Oregon orchardist Mike Omeg will test a soil and plant nutrition program developed by an Amish farmer with an eighth grade education who has become one of the country’s leading advocates of alternative farming methods.

Omeg, who grows cherries near The Dalles, will work with Oregon State University and Washington State University staff on a three-year grant provided by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. They’ll compare parts of the orchard managed with conventional, industry-standard methods to sections operated with what Omeg described as “intensive nutrient management” of the soil and trees.

The latter method includes applying a mix of mulch and compost to the soil and bi-weekly analysis of plant sap in cherry tree leaves. The sap analysis provides a timeline of the plant’s health and reportedly can give advance warning of pest and disease problems.

Omeg said the system is based on plant and soil biology.

“Instead of trying to balance calcium by applying more to the soil,” he said as an example, “what you try to do is stimulate the soil biology so that (it) makes more calcium available.”

Omeg said he and the university researchers are trying to determine if a nutrient- and soil-centered management approach will work on a commercial scale.

They’ll compare cherry yield and quality, especially size and firmness. They’ll also evaluate trees’ susceptibility to powdery mildew, a major disease problem for cherries, under the two management programs.

“The third thing we’ll do is look at what the economic costs are,” Omeg said. “What’s the income versus expense. In order to be viable, it’s got to be profitable. It needs to be something that makes sense economically.”

The work is funded by a $74,612 NRCS grant, and the method is drawn from the work of Ohio farmer John Kempf, founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, a consulting firm. Kempf, part of an Amish community in Northern Ohio, has only an eighth grade education but drove himself to understand the disease and pest problems he was seeing on his family’s fruit and vegetable farm.

Omeg, who is a member of the Capital Press Board of Directors, met Kempf at a soil conference four years ago, hit it off and put his methods into action on 50 acres of his orchard in The Dalles.

“Their program in the first year already beat mine in net return per acre,” Omeg said. “I was very surprised.”

He hopes the project will demonstrate the approach is commercially viable in Northwest orchards.

Other NRCS grants awarded recently in Oregon include:

• $75,000 to Portland State University to reduce nitrous oxide emissions and groundwater nitrate on Southern Willamette Valley farmland.

• $74,989 to WyEast Resource Conservation and Development to develop a computer application that will allow producers to forecast irrigation needs and pump more efficiently.

• $150,000 to EcoTrust Forest Management, Portland, to develop an investment fund that will combine public and private money and improve forest productivity and conservation in Oregon and Washington.

• $351,028 to the Xerces Society, Portland, to establish a “Bee Better Farming” certification program. The certification is intended to be an incentive for producers and others to take part in large-scale pollinator conservation programs.

PENDLETON, Ore. — Oregon’s farm regulators are simultaneously planning for substantial budget cuts and increases due to the state’s uncertain revenue future.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is anticipating a total budget ranging from roughly $103 million to $124 million in the 2017-2019 biennium, depending on whether voters approve a corporate tax increase in November.

The agency’s budget for the current biennium is about $111 million, which means it faces either a 7 percent reduction from its current level, or a boost of nearly 12 percent.

ODA is scrambling to plan for either scenario, as are other state agencies, because Gov. Kate Brown must complete her proposed budget for the next biennium by Dec. 1. — just weeks after the Nov. 8 election.

“We’re all kind of schizophrenic right now,” said Katy Coba, ODA’s director, during the Sept. 13 Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting in Pendleton, Ore.

State agencies have been asked to submit proposed budget cuts due to a large expected rise in state spending on the Public Employee Retirement System, as well as higher healthcare costs, said Coba.

However, the state government is also preparing for the possibility that Measure 97 passes, she said.

That ballot initiative would raise roughly $3 billion a year by imposing a gross receipts tax of 2.5 percent on certain corporations.

Under the $124 million budget request, ODA would hire multiple new employees focused on food safety inspection, agricultural water quality, information services, human resources and public records, among other investments, Coba said.

Positions would be cut from those and other programs, including confined animal feeding operations and insect pest prevention, under the $103 million scenario, she said.

Much of ODA’s budget is derived from fees on different types of farms and other companies who have a good understanding of what service reductions will entail, Coba said.

The situation is more complicated when dealing with the portion of the budget that comes from state general funds, which aren’t directly funded by the same agricultural constituency that receives ODA services, she said.

An overwhelming majority of Oregon voters support a corporate sales tax measure on the November ballot, according to a new poll by icitizen, a nonpartisan survey firm.

It’s the second poll in less than a week to show Measure 97 with a big lead, but the icitizen survey included several follow-up questions, which indicate that voters’ opinions change when they learn more about arguments for how the gross receipts tax would work.

“This suggests messaging about the effect on an Oregonian’s pocketbook can make for a tighter race in November, depending on either camp’s ability to market the measure in their favor,” said icitizen polling analyst Cynthia Villacis.

The measure, backed by a coalition of public employee unions, would levy a 2.5 percent tax on certain corporations’ Oregon annual sales exceeding $25 million.

The poll, taken from Sept. 2-7, found that 59 percent of 610 respondents favor the tax and 21 percent oppose it. After voters heard arguments against the measure, that support dwindled to 40 percent while opposition spiked to 31 percent. The poll has a 4 percent margin of error.

For instance, 65 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to support the measure if they had to pay $600 per year in the form of higher prices and lost job growth resulting from the tax. That figure is based on a May estimate by the nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office.

Similarly, 59 percent of respondents were more likely to vote for the measure if the revenue were to fill a $2 billion annual gap in funding needed for quality education in the state. That figure comes from the nonpartisan Quality Education Commission.

When asked how the money should be spent, the most common response — from nearly a quarter of those polled — was education spending.

The icitizen poll mirrors another independent survey, this one by DHM Research taken from Sept. 1-6, which found 60 percent of respondents support Measure 97, while 30 percent opposes it.

“At 60 percent (support) in back-to-back polls, Oregonians are clear they want corporations to pay their fair share,” said Katherine Driessen, a spokeswoman for Our Oregon, the nonprofit advocacy group backing the measure. “When we share with voters that large and out of state corporations pay little or no taxes, they’re eager to hold them accountable. They support 97 because Oregon voters know great schools and quality care for our seniors makes Oregon strong.”

So far, the campaigns for and against the measure have played out mostly on social media and in front of editorial boards and civic groups.

“Generally speaking, the numbers in the polls we’re seeing is consistent with polling we’ve seen since last fall,” said Pat McCormick, a spokesman for the Defeat the Tax on Oregon Sales. “The numbers haven’t changed much because there hasn’t been much robust campaign dialogue.”

McCormick said campaigning usually heats up after Labor Day. The opposition campaign plans to debut its first television ad sometime this month, he said.

The debate between the campaigns centers largely on who will pay for the tax. Opponents contend that consumers will pay for the majority of the cost of the tax, while supporters argue that many of the large corporations affected by the tax will absorb most of the extra cost into their national pricing scheme.

The icitizen poll also tested voters’ position on several other measures on the November ballot.

• Measure 94 removes the mandatory retirement of judges at age 75: 53 percent oppose, 33 percent favor, 14 percent undecided

• Measure 95 allows public universities to invest in equities: 29 percent favor, 24 percent oppose, 47 percent undecided

• Measure 96 devotes 1.5 percent of state lottery revenue to fund veteran services: 83 percent favor, 8 percent oppose, 9 percent undecided

• Measure 98 devotes a portion of new state revenue to fund dropout prevention, career and college readiness programs in Oregon high schools: 64 percent favor, 19 percent oppose, 17 percent undecided

• Measure 99 designates $22 million in state lottery revenue for outdoor education for all fifth- and sixth-graders in Oregon: 69 percent favor, 19 percent oppose, 12 percent undecided

• Measure 100 prohibits the sale of products and parts of 12 types of endangered animals: 85 percent favor, 7 percent oppose, 8 percent undecided

PENDLETON, Ore. — The Yamaha RMAX Type II drone growled like a motorcycle just before takeoff Monday at the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center.

Members of the Oregon Board of Agriculture watched from a safe distance as the unmanned helicopter hovered over a small plot of wheat stubble, carrying water to spray for imaginary weeds. Gusty winds cut the demonstration short after a few minutes, but it was enough to prove how the technology is capable of helping farmers better manage their fields.

Specifically, agriculture drones like the RMAX are built with equipment that allows growers to spray crops more precisely, which not only saves money on herbicides and pesticides but also helps the environment by placing fewer chemicals into the soil. Other types of drones — like the experiment station’s own “Octocopter” — can fly different types of cameras and remote sensors over fields to determine where there might be a problem, or predict yields even before harvest.

Young Kim, CEO of a Virginia-based company called Digital Harvest, coined the term “digital agriculture” to describe this convergence of technology in the world of farming. Kim is now one of the leaders behind the Oregon Unmanned Aerial Systems Future Farm in Pendleton, a real-world testing ground for how drones can be used to help farmers across the country grow more food, cheaper.

With the governor-appointed Board of Agriculture in town for its quarterly meeting, Kim said Monday’s test flight at the experiment station north of Pendleton is part of the ongoing research and discussion of how drones will ultimately fit in agriculture, and what exactly they’re capable of doing.

“Those are the kinds of things we want to test right here in Pendleton,” Kim said. “We’re in the market to learn.”

Pendleton is now home to two RMAX drones, one of which is operated by Digital Harvest on the Future Farm and the other by Yamaha, which has opened a local office at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport. Working as strategic partners, the two companies are trying to figure out how the vehicles can be used to safely and reliably spray crops at night, when there’s less heat and wind that could cause some applications to go to waste.

Jeff Lorton, director of the Duke Joseph marketing agency and project manager at the Future Farm, said the RMAX is the most advanced agriculture drone in the world. Yamaha already has 2,500 of the aircraft operating in Japan, though Lorton said U.S. agriculture is where the opportunity for the industry lies.

“Make no mistake, we are the market,” Lorton said.

The RMAX is the product of 35 years of engineering. It weighs approximately 200 pounds, and with a 250-cc engine, Lorton jokes it’s more like a snowmobile with a propeller. The Oregon Department of Agriculture is already interested in what the drone industry has to offer, Lorton said.

“Essentially, ODA is in kind of a period of transition. Digitization of agriculture is creating a whole bunch of new things for them to think about,” he said.

Katy Coba, ODA director and incoming Oregon Chief Operating Officer, admitted there are still hurdles to clear with operations and regulations of agricultural drones in Oregon, but the agency is well aware that this kind of technology represents the future of the industry.

“We know how agriculture is adopting new technology on a day-to-day basis,” Coba said.

Lorton said demonstrations like the one held Monday are a reminder to “wake up, pay attention and get invested.”

“Agriculture is the last great human endeavor to be digitized,” he said. “It’s the biggest thing people do.

JORDAN VALLEY, Ore. — The president’s recent creation of a national monument in Maine, despite local opposition, has Malheur County residents concerned.

Ranchers and other Malheur County residents formed the Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition this year to fight a proposed 2.5-million acre national monument in an area of the county known as the Owyhee Canyonlands.

Malheur County residents voted 9-1 earlier this year in opposition to the proposal, which is being pushed by the Oregon Natural Desert Association, an environmental group in Bend, and Portland’s Keen Footwear.

Monument opponents believe supporters will ask President Barack Obama to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to create the Malheur County monument.

On Aug 24, Obama declared 87,500 acres of land in northeast Maine as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.

Residents who live near that site also opposed that plan, as did the state’s governor, legislature and congressional delegation, according to the Washington Post.

“It does heighten the concern he’s going to do it,” Jordan Valley rancher Mark Mackenzie said about the Maine declaration.

The two cases are not entirely the same. The Maine parcel was gifted to the government by the founder of the Bert’s Bees product line, while the site of the proposed Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument is already controlled by the Bureau of Land Management.

Even though the Maine monument involved private land “and had a little different twist to it, I didn’t sleep very well that night,” Mackenzie said.

Opponents worry a monument designation would severely impact the county’s No. 1 industry, ranching, as well as mining, hunting and recreation because of restrictions and regulations that would come along with it.

“Of course the national monument in Maine is causing concern,” Malheur County rancher Sean Cunningham told Capital Press in an email.

He said a lot of his operation’s recent business decisions are taking into consideration “whether our backyard becomes a monument and how that’ll affect our daily operations.”

After the OBSC ran a TV ad on MSNBC in the Portland region during the Democratic National Convention urging people to oppose the proposed national monument, its membership increased by about 2,500 in 10 days, said Mackenzie, who is a member of the OBSC board of directors.

Membership now stands at 8,100 and the coalition has also started producing videos that feature people who live near where the monument would be located explaining in their own words why it would be a bad idea.

Malheur County rancher and OBSC board member Elias Eiguren said putting a face on the coalition’s message makes it more personal and allows people to understand that what would happen would affect real people.

“I think as more people see those videos ... it will bring more awareness to what’s going on,” he said.

If the proposed national monument is created, it won’t be because people didn’t know about the local opposition to it, said Malheur County Farm Bureau President Jeana Hall.

“The Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition has done a great job of voicing Malheur County’s opinion on this and making sure (people) know where we stand,” she said.

Farmers in Northeast Oregon have discovered three infestations of glyphosate-resistant Russian thistle, also known as tumbleweed, Oregon State University researchers have confirmed.

Multiple growers in several counties reported instances glyphosate failing to kill tumbleweed last summer, which led OSU researchers to collect samples, germinate seeds and spray the offspring with the herbicide.

Last week, Judit Barroso, an OSU weed scientist, confirmed that three of the tumbleweed populations actually were glyphosate-resistant.

Tumbleweed, an iconic Western weed, spreads seeds prolifically when it dries out and literally tumbles across the landscape. Weeds develop resistance when individual plants survive spraying and then multiply.

“The resistance is going to spread really fast, so we need to convince growers to control these weeds in a different way,” Barroso told members of the Oregon Board of Agriculture during a Sept. 12 meeting in Pendleton, Ore.

However, alternatives to glyphosate have serious drawbacks.

Tillage is one option, but it can cause erosion, Barroso said.

Herbicides other than glyphosate are often more expensive, while paraquat — which growers have recently begun using on the weed — is more toxic to humans, she said.

“The wheat grower doesn’t have a lot of room (financially) to spend on weed control,” she said.

While unfortunate, “herbicide resistance is a matter of time,” Barroso said.

Glyphosate usage is common in the region partly due to the popularity of no-till farming, which involves seeding wheat directly into the earth without first plowing it.

While the system greatly reduces erosion, growers rely on glyphosate to suppress weeds that would otherwise compete with their crop.

Conventional farmers also use glyphosate to control weeds in their fields, said Gregg Goad, a retired farmer near Pendleton who attended the meeting.

“It’s the frequency that you use the compound that really raises the likelihood of resistance,” he said. “It was a good compound for an awful lot of things, so it got used frequently. But with that frequency, it became ubiquitous in the environment and that selected for glyphosate resistance.”

Barroso said she intially hoped that the tumbleweed infestations reported by farmers were not reacting to glyphosate because dust and drought had impeded the herbicide’s function.

While that may have been the case for other instances of tumbleweed surviving glyphosate sprays reported to OSU last year, the offspring from three locations in Morrow County clearly were resistant, she said.

Tumbleweed doesn’t tolerate competition and will be crowded out by a vigorous crop, but given the region’s arid climate, that kind of vigor generally isn’t realistic, said Barroso.

“It’s robust, and it’s hard to control,” said Goad.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The armed protesters who occupied a remote bird sanctuary in Oregon’s high desert earlier this year did so to protest federal land policy, which has been a point of contention in Western states for decades.

On Tuesday opening statements are set to begin in the federal trial of seven protesters, including brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, part of a Nevada ranching family embroiled in a long-running dispute over land use.

The defendants are charged with conspiring to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge through intimidation or threats. Five of them are also charged with possession of a firearm in a federal facility.

The takeover started Jan. 2 as a protest against the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires and quickly grew into demands for the U.S. government to turn public lands over to locals. The issue traces back to the 1970s and the Sagebrush Rebellion, a move by Western states like Nevada to increase oversight of the vast federal holdings in the region.

At the Malheur refuge near Burns, Oregon, protesters changed the signs to “Harney County Resource Center” as they attempted to gain control of the land, which they said they would turn over to local officials to administer.

For several weeks protesters mostly came and went as they pleased. The dispute roiled the surrounding area, with some locals supporting the movement and others denouncing the occupiers as unwanted outsiders.

The group held frequent news conferences and said they were doing maintenance and other work at the site as they moved heavy equipment around the area. Counter protesters, including environmentalists, also traveled to eastern Oregon and urged the federal government to administer public lands like the refuge for the widest possible uses for everyone from ranchers to bird watchers.

The nearby Burns Paiute Tribe also criticized the occupiers, noting that prehistoric archaeological sites were located at the refuge and that tribal members considered Malheur part of their ancestral land.

Oregon officials, including Gov. Kate Brown, grew frustrated at the amount of time it took for federal authorities to move against the Bundy group. At one point Brown sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey that urged them “to end the unlawful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as safely and as quickly as possible.”

The protest basically ended when the Bundys were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop that included the fatal shooting by police of occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum. Four holdouts stayed at the refuge for another 16 days.

Prosecutors say the conspiracy began a couple months before the takeover, when Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne, who pleaded guilty in July, visited the Harney County sheriff and warned of extreme civil unrest if he did not shield the ranchers from prison.

The defendants say they used their First Amendment rights to engage in a peaceful protest and repeatedly mention the only shots fired during the 41-day occupation were the rounds fired by police at Finicum.

The government will remind jurors that the protesters established armed patrols shortly after the takeover, an action that deterred federal employees from going to work.

A total of 26 people were charged with conspiracy. Eleven have pleaded guilty, including Payne and several others from Bundy’s inner circle. Charges were dropped against another man. Seven defendants sought and received a delay in their trial, now scheduled for February.

Ryan Bundy and Shawna Cox, the only woman among the seven defendants, are acting as their own lawyers and are expected to deliver their own opening statements.

The jury includes eight women and four men from throughout Oregon, and eight alternatives are available, if necessary. The trial is expected to last until November.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Seven people are ready to stand trial in connection with the occupation of a national wildfire refuge in Oregon. Here’s a look at the defendants:

———

AMMON BUNDY

The occupation leader, 41, of Emmett, Idaho, speaks in measured cadences about the U.S. Constitution and how, in his belief, it limits the federal government’s ability to own public land. He has a wife and six children, owns a fleet-maintenance business and resides on a property that includes an orchard with 240 apple trees.

———

RYAN BUNDY

Ammon’s brother, 43, of Cedar City, Utah, whose facial injuries stemming from being hit by a car as a youth make him easily identifiable. Authorities say he planned an escape from jail and also got into a scuffle with a guard. He and his wife, Angie, have eight children. She maintains a blog that provides an unvarnished look at their family life.

———

DAVID FRY

Known as “The Last Holdout,” the 28-year-old from Blanchester, Ohio, surrendered Feb. 11 after a lengthy negotiation that was carried live on a YouTube feed. He talked of UFOs, requested pizza and marijuana, and threatened to kill himself. Defense attorney Per Olson has said a mental health expert will testify that Fry suffers from a personality disorder characterized by paranoia, and it intensifies under stress.

———

JEFF BANTA

The 47-year-old of Yerington, Nevada, was one of the final four occupiers. He arrived at the refuge Jan. 25, a day before the Bundys were arrested and Finicum was killed.

———

SHAWNA COX

The 60-year-old from Kanab, Utah, was in the truck with Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum before he was fatally shot by Oregon State Police. Cox sued the U.S government after her arrest, seeking damages “from the works of the devil in excess of $666,666,666,666.66.” A judge allowed Cox to act as her own lawyer but warned her not to question the authority of the court or take other “screwball positions.”

———

KENNETH MEDENBACH

The only Oregonian on trial, Medenbach, 63, has been fixated on whether U.S. District Judge Anna Brown took the appropriate oath of office when she was appointed in 1999. He’s repeatedly brought it up at pretrial hearings and filed a lawsuit on the issue that was quickly dismissed. He’s from the city Crescent.

———

NEIL WAMPLER

A former woodworker, the 69-year-old from Los Osos, California, was convicted in 1977 of second-degree murder in the death of his father. The Tribune of San Luis Obispo reported that he has previously written letters to the newspaper criticizing gun control measures.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — When a group of armed protesters occupied a remote bird sanctuary in Oregon’s high desert early this year, their weekslong standoff drew national attention to the decades-old fight between the federal government and Western states over land policy.

For weeks, the federal government allowed the occupation to continue, causing speculation as to why authorities would not move in and re-take the site. The occupation that started Jan. 2, ended after 41 days. On Tuesday, opening statements are set to begin in the federal trial of seven of the protesters.

The defendants, including brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, are charged with conspiring to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge through intimidation or threats. Five of them are also charged with possession of a firearm in a federal facility. The Bundys are part of a Nevada ranching family embroiled in a long-running dispute over land use.

The takeover began as a protest against the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires and quickly grew into demands for the U.S. government to turn public lands over to locals. The issue traces back to the 1970s and the Sagebrush Rebellion, a move by Western states like Nevada to increase oversight of the vast federal holdings in the region.

At the Malheur refuge near Burns, Oregon, protesters mostly came and went as they pleased. They changed the signs to “Harney County Resource Center” as they attempted to gain control of the land, which they said they would turn over to local officials to administer. The group held frequent news conferences and said they were doing maintenance and other work at the site as they moved heavy equipment around the area.

The occupation roiled the surrounding area, with some locals supporting the movement and others denouncing the occupiers as unwanted outsiders.

Counter protesters, including environmentalists, also traveled to Eastern Oregon and urged the federal government to administer public lands like the refuge for the widest possible uses for everyone from ranchers to bird watchers.

The nearby Burns Paiute Tribe also criticized the occupiers, noting that prehistoric archaeological sites were located at the refuge and that tribal members considered Malheur part of their ancestral land.

Oregon officials, including Gov. Kate Brown, grew frustrated at the amount of time it took for federal authorities to move against the Bundy group. At one point Brown sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey that urged them “to end the unlawful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as safely and as quickly as possible.”

The protest basically ended when the Bundys were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop that included the fatal shooting by police of occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum. Four holdouts stayed at the refuge for another 16 days.

Prosecutors say the conspiracy began a couple months before the takeover, when Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne, who pleaded guilty in July, visited the Harney County sheriff and warned of extreme civil unrest if he did not shield the ranchers from prison.

The defendants say they used their First Amendment rights to engage in a peaceful protest and repeatedly mention the only shots fired during the 41-day occupation were the rounds fired by police at Finicum.

The government will remind jurors that the protesters established armed patrols shortly after the takeover, an action that deterred federal employees from going to work.

A total of 26 people were charged with conspiracy. Eleven have pleaded guilty, including Payne and several others from Bundy’s inner circle. Charges were dropped against another man. Seven defendants sought and received a delay in their trial, now scheduled for February.

Ryan Bundy and Shawna Cox, the only woman among the seven defendants, are acting as their own lawyers and are expected to deliver their own opening statements.

The jury includes eight women and four men from throughout Oregon, and eight alternatives are available, if necessary. The trial is expected to last until November.

Oregon legislators will likely be asked for $4.25 million next year to pay for conservation easements that would protect farmland from development.

Plans are beginning to solidify for the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program, which would provide grants to farmers interested in easements and succession planning, said Meta Loftsgaarden, executive director of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

OWEB, which will oversee the program, plans to hold “listening sessions” this autumn based on concepts developed by agricultural and conservation groups before drafting proposed legislation for the 2017 legislative session, she said.

“We didn’t want to go out to farmers and ranchers with a blank slate. We really wanted to have something they could react to,” Loftsgaarden said during the Sept. 12 Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting in Pendleton, Ore.

Conservation easements are usually sold or donated by farmers who give up their development rights in exchange for tax benefits and lower property values, reducing inheritance taxes.

They haven’t been as commonly used in Oregon as in other states because of the statewide land-use planning system, but this system alone isn’t enough to prevent the fragmentation of working lands, Loftsgaarden said.

The $4.25 million wouldn’t be enough funding for everyone who wanted to sell an easement, but it would serve as a pilot program — particularly for lands inhabited by threatened or endangered species, or that are subject to “urban growth boundary” expansion, said Doug Krahmer, a blueberry farmer who sits on a work group advising the program.

The easements will have a conservation component and could be used to provide properties with regulatory protections, offering an additional incentive for farmers, Loftsgaarden said.

Currently, a similar approach is used for forestlands where owners want to grow trees older than 30 years but are afraid of creating habitat for the northern spotted owl, hindering future timber harvest, she said.

“They want bigger trees, we want bigger trees, so what we needed to provide was that protection,” Loftsgaarden said, noting that forestland owners submit management plans to the Oregon Board of Forestry and receive regulatory assurances from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

OWEB currently funds conservation easements, but these are focused on preserving native fish habitat and water quality, without emphasizing agriculture, she said.

For that reason, landowners in Oregon have had trouble getting matching state funds needed to obtain federal money available for buying conservation easements, Loftsgaarden said.

“We weren’t hitting for the same target,” she said.

OWEB is funded with lottery dollars especially slated for wildlife and water quality, but the agency may seek money from the general fund or from lottery-backed bonds that don’t have the same restrictions, Loftsgaarden said.

The fund would also be able to accept donations from organizations and individuals, said Krahmer.

Grant requests would be ranked based on the duration of the proposed easement — perpetual agreements will score higher than those which end after a certain number of years — as well as the management plan and the threat of development to the property, said Loftsgaarden.

The program would be overseen by a commission consisting of representatives from the agricultural industry, the conservation community, tribes and land use experts, with OWEB providing staff support, she said.

Agricultural groups have asked why the program wouldn’t be overseen by the Oregon Department of Agriculture while conservationists prefer the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Loftsgaarden said.

However, OWEB is already focused on grants and has representatives from both agricultural and conservation groups, she said. “OWEB sits sort of in the middle.”

Thursdays

An Oregon nursery and its landlord have prevailed in a lawsuit that accused them of creating a hostile work environment.

Carlton Plants and Carlton Nursery of Dayton, Ore., were sued last year by former employee Criselda Romero-Manzano, who claimed the companies ineffectively responded to her sexual harassment complaint.

Romero-Manzano had complained to a supervisor in 2013 of unwanted advances by a crew leader, after which she was reassigned to another crew leader, according to court documents. She lost her job a year later after she exhausted her medical leave that was related to a work injury.

In her 2015 complaint, Romero-Manzano claimed she’d suffered economic loss due to lost wages and emotional distress because the companies “did not effectively respond to plaintiff’s report of sexual harassment” and subjected her to a hostile work environment.

Romero-Manzano accused the crew leader of “sexual comments, invitations of a sexual nature, and unwanted sexual touching.”

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown has agreed with Carlton Plants and Carlton Nursery that the lawsuit was time-barred and must be dismissed.

Romero-Manzano originally received permission from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries to file the lawsuit against only Carlton Nursery, not Carlton Plants.

However, Carlton Nursery did not employ Romero-Manzano as it’s a separate entity that leases acreage to Carlton Plants, Romero-Manzano’s actual employer, Brown said.

While she did eventually amend her lawsuit to include Carlton Plants as a defendant, the permission to sue from EEOC and BOLI had by then expired, the judge said.

Romero-Manzano also failed to establish that the two companies were so inter-related that they should legally be treated as one entity, Brown said.

Attorneys for the plaintiff weren’t allowed to comment or did not respond to Capital Press.

Jon Bartch, registered agent for Carlton Nursery and Carlton Plants, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

BANDON — Coast Community Health Center is celebrating seven years in health care. Enjoy live music and refreshments, visit with staff and tour the clinic at the annual open house on Saturday, Sept. 24.

LANGLOIS — Pacific is breaking in a relatively young soccer team this fall, and the Pirates showed their youth in their league-opening match, a 5-0 loss to visiting St. Mary’s of Medford on Wednesday.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Western monarch butterflies migrating between the Southern Oregon coast and the south Cascades will soon get fresh patches of strategically placed milkweed and other nectar-bearing plants to create needed habitat on this leg of their storied journey through here.

A group of public and private entities, led by the Ashland-based Lomakatsi Restoration Project, have landed a $193,000 foundation grant to restore and enhance 300 acres of western monarch habitat stretched across six sites along key migration paths through Southern Oregon.

Monarchs that winter along the California coast migrate along this route and the projects are strategically placed like stepping stones along that pathway.

“This is the epicenter of the migratory route,” says botanist Clint Emerson from the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, which is one of the participants in this habitat collaborative. “That makes this compelling.”

The plants will be grown at the federal government’s J. Herbert Stone Nursery in Central Point that will be planted along with milkweed seeds on public and private lands, including several plots already cleared and prepped for other restoration projects, Lomaktsi Executive Director Marko Bey says.

The plants include three locally native species of milkweed and 26 other plants such as coyote mint, winecup clarkia and harvest brodiaea, Emerson says.

While all the plants help butterflies, bees and other pollinators, the milkweed is tied closely to western monarchs’ life cycles.

Adult females lay their eggs in milkweed, and the ensuing caterpillars dine solely on milkweed before forming a chrysalis, from which they emerge as the royal-looking orange- and black-winged butterfly.

Monarchs produce four generations annually, each one making a portion of the migration between Washington and Idaho through Oregon and down to California and Mexico.

In recent years, private groups like the Southern Oregon Monarch Advocates have cultivated small milkweed patches for butterflies called way stations, “but this is a large-scale restoration effort,” says Robert Coffan of SOMA, which joins Lomakatsi, the forest and four other public and private entities in this project.

Restoration sites include 60 acres of Rogue River-Siskiyou forest land along the coast, 60 more acres of Forest Service land on the western slopes of the Cascades near Mount McLoughlin, another 60 acres at Table Rocks and 120 acres of public and private lands in the Ashland-Colestin area.

Some of those lands already have been cleared and prepped as part of other Lomakatsi projects, including the Ashland Forest All-Lands Restoration Project in the Ashland watershed known as AFAR.

That was important because the foundation grant did not cover site-preparation work, Bey says.

“It was a real plus that we’re laying this over other habitat projects,” Bey says.

Most of the work will be done in early 2017, Bey says.

Emerson says the multi-species plantings are different than milkweed way stations because they will create ecosystem-based landscapes instead of gardened plots of a single species.

The grant was one of several totaling $3 million doled out by the foundation’s Monarch Conservation Fund and the only one targeting western monarch habitat. The lion’s share went to the eastern monarchs and their famously arduous migration journeys.

Coffan says western monarchs generally get stiffed in the funding world.

“But we raised the flag a little bit and somebody saw the flag,” Coffan says. “I’m happy with it.”

Organic Valley, the nation’s largest organic dairy cooperative, announced it will buy and renovate the Farmers Creamery Cooperative in McMinnville, Ore.

The pending sale is the latest turn for FCC. Earlier this year, members accepted an agreement that allowed dairy farmers to apply for membership in the much larger Northwest Dairy Association of Seattle, which includes Darigold. The McMinnville plant was not included in the agreement.

The McMinnville creamery will close and be renovated “to align with Organic Valley’s operations,” the company said in a news release. The work will include a “significant investment in new equipment and state-of-the art technology.” The facility will reopen in late winter or early spring of 2017, according to the news release. Additional details of the sale were not immediately available.

Organic Valley, based in Wisconsin, represents more than 1,800 farmers in 36 states and describes saving family farms as its “founding mission.” Organic Valley produces organic milk, cheese, butter, eggs, soy and other products.

In a news release, the company said its “regional model” means milk is produced, bottled and distributed locally “to ensure fewer miles from farm to table and to support our local economies.” Organic Valley has 72 co-op members in Oregon and Washington.

Oregon’s 2015 wine grape harvest set a tonnage record as newer vineyards matured into production and yields increased, according to the annual Oregon Vineyard and Winery Census Report.

The census, produced by the Southern Oregon University Research Center in Ashland, showed a record harvest of 84,949 tons. More planted acreage and higher than average yields were primarily responsible, especially in the South Willamette Valley and Umpqua Valley, according to the report. Yield increased 8 percent statewide in 2015 over the previous year.

The state’s 2015 production value, a product of tonnage multiplied by price, was $171 million, up from $168 million in 2014. The average price per ton, which varies significantly among the more than 15 varieties grown in Oregon, was $1,958. The 2014 average price per ton was $2,136.

One thing about Oregon’s wine sector didn’t deviate: Pinot noir is still the state’s signature wine, and that isn’t likely to change any time soon.

The state makes renowned Pinot and it commands a high price. Pinot noir made up 62 percent of planted acreage and 67 percent of vineyard production in 2015.

It’s made throughout the state but the North Willamette Valley south and southwest of Portland, particularly in Yamhill County, produces most of the state’s Pinot noir. Chardonnay and Pinot gris plantings are a distant second and third.

Oregon’s wine production is tiny compared to California, which produces 90 percent of U.S. wine. Oregon ranks fourth, behind California, Washington and New York, but the number of vineyards and wineries grew rapidly over the years as the industry spread outside the Willamette Valley. The Columbia River Gorge and Southern Oregon areas have come into their own as wine-producing regions.

The industry census, however, shows the rapid growth slowed somewhat in 2015. The number of Oregon vineyards increased 2 percent, to 1,052. The number of wineries increased to 702, up from 676 in 2014.

Michelle Kaufmann, communications manager for the Oregon Wine Board, which commissioned the annual census, said the slowing is more likely a pause before another surge of vineyard growth, especially in Eastern Oregon.

“I don’t think we reached a peak in terms of planted acreage,” she said.

The number of 12-bottle cases sold in the U.S., excluding Oregon, rose to 1.6 million in 2015, about 100,000 cases more than the previous year. International case sales jumped from 62,241 in 2014 to 70,608 in 2015. Canada is the biggest buyer, with 44 percent of Oregon wine exports going there.

As this year's grand marshals of the Bandon Cranberry Festival parade, Pete and Joan Goodbrod bring a wealth of history to the 70 years of celebrations.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Trials are scheduled to begin this week for the armed ranchers who took over a national bird sanctuary in rural Oregon to oppose federal management of public lands.

Jury selection starts Wednesday in the case against Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and others who helped seize Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2. They are charged with conspiring to prevent federal employees from doing their jobs. Several others were indicted, and many have pleaded guilty.

Most key figures were arrested during a Jan. 26 traffic stop that ended with police fatally shooting Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, a spokesman for the occupation. Others left after Finicum’s death, but four holdouts extended the standoff to 41 days.

Here’s a recap of the takeover and a look at what to expect at trial:

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WHO ARE THE DEFENDANTS?

Occupation leaders and brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy; two of the last holdouts, David Fry and Jeff Banta; as well as Shawna Cox, Kenneth Medenbach and Neil Wampler. All are charged with conspiring to impede U.S. Interior Department employees at the refuge through intimidation, threats or force.

On Tuesday, prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the conspiracy charge against another defendant, Pete Santilli, an independent broadcaster who was present at the standoff. His attorney had argued his actions were protected under the First Amendment.

Cox, Fry, Banta and the Bundys also are charged with possessing a firearm at a federal facility. Cox, Medenbach and Ryan Bundy are acting as their own lawyers.

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WHY WERE THEY AT THE REFUGE?

It started as a protest against the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires and grew into demands for the U.S. government to turn public lands over to local control.

The father-and-son ranchers distanced themselves from the occupiers, reporting to prison two days after the standoff began. Ammon Bundy and others contend that the Constitution limits federal power to acquire and own property within a state’s borders, revealing the larger dispute over the government’s control of vast expanses of Western range.

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HOW DID THE OCCUPATION END?

The Bundys and other leaders were driving to a community forum when police stopped and arrested them. Finicum fled and crashed his truck into a snowbank to avoid a police roadblock. Authorities say he was reaching for a weapon when he exited the vehicle and that’s when Oregon State Police officers opened fire.

The four occupiers who remained after Finicum’s death finally surrendered on Feb. 11 after protracted negotiations with federal authorities who surrounded the refuge.

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HOW MANY PEOPLE FACE CHARGES?

A total of 26 people were charged with conspiracy. Eleven have pleaded guilty, including several from Bundy’s inner circle. Seven defendants sought and received a delay in their trial, now scheduled for February.

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WHAT’S THE GOVERNMENT’S EVIDENCE?

The takeover received extensive media coverage, Ammon Bundy gave daily news conferences and the group used social media in a mostly unsuccessful effort to get others to join them. In short, there’s no question the group occupied the refuge. Prosecutors have said the evidence includes seized weapons, thousands of photographs, thousands of hours of video and reams of information gleaned from social media.

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WHAT’S THEIR DEFENSE?

They claim they used their First Amendment rights to engage in a peaceful protest and that those with guns were exercising their Second Amendment rights. The occupiers contend that nobody was threatened, no workers were impeded from performing their duties and the government fired the only shots. Moreover, they say those shots, which killed Finicum, showed why they needed guns for protection.

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IS THE TRIAL GOING TO LAST LONGER THAN THE OCCUPATION?

It looks that way. U.S. District Judge Anna Brown has set aside three days for jury selection, and opening statements are tentatively scheduled to start Sept. 13. The trial is expected to take two or three months.

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AREN’T THE BUNDYS ALSO FACING TRIAL IN NEVADA?

They and five others from the Oregon case have been charged in a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents near their father Cliven’s cattle ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada. The three Bundys are scheduled for a February trial in Las Vegas.

The elder Bundy drew national attention after his sympathizers pointed weapons at agents rounding up his cattle on public land. The U.S. government says he racked up more than $1.1 million in unpaid grazing fees and penalties over two decades, while Cliven Bundy claims it has no authority over the land.

Several people took part in both standoffs. Federal officials were widely viewed as having backed down from the elder Bundy, possibly emboldening the Oregon occupation.

Cliven Bundy was arrested at Portland International Airport in February when he arrived to visit his sons.

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — The longtime home of the Oregon State University College of Forestry is being demolished to make way for a new classroom and laboratory building.

The Gazette-Times reports Peavy Hall is a campus landmark, and some members of the OSU community have questioned the decision to rebuild rather than renovate.

An OSU spokesman says renovation was considered, but would have resulted in a less functional building than the new Peavy Hall. At 80,000 square feet, the three-story structure will be slightly smaller than the old building.

The demolition work began earlier this summer. Workers have been dismantling it piece by piece rather than just bash it with a wrecking ball. The college plans to reuse 20 percent of the material in the new structure and recycle 65 percent.