KEIZER, Ore. — Dawn and Larry Monagon planted the first olive trees in Oregon in 2002, defying the conventional wisdom that the trees couldn’t survive north of California.

“We have a nice piece of property that can grow anything big or small, and it’s suited for experimental stuff,” Dawn Monagon said. “Someone mentioned olives, and my husband loves olives. So, we thought, Why not check it out?”

Despite being told by Californian olive growers that the crop would never survive in Oregon, the Monagons thought they’d give it a try.

“(We were told) they’ll never survive a winter. Well, surely they’ve done that. Some of our trees have been here for 20 years,” she said.

The Monagons established Victory Estates on their five acres, and began to produce and mill olive oil. Although Monagon said it’s been “impossible” since her husband died last year, she still plans on harvesting.

“Our (operation) is small and different than industrial ones. We wanted it to grow and be an industry that took off,” Monagon said. “We took pride in watching and seeing what worked and what didn’t.”

There are now 50 acres of olives for oil production in Oregon, and that number could soon multiply, with a project in the works to plant 200 acres, Bogdan Caceu, executive director of the Olive Growers of Oregon, said. He said he could not identify the growers planning the expansion.

“All I can say is it’s a larger player that has its fingers in a number of crops and also in the tourism industry,” Caceu said of the people planning the expansion. “They’ve done a very thorough and disciplined due diligence.”

The planting will be in either the Medford or Roseburg area, and data is being collected to see where the olives would grow best. Caceu said the final decision on the location will be made next spring.

Although a project of this size would barely make it on the radar in California or Spain, where olives are a major crop, Caceu said there is potential to take olive acreage to “much higher than 250 pretty quickly.”

“People come over and talk to me and say, ‘I’ve been thinking about olives and I have this many acres,’” he said. “I’ve had at least five to 40 (people) approach and show interest.”

While there is interest in growing olives, Caceu said one obstacle gets in the way — and it’s a big one.

“That obstacle is the cold-hardiness of olives and the cold temperatures in Oregon,” he said.

Oregon west of the Cascade Range is famous for its mild winters, Caceu said. However, there are regularly two to four nights of below-freezing temperatures each year. When that happens, young olive trees under 10 years old can suffer damage that kills them to the ground.

“It doesn’t damage the roots,” Caceu said, “but effectively you’re back down to zero, starting from scratch.”

Oregon State University researchers are trying to overcome this challenge by studying which olive tree cultivars are the most cold-hardy, and attempting to improve propagation techniques.

Javier Fernandez-Salvador, OSU Marion and Polk County Extension agent, leads the project with his team: Neil Bell, OSU Marion and Polk County Extension agent; Heather Stoven, OSU Yamhill County Extension agent; and Victoria Binning, OSU Marion County Extension agent.

Fernandez-Salvador describes the project as his “baby,” and said that they are looking at potting the cultivars  and keeping the trees in a greenhouse for the winter.

“We want to make an affordable, small structure for plants before moving them outside,” he said. “We think by potting we’ll get better results. We are trying to transform that into hard data.”

The project will also evaluate systems that haven’t been successful in the past, and will be planting small trees in fields as well.

“We expect a lot of cultivars not to survive,” Fernandez-Salvador said.

Beyond cold hardiness, the team will research other factors, such as dry farming versus irrigation and flat versus sloped land.

He said that because people have lost investments in the past the team wants to avoid recommending anything, but rather provide hard science to help growers decide if they want to plant the crop.

After this project, Fernandez-Salvador will apply for funding to evaluate the agronomics of growing olive trees. He said it’s hard to sell the crop fresh, and milling olives for oil provides added value.

Paul Durant of Red Ridge Farms in Dayton, ore., operates the state’s only commercial olive oil mill. He said olive oil is a niche product that works best sold directly to the consumer market.

“That drives more awareness and that’s where the growth will be,” he said. “The food industry here in the Northwest elevates the food experience and connects to growers. It is really limitless in a lot of ways.”

Monagon said she thinks the industry will continue to grow, and hopes she and her husband helped inspire people to start planting olive trees.

“I’d like to see a reason for farming to stay in Oregon, and if the olive industry can do that, that would be great,” she said.

Dawn Monagon

Experience: Grew up on a small farm and has been growing olives in her orchard for 15 years.

Hometown: Monmouth, Ore.

Education: She took classes and worked at Western Oregon University for several years. Her late husband, Larry, graduated from there.

Family: She and Larry Monagon had one son, Michael. Her extended family helps her run the olive orchard.

OREGON CITY — They’re using fitted sheets this year to cover their “punch down” vats and keep fruit flies off the “really young” Leon Millot wine beginning its fermentation process. The advantage over plastic coverings, co-owner Jan Wallinder said, is that the bedsheets can be washed and used again, of course.

That may sum up an overlooked facet of Oregon’s high-flying wine industry as the 2017 grape harvest is under way. For all the praise and prestige accompanying the Pinot noir producers of Yamhill County and elsewhere in the Willamette Valley, smaller and lesser-known vineyards are chugging along just fine.

Wallinder and her husband, Rob Webb, own and operate Forest Edge Vineyard south of Oregon City and about a half-hour drive out of Southeast Portland. They’re among 15 relatively small, independent operations that make up the Cascade Foothills Winegrowers on the east side of the Willamette Valley.

Forest Edge produces an average of about 500 cases a year and sells at an on-site tasting room, at farmers’ markets and on-line. You won’t find their wines at grocery stores, but as Webb said, “It keeps the two of us more than busy.”

For perspective, the Oregon Wine Board says the state’s wineries are primarily small to mid-sized family operations, and about 70 percent produce less than 5,000 cases a year.

The Cascade Mountain foothills is a slightly cooler growing region than the opposite side of the Willamette Valley, but producers such as Webb and Wallinder — like vintners in the Columbia Basin and Southern Oregon — tweak their operations to take advantage of what they have.

Forest Edge grows Pinot noir and Chardonnay grapes, but also the unusual Leon Millot variety, which produces a lighter red wine. They have some Gamay Noir grapes as well. They don’t make $45-bottle Pinot noir. Most of their wines sell for $11 to $14, with a port-style dessert wine going for $25. An $11 chilled wine that sold well over the summer was Forest Mist, a blush-like blend of Pinot noir and Chardonnay that they don’t make every year.

Wallinder and Webb bought the property in 1984 and do most of the vineyard and wine-making work themselves, including bottling and labeling. They use a “minimal prune” canopy management system that probably costs them some yield, but eases the work load. “It works for us,” Webb said. For many years they’ve employed members of an extended family — most of whom have regular full-time jobs or are students — to help pick the grapes.

Webb is the winemaker. He relies on sugar levels, called brix, plus acid and pH tests and his own taste buds, to know when its time to pick.

“My approach is, science on a need-to-know basis,” he joked.

The couple have 45 acres, most of it forested. Their house is a geodesic dome, they irrigate the grapes with captured rainwater and generate enough electricity with their solar system to sell it back to the grid, and produce more than they use.

Like all Oregon vineyards, Wallinder and Webb had to deal with a growing season that was marked by wild weather swings. An extraordinarily wet winter and spring was followed by a summer that was hotter and dryer than usual. Webb said they had to cut and drop some Pinot clusters due to sunburn. Then, to complete the cycle, came several days of cold rain in mid-September.

People involved in Oregon’s wine industry are eternally optimistic — even a bad year for grapes is likely to be described as providing a showcase for winemakers’ talents — but they appear pleased with the early take this year. “Looks like we’ll have another bumper crop,” said spokeswoman Michelle Kaufmann of Stoller Family Estate.

In 2016, Oregon’s winemakers increased sales 12 percent to $529 million, planted 2,400 more acres of grapes and opened 23 new wineries in 2016, according to an annual census commissioned by the Oregon Wine Board.

PORTLAND — Oregon’s push to use mass timbers in high-rise construction takes a political turn Oct. 3 when the Oregon Forest Resources Institute hosts a tour of wood building projects in the Portland area.

A dozen state legislators or staff, some county commissioners, building officials and others, including a U.S. Forest Service representative, have committed to a day-long look at what advocates say potentially could revive Oregon’s timber industry.

Products such as cross-laminated timbers and mass plywood panels have the size and strength to replace concrete and steel in modest high-rise construction. At least two Oregon mills are making the products, although the market is not fully established.

Timm Locke, forest products director for Oregon Forest Resources Institute, or OFRI, said the organization hosts an annual tour and usually focuses on harvest technology and timber management. This year, OFRI wanted to highlight the end use of timber products, he said.

Locke said policymakers generally appear to be aware of mass timber products, but may not understand their full potential use or the issues, including building codes and diminished timber harvest on federally-managed land, that slow implementation.

OFRI established by the Oregon Legislature to encourage collaboration between the timber industry, forest scientists, government agencies, conservation groups and forest landowners.

“Wood products in general is an industry that’s been around this state for a long time, and it’s still important to rural Oregon,” Locke said. Mass timber products are the only building materials that store carbon – unlike concrete and steel – and can safely be used to support multi-story buildings, he said. Buildings six- to 12-stories high can be supported by timber panels and beams, according to advocates.

Locke said legislators and others who influence policy and development also should know about the state’s TallWood Design Institute, housed at Oregon State University.

The institute is a collaboration between OSU’s colleges of forestry and engineering, and architectural faculty and students at the University of Oregon’s College of Design.

“It’s a huge benefit to the state,” Locke said. “I don’t think people understand what a big deal that is. We’re leading the way nationally in this movement.”

One of tour stops is the construction site of the First Tech Federal Credit Union in Hillsboro. Locke said it’s possible cross-laminated timbers will be lifted into place at that time, “Replacing what would have been poured concrete.”

An Oregon farmer faces a $6,000 penalty for planting willows into materials he placed next to a stream, which state regulators allege violated fill-removal laws.

Kelly Sampson, who grows hay and nursery stock on 80 acres near Canby, Ore., said he put hay bales onto rocks next to the creek to retain moisture for the young trees.

“My goal here is to do good things for fish,” he said.

Ordinarily, landowners don’t need a fill-removal permit from the Oregon Department of State Lands if they’re adding or removing less than 50 cubic yards of material in a waterway or wetland.

In this case, however, Milk Creek — a tributary of the Molalla River — is designated as “essential salmonid habitat,” so any amount of disturbance requires a permit, according to the agency.

“Planting vegetation into a bank doesn’t require a permit, but when you add substrate, you may need a permit,” said Lori Warner-Dickason, field operations manager for DSL.

A complaint received by DSL indicates that Sampson placed hay bales as well as “horse manure and barn cleanout” below the creek’s ordinary high water market, she said.

“I think his intent was probably to plant some willow cuttings, but he needed a permit to do that,” said Warner-Dickason.

Sampson said he’s disappointed by the potential enforcement action because the DSL’s website states that habitat restoration projects are exempt from fill-removal laws.

The agency doesn’t make it sufficiently clear that a permit may still be required under certain circumstances, he said.

“I feel like I’m getting hustled here,” Sampson said. “I’m planting willows and it’s like you’re talking to a drug dealer here.”

Vegetation along streambanks is often seen as having a positive impact on streams, since it cools the water to the benefit of sensitive fish.

However, whenever you’re working in or near a stream, it’s worthwhile to seek guidance from the Oregon Department of Agriculture, the local soil and water conservation district, or an Oregon State University Extension agent, said John Byers, manager of ODA’s agricultural water quality program.

“Natural resource agencies want to help citizens do the right thing,” Byers said.

For example, if the ODA requires a landowner to rectify a water quality problem with vegetation, the agency will develop a planting plan, he said.

“What should you grow here, and what should that look like,” Byers said of the plans.

Using hay bales or other materials may or may not be appropriate in certain situations, but such decisions should be made with the help of a professional, he said.

“There are standard practices, standard protocols for everything,” said Byers.

The Department of State Lands receives roughly 100 complaints a year about potential fill-removal law problems, with about half of those ultimately determined to be violations, said Warner-Dickason.

“There’s very few violations that are intentional,” she said.

Most violations pertain to filling of wetlands that landowners didn’t realize were classified as such, she said. About 10 percent of the violations relate to placing rocks or other materials along a stream bank.

Most fines are waived by the agency if the landowners are willing to remove the offending materials from the wetland or waterway, Warner-Dickason said.

If they’re able to remove some but not all of the material, then DSL will typically reduce the fine, she said. Otherwise, landowners can challenge the violation before an administrative judge.

Before conducting work in wetlands or waterways, landowners should consult with DSL and study agency maps that show where “essential salmonid habitat” is located, Warner-Dickason said.

“Give us call and we can advise them,” she said. “If they proceed without confirmation from us, they do so at their own risk.”

The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board is accepting applications to serve on the newly formed Oregon Agricultural Heritage Commission, established by the Legislature to provide incentives for farmers to voluntarily adopt practices that preserve both natural resources and agriculture.

The 12-member board will oversee the program and make funding and policy recommendations to OWEB. Applications are due Oct. 25.

Members are needed to represent a range of interests, including:

• Four members recommended by the state Board of Agriculture who are actively engaged in farming or ranching.

• One member recommended by the director of the Oregon State University Extension Service.

• Two members recommended by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission with expertise on fish and wildlife habitat.

• One member recommended by the Board of Agriculture with expertise in agricultural water quality.

• One member recommended by the Land Conservation and Development Commission with expertise in conservation easements and land transfers.

• One member selected by OWEB representing natural resource interests.

• One member selected by OWEB representing tribal interests.

• One non-voting member, who is also a member of OWEB.

Terms will initially vary in length in order to stagger membership, after which commissioners will serve four-year terms. Commissioners cannot serve more than two consecutive terms.

For more information or to obtain an application, contact Nellie McAdams at 503-986-0061 or email nellie.mcadams@oregon.gov.

BANDON - Kaleidoscope Play and Learn groups are facilitated playgroups for young children, age birth to 5, to attend with their parents, family member, or friend or neighbor care provider.

PORTLAND — The Pacific Northwest pear crop may pick out near the estimates for this year, says Kevin Moffitt, president of The Pear Bureau Northwest in Portland.

The crop appears to be slightly under the Aug. 22 estimate of 18.3 million, 44-pound boxes but still ahead of the June 1 estimate of 17.6 million boxes.

Harvest began Aug. 2 in Medford, with Comice and Seckel, and is about 60 percent complete. It will end in late October with d’Anjou in the upper reaches of the Hood River and Wenatchee valleys.

“I think Bartlett may come in a little shorter than estimated and winter pears (mainly d’Anjou) maybe slightly above estimate in Hood River and slightly below in Wenatchee. So we come out a little less overall,” Moffitt said.

This year’s crop being more normal in development timing made it a more difficult to get an accurate June forecast, he said. It was early the past two seasons.

Early prices are strong, overall quality is good and labor is tight with some growers needing more pickers.

California wrapped up harvest of slightly over 3 million, 36-pound boxes of pears, up 29 percent from last year due to better fruit set from better winter chill.

Early fruit from the Sacramento Delta was pretty small, more had to sell fresh because of fewer canneries and prices were low, said Kyle Persky, sales manager at Rivermaid Trading Co. in Lodi, California’s largest pear grower and packer. It handles more than half the fresh-pack volume.

But later fruit from the Mendocino District was larger and good quality bringing good prices, he said.

“Washington didn’t have as much large fruit, which gave us a window,” Persky said. “We lose more customers to the Northwest every year.”

The California crop is close to 80 percent shipped with several weeks of shipping over 200,000 boxes per week, “which is good for us,” Persky said.

“Overall, it’s a fairly decent season given expected supply and where we’re at now. We’re pretty happy. Movement was good and we have limited time to sell,” he said.

California is too warm to grow d’Anjou and doesn’t store fruit for winter sales.

In 2016, the value of utilized pear production was $233 million in Washington, $148 million in Oregon and $93 million in California.

At 18.3 million, this fall’s PNW crop is 2 percent above last year’s and 7 percent below the five-year average. It’s the fourth year in a row the crop has been lighter than average. Hot summers are suspected of causing greater spring fruit drop resulting in smaller crops.

The Bosc crop is estimated at 2.5 million boxes, down 19 percent from last year and down 16 percent from the five-year average, Moffitt said. He blamed it on being a bit more cyclical in bearing, heat stress and the overall lighter crop.

Overall fruit size may be slightly smaller, peaking at size 90 (90 pears per box) instead of 80, he said. There is probably a little more fancy grade versus U.S. No. 1, he said. Export markets prefer fancy and smaller fruit, he said.

Domestically, smaller fruit has been selling well in pouch bags, which is a bright spot, he said.

Cork — decay-causing dimples under the skin — is an issue in Wenatchee and Hood River, Moffitt said. Randy Arnold, a Wenatchee Valley grower, said he probably has a 2 to 3 percent cork loss and some growers have up to 6 percent. It’s a calcium deficiency in the soil and fruit, he said.

It’s more difficult to control pear psylla and mites without certain pesticides used in the past, Arnold said. That results in more unhealthy trees, which increases susceptibility to cork, he said.

Six of his annual 24 domestic pickers didn’t come this year because they knew his crop was down, he said. He’s OK on labor but his neighbor needs 14 more pickers than he has and others are operating with less-than-full crews, he said.

Arnold said prices are starting off about the same as last year, which is “really good.”

The Sept. 22 average of industry asking prices was $28 to $32 per box for size 70s, 80s and 90s of U.S. No. 1 Bartlett, according to USDA.

Those prices are good and steady, as are prices in the mid to upper teens on smaller fruit, size 110 and 120, said Scott Marboe, marketing director of Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers in Wenatchee. Oneonta sells about 2 million boxes of pears annually for Diamond Fruit in Odell, Ore., near Hood River.

Cork is not a big issue and California’s larger crop this year was slightly ahead of normal, which resulted in some California buyers switching to Northwest pears a couple weeks earlier, Marboe said.

Oregon’s hazelnut industry appears headed for turbulence as harvest begins, with domestic production projected to drop while global factors may weigh down prices.

Meanwhile, packers and growers haven’t been able to agree on an initial price for the crop, potentially requiring them to undergo mediation and arbitration.

Hazelnut production in Oregon — the foremost domestic producer — is forecast to be 36,000 tons in 2017, down 18 percent from last year, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Meanwhile, the global hazelnut crop is expected to increase 15 percent over 2016, said Terry Ross, executive director of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association, which negotiates with packers on behalf of growers.

“There’s downward pressure on the kernel market,” he said.

The Chinese New Year, a major holiday for in-shell hazelnut consumption, will begin late next year in mid-February, allowing buyers in China to procrastinate with their purchases, Ross said.

Generally, such delayed buying doesn’t bode well for strong in-shell hazelnut prices, he said.

Another unknown is how much increased Chinese hazelnut production will affect its appetite for Oregon’s crop, Ross said. “We don’t how big of an impact that’s going to have.”

Conflicting views about supply and demand in the hazelnut market have stalled efforts among growers and packers to agree on an initial price, Ross said.

Unless the deadlock is soon broken, it’s likely the parties will enter into mediation, he said. If that process fails, they’ll present their evidence to an arbitrator who will then determine the price.

The current impasse is “very unusual” in Oregon’s hazelnut industry, which hasn’t been forced to enter mediation or arbitration for roughly 35 to 40 years, Ross said.

“It could prolong (arriving at an initial price) by two weeks to a month, maybe more,” he said.

The diverging opinions on hazelnut market conditions could be due to some packers having more inventory leftover from last year than normal, said Jeff Fox, CEO of the Hazelnut Growers of Oregon cooperative.

Last year, packers paid an initial price of $1.18 per pound of hazelnuts, and the final price ended up at $1.24 per pound.

Fox said he expected a similar initial price in 2017 but some packers are proposing a per-pound price in the range of 90 cents.

“We haven’t seen those kinds of prices in about six years,” he said.

Due to the large kernel crop in Turkey, the world’s predominant hazelnut grower, a price reduction would help domestic packers to be more globally competitive, he said.

The push for a lower price is unfortunate, though, since rising prices have inspired Oregon farmers to invest heavily in planting more hazelnut trees recently, Fox said.

“I was really happy with that trend and would like to see that continue,” he said.

As for the 18 percent decrease in Oregon’s hazelnut production, farmers attribute the change to “our normal ups and downs,” said Jeff Newton, a grower near Amity, Ore.

Growth was hindered in spring by cold, wet weather, which impaired flower retention and slowed the development of nuts, he said.

Periods of high heat during summer caused moisture stress, which also brought yields down, said Bruce Chapin, a farmer near Salem, Ore.

A “blow up” of Eastern Filbert Blight, a fungal disease, two years ago prompted heavy pruning in hazelnut orchards, which has temporarily lowered production as well, he said.

Despite the expansion of hazelnut orchards in recent years, those young trees aren’t yet mature enough to substantially affect Oregon’s overall production, Chapin said.

It’s probably going to take another couple years before the impact of new plantings is significantly felt, Chapin said. “We haven’t yet seen a big increase, obviously.”

HILLSBORO, Ore. — Money from a successful 2016 tax levy for the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District will allow Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom to expand in Washington County.

“We are so pleased with this opportunity for agricultural education to reach some of the most urban schools in our state,” said Tammy Dennee, president of the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation, in a press release.

Washington County is the second most populous county the state, behind Multnomah County, with over 250 schools.

“We work to reach urban audiences who typically have the least interaction with agriculture,” Jessica Jansen, executive director of Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom, said. “This expansion is huge for the program and the urban area of our state. Washington County has agriculture industry in it already. It’s a unique urban and rural blend, and an easy position to bridge.”

In November 2016, Washington County voters approved a tax levy to secure funding for an expansion of resources provided by Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District. Education was “a high priority for development with funding from the tax base,” John McDonald, chairman of the district, said.

“When we learned about Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom and the great work that they are already doing, we thought a full-time position and programming dedicated to Washington County would be a great way to leverage existing resources and make an impact in our local schools,” McDonald said.

Jansen said the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation is appreciative of their partnership with the district, as well as for putting its trust in the program.

The funding from the district will sponsor a full-time position, as well as funding for a lending library available to Washington County teachers.

Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom is a statewide nonprofit organization that provides resources for educators to help bring agriculture, the environment and natural resource topics into their classrooms.

The program has about 100 lessons on its website, and uses a hands-on approach to integrate agricultural topics into the existing curriculum.

Dennee said that it’s important to not add “one more thing” for the educators to teach, but rather provide the tools to make the topics more engaging and effective.

“We use agriculture as a lens to teach science or math,” Jansen said. “Science is a natural fit for agricultural topics.”

She used an example of talking to students about the changes in matter through making ice cream or butter.

“We want to provide teachers with a resource to help them inspire students and make learning fun for students,” Jansen said. “That’s our ultimate goal: To help bring class to life in a fun and unique way and help students become familiar with agriculture. We find after familiarization it becomes interesting and engaging, and lends itself well to starting conversations.”

Regular commuters on Interstate 84 started their week with a return to normal driving routines. 

The Oregon Department of Transportation opened the eastbound lanes of I-84 Saturday afternoon. A portion of the highway from Troutdale to Hood River had been closed since Labor Day because of the Eagle Creek Fire burning in the Columbia River Gorge.

Fire activity continues near Shellrock Mountain and ODOT is diverting eastbound traffic onto westbound lanes near milepost 52.

The highway reopening was big news for Mark Stoffer, an electrician who lives in Corbett, Oregon, and commutes to work in The Dalles. He has spent the past three weeks waking up at 3 a.m. and says his daily drive of about an hour had more than doubled during the highway closure.

“It was just really eating away at your regular routine and daily life,” Stoffer said.

On Monday morning, he was happy to finally set his alarm clock for the usual time.

“It’s like a breath of fresh air,” he said. “Even a lot of the guys that were coming through [Washington] Highway 14, they were all happy.  Because everyone was just getting really tired last week. That extra time in the morning really eats away at you.”

ODOT is still monitoring the highway and warns the rainy season puts the burned area at high risk of landslides.

Meanwhile, four Columbia River Gorge State Parks have reopened. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department announced Dabney State Recreation Area, Portland Women’s Forum State Scenic Viewpoint, Rooster Rock State Park and Starvation Creek State Park suffered no major damage in the fire. 

“We’re grateful that Vista House still stands as well as other iconic features well-loved by Oregonians and visitors to our state,” said Park Manager Clay Courtright, with the West Gorge Management Unit.

As of Monday morning, the Eagle Creek Fire has burned 48,668 acres and is 46 percent contained. Fire officials estimate the fire will be fully contained by Sept. 30.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — State officials are asking for the public’s help to find the person responsible for the unlawful taking and wasting of a bull elk in eastern Oregon.

The Oregon State Police say on Saturday morning Oregon Police Fish and Wildlife troopers were notified of a dead bull elk on the Silvies Valley Ranch property in Harney County.

Police say a ranch employee discovered the bull elk near Buffalo Reservoir. Police say a trooper found that the bull appeared to have been shot with a high-powered rifle during archery season.

Police say the bull was left to waste and was possibly shot a day or two before being discovered.

The ranch is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — Slowing growth in the craft brewing industry has contributed to a greater stockpile of hops in the Yakima Valley, which grows the vast majority of that key ingredient in beer.

As of Sept. 1, growers, suppliers and brewers had an estimated stockpile of 98 million pounds of hops, an increase of 15 percent from the same period in 2016.

That’s according to figures released last week from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The Yakima Herald-Republic says industry officials say a lot of breweries purchased hops based on 15 to 18 percent growth rates, which have been the norm. But last year there was just 5 to 6 percent craft brewery growth.

Craft brewers are defined as those who make under 6 million barrels of beer.

Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences is working on a project that will help some Houston residents determine if they’ve been exposed to chemicals stirred up by Hurricane Harvey.

An OSU team traveled to Houston in mid-September and distributed three dozen silicone wristbands that absorb chemical molecules. Project volunteers were to wear them for seven days and then mail them back to OSU for analysis. They’ll receive back an individualized chemical exposure report plus an aggregated report of the Houston results.

Kim Anderson, an OSU professor in the College of Ag’s Environmental and Molecular Toxicology Department, cautioned against reading too much into the analysis.

“It’s not a health report,” she said. “It’s a report of chemicals in the wristband.”

The porous wristbands can sample more than 1,500 organic chemicals, including pesticides and hydrocarbon from wood or fossil fuel combustion, and benzene and toluene found in industrial solvents. They don’t pick up inorganic material such as carbon monoxide, lead or chromium, however.

In recent years, the wristbands have been used to study pesticide exposure among farmworkers and producers in the Southeast, California and Peru, Anderson said. Those studies are continuing.

Hurricane Harvey, however, provided a unique opportunity to measure chemical exposure. Houston has 13 “Superfund” cleanup sites, plus oil refineries and other industries that may have been swamped to some degree by the massive amount of rain dumped during the storm. Residents may have been exposed to chemicals washed out by flooding or in the air, especially as people were involved in cleanup work. But the impact of that is unclear.

“We hear it’s a toxic soup, but we don’t have data to say it’s a toxic soup,” Anderson said. “What are the exposures?”

The public believes chemicals are all tested for toxicity, but most have never been tested, she said. Beyond pesticides, most chemicals don’t have regulatory exposure limits assigned to them.

OSU’s department of environmental and molecular toxicology is collaborating with Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas on the project.

“Community members were asking for some way to measure their chemical exposure after the flooding from Harvey,” Anderson said in an OSU news release. “We were all geared up and ready to go, so we offered to come down, and they said, ‘Yes, please.’”

Anderson and OSU colleagues Peter Hoffman, Lane Tidwell and Holly Dixon flew to Houston Sept. 19 and distributed wristbands after explaining the project at a community meeting held near some of the Superfund sites.

Online

A video explaining the chemical-detecting wristbands developed by OSU

http://fses.oregonstate.edu/wristbands

Wednesday, Sept. 27

The Oregon Court of Appeals has affirmed that a prohibition against genetically engineered crops in Josephine County is pre-empted by state law.

Voters in Josephine County approved the ban in 2014, nearly a year after state lawmakers passed a bill barring local governments from regulating genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

Farmers Robert and Shelley Ann White, who wanted to plant biotech sugar beets, convinced Josephine County Circuit Judge Pat Wolke that the local GMO ban was unlawful in 2016.

Oregonians for Safe Farms and Families, a nonprofit, and Siskiyou Seeds, an organic farm, intervened in that case as defendants, allowing them to challenge Wolke’s decision before the Oregon Court of Appeals.

The appeals court has now upheld the ruling without comment, but GMO critics vow to continue the battle in the legislative arena.

“We’re still firm in our resolve to protect farmers in Josephine County,” said Mary Middleton, executive director of Oregonians for Safe Farms and Families. “We’re not giving up, we’re not giving in.”

Middleton said her organization has decided not to pursue further litigation but will instead focus on persuading lawmakers to invalidate the pre-emption statute or otherwise allow Josephine County’s ordinance to be enforced.

“The will of the people is being ignored,” she said.

When passing the GMO pre-emption bill, lawmakers vowed to create a statewide system for overseeing GMOs, but instead they have left a “regulatory void,” Middleton said.

The Oregon Legislature passed the pre-emption bill to avoid a county-by-county patchwork of restrictions for genetically engineered crops, said Scott Dahlman, policy director for Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an agribusiness group that opposed the GMO ban.

“We think the legislature has spoken very clearly on this issue,” he said. “Farmers should be allowed to choose what crops they grow.”

Repeated attempts to overturn the pre-emption law have been made since it was originally enacted in 2013, but none have gained much traction, Dahlman said.

Because the Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed Wolke’s ruling without opinion, the ruling doesn’t set a binding precedent that other courts must follow, said John DiLorenzo, attorney for the Whites.

However, the decision is likely to be “persuasive” if the pre-emption issue should arise in other counties, since existing case law would support the same outcome, DiLorenzo said.

“They don’t need further precedents. They’ve already got several,” he said.

Josephine County’s experience will probably dissuade similar ballot initiatives in other jurisdictions, since the legal arguments defending the GMO ban did not pass legal muster, DiLorenzo said.

“I think it would be very difficult to persuade anyone to put resources into an initiative that’s destined to be a fool’s errand,” he said.

A misty rain fell on a recent Wednesday morning in the Blue Mountains east of Pendleton, where Greg Rimbach drove the muddy forest roads scanning for wolf tracks.

“Once you see one, now you’re an expert,” said Rimbach, district wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “When they want to go somewhere, they like walking along roads down ridges. It’s just easier.”

Since wolves dispersed from Idaho and returned to northeast Oregon in the late 1990s, more of the predators are settling and forming packs in the Walla Walla and Mount Emily wildlife units. The district is now home to seven packs or groups of wolves totaling at least 36 animals — nearly one-third of the state’s known wolf population.

Rimbach figures he spends a quarter of his workdays managing wolves, from trapping and collaring to investigating claims of livestock predation. His latest project involves finding and re-collaring OR-11, a male wolf from the Walla Walla pack that initially split to form the Mount Emily pack, and has split once again and paired up with a new mate at the south end of the Mount Emily Unit.

The trajectory of increased wolf activity comes as no surprise to Rimbach.

“This is absolutely what we expected,” he said. “It certainly is tracking with what other states have seen.”

The presence of wolves, however, remains a polarizing issue as ranchers content with livestock losses. Most recently, ODFW determined the Meacham pack was responsible for attacking cattle four times in eight days last month on the same 4,000-acre private pasture owned by Cunningham Sheep Company.

Predations occurred less than a mile from Interstate 84, and two miles from the community of Meacham. In response, ODFW issued a limited duration wolf kill permit, allowing Cunningham Sheep to shoot two adult or sub-adult wolves on sight within the densely forested pasture.

One of the wolves, a non-breeding female, was shot Sept. 7. The action sparked a wave of anger on both sides of the debate, with environmental groups criticizing ODFW for allowing any wolves to be killed and the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association arguing the entire pack should be removed.

Wolf-livestock conflicts were anticipated when wolves reentered Oregon, Rimbach said. That is why ranchers and environmentalists were both included at the table when the state wrote its Wolf Management and Conservation Plan, to balance conservation with protection of livestock.

“This is exactly what came out on the back end of those discussions,” Rimbach said.

ODFW is still in the process of revising the plan, which it hopes to present back to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission by December or early 2018.

Personally, Rimbach said he sees wolves as another part of the local ecosystem that needs to be managed.

“Hopefully someday, we can start normalizing wolves into our fauna,” he said.

When wolves do prey on livestock, the state has a mechanism to compensate ranchers for their losses.

The Oregon Wolf Depredation Compensation and Financial Assistance Grant Program is administered by the state Department of Agriculture with funds allocated by the Legislature, distributed to counties and awarded to producers.

Jerry Baker, a part-time wildlife biologist who lives in Athena, serves as chairman of the Umatilla County Wolf Depredation Advisory Committee. He said the group meets two or three times a year to apply for funding and consider requests for compensation.

“We know (wolves) are here,” Baker said. “We’re trying to deal with them.”

In February, the committee awarded nearly $50,000 in state money to ranchers for livestock compensation, including non-lethal deterrents for hazing wolves away from their property. Baker said the committee will meet again sometime in November or December, and has received about a half-dozen requests so far this summer.

In the case of Cunningham Sheep, the company satisfied its requirements for non-lethal deterrence prior to asking for lethal control, according to ODFW. That includes removing dead or weakened animals from their herd that may attract wolves, and hiring a range rider five days a week to monitor the pasture.

“We’ve had depredations before,” Rimbach said. “For whatever reason, it really ramped up this year.”

Cunningham Sheep would normally graze cattle on the pasture until October. Instead, the company is rounding up the animals to move to another location. It also gave up using its adjacent sheep allotment two years ago to avoid wolf conflicts.

Larry Givens, Umatilla County commissioner and liaison to the wolf compensation committee, said he sympathizes with ranchers, and will continue to lobby Salem for greater support.

“That’s a tremendous financial loss to these folks,” Givens said. “We know we can’t just go out and get rid of the wolves. So we have to have a way to mitigate those losses.”

Driving along Summit Road near Fox Prairie, Rimbach can point in the direction of multiple areas of wolf activity within just a few miles.

The Meacham pack can be found four or five miles to the west. OR-11 — the Walla Walla pack disperser — is now about four miles to the north with a new mate. To the south is OR-52, recently paired up with a mate outside the Union County town of Perry.

The Blue Mountains is a popular spot for outdoor recreation, and Rimbach insists wolves do not change that dynamic. Wolves tend to avoid humans, he said, and locals should not have any concerns for safety.

“The chance of people having any adverse effect with wolves is almost zero,” he said. “They might sit on their haunches and watch as you walk by, but that’s about it.”

Rimbach did caution against letting dogs run off leash in wolf territory, as the predators do become territorial with other canines. As for folks who live in the area, the presence of wolves is nothing new.

“I don’t think it’s a big surprise to the few people who live there year-round,” he said. “They’ll see wolf tracks there. They’ve been seeing those for five years.”

If the latest documented wolf pairings become full-fledged packs, Rimbach said he could see where wolves in the district start running out of room to function, and the population naturally begin to level off.

Baker said he believes wolves have fared better in the area than anybody expected, and he is interested in seeing how they affect the local ecosystem in the coming years.

“We’re going to have to work together on this, all of us, to try and make the best situation we can,” Baker said. “Because (wolves) are here to stay. No doubt about it.”

He still gets chills recalling the first time Oregon wolves answered him.

It was mid-July, 2008, near the Wallowa-Union County line in the northeast corner of the state. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife knew wolves would eventually disperse from Idaho and had prepared a management plan. Wildlife biologist Russ Morgan, appointed to implement the plan, was checking to see if they had arrived.

Over weeks, on intermittent nights, he and Chase Brown, then an intern and now an ODFW wildlife unit manager, drove dirt logging roads in the Wenaha Unit. They’d stop, get out, howl, and listen for replies. Wait five minutes, howl again, listen, move on. For weeks, nothing.

But that night, as they turned to get back in their vehicle, came the long and low response of a male wolf somewhere in the darkness, within a couple hundred yards. The men returned to the spot an hour later and tried again.

This time a wondrous chorus of howls rose in the night, adults and pups answering from the all about them in the forest. They were in the middle of what came to be known as the Wenaha Pack.

Wolf howls have always had that effect on Morgan. “I’d almost rather hear a wolf howl than see one,” he said.

The chorus of argument, claim and accusation erupting from some rural livestock producers and from some urban environmentalists, however, is something he could have done without.

“Wolf management is the ultimate balancing act, there are extremes on both sides,” Morgan said. “I always viewed my job as trying to walk down that middle line.”

He calls himself an “advocate of thoughtful management,” which comes with the recognition that every wolf decision is going to be controversial to someone.

“I got a lot of arrows lobbed my way,” he said.

People often told him to not take criticism and scrutiny personally, but he couldn’t help it. Being a wildlife biologist wasn’t a job to him and others, it was a lifestyle.

“Everything I do I take as a success or a failure, and it made it very stressful,” he said. “You wake up in the middle of the night with the wheels going. When we have to do things like kill wolves, that’s a personal thing for a lot of people. One thing I will gladly shed is having that responsibility and having that load.”

Carter Niemeyer, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who Morgan considers a mentor and friend, said the work is emotionally draining.

“This wolf stuff can eat you alive if you let it,” said Niemeyer, who lives in Boise and oversaw or consulted on wolf recovery work throughout the West, including Idaho.

Morgan, he said, was a “natural self-starter” who was cool, calm, collected and self-confident. Morgan asked for advice and training, and prepped himself every step of the way, Niemeyer said.

“I’m very proud of Russ,” he said. “I think he’s the ultimate professional, without a doubt.”

Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, one of the chief protagonists in the wolf debate, said Morgan was “thoughtful, gracious and sincere.”

“He worked hard to find common ground on the wolf plan, which is very contentious in Oregon,” Rosa said by email. “The collaborative process is often very difficult and yet Russ navigated it quite successfully.”

Steve Pedery, conservation director for Oregon Wild, a Portland-based group usually on the opposite side of wolf issues, had a similar response.

“We have not always agreed with him, but Russ has always been a person of tremendous integrity and commitment to conservation,” he said by email.

He said Morgan’s retirement is a major reason why Oregon’s wolf plan needs a clearer set of rules.

“Without Russ, it is hard to trust ODFW to do the right thing when they come under pressure from livestock interests or anti-wildlife politicians.”

Morgan said it helped immensely that Oregon had a management plan in place when wolves arrived.

“I can’t imagine coming into this job without a wolf plan,” he said. “It gave me the ability to have the backbone of a program already. The wolves came and we put meat on it.”

Morgan said he purposefully announced the department intended to implement the plan. The simple clarity of the statement was crucial.

“The people who wrote the plan did it before we had wolves,” he said. “That’s why this wolf plan is important. Wolves are not that complex, but it becomes our agreement with the public.”

Morgan said that stance was backed or at least accepted by the majority of the public, the stakeholder groups, the department and up through the governor’s office.

“I’m very proud of that, we kept things on track,” he said. “Maybe I’m most proud of following through to do what we said we were going to do.”

At Morgan’s last appearance before the ODFW Commission on Sept. 15, members praised his work. Commissioner Gregory Wolley, from Portland, said constituents and stakeholders agreed.

“They recognize what a tough spot you’ve been in,” he told Morgan. “What I’ve found is respect for your professionalism and objectivity. That reflects on the whole department and on all of us.”

Morgan certainly will miss work. He loved catching and collaring wolves, either by darting them from a helicopter or drugging them with an 8-foot injector pole after they’d been caught in a foot-hold trap.

He counts three favorites.

OR-2 was the first female wolf he captured, and she had previously been captured and tagged in Idaho, where she was known as B300, by his mentor, Niemeyer. Morgan called him and said, “Carter, I think we’ve got one of your wolves here.”

OR-3, a large black male, was “The prettiest wolf I ever saw,” Morgan said.

But his favorite, and the most impressive, was OR-4, the longtime “alpha” or breeding male of the infamous livestock-killing Imnaha Pack of Wallowa County. Among OR-4’s progeny is OR-7, which dispersed into Northern California after a criss-cross journey across Oregon from Wallowa County, then returned to the Southern Oregon Cascades to establish a pack of his own.

OR-4, his longtime, limping mate and two sub-adult wolves were shot and killed by ODFW staff — not Morgan — in 2016 after a series of livestock attacks. OR-4 was 9- or 10-years-old by then, old for a wolf in the wild.

“We caught that wolf four times, five times, in his lifetime,” Morgan said. “All the predations — that guy was an incredible wolf, and his skill is what ultimately ended him.”

Much of what the department knows about non-lethal ways to deter wolves, it learned because of OR-4, Morgan said.

“OR-4 and the Imnaha Pack,” he said. “That single wolf and the pack he was in charge of occupied 90 percent of our time and resources for many years. I admired that wolf.”

Russ Morgan

Occupation: Retiring coordinator of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s wolf program. Roblyn Brown has been appointed interim coordinator; a formal hiring process will occur.

Personal: Age 54; lives in La Grande, Ore., with wife Dana Reid, a fire management specialist with the U.S. Forest Service. Two grown sons, Seth and Cole. Enjoys bow hunting, hiking, birding and photography.

Career path: Grew up in Bend, Ore., earned a wildlife science degree at Oregon State University. Started with a seasonal position at ODFW and worked for the department 31 years at a series of regional offices. Spent the last 10 as wolf program coordinator.

Demands of the job: Every wolf decision potentially angers one side or the other, ranchers or environmentalists. “I’ve said a million times, wolves are the only species I’ve ever worked with where there’s more misinformation available than factual information. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s almost like an intentional misinformation campaign.”

On wolves and livestock predation: “There are some people who like to think maybe we can just get wolves to change their minds, but that goes against what a wolf is. It’s a predator first; as long as something is made of meat, there’s going to be take.

“We always think there must be something that can just stop this, but predatory behavior is exactly why wolves exist.”

Now it can be told: He admires wolves and likes bears, but birds are his favorite animal.

The long view: “I really believe wolves will become kind of a normal and expected part of Oregon’s fauna again. They were once, and will be again. But there will always be conflict.”

AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho — Farmer Kamren Koompin said quality testing by his potato processor, Lamb Weston, consistently confirms Umatilla Russets make the best McDonald’s french fries, and growers willing to raise the variety are paid a slight premium.

But Koompin has found many growers in his area have given up on Umatillas, having failed to keep their vines alive long enough to yield crops with good size profiles.

Koompin — who raised his best Umatillas ever this season — believes he’s finally found effective Umatilla management guidelines for producing large tubers. Umatillas should be his most profitable russet variety this season. He also convinced some of his neighbors to give the variety another try.

According to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the number of Umatilla acres has increased slightly in Idaho, from 2.1 percent of the state’s total spud crop in 2016 to 2.9 percent of the crop this season. Umatillas comprised 14 percent of Washington’s planted acres this season, and 13.1 percent of Oregon’s potato acres.

“Out of the original ones who started growing them in the American Falls area, we were the only ones that kind of stuck with it, and then a few others jumped back in,” Koompin said.

Before the 2015 season, Koompin managed his Umatillas similar to Russet Burbanks. Then a crop adviser showed him management guidelines developed by Washington State University potato specialist Mark Pavek for raising Umatillas in the Columbia Basin. According to Pavek’s recommendation, the variety needs 400 pounds of nitrogen per acre, with two-thirds of the fertilizer applied in the early season. Russet Burbank, by comparison, requires just 360 pounds, which is insufficient for maintaining good vine health in Umatillas.

Koompin said he tweaked Pavek’s guidelines based on Idaho’s shorter growing season, but believes his size-profile problems have become a thing of the past.

Pavek said his father, Joseph, made the initial cross for Umatilla in 1982 at University of Idaho’s Aberdeen Research and Extension Center, and it was released in 1998 by the Tri-State Potato Breeding Program. Pavek made his first Umatilla management guidelines in 2008 and updated them from 2010 through 2012, specifically increasing the nitrogen requirements.

However, Idaho farmers have been slow to learn of the changes and implement them in their fields.

Rupert farmer Duane Grant, who has been raising Umatillas four years, learned of the guidelines two seasons ago, while attending a WSU potato school. After struggling with Umatillas in his first two seasons, Grant said he has been “reasonably happy” with them since changing his nitrogen rates.

“I think there’s been a lot of bad experiences with Umatillas,” Grant said. “People try to raise them like a Burbank.”

Pavek said his Umatilla guidelines are available online at the Potato Variety Management Institute website, PVMI.org. In July, PVMI also posted his nitrogen-management guidelines for 15 varieties, including Umatillas. Pavek, however, acknowledges agricultural extension programs must do a better job of using modern media to quickly disseminate information to the industry.

Pavek believes raising Umatillas is “an art,” requiring careful attention to irrigation, fertilizer and planting depth. It’s also sensitive to white mold, black dot and early vine death. Though Pavek acknowledges it’s a “bit dangerous to grow,” he said farmers who produce good Umatilla crops are rewarded with better returns.

“This year, we’re seeing very large yields with Umatillas because the vines stayed alive,” Pavek said.

PULLMAN, Wash. — Amazon maybe heading for a food price war with its acquisition of Whole Foods, and initial cuts have targeted the organic produce sector that’s becoming more important to the Washington tree fruit industry, an industry expert says.

Seattle-based online giant Amazon closed a $13.7 billion deal Aug. 28 to buy Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market Inc. and the same day cut prices of bananas 38 percent, organic baby kale 12 percent and tilapia 33 percent. In a news release, Amazon said its vision is to make “Whole Foods Market’s high-quality, natural and organic food affordable for everyone.”

“The big problem for competitors is Amazon doesn’t appear to be worried about debt. It’s stock is $1,000 a share and keeps rising and as long as it does they can borrow from all sorts of markets,” said Desmond O’Rourke, retired Washington State University agricultural economist and world apple analyst in Pullman.

What items Whole Foods carries is being decided centrally instead of locally and brand representatives no longer may promote products or check displays in-store, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Brooke Buchanan, a Whole Foods spokeswoman, had no comment on whether there will be price wars. She said Whole Foods will continue to discover and sell local products while selecting the best national products possible.

“This improves the customer experience and also ensures local supplier are represented in categories where they will be successful and positioned for growth,” Buchanan said.

With 460 Whole Foods stores, Amazon is estimated to be the fifth-largest grocery retailer in the country behind Walmart, Kroger, Costco and Albertsons, according to Cowen financial analysts.

“What worries the retail food industry is that Whole Foods will indiscriminately cut prices and companies like Walmart and Kroger will have to borrow the money or generate it from their own sales to cut prices,” O’Rourke said.

They’re not growing as fast and can’t borrow as much, he said.

Retailers will pressure suppliers such as tree fruit companies for lower prices but suppliers can only go so low given production costs, especially with organics, he said.

“I think retailers are very concerned. They are poised to compete at the retail level. Markets will settle where markets settle,” said Tom Riggan, general manager of Chelan Fresh Marketing in Chelan.

“The question is whether Whole Foods is willing to lower its overall margin. Any retailer will put pressure on suppliers to be as low as they can, but they have to keep supply and quality so it’s a fine balance,” Riggan said.

Bob Mast, president of Columbia Marketing International in Wenatchee, said Whole Foods has a “deep thinking group” that understands consumers.

“When Amazon speaks the world listens right now. They are a powerhouse. The day they made the purchase stocks of big retailers took a big dip,” Mast said.

Whole Foods is “aggressively” pricing fresh crop organic Gala apples at $1.49 per pound and other apples at $1.99 versus $2.49 to $2.79 every day pricing at this time last year, he said.

Whole Foods is “aggressively challenging” suppliers on price and appears to be passing the savings on to consumers, he said.

“We’re obviously concerned because on organics you have to have a premium over conventional because of cost of production,” Mast said.

Organic fruit costs more to grow and yields are lower, he said. Fruit is smaller and each drop in size equates to a 10 percent loss in volume of packed fruit, he said.

Organic fruit is also more perishable and doesn’t store as well as conventional fruit so its sales season is shorter, O’Rourke said.

Yet large Washington tree fruit companies — including Zirkle-Rainier, Domex Superfresh Growers and Stemilt Growers — are moving heavily into organics, O’Rourke said.

This fall’s Washington apple crop is forecast at 130.9 million, 40-pound boxes, and 13 million of that, close to 10 percent, is organic, Mast said. That’s up 20.8 percent from last year, he said.

Stemilt announced Sept. 21 that 30 percent of its apples this year will be organic and that it will continue the three-year process of converting more acreage from conventional to organic.

Despite higher costs and risks, companies are moving to organics because they and managed varieties are the two largest areas of growth with consumers, Mast said.

Kroger and Walmart are positioned well to compete and tree fruit companies are concerned a spread of lower pricing on organics could hurt their viability, he said.

O’Rourke said it may take two to five years to play out and that the situation may not be as threatening as other retailers perceive.

“I think Amazon is taking a huge gamble moving into the retail food business because it’s not familiar with it and it’s completely dispersed from the business model they run now,” O’Rourke said.

Amazon sells products online and ships them from large distribution centers where they have tight control of operations, he said. There are more operational variables with greater human factors in retail stores that companies like Kroger have had 100 years to master, he said.

Another danger for Amazon and Whole Foods is alienating its core consumers, who prefer to pay more for superior product, O’Rourke said.

But the key thing, he said, is the cost of organic production. Walmart tried to go heavily into making organics more affordable and it didn’t work, they lost supply, he said.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service and Idaho have forged 10 agreements for logging and restoration projects on federal land in what officials say could become a template for other Western states to create jobs and reduce the severity of wildfires.

Under the deals, Idaho foresters will administer timber sales on about 10,000 acres the federal agency has on its to-do list but can’t complete because the money for the work is instead going to fight wildfires.

So far this year, the cost of that fight has surpassed $2 billion — more than half the federal agency’s annual budget — during one of the worst fire seasons on record in the West.

The state work involves managing timber sales to a lumber company after determining how much is available and sometimes even marking what can and can’t be cut.

Money generated from the sales goes into accounts in the national forest where the timber was harvested, less expenses incurred by the Idaho Department of Lands for administering the sales.

The federal money is held in accounts to be used for additional work, which can include thinning projects to reduce wildfire threats and projects to improve habitat for fish and wildlife.

The federal-state partnership is possible under the Good Neighbor Authority passed by Congress more than a decade ago that initially involved Colorado and Utah. The 2014 Farm Bill expanded the measure to include other states.

Michigan, Wyoming, Oregon, Nevada and in particular Wisconsin have moved ahead with the partnership. But officials say Idaho — where 38 percent of the land is managed by the U.S. Forest Service — has made rapid progress.

“Idaho has really stepped up to fully embrace that ability for us to work with our state partners to get more work done,” said Intermountain Region Forester Nora Rasure, whose area includes 53,000 square miles of forest lands in Utah, Nevada and portions of Wyoming, Idaho and California.

Government, industry and environmentalists have developed a collaborative approach in Idaho following years of stalemated litigation over forests that were sometimes consumed by flames as decisions were delayed.

“They’re building agreements on being able to manage the forest in such a way that you can get timber off of them but you don’t compromise environmental values,” said John Freemuth, a Boise State University environmental policy professor and public lands expert. “It’s not a panacea, but it’s better than forest wars. That exhausted a lot of people.”

Watchdog groups say they’re concerned the policy might have more to do with avoiding environmental regulations than enhancing forest health. But for now, they are cautiously supportive.

The Idaho Department of Lands manages 2.4 million acres of state endowment land it received at statehood to primarily benefit public schools. About a million of those acres are forested.

Tom Schultz, director of the Idaho Department of Lands, said the work with the Forest Service helps Idaho by reducing the threat of giant wildfires spilling onto state and private forest land, and removing stands weakened by insects or disease to help prevent the spread of those problems to state and private lands.

Another major benefit is jobs. Shultz said an analysis suggests 12 to 15 direct and indirect jobs will be created for every million board feet of lumber harvested.

The watchdog groups wonder how well Idaho can mesh its forestry program, which is geared to maximize revenue over the long term, with the Forest Service’s multiple-use mandate that includes timber sales, recreation and wildlife habitat.

“We’d like to see them recognize that you can still have a profitable timber sale while protecting some of those sensitive resources,” said Jonathan Oppenheimer of the Idaho Conservation League.

The Idaho Department of Lands has received a three-year grant for $900,000 from the Forest Service for the program and Idaho lawmakers have authorized $250,000 from the state general fund. State officials say the goal is to have the program paying for itself with profitable timber sales in three to five years.

“We want to significantly increase the number of acres being treated,” Idaho State Forester David Groeschl told Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and other elected officials during a Tuesday meeting of the Idaho Land Board, which previously approved entering into the agreements with the Forest Service.

The 10 projects in Idaho are in various stages, with two currently being logged and a lot of curiosity about how state-managed timber sales on federal land will turn out.

“There’s probably a natural tension between agencies, but I think that we’re making real progress in getting beyond some of that,” said Jane Darnell, a deputy regional forester with the Forest Service whose area includes northern Idaho. “We’ll get there.”