PORTLAND – Van Havig, co-owner of Gigantic Brewing Co. on the city’s hipster-heavy east side, has an app on his phone that provides instantly updated currency exchange rates. The company, formed by Havig and Ben Love five years ago, sells 5 to 7 percent of its beer outside the country, primarily to Canada but a bit to Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The strong U.S. dollar makes Gigantic something of an expensive choice overseas.

Nonetheless, Gigantic is exactly the size of craft brewery — producing 4,000 to 5,000 barrels a year — that a state economic analyst says ought to be pushing hard on the export market to assure continued growth.

In remarks at the Oregon Brewers Guild’s annual meeting in Portland Nov. 30, analyst Josh Lehner said Oregon’s craft beer industry is slowing down after a decade in which the number of Oregon breweries grew from 76 in 2006 to 218 in 2016.

The beer market outlook has implications up and down the economic chain, from hops and barley farmers and malt producers to stainless steel fermentation tank manufacturers, tourism and dining.

Prospects remain good for neighborhood microbreweries, said Lehner, who works for the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.

“For these smaller breweries, I think the outlook is bright,” Lehner told brewery guild members. “The brewpub model works.”

He said demand is strong and there are still many parts of the state and country that are “under supplied” when it comes to neighborhood brewpubs. Maybe not on Portland’s east side, he added, but certainly in the suburbs.

Slightly bigger producers, however, are in fierce competition for a limited number of in-state tap handles and shelf space.

“Flagship” Oregon beers such as Deschutes’ Black Butte Porter, Widmer’s Hefeweisen and Ninkasi’s Total Domination can be found in bars and restaurants all over the state, Lehner said. The state’s five largest breweries now sell only 20 percent of their beer in Oregon, he said.

For medium- to large-size Oregon breweries, sales outside the state are a must, Lehner said. That’s complicated by the fact that the Pacific Northwest no longer has the market cornered on tasty, locally-sourced and locally-made microbrews. Good local beer can now be found all over the country, and consumers often prefer to support local businesses rather than out-of-state breweries.

International exports are a relatively untapped market, Lehner said.

“The path forward is really about reversing the Oregon Trail,” he said. “There is just too much competition and market saturation to be able to reach large production numbers by relying solely on Oregon consumers.”

Lehner said Pacific Rim nations are a good target market for Oregon beer, as they are for many other crops and food products.

About half of Oregon beer exports now go to Canada, 17 percent to Japan and about 5 percent each to China and South Korea, Lehner said. He acknowledged the strong U.S. dollar hurts sales: A $10 six-pack here costs $13 overseas. But Lehner said currency exchange rates often fluctuate, and a devalued dollar may serve as a market “tailwind” of Oregon beer.

Love, the Gigantic Brewing co-owner, agreed that targeting exports is a potentially good business model. Canada used to buy more when the exchange rate made Gigantic’s beer less expensive, he said.

In other remarks to the brewers’ guild, Lehner said job gains in the state’s alcohol cluster — beer, wine, hard cider and spirits — have outperformed the software sector, although the latter gets more media attention.

He said the Oregon brewing industry is important because it is value-added processing with good growth potential, money invested in it returns to state, and it is geographically more spread out than other industries.

Lehner said the Oregon Legislature increased the state lodging tax, and there will be $10 million more available annually for tourism and related activites. He said brewers should tap some of that to market their business.

He said “chatter” about the decline of national chain casual-dining restaurants doesn’t apply to brewpubs.

“I think it just means people don’t want to overpay for mediocre chain food,” he said. “I can get much better food at a lower price point from my neighborhood brewery.

“And of course you can’t even compare the tap lists,” he added.

Funding for weed biocontrol and predator control is on the chopping block at the Oregon Department of Agriculture as the state prepares for a budget shortfall.

The agency plans to eliminate state funding for USDA’s Wildlife Services program, which kills coyotes and other predators that prey on livestock. The move would save more than $460,000.

The Wildlife Services program would still be administered by USDA in Oregon, but counties and landowners would need to pay more to maintain the current service level, said Lauren Henderson, assistant director at ODA.

A biocontrol staff position aimed at finding insects that consume invasive weeds would also be eliminated under ODA’s 2017-2019 biennial budget recently recommended by Gov. Kate Brown.

That position was vacated when the ODA’s previous biocontrol expert retired several months ago, so leaving it unfilled would save more than $250,000, said Henderson.

“We left that vacant in anticipation this might happen,” he said.

Dairies and other “confined animal feeding operations” would also face higher fees to compensate for a $250,000 cut to ODA’s CAFO inspection program.

The ODA and other state agencies are planning for program cuts because Oregon government is facing a budget deficit of more than $1.8 billion due to increasing pension and healthcare costs for state employees.

The changes were discussed at the Oregon Board of Agriculture’s Dec. 1 meeting in Wilsonville, Ore.

Under Brown’s recommendation, ODA’s total biennial budget would increase from about $111 million to $117 million.

However, the portion of ODA’s budget that comes from the general fund, which pays for specific programs, would drop about 5 percent, to $23.4 million.

Because the agency would need $25.8 million to maintain its current service level — due to increases in wages, pensions and healthcare costs — that leaves the ODA $2.4 million short of what’s needed to pay for the general fund programs.

While several agency programs are facing cuts, ODA expects to pay for others — including food safety and pesticide response programs — from fees it collects for services, rather than from the general fund.

The agency also plans to shift some programs from general fund dollars to money it receives from the federal government, though this scenario assumes the new presidential administration will provide the support, Henderson said.

ODA’s recommended budget is also contingent on lawmakers approving several new revenue sources proposed by Brown, he said.

Realistically, the recommended 2017-2019 budget is really a starting point for negotiations with lawmakers during the upcoming legislative session, said Lisa Hanson, ODA’s interim director.

“There’s a long road ahead,” she said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon has been elected to serve as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington, D.C.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the appointment will give Walden oversight of federal departments in charge of consumer protections, food and drug safety, public health, environmental quality and energy policy, among others.

The post also means Walden will be a key player in the debate over the fate of the Affordable Care Act, which President-elect Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans have said will be repealed and replaced in the next Congressional session.

Walden said in a statement he’ll “focus on what’s best for consumers, on creating better paying jobs and providing patient-centered health care” in his new role.

Walden represents Oregon’s expansive 2nd Congressional District, which includes much of the electorate east of the Cascades as well as much of Southern Oregon.

BOISE — Breaching four dams on the lower Snake River would cause significant harm to the Pacific Northwest agricultural industry, Idaho wheat industry leaders said Nov. 29 during a public meeting.

The meeting is one of 15 being held around the region by federal agencies to get input on the operation of the hydropower dams on the Columbia-Snake River system, a process initiated by a federal judge handling a lawsuit brought by dam removal supporters.

It’s critical that agriculture, especially the wheat industry, makes its concerns known during the public comment period, said Idaho Wheat Commission Executive Director Blaine Jacobson.

“The dams are absolutely crucial to the health of the Idaho wheat industry,” he said. “Wheat is a global market and it’s a very competitive market and if we have to rail it to Portland, it would make a number of the growers uncompetitive on the world market.”

The U.S. district court judge earlier this year ordered the federal agencies that operate the Columbia-Snake River hydropower system to review all reasonable options for operating it in order to minimize the impact on endangered salmon.

That decision came in response to a lawsuit by conservation groups in favor of breaching the dams to improve salmon runs. They challenged the biological opinion for operating the system and the judge required the agencies to update the environmental impact statement on how the system is operated.

The agencies are holding scoping meetings around the Pacific Northwest to gather public comment and a draft environmental impact statement on the system’s operation is expected to be published for public comment in 2020.

Breaching those dams would make the rivers unnavigable for barges that move wheat and other products to port for export.

According to the Port of Lewiston and Northwest River Partners, about 10 percent of all U.S. wheat exports move through the lower Snake River dams and more than 50 percent of Idaho’s wheat is exported through the Columbia-Snake River system.

In addition, more than 42 million tons of commercial cargo valued at more than $20 billion moves through the system each year and 60 percent of the energy produced in Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington is generated by the rivers’ dams.

Jacobson said it’s almost inconceivable that the dams would be removed but a vocal minority that supports that is making their voices heard and it’s important the agricultural industry also weigh in on the issue.

“I think the facts are on the side of keeping the (system) the way it is,” he said. “But if the silent majority doesn’t turn out and lets the vocal minority rule the day, then it will be bad for the entire PNW.”

North Idaho farmer Eric Hasselstrom said that without the ability to use the river system to transport wheat to port, his transportation costs would likely double.

“If we lost the dams, I don’t think we’d be competitive and in business any more,” he said. “We have to have our voices heard because there are going to be a lot of comments against (the dams).”

Comments must be received by Jan. 17 and can be submitted by email to: comment@crso.info

HERMISTON, Ore. — The 43rd annual Hermiston Farm Fair debuted Wednesday at its new home at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center with a series of lectures on potato research in the Columbia Basin. And despite setting out more than 200 chairs in two meeting rooms, space was still limited to standing room only.

It is a testament to how much the event and trade show has grown over the decades. When the Farm Fair was created in 1974, its original location was at Thompson Hall before moving into the larger Hermiston Conference Center. Now, the agricultural showcase has moved once again to EOTEC in search of expansion.

Phil Hamm, director of the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center and member of the Farm Fair Committee, said having a bigger building means they can host more vendors and presentations, which in turn draws more people to learn about Eastern Oregon’s farm industries.

“This is a great place,” Hamm said of EOTEC. “We have more sessions and more opportunities for learning.”

One of those additions included Wednesday’s first-ever seminar targeted specifically to small farmers. The lineup featured talks on beekeeping, how to apply pesticides without harming pollinators and integrating chickens onto a small farm.

Colleen Sanders, who coordinates the Umatilla County Master Gardener Program for Oregon State University Extension Service, organized the session and said she was impressed by the turnout. In particular, she said there has been a growing interest in bees over the past few years, both as pollinators and for making honey and beeswax.

Likewise, chickens can help out small farmers not only by producing eggs and meat, but by naturally tilling the ground and controlling garden pests such as slugs and snails. Chris Schachtschneider, livestock extension agent for OSU in Umatilla and Morrow counties, led the discussion on poultry while Andony Melathopoulos, with OSU’s Pollinator Health Extension Program, talked about basic beekeeping with the group.

The overall goal of the small farm seminar, Sanders said, was to provide something for people who may have felt left out of the Farm Fair in the past.

“A lot of the aim of the Farm Fair is those large producers,” she said. “We wanted to target those people with smaller acreages and more diverse production.”

Other additions to this year’s Farm Fair lineup include a livestock management seminar led by Schachtschneider, and a second session on growing cereal crops such as wheat and canola. Both are slated for Thursday afternoon from 1-5 p.m.

Along with more room for experts to share research, EOTEC has made way for more vendors to showcase their wares at the trade show. Sixty businesses are on hand to discuss the latest in farm technology, and tools to increase yield.

Richard Scott, with Elmer’s Irrigation in Hermiston, said it seemed like more people were checking out the booths than in previous years.

“It’s been pretty positive,” Scott said. “I think they’ve done a nice job on this building. It fits the bill quite nicely.”

Kalie Davis, manager of the SAGE Center in Boardman, noticed that with more space, people were more inclined to stop and have longer conversations without feeling like they were in the way or being herded around the room.

“It’s definitely easier to navigate in here,” Davis said.

Kevin Cochrane, retail account manager for DuPont in Kennewick, said this is his first year attending the Farm Fair. And though he never experienced the event in the Hermiston Conference Center, he said plenty of people were excited about the new setup.

“It’s a comfortable spot to be,” Cochrane said. “It’s a lot larger, with room to grow.”

The Hermiston Farm Fair continues Thursday and Friday. EOTEC is located 1705 E. Airport Road.

PORTLAND — A national conference of Women in Sustainable Agriculture wasn’t the place to go looking for traditional farm wives. Try farm operators, owners and ag researchers, brokers, marketers and educators instead.

The conference, to be held Nov. 30-Dec. 2 in Portland, attracted 400 women from across the country, and two dozen speakers and panelists. The event, held this year for the first time on the West Coast, provided extensive networking and education opportunities, said Maud Powell, a small farms specialist with Oregon State University Extension in Jackson and Josephine counties.

“Women are increasingly important in agriculture across the country,” Powell said. Once marginalized as farm wives, she said, women can now be found in every agricultural sector.

Oregon saw the early formation of two women farmers networks, one in Southern Oregon and one in the Willamette Valley, Powell said. Similar organizations developed in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Vermont and elsewhere, and the national organization of Women in Sustainable Agriculture grew from there.

Within the organization, “sustainable” means farm operations that support long-term success in economic, environmental and social aspects, Powell said. That includes supporting the local community and local businesses, she said.

“For me it’s always fascinating to see how the issues of sustainable agriculture are similar, with local flavor,” she said.

The conference began with tours of farms in the Columbia River Gorge, Willamette Valley and the Portland area.

Other events included a “Trailblazers Panel” in which three women who assumed leading roles in ag early on described their experiences.

Among the scheduled panel speakers was Jeanne Carver, who with her husband, Dan, operates the historic Imperial Stock Ranch in North Central Oregon. Wool produced by the ranch took the spotlight when the Ralph Lauren clothing line found them while looking for American yarn with which to make USA uniforms for the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.

Other speakers were to be Diane Green of Greentree Naturals, a small acreage and CSA farm near Sandpoint, Idaho; and Joan Thorndike of Le Mera Gardens, a fresh-cut flowers operation in Southern Oregon’s Rogue River Valley.

Thirty percent of U.S. farmers are women, according to the USDA’s 2012 Census of Agriculture, but the number has been in flux. The census counted 969,672 women farmers in 2012, a 2 percent decrease from 2007. The reason for that is unclear, but some in ag speculate that the deep recession that hit in 2009 forced some new farmers out of the profession.

Women made up 14 percent of principal operators in the 2012 census, but they tend to be older than principal operators overall. Only 4 percent of women principal operators were under 35, according to census.

WILSONVILLE, Ore. — Marijuana testing is creating several quandaries for Oregon regulators at a time of overall uncertainty for the newly legalized crop, according to a state official.

Testing for pesticides poses one challenge, as the necessary instrumentation is expensive and complicated, said Jeff Rhoades, senior adviser on marijuana policy for Gov. Kate Brown.

While state regulators want to protect public health, testing is a large barrier to entry into the legal recreational marijuana market, he said during the Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting in Wilsonville, Ore., on Nov. 30.

An overly strict testing regime would be a disadvantage to small growers while favoring large out-of-state companies, Rhoades said.

“It’s a very delicate balance with testing here,” he said.

One pesticide that’s commonly used on grapes, for example, breaks down into hydrogen cyanide when set aflame, he said.

Meanwhile, marijuana is sold not just as a flower, but also in the form of various tinctures and extracts that require specific testing methods, Rhoades said.

“It can’t be just a one-size-fits-all approach,” he said.

There are also no federally approved pesticides that are specific to the psychoactive crop, Rhoades said.

Currently, Oregon has 18 laboratories accredited to test marijuana, but just four are able to test for pesticides.

Other marijuana traits that are tested for include microbial contamination, solvents and potency.

Potency testing has also encountered problems since it became mandatory on Oct. 1, said Rhoades.

Marijuana growers were receiving greatly variable results from different labs, and so were flocking to those providing the highest potency ratings, he said.

“Lab shopping was happening all over the place,” he said.

Regulators are now trying to create a standardized testing protocol for potency so growers can expect uniform results, Rhoades said.

Taxes from marijuana sales in Oregon are expected to be a boon to state coffers, but first the Oregon Liquor Control Commission must be repaid for its extensive work in creating a regulatory system for the crop, he said.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has also been heavily involved in regulations involving pesticides, food safety and accurate scale systems, Rhoades said.

Exactly how the agency will be repaid for these efforts is currently unclear, though the issue is being discussed and will likely surface during the 2017 legislative session, he said.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, which has made banks leery of dealing with marijuana companies — a complication that raises additional issues, Rhoades said.

“It’s an all-cash business at this point, which creates public safety concerns and tax collection concerns,” he said.

Regulators in Oregon and the seven other states where recreational marijuana is now legal were hoping for clarity from the federal government that would enable more banking involvement, he said.

With the recent election and upcoming change in presidential administrations, however, there’s great uncertainty about federal marijuana policy, Rhoades said.

The Obama administration’s approach — which allows recreational marijuana as long as it’s kept out of the black market and away from children, among other measures — can be immediately reversed by the Trump administration, he said.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho officials say online sales of hunting and fishing licenses are up and running again following a three-month shutdown due to a computer breach at the vendor that handles those sales.

Idaho Fish and Game announced Tuesday that more security features have been added that will require additional steps by those seeking to make purchases online.

Dallas, Texas,-based Active Network reported a computer breach in August with the possibility that millions of records in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, including Social Security numbers, might have been compromised.

Idaho Fish and Game spokesman Mike Keckler says it’s still not clear if any personal information was stolen, and that the FBI continues to investigate.

Oregon resumed online sales in early September with added security, and Washington state is also back online.

Truitt Family Foods, a Salem, Ore., processing company, recently spread the word it is looking for subcontractors who can provide ingredients it uses to make hummus and vegetable dips.

On the surface it’s a fairly routine development; a processor looking for suppliers of garbanzo bean puree, sesame seed paste, lime and lemon juice concentrate, garlic powder and puree, and sugar and salt.

But the back story takes off on a number of tracks.

First, Truitt is in the process of bidding to sell its hummus and veggie Dippers to the Houston Independent School District, which with 215,000 students is the largest in Texas and seventh largest in the nation.

Institutional food service departments, especially in school districts, have in recent years sought to offer more healthful food, preferably locally produced. That’s created an opening for companies such as Truitt Family Foods, which already sells to the San Diego and Portland school districts, among multiple school system customers in Oregon and elsewhere.

“Our goal is to create something healthy but also appetizing to kids,” said Peter Truitt, company founder and CEO. “It’s a little more difficult than meets the eye.”

To comply with extensive nutritional regulations and make food that is appetizing to children at the same time is “a real challenge,” he said.

So is the process. The Houston district’s request for proposals (RFP) is about 100 pages long, and among other things requires applicants to show they’ve made good faith efforts to do business with women- and minority-owned suppliers.

That requirement caused Truitt to question its practices and issue a call for ingredient subcontractors. Peter Truitt said, however, that the company won’t lower its quality or food safety standards just to take on women- or minority-owned business partners.

To put out the word, Truitt went through the Food Entrepreneur Network operated by Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center in Portland, which helps small and beginning companies take products to market.

Sarah Masoni, product development manager at the Food Innovation Center, said Oregon has some ingredient producers. Stahlbush Island Farms, in Corvallis, makes vegetable purees for processors. Kerr Concentrates, in Salem, makes fruit and berry concentrates.

Sourcing sufficient product ingredients is just one step in the process of selling to institutional buyers. Processors who bid on school food service and similar-scale jobs also have to solve problems ranging from distribution to getting past the institutional gatekeepers.

“The first step is to satisfy an interest of the actual food service director,” CEO Truitt said. “Sometimes that takes six months or a year. If you want to sell product to Houston today, you needed to start a year ago.”

Private businesses aren’t necessarily faster. Truitt said he’s heard anecdotally that McDonald’s has a two-year timeline for bringing on new menu items.

Still, institutional buyers represent an opportunity for what Ecotrust, a Portland nonprofit, referred to as “ag of the middle” producers — the ones too small to compete at the commodity level but too large to survive by selling at farmers’ markets.

In Oregon alone, prisons, hospitals, care centers and schools serve about 40 million meals a year, but lag well behind restaurants and retailers in buying local food, according to a 2015 Ecotrust report.

The Portland area has a couple major exceptions. Oregon Health and Science University, the teaching hospital, provides locally sourced meals to patients, staff and visitors. Among other purchases, OHSU buys 1,000 pounds of beef and bones a week from a pair of Northeast Oregon cattle ranches.

AirBNB, the international vacation rental hub, provides free meals to employees at its downtown Portland call center. Local, seasonal food makes up most of the menu.

EUGENE, Ore.— An Oregon beef processing facility is re-opening after rough patch that included an operating suspension ordered by the USDA and an expensive equipment upgrade.

Bartels Farms, an organic and grass-fed beef company based in Eugene, Ore., planned to restart its slaughter facility in late November after shutting down for several weeks.

The interruption in operations has cost the company roughly $8 million to $10 million in lost revenues, as it has been unable to process about 11,000 head of cattle, said Chris Bartels, the firm’s president.

The shutdown also created problems for livestock producers who expected to sell cattle to Bartels Farms, as well as retailers who couldn’t get their orders for meat filled, he said.

“The ripple effect is tremendous,” he said.

Despite some negative attention in the local media, retail buyers have stuck by the company after the suspension, said his wife, Kandi Bartels.

“If we had lost our customers, it would have been a different story,” she said.

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service began enforcement action against Bartels Farms in September after several incidents in which cattle weren’t immediately rendered unconscious from a stun with a captive-bolt gun, requiring a repeated stun, according to agency documents.

The agency suspended inspections at the facility — effectively stopping operations — in mid-October, citing “continued failures to maintain and implement humane handling controls” after finding a cow had become trapped in a head restraint.

Bartels Farms appealed that decision, arguing the cow simply pulled back against the head restraint, which was not a violation.

The USDA ultimately rescinded its suspension in early November after finding the “events described did not rise to the level of a non-compliance per the regulations,” but the facility remained closed for improvements.

Chris Bartels said the suspension resulted from an inexperienced USDA veterinarian misinterpreting regulations, but he nonetheless decided to invest $150,000 on upgrades to the facility to ensure humane handling.

The company installed a serpentine “drive alley” leading cattle to the facility that avoids sharp corners and thus reduces stress on the cows, he said.

The alley was also covered in panels to prevent contact with humans and distresses to livestock. A new restrainer was installed to prevent cattle from moving their heads prior to stunning, rather than simply holding their necks, he said.

The system was based on designs from Temple Grandin, a well-known animal scientist at Colorado State University who specializes in humane handling, and inspected by a former USDA veterinarian, Bartels said.

The improvements to the facility’s “knock box” are aimed at preventing future mis-stuns, he said.

A mis-stun is considered inhumane if a cow is hoisted into the air for processing before it’s rendered insensible, but that never occurred at the facility, said Kandi Bartels.

Bartels Farms allows cattle to feed, water and rest for 24 hours after delivery, instead of directing them immediately into the facility, said Chris Bartels.

“The idea we would mistreat the animals at the end of the process is ludicrous,” he said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Three media organizations, including The Associated Press, have filed a motion asking a federal judge to unseal the identities of the jurors who acquitted all seven defendants involved in the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in rural southeastern Oregon.

The motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland seeks to modify a protective order that was in place during the trial of brother Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five others.

The Oregonian/OregonLive and Oregon Public Broadcasting are the other media groups.

The jury acquitted all defendants on Oct. 27 of conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 300 miles southeast of Portland.

The motion says there’s no longer a threat to jurors because the case is over.

An 8-month-old calf found injured on private land in northeast Oregon Nov. 21 was attacked by wolves, according to an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife investigation.

The calf was euthanized the following day. The size and location of numerous bite wounds found on the calf were consistent with a wolf attack, ODFW said. The wounds were on the hindquarter above the hock, with “deep tissue shredding” in the rectal area.

Three fresh wolf tracks were seen near a gate and fence that the cow herd apparently had broken down while running. In addition, GPS tracking collar data showed OR-41, a member of the Shamrock Pack, was less than half a mile from the cows’ location on Nov. 21.

The investigation began when a range rider came across the injured calf and “agitated” cows in a pasture in the Crow Creek area of Wallowa County.

Jackson Family Wines, the California-based company that has purchased four vineyards in Oregon since 2013, is building a 68,000 square-foot wine production facility in McMinnville, in the heart of the state’s Pinot noir region.

The company’s presence in Oregon unsettles a few who wonder about its potential impact on the state’s unusual wine sector. Jackson Family is an international wine company with operations in Chile, France, Italy and Australia in addition to the U.S. In Oregon, the company has bought the Zena Crown, Gran Moraine, Penner-Ash and WillaKenzie vineyards and wineries since 2013.

Gregory Jones, a Southern Oregon University professor who often writes about the wine industry and viticulture climatology, said larger companies entering new territory need to understand a region’s culture.

“One would hope that the new energy drives innovation, bettering the overall health of the industry,” Jones said by email. “Only time will tell.”

Company officials were not immediately available to provide additional details of the construction. Most who are engaged in or follow Oregon’s wine industry don’t appear overly concerned about the company’s arrival.

Jackson Family purchased two buildings that were part of Evergreen International Aviation’s campus and will use them for offices and lab space, according to the McMinnville city planning department. The production facility under construction is adjacent to the other buildings.

The property is across the street from the airplane museum and water park Evergreen formerly operated.

Jackson Family’s presence in Oregon will bring more national and international exposure to the state’s wine industry, said Jody Christensen, executive director of the McMinnville Economic Development Partnership. The organization represents chamber of commerce, utility, city government and business interests.

“It’s a significant development for our community,” Christensen said. “This is a company with a great reputation. They’re very engaged in the Oregon sensibility — inclusive and collaborative. I’m very impressed with the way they approach their work.”

David Adelsheim, one of Oregon’s pioneering grape growers and winemakers, said Jackson Family’s investment isn’t likely to change the Willamette Valley’s reputation for producing high-quality, expensive wines, especially Pinot noir. In the stores, bottles of Oregon Pinot commonly carry $40 to $65 price tags.

“I think we should not plan on them changing the landscape,” he said. “They’re building a larger winery, which Oregon desperately needs because we don’t have the capacity, but they’re not going to make a $15 (per bottle) Pinot noir.”

Adelsheim has a unique perspective; in addition to his own experience, his wife, winemaker Eugenia Keegan, was at Gran Moraine and now is Jackson Family’s general manager of operations.

Adelsheim said the valley produces small crops per acre and the resulting grapes are expensive — costing $3,000 a ton and more. Those grapes have to be sold as expensive wine to be profitable. It’s an unusual formula that nonetheless has worked for 50 years, he said.

“We’re one of the few places in the world that can do that, we’re making only wines at the highest price levels,” he said. “The Willamette Valley is the place where all we make is really expensive wine, and we normally sell it, too.”

Adelsheim said the Willamette Valley’s wine industry began as a collaboration of a handful of Pinot noir novices and “came out of leftfield.” It couldn’t have been created by a single person or a single company, he said.

Instead, “A group of people became a bigger group of people, became a bigger group,” he said.

Jackson Family, he said, just bought into that vision.

“There’s no one thing, there’s no one person, there’s no one winery,” Adelsheim said. “But there is one grape. Maybe that’s what you can say.”

Chris Colson champions an admittedly antiquated and inefficient method of watering crops — flood irrigation.

The Boise-based regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited is part of a movement that recognizes the wildlife and water-supply benefits of flood irrigation, and the need to make certain it continues to be used in floodplains and other strategic locations across the West.

Ironically, his efforts to preserve flood irrigation often tap the same federal dollars that help farmers install high-efficiency pivots, which threaten to render flood irrigation obsolete.

The attraction for Colson and others is that flood irrigation, with its leaky canals and standing water, helps recharge shrinking aquifers and provides migratory birds with a stopover on their annual pilgrimages between the Arctic and points south.

Unlikely partnerships of agricultural landowners, conservationists, government officials and water managers are behind efforts to keep farmers flooding fields in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California. During the past year, Colson estimates the movement has maintained flood irrigation on roughly 4,000 acres across the West.

“For 15 or 20 years or more, the conservation community has been telling people how wasteful flood irrigation is and convert to sprinkler,” Colson said.

Farmers have relied on flood irrigation — using gravity to spread surface water across fields — for thousands of years.

Since the late 1960s, however, growers have been moving away from flooding in favor of more efficient sprinklers. On average, 120,000 acres in 11 Western states were converted from flood irrigation to sprinklers annually between 1995 to 2010, according to a study of U.S. Geological Survey water-use data.

Conservation funding sources, such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program under the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, have long supported sprinkler conversions with water-efficiency grants.

But the pursuit of efficiency has had unintended consequences. Migratory wading birds feed in flood-irrigated fields, which have provided an artificial alternative to the natural marshes lost to river damming. And Western aquifer levels have dropped in correlation with the disappearance of flood irrigation — historically a major source of incidental aquifer recharge.

In Idaho’s Eastern Snake Plain, for example, officials say the aquifer has been dropping by 200,000 acre-feet per year on average, due to increased groundwater use and reduced flood irrigation.

Zola Ryan, NRCS district conservationist in Harney County, Ore., says her agency’s goals of improving irrigation efficiency and preserving flood irrigation needn’t be at odds.

Ryan explained efficient sprinklers are ideal for irrigators using groundwater, and watering where benefits of flooding aren’t as pronounced.

“There is a place and time for flood irrigation and a place and time for sprinkler irrigation,” Ryan said.

Colson and his colleagues have been working to understand — and ultimately address — the reasons growers opt to stop flood irrigating.

Often, the problem is the cost of replacing dilapidated head gates or improving canals. Some producers say flood irrigation is simply too labor intensive.

“We’re working with some vendors to develop automated infrastructure, where they can sit in their truck and use their cell phone and open the valves (to flood irrigate),” Colson said.

In Eastern Oregon, Ryan explained many growers quit flood irrigating in the early 1980s, after widespread flooding damaged canals. New wells and sprinklers are becoming increasingly common, she said.

However, NRCS has since 2014 set aside $300,000 a year for a special EQIP program to preserve flood irrigation for benefits to migratory birds in Oregon’s Harney and Lake counties. A half-dozen projects are in the planning stages, Ryan said.

Lake County rancher Joe Villagrana will finish NRCS-funded improvements to retain flood-irrigation later this month. But he’s been working with partners to upgrade his flood-irrigation infrastructure for most of a decade, initially with help from Ducks Unlimited. Villagrana said he’ll soon have the ability to evenly flood irrigate 2,200 acres of meadow grass pasture, and both grass production and water fowl numbers have already risen dramatically on his land.

Without the help, “I probably wouldn’t have done near what I’ve done, and I would have done it over 20 years,” Villagrana said.

In Northern California, Ducks Unlimited regional biologist John Ranlett has tapped U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funds to help several ranches install pipelines to better deliver water for flood irrigation. Ranlett has also overseen the replacements of weirs — shallow dams across rivers that regulate water levels entering flood-irrigation canals.

“If their infrastructure starts to fail, they’re going to lose the ability to irrigate,” Ranlett said. “Then all of a sudden you lose habitat.”

A couple of years ago, Tim Brockish considered installing an irrigation pivot that would replace failing flood-irrigation infrastructure serving a 40-acre field he owns near Rexburg, Idaho.

Then he learned about the plight of the white-faced ibis — a migratory wading bird known as a “marker bird” by people in the Rexburg area, as its presence marks flood-irrigated fields.

Brockish explained that one of the world’s largest ibis breeding colonies utilizes nearby Mud Lake and Market Lake, and the birds forage in flooded fields by day. The supply of flooded fields, however, is running thin, causing problems for the ibis and other migratory birds in one of the continent’s most critical “staging areas.”

More than a decade ago, experts discovered migratory birds were stopping for a few weeks along the Snake Plain in Idaho and in Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington and Northern California to feed on insects and grass seed from flood-irrigated fields before heading north to breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska. Malnourished birds often won’t breed.

Ultimately, Brockish chose wildlife over improved irrigation efficiency, partnering with the Teton Regional Land Trust to upgrade his flood system. He obtained a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant to replace metal head gates, rebuild canals and build a dike to hold flood-irrigation water longer on the field,

Sal Palazzolo, private lands program manager at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said preserving the staging area is a goal of both his agency and Ducks Unlimited, which have a plan to help water fowl by working with the state’s managed aquifer recharge program. Managed recharge involves intentionally injecting surface water into the aquifer to rebuild groundwater levels.

IDFG and Ducks Unlimited have asked the Idaho Department of Water Resources to design its recharge sites to be more like marshes, spilling shallow water over hundreds of acres rather than deep water over a smaller area.

“We’re definitely looking into that,” said Wes Hipke, IDWR’s recharge coordinator, who also sees the potential to combine resources with wildlife organizations on future recharge efforts. “It’s going to have to be on a case-by-case basis.”

IDWR has also agreed to study the potential for a managed aquifer recharge site at the Market Lake Wildlife Management Area.

Palazzolo said efforts are underway to establish a separate EQIP fund in Idaho for flood irrigation projects, and NRCS is mulling an Eastern Idaho water grant under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program that would cover flood-irrigation infrastructure.

Like many producers in his area, Teton County Farm Bureau Federation President Stephen Bagley stopped flood irrigating his ranch in the southern end of Idaho’s Teton Valley during the 1960s.

Now, Bagley is a leader of a coalition working to restore flood irrigation to the valley as a means of resolving a water shortfall that’s becoming increasingly critical.

Groundwater levels have dropped 55 feet in the valley since the 1970s — before flood irrigation was phased out in favor of sprinklers and neighborhoods sprang up on farmland. Miles of unlined canals went unused that had previously recharged the aquifer with water losses exceeding 40 percent.

As a result, surface irrigation rights that once remained in priority through late July have lately been shut off at the beginning of the month.

In December of 2015 irrigators hoping to improve their own water outlook partnered with Farm Bureau, local cities and counties, Friends of the Teton River, Teton County Soil and Water Conservation District, Water District 1, the Henry’s Fork Foundation and others to form the Teton Water Users Association.

The association is pursuing funds to rebuild flood-irrigation infrastructure, which irrigators will use to flood pastures within their existing water rights during peak spring flows. When flows subside, they’ll resume using only efficient sprinklers. The water they bank through canals and flood irrigation should emerge from springs about three months later, when it’s needed most, extending the irrigation season, cooling the river for native Yellowstone cutthroat trout and replenishing dried marshes.

“Hopefully, I’ll have another week or two of irrigation because they won’t have to call for my water as fast,” Bagley said.

Driggs, Idaho, grower Wyatt Penfold said operating margins are razor thin in the valley, and saving a couple weeks of costly storage water from reservoirs would be a huge benefit.

“The only way to keep the lifestyle we’re all used to is to work together,” Penfold said.

Rob Van Kirk, senior scientist with the Henry’s Fork Foundation, has modeled the Teton Valley hydrology, calculating the association must increase annual aquifer recharge by 30,000 acre-feet to meet its goal of restoring water levels to 1975 conditions. The association will soon conduct an assessment of priority sites on which to restore flood irrigation.

Sarah Lien, an attorney for Friends of the Teton River, said the program’s ultimate goal is to apply about 260 cubic feet per second of water from April 15 through June 15.

“If we’re successful, we’re talking about 40 cfs increases in the Teton River,” Lien said. “It’s really new water.”

The project has been awarded a $50,000 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART grant to cover preliminary planning. They also have a pending $250,000 grant application with the Idaho Water Resource Board, which would provide matching funds to tap additional federal grants.

“The surface water every year is gone sooner and we’re more reliant on groundwater,” said Driggs, Idaho, Mayor Hyrum Johnson, who considers the association to be a template for other Western water users to follow. “I believe this organization is a great example of the way that water rights can be managed proactively around the state.”

BEND, Ore. (AP) — State agencies are reminding marijuana producers to limit their use of pesticides in the wake of two recent public health alerts.

The Bend Bulletin reports that a letter from three state agencies warns that cannabis producers whose products test below “action levels” for permitted pesticides may still be violating state regulations if they use pesticides banned by the state Pesticide Control Act.

An action level is a low pesticide measure that the authority requires of testing laboratories as a measure of accuracy. Action levels do not indicate a safe level.

The letter, co-signed Monday by the heads of the Health Authority, Oregon Liquor Control Commission and Oregon Department of Agriculture, says growers that failed test results are referred to the Agriculture Department for further investigation.

SALEM — The Department of State Lands says the sole plan to acquire an 82,500-acre parcel of the Elliott State Forest meets the department’s initial criteria for acquisition.

A spokeswoman for the department said in an email that some details were not “fully developed and will need to be worked out” during the next phase of the acquisition process.

The plan is part of a process that the Department of State Lands has developed to sell the section of the Elliott State Forest.

The department is responsible for managing the land to generate revenue for the Common School Fund, a state K-12 education fund.

Since 2013, the fund has lost money, and as the holder of fiduciary responsibility for the fund, the state says it has to sell the land. It cites lawsuits that challenged its logging on Common School Fund lands where protected animal species live.

The land is not being sold for a competitive bid but for the fixed price of $220.8 million.

Lone Rock Resources, a Roseburg timber company, was the only entity to submit an acquisition plan by the department’s Nov. 15 deadline. A $100,000 deposit was required.

If Lone Rock’s plan is approved by the Land Board, the company intends to partner with the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians to manage the land, according to documents released by the state lands department Tuesday.

Lone Rock will contribute about 87 percent of the equity, while Cow Creek will contribute about 13 percent. Although Cow Creek will have minority interests in an LLC formed to provide the capital to buy the forest, the Cow Creek band will have the right to participate in votes on “major decisions.”

The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, assisted by the nonprofit The Conservation Fund, would hold a conservation easement to enforce the four public benefit requirements of the sale.

The public benefits are as follows: that the public have recreational access to half the forest, that 25 percent of old stands remain, that riparian areas are preserved and that the plan create 40 “direct or indirect” jobs for a decade.

Environmental groups have opposed the sale of the land to a private entity and have advocated for keeping it in public hands.

Under a proposed easement agreement, Elliott Forest LLC would reimburse the easement holder up to $5,000 annually for the cost of an independent third-party auditor to verify the promised employment.

The LLC needs to report harvest levels to the Oregon Department of Revenue every year, and those reports can be provided to the easement holder, “with the goal of eliminating the need for audits” if the easement holder — which would be the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians — is satisfied by those reports, according to a draft copy of a proposed employment monitoring easement.

Josh Laughlin, the director of Cascadia Wildlands, a conservation nonprofit in Eugene that’s been one of the leading voices opposing the sale, argued that Lone Rock’s current plan would allow it to clearcut old growth.

“The Lone Rock proposal would ultimately privatize the Elliott State Forest and lock the public out by charging fees to recreate,” Laughlin wrote in an email Tuesday. “And their strategy to protect old trees is toothless. It would allow the timber company to clearcut the remaining valuable old-growth by protecting a subset of younger forest.”

He called on Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, one of the three members of the State Land Board, to oppose the sale.

Jake Gibbs, director of external affairs for Lone Rock, said that the company’s conservation strategy was intended to be “sustainable” and to provide all of the required public benefits while harvesting timber.

He said the company will not know how much board-feet or how many trees it will harvest every year until the company’s foresters “have time to do additional study.”

He said Lone Rock, in partnership with the multiple tribes proposing to manage the land, would be held accountable “now and in the future.”

Gov. Brown is one of three elected officials on the State Land Board.

Treasurer Ted Wheeler and Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins are leaving their offices at the end of the year.

They will be replaced, respectively, by Treasurer-elect Tobias Read, a Democrat and state representative, and Secretary of State-elect Dennis Richardson, a Republican and former state legislator.

The State Land Board is scheduled to make a decision on whether to move forward with the sale at its Dec. 13 meeting. The state lands department is expected to release a staff report on the acquisition plan one week prior to that meeting.

Environmentalist groups want an injunction to stop logging on roughly 50 acres of private property that was once part of Oregon’s Elliott State Forest.

Three nonprofits — Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity and Audubon Society of Portland — have asked U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken to prohibit tree harvest on the parcel due to hazards to the threatened marbled murrelet.

Logging plans were previously abandoned in the area because Oregon realized it would cause Endangered Species Act violations, but a 355-acre parcel was bought in 2014 by Roseburg Forest Products Co. and its Scott Timber subsidiary for nearly $800,000, according to plaintiffs.

The environmentalists claim that harvesting a 50-acre site, known as the Benson Snake Unit, within that parcel will unlawfully destroy the habitat of marbled murrelets, which occupy old growth trees in the tract.

“The defendants are proposing to do exactly what the state thought it couldn’t,” said Dan Kruse, attorney for the environmentalists, during oral arguments on Nov. 22 in Eugene, Ore.

An injunction is warranted because the plaintiffs are likely to prevail in the lawsuit and logging would irreparably harm the species, he said.

In contrast, there’s nothing to show that the trees would be any less valuable if harvesting is delayed by a year or two, Kruse said.

Roseburg Forest Products counters that an internationally-recognized environmental consulting firm chose a site that’s not occupied by the threatened bird.

“They hired independent experts to determine where the birds might be in the stand and how they’re using the stand,” said Dominic Carollo, attorney for the timber company.

The company will also conduct logging during the autumn and winter, when marbled murrelets are out at sea, in an area that’s not considered critical habitat for the species, the defendants claim.

The case laid out by the plaintiffs doesn’t demonstrate that logging will cause actual “take” of marbled murrelets under ESA, Carollo said.

“At best they’ve proven it’s hypothetical or possible ... which isn’t sufficient,” he said. “They don’t have the facts or the evidence to show there will be death or injury to the marbled murrelet.

Kruse argued that “take” isn’t limited to destruction of nesting areas used by the species.

Under ESA, “take” also occurs when logging disrupts other behaviors necessary to the bird’s life cycle, such as courtship, he said.

Similarly, it can harm people if you bulldoze their living or kitchen while sparing the bed in which they sleep, he said.

Science has shown marbled murrelets need large blocks of habitat to survive, Kruse said.

“Fragmentation has significant impacts on marbled murrelets,” he said.

BEND — Public land use and the upcoming 2017 Oregon legislative session dominated the conversation at the 2016 Oregon Cattlemen’s Association annual meeting here earlier this month.

The annual meeting featured a roundtable with Northwest Regional Forester Jim Pena and acting BLM State Director Ron Dunton.

Mike Doverspike of Burns asked Pena if there was any more time for ranchers and the Forest Service to “go back and forth” concerning the grazing requirements in the Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision. Pena assured the cattlemen that grazing will continue to be a part of the region’s management.

“This is our grazing program, too,” Pena said. “The agency believes and I believe, it is important that grazing continue on national forests.”

But to have a plan that follows a long list of federal laws and can withstand a legal challenge, Pena said the Forest Service doesn’t want to put grazing at risk.

“We are committed to work for everybody, including the grazing community,” Pena said.

Providing adequate habitat for fish and wildlife is also part of the balance the Forest Service seeks, following the guidelines of regulatory agencies like U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service.

“The Forest Service has to have consistent monitoring to demonstrate benefits of grazing to show permittees are in compliance,” Pena said.

But monitoring takes time and costs money — and the Forest Service doesn’t have much of either. He said increasing firefighting costs hurt the other disciplines’ budgets and range management has been the heaviest hit.

In 1990s a movement started for permittees to self-monitor. He said in a recent case concerning bull trout the Forest Service prevailed because the permittee was in compliance.

Skye Krebs grazes on public land in Wallowa County and has served on the Public Lands Council for many years. He said the Oregon Cooperative Monitoring, modeled after a program in Colorado, is a protocol-driven program that directs permittee self-monitoring. Forest Service and BLM range conservationists then ground-truth the data.

“That is a win/win situation for permittees and agency staffing problems,” Krebs said.

Two big concerns by Oregon livestock producers are two proposed monuments – the Owyhee Canyonlands, fought by Malheur County ranchers for several years, and a new proposal to expand the Cascade-Siskiyou monument in Southern Oregon.

With the 2017 Oregon legislative session on the horizon, Rocky Dallum, the OCA political advocate, said the association will be keeping a close eye on water quality and quantity issues and the ongoing discussion of Senate Bill 1010 passed in 1993 that requires the Oregon Department of Agriculture to help reduce water pollution from agricultural sources.

Matt McElligott, OCA member and president of the Oregon Public Lands Council, said

Keep running cows.

“Historically, we know those permittees and agencies that run them have lawsuits against them and those permits shrunk or were taken away. This is not good for these communities in the poorest county in state.”

As for the expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, McElligott said that proposal took the ranching community by surprise.

Lee Bradshaw from Southern Oregon said his permit is in the middle of the proposed expansion. He told Ron Dunton, acting state BLM director, that permittees were not alerted to a public meeting on the proposal.

“We were not notified through the BLM,” Bradshaw said. “My range con knew nothing. Why didn’t we get notified?”

Dunton said the proposal was not from the BLM, it came from what the congressional delegation.

With the 2017 Oregon Legislative session on the horizon, Rocky Dallum, OCA’s political advocate, said the Cattlemen will be watching water quality and quantity issues and the ongoing implementation of Senate Bill 1010 that requires the Oregon Department of Agriculture help reduce water pollution from agricultural sources.

As agricultural operations grow larger and more consolidated, the Wilco farmers’ cooperative is aiming to keep pace.

The company recently merged with another cooperative, Hazelnut Growers of Oregon, and has broken ground on a new processing and distribution facility.

Meanwhile, Wilco has expanded its reach as a farm supplier through a new joint venture agreement with other agronomy companies.

“We gain size and scale,” said Doug Hoffman, the cooperative’s CEO. “Size dictates pricing, sharing of technologies, efficiencies in administration and attracting employees.”

The new facility in Donald, Ore., which will be completed in 2018, marks an expansion for both Wilco and HGO.

The hazelnut company’s current facility in Cornelius, Ore., is roughly 55,000 square feet, with separate buildings for storage and processing.

In the new building, HGO will occupy nearly 120,000 square feet and bring storage and processing under the same roof, reducing material handling and improving productivity.

With the new location, the cooperative will also be more centrally located — roughly 70 percent of its members will be within a 100-mile radius of the plant, said Jeff Fox, executive vice president of the hazelnut division.

“For us, it’s about production efficiency and being close to our grower base,” Fox said.

For Wilco, the new facility means an increase in size from 50,000 square feet at its current agronomy products distribution facility in Mt. Angel, Ore., to about 119,000 square feet.

Because Donald is much closer to Interstate 5, the cooperative expects to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in trucking costs, said Hoffman.

The building is being constructed by a real estate developer who’s shouldering the costs of its exterior, while Wilco and HGO will lease the facility and pay for interior structures, said Fox.

Some hazelnut processing equipment will simply be moved from the Cornelius facility, which will be shut down and sold, he said. “A lot of that equipment is coming with us.”

Wilco offers agronomy services and farm supplies through a joint venture with Winfield Solutions, called Wilco-Winfield, which operates in Western Washington and Western Oregon.

That joint venture is now merging with Valley Agronomics, an agronomy company operating in Southern Idaho and portions of Utah and Wyoming that’s a joint venture between Winfield Solutions and the Valley Wide Cooperative.

The deal reflects a pattern of consolidation throughout the agricultural industry, such as the proposed merger between Monsanto and Bayer, said Hoffman.

“What’s really driving all this is that our farmers are getting larger,” he said.

Though the merger between Winco-Winfield and Valley Agronomics will create some redundancies at the administrative level, Hoffman said he doesn’t expect any lay-offs because employees will be shifted into new positions.

“We’re going to grow the workforce, grow the business,” he said.

Wilco is also opening new farm retail stores in Salem, Ore., and Puyallup, Wash., and is planning a 19th outlet at an undisclosed location.

Last year, the cooperative earned $230 million in total revenues and this year it expects to earn $280 million due to the merger with HGO, Hoffman said,

Wilco typically earns profits of about 3 percent of sales, with the retail division earning the strongest net income, he said. “It’s a good model, it does well.”

It’s the rainy season in Oregon, which means there’s plenty of work for Oregon State University’s new slug expert, Rory McDonnell.

With slugs emerging from their underground hibernation, McDonnell has found that Oregon’s reputation as a haven for the slimy pests is well deserved.

“The populations are very large,” he said.

The number and size of slugs is greater in Oregon compared to McDonnell’s previous post as a research specialist at the University of California-Riverside.

“Sometimes, in California, I felt like I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” he said.

McDonnell assumed his new position as an assistant professor at OSU in mid-July, but autumn is when his research began in earnest.

During the dry season, he got his laboratory equipped and met with farmers afflicted by the prodigious mollusks.

The wet weather has now allowed him to study the slug’s life cycle with the aim of developing efficient ways to eliminate the pests.

Slug activity peaks in fall and spring, so McDonnell is out in the field, checking traps to see which species are most problematic in certain locations.

European brown garden snails are the worst offenders in nurseries, while gray field slugs are the primary culprits in field crops, he said.

Indeed, the gray slug is likely the most prominent slug pest worldwide due to its ability to adapt to a variety of environments and food sources, McDonnell said.

“It can be successful under a wide range of conditions,” he said.

In March 2015, OSU organized a “slug summit” in Salem, Ore., where growers complained that damage from slugs has intensified in recent years.

That complaint prompted the university to seek additional funding from Oregon lawmakers to hire a slug researcher. The Legislature provided an addition $14 million to OSU later that year, allowing the university to fill this slug position and several others.

McDonnell is exploring strategies to fight the pests.

For example, farmers could use extracts from food or slug pheromones to attract them to a certain area of a field that’s treated with a hefty dose of molluscicide. This approach may kill the slugs more effectively than spreading a lesser concentration of molluscicide across an entire field.

McDonnell and other researchers have identified slug attractants that work in the laboratory, and they plan to see if the substance also works outdoors.

“What happens in the lab isn’t necessarily what happens in the field,” he said.

Another technique would involve parasitic nematodes that kill slugs, which are used for biocontrol in Europe.

If such nematodes were found in Oregon, researchers would have to prove to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that the parasites don’t affect native species.

“We only want to use tools that are safe and specific to the pest species,” McDonnell said.