GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A bill to renew federal subsidies to timber counties has been filed in the Senate.

The Secure Rural Schools program made up for federal timber revenues that declined as environmental protections reduced national forest logging, but it expired last year. Efforts to renew it failed in the lame-duck session of Congress.

The latest version was filed Thursday by Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden and Idaho Republican Mike Crapo.

It calls for sharing $360 million with more than 700 counties across the country. The program has been particularly important in Oregon timber counties, which shared nearly a third of the total.

The bill would restore funding for three years at 2011 levels. And it would provide full funding of the Payment In Lieu of Taxes program, which expired in 2013.

In 2003, after participating in a day-long blueberry conference where presenters reported on research results, Oregon State University Extension Berry Crops Specialist Bernadine Strik and other small fruits researchers couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.

“Considering that blueberry acreage doubled from 1990 to 2004, we felt there was a big need for a school that would address everything from site selection to markets, cultivars and how to develop and maintain good plantings,” Strik said.

Behind Strik’s leadership, a year later, the researchers launched the first OSU Blueberry School.

“It was a great success,” Strik said. Three years later, after Oregon acreage increased another 43 percent, the researchers put on a second blueberry school.

It, too, went over well, Strik said, and now, with harvested acreage up 83 percent since 2007, the researchers are back with a third school, scheduled for March 16 and 17 on the OSU campus.

Strik described the school’s main emphasis as an attempt “to help growers produce high-quality fruit with high yields while minimizing input costs as much as possible, and to help ensure that those who are getting in the business make the correct decisions.”

The school has morphed over the years to keep up with changes in the industry. This year, for example, instead of one presentation on organic blueberry production, information on organic production methods will be interspersed throughout the presentations.

Strik made the change both because acres in organic blueberry production have increased substantially since 2007, and because conventional growers often utilize organic production methods.

The school also will provide new information on use of organic amendments, Strik said, and new information on nutrient management in organic and conventional production systems, a presentation that will include information on leaf-tissue standards for various cultivars.

Also, she said, blueberry industry consultants will provide market information. And new this year, the school will include a section on blueberry plant physiology.

“This has gone over well in test runs,” Strik said. “It helps growers understand the why and not just the how.”

Strik described the workload involved in putting on the school as “tremendous. Not just from me,” she said, “but from all the speakers involved.”

Presenters, for example, are asked to provide articles on their presentations in advance of the school so the organizers can publish the articles in a proceedings book.

“The book is very useful during the meeting, and also serves as a great reference after the meeting,” Strik said. Presentations also will be available to attendees on a computer “thumb drive.”

“All of us are working extra hard to get these articles and presentations done in advance,” she said.

Asked why she and the other presenters take on the extra workload of putting on the school, she said: “Because we feel we have great information that will help all growers be successful. Growers will get more from this meeting than any other. These are extension talks, not research talks. We are pulling the latest information together on the best practices.”

Also, Strik said, when the school is done, she feels “a great satisfaction.

“This is why I love doing what I’m doing.

“I’m trying to focus on that right now during this stressful time,” she said, half joking.

OSU Blueberry School

Researchers from Oregon State University, the USDA Agricultural Research Service and Washington State University will provide information on blueberry plant physiology, water requirements of plants to help irrigation scheduling, pruning, nutrient management, site preparation and other topics at the OSU Blueberry School.

The school will be held March 16-17 at the LaSells Stewart Center and CH2M Hill Alumni Center on the OSU campus.

An agenda and registration information can be accessed on line at http://osublueberryschool.org/.

Stripe rust isn’t the only issue Willamette Valley wheat farmers have to worry about, Oregon State University Extension cereals specialist Mike Flowers said. “Actually, it looks like a pretty bad septoria year,” he said.

Septoria is a fungal disease that is resistant to the strobilurin class of fungicides, which are good on rusts, Flowers said.

“We’re also whittling away our efficacy of the triazole class of chemistry on septoria,” he said. “What we would really like to see is guys who don’t need to treat (their crops) not treating. Those guys that are, need to make sure they’re using an appropriate product.”

Another class of chemicals, called SDHIs, is effective on septoria, but Flowers cautions that the disease could build up a resistance to it as well.

Farmers going after rust early can use strobilurins or triazoles, but should avoid products with SDHIs except at the time of flagleaf application, the best timing for septoria control, he said.

“We don’t want to see them put that class of chemistry on early or late,” he said. “The more we use it, the quicker we’re going to lose that chemistry.”

Stripe rust found in Oregon’s Willamette Valley last month may mean more is on the way, a researcher says.

“It is early to be finding stripe rust, so that may indicate we’re setting up for a bad stripe rust year,” said Mike Flowers, extension cereals specialist at Oregon State University. “In 2011, when we had the really bad stripe rust year, it was February before we found it. We’re basically finding it about a month earlier now.”

Last year, stripe rust appeared late, increasing the likelihood of the plant disease overwintering on volunteer plants or early-planted wheat, Flowers said.

He recommends growers check their fields and consider an early fungicide application with their herbicide spray, particularly if they’re growing a wheat variety that’s susceptible to stripe rust.

“I would say a lot of the varieties that people are growing are more resistant, but we do have a couple common varieties,” Flowers said. Stripe rust has been found on Goetze, Kaseberg and SY Ovation, he said.

Flowers isn’t particularly concerned about new strains of the disease.

“You never know you have one until you see it, so we definitely encourage people if they have a resistant variety, if they start seeing stripe rust on that variety, it’s important we as a group know about that so we can make sure everybody knows about it,” he said.

Rust in Western Oregon and Western Washington isn’t a surprise, said Xianming Chen, research plant geneticist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Pullman, Wash. Farmers in the western part of the region who see rust in their fields should spray to reduce the potential for its spreading, he said.

Chen is so far forecasting a moderate level of stripe rust across the Northwest, when susceptible wheat varieties experience roughly 38 percent yield loss. Chen bases his forecast on November and December weather conditions.

The most susceptible wheat varieties include Eltan, Xerpha, Tubbs 06 and ORCF-102, Chen said.

If the spring and early summer are dry and hot, stripe rust is not likely. But if weather conditions are cool and wet, yield loss can increase, Chen said.

Farmers in Idaho, Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington need to begin checking their fields in March, Chen said.

Stripe rust has also been reported in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. When stripe rust is reported in Texas and Louisiana before March, it is likely to be significant in the Great Plains, he said. Warmer weather means the south-central states could likely see a severe stripe rust outbreak that could move north and east.

Chen plans to release a new stripe rust forecast in early March.

Let’s raise a toast to Oregon’s wine grapes and hops growers, who have no doubt contributed to one of the state’s economic success stories.

A new report from the state Office of Economic Analysis says Oregon’s “alcohol cluster” jobs out-performed the rest of the state’s employment sectors in recovering from the recession.

In a report released Feb. 11, Senior Economist Josh Lehner said the number of jobs in wineries, breweries, distilleries and their distributors and retail outlets increased 46 percent since the start of 2008. The sector now has an estimated 5,200 jobs. The growth rate and total number are probably larger because some breweries, or brew pubs, are classified as restaurants and it’s difficult to separate their job counts, Lehner said in his report.

Lehner said Oregon generally accounts for 1.2 to 1.4 percent of the U.S. total when measuring various economic standards such as population, jobs and exports. But in alcohol cluster employment, Oregon makes up 2 percent of the U.S. total, “which is quite large relative to all of our other rankings,” Lehner said in the report.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Environmentalists are warning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency they will sue to force the agency to protect endangered salmon from toxic chemicals that regularly wash into Oregon rivers.

Northwest Environmental Advocates filed a 60-day lawsuit notice Wednesday.

The group wants the agency to make sure Oregon has limits on four chemicals: copper, cadmium, aluminum and ammonia.

Copper, for example, is in automobile brake pads and agricultural chemicals. In the water, it harms a salmon’s sense of smell, which is key to finding its way home to spawn.

Executive director Nina Bell says state and federal agencies “move at a glacial pace” and have to be sued to enforce clean water standards.

The EPA said it wouldn’t comment on pending litigation.

Cherry trees in the Northwest are shrinking as growers plant diminutive orchards in anticipation of labor shortages, experts say.

Traditional orchards, with large trees planted at spacious distances, are often getting replaced with higher-density “pedestrian” systems in which most branches are within an arm’s length, expediting functions like pruning and harvesting.

A worker with both feet on the ground can collect up to 170 pounds of cherries per hour, compared to 100 pounds if he’s frequently moving and climbing ladders, said Lynn Long, extension horticulturist at Oregon State University.

“He’s increasing efficiency, which means you need to hire fewer pickers,” Long told farmers at a recent OSU cherry research symposium in The Dalles, Ore.

Migrant workers are moving to other industries and the cost of labor is rising, forcing growers to think about running their operations with fewer people, he said.

Apart from easing access to fruit and tree limbs, higher-density orchards offer uniformity — trees are trained to grow similarly, reducing complications and mistakes compared to traditional orchards, in which each tree is different, Long said.

“It slows down that operation,” he said.

Farmers have multiple options for establishing pedestrian-style orchards. One popular option is the “Kym Green Bush,” in which limbs are cut back to form a compact structure with multiple “leaders.” With the “upright fruiting offshoot” technique, the tree grows along a trellis with vertical branches springing from a largely horizontal trunk.

A new system that hasn’t been adopted commercially is the “super slender axe,” in which a single central leader produces lateral branches that are cut back hard each year.

The fruiting wood remains close to the trunk while large shoot leaves develop on the new limbs, resulting in high quality cherries that are simple to pick, Long said. “You don’t have to reach for them. It doesn’t get any easier than that to harvest cherries.”

Growers are able to quickly achieve a healthy per-acre yield with the system but it’s expensive to establish, he said. About 2,500 trees per acre are planted with the super slender axe system, compared with 350-700 per acre with the Kym Green Bush.

Farmers are concerned that the transition to denser, “high output” orchard systems will be correlated with higher inputs, which can be mitigated or prevented with automation, said Matt Whiting, extension specialist with Washington State University.

Mechanical pruning, for example, can greatly speed the process though it does involve some challenges, he said.

In one trial, a hedging machine was able to remove lateral branches 12.5 times faster than hand pruning but left more wood on the tree.

“It’s not perfect, but it’s not that bad,” Whiting said.

When mechanical pruning was followed by a manual “clean up” — cutting limbs between trees and closer to trunks — the process was still 25 percent faster than just hand pruning.

One possibility would be to alternate mechanical pruning one year with a combination of techniques the next, he said.

Whiting and other researchers recently completed a five-year study of mechanized harvesting, which was funded with a $4 million USDA grant.

By vibrating tree limbs to knock cherries from their stems, a mechanical harvester prototype increased harvest efficiency by 50-fold, he said.

With a “mechanically-assisted” approach, in which a modified reciprocating saw vibrated limbs, cherries were harvested four times faster than hand-picking.

A commercial solution for mechanized picking isn’t yet available and some producers worry that stemless cherries won’t find a market, Whiting said.

However, surveys indicate that consumers don’t actually prefer cherries still attached to stems, he said.

Chelan Fresh, a marketing company, is testing the waters with packaged cups of cherries that are convenient to eat, Whiting said.

PORTLAND — The loss of a major ocean carrier at the Port of Portland will effectively eliminate export opportunities for some agricultural shippers, experts say.

“This is a very devastating blow,” said Bill Wyatt, the port’s executive director during a Feb. 11 port commission meeting.

Farm products — including peas, lentils, beans, french fries, grass seed, potatoes, onions and hay — are commonly shipped from the port to Asian markets.

With the Hanjin shipping line no longer calling on Portland, those exporters will now have to spend up to $800 more per container to truck those crops to ports in Seattle and Tacoma, Wyatt said.

For some shippers, the cost of getting farm goods to port will now exceed the price of ocean freight, he said.

“Some of these commodities cannot bear the added cost because they would not be competitive,” Wyatt said. “For people who depend on the service for their business interests, this is very consequential.”

Hanjin, a carrier that shipped farm products from Portland to South Korea and China, announced it will stop calling the port on March 9.

A dispute between the longshoremen’s union and the terminal operator, ICTSI Oregon, has negatively impacted productivity at Portland’s container terminal.

The port and operator blame work slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, while longshoremen claim inadequate equipment and safety problems are causing the problem.

Hanjin was caught in the middle of the fight and decided to discontinue service rather than endure further costly delays, said Wyatt.

“They finally just decided to pull the plug. They just couldn’t take it any longer,” he said. “It was obvious something had to give, and something did.”

Hanjin’s looming departure will affect agricultural exporters beyond the immediate vicinity of Portland and Oregon’s Willamette Valley, said Josh Thomas, marine media relations manager for the port.

Container barges deliver farm goods to Portland from Lewiston, Idaho, providing a more cost-efficient alternative to trucks for shippers in Northeast Oregon, Southeast Washington and Western Idaho, he said.

“Those connections have always been a selling point,” Thomas said.

Exports from these areas had grown strongly in recent years, which would have kept Portland’s container terminal competitive for Hanjin if not for the slowed productivity, he said.

“We know what the decision was not about, and that was the availability of cargo,” he said.

For Bossco Trading, a hay exporter from Tangent, Ore., the departure of Hanjin will complicate logistics in addition to driving up transportation expenses, said Shelly Boshart Davis, its vice president of international sales.

Whereas a driver could deliver three containers a day between Tangent and Portland, it will require a full day to get a single container to the Seattle area, she said.

Truckers may also run out of legally allowable driving hours during that trip, potentially forcing them to stay overnight, Boshart said.

“It’s costly all around,” she said.

Other ocean carriers that ship to Japan and Northern Europe will continue to use Portland’s container terminal, but Hanjin represented roughly two-thirds of container cargo volume, Wyatt said.

The Port of Portland plans to seek other trans-Pacific ocean carriers to service the port, but that process may take two years, he said.

Any prospective partner would need assurances of full productivity from ILWU, said Thomas.

“That’s going to be a heavy lift in the coming years here,” he said.

If a replacement is not timely found, the absence will affect river pilots, tugboat operators and other service providers that other ports on the Columbia River — such as Astoria — depend on, Thomas said.

Meanwhile, the Port of Portland and ICTSI are seeking financial damages from the longshoremen’s union in federal court, Wyatt said.

That litigation will likely become “more significant” now that Hanjin has pulled out, he said.

“We intend to pursue those very aggressively.”

Capital Press was unable to reach a representative of ILWU as of press time.

Hanjin announced it’s leaving Portland at a time of broader tensions between the longshoremen’s union and container terminal operators along the West Coast.

A previous labor contract between ILWU and terminals represented by the Pacific Maritime Association ran out in July 2014 and ports have become congested in recent months as the parties have strived to work out a new deal.

“It’s a very intense period right now on the waterfont on the West Coast,” Wyatt said.

A breakthrough about the maintenance and repair of truck chassis — used to move containers — was recently reached, but an overall agreement has remained elusive.

Most recently, the PMA accused the longshoremen’s union of insisting on an unreasonable provision in the new labor contract: the ability to unilaterally fire arbitrators who rule against ILWU.

Work stoppages related to alleged safety violations are referred to such arbitrators, who are meant to quickly resolve such disputes and keep cargo moving.

If the union is able to fire arbitrators who stop slowdowns, that will jeopardize the reliability of West Coast ports, PMA said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A South Korean shipping company that is the Port of Portland’s largest container carrier will be terminating its service with the city, but it will continue to use rail and truck transportation, port officials said.

Hanjin Shipping notified the port and customers it will withdraw services on March 9, port spokesman Josh Thomas said Tuesday. Hanjin handles nearly 80 percent of the container volume at the port’s Terminal 6.

“It’s something the port had worked very hard to avert,” Thomas said.

Hanjin has had a presence in Portland since 1993. But its pullout isn’t a surprise. In recent years, the company has been unhappy about the pace of work among longshore workers and announced its intention to withdraw two years ago.

Since 2012, members of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union clashed with the Philippines-based company known as ICTSI that operates it for the port. Those labor troubles didn’t help make the port more competitive, Thomas said.

Last year, Hanjin decided to stay, but the company said it would review productivity and costs.

Because hundreds of exporters and importers use the terminal to transport goods to and from international markets, Hanjin’s pullout will affect many jobs and businesses. Many of the area’s largest shippers as well as exporters such as farmers depend on Hanjin’s services.

Hanjin did not return a call for comment Tuesday.

Port officials said they’re now working on the transition. The two remaining small container carriers — Hapag-Lloyd, a German company, and Westwood Shipping — will continue to serve the terminal and may be able to absorb some of the cargo, but in many cases they don’t serve the same ports, Thomas said.

The port will try to attract another trans-Pacific carrier, he said, but in the meantime the costs for those sending cargo by rail or truck to or from Seattle will likely increase.

All other lines — including autos, grain, mineral, steel, liquids — won’t be affected by Hanjin’s announcement, the port said.

Capital Press

The snowpack in Oregon’s mountain ranges is at or near record-low levels in 40 percent of monitoring sites, which could mean trouble for irrigators, wildlife and water quality this summer.

While total precipitation measured since the start of the Oct. 1 water year is near normal, most of it has fallen as rain instead of snow and won’t be available later in the year. Streams and rivers that depend on snowmelt probably will be running thin this summer, according to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Some monitoring sites in Oregon’s mountains are snow-free for the first time since measurements began. As of Feb. 1, snow levels at 44 of 110 NRCS monitoring sites were at or near record lows.

It’s the second consecutive year Oregon has reached the peak of winter with a meager snowpack. Major February snowstorms eased the situation last year and snow can drape the mountain ranges in March or April, but relief isn’t in the immediate forecast, said Melissa Webb, an NRCS hydrologist based in Portland.

“We have a month or two for recovery, there’s time for improvement,” Webb said. “That said, across the mountains of the Oregon – the Cascades, Siskiyous, Ochocos – we are seeing record low snowpack levels.”

Webb said heavy rains that drenched much of the Pacific Northwest this month are a benefit. The rain helps fill reservoirs, stream flows are in good shape and soil moisture has improved. Snow is what the region really needs, she said, but a cold, wet spring would help.

“The later the spring, the better,” Webb said. “If we’re not going to have a normal snowpack, delaying summer heat and snowmelt would be a good thing.”

The NRCS snowpack report said Idaho and Washington also have water supply problems.

In Idaho, a dry January clouded what had been an optimistic outlook for the central, southern and eastern parts of the state. Northern Idaho’s snowpack dropped further below normal and is the state’s “area of most concern for a very low runoff season,” the NRCS report concluded.

In Washington, rain and warm temperatures in the mountains melted some of the snowpack and reduced streamflow forecasts for the coming months. Washington would have to get more than 200 percent of normal snowfall between now and April 1 to “even have a chance of catching up” to typical snowpack levels, according to the NRCS.

In California, where the snowpack’s water content stood at 20 percent of normal in January, Gov. Jerry Brown has already declared a statewide water emergency. The directive orders state officials to help farmers and communities that are economically damaged by drought and to make sure the state can respond to drinking water shortages.

A proposed ban on using aerial drones for hunting and sport fishing in Oregon has won support from groups representing hunters as well as animal rights advocates.

The legislation, House Bill 2534, directs the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to write regulations that prohibit drones from tracking or otherwise assisting people with angling or hunting game.

“Drones have no place in sports fishing or hunting,” said Rep. Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, who introduced the legislation.

Using such devices to scout prey doesn’t square with the concepts of “fair chase” or “fair catch,” he said during a Feb. 10 hearing of the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The bill would also prohibit using drones to interfere with hunting and fishing.

Eight other states have banned or are in the process of banning drones for such uses, Witt said.

Representatives of the Oregon Hunters Association, Oregon Outdoors Council, Traditional Archers of Oregon, Seafood Oregon and the Humane Society of the United States testified in favor of the proposal.

“Our sport will actually disappear without fair chase. At some point, chase becomes just killing,” said Stan Steele, president of the Oregon Outdoor Council.

While the bill received a positive reception, several clarifications were suggested during the hearing to prevent unintended consequences.

There may be legitimate uses for drones, like scaring away geese from crops, that should not be disallowed by the bill, said Brett Brownscombe, acting director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The legislation also relies on a legal definition of “drones” that excludes model aircraft, Brownscombe said.

Realistically, new model aircraft can be used to assist hunting and fishing in ways the bill intends to prohibit, he said.

The bill should also make it clearer that locating fish or game with drones is banned, said Al Elkins, lobbyist for the Oregon Hunters Association.

Elkins said he has already heard of anglers scouting suitable fishing spots along a river with a drone.

Witt said he plans to consult with these organizations in redrafting the bill to ensure it’s not misinterpreted.

“I am very open to additional language to tighten than up,” he said.

A bill related to trespassing also received a favorable reaction during the hearing.

House Bill 2051 would reduce second-degree trespassing from a criminal Class C misdemeanor to a non-criminal Class A violation.

The Oregon Forest Industries Council strongly supports the bill because many rural counties in Oregon don’t have the resources to criminally prosecute trespassers, said Heath Curtiss, the group’s director of government affairs.

By shifting second-degree trespassing to a Class A violation in certain circumstances, the county would not have to pay for the full criminal prosecution, he said.

While a person could still plead not guilty rather than pay a fine of up to $2,000, the case would be decided by a judge rather than a jury, similar to a traffic violation.

“It’s a relatively efficient process,” Curtiss said.

Representatives of hunters, defense attorneys and timberland owners supported the bill, which Witt said will soon be back before the committee after a quick series of amendments “to make a good bill great.”

A helicopter spraying company and a pilot who were each fined $10,000 for spraying pesticides on rural homes in Southern Oregon have asked for an administrative hearing at which they will contest the penalty.

Pacific Air Research Inc. of White City and applicator Steven Owen were assessed the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s biggest fines during 2014, and their pesticide licenses were revoked for a year. However, because they have contested the department’s findings, they have not yet paid the fine and are free to operate, said Dale Mitchell, manager of the department’s pesticide program. A hearing will be held in April.

The original incident happened in October 2013, when residents of the Cedar Valley area near Gold Beach in Curry County complained they’d been sickened in a spraying operation intended for commercial timber. An ag department investigation showed the company and pilot sprayed the wrong property, applied more than the label recommends of one product and filed multiple false records about pesticides used.

The department “absolutely” stands by its findings, Mitchell said.

The Pacific Air case was among 505 alleged pesticide violations investigated during the year. Another $10,000 fine was levied against Glass Tree Care and Spray Service Inc., a Eugene company, for a 2014 incident in which an estimated 1,000 bees were killed when blooming linden trees at a Eugene apartment complex were sprayed with a neonicotinoid pesticide. Applicator James Mischkot Jr. was fined $6,000.

The department issued 34 civil penalties totaling $62,423 during the year, choosing “education and outreach” in the vast majority of cases, Mitchell said. The most common violations involve incomplete record-keeping, failing to have all employees properly licensed and applying pesticides in a manner inconsistent with label instructions or in a negligent manner, Mitchell said.

The following penalties were issued to companies using unlicensed pesticide applicators: TJW Croach LLC (PestFree) of Beaverton, $2,775; Dobyns-Hart Pest Control, Pendleton, $814 and applicator Chad Griffin, $407; Northwest Landscape, Tualatin, $814; All Natural Pest Botanical Solutions Inc., Redmond, $407.

Penalties issued for applying a pesticide product inconsistent with its labeling: A&J Landscape Maintenance, Inc., Beaverton, $555; Farmers Supply Cooperative, Ontario, and applicator Tyler Taylor, $407 each.

Penalties for applying pesticides in a faulty, careless or negligent manner: Samuel Pollock, Hermiston, $2,035; David Goracke, Shedd, $555; Cascade Tree Farms, Estacada, and applicator Alfonzo Mendoza, $407 each; Applebee Aviation Inc., Banks, and applicator Patrick Hall, $407 each; Willamette Valley Helicopters, Newport, $407.

Other violations during the year included: Crop Production Services, Cornelius, $3,678 for selling a restricted use pesticide product to an unlicensed individual; Winco Winfield LLC, Mt. Angel, $1,628 for selling restricted use pesticides to a number of unlicensed individuals; Coastal Home and Farm Supply LLC, Woodburn, $2,700 for selling an unregistered pesticide; J.R. Simplot Co., Independence, $320 for distributing an unregistered pesticide to Oregon Vineyard Supply of McMinnville; Central Oregon Ranch Supply, Redmond, $300 for selling a pesticide that was not in the manufacturer’s original package; EcoCare LLC of Ridgefield, Wash., $1,628 for using multiple unlicensed applicators; Michael Dell, David Murphy, Johseph Pipher and Daryl Pipher, $407 for being unlicensed.

EcoCare also was penalized $555 for applying a pesticide inconsistent with its labeling, and three individuals with the company were fined $555 each. The Brickman Group LLC, Tualatin, was penalized $555 for using an applicator whose license had expired; the applicator, Jose Aldaco, was issued a $555 penalty for applying a pesticide inconsistent with its labeling.

Many new organic consumers have little experience with the organic label and some shoppers think they’re buying organic when they’re actually not, experts say.

“The brand has outsized our actual influence in the marketplace,” said Laura Batcha, executive director of the Organic Trade Association, during the recent Organicology conference in Portland, Ore.

Market research shows that more than one-third of organic consumers have only been buying organic products in the past two years, she said.

This influx of new consumers raises questions about how to best market organic products, Batcha said.

Contrary to the stereotype of organic consumers being whiter, older and higher income than average, they actually tend to be younger and more racially diverse, she said.

“We are on trend with the future demographic of the United States,” Batcha said.

Younger organic buyers have characteristics that don’t reflect the habits of “seasoned” organic consumers, she said.

For example, older buyers are more committed to traditional organic retail channels, like food cooperatives, while younger people are “non-denominational” when it comes to shopping for organic products and will frequent mainstream grocery stores, Batcha said.

“They don’t attribute a lot of values to it in the same way,” she said.

Market data indicates that roughly 80 percent of families buy some organic food, just not very frequently, Batcha said.

It’s also likely that some consumers think other labels — like “natural” — connote organic methods, she said.

“Natural has a better frame of reference in our vocabulary,” Batcha said.

Nearly 60 percent of consumers say they look for the “natural” label when shopping for groceries, while less than 50 percent look for the “organic label,” according to a survey by the Consumers Union.

The “natural” label means a product contains no artificial ingredients but doesn’t have to be produced according to any farm practices regulated by the USDA.

Even so, many consumers assume the “natural” label encompasses organic standards enforced by USDA: roughly two-thirds believe “natural” food was produced without pesticides, antibiotics, growth hormones or genetically modified organisms, the survey said.

“Consumers are sometimes choosing natural because they think it means the same thing,” said Urvashi Rangan, director of consumer safety and sustainability for the Consumers Union.

This confusion can create a marketing conundrum.

Marketers prefer to present consumers with simple, uncomplicated messages, but if they “overdistill” the meaning of “organic” then it becomes prone to distortion, Rangan said. “The downside of that is you leave it open to misinterpretation,” she said.

Rangan said she doesn’t blame “label overload” for consumer uncertainty, since some certifications — such as “animal welfare approved” — can add value to the organic label by providing additional information.

The real problem is some claims and labels are meaningless or not credible, yet federal regulators don’t stop companies from using them even though it’s within their authority, she said.

The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater in Eastern Oregon will be the newest American Viticulture Area, or AVA, a designation that provides a marketing edge to vineyards in the area and wine makers who use grapes from there.

The designation covers the alluvial fan of the Walla Walla River and refers to dark basalt cobblestones that pocket the area and to the Oregon town of Milton-Freewater, part of which lies within the AVA. The stony soil is well-drained, which forces vines to root deep for water. Rocks exposed on the surface absorb heat, which promotes early season growth and late-season ripening. Despite being part of the Walla Walla Valley, the AVA is entirely within Oregon and will be the state’s 18th. The area is known for producing high-quality Syrah wine but has seen recent plantings of Cabernet, another red wine grape.

Nineteen producers have vineyards within the Rocks District boundaries, which covers about 3,770 acres, only 250 acres of which is in commercial vineyard production.

The distinction will allow wineries, including those in Washington state that use a high percentage grapes from there, to put the AVA information on their labels, said Duane Wollmuh, executive director of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance.

Washington’s wine industry and the Oregon Wine Board backed the AVA designation. The Pacific Northwest has become internationally known for producing fine wines, most notably the signature Pinot noir of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and AVA information is significant to discerning consumers.

The combination of high-quality and consumer demand has paid off for both states. A January report said Oregon’s wine industry produces an estimated $3.35 billion economic impact, counting crop values and direct and related sales, jobs, services and products. A 2012 report estimated the Washington wine industry has an $8.6 billion annual economic impact.

The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department, proposed the AVA at the request of eight growers in the region, headed by Steve Robertson of Delmas/SJR Vineyard. A 60-day comment period is required before the AVA can be approved. Kevin R. Pogue, a geology professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, submitted the petition to the ATTB.

A man who was issued the first state permit to grow industrial hemp said he and a nonprofit group of growers and activists hope to plant a 25-acre field in Southwest Oregon this spring.

Edgar Winters, of Eagle Point, Ore., who describes himself as director of the Oregon Agriculture Food & Rural Consortium, acknowledged there are problems obtaining seeds for planting and other complications, but said he is optimistic. Winters also said warehousing and processing facilities will be ready to go when a crop is harvested in late summer.

“We are in position to do 40 tons a day at our processing mill,” Winters said. “We’ve got our ducks in a row.”

Getting seed to plant is one of the major hurdles. Importing it requires the approval of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University are working with the DEA on that process. In addition, Winters said a major Canadian hemp company, Hemp Textiles International, has breeders’ rights to its seed and will not allow Oregon growers to retain seed for planting. Meanwhile, the existing state statute requires hemp seed produced in Oregon to be replanted.

“We’re at a standstill,” Winters said.

He said hemp seeds might be available from Russia, Hungary, Australia or New Zealand.

“We have to import to get started,” Winters said. “We don’t want our farmers to sit around another year.”

Winters’ LinkedIn profile lists him as self-employed and the chief operations officer for Natural Good Medicines. It also lists him as a master gardener and involved in research and development services for industrial hemp. He said people often hear his name and mistake him for Texas rock and blues musician Edgar Winter.

Ron Pence, who oversees the industrial hemp growing program for the state agriculture department, said the seed issue is one of three tweaks the Legislature may want to make it the 2015 session.

As written, a 2009 state statute says hemp seed collected in an Oregon harvest can only be used to produce a new crop — not crushed for oil or other high-value products, for example, or used as livestock feed. Pence said the restriction appears to be an oversight.

Another issue is the requirement for a three-year growing and handling license and a three-year seed handling permit, each of which cost $500 a year, or $1,500 for the required three years.

“A person could easily invest $3,000 in a license and permit before spinning a wheel to produce hemp,” Pence said. The fees may be restructured to an annual basis, at $500 each, so a person could try his or her hand at it for a year at less expense.

A provision that requires a minimum production area of 2.5 acres also may be reconsidered, Pence said.

The Oregon Legislature legalized hemp cultivation in 2009, but the law was never implemented because the U.S. Department of Justice classified hemp the same as marijuana. The federal classification remains, but the justice department has said it won’t interfere in states that have legalized hemp production if they adopt a robust regulatory system. Industrial hemp was included in the November 2014 ballot measure that legalized recreational marijuana use, possession and cultivation.

Hemp is related to marijuana but has a much lower concentration of THC, the chemical compound that makes pot users high. Industrial hemp was widely grown and milled in the Midwest especially through the 1940s, but faded. Supporters of hemp’s revival note that it has multiple uses, including for fiber, fabric, food, oils, cosmetics, plastics and many more.

Russ Karrow, former head of the Crop and Soil Science Department at Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has said hemp grown for fiber would do well in the Willamette Valley. But hemp grown for seed, probably a more valuable crop, would require summer irrigation, Karrow said. Hermiston and Treasure Valley, in Eastern Oregon, have warmer growing days than the Willamette Valley and would be the best places to grow hemp, Karrow said in interviews with the Capital Press.

SALEM, Ore. — Oregon Ag Fest is seeking applications for its annual agricultural education recognition award.

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

Applications are due March 7 and can be downloaded from the Oregon Ag Fest website. Cash prizes totaling up to $2,000 may be awarded to as many as three winners annually. Awards will be presented on stage during Oregon Ag Fest on April 26, according to an Ag Fest press release.

Prizes will depend on quality of applications submitted. 

“We were blown away by the applications we received last year and are proud to continue to support the agricultural education outreach efforts of nonprofit and student organizations this year,” said Sherry Kudna, Oregon Ag Fest chair. “Oregon Ag Fest is dedicated to educating the public about the importance of agriculture, and we see this award as a way to encourage and support student groups that have programs and activities aimed to accomplish the same thing.”

Ag Fest is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) volunteer organization dedicated to educating the public about the importance of agriculture. For more information, go to www.oragfest.com. 

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The high winds hitting the coast of Oregon and southwest Washington on Thursday morning are leading a series of storms in what forecasters call an atmospheric river.

The National Weather Service says the rain storms will arrive in surges through the weekend with breaks in between. Rainfall totals through Monday could reach 5 to 7 inches on the Oregon coast and Cascades and 2 or 3 inches in the valleys.

The Weather Service says it also will be windy through the weekend.

Forecasters say the storms should end and let the region dry out by the middle of next week.

Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an agribusiness industry group, has hired a lobbyist from the Oregon Farm Bureau as its new executive director.

Katie Fast, vice president of public policy for the Oregon Farm Bureau, will split her time between the bureau and OFS until the end of the 2015 legislative session.

Scott Dahlman, former executive director of OFS, will continue to serve the organization as its policy director.

The change was triggered by the announced retirement of Paulette Pyle, director of grass roots at OFS, who will leave at the end of the session, said Doug Hoffman, the group’s chairman and CEO of the Wilco farm cooperative.

OFS is reorganizing due to Pyle’s departure, with Fast serving as the group’s public face while Dahlman works behind the scenes setting policy, said Hoffman.

“We’re aligning skills where they need to go,” he said.

Rural residents in Oregon’s Curry County have revived a lawsuit over pesticide spraying without directly challenging the state’s “right to farm” law.

Their case originally sought to overturn Oregon’s “right to farm” statute — which shields growers from nuisance and trespass lawsuits over common farm practices — for allegedly infringing on the constitutional right to seek legal remedies for an injury.

The initial complaint was dismissed by Curry County Circuit Court Judge Jesse Margolis, who ruled that the 17 plaintiffs must first claim actual damages before seeking to invalidate the “right to farm” law.

In 2013 the Curry County residents told state regulators that Pacific Air Research sprayed their properties with pesticides, causing serious medical problems.

An investigation by the Oregon Department of Agriculture determined the aerial applicator used 2,4-D and triclopyr on off-target sites and falsified information.

Last year, the residents filed a complaint trying to get the “right to farm” law pre-emptively declared unconstitutional without formally accusing Pacific Air Research of committing nuisance or trespass violations.

The plaintiffs attempted to void the “right to farm” statute before making such claims because they didn’t want to be held liable for the defendants’ legal fees, as permitted by the law.

Margolis threw out their original complaint, finding it was merely hypothetical that Pacific Air Research would use the “right to farm” law as a defense and thus he lacked jurisdiction to deem it unconstitutional.

Even so, Margolis allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaint.

The revised lawsuit includes charges of nuisance, trespass and negligence against Pacific Air Research as well as other logging, forestry and timberland companies allegedly involved in the pesticide operation.

However, the latest version removes any mention of the “right to farm” law, which presumably means the defendants would have to raise that statute as a defense to throw its constitutionality into question.

The plaintiffs are ready to “tackle” that debate if it comes up, though it’s unclear whether the subject will be raised, said William Sherlock, their attorney.

Such a defense could be risky, since an unlawful and improper pesticide application would not be protected under the law and invoking the statute would open the defendants to liability for their opponents’ litigation expenses.

Bradley Piscadlo, attorney for the defendants, said he has not decided whether to employ the statute.

Regardless of what happens in the case, questions about the law’s constitutionality are unlikely to end, experts say.

The farm industry would face such a challenge if a plaintiff crossed the appropriate procedural hurdles, said Tim Bernasek, an agricultural attorney.

“It is an issue for the ag and forestry community to prepare for,” he said.

Two previous challenges to the “right to farm” law were dismissed on procedural grounds in 2008 and 2013 by the Oregon Court of Appeals, which left the underlying constitutional question unanswered.

In 1993, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the statute’s constitutionality without explaining its legal rationale but the Curry County plaintiffs claim this ruling was superseded by a 2001 Oregon Supreme Court opinion.

An attack on the “right to farm” statute based on the remedy clause of Oregon’s constitution “sounds like at least a good theoretical argument,” said Paul Diller, a law professor at Willamette University.

The Oregon Supreme Court has been “vigilant” in protecting tort rights that existed when Oregon attained statehood in 1859, he said.

The argument that the “right to farm” law unconstitutionally violates these rights would be a “colorable claim” — meaning the challenge would be allowed to proceed under the right circumstances without being immediately thrown out of court — even if it’s not ultimately found valid, Diller said.

Defenders of the “right to farm” statute could claim that the ability to sue over common agricultural practices was not recognized under the original Oregon constitution, he said.

They could also argue the state’s land use planning law has already created a system to reduce nuisance and trespass conflicts, Diller said.

“It’s designed to minimize them,” Diller said. “I think that’s a relevant component.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Agriculture Department has begun accepting applications to grow industrial hemp, in time for spring planting.

Industrial hemp is the cousin of marijuana that doesn’t cause a high.

Historically, the crop was used for rope, but these days it goes into clothing, food and cosmetics as well.

The Hemp Industries Association tells The Oregonian that 18 states have removed barriers to production, but only three reported crops last year: Colorado, Kentucky and Vermont.

Under federal law, hemp is still illegal.

Oregon approved it in 2009, but held off drafting rules until this year. Legal hemp was also in last year’s initiative legalizing recreational pot.

The rules require growers to get three-year licenses that cost $1,500. They limit how much of marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient the hemp can have.