NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — The 700-pound sea lion blinked in the sun, sniffed the sea air and then lazily shifted to the edge of the truck bed and plopped onto the beach below.

Freed from the cage that carried him to the ocean, the massive marine mammal shuffled into the surf, looked left, looked right and then started swimming north as a collective groan went up from wildlife officials who watched from the shore.

After two days spent trapping and relocating the animal designated (hash)U253, he was headed back to where he started — an Oregon river 130 miles from the Pacific Ocean that’s become an all-you-can-eat fish buffet for hungry sea lions.

“I think he’s saying, ‘Ah, crap! I’ve got to swim all the way back?”’ said Bryan Wright, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife scientist.

It’s a frustrating dance between California sea lions and Oregon wildlife managers that’s become all too familiar in recent months. The state is trying to evict dozens of the federally protected animals from an inland river where they feast on salmon and steelhead that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The bizarre survival war has intensified recently as the sea lion population rebounds and fish populations decline in the Pacific Northwest.

The sea lions breed each summer off Southern California and northern Mexico, then the males cruise up the Pacific Coast to forage. Hunted for their thick fur, the mammals’ numbers dropped dramatically but have rebounded from 30,000 in the late 1960s to about 300,000 today due to the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.

With their numbers growing, the dog-faced pinnipeds are venturing ever farther inland on the watery highways of the Columbia River and its tributaries in Oregon and Washington — and their appetite is having disastrous consequences, scientists say.

In Oregon, the sea lions are intercepting protected fish on their way to spawning grounds above Willamette Falls, a horseshoe-shaped waterfall about 25 miles south of Portland. Last winter, a record-low 512 wild winter steelhead completed the journey, said Shaun Clements, the state wildlife agency’s senior policy adviser.

Less than 30 years ago, that number was more than 15,000, according to state numbers.

“We’re estimating that there’s a 90 percent probability that one of the populations in the Willamette River could go extinct if sea lion predation continues unchecked,” he said. “Of all the adults that are returning to the falls here, a quarter of them are getting eaten.”

Clements estimates the sea lions also are eating about 9 percent of the spring chinook salmon, a species prized by Native American tribes still allowed to fish for them.

Oregon wildlife managers say sea lions are beginning to move into even smaller tributaries where they had never been seen before and where some of the healthiest stocks of the threatened fish exist. The mammals also have been spotted in small rivers in Washington state that are home to fragile fish populations.

California sea lions are not listed under the Endangered Species Act, but killing them requires special authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which was changed to address the issue of fish predation.

Biologists this spring started trapping the sea lions in the Willamette River and releasing them at the coast. They also have applied with the federal government to kill the worst offenders to protect the fish runs.

Native tribes, which have fished for salmon and steelhead for generations, support limited sea lion kills because of the cultural value of the fish, said Doug Hatch, a senior fisheries scientist with the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission.

“You’re pitting this protected population that has been fully recovered against these Endangered Species Act-listed fish,” Hatch said. “We think it’s an easy choice.”

If U.S. officials grant the request, the trap-and-kill program would expand a similar and highly controversial effort on another major Pacific Northwest river. Oregon and Washington wildlife managers are allowed to kill up to 93 sea lions trapped each year at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River under certain conditions.

In the past decade, the agency has removed 190 sea lions there. Of those, 168 were euthanized, seven died in accidents during trapping and 15 were placed in captivity, according to state data.

The Humane Society of the United States sued over the trap-and-kill program and may sue again if it’s allowed on the Willamette River, said Sharon Young, the organization’s field director for marine wildlife.

The animals are not the only problem facing wild winter steelhead and chinook salmon, she said.

Hydroelectric dams that block rivers, agricultural runoff, damage to spawning grounds and competition with hatchery-bred fish have all hurt the native species, Young said. And new sea lions will take the place of those that are killed, she added.

“It’s easier to say, ‘If I kill that sea lion, at least I keep him from eating that fish.’ But if you don’t deal with the cause of the problem, you’re not going to help the fish,” she said. “It’s like a treadmill of death. You kill one, and another one will come.”

While Oregon awaits word on the sea lions’ fate, wildlife managers are trapping them and hauling them to the ocean, which can sometimes seem futile.

Five days after his 2 ½-hour drive to the Oregon coast, (hash)U253 was back at Willamette Falls, hungry for more fish.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — It isn’t easy being a Klamath Basin sucker.

There has been a 75 percent decline in populations of two endangered Klamath Basin sucker species over the past two decades, and juvenile fish are not surviving beyond their first year of life, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife. As part of an effort to keep the species from extinction, officials are releasing upward of 2,500 hatchery-reared juvenile sucker into Upper Klamath Lake over the next couple weeks.

Alan Mikkelsen, senior adviser to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke on water and Western resources, stood boots deep just off the boat ramp at Eagle Ridge County Park Tuesday morning, lowering the first of many Lost River and shortnose sucker to be released into the murky waters of Shoalwater Bay on Upper Klamath Lake.

Mikkelsen, who said he took the Interior job after semi-retiring as a fishing guide in Idaho, said he normally catches and releases steelhead and salmon, but that the release of sucker holds more weight in this scenario.

“What’s going on here is an attempt to stabilize and ultimately increase the population of sucker in the lake, both Lost River and shortnose sucker, we would really like to get to a point where the Klamath Tribes will have their traditional and cultural history restored and where irrigators will be able to also irrigate,” Mikkelsen said, following the release.

“We will be in a position to release double this much next year, and we hope to double it a year after that,” Mikkelsen added.

At least 17,000 shortnose and 43,000 Lost River sucker, 60,000 total, need to be released annually in order to sustain populations of the fish at current levels, according to Evan Childress, U.S. Fish and Wildlife fish biologist.

Mikkelsen said he hopes to increase that number to upward of 100,000 sucker.

“This is one of the only options left for helping these fish survive or bringing them back from the brink of extinction,” said Susan Sawyer, public affairs officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Southwest region, which includes the Klamath Basin.

The 2-year-old cohort is the first of its age group to be released, having been reared from the larval stage at the Gone Fishing facility outside of Klamath Falls. Upward of 2,500 2-year-old juvenile sucker are set to be released in Pelican Bay near Rocky Point within the next couple weeks, according to Sawyer.

“The valedictorians, they got to go first,” Sawyer said, referencing the release. “This first class is going to give us a lot of information.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife released a group of 14-month-old sucker in 2017, but never have a cohort of 2-year-old, captivity-reared Klamath Basin sucker been released.

Each 2-year-old sucker being released is implanted with a Passive Integrated Transponder — a PIT — that tracks the fish. The U.S. Geological Survey will collect signals from each fish using an antenna, Sawyer said, as they pass mostly through the Williamson and Sprague rivers. This will help determine survival rates. It is estimated that 15 percent of the 2,500 released this year could survive.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife won’t be able to detect large numbers of the released fish for up to two years, Childress said, when the fish will likely spawn.

Sucker released after Tuesday will be released largely in the evening to mitigate predators feasting on the newly freed fish, and in groups of 40 to 50 at a time.

The fish are camouflaged, especially in murkey water, but still look like “tasty morsels” to birds, according to Childress, which led the agency to release them earlier in the year to allow the fish to get their bearings before more potential predators arrive in the Basin.

Sucker released this week have been raised from the larval stage and started out growing up in warmer temperatures in outdoor ponds during the winter.

Childress said geothermally heated ponds at Gone Fishing allow U.S. Fish and Wildlife to keep fish warmer in the winter in captivity, which helps with higher growth rates for the sucker population.

The species have been acclimated to decreased water temperatures before being released, Childress said.

“There’s no shock,” Childress said, of the transition. “It’s not like they’re going from the hot tub to the swimming pool.”

Unless young, viable sucker are added to the dwindling population, Sawyer said shortnose sucker could disappear in 15 to 25 years, and Lost River sucker could disappear in 30 to 40 years.

The captive rearing program was authorized in 2013, with Bureau of Reclamation contributing $300,000 per year, according to data provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

The Klamath Tribes released a statement prior to the Tuesday sucker release, stating: “Although, the Klamath Tribes appreciate this effort, we feel strongly that in order to be effective this needs to be accomplished on a much larger scale. We also are saddened that we are at the point where artificial propagation is now a necessary step in attempt to save these species from extinction.”

“We have to start somewhere,” Mikkelsen said, responding to a question about the Tribes’ news release. “Nobody believes this is anywhere near the numbers that we need but this first release . is basically to inform us and inform the scientists how these fish will actually do here.”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The state has reached a settlement with a northern Oregon dairy company accused of endangering drinking water by mismanaging manure and wastewater.

The Statesman Journal reports the settlement filed Wednesday will allow Lost Valley Farm to operate in a limited capacity until it can prove that its wastewater treatment system is fully functional.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture filed a lawsuit last month, citing the Boardman facility’s numerous failed inspections and environment violations since it opened last year.

The state claimed owner Greg te Velde failed to comply with directions to stop liquid manure and wastewater from overflowing at storage lagoons.

The owner declined to comment Wednesday.

The department says it will inspect the facility weekly.

Health and environmental groups have criticized the settlement, saying the terms are too loose.

ROSEBURG, Ore. — Don Bailey, a long-time veterinarian and rancher in Douglas County, died at his ranch home March 20.

He would have been 92 on April 30. He died of age-related, natural causes.

It was appropriate that there was a flock of sheep in a nearby pasture on his Bar None Ranch because Bailey spent much of his 65-year career as a veterinarian and rancher working with that animal. After he and his wife, Betty, moved to Roseburg to serve an internship after he graduated in 1950 with a degree in veterinary medicine from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., most all of his work dealt with sheep and cattle.

The couple opened Bailey Veterinary Clinic in Roseburg in 1951. In addition to helping with the care of livestock throughout Douglas County, Bailey also got involved in numerous agricultural, veterinary and civic organizations and activities at the local, state and national level.

Bailey retired from his clinic in 1991 after a 40-year career and he retired as a rancher a couple of years ago. He had both a cattle and sheep operation, and at one time had about 2,000 ewes.

“He was young, ambitious and a really good veterinarian who was very good with sheep,” said Bob Hall, who owns and operates a ranch east of Roseburg. “He knew a lot about them and when he came out to the ranch, he would tell you how to do things so you wouldn’t have to call him the next time you needed help with the same problem.”

Eugene Holcomb and his sons, Richard and Roger, also learned from Bailey when the veterinarian visited their cattle and sheep operation near Elkton, Ore.

“He was really good at sharing the practical things he had learned over the years,” Richard Holcomb said. “He didn’t hesitate to try to bring our skill level up so we could do a lot of things we had previously called him out to do. I had such admiration for him. He was such a mentoring type of man, a man filled with a lot of graciousness.”

Rex Heard, a sheep rancher near Lookingglass, Ore., said he was impressed by Bailey’s eagerness to continue to learn.

“He was well into his 80s and he was still sitting in the front row at meetings and conferences, with a tablet and pencil, taking notes,” Heard said. “I learned from him that when you take notes, you’re forced to be attentive and it helps you learn. When I talk to 4-H and FFA groups, I tell them that is something I learned from a local veterinarian. You have to apply yourself.”

Bailey shared his knowledge beyond his own practice. Recognizing a need in small ruminant medicine, both in colleges of veterinary medicine and in food animal science, he helped organize the American Association of Sheep and Goat Practitioners (now the American Association of Small Ruminant Practitioners) in 1968. He served as the organization’s second president, secretary-treasurer and executive director.

The Roseburg veterinarian also held positions in other organizations: A member of the board of directors of the Intermountain Veterinary Medical Association, chairman of the Health Committee of the National Wool Growers Association, a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association House Advisory Committee, president of the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association and the Oregon Sheep Growers Association, the OSGA’s delegate to the National Wool Growers Association and one of the founders of the Douglas County Soil and Water Committee.

In 1974, while Bailey was president of the OVMA, he was an advocate of increasing the opportunities for Oregonians to study veterinary medicine. The School of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State University was established later in the 1970s and a veterinary teaching facility was constructed at the school in 1980. Bailey became a member of the Oregon State University President’s Committee on Agriculture Education.

Since 1976, he was a frequent keynote speaker at state, national and international meetings.

On his ranch, Bailey and his wife, Betty, hosted hundreds of grade-school students for many years during lambing season so the kids could get that agricultural experience.

Glenn Kolb, the executive director of the OVMA, knew Bailey for the past 30 years. He described the veterinarian as “one of those generational leaders.”

“Over the years, he mentored countless veterinarians,” Kolb said. “He would tell them, ‘This is what I know, this is what I’ve learned over the years and if it can help you, great.’ He was a leader who felt it was important to give back.

“I’m thankful for the many years I was associated with him,” Kolb said. “He helped advance the veterinary profession as well as organized veterinary medicine.”

In 1982, Bailey began writing an animal health column for Sheep magazine. It was a regular feature in the magazine for about 30 years. He was also a contributing author to Current Veterinary Therapy-Food Animal Practice, Large Animal Internal Medicine and Practice of Large Animal Surgery.

In 1981, Bailey received the Degree of Honorary American Farmer Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with the FFA students and he was recognized locally with the 2012 Roseburg First Citizen Award.

Dave Jackson, a Roseburg-area cattle rancher, said Bailey was a “well respected man who was probably one of the most knowledgeable sheep experts on the West Coast.

“He didn’t mind getting his hands dirty,” Jackson said. “He taught me so much, I haven’t had to call on a vet in years. He’s been a dandy one for ranchers.”

“He was a barnyard type of veterinarian,” Hall said. “He’d always come up with a remedy, how to fix a problem with an animal. He was on the rancher’s side of everything.”

A celebration of life for Bailey is scheduled for 2 p.m. March 31 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Roseburg.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A spending bill slated for a vote in Congress includes a bipartisan plan to create a wildfire disaster fund to help combat increasingly severe wildfires that have devastated the West in recent years.

The bill sets aside more than $20 billion over 10 years to allow the Forest Service and other federal agencies to end a practice of raiding non-fire-related accounts to pay for wildfire costs, which approached $3 billion last year.

Western lawmakers have long complained that the current funding mechanism — tied to a 10-year average for wildfires — makes budgeting difficult, even as fires burn longer and hotter each year.

The new plan sets aside $2 billion per year — outside the regular budget — so officials don’t have to tap money meant for prevention programs to fight wildfires.

“Common sense has finally prevailed when it comes to how the Forest Service pays to fight record-breaking forest fires that devastate homes and communities in Oregon and the West,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who helped broker the compromise with Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. GOP Reps. Mike Simpson of Idaho and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington also played key roles, along with other lawmakers from both parties.

The Western lawmakers have been fighting for years to end “fire borrowing,” a practice they say devastates rational budgeting for the Forest Service and other agencies.

“This long-overdue, bipartisan solution to the madness of ‘fire borrowing’ will at last treat these infernos like the natural disasters they are, with the benefit that millions of dollars will now be liberated each year for essential wildfire prevention,” Wyden said in a statement.

The wildfire deal “puts an end to fire-borrowing and is a start to giving the Forest Service the predictable resources they need to reduce hazardous fuels” such as small trees and underbrush that cause and exacerbate wildfires, Cantwell said.

“This funding boost will allow the Forest Service to prioritize work in areas closest to communities, in order to save lives and reduce the risk of property damage, while still protecting essential public lands and existing environmental laws,” said Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The measure establishes a contingency account through 2027, with annual deposits starting at $2.1 billion and increasing to $2.9 billion. Money from the account would only be used after funds from usual firefighting accounts are exhausted.

Wildfires have burned across dried-out Western forests and grassland in recent years, causing billions of dollars in damage in California, Oregon and other states. The Forest Service and Interior Department spent more than $2.7 billion last year fighting fires — the most expensive wildfire season on record.

The budget deal includes $100 million for fire prevention projects and recreation programs and enables utilities to work with the Forest Service to prevent trees from touching power lines and starting wildfires.

Simpson, who chairs an Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development, called the wildfire fund one of the most significant pieces of legislation he has worked on in Congress. The concept is simple, he said: Treat catastrophic wildfires like other natural disasters.

“Fire borrowing was intended to be an extraordinary measure, but as fire seasons have grown more destructive it has become common practice — and has created a devastating cycle that prevents agencies from doing needed hazardous fuels removal or timber harvests, leading to worse fires,” he said.

As Klamath County, Ore., farmers and ranchers prepare for drought, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is offering financial assistance for mitigating wind erosion on highly vulnerable soils.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a drought emergency for Klamath County on March 13, which officials predict could result in economic losses exceeding $557 million. Meanwhile, the NRCS is encouraging producers to apply for funding through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, to plant a small grain cover crop that will protect against erosion.

David Ferguson, district conservationist for the NRCS, said wind erosion can damage adjacent crops, impact traffic visibility and cause other problems.

“This funding is a very short-term solution, but should be considered as a beginning to soil quality maintenance that incorporates a cover crop following intensive fall tillage,” Ferguson said.

The potential for wind erosion increases during a drought, due to the lack of available irrigation water. EQIP funding is only available for farmers and ranchers with highly erodible soils.

Applications are due April 25, and are prioritized based on soil type, erodibility, proximity to roads and residue conditions at the time of application. Seeding will be reimbursed at $41.90 per acre.

Additional funding may also be available depending on irrigation water supply in the coming months.

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls said there is still no start date or water allocation set for basin irrigators. The bureau held a public meeting March 20 at the Klamath County Fairgrounds, where farmers were told the start date could be as soon as May 1 or as late as June 15, according to a report in the Herald and News.

Water for the Klamath Project is governed by a 2013 joint biological opinion between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to protect endangered fish. A 2017 court injunction also requires the bureau to release 6,030 cubic feet per second of water between Nov. 1 and April 30 to flush away a deadly parasite known as C. shasta infecting coho salmon.

The bureau claims it has developed a proposal that, if approved by the court, would allow regulators to establish an allocation and start date for irrigation. The document is due March 23, and a hearing date may be held April 4 or April 11.

For more information about EQIP, contact Ferguson at the NRCS in Klamath Falls at 541-887-3503.

Oregon’s wine industry has experienced explosive growth in recent years with a continued focus on higher-priced, higher-quality wines, according to the latest economic impact study from Full Glass Research.

The Oregon Wine Board and Oregon Winegrowers Association first commissioned a series of reports in 2005 to reflect jobs, wages and revenue tied to wine production and distribution. The latest three-year update for 2016 was released March 19, showing gains across the board compared to 2013.

Three figures in particular tell the story. The overall value of wine-related activity in Oregon was $5.61 billion, a 67 percent increase. That includes winery and grower revenues, wholesale and retail wine sales, and related industries such as trucking and professional services.

Wine jobs also increased 74 percent, from 17,099 to 29,738, with wages topping $1 billion. To top it all off, the number of tourists visiting Oregon wineries more than doubled over the course of three years, from 1.8 million people to 3.3 million people.

Tourism related to Oregon wine accounted for $787 million in spending versus $295 million in 2013, covering hotel stays, food, entertainment and retail — a whopping 167 percent increase.

Sally Murdoch, spokeswoman for the Oregon Wine Board, said even they were surprised to see big the gains were.

“It’s emblematic of the hard work our growers are putting in day in and day out that we see this growth,” Murdoch said. “They don’t cut corners, most everything is crafted by hand, especially with our small- to medium-size producers which make up the bulk of our state’s wineries, and people who go to tasting rooms often are treated to talking with the winemakers working the land themselves.”

Other numbers in the study show wine grape acreage is up 27 percent in Oregon, and the value of grapes in the vineyard has risen from $128 million to $167 million, or about 30 percent. Winery revenues, meanwhile, are up 46 percent.

Full Glass Research is an independent market research company run by Christian Miller, of Berkeley, Calif., specializing in the craft food and beverage industries. By maintaining their focus on premium wines — highlighted by the state’s flagship variety, Pinot Noir — Miller said Oregon winegrowers have managed to turn their lower yields and cooler climate into an asset.

At the same time, Miller said the market is shifting in that same direction, with sales of over-$15 bottles of wine growing faster than under-$15 bottles for nine out of the last 10 years.

Factor in the growing tourism, and Miller said the value of Oregon wine is poised to increase exponentially. But maintaining long-term success won’t be easy, he cautioned.

“It’s not like the first premium wine boom in the 90s, where if you had a good wine you could put it out there and it would sell itself,” Miller said. “You really have to invest in sales and marketing in one channel or another to succeed.”

That is where Murdoch said the Oregon Winegrowers Association and Wine Board come into play, raising the profile of Oregon wine across the country. Last year, the association received a $174,540 specialty crop block grant from the USDA and Oregon Department of Agriculture for market outreach in major cities over the next three years.

The first event is scheduled for April 24 in Los Angeles, featuring more than 50 Oregon winemakers.

“This event will be an immersive Oregon experience and our hope is that LA’s wine enthusiasts will fall in love with what we’re making and pouring,” Murdoch said.

Oregon has grown its out-of-state wine sales over the last decade, from 888,000 cases in 2006 to 1.86 million cases in 2016. Direct-to-consumer sales, which can also include mailing customers outside Oregon, have also grown from 399,000 cases to 593,000 cases.

Miller, with Full Glass Research, said the short-term outlook for Oregon wine is positive, with factors such as demand for higher quality wines playing in the industry’s favor.

“All of that has aligned pretty well for Oregon over the next few years,” he said.

FRIDAY, MARCH 23

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has settled its lawsuit against a controversial new dairy as long as the facility complies with wastewater management conditions.

Lost Valley Farm, a dairy near Boardman with the capacity to milk 30,000 cows, has agreed to limit wastewater production to 65,000 gallons a day and ensure its manure lagoons have enough capacity to handle water from storms.

If the dairy follows the agreement’s terms for one year, ODA will resume using normal administrative remedies under the facility’s “confined animal feeding operation” permit.

However, the agency can still seek to revoke the dairy’s CAFO permit or request a court injunction if it’s necessary.

Earlier this year, ODA fined Lost Valley Farm more than $10,000 for allowing wastewater to overflow into unauthorized areas, failing to maintain lagoon capacity and not reporting the issues to the agency.

The civil penalty was preceded by several notices of non-compliance with its CAFO permit.

A lawsuit against Lost Valley Farm and its owner, Greg TeVelde, was filed by the agency last month after inspectors said the dairy continued to improperly discharge wastewater and maintain inadequate lagoon capacity.

Travis Love, the dairy’s manager, claimed the facility was being held to a higher standard than other Oregon dairies.

In a motion for a temporary restraining order, ODA asked Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Bushong to stop the dairy from generating any more wastewater.

Lost Valley Farm opposed that request, claiming that such an order would effectively shut down the facility at a cost of $30 million and 70 lost jobs.

The judge issued a temporary restraining order that required the dairy to follow its CAFO permit but didn’t prohibit wastewater production. The dairy was to show why the more drastic measure wasn’t necessary at a court hearing scheduled for March 23, but that appearance was canceled due to the settlement.

Representatives of environmental, animals rights and small farms groups opposed the construction of Lost Valley Farm, citing increased pollution concerns.

Even so, the facility’s CAFO was approved by ODA, allowed it to begin operating in April 2017.

ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Exporters say inventories of 2017 alfalfa and Timothy hay should sell out this spring but that export pricing still appears to be tricky.

“Right now we have a lot of competition for market share coming out of Australia and Canada where they have weaker currencies and are offering product at cheaper prices than we can for Timothy and Sudan grass,” said Jeff Calaway, president of Calaway Trading Inc. in Ellensburg.

Exporters, many of whom are in Ellensburg, have never fully recovered the markets that were reduced or lost from the 2014 and 2015 work slowdown at West Coast container ports, he said.

Exporting alfalfa is tough because rain and smoke damaged a lot of alfalfa last season, knocking it out of export quality and creating a Pacific Northwest shortage, Calaway said.

Domestic dairies are willing to pay more than export markets for the high-test alfalfa, he said.

And there’s the challenge of Saudi Arabia buying a lot of premium new season alfalfa in the Pacific Southwest at prices higher than Japanese, Korean and Chinese buyers are willing to pay, Calaway said.

Saudi Arabia’s Almarai Co., the largest dairy in the Gulf region, has bought hay fields in California and Arizona in recent years through its subsidiary Fondomonte California, to source its own hay. Water scarcity has caused the Saudi government to restrict domestic crops.

Almarai took 400,000 tons of hay out of the Southwest last year, continues to go after top quality and is willing to pay top price to get it, Calaway said.

More U.S. exporters should be able to compete in Saudi Arabia as it continues to restrict water for production, said Mark T. Anderson, president of Anderson Hay & Grain Co. Inc., another large Ellensburg exporter.

“China and the Middle East continue to be good emerging markets for U.S. hay products but competition from other countries is heavy, especially in the Middle East,” Anderson said, adding that his company has good quality, consistent supply and good brand recognition in both regions.

Pricing in China has improved a little each month but is below new crop starting prices in the Southwest, he said. It should balance out as old crop inventories sell out and exporters are less inclined “to dump product into China to keep hay presses busy,” he said.

Chinese demand has been growing at discounted prices but dramatic improvement is unlikely because of competition from other export countries and Chinese dairies not doing well, Calaway said.

Andy Schmidt, vice president and co-owner of Ward Rugh Inc. in Ellensburg said it’s hard to find the right price at the farm for what China wants to pay.

Timothy prices will have to soften to gain overseas market share this season, Schmidt said.

Last season, exporters got aggressive buying premium and supreme horse Timothy at up to $340 to $350 per ton, which was too high to compete with Australian oat hay and Southwest Sudan grass on the dairy side, he said.

Ward Rugh’s primary market is Timothy going to Japan and South Korea.

“We expect old crop inventories of alfalfa to clean up well up and down the West Coast,” Anderson said. “We also see lower acreage planted so we expect supply and demand to match up better.”

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — Construction on portions of the new College of Forestry building at Oregon State University has been halted after a large section of subflooring made of cross-laminated timber gave way between the second and third stories.

University spokesman Steve Clark said no one was injured in the March 14 incident at Peavy Hall, the Corvallis Gazette-Times reported . He said the university plans to hire an engineering firm to determine a cause and to evaluate whether any other cross-laminated structural elements in the building are at risk.

He said the placement of cross-laminated timber panels will resume when the evaluation is completed, and there are no plans to switch to more conventional materials. The building technique involves using solid wood panels to frame a structure’s walls, floors and roof. It has been used for years in Europe, but is relatively new in the United States.

The panels are lighter and much faster to assemble on-site than regular timber. Because the grain in each layer is at a right angle to the one below and above it, there’s a counter-tension built into the panels that supporters say makes them strong enough to build skyscrapers.

There is hope that CLT will infuse struggling forest communities with new economic growth, while reducing the carbon footprint of urban construction with a renewable building material.

The three-story Peavy Hall will eventually become the new home of the OSU College of Forestry and is intended to be a showcase for the Oregon timber industry.

The project, however, has been unpopular with some students and faculty, who say the original Peavy Hall, demolished two years ago, could have been renovated for much less than $79.5 million.

Anthony Davis, the college’s acting dean, said he did not expect the failure of the CLT panel to increase the project’s cost or significantly delay its completion, which is scheduled for early next year.

He said he still believes the completed Peavy Hall will serve as a compelling showcase for Oregon’s wood products industry.

“I know the capacity we have, I know the strength of Douglas fir and I am confident in our ability to continue to lead in the development of this material for use in midrise or high-rise buildings,” Davis said.

The failure involved a cross-laminated timber panel manufactured by a firm in Riddle, Oregon.

ADEL, Ore. — A first-ever competitive bid adoption for professionally gentled feral, or wild, horses could help shape future management plans on the nation’s public lands.

A two-day competitive adoption is scheduled April 13 and 14 in the small rural southeastern Oregon community of Adel. The event includes training demonstrations at the Beaty Butte Wild Horse Training Facility in Adel, where mustangs captured from the Beaty Butte area have received training. Bidding for 10 horses will begin 2 p.m. April 14.

“It’s the first sustainable wild horse program in the West and if it works it will change the whole notion of how the horses are managed in the West,” said Mary Bradbury, who hopes the inaugural event will be successful. “We have no idea what will happen. Adel is pretty far out.”

Bradbury and her husband, Dick, are Adel area ranchers involved with the Beaty Butte Working Group, a coalition of ranchers, horse groups, environmentalists — including the Oregon Natural Desert Association — and others. They began meeting and working with the Bureau of Land Management in 2015 to find solutions to prevent resource damage at the Beatys Butte Herd Management Area. About 65 miles east of Lakeview, Ore., the area spans more than 437,120 acres of federal and privately owned land.

“A few years back Beaty Butte became so over-populated with wild horses, as much of the rangelands in the West are, that grazing was being threatened as well as other wildlife habitat,” said Anna Kerr of the Intermountain West Joint Venture. “This truly is an amazing program that is receiving national attention. The program produces a win-win situation in the wild horse arena that doesn’t happen in most cases.”

The upcoming competitive adoption, and horse demonstration and training sessions, will be held at the training facility, which was built by the BLM for the locally run, private, nonprofit horse training program.

Although the BLM, which manages most of the Beaty Butte management area and has extensive lands throughout the American West, has developed other agreements on managing wild horses, “This one is unique because it provides a holistic approach,” said James Price, the wild horse and burro specialist for BLM’s Lakeview District.

If successful, Price said the program could result in significant savings. It’s estimated the lifetime cost for keeping unadopted wild/feral horses in a holding facility is $47,000 per animal — “It’s pretty substantial,” he said.

In addition, Price said overpopulations of horses result in extensive resource damage. Along with causing reductions in cattle grazing, damage to riparian areas adversely impact sage grouse, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, bighorn sheep and other animals, birds and raptors.

The program to capture, train and sell wild horses is part of a possible new management plan. BLM wild horse captures at Beaty Butte, as elsewhere, have typically been done about every five years when populations are extreme. During the last Beaty Butte capture, Price said more than 1,000 horses were gathered. The “appropriate management levels” for Beaty Butte is 100 to 250 horses.

Because the Beaty Butte mustang population is now more than 200, plans now envision yearly captures of 20 to 30 horses and then having them trained for adoptive bidding at annual sales at the Beaty Butte Training Facility, which is overseen by facility manager Jim Hiatt and head trainer Catlin Martin.

The upcoming adoption event will have 10 mustangs — including Flash Gordon, Chuck Wagon, Napoleon, Lefty, and six others — up for sale following two horse handling demonstrations. Other activities will include cowboy and western arts vendors and an auction to benefit the training facility along with an April 13 no-host dinner at the Adel Store.

“It’s new and there’s a lot of excitement about it,” Price said of the event and sale.

“I think being part of the solution is a good thing,” agreed Bradbury. “I’m thrilled to be part of a solution that keeps horses out there.”

For more information visit http://beatybuttewildhorses.com or contact facility manager Jim Hiatt at 541-219-0155, or Larisa Bogardus, Lakeview District BLM public affairs officer at 541-947-6237. Information is also available at www.beatybuttewildhorses.com and on Facebook at Beatybuttewildhorses.

Beatys Butte Mustang Adoption

Location: Beatys Butte Wild Horse Training Facility, Adel, Ore.. On 20 Mile Road, south of the Adel Store. Follow signs.

When:

April 13 at 3 p.m.: Horse preview and training demonstration. At 5 p.m.: No-host dinner at the Adel Store.

April 14 at 10 a.m.: Horse preview and training demonstration. 2 p.m.: Competitive bid adoption.

Unwanted invasive grasses and desirable native grasses both benefit from toppled junipers, which complicates treatment of the problematic trees, according to a recent study.

Junipers dominate parts of the West, replacing habitat for the Greater sage grouse — a bird species whose fate has serious implications for livestock grazing in the region.

Several researchers from Oregon State University have found that chopping down and leaving junipers on the range doesn’t go far enough to restore beneficial plant species.

“Cutting up juniper freed up resources that allowed whatever was in the understory to grow,” said Lisa Ellsworth, an OSU range ecologist and study co-author.

All types of grasses and forbs got a boost in areas where junipers were cut down, which means healthy habitats improved while struggling ones were more overrun with invasives.

Twice as many juniper seedlings were found growing beneath downed trees compared to areas where junipers weren’t felled.

The ground beneath downed junipers stays cooler and retains moisture, enhancing germination of their seeds, said Jake Dittel, a postgraduate researcher at OSU and study co-author.

Fallen trees also create habitat for birds and rodents that disperse juniper seeds, he said. Junipers primarily released seeds after they were cut, but the rangeland contains plenty of seeds regardless.

The lesson is that successfully restoring rangeland habitat will require suppression of invasive grasses with herbicides and seeding with native grass seeds after junipers are cut.

“If you have a big invasive grass component, you’re not done,” said Ellsworth.

Preventing an area from getting re-occupied with junipers will also require returning to lop off the seedlings that spring up.

“It definitely indicates re-treatment is going to be necessary,” she said. “It’s definitely intensive.”

Leaving fallen junipers is a common practice, but some of the trees can be removed and turned into lumber. The impediment is that many junipers are too crooked for milling, making removal uneconomical.

“Most of the trees are probably not going to generate that kind of wood,” Ellsworth said.

Piling and burning the downed trees also has drawbacks, since fire tends to encourage invasive grass species.

“All the management options come with a trade-off,” she said.

The effects of grazing were also analyzed as part of the study, which was published in the Rangeland Ecology & Management scientific journal.

The research found grazing as managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in the area made no difference on the prevalence of beneficial and undesirable plants.

Ocean Spray is asking the Food and Drug Administration to let it claim that cranberries may help prevent reoccurring episodes of urinary tract infections in women.

Cranberries have long been a folk remedy for such afflictions. The Massachusetts-based grower cooperative hopes to move the claim from “old wives’ tale” to one that the government recognizes has a scientific basis, Ocean Spray spokeswoman Kellyanne Dignan said Tuesday.

“We really want to have a clear message to consumers,” she said.

Ocean Spray petitioned the FDA in September to use the claim in its advertising. The FDA has indicated it will make a decision by Oct. 5 and recently put the request out for public review. As of Tuesday, the FDA had not received any comments. The comment period ends May 7.

Ocean Spray, whose members include growers in Washington and Oregon, seeks to make a “qualified health claim.” Scientific evidence must support the statement, though it doesn’t have to meet a more rigorous standard to make an “authorized health claim.”

The cranberry industry has been searching for ways to reduce a huge surplus that’s suppressing farmer income. The USDA is considering a petition by the Cranberry Marketing Committee to order that 5 percent of the 2017 crop be diverted from the market. The industry also has tried to brand itself as “America’s original superfruit.”

Dignan declined to say how much Ocean Spray spent preparing the petition to the FDA. Ocean Spray last fall announced it will spend $10 million over the next five years on researching the antibacterial properties of cranberries.

“Both Ocean Spray and the cranberry industry have talked about the health benefits for decades,” Dignan said. “This really is a continuation of that.”

The FDA does not have the authority to review claims by dietary supplements. Numerous products are marketed as containing cranberry concentrate and able to cleanse urinary tracts.

Ocean Spray is asking the FDA to use its authority under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to permit a narrow claim. The claim is that the daily consumption of cranberries, cranberry juice, dried cranberries and powdered cranberry may help prevent ­— though not treat — recurring urinary tract infections in healthy women.

To back the claim, Ocean Spray stresses three studies that concluded women who received a daily dose of cranberry juice or capsules were 20 percent to 58 percent less likely to suffer a new infection than women who took a placebo.

Ocean Spray funded the most recent and largest of the three studies. Some 185 women with a history of recent infections drank cranberry juice, while 188 women were served a placebo. After 24 weeks, 39 of the women who drank cranberry juice suffered new infections, compared to 67 women who drank the placebo, according to an abstract of an article published in 2016 in the American Society for Nutrition.

The study’s authors were associated with Ocean Spray, Boston University School of Medicine and Biofortis Clinical Research, a research organization based in Illinois. They concluded that drinking cranberry juice lowered the number of new infections in healthy women.

Ocean Spray’s petition acknowledged two studies that failed to find that connection.

In one of the studies, conducted at the University of Michigan, Ocean Spray served the cranberry juice. It also formulated the placebo that had the flavor and color of cranberry juice but no cranberry content, according to a 2011 article in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The other study that failed to find that cranberries prevented infections was led by a University of Washington researcher and was published in 2012 in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

BANDON - Growing up in a small Latino community in California, Dawn Churchill started at about age 10 helping her neighborhood grandmothers put tamales together for local fundraisers. That sense of camaraderie formed the way Churchill still looks at the…

MADRAS, Ore. (AP) — An animal-rights group says it’s buying billboard space along U.S. Highway 26 to memorialize 14 calves that died last week when the truck they were riding in rolled onto its side outside Madras.

The billboard will feature a cow next to the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the individual. Go Vegan.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals spokeswoman Amber Canavan tells The Bulletin newspaper that the billboard space will be rented for one month, and the organization hopes the advertisement gets at least one person to consider going vegan.

She says the nonprofit bought similar billboards following recent cattle truck crashes in Tennessee and Louisiana.

Oregon’s current water supply outlook doesn’t evoke optimism but early spring conditions were even worse before the severe drought of 2015, experts say.

The average snowpack level is now at about 64 percent of average statewide, compared to about 17 percent of average three years ago, said Scott Oviatt, Oregon snow survey supervisor for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“We really had no snow, especially in the northwestern part of the state,” he said.

Oregon got off to an excellent start last autumn — with snowpack levels at 236 percent of average statewide before Thanksgiving — but the situation has since deteriorated, Oviatt said during the March 15 meeting of the Oregon Water Resources Commission.

Precipitation is at 90 percent of average, which is similar to 2015, he said.

The water supply outlook would have been gloomier this year if not for below-average temperatures in February, which allowed snow levels to build up somewhat, said Andy Bryant, hydrologist with the National Weather Service.

Snow accumulation is much better in the northern Columbia River basin of Washington and British Columbia, Bryant said. “We’ve been kind of left out of the storm activity for most of winter.”

Looking to future weather conditions, there’s “not a lot to hang your hat on” in Oregon’s long-range forecast, Bryant said.

There’s an equal likelihood that temperatures and precipitation will be above average, average or below average in April, May and June, he said. In July, August and September, though, the projection is for rainfall to be below average and temperatures to be above average.

Fortunately, major water storage reservoirs across Oregon are in respectable shape — from about 81 percent of average in the Willamette basin to 131 percent of average in the Owyhee basin, said Ken Stahr, OWRD’s surface water and hydrology manager.

“Through wise management, we had a decent amount of carryover,” Stahr said.

Diminishing snowpacks are a long-term trend in the West, said Kathie Dello, associate director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University.

Since 1955, the region’s snowpack level on April 1 has fallen by the equivalent of Lake Mead — a major storage reservoir on the Colorado River — as measured in water content, she said.

“Our cold winters aren’t as cold as they used to be, and our warm winters are warmer,” Dello said.

Wednesdays

Laws governing dam safety in Oregon have become outdated, prompting state regulators to seek upgraded authority to inspect and order repairs to the structures.

In the next legislative session, the Oregon Water Resources Department plans to ask lawmakers to revise dam safety statutes that were originally written nearly 90 years ago.

The ability to enter property without a warrant to conduct dam inspections is one request the agency is considering, said Racquel Rancier, senior policy coordinator for OWRD.

Currently about a dozen dams in Oregon haven’t been inspected by OWRD in recent years because the landowners denied entry to their property, said Keith Mills, the department’s dam safety engineer.

Oregon has jurisdiction over dams that are at least 10 feet high and store more than 9.2 acre-feet of water, he said. The state inspects 969 such structures, while the federal government inspects 285 dams.

More than 25 percent of state- and federally-inspected dams in Oregon are rated as high or significant hazards, which is based on their potential to cause lost life and property damage, rather than physical condition.

Following are other dam safety laws under consideration:

• Landowners may be required to obtain OWRD’s permission to modify or remove dams under the supervision of an engineer, to ensure such changes are done safely.

• The agency may impose a requirement for people building lagoons — such as those storing manure or wastewater — to submit their final designs to OWRD before starting construction. The department now lacks authority for structures that don’t involve water rights.

Currently, OWRD must automatically schedule an administrative hearing when dam repairs are needed, which the agency considers a time-consuming process that could endanger public safety.

The agency may instead require the dam owner to get an “engineering analysis” of the structure without scheduling a hearing, or to hold a hearing only if the owner objects to the repair plans.

Under another proposal, the agency may order the immediate correction of unsafe conditions at potentially hazardous dams by reducing water levels, opening valves or taking similar actions.

“That is something we can’t currently do if we know it needs to be done,” Rancier said.

Imposing civil penalties for dam safety problems would provide an “intermediary” approach to induce needed repairs, rather than the only current option of imposing an order, she said.

“They really only provide a hammer,” Rancier said of current laws.

At this point, these ideas are only in draft form and will be refined based on feedback, she said.

Oregon’s water regulators are rapidly spending the $835,000 they have available for litigation and may go nearly $1.3 million over budget in the 2017-2019 biennium.

A request for more litigation funds was recently turned down by Oregon lawmakers, which means the Oregon Water Resources Department will probably ask the Legislature’s Emergency Board for money later this year.

If OWRD can’t get additional litigation funds, the agency will have to delay replacing employees who have left, though it has yet to determine how many positions would remain unfilled, said Racquel Rancier, the department’s senior policy coordinator.

About $600,000 was spent on litigation within the first seven months of the biennium, which was roughly two-thirds of the money allocated for two full years of legal battles, Rancier said March 15 during a meeting of the Oregon Water Resources Commission, which oversees the agency.

Litigation costs have averaged about $86,000 a month, so funds are expected to run out soon — particularly since several cases may go to trial, increasing the expense, she said.

At the current rate, OWRD is projected to spend about $2.1 million on litigation in the current biennium.

The agency has a legislatively adopted budget of $98.6 million for 2017-2019, down from $107.4 million for the previous biennium.

Litigation over water has increased mostly due to more regulatory calls cutting off water to junior irrigators in the Klamath Basin, where an “adjudication” over the validity of water rights was completed in 2013, Rancier said.

Since the lawsuits are generally initiated against OWRD, the agency doesn’t have control over the costs. The problem is also growing worse: 25 new cases were filed against OWRD in 2015-2017, up from 13 new cases in 2013-2015 and 5 new cases in 2011-2013.

OWRD plans to continue discussing the issue with lawmakers to convey what services the agency can’t perform as a result of delayed hiring, Rancier said.

The agency plays a key role in Oregon irrigation by administering the state’s water rights system, such as approving wells, diversions, leases and transfers.

When the agency issues a water call, a junior irrigator can stay enforcement of that regulation by filing a lawsuit, said Tom Byler, OWRD’s director.

OWRD can lift such an enforcement stay — as it did last year — but the process can take several weeks, during which a senior water user’s rights are infringed, he said.

The ability to postpone water rights enforcement through litigation has long been “on the books,” but has only recently been used this way, Byler said.

“It’s troubling for us because it really undermines the prior appropriations doctrine,” he said, referring to the “first in time, first in right” system of Western water law.