SACRAMENTO — Austin Miller says that “connecting students to agriculture is more important now than ever before.”
Growing up in tiny Scio, Ore., he has fond memories of spending summers on his grandparents’ ranch.
He also has fond memories of growing up with the Capital Press newspaper.
“I first got to know Capital Press in high school ag class. Every Friday or Monday we would pass the paper around, and we used the info for various projects,” Miller said.
A Capital Press representative was looking for people to sell subscriptions at the Oregon State Fair in 2013 “so I signed up,” said Miller, who sold subscriptions for three years at the fair and to friends and family on the side.
“Selling subscriptions at the Oregon State Fair was a lot of fun,” he said. “There were so many people who were diehard fans, and they came by the booth each year to renew their subscription at the fair.”
Miller has always been a “people” person, so once he graduated from Oregon State University with a major in agriculture, an informal focus in ag education and a minor in comparative international agriculture, he was ready to put those attributes to work.
He started with the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation while still in college and then made the jump to the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom earlier this year as the program coordinator of communications.
“Here in California agriculture is always growing and changing. I believe the pushback that ag receives is not going away. It is a great blessing to be able to choose and make opinions about what we eat and buy but we have a huge need to educate people to make informed decisions,” Miller said.
“For those of us involved in ag, we have a clear picture of what it means but to the consumer or teacher, you have to break it down into something they can relate to. Make sure they know ag is the food they eat and the clothes they wear,” Miller explained.
“We came up with the ‘5 F’s of Ag: Food, Fiber, Fish, Forestry and Fuel,’” he said. “It gets people talking and asking questions.”
For example, he said, “biofuel is a big part of the message we are working on. It is a fun way to connect ag to science. Students love the lessons we have on turning cow poop into electricity. They not only learn but they don’t forget and it gets them talking and wondering.”
One of the biggest challenges Miller faces is getting accurate information on agriculture to urban teachers and those without an agriculture background.
“We are really working on our website as a resource for teachers to find standards-based lessons that are clear, easy to follow and fun. We update the information throughout the month and I am an email away if someone needs help,” Miller said.
On the website teachers can find mini-lessons, fact cards, grants, lesson plans and contests. The “Imagine This…” writing contest starts this fall and is a way to involve students in grades 3-8 in agriculture. Details and examples of past winning stories can all be found on the website.
Miller keeps himself busy spreading the word and making it easy for teachers to incorporate agriculture into the classroom.
Resources and materials for taking agriculture into the classroom can be found at learnaboutag.org. For more information on the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, call Miller at 916-561-5633.
Dan Arp, whose belief that “food is the handshake between urban and rural” was reflected during his tenure as dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, will retire next June.
Oregon State announced the move in an Aug. 10 news release. Arp was appointed dean in 2012 after his predecessor, the colorful Sonny Ramaswamy, was picked by President Obama to head the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture in Washington, D.C.
Under Arp’s direction, OSU continued broadening its agricultural offerings beyond conventional crop and livestock production. Students have a Fermentation Science program at their disposal, and can learn how to make beer, wine, cheese, yogurt and more kinds of food. A Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems within OSU Extension reaches producers and processors who might have been overlooked before.
The Oregon Wine Research Institute is a partnership between OSU and the state’s celebrated industry. OSU’s Food Innovation Center in Portland is a rare ag experiment station in an urban setting. College of ag enrollment is at a record of about 2,600 students, and OSU’s agriculture and forestry programs were rated 13th best among world universities.
During Arp’s time, Oregon’s economy recovered and the Legislature provided funding for 25 new positions. Fundraising and private gifts brought in $40 million.
Ramaswamy said his successor brought a sense of “scholarly enterprise” to the College of Ag. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to have top notch science to help agriculture,” he said.
To top it off, Arp also was the beneficiary of a $25 million restoration of Strand Hall, home of OSU’s ag program for the past century. The work, planned and funded before he was named dean, nonetheless returned the 115,000-square-foot building to its place as a campus centerpiece.
“It’s been a good run,” Arp said.
He said he’s proud of his work and the timing of retirement feels right. Looking back, he hopes his OSU colleagues and the state’s producers and other stakeholders will remember him as a good collaborator, someone they enjoyed working with.
Arp said OSU has developed a broad “soil to shelf” approach in its agricultural programs.
“That’s something I’ve continued to try to foster,” he said. “We are an incredibly diverse college, and part of that is a reflection of the diversity of food, ag and natural resources in the state.”
He praised the ag college’s faculty and researchers, saying they understand the importance of engaging the public in what they do.
“These folks would be stars at any university,” Arp said.
“The students, too,” he said. “They’re really quite amazing. They are passionate about what they do; they’re here for all the right reasons.”
Arp started at OSU in a botany and plant pathology position in 1990 and later headed the department and was named a “distinguished professor.” In 2008 he was named dean of the University Honors College, and four years later returned to the College of Agriculture.
WARM SPRINGS, Ore. (AP) — A wildfire burning on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon destroyed two houses and threatened dozens more.
KTVZ reports the blaze charred more than 30 square miles by late Thursday as it expanded through brush and timber.
Fire spokesman Brad Donahue said one of the places that burned was an occupied home and the other was an abandoned house he described as “historical.”
The fire began Tuesday on private land just north of the reservation. One firefighter suffered a minor injury that day.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, though officials believe it was ignited by humans rather than lightning.
On Thursday, large plumes of smoke appeared every 20 minutes or so as the fire torched trees, The Bulletin newspaper reported. Ash sporadically fell from the sky like snow in the 104-degree heat.
Wildfire is a fact of summer life on the reservation and in much of Oregon. But Elizabeth Simtustus, whose house was included in an evacuation notice, said this is more dangerous than the standard Warm Springs blaze.
“The other ones weren’t as close to houses as this has been,” she said.
Despite the threat, she and many residents decided to stay put — at least for now — rather go to an American Red Cross shelter.
“It’s my family home,” she said. “I’m the third generation to live in that house. I was born in that house. I don’t want to see it burned up just like that.”
Along Oregon most of the interstates, highways and major roads that bisect the state’s farmland, signs have sprouted prominently identifying to motorists the many different crops that are grown.
The organization behind the signs is Oregon Women for Agriculture, an association founded in the late 1970s to educate the public about the economic and ecological importance of agriculture.
“We’re about education, and people didn’t really understand what they were driving past, and it’s important to us for them to know what it was,” said Donna Coon, former OWA president and daughter-in-law of Pat Roberts, who initially created the concept of the signs.
OWA has partnered with the nonprofit Oregon Aglink, which produces the signs. OWA then distributes the signs to farmers across the state at no cost to the farmers. There are more than 200 identification signs across the state, according to Oregon Aglink’s website.
Mallory Phelan, vice president of operations at Oregon Aglink, said that the association appreciates their partnership with OWA to promote the crops farmers and ranchers are growing.
“Thanks to the two organizations, the road crop signs have vast reach all across the state and are appreciated by Oregonians as well as those passing through from other states,” she said.
The organization first formed when farm women in the Willamette Valley spoke up against the shutdown of grass seed field burning.
Now, the association focuses on all aspects of agriculture, and its mission is “Working together to communicate the story of today’s agriculture.”
“I feel it’s really important that we tell our story. Generally, most people don’t understand it,” Debbie Crocker, OWA president, said. “We educate on our side, so when we do communicate, we’re communicating the facts and the public is understanding agriculture better.”
The signs have been a visual way for OWA to do just that.
“(We’ve had) really, really good responses online and having people talk to us personally,” Coon said. “One woman was so excited to know what was going on that she sent in a $100 donation to have more signs made.”
With the influx of visitors to Oregon for the solar eclipse on Aug. 21, farmers have been calling OWA asking for more signs to display.
There are eight OWA chapters spread across the state with about 300 members.
Crocker got involved in OWA 35 years ago. She was inspired to take a leadership position after seeing what “great representatives” the past presidents were, she said.
Along with the signs and advocacy, OWA also hosts an annual fundraising auction — last year was its 30th anniversary — and has a legislative committee of volunteers to speak on behalf of agriculture at the state Capitol.
“I thought we should get back to being active in legislative stuff,” Marie Bowers, head of the legislative committee, said. “We don’t need to lead the charge, but to know what’s happening on farms, and have a position on paper. We’re all volunteers, a few passionate people who are willing to go to the Capitol.”
OWA is a multi-generational association, with many of the founding members still involved — such as Virginia Cooch.
Although Cooch didn’t go to the initial field burning meeting, she said enough women showed up that they decided to form an agricultural public relations organization, a direction that OWA has continued to follow.
Cooch has seen changes over the years in technology, but she said the biggest development has been the education the younger women bring to the association.
“(They’re) keeping up with the world,” Cooch said.
The one thing that hasn’t changed is the women’s love for agriculture.
“I always felt that (OWA) is so important to us, and that comes before any of our differences,” Cooch said. “(We) resolve differences and put the organization before any personal feelings.”
Crocker said the mix of older and younger generations is an opportunity for the association.
OWA is also made up of women from all walks of agricultural life.
“We have a place for everyone in the organization,” Bowers said. “Not just farmers, but for people who support agriculture.”
Silvies Valley, Ore. — Drive down Highway 395 between John Day and Burns, and it’s impossible to miss Silvies Valley Ranch.
The sprawling property seems to go on for miles and miles in this remote stretch of eastern Oregon, where cell signals are rare and cows outnumber humans by about 10 to 1. Most Grant County ranch entrances include a simple wooden sign, with maybe a bleached cow skull hanging from a lodgepole arch. Silvies Valley Ranch properties are marked with uniform metal and wood signs that bear the ranch’s abstract logo, visible from about a mile away.
“I think a lot of people driving through go, ‘What the heck is this?’” said Judge Scott Myers, Grant County’s top elected official. “It is a step aside for us.”
In 2006, a wealthy veterinarian from Burns, bought this property with a vision: Scott Campbell would transform what was then a dilapidated dude ranch into an elite destination resort for foreigners. He would optimize ranching practices to create a thriving organic cattle and goat operation.
Campbell believes if he’s successful, he’ll prove that high-end tourism is a new way forward for rural Oregon, where communities often struggle with high unemployment and poverty rates. He hopes others will follow his model and open similar resorts across Oregon’s high desert.
But some fear that the Silvies Valley Ranch development could bring unwelcome change to a working-class area, and they note that a resort catering to the wealthy is far afield from your typical Grant or Harney County accommodations.
For Campbell, this project is a nod to his Harney County roots. His grandparents were ranchers, and his dad was the town doctor in Burns.
Campbell left Harney County for college, eventually becoming a veterinarian. He earned his fortune in part by starting and later selling the profitable vet chain, Banfield Pet Hospitals.
Now he’s investing some of that wealth into Silvies Valley Ranch, 40,000 acres of sagebrush, wetlands and timberland that stretch into both Harney and Grant counties. That’s about twice the area of the city of Bend.
The resort sits on just a slice of that acreage, but some neighbors are wary of having one owner control so much of the valley.
The development also includes a high-end restaurant with an extensive scotch selection, luxury suites, shooting ranges and three golf courses — all features Campbell hopes will attract “destination tourists” willing to spend $1,000 a day here. He’s hoping to draw a clientele who might otherwise embark on an African safari or an Arctic cruise.
“People from the East Coast, California and then ultimately from Asia and Europe,” he said of his target customers. “That brings a lot of new dollars into this part of the state.”
Guests could land a private plane on the ranch’s runway, play golf on the unique reversible course, shoot pistols, eat a four-course meal, don chaps and spurs and pet ranch horses.
Scott Myers serves on the Grant County Commission, which approved Campbell’s master plan, but he said it’s not necessarily his kind of place.
“I’d golf there, but I don’t know that I’d go out there and stay,” Myers said. “I’d rather take my camper out in the woods.”
In addition to opening the resort side of the business, Silvies Valley is also a huge, working cattle ranch. The Campbells raise more than 4,000 cows organically. Combined, the ranch and resort have 93 full-time employees. Campbell expects that number to eventually rise to about 130.
For rural Oregon, that’s a lot of jobs.
“That means they’re going to be one of the biggest employers in the area,” said Damon Runberg, a state economist with the Oregon employment department. “That’s a really big deal.”
The lowest-paid job at the ranch is $12.50 an hour — for mowing the lawn, Campbell said — and employees receive benefits after working there three months.
But the ranch’s remote location and lack of nearby housing make it difficult for managers to staff the place. Ranch managers have tried to recruit from Harney and Grant counties, but they’ve struggled to find qualified applicants willing to commute 30 to 60 minutes to work.
Campbell also paid $117,393 in Grant County property taxes last year, despite some of the property being included in a county-approved tax relief zone for enterprise development. That’s more than double what the combined property generated in taxes before Campbell’s purchase in 2006.
A Law Just For Silvies Valley Ranch
When Campbell had the idea for Silvies Valley Ranch, his vision butted up against the state law that regulates vacation destination resorts — rules designed to protect farm and agricultural land from becoming high-end subdivisions in desirable areas outside of urban growth boundaries.
In 2011, Campbell convinced state lawmakers in Salem to pass a bill that essentially rubber-stamped the construction of the resort, bypassing the usual time-consuming process involving the county, state and developer. (The legislation initially included other land parcels in Eastern Oregon, but when it was signed by then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, it specifically authorized Campbell’s development.)
“It seemed greased at the time,” said Paul Dewey, executive director of the environmental group Central Oregon Landwatch. “This wasn’t a situation where someone couldn’t do something and then had to go to the Legislature as a last resort. This developer just went to the Legislature and got a freebie.”
Campbell said existing rules for destination resorts, such as a requirement for developments to have a minimum of 150 overnight lodging accommodations, were prohibitive from the start. A hotel of that size makes no sense for Silvies Valley, Campbell said. “That’s just stupid. There was no way to do it without legislation.”
State officials say the law does allow some flexibility for how developers build toward that 150-room minimum.
“You can get there a couple of different ways. You can just build them outright or you can stagger them — build 50 now and bond for the rest and get there as your project matures,” said Jon Jinings, community services specialist for Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development.
The ranch is starting out with 38 overnight rooms but could grow to include a maximum of 575 hotel rooms and cabins.
But Campbell says growth will happen gradually: “There’s no way that’ll happen in my lifetime.”
The normal process for developing a destination resort is often time-consuming. First, the county has to develop its own standards for such developments, including criteria for things like stream protection and recreational facilities. The county criteria must be approved by the state. Then a landowner can submit a plan for a resort under those standards, which must be approved by county officials. That plan is subject to public hearings and legal appeals, which means the whole process can stretch on for years.
In contrast, the criteria for Silvies Valley Ranch are laid out in the law itself, including things like standards for open space, jobs, habitat protections and number of overnight lodgings. Campbell still had to submit a master plan to the county, but the Legislature essentially codified his vision via the bill. That means the development is almost impervious to legal challenges from the public or environmental groups or other entities.
“I think really the motivating factor for pursuing this legislation was not because they couldn’t have gotten what they wanted through the ordinary process,” Jinings said. Instead, he thinks the goal was to get the resort approved faster.
While urban areas such as Portland have seen strong economic growth recently, much of rural Oregon is still struggling to recover from the recession.
Grant and Harney County residents have mixed perspectives on the ranch, from skeptical to lukewarm to brimming with excitement.
Burns photographer Andi Harmon loves the prospect of selling her photos to ranch visitors. The Campbells have pledged to feature local artwork at the ranch and will encourage visitors to travel to Burns or John Day to visit galleries and buy the work.
“I think they’re a great addition to a community,” Harmon said. “I think they’re going to bring in a whole new level of people. Right now in Burns we get ‘drive-through’ tourists — people that are on their way someplace else. This will mean destination tourists and people finding out about all we have to offer here.”
“The hopes are that the dream comes true that the Campbells have invested dearly in,” said Judge Pete Runnels, Harney County’s top elected leader. “That it spreads opportunity, gives us an identity and gives us hope for the future.”
He’s hoping the wealthy tourists will drift down to Burns to spend money on art, fishing trips and restaurants. Maybe the ranch will create niche opportunities for new businesses, like a limo service to drive from Burns to Silvies Valley or outfitters to provide guided tours of Steens Mountain.
For Runnels and others in Burns, the ranch is a beacon toward a revitalized downtown Burns that better caters to tourists with retail, restaurants and galleries. There’s a coffee joint and a few boutiques on Main Street, but there are also empty storefronts and vacant lots.
Capitalizing on wealthy tourists is part of a bigger, ongoing conversation in Burns: one that’s focused on invigorating the economy without losing sight of the community’s natural resource sector roots and ruggedly individualistic sensibility, Runnels said. “The agricultural sector will never go away. Yet we have to grow and diversify a bit if we’re going to survive.”
But Campbell acknowledges there’s a gap between the character of Silvies Valley Ranch, which will offer four-course meals and rooms for $300 to $500 a night, and Burns, where a typical dinner consists of a Reuben sandwich and fries at the local downtown hangout and a room at the most expensive hotel — the Best Western — typically goes for about $120 a night. The ranch seems to have a bigger wine selection than all of the restaurants in Burns combined.
Campbell said he’s encouraged people in Burns to fix up downtown storefronts, but fears that right now the town can’t support tourists.
“That’s probably our biggest risk,” he said. “Somebody that came here from Paris, they’re probably not going to go have dinner in Burns.”
Scott Myers, the Grant County judge, said he believes the development could bring some new dollars to John Day if resort managers are serious about promoting nearby communities and encouraging guests to step out beyond the lodge.
“If people are driving in, then I think we’ll get some spillover,” Myers said. “But if we’re just a pass-through in a destination trip, I don’t think we’ll see much.”
Myers doesn’t see the ranch — or any one development in Grant County — as being an economic boon for the whole area.
“I don’t buy it, any more than I did the argument that the Owyhee Monument would bring big tourist dollars. I think it’s a gimmick, a hollow promise,” he said. “Unless you’re in (a place like) Bend and you have endless places to go, it’s not a boon.”
State economist Damon Runberg sees potential in Campbell’s model. He says the resort is unique in Oregon in that it’s a truly working ranch, in an extremely remote location, that also offers high-end luxuries.
“If this works, it bodes well as a model for struggling ranches that might bolster their income and revenue streams from tourists,” he said. “I could see a rippling effect where other communities could build off this.”
A few miles away from the ranch, Peruvian herders move South African Boer goats through sage and rabbitbrush. The friendly nanny and kid goats bleat and butt at one another as they walk and eat at the same time.
The goats are a pet project of Sandy Campbell, Scott’s wife.
“Hi, Snickerdoodle. This is Pixie,” Campbell said, petting one of the nannies on her brown and striped head. “You get to know them — they all have different markings, different personalities.”
The goat herd is another way the Campbells hope to serve as a beacon for other area ranchers. They want to show that goats can be great companions to cows. Goats eat weeds, are light on the land, help with fire prevention and their meat can actually be tasty.
“I think goat meat is growing in popularity,” Sandy Campbell said. “I really do see it becoming a more mainstream source for Americans.” The resort restaurant regularly offers goat meat as a dinner entree.
She pointed out that goats can be a companion animal to cattle because they eat different plants.
“I just want people to think about goats as a serious livestock program,” she said. “It really can be a mainstream product.”
Beyond the goats, the Campbells see themselves as stewards of this vast valley. They thin the forests on the land, using the wood in construction of the lodge when possible. Scott Campbell says the three golf courses are some of the most ecologically friendly in the world; his designer minimized the use of carbon emissions in constructing the course, planted drought-tolerant native grasses, and the course uses a gravity-fed irrigation system to minimize electricity and water usage on the course.
They’ve also modified streams and created wetlands to foster habitat for birds, elk, antelope, raptors and fish. Some of those initiatives caused friction with state agencies, such as when he took to installing hundreds of beaver dams in a stream without first acquiring the state approvals.
Residents like Adele Cerny say there’s nothing wrong with the goats, the golf course or even the $400 hotel rooms at the lodge. But all combined, they paint a picture of change that unsettles her.
“Perhaps that’s my inner fear: that it will change the character of the county,” said Cerny, “where the people who’ve always lived here can no longer afford to live here.”
But change is a big part of why Scott Campbell built this place. He doesn’t want Harney or Grant counties to become unaffordable, but he says they’re no longer thriving. When he talks about it, he chokes up.
“All of Eastern Oregon has really fallen on hard time since the mills have all closed in many of these communities,” he said. “And the great thing is there’s great opportunities. But they’re probably in destination tourism.”
Dan Arp, dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, will retire next summer, the university announced today.
Arp has been dean since May 2012 and also serves as director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, according to a press release.
He joined OSU’s colleges of agricultural sciences and science in 1990 in a joint botany and plant pathology position that was split between the two units. He eventually headed the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology where he earned the honor of “distinguished professor.”
In 2008, Arp was named dean of the University Honors College, where he worked closely with students to enhance their learning experience. Four years later, he was appointed dean of Agricultural Sciences. He will retire June 30, 2018.
“I have tremendously enjoyed my five years of service as dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, and I look forward to doing all I can during my sixth and final year as dean,” Arp said in the press release. “I am extremely proud of the progress the college has made over the past several years and our recognition as one of the world’s top agriculture programs.”
Oregon State was ranked 13th this year in the QS World University Rankings, an international survey of 200 university agriculture programs.
University Provost and Executive Vice President Ed Feser will launch a national search for a new dean.
Summer heat is causing stress in Washington’s spring wheat crop, researchers say.
In its weekly regional crop progress and condition report, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service reported that “winter wheat continued to look good, while spring wheat did not.”
Stress caused by heat and late planting in a shorter growing season is to blame, said Mike Pumphrey, spring wheat breeder for Washington State University.
“Planting was delayed everywhere,” he said.
Pumphrey said maturity wasn’t as important this year as it is in some years, because soil moisture was good.
“Some of our later maturing lines that I would say do poorer in a typical hot, dry summer didn’t because there was soil moisture,” he said.
Irrigated wheat is likely to be down from usual years, but “quite healthy” overall, he said. Dryland acres where planting was delayed will likely be average to below average.
Later plantings are likely to suffer more, while earlier spring wheat plantings had the chance to tiller before higher temperatures occurred, said Ryan Higginbotham, director of WSU’s cereal variety testing program.
“Heat is the enemy of spring wheat,” Higginbotham said.
Higginbotham expects statewide spring wheat yields will be down, but higher winter wheat yields will offset them.
The effect varies across the state. In trials in the Horse Heaven Hills area, spring wheat yields doubled over last year, while in Lind, Wash., trials, yields were half of last year’s, he said.
Assuming test weights and grain soundness are otherwise OK, Pumphrey said the heat stress may boost protein, which is a desirable trait in dark northern spring wheat.
The wheat class has seen price upswings due to supply problems elsewhere in the U.S., from $7.57 to $7.67 per bushel on the Portland market for 13 percent protein, and $7.83 to $8.77 per bushel for higher protein levels.
“Although the yields may be lower, we should have high-enough protein or good protein,” he said. “That’s going to help (growers), instead of getting them a discount. Now, that has to be balanced with how many bushels are harvested, of course.”
Lower protein percentages are wanted in soft white wheat, which will also see higher levels due to the heat stress. WSU’s trials have shown above-average protein levels, averaging 12.5 to 13 percent, “which is not ideal,” Pumphrey said.
Soft white wheat is priced at $5.16 to $5.60 per bushel.
Higginbotham’s not aware of any price discounts for high protein soft white wheat, but said it’s possible as harvest progresses.
“If there is no discount, there is no impact, really, to the grower, but if they start to implement a discount for high protein, they’re going to be feeling that,” he said.
SALEM — A political dispute over new taxes on healthcare in Oregon is being blamed for an irrigation district losing $1.9 million to pipe an open canal.
Lawmakers approved money for the Bradshaw Drop Irrigation Canal Piping Project in July as part of a broader spending bill, but Gov. Kate Brown has now vetoed funding for that project and several others in Southern Oregon.
Rep. Sal Esquivel, R-Medford, said he agreed to vote for the healthcare taxes — giving the proposal the necessary three-fifths majority to pass the House — in return for the spending projects.
Since then, however, Esquivel has thrown his support behind an effort to refer the healthcare taxes to voters as part of a ballot initiative.
In retaliation, Brown has vetoed several projects that are important to his district, Esquivel said.
“She’s vindictive toward me,” he said. “She’s politicizing good projects just for vindictiveness.”
A spokesman for the governor did not respond to a request for comment, but in her written announcement of the vetoes, Brown said, “The cornerstone of all negotiations whether they occur in a public or private arena, is the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”
While it’s disappointing the “political feud” has caused the state funding to fall through, the Rogue River Irrigation District is still expecting to begin the piping its canal in autumn 2018, said Brian Hampson, the district’s manager.
The irrigation district still has $3.4 million available from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to pipe 1.2 miles of the 3.3 mile canal, he said.
This portion of the piping project is more complicated due to environmental studies and logistical complexities, which is why it’s expected to cost more than the remainder of the project, Hampson said.
The $1.9 million from the state government would have been dedicated to the more straight-forward task of replacing 2.1 miles of canal with piping, he said.
It’s unclear how the irrigation district will now pay for that segment, but Hampson said he’s hopeful to “quit all the political crap” and find funding for the project on its own merits.
Currently, the open canal is leaky, resulting in losses of water that could otherwise be dedicated to irrigation or left in-stream for fish habitat.
By pressurizing the irrigation system, farmers will be able to convert from flood irrigation to more efficient sprinklers, saving water while reducing sediment runoff.
Eventually, the irrigation district also expects to evaluate using the pressurized water to generate hydroelectric power.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A group that represents farmers is calling the costs of saving imperiled salmon in the largest river system in the Pacific Northwest unsustainable and is turning to the Trump administration to sidestep endangered species laws.
The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association wants the government to convene a Cabinet-level committee with the power to allow exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. Known as the “God squad” because its decisions can lead to extinctions of threatened wildlife, it has only gathered three times — the last 25 years ago during a controversy over spotted owl habitat in the Northwest.
The irrigators association is frustrated with court rulings it says favor fish over people, claiming the committee could end years of legal challenges over U.S. dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and bring stability for irrigators, power generators and other businesses that rely on the water.
Environmental groups call the request a publicity stunt and say it could hurt fishing companies and others that rely on healthy runs of federally protected salmon and steelhead.
The association sees hope in a series of pro-industry environmental decisions by President Donald Trump. His administration has rescinded an Obama-era rule that would shield many small streams and other bodies of water from pollution and development, enacted policies to increase coal mining on federal lands and proposed giving Western states greater flexibility to allow development in habitat of sage grouse, a threatened bird.
Darryll Olsen, association board representative, said the irrigators requested the committee during former President Barack Obama’s tenure but got nowhere. He said the Trump administration has been encouraging during talks, leading to a formal request last month for a meeting with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
“What we’re asking for is that the secretary give direction to the (Interior) Department to work with us to review the steps for implementing the God squad,” Olsen said.
Zinke can gather the committee, which he would chair and would include other natural resource agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency. It also would include representatives from Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
If five of the federal committee members agree, they could exempt U.S. agencies from Endangered Species Act requirements for one or more of the 13 species of salmon and steelhead listed since the early 1990s.
The irrigators group, which has 120 members growing food crops in Washington state and Oregon, expects to meet with Zinke soon, Olsen said.
Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an email that the agency could not comment on a committee that had not been formed and that she had no information about Zinke’s meetings.
Joseph Bogaard, executive director of a coalition of conservation, commercial, sport fishing and business groups called Save Our Wild Salmon, blasted the irrigation association’s request.
“It’s a terrible idea that will deliver great harm to the people and businesses of the Pacific Northwest,” said Bogaard, whose coalition relies on the fish to produce millions of dollars of revenue.
A federal judge ruled last year that the government had not done enough to improve salmon runs despite spending billions of dollars and urged it to consider removing four dams on the lower Snake River.
Todd True, a lawyer with the environmental law firm Earthjustice who represented some plaintiffs in that 2016 ruling, said the God squad request should go nowhere.
“There isn’t any basis to convene the committee because there are reasonable alternatives to save the fish,” he said, pointing to the dam removal option. “Their removal would be a big step forward.”
This year, fish counts at dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers have been well below the 10-year average, which biologists blame on droughts in 2014 and 2015 and warming ocean conditions.
Various results have emerged the three times the God squad has convened. It refused to grant an exemption for a Tennessee dam in the 1970s over a fish called the snail darter. Regarding crane protection in the Midwest, a settlement was reached before the panel offered a decision.
In 1992, it voted to sidestep protections for the northern spotted owl and allow the Interior Department to sell timber on land in Oregon.
Traps set in conjunction with an Oregon Department of Agriculture eradication campaign in the Portland area caught a stunning 12,000 Japanese beetles, an invasive pest that can cause major damage to home gardens and to nursery, vegetable, vineyard and orchard crops.
A department official hastened to say the heavy count — only 372 were caught last year and that was enough to trigger the eradication effort — doesn’t mean the campaign didn’t work.
This past spring, department contractors treated the grounds of about 2,400 residences on 1,000 acres west of Portland with a granular form of the insecticide Acelepryn. Adult beetles laying eggs this summer weren’t harmed, but grubs that hatch in the treated areas will ingest the insecticide and die, interrupting the generational cycle. The ag department planned five years of annual treatments, a pattern that has worked in other states.
Clint Burfitt, who is in charge of the treatment program, said the insecticide targets beetles at their most vulnerable life stage but is not hazardous to pets or people.
In a department news release, Burfitt acknowledged the trap count was higher than expected but said the traps are providing good information.
“The good news is that the bulk of the catches are centered in the middle of our treatment zone, so there is a well-defined epicenter for this infestation,” he said in a prepared statement. When the traps are removed this fall, the department will analyze data and plan next year’s eradication work, he said.
Based on past experience, Burfitt expects the number of beetles trapped to decrease 90 percent each year. He predicted the count will drop to more than 1,000 next year, and to single digits by the fifth year.
About 2 percent of the beetles were found in traps set outside the treatment zone, Burfitt speculated that beetles traveled with yard clippings and landscape debris or hitchhiked on vehicles. To counter that, the department, Washington County Solid Waste & Recycling and Metro, the regional government, have asked residents to put grass clippings in curbside containers. Garbage haulers take it to a Hillsboro landfill for deep burial. At the same time, the agencies asked landscaping companies to take debris to a quarantined drop site in the area.
Wetland restoration projects on farmland will have to clear a new hurdle in Oregon’s Tillamook County to ensure they don’t disrupt agricultural practices.
However, the county’s newly enacted ordinance isn’t expected to block wetland projects as much as steer them to the least-contentious areas, experts say.
“Nobody’s intention was that we never see another wetland project in Tillamook,” said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau.
Landowners throughout most of Oregon are allowed outright to convert properties in “exclusive farm use” zones into wetlands, allowing them to sell credits to offset development on wetlands elsewhere.
Wetland restoration projects have been prominent in Tillamook County, where moist conditions are prevalent, but the conversions have also been controversial.
In some cases, opponents criticize such projects for taking farmland out of production.
Restoring wetlands by removing levees or making other land modifications can also reduce drainage and increase groundwater tables on surrounding properties, impairing their agricultural value, said Nash.
“In our mind, this is like any other non-farm use moving into a farm zone,” she said.
In 2016, Oregon lawmakers considered a bill that would increase local government scrutiny of wetland projects across the state. Ultimately, the legislation — Senate Bill 1517 — was approved after being pared down to only affect Tillamook County.
Tillamook County’s commissioners have decided to take advantage of that statute by enacting the recent ordinance, under which wetland projects will be subject to a “conditional use” review.
Before such permits are approved or denied, the parties involved could go through a “collaborative process” to resolve potential conflicts.
Farm and conservation groups will also be helping to create an “inventory” of Tillamook County’s wetlands and areas where such projects might be suitable.
The inventory will be useful in guiding wetland projects away from “hot spots” where they’re likely to clash with neighboring farmers, said Nash.
The new approach to wetland siting in Tillamook County is currently a pilot project that’s set to expire after 10 years.
However, it could eventually serve as a model for the rest of the state if Tillamook County’s ordinance is deemed a success, said Nash.
For that to happen, the ordinance will need to “take the heat down” on controversies over wetland projects without effectively prohibiting them, she said.
Tillamook County’s ordinance will add another layer of complexity to wetland restoration, but responsible project developers should take impacts on neighbors into account, said Lisa Phipps, executive director of the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership, a local conservation nonprofit.
The processes required by the county will “codify” what wetland project developers are already doing, she said.
“What you don’t want to see is people using that to just stop projects,” Phipps said.
While the “devil is in the details,” Phipps said she’s hopeful the ordinance won’t serve as a disincentive to wetland restoration.
The inventory process could produce a “win-win” situation for farmers and conservationists if they can identify lower-quality farmlands that can be converted into wetlands while actually helping surrounding growers, she said.
For example, properties in low-lying areas near the Tillamook Bay can better filter bacteria and runoff if they’re turned into wetlands, while potentially improving drainage on upland farms, Phipps said.
“A lot of these lands were wetlands at one time,” she said.
Staff with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife shot and killed two adult wolves in response to multiple attacks on cattle grazing in Wallowa County.
Department spokeswoman Michelle Dennehey said one uncollared wolf was killed Sunday night and a second was shot Tuesday morning. One was shot from the ground and one from the air, she said.
ODFW will monitor the situation and could take additional action if remaining members of the Harl Butte pack continue to attack livestock, she said. ODFW announced
Ranchers in the area have complained about the pack for some time and asked ODFW to kill the entire pack, which included 10 wolves at the end of 2016 and at least seven this past spring. They said the pack operated in an area that put them within striking range of several herds grazing on public or private land. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association said the dry summer caused deer and elk to retreat higher into the mountains, making cattle “easy targets” for wolves.
Todd Nash, an area rancher and county commissioner who is the OCA’s wolf committee chair, said he was disappointed by ODFW’s decision to kill only two wolves.
“We have seen this happen before and we fully expect more cattle to be killed. It’s a very unfortunate way to do business,” he said in a prepared statement.
ODFW confirmed the Harl Butte pack attacked cattle seven times since July 2016. Ranchers or a hired range rider interrupted attacks seven other times by shooting at wolves, charging them on horseback or otherwise chasing them away.
Conservation groups opposed ODFW using lethal control against the wolves.
The Harl Butte Pack is believed to be made up of remnants from the Imnaha Pack. ODFW killed four members of that group in March 2016 after multiple attacks.
The department issued a lethal control order last week, announcing its intention to kill two adults. Dennehey, the spokeswoman, said ODFW hopes the remaining pack members will change their behavior. She said ODFW will monitor the situation and share information with producers and the range rider. At least one wolf in the pack, OR-50, is fitted with a tracking collar.
Northwest fire officials said Tuesday that record-dry conditions, continued heat and incoming lightning storms threaten to escalate a worsening fire season.
Some 17 large fires were burning in Oregon and Washington, with more lightning expected to strike the dried-out region over the next several days. Idaho officials reported a dozen active fires of more than 1,000 acres.
“We’re moving from a moderate to a high level of activity across the state,” said Washington Department of Natural Resources wildfire manager Bob Johnson, chairman of the Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group.
“We’re in a position now where our fuels and our weather are working against us,” he said.
Fire and health officials briefed reporters in a conference call on the current status of wildfires and the outlook. Five large fires were burning in Washington, while 12 were burning in Oregon. Fires of more than 100 acres in timberlands or more than 300 acres in rangelands are categorized as large.
Moisture levels in heavy vegetation were at record lows and flames can be expected to spread rapidly at all elevations, according to a report by the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.
Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver said Washington has had 699 wildfires so far this season and 89 percent of them were caused by humans. A more normal percentage is 50 to 60 percent, she said.
“We need people to be really, really careful out there,” Weaver said. “Our fuels are incredibly dry. We had a wet winter and wet spring, but the faucet is turned off.”
Health officials said air-monitoring stations showed unhealthy levels of smoke throughout Washington. Some of that smoke drifted south from wildfires in British Columbia. Weaver and Johnson said the B.C. smoke actually kept down temperatures and slowed the spread of fires in Washington.
Winds are expected to ease hazy conditions, but the weather may bring new problems. The National Weather Service issued a warning Tuesday that all of Eastern Washington can expect temperatures much above normal Aug. 11-15. Thunderstorms are expected to move across the region for the rest of the week, particularly through Southern Oregon.
Also Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that July was the fifth-driest on record for Washington. Records date back to 1885.
The percentage of Washington that is “abnormally dry” jumped to 48 percent from 18 percent during the last week of July, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Large fires in Washington include the 3,120-acre Noisy Creek fire in the Colville National Forest in northeast Washington. The fire is not threatening grazing allotments, forest spokesman Franklin Pemberton said. “It’s goat-rock country, straight up and down,” he said.
The 9,905-acre Diamond Creek Fire 27 miles northwest of Winthrop in Okanogan County is burning in thick timberland in the Pasayten Wilderness, according to fire officials. The human-caused fire has been burning since July 23.
The 1,150-acre North Fork Hughes fire is burning unchallenged in the Salmo Priest Wilderness near the Idaho border. Smoke jumpers were dispatched to the fire, but conditions were too dangerous and they have been pulled out. Officials said they are working on a plan to manage the fire.
In Eastern Oregon, officials expected to have the 52,223-acre Cinder Butte fire in Harney County contained by Wednesday. The cause of the fire, which started Aug. 2, is under investigation.
The 4,739-acre Blanket Creek fire is burning timberland 9 miles northeast of Prospect in Southern Oregon. Officials estimated Tuesday that firefighters will need the rest of August to contain the fire.
Fire officials anticipate the Chetco Bar fire in Southern Oregon will be a long-term battle. The lightning-caused fire broke out July 12 in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Josephine County. The fire had grown to 4,821 acres by Tuesday and was zero percent contained.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — State officials warned Monday that if California sea lions continue feeding below Willamette Falls, they could push winter steelhead trout to the brink of extinction.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that the state Department of Fish and Wildlife highlighted the threat in a population feasibility study. Without federal intervention, they said, there’s an 89 percent probability that least one population of the iconic fish species will go extinct in the near future.
“It’s pretty dire,” Shaun Clements, the agency’s senior fish policy adviser said in an interview from a Clackamas County park just down river from the state’s largest waterfall, where sea lions have been setting up shop around the time the trout try to make their trek to spawning grounds up river. “If we don’t deal with this near-term risk, there might not be fish,” he said.
The state’s report comes as two Pacific Northwest congressional leaders are trying to give Oregon and Washington broader authority to kill sea lions at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. The bill would also apply to the sea lion logjam at Willamette Falls in Oregon City.
For years, lawmakers have pushed for more latitude to intervene at Bonneville and prevent sea lions from eating spring Chinook salmon there. But state officials say the threat to steelhead on the Willamette River now poses a much greater risk.
In 2017, just 512 native steelhead made it past Willamette Falls on their journey to spawning grounds on the North and South Santiam, Molalla and Calapooia Rivers. That’s the lowest winter steelhead run ever recorded, according to Clements.
In the early 2000s, the winter steelhead run was close to 15,000.
Authorities believe sea lions have consumed one-quarter of the 2017 steelhead run.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration has opened the door to industry-friendly changes to a sweeping plan imposed by his predecessor to protect a ground-dwelling bird across vast areas of the West.
Wildlife advocates warn that the proposed changes would undercut a hard-won struggle to protect the greater sage grouse.
Representatives of the ranching and energy industries cheered the policy shift as needed to give states flexibility.
A document outlining the recommended changes was released Monday by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
It recognized for the first time the importance of livestock grazing on sage grouse habitat, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
It also backed away from requirements to keep rangeland grasses and shrubs at a prescribed minimum height, which ranchers had complained was arbitrary.
“I was very pleased with what I saw there in terms of the tone,” Magagna said.
The ground-dwelling sage grouse has lengthy, pointed tail feathers and is known for the male’s elaborate courtship display in which air sacs in the neck are inflated to make a popping sound.
Millions of sage grouse once populated the West but development, livestock grazing and an invasive grass that encourages wildfires has reduced the bird’s population to fewer than 500,000.
States affected by the conservation plan are California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Just how much Zinke intends to tinker with the plan that was years in the making remains to be seen.
It was hashed out under President Barack Obama and unveiled in 2015 as a solution to keeping the sage grouse off the endangered species list following a decade-long population decline caused by disease and pressure on the birds’ habitat from energy development, grazing and wildfires.
The proposed changes, the result of a 60-day review of the plan by Zinke’s agency, could give states wiggle room in areas such as setting population goals for sage grouse and drawing boundaries of recognized sage grouse habitat.
Advocacy groups such as The Wilderness Society and National Wildlife Federation said the proposal was a backdoor attempt to allow unfettered oil and gas development that ignored previous scientific studies showing that drilling too close to sage grouse breeding areas would harm the birds.
“Wholesale changes to the plans are not necessary and could derail years of hard work,” National Wildlife Federation President Collin O’Mara said in a statement. “We cannot fall victim to the false dichotomy that pits wildlife conservation against the administration’s energy development goals.”
The birds inhabit parts of 11 states including large swaths of Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Nevada — big ranching states that include areas with vast wind energy and gas drilling potential.
Wyoming has a larger number of greater sage grouse than any other state and keeping the bird off the endangered list remains a priority, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said.
“We’ve come a long ways to get to this point,” Mead said. “As we make changes — and certainly I think there’s room for improvement — we have to move cautiously because we don’t want to get to the point where the bird is listed.”
Wyoming officials are glad the Trump administration has been talking to them about sage grouse policy, and the proposed changes include improvements, Mead said.
Officials remain concerned, however, by how the administration wants to set population goals for sage grouse. The birds are difficult to count and their numbers can fluctuate significantly from year to year in response to weather patterns, Mead said.
“We want to move cautiously as to not disrupt the great work that has been done by so many over the many years,” Mead said.
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said Zinke’s announcement marked an appropriate step toward giving the state more power to manage sage grouse. Idaho, along with Utah and Nevada, had filed a lawsuit challenging the Obama-era conservation plans for the birds.
“My staff and I stand ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the Department of the Interior to bring the federal plans into alignment with Idaho’s science-based conservation plan,” Otter said in a statement.
The proposed changes drew a muted reaction from some other Western governors who had been heavily involved in crafting conservation plans for the birds.
Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who co-chaired a federal-state sage grouse task force established in 2011, was still reviewing Zinke’s announcement, according to spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery.
In Nevada, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval didn’t have any immediate comment. Sandoval had worked closely with former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to develop sage grouse protection plans for the state.
Sandoval, Mead and Hickenlooper met with Zinke in April and urged him to coordinate with states before changing the Obama-era plans.
Areas where sage grouse habitat and gas drilling overlap include the upper Green River Basin of western Wyoming, home of some of the biggest onshore natural gas fields in the U.S.
A third gas field, the Normally Pressured Lance field, could add another 3,500 wells in a 220-square-mile area. Drilling could begin next year if the U.S. Bureau of Land Management signs off.
Jonah Energy LLC, recognizes the existence of sage grouse winter range in the southern part of its proposed gas field about 200 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, said Paul Ulrich, government affairs director at the Denver-based petroleum company.
“From our perspective, that definitely presents challenges but also provides an opportunity to do what we’ve done from day one, which is follow the science,” he said.
ROSEBURG, Ore. — June and July were profitable months for sheep producers in Douglas County, Ore.
The county’s spring lamb crop was sold at an average of $1.75 to $1.80 a pound live weight. The lamb price “was the best we’ve ever received,” said Dan Dawson, a county sheep rancher. Dawson said the price was 20 to 25 cents higher than a year ago.
According to the most recent National Agricultural Statistics Service, there are approximately 23,000 ewes in Douglas County. It is estimated the county’s lamb crop that went to market numbered 34,000. The average weight of the market lambs was 100 to 120 pounds.
“Lambs and sheep are still a major part of the county’s economy,” Dawson said. “The lambs are marketed as grass-fed natural, making them more appealing, and they go to specialty markets and restaurants. The lighter lambs are finished on irrigated pasture before going to market.”
The 43 producers who were participating in the Douglas County Livestock Association’s wool pool received 80 cents a pound for their fleeces from both ewes and lambs. The Woolgatherer Carding Mill of Montague, Calif., had the highest of the three bids received for the product.
Woolgatherer had bid on the county wool in the past, and purchased the pool in 2013.
“This is a very good price compared to the open market,” Troy Michaels said of the 80 cents a pound. Michaels is a sheep rancher and chairman of the wool pool committee.
However, the bid was 26 cents less than the pool price of a year ago. Hank Kearns, the chief operating officer for Woolgatherer, said the reason for the lower price is because China is importing less of the product than last year, diminishing the demand for coarse wool and creating an oversupply.
Kearns described the wool as “excellent quality for coarse wool.”
The total of the pool was 89,555 pounds. That tonnage is about the same as the pool’s weight for each of the last two years, according to Michaels. Two semi-truck box trailers were loaded and headed south to the mill in northern California, where the county’s coarse wool product will be made into batting for mattresses and furniture.
Kearns said the reason Woolgatherer bid for this wool was because of its low vegetation matter and its consistency, explaining the wool didn’t have a lot of dirt and grass tangled in it, leaving “a good clean product.”
“This pool has a lot of value to our business, we value the growers and we wanted the lot,” Kearns said of the high bid. “Our company will make it into batting and then sell it to mattress and furniture companies that use it in their products. Those folks are primarily interested in natural, chemical-free products.”
Helping out with the wool shipping process were 11 members of the Roseburg Mat Club and coaches Steve Lander and Doug Singleton. The teenage members unloaded the wool bales that ranged in weight from 400 to 500 pounds from trailers and flatbed trucks, rolled and lifted the bales onto scales to be weighed, then rolled them off the scales. A forklift lifted the bales and stacked them in the semi-trailers.
“It’s nice to have the wrestling kids in here to help with the physical work,” Michaels said. “It’s a good, different type of weight training for those kids. We make a donation to the mat club for their efforts and to help out their program.”
For many years back in the 1900s, Douglas County was home to about 100,000 ewes. Low lamb and wool prices through the years and lamb losses to predators were two key reasons ranchers downsized their flocks.
In addition to being an economic factor in Douglas County, Dawson said the sheep population is important because the animals help limit vegetation that can fuel possible wildfires. The sheep will eat back blackberry canes and other forage, decreasing the amount of ground fuel on valley and hillside pastures.
