. “In Albany, we’ve had to turn people away.”

Adequate and accessible cold storage is among the problems hampering “ag of the middle” producers and processors, according to a recent report by Ecotrust, a Portland nonprofit.

Small processors “always run out of cold storage first,” said Amanda Oborne, Ecotrust’s vice president of farms and food and lead author of “Oregon Food Infrastructure Gap Analysis.”

The report examines the hurdles faced by small- to mid-size growers and processors who are too big to survive by farmers market and CSA sales but too small to joust with commodity and corporate competitors.

Additional cold storage is critical to support regional food systems, Oborne said. She is familiar with SnoTemp’s relationship with small processors. “They’re willing to work with very small players,” she said. “I can’t overstate how important that is.”

Stahlbush Island Farms, of nearby Corvallis, has used SnoTemp for off-site cold storage of its vegetable, fruit, grain and legume products since 1990. Co-founder Karla Chambers cheered SnoTemp’s expansion, calling the company “a really good family and a really good business.”

The expansion also appears to be part of a continuing economic success story for Oregon food processors. A labor trends report issued by the state Employment Department in December 2014 showed that from 2007 to 2012, the depth of the recession, Oregon’s manufacturing sector lost 15.8 percent of its jobs. But food manufacturing jobs increased 7.8 percent during that same period.

Lafferty, the CEO, said SnoTemp has doubled the combined employment at its Albany and Eugene plants in the past four years.

Lafferty is part of a third-generation wave that has assumed control at SnoTemp. His cousin, Caroline Lafferty, is accounting and resource manager; Willie Lafferty is facility engineer and Paula Lafferty, is vice president of finance and technology head.

Online

http://www.ecotrust.org/publication/regional-food-infrastructure/

About 10 years ago, an unscrupulous importer taught the F.C. Bloxom produce company a pricey lesson about the hazards of doing business in China.

After paying for multiple shipments, the importer unexpectedly stiffed the Seattle-based distributor for $180,000 and skipped town to avoid legal consequences, said Antonio Esteves, its export director.

The experience didn’t entirely sour F.C. Bloxom on the Chinese market, but the firm is now more wary about potential customers.

“We are trying to be more careful,” Esteves said.

As part of that cautiousness, the company recently sought out new Chinese buyers for fruits and vegetables during an inbound trade mission organized by the state agricultural departments of Oregon and Idaho, as well as the Western U.S. Agricultural Trade Association, or WUSATA.

“At least we have a good start, because they do some due diligence,” said Esteves.

Representatives of six Chinese food companies recently arrived in the U.S. to tour farms and food processors in Oregon and Idaho from Aug. 4-7.

The Chinese firms were investigated by the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service as well as a contractor hired by WUSATA, a non-profit that’s funded by the federal agency.

“We check out the track record. We do our best to vet them before we ever bring them over,” said Andy Anderson, WUSATA’s executive director.

Aside from providing Northwest food producers with a measure of security, the trade mission allowed them to present their products to multiple Chinese buyers at once.

“Chinese business people generally want that face-to face. This is the way to do it,” said Aaron Foster, who handles technology and sales for All Berry & Fruits, which sells a variety of dried, frozen and puree products.

Inbound trade missions are usually the first step in a business relationship and are intended to facilitate introductions rather than sales transactions, said Theresa Yoshioka, international trade manager for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Once a Northwest company makes that initial contact, they’re encouraged to participate in an outbound trade mission to demonstrate a commitment to the market, she said.

“That really moves the relationship forward and gets you much closer to a purchase,” Yoshioka said.

Reliability is a major concern for Chinese buyers, who want to be assured that U.S. partners can provide them with a steady flow of product.

Price and quality are prime considerations, but distributors in China also don’t want to frequently replace suppliers in the U.S., said Henry Chen, vice manager of Guangzhou Yangchen Food Co., a large distributor in southern China, through an interpreter.

American products compete with those from Europe, Australia and New Zealand, as Chinese consumers generally consider foreign goods to be of high quality, he said. “People can tell the flavor.”

Jerry Liu, brand manager for the Sinodis food distributor, also cited supplier consistency as a top priority for his company.

Sinodis is looking for partners that are large enough to ship directly — not through a broker — and have a constant volume of goods available, he said.

However, the firm doesn’t preclude working with smaller producers, since major U.S. food manufacturers are often too inflexible to supply the China market, Liu said.

Major brands often aren’t willing to change their labels and meet other requirements unless they’re assured of a quick payoff within the first few years, he said.

“Usually, that’s not the case. You have to really develop the market first,” Liu said.

In China, the U.S. food industry is well known for its jams, chips and cream cheese, he said.

These goods are most famous in “tier one” cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, with the highest population of affluent shoppers, he said.

More recently, though, food distributors have introduced foreign foods to “tier two” cities, which are smaller but where people are also trying to improve their lifestyles, Liu said.

While foreign foods are seen as superior, Chinese consumers aren’t aware of regional differences within countries.

“They really don’t have an opinion as to a specific part of the U.S. or Europe.”

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Trail camera photos confirm that Oregon’s famous wandering wolf, OR-7, has fathered at more pups.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist John Stephenson said Thursday that brings to seven the number of wolves in the Rogue pack, which lives on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in the Cascades of southwestern Oregon. That includes three pups from last year.

Biologists had confirmed the second set of pups last July, but didn’t know how many.

OR-7 became famous as his GPS collar tracked his travels across Oregon and into Northern California in search of a mate. That collar’s batteries have since died, and biologists have been unable to replace them.

Meanwhile, another collared wolf from OR-7s Imnaha pack has come to southwestern Oregon, and is living east of Klamath Marsh.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday designated farmers and ranchers eligible for federal drought relief in 18 Washington counties, seven Oregon counties and five Idaho counties.

Producers in many of the counties were already eligible for assistance because they live in counties that border areas declared disaster zones in prior declarations

The USDA declares disasters in counties that have had severe drought conditions for at least eight weeks.

The designation makes producers eligible for low-interest loans and other programs through the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.

The Washington counties declared disaster areas Thursday are Asotin, Chelan, Douglas, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Lincoln, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Thurston, Whatcom and Whitman.

The Oregon counties are Benton, Coos, Curry, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln and Tillamook.

The Idaho counties are Boundary, Idaho, Lewis, Nez Perce and Valley.

Farmers and ranchers in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties are now eligible for relief. Only San Juan County has not been included in a disaster declaration.

Some 31 percent of the state is in “extreme drought,” the U.S. Drought Monitor reported Thursday, unchanged from the week before.

Oregon and Idaho also were unchanged. Some 41 percent of Oregon and 22 percent of Idaho are suffering an extreme drought.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — The way Lauren Gwin sees it, helping small farmers and processors thrive is right in Oregon State University’s sweet spot as a land-grant university. It’s all about collaboration, sharing information and wading through the regulatory thicket.

A successful local food system, she says, bridges the gap between farmers and community nutrition and public health in a way that producers don’t get caught in the “price-point conundrum.” Meaning they can make a living while providing people access to an affordable, healthful diet.

It’s a complicated challenge, but it has become part of the College of Agricultural Sciences’ mission at OSU. Gwin is associate director of the college’s Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems. She and center Director Garry Stephenson head up a program that helps beginners and small-scale producers learn how to raise crops, operate machinery, find markets, improve soil, understand regulations and many other lessons.

Meanwhile, Gwin has emerged as one of the country’s go-to experts in small-scale meat processing. She co-founded the national Niche Meat Processor Network, an online service that allows small processors to pose questions, offer suggestions, figure out the rules and support each other with peer-to-peer consulting.

She’s also developed an Introduction to Food Systems course at OSU.

To her, the term local food takes on a regional definition. Some food can be grown in close proximity to markets, but others — such as beef — need more landscape.

“When I talk about local food I’m talking about environmentally regenerative, possibly organic, humane and minimizing the use of external inputs,” she said.

The OSU small farms center is expanding its focus beyond ground-level operations to include long-term profitability, Gwin said.

Not every county needs or can support a meat processing plant, for example, but there are ways local producers can cooperate to save money and time. Small producers might share livestock transportation to a plant, so one producer isn’t wasting time and money taking just a few head “over the mountain” for processing.

“We have a vision for agriculture and food in Oregon and the region and the country,” she said. “These farms will persist.”

A combination of technical knowledge, business management and supportive political and consumer environments will help that come about, Gwin said.

“It’s important to our economy that these things thrive,” she said.

Lauren Gwin

Position: Assistant professor and Extension Service food systems specialist, Oregon State University. Associate director of OSU’s Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems.

Personal: 44, two daughters, Lillie and Susannah. Husband Clint Epps is a wildlife biologist and an assistant professor in OSU’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Background: Grew up in Connecticut, was an English and liberal arts major at Harvard, earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California-Berkeley. At OSU since 2008.

Notable: Co-founded and coordinates the Niche Meat Processor Network, an online resource to help small processors wade through regulatory issues, share tips, ask questions.

At a glance: Bubbling with information and enthusiasm for local food systems, small growers and processors and the need to help them thrive. “You ask a simple question, you get a pageant,” she says. “I come from a long line of people who tell very long narratives.”

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Authorities are warning Oregon marijuana growers to be very careful using pesticides.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture said Wednesday it has drawn up a pesticide advisory, which the Oregon Health Authority is sending to registered medical marijuana growers around the state.

The advisory says no pesticides have been specifically approved for use on marijuana, which is still illegal on a federal level, and the health and safety impacts on cannabis workers have not been evaluated.

Department of Agriculture spokesman Bruce Pokarney says rules for pesticide use are being drawn up along with a host of other rules for growing and selling retail marijuana.

Full retail marijuana sales are not to begin until late in 2016, but in October medical marijuana dispensaries can start selling limited amounts to anyone over 21.

SALEM — In a record-breaking year, cattle and calves became the most valuable agricultural commodity in Oregon, ending a 20-year reign in the top spot by greenhouse and nursery products.

The production value of beef jumped to $922 million in 2014 from $669 million in 2013, a 38 percent increase, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The value of Oregon nursery products was up 11 percent, from $754 million in 2013 to $830 million last year.

Cattle last ranked No. 1 in Oregon in 1994.

“In agriculture things go up and down, but beef producers have seen good returns this year,” Oregon Beef Council executive director Will Wise said.

Wise said many factors — from the millennial generation’s fascination with the “paleo” diet to improved market access abroad — helped spur the increase. Thanks to a lobbying effort funded in part by the Beef Council, Japan dropped an onerous regulation in 2013 prohibiting the import of cattle slaughtered after 20 months of age.

According to the U.S. Meat Export Federation, beef exports now add $350 of value per head to cattle. That statistic was pegged at just $109 per animal in 2009.

This year’s NASS statistics contained other surprises, too. Wine grapes, valued at $118 million in 2014, joined the top 10 list, passing onions.

Onions, Christmas trees and blueberries all topped $100 million in production value, but didn’t make the top 10.

There are now 34,600 farms in Oregon, a slight dip, with an average size of 474 acres.

On the top 10 list, only wheat and potatoes decreased in value. Wheat’s value dropped 18 percent, from $368 million to $302 million in 2014. Potatoes lost about $6 million in value, from $170 million in 2013 to $164 million last year.

Kathryn Walker, a special assistant to the ODA director, said in a press release that Oregon’s severe drought could negatively affect the value of agricultural commodities this year.

However, she cautioned that it was still too soon to say.

“We are going to have to watch to see how the weather impacts our producers and the yields of their commodities,” Walker said. “But our agriculture industry is resilient. They have faced these kinds of challenges before and typically bounce back.”

All told, Oregon’s farmers and ranchers added $5.4 billion to the state economy. Oregon farmers produce 17 commodities each valued at $50 million or more, and 220 crops overall.

SACRAMENTO — Grappling with drought and heat, growers of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in California and the West have been fighting to keep pace with last year’s production.

With the Golden State’s blueberry season having wrapped up, producers had shipped about 8.2 million flats as of July 29, down from 8.7 million at the same point last year, according to the industry-compiled National Berry Report.

California produces more than 40 million pounds of blueberries per year, according to the California Blueberry Commission.

Oregon production is ahead of last year’s pace, with 2.6 million flats so far this year compared to a little more than 2 million at the end of July 2014, the report states. Production is up worldwide with nearly 70 million flats produced compared to 62.5 million a year ago.

Nearly 19.23 million flats of raspberries have been produced in California, down slightly from 19.27 million at the end of July 2014. Global production is up significantly, with nearly 42.3 million flats produced this year compared to 36 million for the same period in 2014.

Raspberries in California are typically picked through the summer months, according to the crop information website PickYourOwn.org.

Blackberry production is finishing ahead of last year in California, with nearly 2.2 million flats compared to 1.9 million at the same point last year. Globally, growers have produced 28.8 million flats compared to 26.2 million at the same point last summer.

Blackberry season typically begins in mid-May and runs through the end of July.

PORTLAND — Jokes and seed spitting contest aside, there was a polite edge to Hermiston’s renewed tradition of handing out free watermelons and potatoes in downtown Portland.

This time, Hermiston’s growers and civic leaders stood in Portland’s Pioneer Square as representatives of Eastern Oregon’s biggest and fastest growing city and one of the state’s agricultural powerhouses.

As a line formed for the giveaway Friday, Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann acknowledged the two cities vary greatly in scale — Portland has about 570,000 more people — but said they share issues such as public safety, livability, transportation and water.

“Those are all common things, regardless of size,” he said.

Drotzmann said he hoped the event reminded Portland residents of Hermiston’s agricultural prowess. Umatilla County ranks second in the state, behind Marion County, with about $500 million in annual gross farm and ranch sales. The region is best known for Hermiston watermelons, but grows a wide variety of irrigated vegetables as well.

“We provide the fruit and vegetables you pick up in the grocery store every day,” Drotzmann said.

In his remarks to the crowd at Pioneer Square, Drotzmann said the eastern side of the state gladly extends its hand to Portland.

“We know when Portland is successful, all of Oregon is successful,” he said.

The watermelon delivery and accompanying melon seed spitting contest began in 1991 with a friendship between longtime Hermiston mayor and councilor Frank Harkenrider and colorful Portland Mayor Bud Clark.

The event ran for 17 years then faded, but was renewed this year by civic leaders and the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce. Harkenrider and Clark attended Friday’s renewal, and Harkenrider admitted the city slicker bested him at seed spitting. “He got me all the time,” he said with a laugh.

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales said the exchange “was a good idea then and is a good idea now.”

“This is what good neighbors do for each other,” Hales said, “they share their bounty.”

Hales presented Drotzmann with a tie embossed with a depiction of Portland’s new Tilikum Crossing bridge, which opens in September and will carry light-rail trains and bikes over the Willamette River, but not cars and trucks.

The melons and potatoes, donated by Walchli Farms, Bellinger Farms and Bud-Rich Potato Inc., disappeared in about 20 minutes as a long line of pleased Portlanders took advantage.

For the record, Hermiston swept the seed spitting contest. City Councilor Doug Primmer took first, and Drotzmann was second. Both sent seeds flying more than 300 inches. Hales showed he was no slouch with a 296-inch launch, and Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman managed to spit one 126 inches.

Primmer indicated the city boys didn’t have a chance against people who grew up in watermelon country.

“You live in Hermiston, you get into competition when you’ve got brothers,” he said.