For the Capital Press

With half the snowfall season in the books, snowpack levels in Western Oregon are dangerously low.

The good news is the levels could rebound before snowfall season expires, and in Eastern Oregon, where farmer fortunes are more closely tied to snowpack, the levels are doing fine.

Still, with the warm, wet conditions of an El Nino permeating Western Oregon at a time when the snowpack is typically building, concerns are mounting that Western Oregon farmers could face water shortages come irrigation season.

“We’ve seen years where snowpack levels rebounded,” said Scott Oviatt, snow program manager for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland. “We’ve also seen years where the tap just shut off.”

Last year, Oviatt said, snowpack levels were below even this year’s in the January survey. But heavy, late-season snowfall created near normal snowpack levels by May.

Oviatt said the NRCS attributes the low snowfall levels in Western Oregon this year to “climate variability” and not climate change.

“Climate variability is the key here, and that is the case every year,” he said.

The lowest levels in the first NRCS Oregon snow survey of the year are in the Klamath Basin, which is at 24 percent of normal; the Rogue Umpqua Basin, which is at 25 percent of normal; and the Willamette, which is at 29 percent of normal. Also dangerously low are the Hood, Sandy, Lower Deschutes Basin comes in at 30 percent of normal; and the Upper Deschutes, Crooked Basin registers 38 percent of normal.

Snowpack conditions improve dramatically to the east, with Harney Basin at 108 percent of normal; Malheur at 92 percent of normal; and Owyhee at 86 percent of normal. The Umatilla, Walla Walla, Willow Basin is at 68 percent of normal; the Grande Ronde, Powder, Burnt, Imnaha Basin is at 78 percent of normal; while the Lake County, Goose Lake Basin is at 57 percent of normal.

Precipitation levels, conversely, are high throughout the state, with all 11 basins surveyed at or above 100 percent of normal for the water year, which starts Oct. 1.

The NRCS issues snow surveys using data from its 80 Oregon Snotel sites once a month from January through June.

One last hope for Western Oregon farmers, if snowpack levels don’t rebound, is a flush of spring rain to build reservoir levels. Given that weather forecasters are showing warmer than normal conditions over the next 90 days, heavy spring rainfall may end up being Western Oregon farmers’ last and best hope to generate a water supply adequate to get through the 2015 irrigation season.

SALEM — At an extension wheat and seed production meeting here Jan. 6, Oregon State University plant pathologist Chris Mundt issued an alert to Willamette Valley wheat producers to keep an eye out for stripe rust.

Mundt said mild winter weather is creating an ideal environment for the fungal disease to get a foothold early this year. And, he said, “The largest field losses occur when stripe rust starts early.

“You don’t want the rust to get ahead of you,” he said.

Stripe rust and Septoria are the two biggest disease threats to wheat production in the Willamette Valley, Mundt said.

Mild winter temperatures increase the likelihood the rust pathogen survives the winter and shortens the time it takes for the pathogen to complete a generation, which can increase the amount of inoculum in the environment at any one time, Mundt said.

With temperatures 5 degrees above normal in December, and with January starting out with abnormally high temperatures, Mundt said he believes growers could start seeing stripe rust two and three weeks earlier than normal.

“I think this could be a year where it might be possible for stripe rust to start to pop out on susceptible varieties even in mid-January,” he said.

“Let us know if you see something pop up early, because you really need to control disease on a valley-wide basis and we want to know when that first rust is popping up,” he said.

The good news for growers, Mundt said, is that because 2014 was a mild rust year, not a lot of rust inoculum was present in the valley going into the winter.

But, he said, “On the negative side, probably the biggest driver of whether you are going to have a severe stripe rust outbreak is whether or not you had a mild winter.”

Also on the plus side of the ledger, wheat varieties available today are more resistant to rust than varieties available in the past, Mundt said, including in 2011, a year in which rust played havoc with wheat production in the valley.

Mundt singled out the varieties Bobtail and Rosalyn as “very resistant” to stripe rust.

Even given their high level of resistance, however, Mundt advised growers to keep an eye on their fields.

“You really can’t predict how these varieties are going to hold up,” he said.

Mundt identified Kaseberg, SY Ovation and LCS Art Deco as moderately resistant varieties.

“In a low rust year, they are probably going to hold up well,” he said, “so if there is not a lot of rust around, you are probably home free in terms of rust spraying. On the other hand, if there is a lot of rust in the valley, you probably want to give them a treatment.”

Mundt identified the varieties Goetze, Tubbs 06 and Mary as highly susceptible to the disease.

“If you’ve even heard about rust anywhere in the valley, you probably want to give them a treatment,” he said.

Oregon’s work to improve rangeland habitat and jumpstart rural economies by removing western juniper could get a boost when the Legislature opens its 2015 session in February.

Legislation drafted by the Western Juniper Alliance would allocate $900,000 for a loan and grant program for juniper harvesting and manufacturing businesses. The money also would fund business planning help for small mills or logging outfits, provide worker training and map the location of high-quality juniper stands. The Western Juniper Alliance is a coalition of industry, government and environmental representatives convened by Sustainable Northwest, a Portland non-profit that works to resolve environmental and rural economic problems.

Dylan Kruse, Sustainable Northwest’s policy director and manager of the alliance, said District 27 Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, will sponsor the bill. Kruse said a broad coalition now supports the idea of speeding the pace and scale of juniper removal.

Junipers encroach on much of the arid West, crowding out sage and native grasses and sucking up prodigious amounts of water, according to experts. Cutting western junipers has a cascading benefit: It makes more water available and it improves grazing for cattle and habitat for greater sage grouse, which is a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act this year. Multiple cattle ranchers in Eastern Oregon have signed on to voluntary habitat conservation plans that include provisions for juniper removal.

Meanwhile, at least three small mills in Eastern Oregon have found fledgling markets for juniper poles, posts, decking and landscape timbers. Sustainable Northwest Woods, an offshoot of the non-profit, buys from the mills and operates a specialty lumber yard in Portland.

Kruse said adding mill or logging jobs in Eastern Oregon, combined with the range and wildlife habitat benefits, make juniper projects a “no-brainer.”

“It’s holistic approach for land management,” he said. “This is one of the rare win-win-win situations that we have.”

In the second part of an interview carried on the Oregon Department of Agriculture website, Director Katy Coba said food safety and consumer protection remains the department’s most important program for 2015.

“We focus very hard on food safety issues,” Coba said in the interview with department spokesman Bruce Pokarney.

“Our whole goal is to minimize the potential for food illness outbreaks. So there is a lot of up front education and outreach, and we prioritize our limited resources to focus on those licensed facilities whose activities represent the greatest risk to food safety. These are facilities that handle food products before they even get to grocery stores. Even within the many retail stores we license and inspect, we prioritize by risk, focusing on those with a history of problems.”

Coba said the department has a “very good” track record of preventing food-borne illnesses and responding quickly when outbreaks occur.

“Also in the new year, there is more work to be done on the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act,” Coba said. “It’s coming at us, and even though it’s a federal effort, we hope to have a better idea in 2015 on what role ODA will play going forward.”

The full interview is carried on the department website. http://odanews.wpengine.com/oda-poised-to-meet-the-challenges-of-2015/

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s famous wandering wolf, OR-7, is now officially the leader of his own pack.

State and federal wildlife agencies said Wednesday they have designated OR-7, his mate and their pups the Rogue Pack, for their location in the Rogue River drainage in the Cascades east of Medford.

It’s the first pack in western Oregon and the ninth in the state since wolves from Idaho started swimming the Snake River in the 1990s.

As a youngster, OR-7 left his pack in northeastern Oregon in September 2011 in search of a mate. He traveled thousands of miles across Oregon and back and forth into Northern California before finding a mate last winter in the southern Cascades on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

The GPS collar that tracked his travels is still working, but biologists hope to replace it this spring.

Efforts to trap OR-7, his mate or one of the pups to put a tracking collar on them were not successful last fall, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist John Stephenson. They hope to have better luck this May, when the pack dens up for more pups.

Even if the GPS tracking collar fails, a separate unit on the collar that emits a radio signal that can be tracked by a directional antenna should continue working, Stephenson said.

Oregon could consider lifting state Endangered Species Act protections for wolves this year if biologists confirm that four or more packs produced pups that survived through the end of the year. The earliest a proposal could go before the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission is April, said spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy. Delisting would not mean an end to protections for wolves, but would give ranchers more options for dealing with wolves that attack livestock.

OR-7 has continued to stay out of trouble as far as livestock are concerned.

Oregon’s management plan calls for protections to continue for the Rogue Pack until there are four packs in western Oregon producing pups for three years running. Federal Endangered Species Act protection also remains in force in western Oregon and California.

By MITCH LIES

For the Capital Press

Blueberry growers, marketers and packers will have a rare opportunity to learn from a consortium of industry experts at the Oregon State University Blueberry School, March 16 and 17.

The event, the first OSU Blueberry School since 2007, provides one-stop shopping for those interested in maximizing blueberry production and market opportunities, according to Oregon State University Extension Berry Crops Specialist Bernadine Strik.

It will include cutting-edge information for beginning and advanced growers, as well as those focused on conventional and organic production methods, she said.

“Further, blueberry industry consultants will address key issues of where the blueberry market is going and how you might be more successful in tight labor or volume markets,” she said.

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

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

Early registration and its accompanying reduced rates closes Feb. 5, Strik said.

Group discount rates for farms or businesses are available, she said.

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

SALEM — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber will propose a legislative fix in mid-January aimed at fostering coexistence among biotech, conventional and organic crops.

Details of the proposal haven’t yet been disclosed and the legislative language will likely be amended before an actual bill is introduced, said Richard Whitman, the governor’s natural resources policy director.

“The anticipation is there will be more conversation among stakeholders before we finalize the bill,” Whitman said.

A task force on genetically modified organisms appears to have helped Kitzhaber decide on a course of action.

In 2013, the Oregon legislature pre-empted most local governments from restricting genetically modified crops at Kitzhaber’s urging.

The governor then appointed a task force to frame the controversy over genetically modified organisms and inform lawmakers’ decisions on possible statewide legislation.

The task force’s recently completed report does not make any policy recommendations but lays out the points of contention between critics and proponents of genetically engineered crops.

However, its members did agree that more clarity is needed about the state’s role in regulating GMOs and how it diverges from federal authority.

The main question now is what measures Kitzhaber or state lawmakers will put forward to prevent unwanted cross-pollination among these crops or if farmers can agree on a voluntary system to avoid such gene flow.

“All eyes are going to be on the legislature and what the governor is planning to do,” said Ivan Maluski, executive director of Friends of Family Farms, which wants stronger biotech regulation. “This task force marks the beginning of the process, not the end.”

One subject of debate will probably be the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s “control area” authority over biotech crops, said Maluski.

Currently, ODA can restrict where genetically engineered crops are planted as long as the USDA retains jurisdiction over them, but the state agency believes it loses that power once the crop is deregulated by federal officials.

State legislation could establish that ODA may still create or retain “control areas” even after USDA lifts its own restrictions on biotech crops, said Maluski.

For example, such state control areas could require biotech farmers to maintain “isolation distances” to mitigate the risk of cross-pollination with non-GMOs, he said.

“It’s going to be on a case-by-case basis, as it should be,” Maluski said.

Another concept involves compensating organic and conventional growers if their crops are contaminated by pollen from biotech plants, said Chris Schreiner, executive director of Oregon Tilth, an organic certification agency.

There should be a way to compensate non-GMO farmers for damages from cross-pollination that wouldn’t require them to buy insurance policies, he said.

Proponents of biotechnology say farmers who grow biotech, conventional and organic crops can work out their differences without interference from the government.

“Farmers have learned to coexist for years,” said Paulette Pyle, grass roots director for Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an agribusiness industry group.

Decades ago, a conflict between cherry growers and wheat farmers over drift from 2,4-D herbicides threatened to spur legislation or erupt into litigation, but neighbors were ultimately able to resolve the issue through communication, Pyle said.

The potential for biotech varieties to pollinate organic crops isn’t actually a problem under USDA organic rules, which regulate farm practices but don’t set up standards for genetic purity, she said.

“The organic folks have put themselves in that market box,” Pyle said. “They can advertise their product any way they want, but they’ve got to accept responsibility.”

Bills that would increase government oversight of biotech crops would actually impede co-existence by limiting crop choices for farmers, said Greg Loberg, manager of the West Coast Beet Seed Co.

“It sounds threatening,” he said. “There will be winners and losers in a situation where government intervention occurs through legislation.”

Voluntary coexistence measures for biotech, conventional and organic crops would be preferable to those mandated by regulators, he said.

For example, seed growers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley are already able to reduce the chances of cross-pollination among related crops through a voluntary mapping system, Loberg said.

“It’s not a broken system,” he said. “It’s quite functional.”

Schreiner of Oregon Tilth said a mapping system is one possibility for co-existence but he’s skeptical that it would be effective without regulatory oversight.

“The voluntary system we don’t see as having a high likelihood of success due to the lack of incentive for GE producers to participate,” he said.

BOARDMAN, Ore. — ß∑A proposed transmission line stretching 300 miles from Boardman, Ore., to southwest Idaho could cost local farmers millions of dollars in lost production, depending on the route ultimately selected by federal agencies.

It’s all part of the delicate balancing act as Idaho Power seeks greater flexibility to transfer electricity between the two regions, while considering impacts to agriculture, wildlife and other resources.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently unveiled its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project, known as Boardman to Hemingway, after four years of scoping and tracing numerous alternatives where the line could be located.

Officials with the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Energy hosted the first of seven open houses Monday in Boardman to gather input on the proposal and environmental report. About 40 people attended within the first hour, including farmers concerned about how the 500-kilovolt transmission line might affect their ability to raise high-value crops.

In some cases, growers worried the line would take whole fields entirely out of production. Craig Reeder, vice president of Hale Farms, said that’s left a number of operations “fighting for our lives.”

“The land is not replaceable,” said Reeder, who also serves as a board member for the Northeast Oregon Water Association. “We’re frustrated, but we’re optimistic people will wake up.”

Reeder pointed specifically to one variation of the proposal that would build transmission towers along the east side of Bombing Range Road. Given the project easements, Hale Farms stands to lose up to seven irrigated circles, he said.

At 125 acres per circle and $15,000 per acre, that’s more than $13 million in lost value.

“The cumulative effects are crippling to us,” Reeder said.

As proposed, the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line would begin at Portland General Electric’s Grassland Substation, under construction as part of a new natural gas-fired power plant near the existing Boardman Coal Plant. From there, the line crosses five Eastern Oregon counties before ending at a substation southwest of Boise.

The draft environmental report splits the project into six segments, with a range of alternatives in each segment. Each alternative is meant to mitigate effects to farmland, forests, endangered species and cultural resources.

Scott Whitesides, environmental planner with the BLM, said the primary concern in northeast Oregon is farming, which makes up a significant part of the local economy.

“Primarily, it’s about loss of acreage because (Idaho Power will) have that right-of-way,” Whitesides said.

The draft EIS is not a decision-making document, Whitesides said, and residents now have 90 days to weigh in before the cooperating agencies — which include the Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation — issue their final record of decision.

Earl Aylett, a farmer in both Morrow and Umatilla counties, said the project would interrupt agriculture immensely and questioned whether the line is actually needed.

“(The line) goes through a lot of land to get where it’s going, at very little benefit to the people where it goes through,” Aylett said. “It’s not something I want.”

Boardman to Hemingway was first identified in Idaho Power’s 2006 integrated resource plan as a means to alleviate constraints on existing transmission lines. The Columbia Basin and southern Idaho share power across the grid during times of peak demand, which alternate between winter and summer months, respectively.

The project is needed to ensure reliability of customers’ growing power demands, said manager Todd Adams, as well as keeping rates affordable. At the same time, he said the company sympathizes with farmers and will continue work to mitigate the burden placed on them.

“There’s been a lot of valid concern,” Adams said. “We know nobody appreciates a power line except the power company.”

The final EIS will included a preferred alternative that is the result of compromise between all agencies and affected landowners. Adams said they will push for a route that runs along the west side of Bombing Range Road, though that will take some negotiating with the U.S. Navy. The Grassland Substation alternative would also avoid any impacts to the Boardman Tree Farm.

Idaho Power hopes to have both state and federal permitting done as early as 2018, with the project up and running by 2020. Depending on the final route, it could cost between $880-$940 million.

Company spokeswoman Stephanie McCurdy said they are trying their best to make everyone happy, but in reality that’s a tall order to fill.

“People want the lights to come on when they flip the switch,” McCurdy said. “There have to be larger compromises in order to make that happen, and building a transmission line is one way to do it.”

The public has until March 19 to comment on the draft EIS. More information, including a schedule of project meetings and virtual open house, is available online at www.boardmantohemingway.com.

SALEM — Farm regulators in Oregon are on the verge of enacting regulations for growing hemp that some proponents of the crop claim are already outdated.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has been developing rules for industrial hemp since state lawmakers legalized its production in 2009 and the regulations are set to become effective in early February.

Supporters of hemp production testified in favor of implementing the rules during a Jan. 6 hearing in Salem but they said new legislation will be necessary to amend the industrial hemp law in light of recent changes, such as Oregon’s legalization of recreational marijuana.

Hemp is the same species as marijuana but contains much less of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. However, both remain illegal under federal law.

The main problem identified by hemp proponents is that Oregon law does not allow its seed to be used for anything but planting new crops, whereas seed oil for cosmetic and health food products is a highly lucrative component of hemp.

“You can’t leave the seed out of the mix,” said Jerry Norton of Salem, who plans to grow hemp and recruit other farmers to cultivate it.

Using hemp purely for its fiber — a raw material for textiles and other products — would generate much less profit, said Tim Pate, a hemp supporter from Portland.

“We are shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said. “We need to solve the seed problem.”

Limiting the use of hemp seeds for planting also doesn’t make sense due to advances in asexual reproduction methods, such as tissue culture propagation, said David Seber, who owns the Hemp Shield wood sealant company.

“There’s no reason to even deal with seed if one doesn’t want to anymore,” he said.

Provisions in the hemp rules that require the crop to contain less than 0.3 percent THC also lack purpose now that marijuana containing higher levels of the chemical will become legal in 2015, said Doug Fine, a hemp researcher from Mimbres, N.M.

“We’re in a different era now than when the regs were conceived,” he said. “There’s no reason for the belligerent, fearful tone.”

Farmers in Canada and Kentucky are eager to bolster their agricultural economies with hemp, so Oregon should not fall behind with inflexible rules, Fine said.

“Every state is going to take its own path,” he said. “We can’t wait one second to let Oregon farmers grow seed.”

Apart from geographic competition, biotech companies may take beneficial genetic traits from hemp and insert them into plants that aren’t as strictly regulated, said David Seber of Hemp Shield.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture initially approached the hemp rules with a “fat, dumb and happy” approach, planning to allow seeds to be used for multiple purposes other than planting, said Ron Pence, operations manager of the agency’s commodity inspection program.

However, attorneys with the Oregon Department of Justice interpreted the state law as prohibiting seed for any other uses, he said. “That’s the way the statute is written.”

Similarly, the 0.3 percent THC limit and other provisions were enacted by the state legislature and cannot be overruled by ODA, Pence said.

Even so, it’s likely that hemp supporter state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, will push to revise the law in the upcoming legislative session, Pence said. “I would expect changes to be made to the statute.”

ODA does not have an official agreement with the federal government to develop rules for hemp, but its goal has been to create rules that will be tolerated by federal officials, Pence said.

The agency is discussing the possibility of obtaining a permit from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to import hemp seeds from abroad, he said.

While it’s likely aspiring hemp growers already have available seed supplies, ODA’s regulations require them to disclose their source, Pence said.

Jerry Norton said he’s working with Oregon State University to get permission from DEA to bring in a low-THC variety of hemp seeds from Canada in time to plant this spring.

He also hopes the Oregon Legislature will clarify the law to allow the sale of hemp seeds for multiple uses.

“We’ve got to know what we can do with it after we grow it,” Norton said.

Federal agencies are seeking input on the plan for a new 305-mile electric transmission line from the Boardman area, to a substation southwest of Boise.

The Bureau of Land Management and other agencies are in the midst of an environmental review of the Idaho Power Company project, because roughly one-third of the transmission line would pass through federally managed public lands. In addition to the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation also manage land along the proposed route.

A draft environmental impact statement that the BLM released Dec. 19 includes suggestions for Idaho Power Company to alter the proposed route in three locations to minimize environmental impacts, in particular to avoid destruction of sage grouse habitat.

Officials in Oregon and other states have been expecting a decision in 2015 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on whether to list the bird under the Endangered Species Act, although recent a recent bill passed by Congress could delay that decision. Federal lawmakers attached a provision to a recent $1.1 trillion spending bill, in an attempt to prevent the Interior Department from spending any money on rules to protect the greater sage grouse and three related birds, The Associated Press reported.

The BLM also examined the potential impacts of the transmission line on agriculture, historical resources in the area such as the National Historic Oregon Trail and ongoing use of public lands by American Indian tribes.

The transmission line would add capacity for times of peak demand, and it is one of the transmission projects prioritized by the Obama administration to improve the power grid and allow for integration of more renewable energy sources, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

Although the White House wants to speed up permitting of transmission projects, the project still faces a lengthy approval process.

The Bureau of Land Management is accepting comments on the draft environmental report. The agency plans to analyze comments and prepare a final environmental document by early 2016. If the power company begins construction in 2018, it could complete the project by 2020.

Stephanie McCurdy, a communications specialist with Idaho Power Company, said the utility is simultaneously going through a process with the Oregon Department of Energy to gain approval for the project. The public will have an opportunity to comment in Oregon’s process once the utility has completed its application.

J.R. Cook, director of a group called the Northeast Oregon Water Association that represents water users in the area, said the route initially proposed by Idaho Power Company would not have much of an impact on irrigated agriculture in the area. But an alternative route proposed by federal agencies in the draft environmental document would cut through valuable agricultural land.

“It’s irreplaceable,” Cook said of irrigated farmland that would be affected. “We’ve stressed the fact you can relocate a line, and you can route around this ground.”

It could be difficult for farmers to convince federal agencies that the transmission line should follow a different route, because the transmission line cannot interfere with activities at the nearby Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman. However, Cook said he believes it is still possible to design a better option.

The public can comment on the draft environmental document until March 19, 2015.

For more information or to submit comments online, visit www.boardmantohemingway.com.

MADRAS, Ore. (AP) — A Central Oregon farmer has been killed by falling hay bales.

Jefferson County Sheriff Jim Adkins says the 76-year-old farmer was apparently moving the hay when several bales fell and pinned him against his tractor, likely suffocating him.

Adkins says the bales of alfalfa hay weighed 80 to 90 pounds.

KTVZ-TV says he was Harvey Ludwig Stickler, who farmed south of Madras.

Adkins says Stickler’s wife told deputies he was missing for about an hour when she went to look for him.

It was Central Oregon’s second hay-related farming fatality in about seven months.

In June, the Crook County sheriff’s office reported that 77-year-old Gordon Evan Stroebel of Prineville was killed when three bales of hay fell from the truck he was loading.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon agriculture officials are drafting rules that would allow industrial hemp farmers to plant crops this spring.

The Oregonian reports the state Department of Agriculture is holding a public hearing Tuesday in Salem on the draft rules.

Prospective producers said they’re happy the state is finally moving ahead with a hemp program, but they’re concerned about high licensing fees and restrictions.

They say industrial hemp can be used to make biofuel, food and paper products.

NYSSA, Ore. — U.S. onion prices have plummeted significantly from last year’s levels.

“The open market prices right now are below the cost of production. It’s making it pretty tough for growers right now,” said Oregon farmer Reid Saito.

Jumbo yellows are going for about $5 per 50-pound bag now, compared with $12 last year, said Kay Riley, manager of Snake River Produce in Nyssa. Medium yellows are fetching between $3.50-$4 per bag, compared with $10 last year.

“Demand has been a little on the lackluster side for about eight or nine months now,” Riley said.

Owyhee Produce General Manager Shay Myers said prices, on a per bag unit, are 20 to 30 percent below normal.

“These prices we’re seeing are definitely below the cost of production,” he said. “There’s just no money to be made off of onions right now.”

The price decline is the result of several negative factors, Myers said, including limited exports to Pacific Rim and Central American countries, where a lot of U.S. onions traditionally end up.

“They’re still being shipped to those countries but at a much, much slower pace,” he said.

Asian countries have an ample supply of onions this year and are importing less from the United States. When there are opportunities to export onions to those nations, it’s difficult to get them shipped because of the West Coast port slowdown, Myers said.

The Russian embargo on certain agricultural commodities is also a major factor, he added. Onions from the U.S. are not on the list of banned items, but onions from Europe are and a lot of those onions are ending up in nations that typically import a lot of U.S. onions.

Central American countries that are usually major customers of U.S. onions “are flooded with Dutch and Spanish onions right now,” Myers said.

The Treasure Valley area of Idaho and Eastern Oregon typically produces 1 billion pounds of yellow, red and white bulb onions a year, about 25 percent of the nation’s supply.

Plantings in the region were up 8 percent this year, Myers said. “Eight percent of 1 billion pounds ends up being a whole lot of extra onions.”

Freight rates are up 27 percent over last year on a cost-per-unit basis, Myers said, and just finding enough trucks has been a problem as well, Saito said.

Myers said all those factors have added up to a perfect storm when it comes to onion prices.

“It’s a multitude of factors that have come together at the same time,” he said. “Considering all those negative things that are happening right now, I’m glad to be where we’re at.”

Saito said growers are hoping things turn around in 2015.

“2015 is a new year and growers around here are pretty resilient,’ he said. “I think the majority of them will find a way to make it through this.”

Federal agencies are seeking input on the plan for a new 305-mile electric transmission line from the Boardman area, to a substation southwest of Boise.

The Bureau of Land Management and other agencies are in the midst of an environmental review of the Idaho Power Company project, because roughly one-third of the transmission line would pass through federally managed public lands. In addition to the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation also manage land along the proposed route.

A draft environmental impact statement that the BLM released Dec. 19 includes suggestions for Idaho Power Company to alter the proposed route in three locations to minimize environmental impacts, in particular to avoid destruction of sage grouse habitat.

Officials in Oregon and other states have been expecting a decision in 2015 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on whether to list the bird under the Endangered Species Act, although recent a recent bill passed by Congress could delay that decision. Federal lawmakers attached a provision to a recent $1.1 trillion spending bill, in an attempt to prevent the Interior Department from spending any money on rules to protect the greater sage grouse and three related birds, The Associated Press reported.

The BLM also examined the potential impacts of the transmission line on agriculture, historical resources in the area such as the National Historic Oregon Trail and ongoing use of public lands by American Indian tribes.

The transmission line would add capacity for times of peak demand, and it is one of the transmission projects prioritized by the Obama administration to improve the power grid and allow for integration of more renewable energy sources, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

Although the White House wants to speed up permitting of transmission projects, the project still faces a lengthy approval process.

The Bureau of Land Management is accepting comments on the draft environmental report. The agency plans to analyze comments and prepare a final environmental document by early 2016. If the power company begins construction in 2018, it could complete the project by 2020.

Stephanie McCurdy, a communications specialist with Idaho Power Company, said the utility is simultaneously going through a process with the Oregon Department of Energy to gain approval for the project. The public will have an opportunity to comment in Oregon’s process once the utility has completed its application.

J.R. Cook, director of a group called the Northeast Oregon Water Association that represents water users in the area, said the route initially proposed by Idaho Power Company would not have much of an impact on irrigated agriculture in the area. But an alternative route proposed by federal agencies in the draft environmental document would cut through valuable agricultural land.

“It’s irreplaceable,” Cook said of irrigated farmland that would be affected. “We’ve stressed the fact you can relocate a line, and you can route around this ground.”

It could be difficult for farmers to convince federal agencies that the transmission line should follow a different route, because the transmission line cannot interfere with activities at the nearby Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman. However, Cook said he believes it is still possible to design a better option.

The public can comment on the draft environmental document until March 19, 2015.

For more information or to submit comments online, visit www.boardmantohemingway.com.

If you go

Boardman to Hemingway transmission line open houses

When: Jan. 5, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Port of Morrow Riverfront Center, 2 Marine Drive, Boardman

When: Jan. 6, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Convention Center, 1601 Westgate, Pendleton

When: Jan. 7, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Blue Mountains Conference Center, 404 12th Street, La Grande

When: Jan. 8, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Best Western Sunridge Inn, 1 Sunridge Lane, Baker City

When: Jan. 9, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Durkee Community Hall, 28716 Old Highway 30, Durkee

When: Jan. 12, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Where: Four Rivers Cultural Center, 676 SW 5th Avenue, Ontario

A bird flu outbreak that has barred U.S. poultry from some overseas markets has apparently been contained to one southern Oregon backyard flock, Oregon Department of Agriculture spokesman Bruce Pokarney said Dec. 30.

“We feel very good. Nothing has spread from that site,” he said. “We’re pretty confident any danger of spreading from the original premises is over.”

A contagious and lethal avian influenza strain was confirmed Dec. 19 in a 100-bird flock in Winston in Douglas County. The highly pathogenic H5N8 virus killed 20 guinea fowl and two chickens.

It was the first outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu in U.S. poultry in a decade and came three days after the virus was confirmed in a wild duck and captive falcon in Washington.

Although the virus has not appeared in commercial flocks, several countries have restricted U.S. poultry imports.

“It’s been a catastrophe — that one backyard flock,” USA Poultry & Egg Export Council President Jim Sumner said Dec. 31. “It’s cost us a few hundred million dollars.”

Pokarney said the other birds in the Winston flock were euthanized, and the premises have been disinfected.

The owner had not been moving birds off his property, Pokarney said. “He wasn’t introducing the birds to anywhere else.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will continue checking other backyard flocks in the area for several more weeks, according to USDA spokeswoman Joelle Hayden.

South Korea, Thailand, South Africa and Russia have banned U.S. poultry and poultry products from their countries. Canada, Japan and Singapore have imposed restrictions on Oregon poultry. Hong Kong banned poultry and poultry products specifically from Douglas County.

Sumner said other countries have halted issuing import permits, effectively banning U.S. poultry.

South Korea alone imported U.S. raw poultry products worth $78 million between January and September of this year, according to the export council.

The USDA issued a statement Dec. 30 accusing countries of overreacting and ignoring “sound science.”

“Unfortunately, some countries have decided to place far more restrictive measures than necessary on U.S. poultry, including, in a few instances, bans on imports of all U.S. poultry and poultry products,” the USDA stated. “We disagree with these actions and are taking a number of steps to address them and help support the U.S. poultry industry.”

Avian influenza has not caused human health problems in the U.S. Health officials say infected birds are safe to consume if properly cooked.

Even if the outbreak is contained, there may be more trade restrictions coming, and bans could be in place for several months, Sumner said. “Some countries look for an excuse to stick it to us,” he said.

To guard against further outbreaks, agriculture officials have been urging backyard flock owners to keep wild birds away from their poultry.

The Winston guinea fowl and chickens ranged free outdoors on property with a pond and marsh. Officials suspect the domestic birds contracted the virus from migratory waterfowl.

A northern pintail duck found dead in December at Wiser Lake in Whatcom County in northwest Washington tested positive for highly pathogenic H5N2. A captive gyrfalcon fed wild duck shot at the same lake died and tested positive for highly pathogenic H5N8.

Washington Fish and Wildlife waterfowl section manager Don Kraege said more than 200 wild birds have been tested since then, but none had bird flu.

Officials plan to continue testing migrating waterfowl in northwest and southwest Washington for a few more weeks. The birds have largely stopped for the winter and won’t range far unless pushed south by harsh weather, Kraege said.

“We just have to wait and see the results from this to see where we go next,” he said.

Wild birds commonly carry avian influenza, but it’s rarely fatal to them. Even the wild duck that had the highly pathogenic virus, died of another disease.

Low pathogenic bird flu, less contagious and less deadly to poultry, is more common but still inspires trade restrictions.

New highly pathogenic bird flu cases continue to break out in Asia and Europe.

On Dec. 29, a Japanese broiler breeder farm reported a high mortality rate. Authorities quickly identified highly pathogenic H5N8 as the cause. Some 37,000 chickens were destroyed, according to the World Organization for Animal Health.

Other countries reporting highly pathogenic bird flu outbreaks this month are Italy, Vietnam, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, India and Canada.

Highly pathogenic H5N2, which shares gene segments with H5N8, has claimed 245,600 birds at 11 British Columbia commercial poultry farms in December. In addition, an 85-bird noncommercial flock of ducks, chickens, geese and turkeys was infected. The last outbreak was reported Dec. 19.

Oregon agriculture emerged from the recession to an era of good prices, high quality and expanding markets, but challenges over pesticide use and GMO crops dog the industry and will feature prominently in the 2015 Legislature.

In her annual in-house interview carried on the Oregon Department of Agriculture website, Director Katy Coba noted the narrow defeat in November of a measure that would have mandated labeling of products containing genetically engineered material. Although urban residents heavily supported the measure and rural farming regions opposed it, Coba said the issue shouldn’t be defined solely in terms of urban vs. rural.

The tight farming confines of the Willamette Valley complicate the issue, she said.

“Our diversity of crops makes this more challenging and there are also some geographic locations that have a mixture of small operations, medium operations, and large operations, organic, conventional, and genetically-engineered agriculture,” Coba said in an interview with department spokesman Bruce Pokarney.

“It’s that kind of mix on the production side that tends to create more potential challenges for co-existence. The Willamette Valley is a prime example. We have organic producers of all sizes, conventional producers of all sizes, and a growing number of genetically engineered producers all in the Willamette Valley with that diversity of product.

“Frankly, it’s a relatively small geographic area, which causes more pressure than, perhaps, you would find in Northeastern Oregon. The growing region of Morrow and Umatilla County has agricultural diversity, but because the acreage is much bigger, you have the potential to do more kinds of production practices that allow co-existence, including isolation distances.

“So we are struggling, frankly, in the Willamette Valley about how to embrace our philosophy of supporting all kinds of agriculture regardless of size, regardless of production practices. How do we go about doing that when you have such a mixture in a relatively small geographic area? We will continue to work on the issue in 2015.”

For the full interview,go to http://odanews.wpengine.com/oda-director-reflects-on-agriculture-at-years-end/

An audio version is available as well.

The USDA has cleared the way for cultivation of genetically modified tall fescue without conducting an environmental review of the new crop.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro company developed the glyphosate-resistant turfgrass variety with genes from other plants through a process known as “biolistics,” in which a “gene gun” essentially shoots DNA-coated metal particles into the plant cell.

Because the method does not involve the use of a plant pest for gene transfer, the USDA has no authority to regulate the tall fescue, according to a document recently released by the agency.

Controversial biotech crops that are also resistant to glyphosate herbicides — such as “Roundup Ready” alfalfa and sugar beets — were made using a soil pathogen, which required USDA to study the plants before deregulating them.

Scotts began to re-orient its biotechnology program after a regulated variety of genetically engineered creeping bentgrass escaped a field trial in Central Oregon in 2003, which eventually resulted in a $500,000 civil penalty from USDA.

Since then, the bentgrass cultivar has been stuck in regulatory limbo as the USDA has not approved it to be grown commercially without restrictions.

However, over the past four years the company has persuaded the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that several biotech varieties of Kentucky bluegrass and St. Augustinegrass did not come under its regulatory jurisdiction.

“They’re able to get around APHIS’ authority with their new techniques,” Carol Mallory-Smith, a weed science professor at Oregon State University.

Genetically modified tall fescue, which Scotts has also altered to grow “shorter, thicker and darker green,” is the latest grass crop to be cleared by USDA after Scotts notified the agency that it planned to begin field testing the variety.

Capital Press was unable to reach Scotts for comment, but some in the grass seed industry say the company’s activities have sparked concerns.

Resistance to glyphosate — while potentially convenient for homeowners — can turn grasses into troublesome weeds for farmers.

Naturally occurring resistance from repeated glyphosate spraying has already caused problems for Northwest hazelnut growers and farmers in the Midwest who use annual ryegrass as a cover crop, said Bryan Ostlund, administrator of the Oregon Tall Fescue Commission.

“There is concern about resistance in general in grass seed production,” Ostlund said.

Turf-type tall fescue is typically planted on golf courses and lawns and isn’t usually considered weedy, he said.

While Ostlund isn’t sure what Scotts has planned for its glyphosate-resistant grasses, he urged the company to “proceed with caution.”

Unlike Kentucky bluegrass, which largely produces seeds asexually, tall fescue is much more likely to cross-pollinate with other grasses of its variety, according to a breeder who declined to be named. “If it’s anywhere near any other tall fescue, it will outcross.”

While the potential for cross-pollination can be mitigated during commercial seed production, it would be much harder to control the biotech crop’s gene flow if it’s released to homeowners, the breeder said.

“It’s a perennial crop. It’s not going to die out,” the breeder said.

Export markets that object to biotech crops, such as Europe, are also unlikely to differentiate between Scotts’ biolistic glyphosate-resistant cultivar and other biotech crops that were made with plant pests and previously regulated by USDA, the breeder said.

“It’s still genetically modified. It’s still transgenic,” said Mallory-Smith of OSU.

For the new tall fescue to be a viable product, its resistance to glyphosate would have to be strong, she said.

For farmers, such resistance would mean switching to other herbicides or weed control methods if they want to remove the variety, Mallory-Smith said.

PENDLETON, Ore. — December has been a wetter-than-usual month around Pendleton, offering a glimpse of relief to the area’s parched farms and reservoirs.

Nearly 2.7 inches of precipitation fell since Dec. 1, which is 1.35 inches above average for the month. The storms also boosted mountain snowpack up to 74 percent of normal in the Umatilla Basin, compared to just 50 percent at the end of November.

That’s a welcome sign for wheat farmers who saw their harvest take a hit following a particularly dry spring. Pendleton had below-average precipitation every month between March and August, costing local growers about 2.5 million bushels against last year’s production.

The vast majority of wheat in Umatilla County is not irrigated, meaning farmers count on every drop of moisture from Mother Nature to retain in their soil. Jeff Newtson, a wheat and canola farmer near Helix, said the December rains are a nice start but there’s still plenty of catching up to do.

“We’re still at a pretty good deficit now, compared to past years,” Newtson said. “You’ll still have to have good rains in January, February and March to really make a difference.”

Overall temperatures are supposed to remain slightly above average heading into the new year, while precipitation is once again expected to dip below average, according to the National Weather Service in Pendleton. Hydrologist Marilyn Lohmann said the average highs in January are forecasted at about 45 degrees, and 30 degrees for the lows.

It is too early in the growing season to tell how much wheat will survive the winter, cautions farmer Tyson Raymond. Dry conditions made for poor stand quality when seeding began in September, and the moisture in deeper soils was already mediocre at best.

“It was incredibly dry going into fall,” Raymond said. “We’ll take the most moisture we can get.”

Meanwhile, the wet December has McKay Reservoir filled to 90 percent of average, versus just 52 percent at the end of November, said Mike Ladd, region manager for the Oregon Water Resources Department. It will be up to the spring rains and slow-melting snowpack to keep that momentum up through the season.

“It’s certainly a good start,” Ladd said. “I feel good about this. We want to see this trend continue.”

An alliance of sportsmen is leading the charge to make hunting and fishing a constitutional right in Oregon.

The Oregon Outdoor Council announced Thursday it will draft a ballot measure for the 2016 election that would guarantee the rights of all Oregonians to hunt, fish and trap under the state constitution.

Eighteen states have already amended their constitutions to protect hunting and fishing, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Dominic Aiello, president of the outdoor council, said they would like to see Oregon become the 19th.

“This has been a goal of ours since our inception in 2011,” Aiello said. “It would protect the lifestyle permanently.”

In past years, the council — which represents about 700,000 Oregon sportsmen — has worked with lawmakers in the Oregon Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus to push a “right to hunt” bill through the legislature. Both Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, and Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, are members of the caucus.

But like the council’s other major proposal to end a statewide ban on hunting cougars with hounds, Aiello said they failed to get so much as a hearing in the Senate. A ballot measure would instead take the issue directly to the voters.

Aiello is confident the public would support such an initiative. He cited a 2006 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that showed 78 percent of people support an individual’s right to harvest wildlife.

“It’s a way of life for us,” Aiello said. “(Hunting) is ingrained in our culture as Oregonians.”

The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife did not comment on the proposed ballot measure, and said it also does not take sides on legislation. Aiello said the initiative would not interfere with ODFW’s duty to regulate existing hunting, fishing and trapping laws, but would suppress the influence of special interest groups seeking to place further restrictions on sportsmen.

In particular, Aiello said they are concerned about a possible ban on lead ammunition. Lead ammo is believed to be a chief cause of lead poisoning among endangered California condors scavenging on the remains of game animals.

Hunters can buy bullets made out of brass and copper, but Aiello said those are more expensive and not available in all calibers. Removing lead bullets from shelves would lead to a further drop in hunter participation, he said.

“We’ve seen more and more restrictions put on sportsmen,” Aiello said. “We’re constantly having to defend our way of life.”

All together, hunting, fishing and trapping generated $929 million across the state in 2011, Aiello said.

The council plans to have its ballot language finalized by early 2015. From there, the petitioners will need 1,000 sponsorship signatures to get a ballot title from the state attorney general and move forward with additional signature gathering.

The sportsmen measure will need more than 117,577 signatures to make it onto the 2016 ballot.

AURORA, Ore. — Appearance and health are everything in landscaping and house plants, and Oregon’s $745 million nursery industry is particularly vulnerable to the mistakes of an untrained workforce.

Many nursery workers are Spanish-speaking immigrants with very little formal education, especially in science. Explaining what can happen within the “triangle” of host plant, invading pathogen and susceptible environment is a challenge.

Enter Luisa Santamaria, a Ph.D plant pathologist assigned to Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center. Part of her job takes her to Willamette Valley nurseries, where she trains workers to identify and treat plant diseases or, better yet, prevent them in the first place.

“The literacy of the people is not good,” Santamaria said. “They are smart people who want to learn, but they haven’t had the opportunity.”

Micro-biology, and the action of micro-organisms that can damage or kill nursery plants, are unfamiliar concepts to many of her workforce students.

To break through, she’s developed hands-on teaching techniques. She asks workers to take samples from their tools using cotton swabs, and apply the collected material to petri plates. Seeing the organisms that eventually grow as a result is an eye-opening experience.

“They love that,” Santamaria said. “They see they can spread disease from their tools. They understand the importance of cleaning tools.”

She said workers gain confidence as they grasp the science and recognize problems in the greenhouses. In some cases, workers may have hidden or disposed of sickly plants, fearing they would be blamed and lose their jobs, Santamaria said. With training, they take more of a front-line role in detection and treatment.

“If we have some problem, we have to know it immediately,” Santamaria said. “I introduce all those concepts to them.”

Santamaria’s work came under stronger focus recently when the USDA gave OSU a $3 million grant to battle two bacteria groups that cause severe damage to Oregon’s nursery industry. Santamaria is part of a six-person OSU team that will work on Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Rhodococcus fascians,which inflict deformities on hundreds of common landscaping plants. Deformities such as swollen tumors called galls don’t necessarily kill the host plants, but make them unmarketable for use in landscaping. The diseases are difficult to identify, in part because in early stages they sometimes mimic other problems. Crown galls can resemble a callous that forms at a grafting site. Another infection at first looks like the effect of using too much growth regulator.

Santamaria will handle the workforce training aspect of the grant. It’s a good fit for her, in part because it marks a full circle in her personal life.

Santamaria grew up in Ecuador, the oldest of seven children. Her father, Gerardo Santamaria, an agronomist with a forest engineering degree, had greenhouses at home and specialized in breeding cyclamens, perennial flowers that grow from tubers. Luisa was the only sibling who took interest in the greenhouse work, and worked with her father from an early age.

One of his jobs involved training workers, and he was pleased to see she was doing the same.

A beloved high school biology teacher — one who pushed her students and emphasized hands-on “active” learning — ignited Santamaria’s interest in micro-organisms. She excelled to the point that the USDA offered her a grant to study in the U.S. She studied and worked in Delaware and Tennessee before accepting the OSU Extension position in 2009.

Although the economic benefits of a better-educated nursery workforce might seem obvious, Santamaria said she occasionally runs into someone who gripes about the training being done in Spanish. “They should speak English,” one man told her.

Santamaria shakes off such criticism and pushes ahead. She wants to develop a manual to go with the training, and would like to see pesticide certification tests offered in Spanish as well. In the meantime, she works with nursery managers to customize training sessions.

“I love to teach,” she said.

Santamaria and her husband, Carlos Castellanos,have two grown children. Anna Sophia Castellanos and Juan Sebastian Castellanos.