EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The National Weather Service says a “very small tornado” touched down Tuesday afternoon on the main campus of Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. The funnel cloud touched down in a parking lot.

Weather Service meteorologist Jeremiah Pyle in Portland says three vehicles suffered “significant damage” and there was minor damage to a fourth. He said he has not heard of any injuries.

Pyle said the Weather Service was not able to estimate the strength of the tornado but witness accounts and numerous photographs convinced meteorologists that one did occur at about 4 p.m.

The spokesman says a security officer at the college watched the tornado touch down and a faculty member with a background in meteorology collected and forwarded photographs that outlined a damage path.

Eugene is about 100 miles south of Portland.

Associated Press

SALEM (AP) — State biologists are telling the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission there is enough information to consider taking the gray wolf off the state endangered species list.

A draft status review was posted Tuesday on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website with materials for the commission’s next meeting. The meeting’s agenda includes a formal staff recommendation that the commission determine there is significant information to start the rulemaking process.

A final decision is not scheduled until August in Salem, but the commission is to make the first step in the process — deciding whether it has enough information to consider the issue — when it meets April 24 in Bend.

At last count, Oregon had 77 wolves descended from animals introduced in Idaho in the 1990s. The 76-page status report says they are projected to increase at a rate of 7 percent a year, and the probability of a major drop in population is very low. There is plenty of habitat available on public lands, and wolves continue to expand their range, establishing at least one new pack in the western third of the state.

The rate of wolf attacks on livestock has been low, the review notes.

Hoping to gain greater freedom to kill wolves attacking livestock, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association has been pressing for the commission to delist wolves since a statewide census last winter showed they had exceeded their restoration goal of four breeding pairs producing pups that survive a year for three years running. At last count, there were at least seven breeding pairs, six in northeastern Oregon and one, led by the famous wanderer OR-7, in the southern Cascades.

Arguing that wolf numbers are still too low to justify lifting protections, conservation groups favor continuing endangered-species status to assure wolves continue to thrive.

A bill (HB 3515) to prohibit the commission from listing wolves as threatened or endangered has been introduced in the Legislature. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for Thursday in the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Taking wolves off the state’s endangered list would not open up hunting. However, their rising numbers have already triggered a relaxation of rules that now make it possible for ranchers to shoot wolves they see attacking herds.

Balancing the demands and capacity of the Northwest’s electrical power system while taking wildlife and alternative energy sources into account has become an enormously complex task, a member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council says.

Henry Lorenzen, 70, a Pendleton, Ore., attorney and third-generation wheat farmer, recently won unanimous reappointment to the council from the Oregon Legislature. Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana each appoint two members to the council; Oregon’s other representative is Bill Bradbury, a former secretary of state.

The council, formed in 1980, is charged with balancing the region’s energy and environmental demands, with special attention to preserving the Columbia River’s ability to benefit both.

The region is projected to have adequate power supply for the next several years, but Lorenzen said the Columbia River hydroelectric system is nearly “tapped out” in its ability to cover the fluctuations of alternative sources such as wind power.

A wind turbine, common in the eastern reaches of the Columbia River Gorge, may produce 4,200 megawatts of electricity one day and 100 megawatts the next, depending on the wind, Lorenzen said.

Balancing the system to handle peak demand is “enormously complicated” but makes the council position enjoyable, he said.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to deal with issues at a policy level, which I am absolutely passionate about,” Lorenzen said.

It also allows him to stay home in Pendleton. Even as he was leaving for college at Oregon State University, he was promising himself that he would return to the family farm.

He had some marks to make first. He earned an electrical engineering degree at OSU, then attended Harvard University for a master’s degree in business administration before picking up a law degree from Lewis & Clark College in Portland.

He clerked for legendary federal Judge James Burns, then spent six years with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He did criminal defense work for one year and civil litigation for the next five.

But the farm was calling. In 1984, he and his wife, Marcia, moved back to Pendleton and he joined a law firm in town. Among other work, Lorenzen represented multiple electrical cooperatives in the region.

He also served on the state Environmental Quality Commission as it issued the permit to destroy the nerve gas stored at the military’s Umatilla depot. At Lorenzen’s suggestion, the incinerator design included a carbon filter to capture any accidental emissions.

Lorenzen also served for a time on the state Board of Higher Education.

A proposal to extend canola production in Oregon’s Willamette Valley has passed a key legislative committee despite the opposition of seed producers.

House Bill 3382, which would allow farmers to grow 500 acres of canola in the region for an additional three years, was unanimously referred to the House floor with “do pass” recommendation by the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources on April 14.

A six-year moratorium on canola production in the Willamette Valley was approved by lawmakers in 2013, but 500 acres of the crop were allowed to be cultivated as part of a three-year study by Oregon State University.

Under HB 3382, the crop would continue to be grown on 500 acres annually for the rest of the moratorium.

Specialty seed producers who fear that canola “volunteers” will disrupt their operations, possibly by causing unwanted cross-pollination with other brassica crops, argued the bill would increase the canola “seed bank” by 1,500 acres.

They urged the committee to reject any extension until OSU completed its study.

Carol Mallory-Smith, a weed scientist at the University, testified that so far canola has not posed a greater pest or disease risk than other brassica crops and its volunteers could be controlled with the same methods as for radishes and turnips.

Committee Chair Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, also recently announced that a work group on pesticides has agreed to propose a package of bills.

The legislation would require the Oregon Department of Forestry to conduct an analytical review of no-spray pesticide buffers and implement standard operating procedures for the Oregon Department of Agriculture to receive and investigate pesticide complaints, he said.

The proposal would also double penalties for pesticide violations, require ODA to post an electronic list of restricted use pesticides and provide funding for these programs, Witt said.

The work group’s package does not include several more restrictive proposals included in other bills, such as a ban on neonicotinoid pesticides and a prohibition against most aerial pesticide spraying.

SALEM (AP) — The Oregon Legislature on Monday opened debate about several proposals to boost the minimum wage as high as $15 an hour.

The idea is hugely popular with voters and interest groups on the left, but it’s far from clear whether it has sufficient support in the Legislature.

House and Senate committees held three hearings on the minimum wage, including a rare evening session to allow people to weigh in after business hours. But the committees took no formal action.

Oregon currently has the nation’s second-highest wage floor at $9.25 an hour, $2 higher than the federal minimum.

The proponents say raising the minimum wage would help low-wage workers escape poverty. They say people who work shouldn’t have to rely on government assistance.

“No one who works should live in poverty,” Justin Norton-Kertzen, who works with an interest group seeking to raise the minimum wage, told the House Committee on Business and Labor.

Business interests are mounting aggressive opposition, calling the idea a job-killer and warning it would raise prices for consumers and make Oregon less competitive to employers. They say raising the minimum wage would significantly increase their labor costs, in part because workers higher on the wage scale also would expect an increase.

Oregon businesses have competitors around the globe, including in countries with significantly lower labor costs, said John Zielinksi, a farmer who grows pears, apples, peaches and hazelnuts near Salem.

“To retain our employees, we will need to pay wages well above the minimum wage, making pears and apples from Oregon less competitive than fruit from other states and countries,” Zielinksi, who is president of the Marion County Farm Bureau, told the Senate Workforce Committee.

Several restaurant owners asked lawmakers to create a tip credit, allowing them to pay tipped workers less than the minimum wage if tips take their total pay above the threshold.

“This would put me out of business and put these people on the unemployment line,” said Mike Gardner, owner of a Roseburg company with 80 full- and part-time employees that provides in-home care for seniors and people with disabilities in Douglas County. The payments for in-home care are capped by state and federal regulations, Gardner said.

At least 10 bills have been introduced dealing with the minimum wage. Proposals range from setting the floor at $10.75 to $15 per hour, with effective dates ranging from 2016 through 2018.

Some of the bills would merely lift the statewide pre-emption that prevents local jurisdictions from adopting their own minimum pay laws. The option is a potential compromise if lawmakers can’t reach a consensus on where to set the floor or how quickly to phase it in.

In addition to raising the minimum wage, the Legislature also is considering requiring businesses to offer paid sick leave. Business groups said it would be difficult for them to absorb both a paid-leave mandate and a higher minimum wage.

Not all business owners were opposed.

“When people are making more money, they spend more money,” said Marci Pelletier, “which means they will be spending more money in our small businesses, which is exactly what we need — more customers.”

Pelletier owns Shwop, a membership-based clothing store in Portland.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Negotiators reached a tentative contract covering West Coast dockworkers on Friday evening, likely ending a protracted labor dispute that snarled international trade at seaports handling about $1 trillion worth of cargo annually.

The breakthrough came after nine months of negotiations that turned contentious in the fall, when dockworkers and their employers began blaming each other for problems getting imports to consumers and exports overseas.

The five-year deal still must be approved by the 13,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s rank-and-file. They work 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle that handle about one-quarter of all U.S. international trade, much of it with Asia.

Negotiators for the union and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents ocean-going shipping lines and the companies that load and unload cargo at port terminals, began talking formally in May. Their prior six-year contract expired July 1.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said that both the dockworkers’ union and their employers agreed to resume work Saturday evening. In recent weeks, employers cut most weekend work, saying they would not pay extra wages.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that is good for workers and for the industry,” said maritime association President James McKenna and union President Bob McEllrath said in a joint written statement. “We are also pleased that our ports can now resume full operations.”

After initial signs of progress, in the fall employers publicly charged dockworkers with creating a congestion crisis to gain bargaining leverage by slowing their work rate and withholding the most skilled workers. The union responded that its members were working safely and blamed the jam on broader dysfunction at West Coast ports that predated contract talks, notably a lack of truck beds to tow containers from dockside yards to distribution warehouses.

By January, the maritime association’s members stopped ordering night work crews to load and unload ships, saying that smaller groups would focus on clearing the thicket of containers already on the docks. Union members called it an attempt to hurt workers in their pocketbooks; their negotiators soon agreed to the involvement of a federal mediator.

The slowdown-vs.-lockout dynamic was the kind of brinksmanship familiar to past negotiations between two sides with a history of conflict, dating to the killing of dockworkers during the Great Depression. How much responsibility for the congestion each side bears may never be determined, but their animosity magnified the crisis.

In early February, the CEO of the maritime association publicly warned that if no agreement could be reached, employers would stop calling workers and shut down the ports within days. Weekend and holiday lockouts of many longshoremen followed, though major ports were not fully closed.

Instead, cargo trickled through. Massive ocean-going ships anchored off the coast of Los Angeles and near the ports of Oakland and Seattle, waiting for berths they anticipated occupying after the long haul across the Pacific that instead were taken by ships whose unloading was itself far behind schedule. By mid-February, about 30 ships clustered outside the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors, with similar scenes in San Francisco Bay and Washington’s Puget Sound. The scenes were reminiscent of a 2002 worker lockout that shuttered West Coast ports for 10 days.

Though negotiations between the two sides typically involve public theatrics, U.S. businesses grew increasingly antsy as talks ground on. Groups representing retailers warned that some holiday goods might be delayed; thanks to advanced planning, trouble on the waterfront didn’t steal Christmas.

Still, there were broader economic repercussions.

Farm exports suffered. McDonald’s in Japan, for example, began rationing fries because of a potato shortage. Apple, walnut and hay producers all said they were losing out to foreign competitors. The meat industry tallied its losses in the tens of millions of dollars. Importers of furniture, books, clothing — even Mardi Gras beads — said their products were stuck on the docks. Honda Motor Co. cut production because of a parts shortage. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. warned that Easter goodies could be affected.

After a federal mediator couldn’t broker an agreement, the Obama administration dispatched Labor Secretary Perez to oversee talks this week in San Francisco, where both the union and maritime association are based. After a few days, he warned negotiators that if they didn’t seal a deal by midnight Friday, he’d haul them back to Washington, where a parade of elected leaders had been imploring resolution.

With so much at stake, outsiders puzzled over why the talks took so long. A summer deal on health-care benefits — longshoremen enjoy complete coverage, and the cost of it was expected to be a big sticking point — seemed to portend quick progress. But negotiations stalled on issues that included what future jobs would fall under the control of the union, which worries that automation at the ports will erode its membership.

In the end, the disagreement boiled down to the system for resolving allegations of work slowdowns, discrimination and other conflicts at the ports. The union wanted to get rid of the man who arbitrates disputes in Southern California and proposed changes to the arbitration systems that would accomplish that; the maritime association rejected those suggestions — though eventually the two sides found a compromise.

The unpredictability that preceded Friday’s agreement could have long-term implications for West Coast ports and their reputation for reliability. With the widening of the Panama Canal and with ports on the East Coast and Gulf Coast investing to attract more ships, some retailers have said they will think hard before depending on ports such as Los Angeles and Long Beach for the smooth flow of cargo.

Contact Justin Pritchard at http://twitter.com/lalanewsman

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Southern Oregon farmers growing marijuana for medicine don’t want fields of pot’s prosaic cousin, industrial hemp, growing nearby.

They say cross-pollination could turn their high-grade buds into throwback, seedy marijuana, something out of the 1960s that takes forever to get a user high.

Southern Oregon is part of the Emerald Triangle pot-growing region that extends into Northern California.

Pot growers there say they were caught by surprise when a medical marijuana grower from the town of Eagle Point, Edgar Winters, got the first state permit to grow hemp, The Oregonian reported.

Historically, hemp has been used to fashion rope, but now it is a component of clothing, food and cosmetics. Although it’s related to marijuana, it has negligible levels of the ingredient known as THC that makes marijuana intoxicating.

The Oregon Legislature legalized hemp farming in 2009, but the state didn’t write rules until it was clear the federal government wouldn’t interfere. Hemp is still illegal under federal law.

In the meantime, a public vote to legalize recreational marijuana also affirmed the legality of hemp.

Medical marijuana farmers have been raising crops openly and outdoors for years. They are protected by a provision in state law that allows patients to designate growers.

The southern Oregon farmers fear hemp pollen would find its way to their unpollinated female cannabis flowers, slowing their growth and leading to seeds. The result: weak pot.

“No one will buy seeded flowers, period,” said grower Cedar Grey of Williams. “The flower market is so competitive these days. You have to have world-class flowers. Anything that is seeded is reminiscent of the 1960s or pot from Mexico. No one is interested in that at all.”

Growers have suggested confining industrial hemp to the dry eastern part of Oregon.

Winters said he doesn’t see a major problem. The growing cycle for hemp is shorter than the one for outdoor marijuana, and an earlier harvest means no threat to cannabis, he said.

“It’s been doable all over the world,” Winters said.

But hemp advocate Anndrea Hermann says it’s a “hard pill to swallow” and acknowledges that the medical marijuana growers have reason to be concerned.

“Is there a risk? Yes, there is a risk to the marijuana growers,” Hermann said.

Hermann, who lives in Canada, teaches a course on the crop at Oregon State University, serves as president of the Hemp Industries Association and owns a hemp products company.

The state Agriculture Department’s program manager on hemp, Ron Pence, says it can regulate the location of some crops, but not industrial hemp.

Democratic Rep. Peter Buckley of Ashland says growers peppered his office with emails once Winters’ plans became public. He said lawmakers are exploring potential solutions to protect both crops.

“Nobody wants one crop to endanger another crop,” he said.

Proposed restrictions on “rabbit scrambles” and similar contests that award live animals as prizes have alarmed the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, which fears impacts on rodeo events.

House Bill 2641 is intended to prevent injuries to animals during “scramble” competitions, in which young children try to catch rabbits or other small animals to keep as pets.

Such contests also cause problems after the event, when the prize animals are given to shelters after people decide they don’t want to care for them, said Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, who introduced the legislation.

The bill was inspired by the controversy over a rabbit scramble in Lane County but Gomberg said he did not want to limit the provisions to that species or region.

Under HB 2641, animals could not be “chased, kicked or otherwise subjected to offensive physical contact” during the contest.

The event’s organizer would also have to allow contestants to return the animals for six months after the competition.

Violating the statute by “unlawfully awarding an animal as a prize” would be a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,500 fine.

The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association is in “protective mode” regarding the bill because the group does not want it to infringe on rodeo events, said Jim Welsh, its political advocate, during a Feb. 19 hearing of the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

While the OCA does not support the legislation as currently written, it would favor a “work group” to improve the language, he said.

Glenn Kolb, executive director of the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association, said his group was also uneasy about provisions in the bill.

Specifically, the bill requires that “minimum care” be provided to animals before the contest, but veterinarians can only attest to the condition of an animal during the time of examination, so this provision is impractical for event organizers, he said.

Also, the OVMA dislikes the provision allowing the prize winners to return animals for six months, as this would let them shirk responsibility, Kolb said.

Gomber told the committee that he’d be willing to amend the legislation, such as exempting fish from the bill or creating a minimum weight for animal prizes so that “greased pig” contests are not banned.

Marijuana legalization in Oregon has farm regulators pondering how cultivation of the psychoactive crop will square with existing rules for agriculture.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has primary jurisdiction over recreational marijuana, which was legalized in Oregon last year with voter approval of Measure 91.

However, some aspects of regulating the crop may come under the authority of the Oregon Department of Agriculture and other state agencies, experts say.

Officials from OLCC are scrambling to write rules for overseeing marijuana production, processing and sales but currently “have no idea” what role other regulators will play, said Steve Marks, OLCC’s executive director, during a Feb. 18 Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting.

Possessing and growing limited quantities of marijuana for personal use will become legal in July and OLCC will begin issuing business licenses for commercial growing and processing in early 2016, he said.

Regulating these commercial processes may bear on subjects with which ODA already has expertise — for example, pesticide rules for farmers are enforced by the agency, said Tom Burns, director of OLCC’s marijuana programs.

No chemicals are registered for marijuana by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which raises the question of whether ODA would be expected to test the crop for pesticides, he said.

“Who is going to enforce that, if in fact we are going to enforce it?” Burns said.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture may offer some guidance, as the agency compiled a list of 273 pesticides that can be used on recreational marijuana. Voters in that state legalized the crop in 2012.

Marijuana is smoked and extracts from the plant are eaten, which complicates the question of pesticide safety, said Erik Johansen, the agency’s policy assistant for registration services.

Also, the EPA is “adamant” there are no allowable tolerances of registered pesticide residues on the crop, which remains illegal under federal law, he said.

For these reasons, WSDA examined chemicals that EPA classifies as organic, biopesticide or “minimal risk” and are thus exempt from tolerance levels or federal registration, Johansen said.

The state agency narrowed that list by identifying pesticides that can be applied to a wide range of crops, he said. “If it’s fairly broadly written, it could be interpreted as allowing other uses.”

While WSDA can offer advice and guidance to the Washington State Liquor Control Board — which oversees recreational marijuana — farm regulators are not responsible for testing or enforcement of pesticide rules for that crop, Johansen said.

Oregon plans to learn from the experience of regulators in Washington and Colorado, where marijuana was legalized earlier, said Marks.

With alcohol, though, no two states have the same regulations, so Oregon can expect to develop a unique program for marijuana, he said.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is happy to let OLCC take the lead in setting regulations but hopes to avoid duplicative rules, said Katy Coba, the agency’s director.

Commercial kitchens and plant nurseries are already licensed by ODA, but it must still be decided whether the agency will be responsible for licensing marijuana plant producers and manufacturers of edible marijuana products, she said.

OLCC’s recreational marijuana rules may also intersect with existing regulations for water quality, overseen by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, as well as irrigation, which is under the Oregon Water Resources Department’s jurisdiction, said Burns.

Experts say marijuana legalization raises numerous other questions.

Will growing the crop allow landowners to qualify for farm property tax deferrals?

Is marijuana cultivation protected under Oregon’s “right to farm” law, which shields growers from certain lawsuits and local ordinances against farming practices?

Another uncertainty is how marijuana operations fit under Oregon’s land use rules, said Marks.

Processing facilities, farm stands and promotional events are permitted in exclusive farm use zones, though it’s unclear if such uses will be allowable for marijuana, he said.

USDA exemption, change in Oregon law opens doors for poultry slaughterhouses

By Eric Mortenson

Capital Press

BORING, ORE. — Fernando the rooster is doomed, no way around it. Owner Leslie Standen says the “Latin lover” has been bothering the ladies in her backyard flock and bossing around her other rooster, Henry, who has tenure.

“So my hand-fed rooster is going to be dinner,” she said.

Which is how she and Fernando ended up at Harrington’s Poultry Processing, 25 miles east of Portland.

Harrington’s is one of the old guard in a rapidly growing sector of ag services: Small-scale slaughterhouses either operated by or catering to small farmers. Some also find themselves doing the dirty work for urban hipsters who raise backyard flocks.

A 2011 change in Oregon law freed poultry processors from state licensing if they handle no more than 1,000 birds per year, raise the birds themselves and process them on site. The legislation changed Oregon law to line up with the federal standard, which says producers are exempt from mandatory USDA inspection and can sell uncooked poultry on the farm and at farmers’ markets if they stay below the 1,000-bird threshhold.

“It was the first olive branch to small farmers from the Oregon Legislature,” said Will Fargo, a food safety specialist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture who works with small-scale processors. “It’s one of the greatest success stories for small farmers. It’s allowed a lot of small farmers to get their products to market.”

The ag department now lists more than 30 small on-farm, stand-alone and mobile poultry processors.

The state legislation was intended to provide new economic opportunities for small farms and to increase consumer access to locally produced meat, said Ivan Maluski, director of Friends of Family Farmers, which backed the bill along with the Oregon Farmers’ Market Association.

“I think there is a recognition by ODA and the Legislature that local food, direct-to-consumer sales and small farms are important parts of agriculture in Oregon, and that market demand for this is growing,” Maluski said in an email. “We think that will only increase as time goes on.”

There’s a bigger commercial aspect blossoming as well. Processors such as Harrington’s and Mineral Springs Poultry, in Willamina, Ore., can take advantage of a “small enterprise” USDA exemption that allows them to process up to 20,000 birds annually without having to have an on-site USDA inspector.

Under the exemption, people who have their birds processed at facilities such as Harrington’s or Mineral Springs can then sell them not only at farmers’ markets, but to grocery stores and restaurants as well.

“When I started to do that, that blew the doors wide open,” said Nels Youngberg, owner of Mineral Springs Poultry. “Anybody who raised a few chickens, they could take their birds and go out and sell them. That changed the game plan for a lot of folks.”

Youngberg said about six years ago he increasingly began doing business with new farmers, usually young people with a couple acres, who would bring him a dozen, 20 or 100 chickens at a time for processing. Some are primarily entrepreneurs, looking to create income on the side, while others are deeply concerned about how grocery store food is raised and processed.

“That creates a lot of fear,” Youngberg said. “They find out it’s better to raise their own meat, grow their own vegetables — that’s been a major thrust on it.

“I’ve seen a lot of them come and go, but every year we get somebody new,” he said.

Fargo, of the ODA, agrees. “I think it’s partially the local food movement,” he said. “People are skeptical about raising chickens in a confined environment, they’re concerned about all the things involved with that.”

So far, Oregon’s small processors have operated without food safety problems, he said.

Fargo said he’s received inquiries from four or five other states that are looking for ways to accommodate small farmers and small processors. “It’s absolutely a national thing,” he said.

Proof of that may be the Niche Meat Processors Assistance Network, which shares information among affiliates in 40 states. Lauren Gwin, a small farms and community food systems specialist with Oregon State University Extension, is co-coordinator of the network.

Consumers are interested in pasture-raised poultry, sustainable production methods and humane treatment of farm animals, Gwin said. In addition, occasional salmonella outbreaks at large-scale processing facilities have “given some people pause.”

Despite that, small processors may struggle to transition beyond niche status, she said.

“Let’s be frank, conventional, mainstream meat production is enormous,” Gwin said. “This type of alternative meat … is very, very small. How do you mainstream some of this into more conventional channels?”

But she said some small producers will accomplish that.

“They’re very entrepreneurial,” she said. “These people will figure out where they fit in the market.”

Back at Harrington’s Poultry Processing, owner Scott Ogle makes quick work of Fernando the rooster. Ogle, a wise-cracking third-generation “chicken killer,” places the bird upside down in a “kill cone” and swiftly cuts its throat to bleed him out.

Ogle said he gets a mix of customers, including one who brings him a couple hundred chickens every other week and sells to restaurants.

“I get a lot from in town,” he said. “People bring me roosters because they can’t crow in town.”

A brief soak in hot water, followed by a tumble in a metal drum lined with rubber knobs, removes Fernando’s feathers. The rooster’s head and feet come off with quick chops, and Ogle slides the carcass to assistant Stephanie Morse for final cleaning. Then it’s off to a chilling bath.

By the time owner Leslie Standen returns, Fernando is bagged and ready to go.

“You want your liver, gizzard and heart?” Ogle asks. Standen says she does, and accepts her bagged rooster with mixed feelings.

“Oh,” she says, “I should take him home and bury him instead of eat him.”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — On her first day in office, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown urged a quick settlement to a dispute between dockworkers and their employers that has hamstrung international trade through West Coast seaports.

Brown joined the governors of California and Washington state on Wednesday in issuing a statement saying the impasse has disrupted trade and is threatening jobs and state economies.

The labor dispute has tied up 29 ports that handle around $1 trillion in trade annually. Dozens of ships are anchored up and down the West Coast as they wait for dock space.

Brown on Wednesday took over as Oregon’s governor from fellow Democrat John Kitzhaber, who resigned over an ethics scandal. As secretary of state, Brown was next in line for the governor’s job.

Hazard-prone properties in Oregon could face development restrictions under a land use bill that critics say is overbroad.

Under House Bill 2633, the state’s Department of Land Conservation and Development would set policies to limit construction and retrofit, relocate or remove buildings in areas vulnerable to natural hazards.

Proponents of the legislation say it’s necessary to prevent costly property damage in areas susceptible to land slides, flooding and wildfires.

Conservation groups such as 1,000 Friends of Oregon argue the bill is necessary to implement Goal 7 of Oregon’s statewide land use planning system, which calls for local governments to evaluate natural hazards and reduce risks to future development.

However, critics say the current language of HB 2633 is too general.

Much of Oregon could experience an earthquake or other catastrophe, said Dave Hunnicutt, president of the Oregonians in Action property rights group.

“The bill has the potential to affect every area in the state,” he said during a Feb. 12 hearing in the House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water.

Hunnicutt said he’s not opposed to the concept of HB 2633 but is alarmed by its breadth, since retrofits or relocations of structures could be “tremendously damaging” to property owners.

“The language is dangerous,” he said.

The DLCD is oriented toward land use planning and may not be the appropriate state agency to make certain decisions, he said.

For example, the Oregon Department of Forestry or Department of Geology and Mineral Industries have more experience in determining which areas are prone to landslides, Hunnicutt said.

Similarly, retrofitting structures pertains to building codes, not planning, he said.

Hunnicutt said he’d like to work with the bill’s sponsors to amend the language and make it more specific.

The legislation should include exemptions for agricultural properties, said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

For example, a farmer may have an old barn or another structure in a flood-prone area that would be too costly to retrofit or move, she said.

SALEM — Legislation that would examine merging natural resource agencies in Oregon is opposed by farm and timber groups as a “solution in search of a problem.”

Under Senate Bill 24, a task force appointed by legislative leaders and the governor would “study the benefits of abolishing or consolidating” 14 state agencies charged with managing natural resources.

Aside from the possibility of saving money, consolidation could improve the state government’s efficiency in analysis and permitting, said Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland.

However, the task force may decide that Oregon is better off with the current structure, Dembrow said during a Fed. 16 hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

The Oregon Farm Bureau is confident the agencies are already functioning smoothly and doesn’t think it’s necessary to spend time contemplating alternatives, said Katie Fast, the group’s vice president of public policy.

Promoting agriculture is an important part of the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s mission but may get swamped by other priorities if it was merged with other agencies that are solely focused on regulation, she said.

The boards and commissions that oversee state agencies have also developed expertise that’s specific to natural resource industries, Fast said.

These governing bodies are already asked to handle many complex issues, said Heath Curtiss, director of government affairs for the Oregon Forest Industries Council.

If boards or commissions were merged to oversee a broader regulatory sphere, their members would struggle to develop expertise and would have little choice but to defer to agency officials, he said.

It would be possible to merge natural resource agencies without eliminating department directors or commissions, but at that point the added efficiency is questionable and consolidation may just amount to another layer of government, Curtiss said.

A larger bureaucracy is undesirable because it could encumber the resolution of regulatory questions or seek to overrule the decisions of state agencies, said Mike Freese, vice president of Associated Oregon Industries.

The committee also considered two other bills characterized as “agency consolidation light” by Richard Whitman, natural resources policy director for Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Senate Bill 201 would create “natural resources alignment coordinators” to work with regional teams and help agencies make regulatory decisions, while Senate Bill 203 would establish a “natural resources partnership coordinator” to find cooperation opportunities with private interests as well as other government entities.

Sen. Alan Olsen, R-Canby, asked why new positions are necessary since state agencies are already trying to coordinate with each other.

“We are doing it on an ad hoc basis and leaving opportunities on the table that we should be taking advantage of, frankly,” said Whitman.

The Oregon chub, a 3-inch minnow that lives only in the Willamette River basin, is the first fish to be removed from the federal endangered species list.

Federal and state officials planned to announce the completion of a 22-year recovery process during a ceremony Feb. 17 at the Finley Wildlife Refuge near Corvallis, Ore. Oregon farmers and other landowners contributed to the effort by signing “safe harbor” arrangements in which they agreed to manage land in a way that did not further harm the fish. In particular, landowners agreed not to drain waterways, promised not to introduce non-native fish that would compete with the chub and agreed not to apply pesticides or other ag chemicals directly into waterways. In return, they were held harmless from additional regulation.

The Oregon chub lives in slow-moving sloughs, bogs and beaver ponds along the Willamette River. It lost habitat as those areas were drained or developed. The fish was listed as endangered in 1993, at which time the population was estimated at fewer than 1,000 fish in eight locations. By 2013, however, a survey estimated the chub population at approximately 160,000 fish in 83 spots.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the Endangered Species Act, announced in 2014 that it intended to remove the chub from the list, and completed that process this year.

Only a handful of animals, most notably bald eagles, have been removed from the endangered species list.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Sometimes the best lessons are learned outside the classroom.

For six students in Ty Kliewer’s Livestock Judging class at Klamath Community College, the learning took place last month when they traveled to the National Western Livestock Show in Denver to compete in livestock judging competition.

It was the first time KCC students participated in the high-level national competition, and proved an eye-opener for team members, including Jake McCarty and Veronica Turner.

“I think it was neat for us to look up to the other teams and see what we could do,” said McCarty, 21, a full-time KCC ag major. He also works full-time for Balin Ranches, is president of the collegiate FFA and an intern for the Klamath Bull and Horse Sale.

“Going into it, we really didn’t know what to expect,” McCarty said. “We hadn’t done a professional judging competition before. We were pretty confident going into it, and as a whole we did pretty good.”

“It’s crazy to see how different and how much more advanced they were,” Turner, 19, who is majoring in agricultural science, said of competitors from four-year schools like Texas A&M and Ohio State that have major ag problems. “It makes you want to work harder next time you compete.”

Turner and McCarty were part of a team that included Emily Cole, Garrett Gardner, Sarah Gerdes and Logan Dean. Kliewer, 36, an adjunct teacher who sells breeding bulls and farms hay and grain at his Klamath County ranch, accompanied the group.

“It was a pretty big jump from anything they’ve ever done before. Our kids were pretty green in comparison,” Kliewer said, noting some larger schools recruit students for competitions.

“We were definitely the underdogs,” said Keith Duren, who oversees KCC’s ag programs.

He supports the livestock judging class in part for its spinoff benefits. During competitions, student judges must be able to make decisions, explain and defend those decisions while being concise and articulate.

“You definitely build those skills we value in leaders. You also learn to work with a team and with different personalities,” Duren said.

Kliewer, who competed in livestock judging competitions as a student at Lane Community College and Oregon State University, said he wants others to share those experiences, and to better prepare themselves for a range of possible careers.

“I look back and see how that prepared me for life,” he said. “It improved my public speaking skills a lot.”

In the competition, students judged beef cattle, pigs, meat goats and sheep.

“I know from here on out I’ll look at cattle or pigs or sheep differently,” said McCarty. “Definitely down the road it opens up opportunities for some of us.”

While his long-range plans call for having his own ranch and raising beef cattle, McCarty also is considering working at a large feed lot, in ag sales or with genetics companies.

“It was really beneficial,” said Turner, who developed an interest in cattle in the fourth grade. She participated in FFA classes and livestock judging in high school but termed the national competition “a real eye-opener.”

Along with lessons learned by the six team members, Duren and Kliewer hope, on a broad level, competing in a national competition will provide exposure for KCC and, for the ag department, help attract more students.

“Everyone learned a lot,” Kliewer said. “Those skills translate literally to any job you have.”

Umatilla County lost a giant in the agricultural community on Sunday when Chester “Chet” Prior died at age 78.

Prior owned Eagle Ranch outside Echo and lobbied on a local, state and national level on agricultural issues. He held several prominent roles, including previous chair of the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center Authority and sitting president of the Hermiston Development Corp. But he was also characterized by those who knew him as a humble man who preferred to work behind the scenes.

He was so modest, in fact, that when he was presented with Hermiston Man of the Year for 2010 he stood up as soon as he realized presenter Phil Hamm was talking about him and told him that he didn’t need to list any more accomplishments.

Craig Reeder, vice president of Hale Farms, was sitting at Prior’s table and remembers Prior’s embarrassment at being honored.

He said Prior was a “true gentleman” who earned the respect of everyone who associated with him and it is hard to imagine the agricultural community without Prior at the table.

“He mentored a lot of us younger guys. ... He’s one of those guys that for the next generation, we’ve never known the business without him,” Reeder said.

He said Prior often called to persuade Reeder to join him in donating to scholarships and other worthy causes.

“He’s how communities are built,” Reeder said.

Kim B. Puzey said he first got to know Prior in 1994, when Prior was a Port of Umatilla commissioner and Puzey was hired as the port’s new manager.

“Chet was passionate and generous and brilliant,” Puzey said.

He said any time it was imperative something was done right, Prior was the man to call, which is why he was a clear choice for chair of the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center Authority and to fill the Hermiston Development Corp. president’s role after founder Joe Burns retired.

“If you drive around to the major projects in Hermiston in the last two decades there is hardly anything you would find that doesn’t have the Prior name on it as a sponsor or a contributor or a benefactor,” Puzey said.

Lloyd Piercy, owner of Sno Road Winery in Echo, said Prior was a staple at Echo events, providing the equipment for community cleanups and founding the local food bank. Prior was scheduled to serve as trail boss of this year’s Red 2 Red ride next week.

“He was the heart of Echo,” Piercy said. “There was not a charity he wasn’t involved in.”

Piercy said Prior was “irreplaceable” to Echo. He said from an agricultural community perspective Prior’s skill and passion for lobbying to improve the water situation in Umatilla County will also be missed.

“There are no words to describe the sadness around here,” Piercy said.

He said he also respected Prior’s hard work in building a legacy for his sons, Art and David, through the family farm and Prior’s habit of making time for family, most recently to share his grandsons’ passion for duck hunting.

Other accomplishments of Prior’s included helping found the Oregon Water Coalition and Farmers Ending Hunger, and serving on the boards of the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce, Oregon State University Extension Center, Umatilla County Budget Committee, Potato Growers Bargaining Committee, Hermiston Airport Advisory Board and Good Shepherd Medical Center.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. ­— The supply of bulls was down, but prices were sharply up at the 55th Annual Klamath Bull and Horse Sale.

“We didn’t have as many bulls as we would like but the prices were up,” said sale chairman Jason Chapman, noting the top selling bull sold for $10,000, nearly double the highest price, $5,200, for a bull at the 2014 sale.

In all, 55 bulls were sold at an average price of $5,397 and total gross of $296,850 at the sale, which was held earlier this month at the Klamath County Fairgrounds in Klamath Falls by the Klamath Cattlemen’s Association.

In addition, six lots of five heifers were sold with the average price $2,480 and gross of $74,375. The top selling set of heifers sold for $14,625. Five horses were sold for a total of $30,450, with the top selling horse going for $11,500.

“Prices were up on pretty much everything,” Chapman said of bulls and heifers.

He said bull numbers were down from previous years, when the norm was about 100. Only 60 bulls were submitted this year but five were sifted and graded out. Chapman said the decline was expected because in recent years, when calf prices were high, breeders sold many of the calves. He said the higher prices at this year’s sale reflects the short supply.

Buyers for bulls and heifers came from a four state area — Oregon, California, Nevada and Washington along with consignors from around the West. While the bull sale was the highlight, the four-day event included cattle dog trials, a big rope competition and western trade show.

“We had a great turnout for the dog trials and for everything else,” Chapman said, noting total attendance was higher than in 2014.

“Everything went pretty smooth,” he said, noting and about a dozen bull sale committee members were assisted during the event by about 50 people. Planning for next year’s sale began this week.

A highly pathogenic type of avian flu has been found in a backyard flock of birds in Central Oregon, the state Department of Agriculture says.

ODA and the USDA Animal Health Inspection Service are setting up a quarantine zone around the property near Tumalo, Ore., to restrict movement of domestic birds in and out of the area. The property is secured and there have been no additional detections of bird flu in the area.

The flock of about 90 mixed poultry and other domestic birds includes chickens, ducks and turkeys that have had access to a couple of ponds on the property that are also frequented by migratory waterfowl. Avian influenza naturally resides in wild birds and it is fairly common for waterfowl to carry various strains of the virus.

Highly pathogenic bird flu has also been reported in backyard birds in Washington and Idaho, and in wild birds in all three Pacific Northwest states, according to ODA.

The Deschutes County detection is the second in Oregon. Bird flu was previously detected in a flock of backyard birds in Douglas County in December.

The virus has not been detected in commercial poultry operations in Oregon, Washington or Idaho. Avian influenza does not affect poultry meat or egg products, which remain safe to eat. Wild and domestic poultry should be properly cooked.

Backyard bird owners are encouraged to practice good biosecurity and to take steps that prevent contact between their birds and wild birds. They also should monitor their flock closely and report sick or dead birds to ODA at 1-800-347-7028. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking people to report wild bird deaths by calling 1-866-968-2600. People should avoid contact with sick or dead wild and domestic birds.

For more information on avian influenza and biosecurity measures, go to http://bit.do/ORbirdflu.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) Long-time Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has announced his resignation amid allegations his fiancee used her relationship with him to enrich herself.

Kitzhaber said his resignation would be effective on Wednesday. In a statement on Friday, he apologized to the people who helped him get re-elected in November and supported him for the past three decades.

He said it was not in his nature to “walk away from a job I have undertaken.”

The announcement is a stunning fall from grace for the state’s longest-serving chief executive.

Kitzhaber has consistently maintained that he and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, worked hard to avoid conflicts between her public and private roles.

Secretary of State Kate Brown, a Democrat like Kitzhaber, was expected to assume the office and become the first openly bisexual governor in the country. Unlike most states, Oregon doesn’t have a lieutenant governor, and the state Constitution puts the secretary of state next in line.

Kitzhaber called Brown back to Oregon from a conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this week. People close to Kitzhaber say he asked her to come back after deciding to resign in the wake of the influence-peddling allegations involving his fiancee, a green-energy consultant. But he then changed his mind, saying he wouldn’t step down, which led to a Wednesday meeting between Kitzhaber and Brown that she described as “strange.”

By Thursday, the leaders of the state House and Senate said he had to go. Other top officials in the overwhelmingly Democratic state also said Kitzhaber should resign.

“I finally said, ‘This has got to stop,’” Senate President Peter Courtney said after he met with Kitzhaber. “I don’t know what else to do right now. It seems to be escalating. It seems to be getting worse and worse.”

Kitzhaber handily won re-election in November to a fourth term after surviving the botched rollout of Oregon’s online health care exchange, which turned into a national embarrassment.

But the allegations surrounding his fiancée Cylvia Hayes’ work were more harmful, dominating headlines in the state following his victory.

A series of newspaper reports since October have chronicled Hayes’ work for organizations with an interest in Oregon public policy. At the same time, she was paid by advocacy groups, she played an active role in Kitzhaber’s administration, a potential conflict of interest.

The spotlight on Hayes led to her revealing that she accepted about $5,000 to illegally marry a man seeking immigration benefits in the 1990s. Later, she admitted she bought a remote property with the intent to grow marijuana.

Though questions about Hayes have swirled for months, the pressure on Kitzhaber intensified in recent weeks after newspapers raised questions about whether Hayes reported all her income on her tax returns. She has not publicly addressed the allegation and Kitzhaber has declined to. Earlier this week, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said she was launching a criminal investigation.

Kitzhaber has consistently maintained that he and Hayes worked hard to avoid conflicts between her public and private roles.

A fiercely private person, Kitzhaber has been forced to answer embarrassing and personal questions about his relationship. In response to questions at a news conference last month, Kitzhaber told reporters that he’s in love with Hayes, but he’s not blinded by it.

Kitzhaber, 67, met the 47-year-old Hayes before the 2002 election, when he was governor and she was a candidate for the state Legislature. She lost her race, but they later reconnected after Kitzhaber’s term ended.

After eight years out of office, Kitzhaber was elected governor again in 2011. Hayes used the title “first lady,” though the couple never married, and she took an active role in his administration. They were engaged last summer.

The scandal over alleged influence-peddling was not the only one to hammer Kitzhaber since his return as governor. Kitzhaber, a former emergency room physician and passionate advocate for health care reform, was embarrassed last year when Oregon was the only state that was unable to launch an online health insurance exchange in the first year of the federal health care law.

Oregon spent millions of dollars in federal grant money but has abandoned the technology for Cover Oregon. The state and its main technology contractor, Oracle Inc., are blaming each other for the failure in multiple lawsuits.

Before the Cover Oregon debacle, Kitzhaber had racked up a series of successes. He convinced lawmakers to overhaul the state Medicaid system, then convinced the Obama administration to give Oregon $2 billion to implement it. He spearheaded cuts to retirement benefits for public employees despite being elected with considerable help from the unions whose members lost out.

After the successes, top Republicans declined to challenge Kitzhaber in last year’s election. He easily defeated state Rep. Dennis Richardson, who relentlessly pounded Kitzhaber over the Hayes scandal but was unable to overcome Oregon voters’ aversion to his social conservative views.

Kitzhaber has an acute understanding of the Legislature and how to use the power of the governor’s office to achieve his objectives. He proved adept at isolating the people he disagreed with, but he also angered his supporters and was left with few friends. When he got into trouble, his fellow Democrats did not speak up.

SALEM — Beekeeper groups in Oregon are nervous about legislation to establish statewide standards for managing honeybee hives in residential zones.

Supporters of House Bill 2653 say they want the Oregon Department of Agriculture to set baseline expectations for safety because cities have divergent rules for beekeepers in urban areas.

However, representatives of beekeeper groups told lawmakers they’re worried that regulations will be onerous for hobbyists and result in new fees to pay for enforcement.

“We know nothing the government does is for free,” said Fred Van Natta, a beekeeper from Salem, Ore., who spoke on behalf of the Oregon State Beekeepers Association during a recent hearing on HB 2653.

Beekeepers in residential areas often keep only a handful of hives, said Joe Maresh, president of the Portland Metro Beekeepers Association.

Even larger operations that sell honey and offer pollination services often don’t generate enough income to cover the cost of maintaining bees, Maresh said.

“Our concern is some of our members would be regulated out of a place to keep bees,” he said. “We’re really terrified of this.”

Rep. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, said he introduced the bill to provide a “streamlined process” for municipalities that want to set beekeeping rules.

“Some places have them, some places don’t. Some are more stringent, some are less stringent,” he said during a Feb. 12 meeting of the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The standards established by ODA would not require beekeepers to pay any fees or subject them to penalties, Gorsek said.

Raine Ritalto, a beekeeper who supports the legislation, said she encountered the problem of disparate rules for beekeepers upon moving from Portland to Gresham.

Portland allows up to 15 hives per residence, while Gresham does not permit any, she said. In other areas, no rules exist for urban beekeeping at all.

Ritalto said she hopes the bill will convince communities to open their doors to beekeeping, which poses little risk to residents.

Few people are actually allergic to bee stings, but complete bans limit small business opportunities and reduce pollination in backyard gardens, she said.

“We’ve created sterile almost-deserts in many of our cities,” said Gorsek.

When asked by lawmakers about the pro-beekeeping intent of the legislation, Maresh of the Portland Metro Beekeepers Association said he would nonetheless prefer no new regulations.

Beekeeping organizations would rather work with municipalities to resolve questions over beekeeping and convince them to allow the practice in residential areas, he said.

If statewide standards are developed, beekeeper groups want to participate in crafting them, Maresh said.

Committee Chair Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, said a work group headed by Gorsek should try to “iron out” the issue.

Gorsek said it may be better for the bill to instruct ODA to work with beekeeper groups to set “best practices” for managing urban hives.