FRIDAY, MARCH 30

The owner of Lost Valley Farm, a controversial Eastern Oregon dairy that has drawn the ire of environmental groups and run afoul of state regulators, may soon be forced to sell off its entire herd.

Greg te Velde, of Tipton, Calif., began operating the dairy near Boardman, Ore. in 2017, which was permitted for up to 30,000 cows — making it the second-largest dairy in the state, behind neighboring Threemile Canyon Farms.

But according to documents filed in Morrow County Circuit Court, te Velde is in significant financial straits, owing more than $150 million in debt — more than $60 million to Rabobank, a multinational agricultural lender.

Rabobank made three commercial loans and issued three lines of credit for Lost Valley and two other dairies te Velde owns in California. The loans were secured in part by Lost Valley’s dairy herd, other livestock, silage and equipment.

The bank claims te Velde has since defaulted on two of the loans, and foreclosure proceedings are underway in California. Toppenish Livestock Commission, of Toppenish, Wash., has been secured to auction the Lost Valley herd, which includes 10,500 milking and dry cows, along with 4,000 replacement heifers.

John Top, owner of Toppenish Livestock, said they will begin preparing next week for the auction, which is scheduled for April 27. However, according to a motion filed in Morrow County by Rabobank seeking a preliminary injunction, te Velde has not given the auctioneer permission to enter the dairy and take the herd.

Te Velde declined to comment when contacted Wednesday. An attorney for Rabobank also declined comment.

In a declaration filed in state superior court Feb. 15 in Fresno, Calif., Nicola Merrifield-Olivia, senior vice president and manager of commercial special assets for Rabobank, wrote that the bank had attempted to work with te Velde for more than a year to restructure his debts. Yet despite these efforts, te Velde failed to put together a realistic plan.

“Two of the three loans extended to te Velde by Rabobank have matured, and te Velde’s precarious financial condition is beginning to endanger the well-being of the three herds,” Merrifield-Olivia wrote.

Lost Valley is located on a portion of the former Boardman Tree Farm. It has been a lightning rod for controversy since before it was permitted as a confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO.

More than 4,200 public comments opposed the operation, urging the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality to deny a key wastewater permit for roughly 187 million gallons of liquid manure.

Opponents railed against the potential for air and water contamination, though ODA and DEQ did award the permit based on what the agencies described as the most protective permit conditions for a CAFO to date.

Within the first year of operation, Lost Valley failed numerous inspections and was cited four times for permit violations. ODA sued to shut down the dairy, though ultimately the sides reached a settlement, with Lost Valley agreeing to limit its wastewater to 65,000 gallons a day and ensuring manure lagoons had enough capacity to handle water from storms. It also agreed to weekly inspections.

According to court documents, te Velde was in discussions to sell the dairy, but those negotiations fell through as of March 15. A motions hearing is scheduled in Morrow County for April 12.

THURSDAY, MARCH 29

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Court of Appeals has affirmed a Grants Pass ordinance that requires marijuana plants grown at home for personal use to be grown indoors.

The City Council approved the ban on outdoor cultivation shortly after recreational marijuana became legal. The council members were concerned about offensive odors.

Activist Rycke Brown took the matter to court, saying the ordinance conflicts with a state law that prohibits a local government from enacting or enforcing local limits on the production or use of plant seeds.

The Appeals Court on Wednesday agreed with a lower court that marijuana plants do not apply to that law.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Two southeastern Idaho tribes are seeking to intervene in a utility’s attempt to negate an Oregon law requiring fish passage as part of relicensing for a hydroelectric project on the Snake River.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes on Tuesday filed documents with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking to intervene in support of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Idaho Power in February petitioned the court to review a 2017 decision by the commission dismissing the Boise-based utility’s request that it exempt the three-dam Hells Canyon Complex from an Oregon law requiring fish passage as part of relicensing.

The tribes cite their 1868 Treaty of Fort Bridger with the U.S. government.

The tribes said they could be adversely affected because the treaty gives them rights to fish off-reservation in the waters of the Snake River and its tributaries.

Brad Bowlin, Idaho Power spokesman, said the company was reviewing the document.

“Idaho Power is still actively working with the states to resolve the fish passage issue, and we remain hopeful that further litigation of this issue will be unnecessary,” he said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Idaho Power’s 50-year license to operate the complex on the Idaho-Oregon border expired in 2005, and the company has since been operating on annually issued licenses.

Oregon wants salmon and steelhead to be able to access four Oregon tributaries that feed into the Hells Canyon Complex. But Idaho lawmakers have prohibited moving salmon and steelhead upstream of the three dams.

At issue before the appeals court is Idaho Power’s argument that the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution that has to do with federal authority over states pre-empts the Oregon law. The commission said it found no reason why Oregon couldn’t require fish passage and reintroduction as part of relicensing.

Biologists have said the Snake River above the dams is so degraded it couldn’t support salmon and steelhead without significant rehabilitation work, which would require cooperation from landowners.

Idaho Power supplies electricity to nearly 550,000 customers in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. The Hells Canyon Complex in a normal water year produces about 30 percent of the company’s total annual power generation.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Weedmaps is a go-to website for people looking to find a marijuana shop. With a few clicks on a cellphone, customers can find virtually any type of cannabis product, along with the fastest route to the place selling it and ratings from other consumers to help them decide what to buy.

But legal and illegal operators advertise next to each other, and licensed operators in California say that’s put them at a disadvantage in a cutthroat marketplace.

To them, Weedmaps is helping illegal sellers flourish without having any of the obligations licensed operators endure — collecting and paying taxes, insuring their businesses and employees, and abiding by safety rules for their products.

In other words, illegal shops can sell pot at cheaper prices, sometimes 30 percent to 50 percent less.

“That’s Weedmaps’ business model, to confuse the difference between legal and illegal,” said Jerred Kiloh, a licensed dispensary owner in Los Angeles who heads the United Cannabis Business Association, an industry group. “It’s an unfair playing field. They are pitting us against each other.”

Weedmaps operates in over two dozen states, but the issue is coming to a head in California, which in January became the nation’s largest legal marketplace. State regulators last month warned Weedmaps to stop advertising shops operating outside the law.

In a response, Weedmaps executives said they are eager to work with the state but asserted that the online directory doesn’t fall under state authority and is shielded by provisions in federal law.

The company sees the core of the problem as a scarcity of legal outlets and hefty taxes that scare off consumers from licensed shops, not its online ads. In Los Angeles, where the pace of city licensing has been sluggish, only about 130 retail shops have authority to operate, while city officials acknowledge hundreds more are making illegal sales.

Weedmaps says its experience dropping unlicensed businesses from its listings in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Massachusetts had no impact on the size of those unlicensed markets.

“Scrubbing the internet of the reality of unlicensed operators ... does nothing to fix the underlying issues,” Weedmaps CEO Doug Francis and President Chris Beals wrote to the state Bureau of Cannabis Control earlier this month.

The company some call a Craigslist for cannabis defines itself as an “interactive computer service” that falls under the federal Communications Decency Act. A key section of that law is designed to protect internet publishers, generally providing immunity to them for content posted by users.

But Kiloh is among those who argue Weedmaps is far more than an advertising platform, noting consumers can use the site to submit orders and summon deliveries from shops legal and otherwise.

“They are acting like Amazon, saying, ‘Here is a shopping cart,”’ Kiloh said. “They are creating a marketplace, not a platform for advertising, and it’s driven by dollars.”

The dispute over the online ads goes to basic economics for an emerging market sprung from what was mostly an illegal one: Lawful operators will struggle if they’re competing with a robust black market that can undersell them.

Complaints have surfaced elsewhere, including over fees that in some cases can be tens of thousands of dollars a month for prime ad space. The company says some advertisers pay nothing.

“I strongly believe their response to advertise for unlicensed cannabis companies is a black eye to the industry,” said Peter Marcus, a spokesman for Denver-based Terrapin Care Station.

Terrapin has three licensed dispensaries in Colorado and has advertised with Weedmaps for years, Marcus said. He said Terrapin worries Weedmaps’ high-profile spat with California regulators will bring unwanted attention from the U.S Justice Department, which continues to prosecute marijuana offenses under federal law that still sees cannabis as an illegal drug.

The appeal of black-market shops — and the lure of their ads — was illustrated this month after a raid at an illegal dispensary near Los Angeles.

Even after Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shuttered the Compton 20 Cap Collective, hauling out employees and customers in handcuffs and seizing bags of illicit pot, the shop’s page on Weedmaps advertised deals and displayed the dispensary’s products, which included dozens of varieties of cannabis buds, extracts and edibles.

Despite the bust, prospective customers were asking about making purchases.

“Are they back open again?” one comment read.

In its warning to Weedmaps, one of hundreds of letters sent to businesses that California regulators believe are operating improperly, the state said the company should take down ads from illicit operators and warned the company it could face criminal penalties.

But it wasn’t immediately clear how far that threat would go, since Weedmaps appears to be operating largely as usual. In their letter, the company executives said they would eliminate an internal “identifier” that appeared in business listings that state regulators said could be confused with a valid license number.

The company said in a statement it wants the licensed market to reach a “functional state where the unlicensed market is minimized.”

California regulators are discussing appropriate next steps, state cannabis agency spokesman Alex Traverso said in an email.

In the Legislature, Democratic Assemblyman Jim Cooper of Elk Grove drafted a bill that would penalize unlicensed operators that advertise on the internet, $10,000 for every violation.

“The black market is having a substantial impact on those businesses that are following the rules,” said Mike Ziegler, a Cooper aide. “They are being undercut by those who choose to operate illegally.”

———

Associated Press writers Paul Elias in San Francisco and Michael Balsamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

PORT ORFORD - “Show & Tell,” an exhibit of art interpreted through poetry and poetry interpreted through art will be presented April through May at the Port Orford and Langlois public libraries.

REDMOND, Ore. — The newest members of the Oregon FFA state officer team realized, shortly after their election Monday, that each of them had one simple thing in common when deciding to run for a position of leadership.

They were inspired by a key figure along the way.

Take Andrew Gmirkin, who was chosen by delegates as the 2018-19 Oregon FFA state president. Gmirkin, of Eagle Point, Ore., does not come from a traditional agricultural background — his mom is a librarian, and his dad makes jewelry. He initially felt out of place joining FFA, until one of his chapter officers assured him that it does not matter whether he was raised on a farm or ranch.

“You can do anything in this organization you set your mind to,” Gmirkin said. “Now we’re here.”

Or there’s Mackenzie Price, of Sutherlin, Ore., who was elected state treasurer. As a freshman in high school, Price said she struggled with feelings of self-worth. It wasn’t until she attended a leadership camp that others helped her to realize her potential.

“I didn’t understand everything I was capable of,” Price said.

Together, the group made a commitment to be the same kind of people who help their peers feel confident to achieve their goals.

Devin Thacker, the newly elected State FFA secretary from Canby, Ore., said a big part of it is to just be yourself.

“That is honestly the best advice I’ve ever gotten,” Thacker said.

Elections took place Monday morning during the delegate business session, kicking off the final day of the 2018 Oregon FFA state convention held at the Deschutes Fair & Expo Center in Redmond, Ore. Nearly 1,500 FFA members — or “blue jackets,” as they call themselves — from 102 local chapters attended the convention to compete in career development events, attend workshops and network with colleagues.

In addition to Gmirkin, Price and Thacker, the state officer team includes Dylan Westfall, of Hermiston, as vice president; Sundee Speelman, of Adrian, as reporter; and Holly Silvey, of Bend, as sentinel. They will spend much of the next year, post-graduation, teaching and hosting workshops at schools across the state.

Kourtney Lehman, who served as Oregon FFA president last year, said the experience gave her the independence and leadership skills necessary for college, while also shaping her perspectives on life.

“It was amazing,” Lehman said. “It really pushes us as people to be responsible, to be better.”

Lehman, of Baker City, Ore., plans to attend Oregon State University in the fall and will major in agricultural business management with a minor in either marketing or communications.

The state convention, March 23-26, featured a full schedule of events and competitions as students aimed to represent themselves and their schools at the National FFA Convention & Expo this fall in Indianapolis. FFA offers career development in areas such as job interviews, agricultural issues and parliamentary procedure, designed to enhance students’ critical thinking, speaking and presentation.

Several workshops also introduced the kids to future opportunities in the working world. The OSU Teach Ag Club hosted “Day in the Life of an Ag Teacher,” while the Oregon Department of Agriculture and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service ran down careers available in their agencies to assist farmers and ranchers.

But the convention wasn’t all serious business. It afforded members plenty of opportunities to cut loose, dance and laugh with their friends. The final session almost had the feel of a rock concert, as state officers charged onto the stage beneath a tunnel of outstretched arms, music pumping and lights flashing.

The closing address went to Lee Wesenberg, the outgoing state reporter from Sutherlin. He boiled down the keys to success into six main points: personal philosophy, being your own hero, having intellect, conquering your reality and achieving excellence.

Spelled out, the acronym is P.H.I.R.E.

“Success isn’t about winning or losing. Success doesn’t even have a scoreboard,” Wesenberg said. “In the end, we must seek the impossible.”

ELKO, Nev. (AP) — Federal land managers have designated 11 demonstration projects in six Western states in a bid to create more flexibility for grazing livestock on public range.

Bureau of Land Management official Greg Deimel told the Elko Daily Free Press the aim is to share best practices in what the agency is calling outcome-based grazing authorizations.

One example might involve letting ranchers graze cattle on young invasive cheatgrass.

The bureau announced Friday that five projects are at ranches in northern Nevada. Others are in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming.

Outcome-based grazing authorizations were announced in September 2017.

The goal is to let land managers and livestock operators respond to changing range conditions such as wildfires, high moisture years or drought to weigh economics and ecology with wildlife habitat.

The Oregon nonprofit Rogue Farm Corps is convening four, day-long events this April to help the current generation of farmers develop succession plans and the next generation of farmers find working land.

“Changing Hands: A Workshop Series on Farm Succession Planning and Access to Land,” will feature the critical tools and resources that farmers, ranchers, and foresters need to keep Oregon’s working lands working.

“The goal of the Changing Hands series is not only to educate, but to help build the connections necessary for a resilient farm community,” Nellie McAdams, RFC’s farmland preservation program director, said in a press release. McAdams has been on the road this winter and spring talking about succession planning with ranchers, farmers, foresters, and other community members.

“The tidal wave of farmland transition isn’t coming — we’re in the middle of it,” she said. “But we also have the solutions at our fingertips. This event is designed to help people discover and take the next step towards transitioning or accessing land.”

Retiring farmers can learn from experts about what it takes to pass on their business to the next generation — keeping it in the family or finding others to carry it on.

Aspiring farmers can learn about creative ways to start a farm business with topics on finding, leasing, financing and buying agricultural land.

The day-long workshop starts with breakfast at 7:30 a.m., and the program begins at 8:30 and goes through 5 p.m. with lunch and afternoon snacks included.

Register by April 10 for $20, including meals. Late registration will be $30.

Find the workshop most convenient to you below.

Agenda:

7:30-8:30 a.m.: Registration and breakfast.

8:30-9 a.m.: Welcome and keynote.

9:15-10:30 a.m.

• Succession Track: Working with your family to plan for succession.

• Access to Land Track: Finding and leasing farmland, including creative pathways to land tenure.

10:45 a.m.-noon

• Both Tracks: Buying and selling agricultural real estate.

Noon-1 p.m.: Lunch at facilitated discussion tables.

1-2:15 p.m.

• Succession Track: Working with your attorney and professional team to plan for succession.

• Access to Land Track: Financing options for purchasing land, conventional and emerging.

2:30-3:45 p.m.

• Both Tracks: Creative methods for passing on assets and management to next generation.

3:45-4 p.m.: Thank you and takeaways from the event.

4:15-5 p.m.: Snacks and networking.

Workshop locations:

Portland area: Friday, April 20, Harmony Campus Community Room, Clackamas Community College, 7726 SE Harmony Road, Milwaukie, Ore. https://bit.ly/2GxL1un

Medford: Monday, April 23, SOU Higher Education Center, Room 129,101 South Bartlett St., Medford, Ore. https://bit.ly/2Ia65EB

Redmond: Friday, April 27, Central Oregon Community College, Redmond Technology Education Center, 2324 Southeast College Loop, Redmond, Ore. https://bit.ly/2DZiKrr

Springfield: Monday, April 30, Sprout! Regional Food Hub, 418 A St., Springfield, Ore. https://bit.ly/2Fuu8gI

Rogue Farm Corps is an Oregon nonprofit that exists to train the next generation of farmers and ranchers through hands-on educational programs and the preservation of farmland. For more information: https://www.roguefarmcorps.org/

Wednesdays

BANDON - The Spring Fling Dinner and Silent Auction to benefit the Bandon Aquatic Center will be held on Saturday, April 14, at the Bandon Community Center-The Barn, 1200 11th St. SW.

TERREBONNE, Ore. (AP) — Sheriff’s deputies and volunteers seized 83 horses from a property in Central Oregon.

Deschutes County officials tell KTVZ that many of the animals had signs of hoof neglect. They were moved from the property in Terrebonne to an animal-rescue ranch in southeast Bend.

A requested welfare check brought deputies to the property late Saturday, and removal of the horses began Sunday. It took nearly 12 hours to move them all.

The rescue came a little more than a week after the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office seized 53 dogs from a breeder’s property in La Pine.

EUGENE, Ore. — An Oregon beef processor has shut down while owing $4.6 million to cattle suppliers, but the company says in court filings that it expects its assets are worth more than its debts.

A court-appointed receiver will oversee the dissolution of Bartels Packing, which in mid-March closed its slaughterhouse and processing facilities near Eugene, Ore.

Apart from the immediate financial impacts to suppliers, the demise of Bartels Packing also signifies the loss of a major cattle buyer in Oregon’s livestock industry.

“We look for competition in the marketplace, so there’s one less competitor in the marketplace now,” said Bruce Anderson, owner of the Eugene Livestock Auction.

Representatives of Bartels Packing would regularly attend Oregon several livestock auctions, where they’d primarily bid on culled dairy cattle and other “butcher cows” that would be processed into hamburger, Anderson said.

Bartels Packing was among the three largest bidders for cattle at the Woodburn Livestock Exchange, said Tom Elder, the auction yard’s owner. The other two companies, Walt’s Wholesale Meats and Schenk Packing, operate out of Washington state.

Specifically, Bartels Packing had a demand for organic dairy cows, which provide much-needed supplementary income for dairy farmers, he said.

“There’s already plenty of cows to keep these packers busy,” Elder said.

Less competition for cattle typically means lower prices.

When Bartels occasionally didn’t attend the auction, prices were about 10 percent lower for cattle the company would normally bid on, he said.

However, broader fluctuations in the beef market may compensate for the closure of Bartels Packing, and another competitor may eventually fill its niche, Elder said.

“There’s definitely an opportunity there for someone,” he said.

Oregon already has limited beef processing facilities, so the absence of Bartels Packing will be felt in the industry, said Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association.

“It’s definitely going to have an impact on beef prices here in the Northwest,” Rosa said. “This is a real sad situation to lose a packer of that size in Oregon.”

With the demand for U.S. beef in China, though, another business could potentially buy Bartels’ equipment and replace the lost slaughter and processing facilities, either at the same location or a different one, Rosa said.

The company’s owner, Chris Bartels, did not respond to a request for comment.

In court documents seeking to dissolve the company, Bartels requested that a receiver oversee the liquidation of assets to maximize their value.

The company’s assets are worth between $13.5 million and $14 million, including $8 million in inventory, $300,000 in accounts receivable and more than $5.5 million in fixed assets, such as equipment, according to court filings.

The court filings estimated the company owes 25 or more creditors about $8.3 million, including the $4.6 million owed to cattle suppliers and feedlots.

Because there is “not a readily available market” to quickly sell “a few million pounds of various cuts and grinds of beef,” it makes more sense for this perishable inventory to be liquidated by a specialized receiver, rather than individual creditors, the filings said.

For the same reason, the equipment is likely to fetch the highest value “as part of a functioning meat harvest or packing facility or alternately as a lot, as opposed to selling equipment in a piecemeal fashion,” the filings said.

As long as the liquidation is “handled in an orderly manner,” there should be more than enough assets to “settle the debts of all creditors,” according to a court filing.

Tuesdays

Beau Ditmore had never saddled a horse before, but was willing to give it a try Sunday morning at the 2018 Oregon FFA State Convention.

Granted, it wasn’t an actual horse, but rather a white plastic barrel fastened to a metal stepladder. Still, Ditmore learned the proper way to cinch a saddle around the makeshift steed while Anne Livingston, advisor to Blue Mountain Community College Collegiate FFA, provided basic instructions.

“It was nerve-wracking,” Ditmore admitted when he was finished. “If it was a real horse, it probably would have bucked.”

Ditmore, a freshman at Culver High School in central Oregon, was on hand to support fellow members of his FFA chapter at the state convention, held this year at the Deschutes Fair & Expo Center in Redmond.

BMCC Collegiate FFA, from Pendleton, Ore., was also on hand, bringing along a variety of hands-on activities for the high schoolers to try when they weren’t competing in an event, or waiting for the next workshop to begin.

Livingston, who is also director of marketing for the college, said the activities were meant to give kids something to do during downtime, as well as introduce them to agricultural programs offered at BMCC.

“Nobody likes to walk up and talk to someone they don’t know,” Livingston said. “But if they have a little something interactive, they’ll do that. That inspires the conversation.”

Apart from the saddle exercise, FFA members could test their skills in soil judging, practice welding patterns with crackers and spray cheese, or fly a tiny drone around an obstacle course marked by winding orange ribbon and blue and yellow balloons.

“It’s so fun to work with these kids,” Livingston said.

The event was originally envisioned to be a competition between BMCC and other collegiate FFA teams, but Livingston said the scheduling did not work out because many schools were on spring break.

Six students from BMCC willingly gave up the first five days of their own spring break to participate in the Oregon FFA State Convention, Livingston said. They hoped to show their high school counterparts that attending college is more than just sitting in a room with four white walls listening to lectures.

“Hands-on is huge,” Livingston said. “BMCC has relevant stuff.”

Lilian Woods, a freshman from Sandy High School, worked with Juniper Cosner of BMCC mashing soil into ribbons using their hands, analyzing its fragile, loamy makeup. Woods, who is in her first year of FFA, said she hopes the program will eventually lead her to scholarships to help pay for her college education.

Though Woods said she does not come from an agricultural background, she likes working with animals and believes doing FFA can help her become a better public speaker.

Ethan Akers, a senior at Heppner High School, said FFA has taught him leadership as well as practical skills, such as welding and operating heavy equipment — the latter of which he intends to pursue for a career.

“(FFA) has opened up a whole bunch more career opportunities, honestly,” Akers said.

There are plenty of opportunities to work in agriculture beyond just the farm or ranch.

That was the message of a workshop hosted by the Oregon Department of Agriculture during the 2018 Oregon FFA State Convention in Redmond.

Ben Krahn, livestock water quality specialist for the agency’s Confined Animal Feeding Operations program, gave a crash course on the vast inner workings of ODA, everything from foreign marketing and animal safety to helping neighbors resolve disputes.

Outreach to Oregon students is part of ODA’s latest five-year strategic plan — what officials call the “agriculture is cool” objective.

One thing ODA does not do is make laws, Krahn was quick to clarify. He described the department as servants of the Oregon Legislature, which in turn works for the public.

“We massage things to figure out what is in the best interest of everybody,” Krahn said.

In terms of helping to bring food from the farm to the table, Krahn said ODA not only works abroad by taking trade missions to countries such as China, but at home as well through programs such as the Buy Oregon initiative or Farm-to-School Network.

“In Oregon, we grow a crazy amount of food, and a crazy amount of products,” said Krahn, referring the state’s more than 200 types of crops. “We help to market those products.”

Fostering co-existence between farms and neighbors is another major issue, Krahn said, and though it can be challenging to solve differences, it can also be fun and enlightening.

The agency also has responsibility for protecting natural resources through things like water quality and animal safety. Jobs are available with ODA doing things like brand inspections, health certificates and bio-security, Krahn said.

To top it off, ODA runs a variety of certification and training programs, including organic agriculture, seed sampling and pesticides.

“We have all walks of life, and all expertise,” he said. “Because everything comes back to agriculture.”

Krahn encouraged FFA members to keep in touch with the agency for future job and internship openings.

“We’d love to hear from you,” he said. “We just hope you think of us.”

TANGENT, Ore. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the deaths of three bald eagles in Linn County.

Oregon State Police investigators believe the eagles were shot. The agency told KATU-TV no arrests have been made, and there isn’t a suspect.

Though no longer endangered, the birds are still protected by state and federal law. It’s illegal to kill or harass them.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Rick Swart told the station: “It defies my imagination why somebody would do something that stupid and it sort of makes me sick.”

A trooper found the eagles east of Tangent on March 16.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Commissioners in Jackson County are asking U.S. Rep. Greg Walden to help keep the Medford air tanker base open.

Giant air tankers and other aircraft fly out of the base to dump retardant on summer wildfires.

The Mail Tribune reports that evaluators are collecting information about air tanker bases in Medford and Klamath Falls for the U.S. Forest Service. A letter from commissioners to Walden says the team is deciding whether to consolidate the bases.

Commissioners told Walden the Medford base is a critical component of the fire safety network for the states of Oregon and California.

A National Air Tanker Base study completed in 1996 said keeping the Klamath Falls base operating was the best choice.

MOXEE, Wash. — U.S. hop stocks totaled 169 million pounds on March 1, up 21 percent from a year earlier and marking the third March in a row that it has increased.

“This was certainly expected. We are hearing that prices for certain varieties, particularly the larger-acreage public varieties of Cascade and Centennial, saw substantially lower prices on the spot market last fall,” said Ann George, executive director of Hop Growers of America and the Washington Hop Commission in Moxee, near Yakima.

Much of the crop is contracted a pre-defined prices so lower prices generally only impact spot markets such as over-contract or rejected production volumes or acreage for which a multi-year contract has expired, George said.

A lot of that acreage will be replanted in varieties that are not currently over supplied and some acreage may go idle for a year or two on the hope of a more even supply-demand balance, she said.

Acreage expansion is unlikely this year, she said.

The 169 million-pound inventory amounts to 132 million pounds held by dealers and growers and 37 million pounds held by brewers, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistic Service. The March 1 report was released March 15.

Proportionately, less is being held the last two years by brewers compared to the amount held by dealers and growers.

Hop stocks totaled 140 million pounds a year ago and 128 million pounds two years ago. Sept. 1 hop inventories were 98 million pounds last year, 85 million pounds in 2016 and 83 million pounds in 2015.

In recent years, expansion of small, craft breweries has fueled an increase in the demand for aroma hop varieties. But the rate of craft brewery growth demand has slowed even as acreage has increased.

Larger brewers have also lost market share to other beverages.