The action of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who detained multiple people after stopping a pair of worker transport vans near Woodburn, Ore., last week may have been a routine operation, but it happened in an acrimonious political atmosphere that had civil rights groups blaming it on the Trump administration’s belligerence toward immigrants.

An ICE spokeswoman said agents initially were after two people, both of whom had multiple prior arrests and one of whom had a prior conviction, when they stopped the vehicles on a highway outside Woodburn on Feb. 24. Agents detained 11 people on allegations they were in the country illegally; seven of them remained in custody Feb. 28. Four were let go because an immigration judge had previously released them on bond pending removal proceedings, the ICE spokeswoman said.

As far as ICE was concerned, the action was routine. People who are in the country illegally and have criminal records are among the highest priority for apprehension and removal, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“Deportation officers conduct enforcement actions every day around the country and in Oregon as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to uphold public safety and border security,” an ICE spokeswoman said in a prepared statement. “Our operations are targeted and lead driven, prioritizing individuals who pose a risk to our communities.”

But the action comes amid heightened political tension over border security and illegal immigration. Pacific Northwest agriculture has a major stake in the outcome, as many sectors rely on pruning, harvest or processing crews that are heavily immigrant, legal or not.

ICE provided a link to a Homeland Security memorandum that implements Trump’s executive order on immigration enforcement. The memo calls for hiring 10,000 more ICE agents and prioritizes enforcement action against aliens who have been convicted of any crime, charged with a crime but not resolved, committed fraud or “willful misrepresentation” with a government agency or abused any program to receive public benefits. It also authorizes removal of anyone who “in the judgment of an immigration officer” poses a risk to public safety or national security.

But the Portland office of American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, and the farmworker and forestry labor union Pineros y Compesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) criticized the action.

Pedro Sosa, spokesman for the American Friends group, said in his opinion ICE has increased its activity and is acting more aggressively since President Trump signed the order. Sosa said that’s created “more fear in our community.”

The immigrant advocacy groups said they were “deeply concerned” about such stops and arrests and their impact on schools, the local economy and security. The groups denounced the “racist policies” of Trump that “criminalize and scapegoat hardworking immigrants and divide Americans.”

Details provided by ICE and by the immigrant advocacy groups varied somewhat.

American Friends and PCUN said 19 people were detained in the operation and 10 were released. They said the workers were on their way to forest jobs picking baby’s breath, a decorative plant used in arrangements, when they were stopped.

Rhetoric aside, it’s too early to know how the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement numbers will stack up against the Obama administration’s.

The Department of Homeland Security apprehended 530,250 people in the 2016 fiscal year, President Obama’s last year in office. That was about 60,000 more than during the 2015 fiscal year. The figures include apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol and by ICE.

A former Pacific Northwest business consultant who has studied the issue said the Obama administration targeted known criminals for arrest and deportation and didn’t bother with others that might get caught up in raids. “Trump just told ICE to go after criminals, but if there are others there, take them too,” the former consultant said.

“Familial considerations,” such as having children in the country, no longer apply in detention and deportation decisions, he said.

“There are agricultural workers in Idaho who are afraid to go to the grocery store or go see their kids play in an athletic event,” he said. “It is a shame.”

The former consultant asked not to be identified because he is not authorized by his current employer to make public statements on the issue. However, he has experience in immigration and agricultural issues.

Based on a description of the ICE traffic stops in Oregon and the type of job the workers were headed to, he said the people taken into custody were probably day workers who may not have been in the country long.

“Often times they’re more likely to have a criminal record or something that would show up in a background check” and keep them from more regular employment, he said.

The consultant acknowledged that the Trump administration can accurately point out that the people detained were in the country illegally and had no right to be here.

“From that point of view, yes,” the source said. “However, when there is no guest worker program for ag or forestry, for nurseries, what choice do employers have and what choice do employees have?” he asked.

The source said various groups have tried since 2007 to institute a guest worker program that allowed people to legally enter the U.S. on a temporary basis. President George W. Bush proposed a plan that would have worked, he said, but was rejected by Congress. Now neither political party wants the other party to get credit for solving the problem, he said.

SALEM — Intense opposition by Oregon’s farmers, ranchers and forestland owners has apparently convinced lawmakers to back away from altering key property tax provisions affecting agriculture and forestry.

Machinery used for agriculture and forestry is exempt from property tax assessments while property dedicated to producing crops, livestock and timber is less heavily taxed than other real estate.

Under the original language of House Bill 2859, the property tax exemption for equipment and the farm use assessment for land would expire in 2024 unless renewed by lawmakers.

The proposal evoked alarm in Oregon’s natural resource community, which turned out in full force at a March 1 hearing to argue that creating a “sunset” for these provisions would financially destabilize farming, ranching and forestry.

By the end of the hearing, the overwhelmingly negative testimony against HB 2859 seemed to have the desired effect on members of the House Revenue Committee.

“I’m pretty convinced putting a sunset on these things that are very long-term assets doesn’t make any sense,” said Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene, the committee’s chair.

At the beginning of the hearing, Barnhart said the bill was drafted in response to an audit from Oregon’s Secretary of State’s Office, which called for periodic review of existing property tax exemptions and tax credits.

In light of the objections to HB 2859, though, Barnhart said he thought the sunset provisions related to natural resources should be eliminated from the bill.

The suggestion drew no objections from other committee members, so Barnhart said they would only consider the remaining provisions of HB 2859 related to economic development and other issues.

“I think you should consider all of what I just said means that you win,” Barnhart told the audience, to enthusiastic applause.

Farmers, ranchers and forestland owners at the hearing emphasized that natural resource industries were already highly uncertain due to the weather and volatile markets.

Landowners said they shouldn’t also have to contend with the possibility their property taxes may rise dramatically every six years, which is the period of sunset review established under HB 2859.

“In the orchard business, we need to plan long term,” said Bruce Chapin, a hazelnut producer near Keizer, Ore.

Marsha Carr, a forestland owner near Monroe, Ore., said her annual property taxes would rise from about $1,000 to more than $25,000 under HB 2859.

Carr said her family harvests timber in small patches of five to seven acres, which preserves habitat for wildlife and songbirds.

“That would have to change to pay the taxes,” she said. “We would have to cut larger areas.”

Farmers rely on specialized equipment but they often operate it for only a month or less per year, unlike other industries where machinery creates revenues year-round, said Roger Beyer, a lobbyist for the Western Equipment Dealers Association and several crop organizations.

If property taxes were imposed on farm machinery, it would destroy demand for machinery, he said. “It would simply dry up and go away.”

Landowners also testified that property would unfairly be taxed at the maximum assessed value if the farm use assessment was allowed to expire.

Oregon’s land use system would still prevent landowners in farm zones from building homes or other high-value structures on their property, even if it was taxed as if such construction was possible, opponents said.

Mark Simmons, a rancher from Elgin, Ore., said the farm use assessment is part of a “grand bargain” between land use restrictions and property taxes.

While it’s currently tough to raise cattle on Simmons’ property, it could be a “gold mine” for development, he said.

“It’s mostly rocks and cheatgrass,” he said. “Some of those rocky hills with cheat grass have a view.”

SALEM — Oregon Ag Fest is soliciting applications for its fifth annual Agricultural Education Award.

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

Applications are due March 15 and can be downloaded from the Oregon Ag Fest website: http://oragfest.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/AgEducationAwardForm_2017.pdf.

Cash prizes totaling up to $2,000 may be awarded to as many as three winners annually. Awards will be presented on stage during Oregon Ag Fest on April 30. Award prizes will depend on quality of applications submitted.

“As Oregon Ag Fest celebrates 30 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,” said Tami Kerr, Oregon Ag Fest Chair, 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.”

Oregon Ag Fest attracts over 19,000 people who experience the world of Oregon agriculture in a fun-filled, festive environment. For more information go to www.oragfest.com.

Farmers can boost agritourism revenues by banding together to create high-profile events that attract far-flung visitors to their region, according to a tourism expert.

Agritourism is a growing source of income for U.S. growers but the industry isn’t as mature as in Italy, France and other European countries, said Lisa Chase, a natural resources specialist who studies agritourism at the University of Vermont.

While U.S. farmers have made significant progress in direct sales to consumers through farmers’ markets and similar venues, they’re lagging behind in “immersive” experiences, such as offering on-farm lodgings, she said.

“There are tremendous opportunities we’re just starting to touch on,” said Chase.

To entice tourists, growers can partner with other agritourism operations to develop a “bigger package” of multiple events and destinations, she said.

“Maybe that’s going to make people come all the way to Oregon,” Chase said during a recent “agritourism summit” organized by Oregon State University.

Emphasizing the unique agricultural traits of a region can also forestall acrimony from surrounding farmers, who may otherwise feel irritated by events that are disconnected from production agriculture, she said.

“That can cause some friction in the agricultural community,” Chase said.

Bauman Farms near Gervais, Ore., is well-acquainted with the need to create a destination for tourists.

The operation is “on the way to nowhere” and must lure visitors on its own merits, rather than rely on passersby, said Brian Bauman, its general manager.

“It’s about creating that festive atmosphere,” he said.

The farm has pumpkins for Halloween and pies for Thanksgiving, but it’s also found reasons for people to visit after the holidays. For example, speeches by local experts, including authors, gardeners and cooks, are paired with a traditional “high tea” in the farm house.

“It’s turned into this really great experience they’re almost fighting to get into,” Bauman said, noting that painting classes at the farm are also proving popular.

Agritourism brings in the most revenues for farmers along the West Coast and New England, while growers in areas like southern Texas benefit from allowing hunters onto their land, said Chase, citing USDA statistics.

Farmers tend to focus on agritourism related to crops and livestock, but many also own woodlots that can serve as sources of entertainment, she said. “Those are often overlooked opportunities.”

Across the U.S., sales from agritourism and direct marketing doubled between 2002 and 2012, from about $1 billion to $2 billion, according to the agency’s Census of Agriculture.

The trend is reflected in Oregon, where agritourism and direct marketing revenues grew from $24 million in 2002 to $55 million in 2012.

Despite the overall upward trajectory, these revenues were actually higher in Oregon in 2007, when they hit $63 million.

“I really think it’s a reflection of the global recession,” said Mary Stewart, an applied economics and agritourism faculty member with OSU’s extension service.

Direct marketing and agritourism revenues likely dipped between 2007 and 2012 in Oregon due to the decline in leisure spending by consumers as well as wariness among farmers to invest in such ventures, she said.

“I feel very positive we will see a rebound when the next census comes out,” Stewart said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ammon Bundy, who was recently acquitted in the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon, testified Tuesday that he felt “driven” to protest federal control of Western lands after learning that two Oregon ranchers were imprisoned for setting fires on public rangeland.

Bundy was brought to the federal courtroom in Portland from Las Vegas, where he is in custody awaiting trial on charges he led armed gunmen to block a federal cattle roundup near his father’s Nevada ranch in 2014.

A defense attorney for Bundy’s fellow occupier Jason Patrick of Bonaire, Georgia, walked Bundy through the series of events that led him and others to seize the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2, 2016. Bundy, his brother Ryan and five others were acquitted in the Oregon case last fall.

Duane Ehmer of Irrigon, Oregon; Darryl Thorn of Marysville, Washington; and Jake Ryan of Plains, Montana, are on trial.

In response to questions from defense attorney Andrew Kohlmetz, Bundy said that the seeds for the refuge takeover were planted in October 2015, when he first heard about Dwight and Steven Hammond, two ranchers from rural Oregon who were about to report to prison for a five-year sentence after being convicted of setting fires on public rangeland.

He was lying in bed when he read an article about their case and “when I read that article, it was like I was pushed out of that bed and I needed to learn more,” he said. “I felt driven and I don’t know how to quite explain it. ...I felt a drive, an urge, to find out all I can and to get myself familiar with what was going on.”

He spent all night reading about the case online, wrote a blog post and wrote a letter that was eventually sent to 28,000 people by email, he testified.

Shackled and wearing a blue prison outfit, Bundy testified that he identified with the Oregon ranchers because he felt his own family had been targeted in a similar fashion by federal Bureau of Land Management agents who were trying to seize his father’s cattle in a decades-long dispute over grazing rules and unpaid fees.

In April 2014, Bundy backers pointed weapons at BLM agents and contract cowboys who were rounding up cattle near the Bundy ranch outside Bunkerville, Nevada, according to federal prosecutors. Bundy, his brother Ryan and his father, Cliven, are all scheduled for trial later this year on charges including conspiracy, firearms offenses and assault of a federal officer in the Nevada standoff.

“My conclusion was what was happening to them was very similar to what had happened to my family,” Bundy said of the Hammonds.

He decided to drive to Burns, Oregon from his home in Idaho because he wanted to learn “why families like ours and the Hammonds ... are in the situation we’re in where we’re losing our heritage,” he said.

Bundy met with the Hammonds and also with the Harney County sheriff in the hopes he would “bring light and stand for the Hammonds” by pushing back against federal authorities and convening a county-run investigation, he said.

Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward testified during Bundy’s trial last year that he met with Bundy four times but ultimately disagreed that it was his role to intervene on behalf of the Hammonds. He felt Bundy was making ultimatums and warned him that the community wouldn’t tolerate the kind of actions Bundy’s family had taken at the Nevada ranch, he has said.

The Bundys were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop away from the refuge that ended with police fatally shooting Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, an occupation spokesman. Most occupiers left the refuge after Finicum’s death, but a few holdouts remained until Feb. 11, 2016.

The acquittal of the Bundy brothers and the five others in what had seemed to be an open-and-shut case was a stunning blow for federal prosecutors last October.

Like the defendants in the first trial, the primary charge facing the men is conspiracy to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the refuge through the use of force, threats or intimidation.

This time, prosecutors hired an outside consultant to help them with jury selection and hedged their bets by adding misdemeanors such as trespassing to the mix of charges against the four men. The misdemeanor charges will be heard in a non-jury trial after the felony trial ends.

A calf found dead on private land in Southern Oregon’s Jackson County was killed by a wolf, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The three-day-old calf was found by a ranch employee Feb. 25. ODFW investigated that day and found wolf tracks in the snow around the carcass. The entrails and internal organs had been eaten. Bite marks on the carcass were wider and deeper than coyote bites, according to an ODFW report.

Data from a GPS radio collar showed a wolf designated OR-25 was at the kill site at 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Feb. 25. OR-25 is a male that dispersed from the Imnaha Pack in northeast Oregon in March 2015 and traveled through the Columbia Basin, southern Blue Mountains and the northern and central Cascades.

The attack happened in the Red Blanket Creek area.

Oregon’s grass seed farmers will harvest slightly fewer acres this year due to a combination of freezing weather, heavy rain and damage from the usual suspects: slugs, voles, cut worms, geese and mice, according to a survey by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

In some cases, fields were so wet last fall that farmers weren’t able to plant, said Roger Beyer, executive director of the Oregon Seed Council. He said grass seed prices have been fairly strong and sales brisk, however.

Regarding pests, Beyer said growers are hopeful Oregon State University’s new slug expert, Rory McDonnell, will “make some dents” in the problem. McDonnell was hired in 2016.

The annual NASS survey said some Washington County growers reported slow regrowth of established fields and that some newly-planted fields froze this winter. On a brighter note, the heavy winter snowpack means there will be adequate moisture this spring.

The NASS survey indicated annual ryegrass acreage available for harvest this summer will increase by one percent to 119,000 acres. Perennial ryegrass acreage, however, dropped from 87,000 acres harvested last year to 75,000 acres available this summer.

Plantings of turf type tall fescue also dropped, from 101,000 acres harvested last summer to 93,000 available for harvest in 2017. Plantings of forage type tall fescue and K-31 tall fescue increased by about 1,000 acres each, according to the survey.

Grass seed, used worldwide for parks, lawns, sports fields and pastures, is perennially among Oregon’s most valuable crops. NASS listed it fifth in 2015, with a value of nearly $384 million.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Community activists and union leaders say federal immigration officers stopped two vans carrying workers headed to a forest to pick an ornamental shrub, detained 19 of them and then took 10 of them away.

Pedro Sosa, who works with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, said 10 of the Latino workers were taken away after the traffic stop on a highway just outside the town of Woodburn in the predawn hours Friday. He said most of the workers are Guatemalan and at least one is Mexican.

Sosa said Tuesday four or five of the workers remain in detention, and may have been taken to a detention center in Tacoma, Washington.

Rose Richeson, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the Pacific Northwest, said she is gathering information on the matter.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Openly defying President Donald Trump’s plans to step up deportations of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, several hundred of them and their supporters staged a rally Monday right next to a building of the federal immigration agency.

“We are undocumented, and we are unafraid,” protesters chanted at the rally, held in bone-chilling rain near downtown Portland. Uniformed guards at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building kept an eye from behind windows on the peaceful protest, but they did not intervene. Some motorists driving by tooted their horns and gave thumbs-up in a show of support.

Speakers at the rally gave their names to the crowd and the media. Some said that while they are worried that this could bring them to the attention of ICE agents, they felt they had to speak out to dispel the climate of fear that has gripped the immigrant community in Oregon, where a few towns have a majority Latino population, and in much of the rest of the nation.

“I am very afraid,” Juan Avalos said in an interview. “But that’s the point today, coming out of the shadows. We will no longer be afraid, and this is the main point of the event.”

Now 21, Avalos had come to America from Salamanca, a town in Guanajuato state in central Mexico, when he was only 12. He is a student at a community college and works at an auto body shop.

“We are students. We are brothers. We are people who are just trying to be someone in life,” he said.

Trump says deportations are needed to keep America safe, and that the priority is to get criminals out. But some of those with no criminal history, or minor infractions, are also being detained.

During the rally, one of the protesters was on the phone, being told there had been people detained in the last few days in Woodburn, a predominantly Latino town south of Portland.

On Feb.9, a Woodburn man, a father of two who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years, was detained by ICE agents and sent to a detention center in Tacoma, Washington. ICE did not immediately confirm any additional detentions in Woodburn.

Luna Flores, who spoke at the rally, has lived in Portland for 16 years, and she is the mother of a U.S. citizen. She worries that she will be separated from her daughter if she is deported.

“We try to send a message to the ICE, to the government, to the whole administration, we are not criminals,” she said. “They are separating our families.”

Hannah Zaiv, a retired mental health counselor from Portland, held a sign saying “Let Them Stay” as she listed to the speakers.

“This is a country made for everyone,” she said. “The world should be made for everyone. Like John Lennon sang in ‘Imagine’: ‘Imagine there’s no countries.’ “

ICE said in a statement that it “fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference,” local TV channel KATU reported.

The station also carried on its website a statement from an unidentified spokesperson for the Oregon Republican Party saying “Illegal immigrants flaunting their illegality is the same as promoting anarchy.”

Ranchers who suffer livestock losses from predators stand to lose state support under both budget scenarios currently proposed for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Funding aimed at predator control and compensation for livestock depredation would be cut under recommendations from Gov. Kate Brown as well as the co-chairs of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, and Rep. Nancy Nathanson, D-Eugene.

The proposed cuts drew objections from the livestock industry during a Feb. 22 hearing on ODA’s budget before a panel of Joint Ways and Means Committee members focused on natural resources.

As the wolf population has grown in Oregon, livestock losses have been a continuing source of frustration for ranchers, said Mike Durgan of the Baker County Wolf Compensation Advisory Committee.

Even when wolves don’t kill cattle, they cause health problems that are considered indirect losses and aren’t compensated with state dollars, Durgan said.

Until wildlife officials find a better way to manage the predators, the livestock industry should receive state assistance, he said. “I want to make it clear I’m not advocating killing wolves today.”

Oregon counties have steadfastly contributed money to their partnership with ODA and USDA’s Wildlife Services division to pay for predator control, even as they’ve fallen short of funds for public safety and other vital services, said Craig Pope, a Polk County commissioner.

“We will have no one else to call if we let this partnership fail,” Pope said. “Counties cannot make up the difference of this funding hole.”

The Oregon Hunters Association and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation testified in favor or restoring the state’s full contribution to the predator control program, which they say is necessary to maintain a balance between predators and deer and elk.

Under Gov. Kate Brown’s recommended 2017-2019 budget, the ODA would eliminate $460,000 in state funding for the USDA’s Wildlife Services division, which kills problematic predators.

An ODA program that compensates ranchers for wolf depredation would be funded at $211,000 under the governor’s proposal, compared to $233,000 in the 2015-2017 biennium.

The co-chairs of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, meanwhile, have proposed a “budget framework” for the upcoming biennium that would decrease funding for the wolf compensation program “and/or reduce funding for predator control.”

While the co-chairs’ budget framework doesn’t specify the exact reductions for ODA programs, it does propose cutting state funding for all natural resource agencies to $405 million, down from $413.6 million during the previous biennium.

Rep. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, said he’s concerned about livestock losses and supports continued assistance from the state but raised concerns about possible hunting of wolves.

While wolves aren’t currently hunted in Oregon, controlled hunts could be allowed during a later phase of wolf recovery under the state’s management plan for the species.

Frederick cautioned against the display of “trophy” wolves killed by hunters, which he said would erode public support for the predator control and wolf compensation programs.

“That’s a political situation that will shut down a great deal,” he said.

Aside from predator control, other ODA programs are on the chopping block under the proposals from Brown and the co-chairs of the Joint Ways & Means Committee.

A coalition of natural resource industry groups — including the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Association of Nurseries, Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and others — urged lawmakers not to curtail those programs.

For example, the co-chairs’ budget framework recommends decreasing the number of positions in ODA’s agricultural water quality program and shifting food safety and pesticide programs from the general fund to program fees.

Industry representatives fear such shifts will effectively increase fees on farmers, ranchers and others.

Under Brown’s budget proposal, about $250,000 in general fund dollars would be cut from ODA’s inspection program for “confined animal feeding operations,” shifting the burden onto fee payers.

A biocontrol program for controlling invasive weeds would also be eliminated, saving $250,000.

Don Farrar, Gilliam County’s weed officer, argued against the proposal because biological control with predatory insects can effectively suppress large infestations of weeds.

“This program has been one of the best in the nation and it would be sad to lose that,” he said.

SWEET HOME, Ore. (AP) — A memorial service for a man who died in a logging accident has been scheduled for Sunday afternoon at the Sweet Home High School auditorium.

The Albany Democrat-Herald reports Colt Campbell was struck by a tree last week while working with his family’s timber cutting business on Weyerhaeuser property west of Eugene.

The 29-year-old timber faller was married and had a 5-year-old son.

PORTLAND — Federal employees spoke Thursday about their inability to work during the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation last year.

At U.S. district court in Portland, jurors also viewed a video that showed occupiers talking about killing those workers if they had to flee the Harney County facility.

“I wasn’t able to perform my duties at the refuge,” Linda Beck, a former fish biologist at the refuge, told the court. “It wasn’t safe for me to go to work.” This is the second time Beck and other federal employees testified. She spoke previously in last year’s trial of more prominent occupation leaders. Those men and one woman were acquitted on all charges.

Bureau of Land Management Special Agent Jason Curry talked Thursday about two “Closed Permanently” signs that had been fastened to the BLM office in Hines, near Burns in Eastern Oregon.

“We had to remove the signs before you could open the door,” Curry said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoff Barrow later asked if the sign would “physically impede” work by BLM employees.

“Yes, it would,” Curry said.

“I have no further questions,” Barrow responded.

Thursday’s questions were the latest attempts by federal prosecutors to show jurors that the four occupiers on trial were part of a conspiracy whose intent was to prevent federal employees from doing their jobs.

Sixteen employees worked at the refuge at the time of the occupation. Since then, five have taken positions elsewhere. The remaining employees are back, working at the refuge, but the headquarters buildings remain closed to the public. Officials expect they will reopen later this year.

As at the first trial, Barrow showed Beck photos of her office during and after the occupation. He asked Beck questions like whether her office was open to the public and if it looked the same as she had left it before the 41-day long occupation began.

Beck said there was a sign on the fence outside her office that said “closed to the public.”

“Is that your gun?” Barrow asked, showing the jury a photo of occupation leaders Ryan Bundy, cradling a long gun, with Ammon Bundy sitting at Beck’s desk.

Beck responded that it wasn’t.

“I’m not allowed to have firearms in my office,” she said.

As in her testimony during the first trial, Beck said she wasn’t able to conduct carp removal from Malheur Lake and the Blitzen River during January 2016.

During cross-examination, Jake Ryan’s attorney, Jesse Merrithew, asked Beck if any of the men on trial had objected in emails or phone calls to the carp-removal program.

“I have no idea,” Beck responded.

To prove their case, prosecutors have to show the occupiers’ state of mind at the time of the occupation was to keep federal employees from going to work.

Jess Wennick, who runs the grazing program at the refuge, said he was told by his boss to not go to work because of the occupation.

“He said it was not safe to return to work at that time,” Wennick testified.

“If your office had not been taken over and occupied, would you have returned to work?” Barrow asked.

“Yes,” Wennick said.

Borrowing a line from his previous testimony, Wennick referred to the office next to his as a “technological sweatshop” after the occupation because it smelled and computer parts were strewn about the room. Wennick testified it appeared the occupiers brought a scanner to the refuge and used it to copy government files.

During Wennick’s cross-examination, Merrithew again drove at the question of the occupiers’ intent. He asked whether the men on trial had voiced opposition to bird surveys taken at the refuge.

“Not to my knowledge,” Wennick said.

“You don’t know who precisely was in those offices,” Merrithew said.

“No,” Wennick responded.

Federal prosecutors repeatedly stressed through their witnesses that across Harney County, federal employees were impeded by the occupiers.

Matthew Yeager, an FBI agent who analyzed Facebook accounts for some of the occupiers, testified about a series of private messages and public posts. Some were new; others were included as part of last fall’s trial.

“I’m getting conflicting message on the 2nd,” read one private message from Gavin Seim to Ammon Bundy on Dec. 30, 2016, seemingly referring to a planned protest in Burns on Jan. 2. “On one hand it’s being called a rally and protest. On the other it’s a call to action. People are confused.”

“I would never show up to a rally without my arms,” Bundy wrote back.

On Dec. 31, 2016, a man named Brandon Thomas wrote a private message to Bundy:

“I think you aught (sic) make it more clear that people should not take as a green light to stand against the FEDs, like was done at your family’s ranch,” Thomas wrote. “Just my two cents.”

“It’s much more than a protest,” Bundy wrote back.

Facebook messages also showed defendant Darryl Thorn discussing his involvement with the refuge.

“I was part of the federal building occupation,” Thorn wrote in a private message Jan. 3.

A photo posted to Facebook shows Thorn sitting in what Agent Yeager said was the fire tower at the refuge.

“Good good sitting here at the refuge standing guard,” Thorn wrote in another message.

During cross-examination, Marc Freidman, Thorn’s attorney, asked Yeager if Thorn was at the refuge when the photos were uploaded. Yeager said he couldn’t tell, but added that Thorn “was very boastful about his participation in the occupation.”

The day ended with an 11-minute video depicting a meeting in the fire bunkhouse at the refuge on Jan. 26, 2016, after the leaders were arrested and Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum was shot and killed by Oregon State Police during a traffic stop.

The video depicts defendant Jason Patrick appearing to lead a meeting about whether the remaining occupiers should leave the refuge or stay. Thorn and Ryan are also present.

“We are the David in the David and Goliath story,” Patrick says. He tells the small group assembled in the bunkhouse kitchen that he has already put out a message to the media saying the remaining occupiers want a peaceful resolution.

“If we change tactics, the narrative changes to domestic terrorism,” Patrick says.

Off-camera, an unidentified person can be heard saying, “We already have our martyr,” presumably a reference to Finicum. Another unidentified person suggests the group should “execute” federal employees and their families.

Thorn, who is sitting on a bar stool smoking a cigarette, with a long gun resting against his leg, says the remaining occupiers should stay.

“All I see is a buck of salty motherf------,” Thorn says. “We came here for one reason and that’s to fight.”

At one point in the video, Ryan, who doesn’t appear to speak, is seen standing next to Thorn.

Blaine Cooper, another occupation leader, suggests leaving the refuge in one of the firetrucks and heading for Idaho, where the occupiers can regroup. Cooper says they could put five armed people on the truck and “if they try and follow us, lay lead down.”

Patrick and Thorn can be heard disagreeing with the plan.

“I came to defend the Constitution, not flight,” Patrick says at one point.

But during his redirect, Barrow pointed out that in the end, Patrick, Thorn and Ryan all voted to stay, rather than leave the refuge.

PORTLAND — The coming growing season is likely to be cooler than the past two years as the Pacific Northwest returns to something closer to normal after a “drought to deluge” ride that included much warmer than usual temperatures followed by an extended cold snap and pounding winter snow storms.

Gregory Jones, a Southern Oregon University professor and research climatologist, delivered that assessment in a talk at the Oregon Wine Symposium, the state’s annual gathering of wine grape growers, vintners and related businesses.

Jones specializes in viticulture climatology and is deeply respected within the industry. Tom Danowski, executive director of the Oregon Wine Board, introduced Jones by saying he’s “as close as we get in Oregon to a national treasure.”

Jones said 2016 began with a mild winter, a dry and warm spring and an early June heat spike that broke records with temperatures over 100. Overall, Oregon’s temperature was 2 to 3 degrees higher than normal during the grape growing season, he said.

The warm weather resulted in a bud break that was two to four weeks early, but the June spike compressed the flowering period. With growth stages advanced, Oregon may have seen the earliest start and earliest finish to harvest on record, Jones said. The stretch included an “amazingly long” frost-free period that ranged from 225 to 325 days in various regions of the state.

The effect on wine quality will become clear with time. Jones said brix readings were slightly above average, pH readings were average and yields were up 2 to 4 percent over the previous year.

This year is shaping up as cooler and a return to normal, but a revived El Nino pattern later in the year could lead to another warm winter. Jones said the western U.S. is prone to weather variability. “We really should be expecting it,” he said.

The best news is that all of Oregon will be removed from drought designation this year, Jones said, and the snowpack holds sufficient water to carry the state through the growing season. Although California has been pummeled by rain and flooding, “It needs three more winters like this to come out of the drought they experienced,” Jones said. “Maybe four or five.”

Statistically, the frequency of Western droughts is shifting, he said. What used to be a once in 20 years event could become a once in 10 years event, Jones said. “We do have a tendency in the West to come in and go out of droughts more abruptly,” he said. “Climate science is starting to look at that.”

SALEM — Oregon landowners don’t have a simple, reliable method to find out whether their property is considered a wetland.

That’s potentially a big problem if a structure is built on a parcel that state authorities later determine is a wetland, thus making the landowner liable for costly mitigation measures.

Jesse Bounds, a hay exporter near Junction City, Ore., learned that lesson the hard way.

Upon trying to rebuild two barns that had burned down last summer, Bounds was told by Oregon’s Department of State Lands the construction was unlawful because he hadn’t obtained a fill-removal permit. The permit is required when disturbing wetlands.

Bounds was shocked by the notification, since his 12-acre parcel wasn’t identified as a wetland under the State Wetland Inventory and he’d obtained all necessary building permits without a hitch.

Oregon lawmakers are now contemplating two bills that would resolve the problem.

One is aimed specifically at Bounds’ situation, while the other seeks to dispel the broader confusion over which properties fall under DSL’s wetland jurisdiction.

House Bill 2785 takes the narrow approach, by exempting the replacement of a farm building “destroyed by fire or other act of God” from state fill-removal laws.

House Bill 2786 is more expansive, creating an exemption for any property that’s not designated as a wetland under the State Wetland Inventory.

Much of the discussion during a Feb. 21 hearing before the House Agriculture Committee focused on the latter bill.

Proponents argue that landowners may believe their property isn’t subject to fill-removal laws — based on the State Wetland Inventory — without realizing that DSL can nonetheless arrive at a different conclusion.

“They have no idea the map is not right,” said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Landowners such as Bounds, who think they’ve followed all the applicable laws, may never hear from DSL unless a neighbor makes a complaint, said Dave Hunnicutt, executive director of the Oregonians in Action property rights group.

“Unfortunately, that’s the way that DSL exercises its jurisdiction,” Hunnicutt said.

While a housing developer may be able to afford wetland mitigation credits, that option is often too costly for farmers, he said.

Such credits, which effectively pay for the creation of wetlands elsewhere, cost about $77,000 to $81,000 per acre, according to DSL.

“Someone in Mr. Bounds’ position, it puts him out of business,” said Hunnicutt.

Opponents of HB 2786 claim the bill would jeopardize wetlands across Oregon because many aren’t included in the State Wetland Inventory.

The State Wetland Inventory only includes a “small subset” of wetlands that are under both state and federal jurisdiction, said Tom Wolf, executive director of the Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited, a group that advocates for fish habitat.

“It’s too broad a bill,” Wolf said.

The League of Women Voters of Oregon believes the wetland designation process should be made clearer but worries HB 2786 sets a definition that’s too limited, said Peggy Lynch, the group’s natural resouces coordinator.

“We need to have something more than the State Wetland Inventory to consider,” she said.

Several members of the House Agriculture Committee said they sympathized with Bounds’ predicament and the need to clarify wetland designations, including Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, the committee’s chair.

Clem said he favored a simpler alternative to the current system of identifying wetlands, under which parcels are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

“That to me sounds horribly tiresome and painful,” he said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The federal prosecutors who failed to convict Ammon Bundy returned to court Tuesday to try four lesser-known men who followed Bundy’s call to take a hard stand against the government and occupy a national wildlife refuge in Oregon.

Like the defendants in the first trial, the primary charge facing the men is conspiracy to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the refuge through the use of force, threats or intimidation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow spent a good portion of his opening statement telling jurors that a conspiracy does not have to include people gathering around a conference table and drafting a written agreement.

Barrow acknowledged there was no written agreement, but said circumstantial evidence will show there was a “meeting of the minds” to prevent federal employees from going to work.

The four defendants are Duane Ehmer of Irrigon, Oregon; Jason Patrick of Bonaire, Georgia; Darryl Thorn of Marysville, Washington; and Jake Ryan of Plains, Montana. The men, all free on their own recognizance, waived their right to a speedy trial last fall, preferring to have more time to prepare.

Three of them are also charged with possessing a firearm in a federal facility. Two are charged with depredation of government property.

They were among the more than two dozen men and women who answered Bundy’s call to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest federal control of Western lands and the imprisonment of two ranchers convicted of setting fires on public rangeland.

“The defendants are not being tried for their political beliefs, no matter how baseless, radical and ridiculous they may be,” Barrow told jurors.

Andrew Kohlmetz, an attorney representing Patrick, countered that the beliefs of the men are at the heart of the case, because they are what drove them to the refuge. He told the Portland jury of seven women and five men that impeding workers was not one of those beliefs and there was no conspiracy.

“The evidence will fail to show that a single person went there with the conscious desire or goal to interfere with anyone who worked there,” Kohlmetz said.

The protesters gained control of the refuge on Jan. 2, 2016. The Bundys were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop away from the refuge that ended with police fatally shooting Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, an occupation spokesman. Most occupiers left the refuge after Finicum’s death, but a few holdouts remained until Feb. 11, 2016.

There was no dispute the group seized the refuge and established armed patrols, but jurors last fall bought defense arguments that the takeover was an act of civil disobedience and the government failed to prove a conspiracy against employees.

Barrow and the other prosecutors who lost what initially seemed an open-and-shut case declined interview requests after the bitter defeat, and haven’t elaborated on what they think went wrong.

Unlike the first trial, they hired an outside consultant to help them with last week’s jury selection process, a sign they believe the seeds of defeat were planted before the first witness was called.

They also hedged their bets by adding misdemeanors such as trespassing to the mix of charges against the four men. The misdemeanor charges will be heard in a non-jury trial after the felony trial ends.

Bundy, the star of the first trial, is expected to appear in the sequel as a defense witness. Though cleared in Oregon, he’s in a Nevada jail awaiting trial on charges stemming from a 2014 standoff with federal authorities at his father’s ranch near Bunkerville.

The defense plans to put him on the stand for two days, letting him explain the occupation and what it hoped to accomplish.

SALEM — A desire to reduce inefficiencies — and neighbor conflicts — is driving Oregon dairy farmers to cut unwanted emissions, according to an industry expert.

Environmental activists often bemoan the lack of federal and state air quality restrictions for dairies, but farmers are taking steps on their own, said Troy Downing, dairy extension specialist at Oregon State University.

“As we get new science, our industry is adopting it quicker than we would through regulation,” Downing said at the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association’s annual conference on Feb. 20.

The prospect of Oregon’s government taking a more active role has been raised by Senate Bill 197, which would require the state Environmental Quality Commission to enact formal rules for reducing dairy air emissions.

The legislation seeks to formalize recommendations made by a dairy air task force in 2008, which proponents of SB 197 complain haven’t been acted upon, Downing said.

In reality, though, dairy farms have voluntarily implemented “best management practices” such as installing anaerobic digesters to capture gases and use them for energy production, he said.

“We have made significant progress,” Downing said.

Decreasing odors allows dairy farmers to be good neighbors as well as curtail volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, he said.

The adoption of automated scrapers has led to more frequent removal of manure and urine from barns, Downing said. Waste is more stable in a liquid state, which prevents volatilization and the release of undesirable gases.

Some measures also help farmers put the nutrients in manure to better use.

By applying to manure to fields with “big guns” at high pressure, more of the substance is released as an aerosol-like spray that’s prone to volatilizing into a gas, Downing said.

More farmers are now switching from the big guns to low-pressure or injection systems that preserve nitrogen while reducing gases, he said.

Manure is often assumed to be the culprit in dairy emissions, but feed and silage also release gases, Downing said.

Dispersing smaller amounts of silage several times a day — rather than a large amount once — decreases the amount of time it lays around, reducing VOCs, he said.

Storing silage in a narrower pit also shrinks the size of the open “face” as feed is removed, reducing volatilization of gases compared to a broader pit with a larger face, he said.

As gases are volatilized from silage, the material’s weight decreases, Downing said. “That’s dry matter you’re losing to the atmosphere that the cows aren’t eating, that you bought and paid for.”

Reducing emissions can be advantageous for dairies, but Downing noted that livestock production contributes to only 4 percent of U.S. emissions of “greenhouses gases,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The dairy industry’s share is less than 1.5 percent of total U.S. emissions.

Meanwhile, Oregon’s air quality is predominantly rated as “good” by the EPA, though some areas occasionally dip into “moderate” territory when people heavily use wood stoves during atmospheric inversions, Downing said.

“Oregon really has no air quality problem. What problem are you trying to fix?” he said.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — New and experienced small farm enthusiasts made up the near-capacity crowd at the 17th Annual Oregon Small Farm Conference Feb. 18 on the Oregon State University campus.

The sessions were geared toward farmers, agricultural professionals, food policy advocates, students and farmers’ market managers.

Attendees could go to some of the 27 sessions offered throughout the day and had access to 45 industry vendors, an industry-rich resource bookstore, a breakfast and lunch of local foods and “Think and Drink” information-sharing sessions throughout the day.

First-time attendee Sue Delventhal came with her husband, Joerg, and their 13-year-old son, Tim.

“This not only is our first conference, but we are new to farming,” Delventhal said. “Two-and-one-half years ago, Joerg and I followed our dream and bought five acres on a 1,400-foot elevation ridge on Chehalem Mountain near Newberg. The property is heavily wooded, which almost makes us more like homesteaders than farmers.”

She heard about the conference after a visit to the OSU Yamhill Extension office in McMinnville.

“After attending, I saw that it wouldn’t matter who you were or what you were doing, you could find something there of value,” she said. “My priority was the session on organic weed management and I was really impressed with what I was able to learn. I know now that I have basically two types of weeds, that I need to do more mulching and I need to do a lot more studying on the subject.”

Joerg was most interested in the dryland farming session.

“We have a great loam soil but living on top of a mountain gives us water issues,” she said. “Because I’m the one home in the daytime, I am able to do a lot of the farm work but Joerg and Tim get called in on all of the big muscle jobs.”

The conference started in Eugene in 2000 and moved to Corvallis two years later.

“There were 50 at the first one, then 180, 240, 800 and today there were 925,” Chrissy Lucas, one of the event coordinators, said. “Some people come every year, and some come if there are specific sessions they need. First-timers made up 40 percent of the attendees this year.”

Featured among the presenters this year were farmer-authors Ben Hartman of Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen Ind., and Josh Volk of Slow Hand Farm near Portland, Ore.

Their books “The Lean Farm: How to Minimize Waste, Increase Efficiency and Maximize Value and Profits with Less Work” by Hartman and “Compact Farms: 15 Proven Plans for Market Farms on 5 Acres or Less: Includes Detailed Farm Layouts for Productivity and Efficiency” by Volk are available at Amazon.com.

“Our goal is to bring people together to help solve problems of small-scale farming,” Garry Stephenson, OSU Extension small farms specialist and small farms program coordinator, said. “Both of our featured presenters drew 200 to 250 people each in their sessions.”

He said the target market for the conference is “both young people who are interested in and already doing it and an older group of people who are doing it as a second career.”

“We are trying to help them with profit, viability and, most of all, show them ways to stay nimble,” Stephenson said. “As soon as we get this conference evaluated, we’ll start on the next one set for Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018.”

Online

For more information, visit smallfarmconference.org.

CEDAR MILL, Ore. — One of the key figures in Oregon agriculture right now is a gardener but not a farmer, writes a community newspaper but has no journalism training, and worries about insecticides but endorses a five-year state plan to kill invasive Japanese beetles.

“I’m at Ground Zero,” said Virginia Bruce. “This is a huge threat.”

That it is. The Oregon Department of Agriculture proposes to treat about 1,000 acres in Washington County, just west of Portland, with annual granular applications of Acelepryn, which will kill Japanese beetles in the grub stage. But to get after the beetles, department staff will have to treat yards and flower beds at about 2,500 private homes. And they might have to come back annually for up to five consecutive years.

These days, expecting the public to believe what government scientists say isn’t a sure thing. And some people in the treatment area might question the insecticide plan if it were being pushed solely by a business group, such as the plant nurseries whose product is at risk.

Clint Burfitt, who manages the eradication program for the ag department, said there is something akin to an “anti-expert” atmosphere at work, and a grass-roots effort stands a better chance of reaching people. Following that line, he identified Bruce, who has extensive community connections as editor and publisher of the monthly Cedar Mill News, as an important ally.

“It’s pretty clever,” Bruce said. “This guy Burfitt is an expert on these beetles and ways to deal with it. He said the only way to have a successful campaign is to have community partners.”

She said Burfitt recently attended a community meeting that included members of the Aloha Garden Club, which holds an annual plant sale and gets some of its plants from members who live in what Bruce calls “Ground Zero.” It’s quite possible, Bruce said, that some plant buyers took Japanese Beetle grubs home with them.

The agriculture department decided to take action after a record 369 beetles were found in traps last year and numerous live beetles were found eating roses and other plants in the area. Japanese beetles are capable of causing heavy damage. They’ll eat nursery plants, wine grapes, cannabis, hazelnuts and cane berries in addition to homeowners’ flowers.

Burfitt said failure to stop the infestation would cost Oregon agriculture an estimated $43 million a year in lost plant value, export restrictions and increased spraying and other production costs. The department says Acelepryn, the insecticide, won’t harm pets, birds, bees or people.

He’s won Bruce over, and she’s using her print edition, website and email newsletter, and her garden club connections, to help spread the word. She’s been writing about it since last August, and the windows of her office display informational fliers and maps of the affected area.

“If the problem gets out of control, everybody who grows that kind of stuff will have to spray, and that’s worse,” she said. “The importance of this whole thing is just mind-boggling.”

In addition to helping Burfitt make community connections, she helped convince the ag department to revise its outreach material. The first version urged homeowners to protect the “Rose City,” which is Portland’s nickname. But Cedar Mill and Bethany are proudly and distinctly outside the city in unincorporated Washington County, and residents don’t like to be called “Northwest Portland.”

“I understand how devastating an invasive pest can be,” Bruce said. “I understand how it can affect the economy and enjoyment of the community. The damage potential of these beetles far outweighs the reservations I have about using chemicals.”

The ag department will hold a pair of open house meetings on the project. The first is Saturday, March 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Leedy Grange Hall, 835 N.W. Saltzman Road. The second is Monday, March 6, from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m. at the Cedar Mill Library, 12505 N.W. Cornell Road.

More information about the project is online: http://www.japanesebeetlepdx.info/

Virginia Bruce

Occupation: Editor and publisher of the Cedar Mill News.

Personal: Age 70, divorced. Her son, James Bruce, is an attorney in Tigard, Ore. Her daughter, Megan Bruce, suffered from depression and committed suicide. Virginia Bruce speaks openly about it in hopes of helping other families.

Ag connection: Has become the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s key community connection as it moves to eradicate invasive Japanese beetles in a 1,000-acre residential area of Washington County.

Professional development: Bruce said she fell into publishing the Cedar Mill News. Years before, when her children were young, she’d put together the Portland Family Calendar, a listing of activities and other information. In Cedar Mill, the local business association was seeking to reach more people and Bruce suggested a similar newsletter. From there, the monthly publication evolved into a community newspaper. It’s printed on high-speed copiers, with 800 copies distributed free. It also circulates by email and has a website, http://cedarmill.org/news/index.html

Office partner: Scout, an active 3 1/2-year-old Jack Russell-Dachsund mix. “Everything’s her business,” Bruce said. “She takes after me.”

SALEM — Oregon’s farm regulators may curtail inspections conducted on behalf of the federal government to free up time to tackle a backlog of state food safety inspections.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture performs 500 inspections a year to ensure food manufacturers are following federal sanitation standards and other regulations, for which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration pays the agency $700,000.

Last year, a state audit found that ODA’s food safety program had a backlog of 2,800 facilities — such as processors, dairies and bakeries — that were overdue for an inspection by at least three months.

As part of its plan to reduce the backlog, ODA is considering trimming the number of federal inspections to 400 a year, which would also reduce its federal funding for inspections by one-fifth, said Stephanie Page, the agency’s director of food safety and animal health.

That shift would free up about 700 hours a year that ODA employees could devote to state inspections, which are typically more streamlined and require less extensive reports than federal inspections, Page said during a recent meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture.

Currently, the ODA employs 32 inspectors, two field operation managers and 7 specialists who also conduct inspections.

It’s also possible that ODA will withdraw from the FDA’s Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards program, a cooperative food safety program that enrolls state agencies, Page said.

The ODA has enforcement authorities, such as suspending or revoking operating licenses, necessary to ensure food safety, she said. “We have the teeth we need to deal with issues.”

Oregon’s contemplated decrease in federal inspections comes at a time when the FDA is poised to become even more dependent on state officials to carry out the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The law was enacted in 2011 but the FDA spent several years completing the rules for farmers and manufacturers, which state agencies are expected to help implement.

The FSMA regulations will likely make federal inspections of food facilities even more time-consuming, likely further reducing the number of such inspections that ODA can handle, said Page.

Aside from enhanced inspections of manufacturing facilities, FSMA requires on-site inspections of farms that grow produce this is eaten raw.

The ODA isn’t certain it wants to perform such inspections, though the agency has asked state lawmakers for that authority just in case, said Page.

If the agency does conduct on-farm inspections for FDA, it would need a separate group of employees dedicated to the task, she said.

“We have to have federal funds to do it and we have to have additional staff,” Page said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has dropped one of three charges filed against the lawyer for the leader of the armed occupation at an Oregon wildlife refuge.

U.S District Judge John C. Coughenour also said in court Thursday he will decide, not a jury, on the other two charges.

Coughenour dismissed a charge that accused Marcus Mumford of creating a disturbance by impeding the official duties of government officers because it encompassed the same conduct alleged in the second count, failing to comply with official signs that prohibit the disruption of federal officers’ official work.

The incident in question occurred when Mumford’s client Ammon Bundy was acquitted last fall and Mumford was tackled by federal marshals for refusing to stop arguing with the judge.

Mumford is also charged with failure to comply with the lawful direction of a federal police officer.