The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife says its latest attempt to discourage savvy sea lions from feasting on native fish at Willamette Falls has proven to be an exercise in futility.

The agency reports more than 25 California sea lions and Steller sea lions continue to prey on salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and lamprey at the falls between West Linn and Oregon City.

ODFW spent five weeks in February and March relocating 10 California sea lions to a beach south of Newport, Ore., only to see the animals return within four to six days. One of the sea lions was even captured and relocated to the coast twice, but swam back both times.

Shaun Clements, ODFW senior policy adviser, said the problem is becoming increasingly dire as Upper Willamette Basin steelhead are pushed to the brink of extinction. This year’s run currently stands at 1,338 steelhead — slightly higher than 2017, but far below historic steelhead returns that often topped 10,000 fish.

Biologists estimate that California sea lions ate at least 18 percent of returning adult steelhead prior to March. ODFW applied in October 2017 to kill sea lions from Willamette Falls under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in order to protect threatened salmon and steelhead. Clements said they are still awaiting a final decision from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“It’s our responsibility and mandate from the people of Oregon to ensure these fish runs continue,” Clements said. “So it’s incredibly frustrating to us that federal laws prevent us from taking the only steps effective at protecting these fish from predation.”

To be clear, Clements said predation is not the only thing harming fish in the Willamette Basin. Drought and operations at 13 federal dams have also had a sharp impact on the species’ survival. But unless wildlife managers are able to cull sea lions, Clements said all other actions to protect fish will not matter in the long run.

For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intends to build a 300-foot-tall water temperature control tower and floating screen at Detroit Dam on the North Santiam River to improve fish survival. The project is estimated to cost between $100 million and $250 million, and could require draining Detroit Lake for up to two years, leaving farmers without critical irrigation supplies.

All that work would be for naught if sea lions are left to eat the fish to extinction, Clements said.

“Clearly our experience on the Willamette River this year demonstrated the futility of relocating sea lions as a way of stopping them from driving our native fish runs to extinction,” Clements said.

Since President Richard Nixon signed the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, Clements said the population of California sea lions has grown from around 70,000 to 300,000 individuals, and the Steller sea lion population has also increased from roughly 30,000 to 70,000.

With the population increase has come more sea lions to prey on freshwater fish runs in the Pacific Northwest. It started in the late 1980s at Ballard Locks in Seattle, Clements said, and by the 2000s sea lions had arrived at Willamette Falls.

Steelhead aren’t the only fish species at risk, Clements said.

“We also know that predation on white sturgeon has increased dramatically this year, and that sea lions are preying on salmon, steelhead and sturgeon in other rivers like the Sandy and Clackamas,” he said.

Clements said changes are needed to the law that would allow wildlife managers to be more proactive when it comes to dealing with sea lions. He said ODFW is working with Oregon’s congressional delegation on a possible solution.

In the meantime, the agency has decided to shift its focus to controlling sea lions at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, where they already have authorization to kill sea lions. ODFW does plan to leave its sea lion traps at Willamette Falls while continuing to monitor predation, but simply does not have enough staff to cover both locations.

It has been said the best way to get into farming is to “marry it or inherit it.” The risks are many and obstacles to entry are age-old — access to land, water, markets and capital. But regardless of whether new farmers married it, inherited it, or neither, one new barrier becoming increasingly problematic is student loan debt, according to the National Young Farmers Coalition.

The national organization conducted a survey of over 700 beginning and aspiring farmers and ranchers and found that student loan debt was a key obstacle to making a living in agriculture or getting started. More than half of respondents were currently farming but struggling to make their student loan payments on a farm income, and one third reported they didn’t pursue farming or were postponing a career in agriculture due to student loan debt. Among these respondents the average student loan debt was $35,000 — a lot for a greenhorn trying to get started on a farmer’s salary.

This survey reflects a national trend in student loan debt. One in five of all American households held some student loan debt according to a Pew Research Center study in 2012. The rates of student loan debt among young people are even higher — 37 percent for those 18 to 29 — and the typical college grads owes the equivalent of two years of income. Nationwide student loan debt has more than doubled to $1.3 trillion from 2004 to 2014. These numbers add up to a national crisis — one that also impacts young farmers and ranchers and the future of the agricultural landscape.

Caleb Howard is a young, part-time rancher and agriculture real estate broker in Joseph, Ore. He feels lucky he and his wife, Katie, left the University of Idaho with a manageable amount of student debt.

“I had a about $17,000 in debt, but if I had left school with $60,000 or $70,000, that would be a different story,” Howard, who studied rangeland management and animal science production, said. “Some students in the same program as me had triple the debt I had. If my wife and I were paying $600 to $700 per month in school debt, we couldn’t afford to farm.”

Student loans are what Howard called “bad debt” because these payments siphon funds away from starting, building, and growing farm businesses in rural communities.

Karie Walker, a Farm Services Agency loan officer in Pendleton, Ore., agrees student loan debt can impede borrowing and farmer success.

“High monthly [student loan] payments can funnel the borrower’s income in one direction and may not leave them with adequate amounts to make their annual farm loan payment,” she said.

While most federal student loans are on a 10-year repayment program, Walker notes that in the 1990s and early 2000s, many students ended up with much longer repayment plans.

“Hefty monthly payments can certainly affect the success of a new operation, especially knowing that they may affect the operation for up to 30 years,” she said.

Just as the National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC) survey found, people may be delaying a career in farming due to student loan debt. “We have a number of people that grew up farming or ranching, move to off-farm employment, then leave their careers to start farming later in life,” Walker said.

NYFC hopes to address the student loan debt barrier and get more farmers on the land is to add them to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. The program was created in 2007 to help public service professionals such as teachers, nurses, public interest attorneys, government employees and nonprofit professionals pay off federal student debt and incentivize more people to join the public service ranks.

NYCF is pushing for farmers to be included on that list and for farming to be seen as a critical public service.

But is farming a public service?

“Farming offers a public service through food production and stewardship of natural resources that we share,” said Kate Greenberg, western program director for NYFC.

Given the importance of agriculture and the fact that only 6 percent of farmers are under age 35, Greenberg says farmers are a good match for the existing loan forgiveness program.

“Just as we have a critical shortage of new nurses, doctors, and social workers, we have a critical shortage of new farmers,” she said. “Farmers are absolutely critical. This program is one way to build out the pipeline to get more people farming.”

To qualify for the program under the NYCF proposal, new farmers would work full time on a farm that makes at least $35,000 and files a Schedule F tax forms, but would not have to own a business or land. “We wanted to be sure that the people who qualify are building a business or career in agriculture whether or not they own a business or own land,” she said. “We recognize that land access and ownership is not equitable across the country because of historical ag policy and discrimination.”

After 10 years of farming and on-time, income-based payments, the government would cancel the balance of the farmer’s federal student loans.

This approach to incentivizing farming is already being used in New York. The New York State Young Farmers Loan Forgiveness Incentive Program offers loan repayment up to $50,000 for grads who start a farm business within two years of graduating from a New York university and operate their farm five years. So far the number of farmers in the program is small and funding is limited.

Greenberg says making farmers eligible for student loan repayment or forgiveness will support different entry points into agriculture.

“First, multi-generational family farm kids are currently at a crossroads between going to college and taking over the farm,” she said. “Many parents are encouraging kids to get an education, but loan forgiveness would allow them to not have to choose between the farm and a college education.”

Second, she notes that many new farmers are first generation farmers who don’t know they want to farm until they get a college education.

Third, she says, “You have to think about future farmers that may not even be born yet.” She argues the future norm could be much easier entry into farming. Loan forgiveness could help pave a pathway back to the farm and reverse the rural brain drain. “Being able to return with an education builds rural communities.”

What advice can aspiring farmers and ranchers take about managing student loan debt?

Northwest Farm Credit Services (FCS) Relationship Manager Andrea Krahmer said student loan debt is factored into assessing a borrower’s credit worthiness and the level of student debt matters. However, Krahmer also said Northwest FCS offers loan programs specifically for new and small farmers.

“We can be flexible with underwriting guidelines and extra student loan debt may still be OK with some positive offsetting credit factors,” she said.

Krahmer and FSA loan officer Karie Walker both advise that maintaining credit worthiness, regardless of the amount of student debt is key. So is paying student loan debt on time every time.

According to Krahmer, “it becomes even more important to use credit sources responsibly which includes having good credit scores and minimal other consumer debt beyond student loans.” Krahmer explained that student loan debt is not like a car loan, which has a physical asset to offset the loan liability. “Knowledge obtained from attending college is certainly an asset but not something that can be recorded on a financial statement.”

While he can’t put his college education on a balance sheet, young rancher Caleb Howard believes getting a bachelor’s degree was worth it. He also advises there are other options.

“I wouldn’t change my college experience for anything in the world, but maybe a trade school is better preparation for less money,” he said.

Until student loan forgiveness is widely available to new farmers and ranchers, Howard said you can get ahead of your debt while in school. “Get a part-time job. It will go miles.”

SALEM — Oregon Ag Fest will honor three school groups Sunday, April 29, for their efforts to expand agricultural education in the state.

Receiving first place and a $1,000 award is the Urban Farm Program at College Hill High School in Corvallis. The Urban Farm gives at-risk freshmen and sophomores a real-life farm and business experience to develop their leadership, teamwork and problem-solving skills. This takes place on a half-acre with 30 laying hens, a farmers’ market stand and a student employment program that allows 3-4 students to work and run the urban farm stand from June to August.

Echo FFA will receive the $600 second-place award for its agricultural advocacy projects, which include partnering with Ag In the Classroom at the elementary schools, ag science activities with the middle school and a petting zoo for the community during FFA week in March.

Receiving the third-place award of $400 will be the North Powder Farm to School Program, which involves all grades of the school in garden and poultry production. Going on 9 years, it began as a way to bring fresh, local products into the school cafeteria and to teach children the origin of their food. The local food bank also utilizes products from the farm in its weekly food distribution.

The purpose of the Ag Fest Agricultural Education Award is to reward student organizations, nonprofit organizations or classrooms that promote and educate Oregonians about agriculture and extend the Oregon Ag Fest mission beyond its annual, two-day, interactive event.

“As Oregon Ag Fest celebrates 31 years of growing awareness for the importance of agriculture in our communities, we are proud to continue to support the agricultural education outreach efforts of nonprofit and student organizations this year,” Jake Wilson, Oregon Ag Fest chairman, said in a press release. “Oregon Ag Fest is dedicated to educating the public about the importance of agriculture, and we see this award as a way to encourage and support student groups that have programs and activities aimed to accomplish the same thing.”

The awards ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 29, on the main stage in the Jackman Long Building at the Oregon State Fairgrounds during the 31st Annual Oregon Ag Fest. Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Alexis Taylor will present the awards.

The awards ceremony will top off a weekend of agricultural adventures at Ag Fest, which is in its 31st year.

Ag Fest is at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem at 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, April 28, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, April 29. Children 12 and under are admitted free and parking is free. Admission is $9 for 13 and over.

All activities center around locally grown products, which allows families to learn about and celebrate the diverse world of Oregon agriculture.

“Our goal is to help kids gain a better understanding of the importance of agriculture to Oregon’s rural landscape, and to emphasize that most food starts on a farm somewhere and in Oregon we’re lucky enough to grow over 200 varieties of crops,” said Wilson, the Ag Fest chairman.

Members of the public can kick off their visit to Ag Fest from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 28, with an old-fashioned ranch-style breakfast. Included are hotcakes, ham, Oregon-grown fruit toppings, scrambled eggs, juice, coffee and milk prepared by Linn County 4-H groups. Cost is $6 for adults; children under 3 are free. Proceeds from the breakfast provide scholarships for 4-H camp and leader training.

Ag Fest is sponsored in part by Oregon Farm Bureau, Bob’s Red Mill, Oregon Dairy Women, Oregon Department of Agriculture and Oregon Women for Agriculture, among many others.

Online

www.oragfest.com

A federal judge has dismissed a financially distressed Oregon farm’s petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which protects companies against property foreclosure while they restructure debt.

During a April 20 court hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Renn said terminating bankruptcy proceedings for Carleton Farms of Klamath County is “wise” due to “unusual and extraordinary circumstances.”

The court hearing was initially intended to resolve a dispute over Carleton’s ability to use cash that serves as collateral for debt owed to its creditors.

The farm had also sought to recover real estate, machinery and other property that’s set to be sold off by a receiver.

However, attorneys for Carleton Farms withdrew those motions and asked to be taken off the case, citing a conflict of interest that cannot be disclosed under attorney-client privilege.

Keith Boyd, attorney for the farm, said a situation arose where they were informed the case could not go forward as a Chapter 11 reorganization.

“Debtor will consent to the dismissal of the case,” Boyd said.

Attorneys for Umpqua Bank, the farm’s largest creditor, and CFO Solutions, a receiver that’s taken control of the farm’s assets, agreed to the dismissal.

Prior to the court hearing, Umpqua Bank claimed the bankruptcy case should be dismissed because Carleton Farms wanted to undermine a receivership agreement to which it had previously consented.

Earlier this year, the farm had allowed a receiver, CFO Solutions, to take control of its assets after defaulting on about $17.5 million worth of loans to Umpqua Bank.

In its recently filed bankruptcy case, however, Carleton Farms wanted to compel the receiver to return nearly $4 million worth of assets that it claimed were necessary to continue agricultural operations.

The company also wanted permission from the bankruptcy court to use $510,000 to $870,000 of cash that serves as collateral to creditors.

Carleton Farms attributes its “severe economic difficulties” to the “aggressive” pursuit of cultivating organic potatoes and other crops, which have recently proven unprofitable due to lower prices.

At the time Carleton Farms agreed to the receivership, the company believed it could buy back the necessary equipment to continue farming but the money didn’t materialize, according to a court filing.

Unless the receiver turns over the equipment, the farm won’t be able to irrigate alfalfa hay, resulting in the loss of future cuttings, or prepare land for planting in the fall, the document said.

CFO Solutions, the receiver, objected to the farm’s request to use cash collateral and recover assets, arguing the company doesn’t have enough income to reorganize.

The receiver has already collected $1.5 million from the sale of the farm’s assets, according to a court filing.

5Carleton Farms filed for bankruptcy shortly before an auction was scheduled to sell of its equipment, which was called off “at great cost” to the receiver, Umpqua Bank and the auctioneer, the receiver said.

The request to return assets to Carleton Farms should be rejected because there’s evidence of “mismanagement,” including financial records in “disarray,” according to the objection.

“Based on the records that are available, Debtor has no demonstrated ability to manage a budget,” the document said.

The farm was a member of the Malin Potato Cooperative, a packing plant that closed in February, but “hundreds of tons” of Carleton potatoes processed at the facility “remain unaccounted for,” the receiver said.

Malin’s records indicate the packing facility owes Carleton $1.3 million but this debt does not show up at all in the farm’s books, according to the receiver’s objection.

“The records also indicate that Carleton Farms continued to process potatoes through Malin despite not being paid for several years,” the document said.

Ranchers and the federal government have defeated a 15-year-old environmentalist lawsuit that claimed grazing imperils threatened bull trout in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman has dismissed the complaint, which was originally filed by the Oregon Natural Desert Association and the Center for Biological Diversity in early 2003.

The environmental plaintiffs sought to prohibit livestock grazing on “units of concern” in seven allotments along the Malheur and North Fork rivers, arguing the waterways contain only 100 bull trout despite having the capacity for 4,000 of the protected fish.

Last year, however, U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Papak dealt the case a blow when he found that grazing authorizations hadn’t likely caused the decline in bull trout populations, which have suffered from the introduction of non-native fish, dam-building and other factors.

Mosman has now agreed with the recommendation to throw out the lawsuit because the plaintiffs haven’t established the U.S. Forest Service violated the National Forest Management Act and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act by approving grazing plans.

Mac Lacy, attorney for ONDA, said the group is still reviewing the decision but is disappointed the “court failed to explain why it was reasonable for the Forest Service to collect, but then ignore” data regarding “riparian management objectives” under the agency’s strategy for preserving inland fish.

Ranchers who rely on the grazing allotments, which span tens of thousands of acres, intervened in the case to defend the government’s grazing authorizations.

A major point of contention in the case was whether the Forest Service was properly monitoring stream conditions to ensure grazing doesn’t degrade the bull trout’s habitat.

Lacy had argued the agency was relying on “proxy” data — such as grass stubble height and alteration to stream banks — that didn’t reflect worsening conditions in the waterways.

“These failures, to the extent they’re showing up in the record, are getting worse over time,” Lacy said during oral arguments last year.

Egg nests laid by bull trout are trampled by cattle, which also raise water temperatures to unhealthful levels by widening streams and denuding vegetation, the plaintiffs claimed.

Stephen Odell, attorney for the Forest Service, countered that the environmental plaintiffs were “cherry-picking” data from problematic “hot spots” that don’t represent broader conditions.

Forest Service scientists have determined streambank alteration and stubble height are useful measures of progress that show conditions are improving, he said.

“The record does not show ongoing negative effects from grazing,” Odell said during last year’s oral arguments.

Over the objections of the environmental groups, both judges overseeing the case agreed the Forest Service was permitted to analyze habitat health on the “watershed or landscape scale, rather than stream by stream.”

ROSEBURG, Ore. — OR54, an estimated 3-year-old female wolf, was in the Toketee Falls area of the North Umpqua River drainage on April 7. That’s about a 45-minute drive east of livestock pastures in eastern Douglas County.

OR54 is wearing a radio collar, allowing her whereabouts to be tracked by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists.

A couple days after being in the Toketee area, OR54 was farther south in the Cascade Mountains and being tracked in the Prospect, Ore., area of northern Jackson County.

John Stephenson, the lead wolf biologist in Oregon for U.S. Fish and Wildlife, said he believes the wolf dispersed from the Rogue pack and is looking for a mate. The Rogue pack was responsible for the mid-January killing of three yearling calves on Ted Birdseye’s ranch in the Prospect area.

The most recent movements of OR54 were explained to about 100 people at an April 12 Douglas County Livestock Association conference.

Livestock producers in southwest Oregon are concerned about possible wolf predation on their animals at a time when coyotes and cougars are already taking a toll. USDA wildlife specialists are also concerned because once a wolf pair or pack establishes itself in an area, the trappers are more regulated in how they go about setting and checking traps and using other measures intended to discourage coyotes and cougars.

“If wolves come into a livestock area, wildlife services staff and livestock owners will be notified,” said Paul Wolf, the USDA’s Southwest District supervisor for wildlife services. “Once wolves are there, we have to have 24-hour trap checks.”

Breakaway snares that will hold a coyote but that a larger wolf can free itself from must also be used. The use of M-44s, sodium cyanide capsules, will also be restricted.

In addition to OR54, there have also been unofficial sightings of wolves in the last year in the Mount Scott area that overlooks Glide, Ore., and in the Dixonville area several miles to the southwest. Livestock pastures are within a couple miles of where those wolves were reportedly seen.

“I think these livestock owners have a right to be concerned because another predator is on the landscape,” Wolf said. “When there’s one or two animals, you don’t need to be too alarmed about it, but when they form a pack, it creates another situation that could potentially be a threat to livestock.

“There’s nothing established now as far as I’m aware, but OR54 is moving, probably looking to pair up and eventually forming a pack,” he added.

Stephenson said he also understands the concerns of livestock owners. He encourages them to clean up any bone piles on their property, to have as much human presence on the property as possible and to have guard dogs with their livestock if possible.

“There’s no doubt wolves will colonize Douglas County, but I do expect that to be in the far eastern part of the county,” Stephenson said. “In the valleys around Roseburg, I think the risk of wolves there is pretty low.”

Wolf and Stephenson explained that it is important when a possible sighting of a wolf is made that it is reported immediately to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. If possible, the animal or its tracks should be photographed and reported.

The same applies when dead livestock is found. In addition to the confirmed wolf kills near Prospect in January, the Rogue pack killed some calves in 2016 in the Wood River Valley north of Klamath Lake in Klamath County.

Birdseye, the Prospect rancher who lost the calves to wolves, said since a hot wire with red flagging was installed for 2.5 miles around his pastures, he has lost no more livestock. He also now has two English mastiff dogs roaming his pastures.

He has, however, heard wolves howl out in the forest at night. In mid-March, he awoke to a wolf’s howl at about 3:30 in the morning and then heard a yelp.

“Evidently that wolf hit the hot wire,” Birdseye surmised.

The rancher said he will be concerned about the safety of his cattle when he turns them out onto a U.S. Forest Service allotment in northern Jackson County in early June. He hopes any wolves in that area will follow migrating deer and elk to higher elevations and leave his livestock alone.

Veril Nelson, a cattle rancher east of Sutherlin, Ore., and the co-chair of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association’s wolf committee for Western Oregon, said the group’s main focus for his half of the state is to pressure U.S. Fish and Wildlife to delist the wolves.

“As long as wolves are listed, ranchers don’t have any way of protecting their livestock other than using non-lethal means,” he said. “The only way you can shoot at one is if it is attacking you. With the non-lethal controls, they work for a little while, but then if the wolves are prone to livestock, they’ll attack them again.”

Nelson said it is important to document any wolf activity and to get that information to the state and federal agencies. He added that collaring more wolves will also help in keeping track of them and in turn will give livestock owners some warning as to the animals’ location.

Birdseye expects there’ll be more wolf-livestock conflicts in southwestern Oregon in the future.

“That’s the reality of it,” he said. “Can livestock producers absorb those losses? Should we have to absorb those losses?

“We need to continue to educate ourselves on wolves and at the same time try to educate the people who are on the other side of the fence,” he added. “We’ve got a federally endangered predator on the landscape, and whose responsibility is it to keep the wolves where they need to be? Is it my responsibility to put up fencing around my place or is it the feds’? I don’t know many hours of sleep I’ve lost being concerned about wolves.”

As farmers begin to plant the 2018 potato crop, about one-third of last year’s crop remains in storage, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service reports. That percentage is on par with last year.

Last season, farmers grew fewer acres of potatoes than the previous year, Idaho Potato Commission President and CEO Frank Muir said.

Idaho, which produces nearly one-third of the nation’s potatoes, grew 131.3 million hundredweight last year, down from 2016 production of 139.3 million hundredweight. About 38 percent of the 2017 crop remains in storage.

Washington, the second-largest potato producer, had a crop of 99.0 million hundredweight and has 30 percent of its crop remaining.

Oregon grew 21.4 million hundredweight and has one-third of its crop remaining.

Overall, NASS said the 13 major potato-production states held 133.6 million hundredweight in storage April 1, up 2 percent from a year ago.

Potato disappearance, at 266 million hundredweight, was down 3 percent. Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 19 million hundredweight, was down 8 percent.

In the eight largest potato-processing states, processors had used 146 million hundredweight for the season as of April 1, up 1 percent from a year earlier, NASS reported.

In Idaho and in Malheur County, Ore., processors had used 54.1 million hundredweight for the season as of April 1, down 1 percent from a year earlier.

In other Oregon counties and the state of Washington combined, processors used 61.8 million hundredweight for the season, also down slightly.

Dehydrated usage accounted for 25.8 million hundredweight of the total processed, down 3 percent.

In Wilder, Idaho, Doug Gross grows potatoes for the fresh market and for processing. He expected to start planting April 19.

“We are right on schedule with a normal year,” he said, referring to his potato plantings. He sees good planting conditions on his southwest Idaho farm, including soil temperatures on track with 10-year averages.

Gross said adequate water bodes well for production, but final 2018 results will depend largely on summer growing conditions and weather.

“We just have to see what the weather brings,” he said.

ROSEBURG, Ore. — The roller coaster weather temperatures of earlier this year has had a negative effect on some fruit orchards in southwestern Oregon.

According to growers in both the Rogue and Umpqua basins, apricot trees were severely impacted. Some peach varieties may have also suffered, but growers are remaining optimistic that those trees will still produce some fruit.

What led up to this situation were severe temperature swings. January’s temperatures were slightly warmer than normal and early February featured eight days of spring-like weather with high temperatures ranging from 55 to 66 degrees.

Fruit buds on apricot and some nectarine and peach trees were already slightly advanced because of January’s warmth and then February’s “false spring” increased that advancement into the mid-bloom stage.

But then in the Umpqua Basin area, a morning low of 22 degrees was recorded on Feb. 13. Some more temperatures down into the 20s followed with the average low being 34 degrees and the average high being 49 for the next 11 days. The result was that sap stopped flowing in some of the fruit trees.

With buds halfway through the bloom cycle and no sap flowing, it is possible the partially developed pollen in the buds died. There was then nothing in the blossoms to attract bees so pollination did not take place.

“Mother Nature threw us a real curveball this year with some beautiful days in January and February and then the stone fruits got hammered by several mid- to upper 20-degree days,” said Steve Renquist, the Oregon State Extension horticulturalist for Douglas County. “The cold damages the ovary on the flower and then the ovary is not receptive to being pollinated and it dies.”

Mark Brosi, the owner of Sugar Tree Farms near Winston, Ore., said he wouldn’t have much of an apricot crop.

“There are only a couple buds per tree,” he said.

Kathy O’Leary, who owns Valley View Orchard near Ashland, Ore., said she probably lost her apricot crop.

Dave Belzberg, owner of Rolling Hills Farm near Medford, Ore., said he removed his apricot trees several years ago “because they were always getting frosted.”

When it comes to peaches and nectarines, the growers are taking a wait-and-see approach.

Brosi said his nectarines don’t look all that great and his peaches only look “halfway good.” O’Leary said she is not sure how much the weather impacted her future peach crop, but Belzberg, whose orchard is on a west slope, said his peach trees look “healthy and happy.” He said west sites tend to be cooler than east sites and he added that his trees weren’t flowering during the cold spell so he didn’t anticipate any loss.

Evan Kruse, co-owner of Kruse Farms near Roseburg, said it was too early to tell how his peach trees handled the cold.

“This is definitely a situation where micro-climates played a factor,” he said. “There can be 3- to 4-degree temperature swings so there may or may not be damage to a crop depending on its location.”

Both Kruse and Brosi said there could be a silver lining for the stone fruit orchards that did suffer some damage and subsequent crop loss. That would mean less thinning of fruit would be needed at a later time.

“To lose a few is not a drastic deal,” Brosi said. “Thinning is expensive. It could almost be a good thing.”

“A lighter fruit set would mean less hand labor for thinning and that’s a major cost in peaches and apples,” Kruse said.

Renquist, however, explained that a tree will put more energy into its vegetative growth when it is not growing fruit. That will mean more pruning will eventually be needed.

Because fruit buds on pear and apple trees bloom about a month later than stone fruits, those trees were not advanced enough to be impacted by the extreme temperature changes. The growers also said their cherry trees were not affected.

“I don’t think it does us any good to be pessimists regarding the weather conditions,” Kruse said. “If we were, it wouldn’t do us any good to even put a seed in the ground. You just have to have a little bit of faith and some optimism.”

At least one agricultural industry is utilizing the possibility of Chinese tariffs as an opportunity.

The Oregon hazelnut industry is hoping that an unexpected communication from the Consulate General Office of China will lead to reduction or elimination of a prohibitive tariff that for years has stripped the industry of direct sales opportunities in China.

“They did not commit or promise anything,” said Terry Ross of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association after meeting with Chinese officials. “They just said the door is open, the dialogue has been created, that they look forward to working with us in the future and that they would send a message back to Beijing on our behalf.”

The connection between the Chinese Consulate Office in San Francisco and the Oregon hazelnut industry started inadvertently enough after a news report aired on Portland television station KATU on April 3 about the effects of additional tariffs on Oregon hazelnut shipments to China.

Ross told KATU reporter Joe Douglass that he viewed the short-term trade situation as an opportunity for cooperation. While the Oregon hazelnut industry ships roughly half of its hazelnuts to Asia, the industry for several years has been shut out from selling directly to China because of a 25 percent tariff on its hazelnuts.

“For us the potential for new tariffs was of less concern, because we were already at a real disadvantage to other nuts in China anyway,” Ross said. He added that Chinese tariffs on California pistachios, which directly compete with Oregon hazelnuts in China, are 5 percent, and Chilean hazelnuts enter China duty-free.

Ross told KATU that he viewed the current situation as an opportunity to shine a light on the Oregon hazelnut industry’s disadvantage in China and stress the need for cooperation and communication.

The tactic worked better than probably even Ross expected. The day after the KATU report, Ross received an email from the Consulate General Office of China in San Francisco.

“They said, ‘We saw your comments and would like to talk further and listen to your opinions and advice on the topic,’” Ross said.

The office invited Ross and hazelnut processor Larry George, of George Packing Co. in Newberg, Ore., to meet with Deputy Consul General Ren Faqiang and the Vice Consul from Economic and Commercial Office Zhang Taiming.

“Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity and agreed to make the trip there Monday (April 9),” Ross said. “The China/Oregon ties are historically very strong, so dialogue and communication can only help in lowering the tariffs that put Oregon hazelnuts at a huge disadvantage to other U.S. and Chilean nuts in the Chinese market.”

Ross said the two-hour meeting went well.

“It was a very positive meeting. We are excited to continue these discussions and look forward to any future advancement on this issue,” he said.

“We also want to thank the Deputy Consul General of China Mr. Ren Faqiang and the Vice Consul Zhang Taiming for inviting us to meet with them,” he said.

Oregon regulators are challenging a plan to allow more rural housing on farmland and forestland in Douglas County that was approved last month.

In March, Douglas County decided to open about 22,500 acres to the development of 20-acre homes sites on properties that it had found were of marginal value for agriculture and forestry.

Two Oregon agencies — the Department of Land Conservation and Development and the Department of Fish and Wildlife — have now objected to that amendment of the county’s comprehensive plan before the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals.

A conservation nonprofit, 1,000 Friends of Oregon, has also appealed the change to LUBA.

“Our livelihood depends on this land,” said Shelley Wetherell, president of local affiliate Friends of Douglas County. “We’d like to see it preserved long-term for farm and forest uses, not residential sprawl.”

Originally, Douglas County planned to designate 35,000 acres as “rural open space” where larger parcels can be divided into 20-acre home sites.

The properties eligible for that zone change were scaled down to 22,500 acres after the county used additional data overlays to exclude higher-quality farmland, forestland and wildife habitat from the designation.

Properties must also fall within two miles of 25 existing cities and rural communities to qualify for the new zone.

Less than one percent of Douglas County’s total area qualifies for the “rural open space” designation and county officials only expect about one-fourth of eligible properties will be developed.

However, Friends of Douglas County believes the plan sets too high a threshold for what’s considered valuable farm and forest land, said Wetherell.

Lower-quality soils, for example, “are still suitable for grazing and they may be suitable for other things,” she said.

The county would allow 20-acre parcels on forestland that annually generates fewer than 85 cubic feet of timber per acre, but “a lot of logs” are harvested from such properties, Wetherell said.

Some areas in Douglas County are suitable for timber and grazing, she said. “It’s dual purpose.”

It’s also possible that more rural development won’t be financially beneficial for the county, Wetherell said. “The (tax) revenue from the houses may not be what it costs for the county services.”

Josh LeBombard, Southern Oregon Regional Representative for DLCD, said state officials can’t comment on the pending litigation. Capital Press was unable to reach Keith Cubic, Douglas County’s planning director, for comment.

On average, appeals to LUBA are resolved within four to eight months, but the board’s decision can then be challenged before the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Oregon State University announced April 18 it has hired Ryan Graebner, who just a week earlier obtain his Ph.D. in crop science, as extension cereals scientist.

Graebner will work out of the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center in Pendleton. His predecessor, former OSU Extension Cereals Specialist Mike Flowers, worked on the Corvallis campus.

Flowers left OSU last September after a dozen years at the university to take a position with Limagrain Cereal Seeds.

“We are excited to have Ryan,” said Jay Noller, head of the Department of Crop and Soil Science. “With Ryan and other new faculty that we have brought on, and others we will be announcing soon, we are looking for an even brighter future for our agricultural sector in Oregon.”

Noller said the department expects to fill three field crops extension positions in coming weeks, including two in the Willamette Valley and one in Malheur County.

Graebner holds a master’s degree in crop science specializing in barley breeding, and a Ph.D. with a specialty in potato breeding. He obtained both degrees from OSU.

Noller said Graebner’s background in plant breeding should serve him well in his new position.

“We anticipate great synergy between Ryan and (OSU wheat breeder) Bob (Zemetra),” Noller said.

Mary Corp, director of the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center, said she is delighted with the change in location of the cereal variety program from Corvallis to Pendleton and in having Graebner take over the program’s leadership.

“I think he has the skills and training to do a great job, and I know he is committed to the region and to the growers,” Corp said.

Corp said OSU consulted wheat growers before deciding to move the position to Pendleton. “We talked to the wheat growers about if it made more sense to move the program to where we grow the most wheat in the state, and they were very supportive of the idea,” she said. “I think it is going to be a great fit.”

With the help of faculty research assistants, Graebner will conduct trials in wheat growing regions throughout the state, Noller said, including in the Willamette Valley, where he will work closely with Zemetra and plant pathologist Chris Mundt, both of whom are stationed on campus.

OSU Extension field crops agent Nicole Anderson, who recently moved her office from McMinnville to the North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, also will do some wheat research, Noller said.

Noller noted that OSU has changed the statewide cereals extension position from tenure track, as it was under Flowers, to professor of practice, a change that relaxes some of the position’s academic publishing requirements in exchange for more outreach and applied research.

Flowers’ position also included some teaching responsibilities, which Graebner will not have.

Graebner, who was stationed in Hermiston while working on his Ph.D., said he is excited over his new position.

“I like the crop, I like the place and I like the growers,” Graebner said. “I am excited to be working with Oregon wheat.”

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho officials have approved an agreement allowing a utility company’s $216.5 million in relicensing expenses for a three-dam hydroelectric project on the Snake River on the Idaho-Oregon border.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission issued the order on Friday that allows Boise-based Idaho Power to include the costs involving the Hells Canyon Complex in customer rates at a future time. That rate increase would take a separate request from Idaho Power.

The company in December 2016 requested about $220 million to cover relicensing costs that started in 1991.

The company’s 50-year license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission expired in 2005, and it has been operating the dams under annual licenses renewed each August.

A relicensing sticking point is that Oregon officials want salmon above the dams, while Idaho officials don’t.

Farmers have a final chance to plant canola in Oregon’s Willamette Valley under special legislation before the crop enters uncharted legal territory next year.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is accepting applications until May 11 to plant canola this autumn in time for harvest in 2019, which marks the end of a six-year program allowing 500 acres of annual production in the region.

Lawmakers imposed the 500-acre limit in 2013 after an ODA proposal to relax canola restrictions in the valley upset specialty seed producers, who feared cross-pollination with related crops as well as increased pest and disease pressure.

Initially, canola was only allowed to be grown in the area during a three-year Oregon State University study, but lawmakers later extended the 500-acre cap for another three years.

The study, conducted by OSU weed scientist Carol Mallory-Smith, concluded that canola doesn’t pose a greater hazard than turnips, radish or other Brassicas.

A recommendation to the Legislature about canola’s future is due from ODA later this year, but right now, it’s unclear what plan the agency may propose and whether lawmakers will accept it in 2019.

In the meantime, applications to ODA will help determine how much demand exists to cultivate the crop, said Anna Scharf, president of the Willamette Valley Oilseed Producers Association.

“We need to be getting a better picture of how many people want to grow,” Scharf said. “A lot of them are already growing brassica crops so they already know how to grow this.”

Canola is permitted to be grown outside isolation distances for related Brassica seed crops that receive priority on a pinning map maintained by the Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Association, she said.

For that reason, it helps to have more potential acres from which to choose — typically, up to 1,500 proposed acres are necessary to identify the 500 acres allowable for production, Scharf said.

“The biggest challenge is we have to have thousands of acres to find the 500,” she said.

Among farmers, the two biggest misconceptions about growing canola under the current legislation is that they must be members of the oilseed producers association and have a contract for the crop, she said.

In reality, members of WVOPA receive no preferential treatment, Scharf said. “You simply have to apply and hope to get your pin in the map.”

As for contracts, none are necessary — growers can sell canola to Willamette Biomass Processors in Rickreall, Ore., but they can also deliver it to another facility that accepts the commodity crop in Washington or elsewhere, she said.

“It is absolutely no different than if you were growing wheat,” Scharf said.

Over the course of using the pinning system, it’s become apparent canola growers want to plan where fields will be located a year ahead, said Greg Loberg, public relations chair for the Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Association.

Loberg said the OSU study hasn’t necessarily resolved questions about canola’s coexistence with other Brassicas, since a larger acreage of the crop may prove disruptive even though 500 acres did not, Loberg said.

“You can’t really know how 10,000 acres will work without growing 10,000 acres,” he said.

Growers who want to see if they’re within the Willamette Valley control area for canola, or one of the three other control areas for the crop, can use an online “geographic information system” map developed by ODA, said Sunny Jones, an agency employee overseeing canola issues.

Fields within the Willamette Valley control district are subject to the 500-acre cap, so growers within its boundaries must apply to ODA to grow canola. The map can be found online at oda.direct/canola.

Officials from ODA plan to solicit feedback from farmers about canola’s future in the valley during meetings in May or June, but no firm dates have yet been set, Jones said.

With Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declaring a drought emergency in Klamath County, the state Water Resources Commission has approved temporary rules granting a preference to water rights for human consumption, such as drinking, cooking and sanitation.

A second set of preferences was also approved for livestock watering in the Williamson River Basin, provided ranchers meet certain requirements. Both provisions were approved by the commission during a special meeting April 13.

Water rights holders seeking to exercise either of these preferences need to submit a notice to the district watermaster. Forms can be found online at www.oregon.gov/owrd.

Under the rules, water rights that would otherwise be shut off to accommodate senior rights holders will be allowed to continue usage, provided they satisfy criteria for human consumption in Klamath County, or livestock watering in the Williamson River Basin.

The commission has passed similar preferences in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Tom Byler, director of the Oregon Water Resources Department, said the goal is to provide short-term relief during difficult water years.

“However, given that it reduces water available to senior water right holders, it is not a desirable solution for long-term water management,” Byler said.

A complete list of requirements is available on the OWRD website. For human consumption rights, that includes using the most efficiency means of water delivery possible and curtailing all other water uses.

As for livestock watering, water diversion is limited to the number of animals not to exceed one-tenth of one cubic foot per second, roughly equivalent to 45 gallons per minute, per thousand head. Streams also cannot drop below 2 cubic feet per second for live flow.

OWRD is working with water users in the Klamath Basin to transition to alternative methods for stock water and human consumption needs, Byler said, so emergency preferences will not be necessary in the future.

“I am pleased by the progress that has been made, but I strongly encourage water users to complete efforts to develop more permanent solutions to their needs through alternative sources,” Byler said. “Our staff can help explain those options to water rights holders.”

An Oregon farmer should be held liable without a jury trial for violating the Clean Water Act by stabilizing a riverbank, according to a federal judge.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin has agreed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that “ample evidence” shows farmer Bill Case of Albany, Ore., broke the law by working below the North Santiam River’s ordinary high water mark.

The farmer hasn’t proven “a reasonable jury could find a serious injustice had been committed” in holding him liable, Coffin said.

Because there is no question regarding a “genuine issue of material fact,” the issue can be resolved on “summary judgment” by a judge instead of a jury, he said.

The judge also rejected the argument that Case should not be held liable because he didn’t know a Clean Water Act permit was necessary, government officials had been aware of the work, and he had relied on the federal government’s advice when stabilizing the riverbank.

Although the farmer “presented sufficient evidence” that these elements were satisfied, he didn’t show the government had committed “affirmative misconduct” — such as a “deliberate lie” or a “pattern of false promises” — as required by legal precedent, Coffin said.

Under the Clear Water Act, it’s illegal to discharge material below the ordinary high water mark of a navigable water without a permit, with penalties of up to $37,500 per day of violation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed a lawsuit against Case in 2016, claiming he violated the statute by placing large “riprap” rocks along the river in 2009 and later expanding levees in 2012 and 2013.

The judge said that Case’s own photos indicate that fill material was placed beneath the North Santiam river’s ordinary high water mark during the 2009 stabilization, but there’s no evidence the government approved him going below that level.

Case also didn’t provide evidence, apart from testimony, that the 2012 and 2013 work occurred above the ordinary high water mark, Coffin said.

The government, meanwhile, had sufficient evidence the levee improvements occurred below that level, he said.

“Although Mr. Case may have been unaware that the areas in which he worked and the types of changes to the dike he performed were subject to permit requirements, the CWA imposes strict liability upon its violators,” the judge said.

While the magistrate judge has found that Case should be held liable, that is not the final word on the matter. His recommendation has now been referred to U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken.

Case said he plans to challenge the recommendation and is also negotiating with EPA about mitigation work to the riverbank.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers never mentioned he’d have to stay above the ordinary high water mark when stabilizing the riverbank, Case said.

“The only thing they said was stay out of the river,” he said.

Case said it’s implausible that he’d document the stabilization work with photos if he thought the work was unlawful.

“We weren’t trying to hide anything, we were just doing what they told,” he said.

A jury would likely have understood the situation and thrown out the lawsuit, which is why the judge didn’t like that option, Case said. “You get a judge on the side of the EPA, he’s going to go in that direction.”

HALFWAY, Ore. — Northeast Oregon ranchers are again seeking to eradicate the entire Pine Creek wolf pack from Baker County after the apex predators attacked livestock for the third time in just over a week.

The most recent incident was confirmed Sunday, April 15 at Pine Creek Ranch in Halfway, Ore. A 125-pound calf was found dead with bite marks on its hind legs and fresh wolf tracks at the scene. GPS collar data also shows OR-50 and OR-57, members of the Pine Creek pack, were within a mile of the carcass earlier that morning.

The pack is now responsible for killing five calves and wounding four others at two different ranches since April 6, prompting the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association to ask the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to kill all Pine Creek wolves to prevent further losses.

“The wolves are being seen on the valley floor, and that’s what’s really disconcerting folks,” said George Rollins, a Baker County rancher and co-chairman of the OCA wolf committee for Eastern Oregon. “So many people have seen them now, it’s like daily sightings.”

ODFW has already issued one lethal take permit for up to two wolves from the Pine Creek pack. Wildlife officials shot one yearling female from the pack on April 10. The permit expires May 4.

But incremental take has not proven effective in changing the pack’s behavior, Rollins said.

“They just keep coming back,” he said. “They are not following the herds of elk that are on the low hills area.”

Michelle Dennehy, spokeswoman for ODFW, said the agency has not decided yet whether to kill more Pine Creek wolves.

Earlier this year, University of Wisconsin researchers released a study suggesting that government killing of wolves may benefit one farmer or rancher, but by fracturing the pack it could actually increase the risk of predation at neighboring farms up to three miles away.

In this case, ODFW authorized killing two wolves from the Pine Creek pack after back-to-back attacks on private land leased by rancher Chad DelCurto. Nine days later, the pack notched its third depredation at Pine Creek Ranch roughly five to six miles away.

Environmental groups are staunchly opposed to killing any wolves in Oregon, arguing the population is still too small and fragile. ODFW reports there were at least 124 wolves statewide at the end of 2017, an 11 percent increase over 2016.

Conservationists also point to four cases of wolves that were illegally killed in 2017. Out of 13 total wolf deaths throughout the year, 12 were human-caused.

Under Phase III of the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, ODFW can authorize killing wolves that make a habit of preying on livestock in Eastern Oregon. The species remains federally protected west of highways 395, 78 and 95.

Jerome Rosa, executive director for the OCA, said incremental take of wolves will not solve the problems ranchers face, and actually leads to packs becoming more aggressive.

“It’s a no-win situation,” Rosa said.

The Pine Creek pack includes seven known wolves — after one was shot earlier this month — occupying territory mostly south of the Imnaha River and east of Halfway to the Idaho state line. In 2017, the pack produced at least five pups that survived to the end of the year.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — New plans call for reduced salvage logging on land that burned during last summer’s Chetco Bar wildfire in southwestern Oregon.

The Mail Tribune reports the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest had eyed about 20 square miles of land in January but forest officials Monday released a new draft environmental study that calls for a salvage-logging area of about 6 square miles.

The lightning-sparked wildfire burned more than 300 square miles last summer. Most of the forestland will either be left alone or tapped for removal of hazardous trees near roads, trails and recreation areas.

The possible salvage areas are in the Chetco and Pistol river basins in Curry County.

The final scope of the project is expected to be determined in June.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A closely watched medicine made from the marijuana plant reduces seizures in children with severe forms of epilepsy and warrants approval in the United States, health officials said Tuesday.

British drugmaker GW Pharmaceuticals is seeking permission to sell its purified form of an ingredient found in cannabis — one that doesn’t get users high — as a medication for rare, hard-to-treat seizures in children. If successful, the company’s liquid formula would be the first government-approved drug derived from the cannabis plant in the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval would technically limit the treatment to a small group of epilepsy patients. But doctors would have the option to prescribe it for other uses and it could spur new pharmaceutical research and interest into other cannabis-based products. Man-made versions of a different marijuana ingredient have previously been approved for other purposes.

The FDA posted its review of the experimental medication Epidiolex ahead of a public meeting Thursday when a panel of outside experts will vote on the medicine’s safety and effectiveness. It’s a non-binding recommendation that the FDA will consider in its final decision by late June.

Patients taking the treatment had fewer seizures, according to the FDA’s internal review posted online. Scientists concluded that GW Pharmaceutical’s submission “appears to support approval” despite some potential side effects including risks of liver injury.

More than two dozen states allow marijuana use for a variety of ailments, but the FDA has not approved it for any medical use. In 2016, the agency recommended against easing federal restrictions on marijuana. The U.S. continues to classify marijuana as a high-risk substance with no medical use, alongside other illicit drugs like heroin and LSD.

For years, desperate patients and parents have pushed for wider access to medical marijuana products for a host of conditions including pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and epilepsy, with only anecdotal stories and limited studies on their side.

But studies conducted by GW Pharmaceuticals have begun to change that picture.

Across three studies involving more than 500 patients, Epidiolex generally cut the number of monthly seizures by about 40 percent, compared with reductions between 15 and 20 percent for patients taking a dummy medicine.

Most patients in the study were already taking at least three other medications to try and control their seizures.

Epidiolex is essentially a pharmaceutical-grade version of cannabidiol, or CBD oil, which some parents have used for years to treat children with epilepsy. CBD is one of more than 100 chemicals found in the cannabis plant and it doesn’t contain THC, the ingredient that gives marijuana its mind-altering effect.

CBD oil is currently sold online and in specialty shops across the U.S., though its legal status remains murky. Most producers say their oil is made from hemp, a plant in the cannabis family that contains little THC and can be legally farmed in a number of states for clothing, food and other uses.

A doctor who treats children with epilepsy says it’s important to have an FDA-approved version of CBD.

“I think it needs to be approved because everyone is using it across the internet without knowing the safety ... and no one is watching the interactions with other drugs,” said Dr. Joan Conry of Children’s National Health System in Washington, who was not involved in the studies.

Conry and other researchers say it’s not yet clear why CBD reduces seizures in some patients.

GW Pharmaceuticals makes its drug from cannabis plants that are specially bred to contain high levels of CBD. It’s seeking approval for two rare forms of childhood epilepsy — Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes.

Common side effects included diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue and sleep problems. FDA reviewers flagged a more serious issue with potential liver injury, but said doctors could manage the risk by monitoring patients’ enzyme levels.

The Tumalo Irrigation District in Central Oregon could save 4.9 billion gallons of water per season by converting nearly 70 miles of open ditches to pipes, according to a preliminary study by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Greater efficiency means more water available in-stream for fish and wildlife in the Deschutes River and Tumalo Creek, including Chinook salmon, summer steelhead, bull trout and the Oregon spotted frog, which was the subject of an environmental lawsuit in 2016.

The TID Irrigation Modernization Project calls for updating infrastructure to boost water conservation, enhance stream flows and provide greater reliability for farmers in the 28,000-acre district northwest of Bend.

Project funding is available in part through the NRCS, which released its draft Watershed Plan and Environmental Assessment on April 16. A public meeting is scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 8, from at the Cascades Academy on Tumalo Reservoir Road in Bend.

Tom Makowski, assistant state conservationist for Watershed Resources and Planning with NRCS Oregon, said feedback will help the agency craft a final analysis and recommendation, which then goes to NRCS National Headquarters for authorization.

The entire project is expected to cost roughly $43 million, broken up into seven phases through 2028. The first phase, which Makowski said they hope to start this fall, will be the focus of the May 8 meeting.

Phase I will replace 1.9 miles of Tumalo Feed Canal, with $4.7 million provided by the NRCS Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act. The district will also foot $1.5 million.

The Tumalo Irrigation District serves 667 patrons and 7,417 acres of irrigated land. Its two primary diversion sources are Tumalo Creek below Shevlin Park and the Deschutes River near Pioneer Park, along with water in Crescent Lake.

Natural resource agencies have identified stream flows in the region as a primary concern. A lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and WaterWatch of Oregon against the Bureau of Reclamation and five irrigation districts — including Tumalo — over spotted frog habitat was settled in 2016.

According to the NRCS analysis, the district’s antiquated irrigation canals and laterals also make it difficult to deliver the correct amount of water to patrons on time, particularly early and late in the season. The modernization project would provide a more reliable source of irrigation water, while also reducing energy costs by removing the need for most patrons’ individual pumps.

TID patrons currently use individual pumps to pressurize water from their private ditch or pond. Together, these pumps use approximately 6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, costing $584,000.

The TID Irrigation Modernization Project is a collaboration between the district, NRCS, Deschutes Basin Board of Control and Farmers Conservation Alliance, based in Hood River, Ore. The NRCS is also developing draft plans for two other draft Watershed Plans for the Central Oregon and Swalley irrigation districts to take advantage of agency funding. The public scoping period is now closed for both of those proposals.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers — including Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley — are pushing to legalize industrial hemp in a bill introduced April 12 in Congress.

The Hemp Farming Act of 2018 would define hemp as an agricultural commodity and remove it from the federal list of controlled substances. It would also allow states to become the primary regulators of hemp, while opening the door for hemp researchers to apply for USDA grants and hemp farmers to receive crop insurance.

Wyden and Merkley, both Democrats have joined Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in support of the bill, which they described as common sense legislation to promote jobs and assist American farmers.

“By legalizing hemp and empowering states to conduct their own oversight plans, we can give the hemp industry the tools necessary to create jobs and new opportunities for farmers and manufacturers across the country,” said McConnell, of Kentucky.

Oregon already has a program to regulate industrial hemp, established by House Bill 4060 in 2016. The state Department of Agriculture licenses hemp farmers and seed producers, and oversees the testing of hemp products for human consumption. Products may not exceed 0.3 percent average concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive component in cannabis.

Courtney Moran, a Portland-based attorney who serves as president and lobbyist for the Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers Association, said ODA licensed 233 industrial hemp farmers in 2017.

“We have a very progressive yet robust program in our state,” Moran said.

Moran said she has spent the last year and a half working with Wyden’s office on developing the Hemp Farming Act of 2018. If the bill passes, she said it will help clarify things like interstate transportation and banking for Oregon hemp growers and processors.

“If and when the federal bill does take effect, we have established a very solid framework for our program,” she said.

Hemp is used in a variety of products. As a food, both the seeds and leaves can be eaten raw and are a rich source of protein and B vitamins. Hemp was one of the first plants to be spun into fiber 10,000 years ago, and can be made into clothing, textiles, paper, biodegradable plastics and insulation.

In an interview with the Capital Press, Wyden said he was first struck by hemp years ago while visiting a Costco store in Southeast Portland. There, He saw a package of hemp hearts for sale, and a thought crossed his mind.

“It seems to me that if you can buy (hemp) at a big supermarket in Oregon, you ought to be able to grow it here in Oregon,” Wyden said.

Wyden has introduced bills to legalize hemp in 2012, 2013 and most recently in 2015, and despite previous defeats, he is more optimistic about the fate of the 2018 hemp bill with support from influential GOP allies such as McConnell.

As Wyden repeatedly emphasized, people cannot get high on hemp with its low concentrations of THC.

“This is not a criminal justice issue. This is an agricultural issue,” he said. “Farmers tell me this is a big opportunity for them.”

Moran is similarly optimistic about including the legislation in this year’s farm bill.

“I think we definitely have our best chance that we’ve ever had,” Moran said. “(McConnell) has a lot of political power, and having his support definitely changes the conversation.”

In a statement, Merkley said it is past time to move beyond “outdated and frustrating” restrictions on hemp farming in the U.S.

Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, plans to introduce a companion version of the bill in the House of Representatives.