PENDLETON, Ore. — Imagine putting on a pair of virtual reality goggles and being able to control a robot that mimics human movements to prune clusters of premium wine grapes.

Sounds futuristic, but the Remote Operated Vineyard Robot, or ROVR, may become an integral tool for U.S. winegrowers sooner rather than later.

Engineers at Digital Harvest, a Virginia-based company specializing in precision agriculture, have spent the last 18 months working to build the ROVR system, which will be on full display during the 2017 Future Farm Expo coming Aug. 15-17 at the Pendleton Convention Center.

The Future Farm Expo is a three-day summit and trade show that invites local agriculture professionals — including growers, consultants and food processors — to meet with high-tech developers and learn how they can use drones and droids to make their operations run more efficiently.

This year’s expo will feature drones capable of flying beyond the pilot’s line of sight, mobile farming apps, advances in irrigation technology and, yes, a live demonstration of ROVR, which was built from scratch at Digital Harvest’s research outpost at the Pendleton Unmanned Aerial Systems Range.

The ROVR has already been tested in vineyards around Echo, seeking to overcome a chronic shortage of manual labor in the wine industry. Using the virtual reality platform, skilled workers can essentially take command of the robot from anywhere in the world — a Chinese office building, for example — potentially opening a global workforce.

Young Kim, CEO of Digital Harvest, said the company tried a number of different tools to operate the ROVR, such as joy sticks and game controllers. However, none were able to duplicate the same level of speed and accuracy from workers in the field.

“By using virtual reality as an operator interface, we not only improved manual dexterity but also opened up the possibility of human workers being able to teleport to work from anywhere,” Kim said in a statement.

The ROVR will be fitted with remote sensors to provide real-time crop data, such as the size of grape clusters and estimated yield, and moves via driverless golf cart, which was donated to the project by Yamaha Unmanned Systems.

Like Digital Harvest, Yamaha has set up shop at the Pendleton UAS Range, where they help to form the backbone of the Oregon UAS Future Farm program. Jeff Lorton, Future Farm manager, said adopting automated technology is key for agriculture moving forward. Future Farm exists to help bridge the connection between Silicon Valley-types working to make those machines a reality, and farmers who can best explain the issues they face.

“The idea is to bring the people who can develop these solutions here, and give them the benefit of agricultural wisdom in the Columbia Basin,” Lorton said.

For three days, the Future Farm Expo helps to facilitate a meeting of those minds.

“The whole goal is to bring these two groups of people together and create an environment where they can learn from each other and form personal relationships,” Lorton said.

Lorton, who also serves as creative director for the Duke Joseph advertising agency in downtown Pendleton, said this year’s Future Farm Expo has assembled perhaps the greatest ever panel of farm automation experts. The event’s keynote speaker is George Kellerman, a founding member of Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory, whose presentation is titled, “How robotics and automation will save farming in the 21st century.”

In order for agriculture to thrive, Lorton said farmers need to be forward-thinking.

“Nationally, we are bleeding off (individual) farm owners every year,” he said. “We have to turn to technology.”

The final day of the Future Farm Expo will also feature a “pancake summit,” where participants can learn more about joining Future Farm and accelerating the development of farm technologies. Lorton said he hopes to see their industries run with the program.

Registration for the Future Farm Expo can be done online at www.futurefarmexpo.tech. The cost is $125 for all three days, though participants can save 25 percent by using the promotional code “earlybird.”

ELKTON, Ore. — Retired agricultural teacher Denny Quinby was recently honored as one of only six individuals nationwide who received the National Association of Agricultural Educators Outstanding Service Citation.

Quinby retired in 2010 after a 31-year educational career as the ag teacher and FFA advisor at Elkton High School. He chartered the ag program at the school in 1980.

“I feel very honored,” he said. “But I don’t do things in life for recognition. I don’t want to be on the stage. I want the kids to be up there on the stage. Keeping kids in school in order for them to graduate, that was always my ultimate goal, not the recognition.”

So when looking for Quinby, look behind the scenes of the Douglas County Lamb Show or the Douglas County Fair. He is all about the kids and their animal projects at those events getting the spotlight while he helps with advice and guidance from the sidelines.

But thanks to a couple of his younger colleagues who initiated his nomination, Quinby was selected for the national service citation. He was recognized for his many contributions to his profession, both while teaching and continuing into retirement. He has been the chairman of the Lamb Show committee for the past five years and has helped with ag courses and projects at some county schools since retiring.

Quinby and his wife, Shortie, established the Elkton Wranglers 4-H Club and were its leaders for 30 years until retiring from it in 2010.

During his career at Elkton High, Quinby had two students become state FFA officers. He supervised many students through traditional and nontraditional agricultural experiences — projects related to agriculture that helped the students connect classroom learning to real-world activities.

Rachel Kostman, the ag science teacher at Oakland High School and a former student of Quinby’s at Elkton, said the Umpqua District ag teachers nominated Quinby for the award.

“He has devoted his life to ag education,” Kostman said. “Even in retirement he has stayed involved, mentoring young teachers in the district and inspiring students to learn hands-on applicable skills. He has a passion for agriculture and for agricultural education.”

Quinby has remained active in the FFA Forestry Career Development Event, a competition that develops student skills related to diagnosing forest disorders and managing forests. He has helped at the district and state level competitions and has coached forestry teams from Elkton and Oakland that have competed at the national level.

In the nomination letter that was submitted on behalf of Quinby by the Umpqua District, his continuing efforts to mentor both teachers and students were emphasized.

“Mr. Quinby has taken the role as a mentor to the current advisor (Braden Groth) of the Elkton agriculture program and other advisors in the district, a leadership role that is unmeasurable. Though he is retired, he still has a positive impact on students through his active role in the agricultural educational community. He still has, and always will have, a heart for kids.”

Even while helping others, Quinby does have his own agricultural projects at his home in the Elkton area — a mother cow and sheep operation.

“I guess I’ve just done some things right,” he said of the recognition. “I wouldn’t have done any of this if I hadn’t enjoyed it. I’ve done this for the betterment of the kids and the school system. If you want to help kids improve themselves, you have to give them your time.”

MEDFORD, Ore. — Since undertaking a review of Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke hasn’t gotten a satisfactory answer to a key question.

“How were the boundaries made? Nobody knows how the boundaries were made,” Zinke said during a July 15 visit to the monument.

The original 53,000-acre monument was created in 2000 but was increased to roughly 100,000 acres by the Obama administration last year.

It’s now one of 27 national monuments created in the last two decades that are under review by the Trump administration.

Zinke’s recommendation for potential changes to the Cascade Siskiyou’s monument is due Aug. 23, after which any final decision will be in President Donald Trump’s hands.

“He’s the best boss I’ve ever worked for. He doesn’t micromanage,” said Zinke.

Unlike many national monuments, the Cascade-Siskiyou isn’t known for a particular geological feature, but rather for its unique biodiversity.

“Other monuments don’t have the same object,” said Zinke.

Another particular trait of the Cascade-Siskiyou is the large amount of private land that’s enclosed within its boundaries, which can create access problems for landowners, he said.

While he’s prepared to accept the premise that the area’s flora and fauna justify a monument designation, Zinke said the Cascade-Siskiyou’s boundaries seem arbitrary in some areas.

So far, nobody at the Interior Department has taken responsibility for drawing the boundaries or explaining their placement, he said.

It’s become clear the boundaries weren’t established at the direction of local U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials, Zinke said.

“They had nearly no input in drawing the boundaries and that concerns me,” he said.

Any changes to the national monument would be based on science — specifically, which areas contain watersheds, plants, animals, soils and geological features that should be protected, Zinke said.

Zinke is also examining how the boundaries affect traditional economic uses, such as grazing and timber, as well as recreational uses, including hiking, snowmobiling and horseback riding.

A top concern is that managing the land as a wilderness increases the amount of fuels that can contribute to a catastrophic fire, he said.

“Burning habitat down is not acceptable,” Zinke said.

Grazing is an important industry in the region, but it’s also a tool to keep those fuels in check, said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who accompanied Zinke on the two-day trip.

“Cattle can play a productive role,” Walden said.

Legal precedents have made clear that presidents can modify national monuments — it has occurred 18 times in the past, Zinke said.

The law is less certain when it comes to an outright rescission of a monument, Zinke said.

Such a decision would have to be substantially justified by the science, he said.

National monuments have been controversial since the first one — the Devils Tower in Wyoming — was designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Zinke said.

Such designations have protected some of the greatest national treasures in the U.S., he said.

At the same time, Zinke said he’s a strong advocate of multiple uses for public lands.

“Public land is not a political issue, it’s an American issue,” he said.

During a stop at Hyatt Lake, which abuts the monument, Zinke was greeted by supporters and opponents of the monument.

Robin Haptonstall said he didn’t believe the expansion was legal because much of it encompassed “O&C Lands” that the federal government dedicated to timber production.

As a rancher, Haptonstall said he’s also worried about the previously proposed Siskiyou Crest National Monument, which could affect his property.

“I’m trying to stop this disease,” he said.

Bonnie Johnson, a monument neighbor who supports the expansion, said the Cascade-Siskiyou is a major tourist draw.

“It’s like a cathedral,” she said. “It’s a spiritual experience.”

The expansion is necessary to ensure the survival of native plants and animals, Johnson said.

“You can’t confine them in a little island of protection,” she said.

Oregon State University’s dry farming project, which began when drought still gripped much of the West, has expanded to the point that 30 farms are hosting field trials this year on the prospects of growing vegetables and orchard crops with little or no irrigation.

Twelve Western Oregon sites will host field days in August, with visits available every Tuesday — Aug. 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. The cost is $10 per person per date. Registration and other details are at http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/dry-farm/dry-farming-collaborative

Amy Garrett, an assistant professor who heads the project for OSU Extension’s Small Farms Program, said the idea of reducing or even eliminating irrigation continues to draw interest from farmers and gardeners across the country and even internationally. This year, project participants in Western Oregon are growing squash, melons, zucchini, dry beans, tomatoes or corn in 100-square-foot plots that allow for replication and comparison of results.

Garrett, who has been researching dry farming since 2013, said the project is 10 times larger than when she started. The project’s Facebook group, Dry Farming Collaborative, now has more than 270 members.

The program particularly attracts small farmers and new farmers, who are drawn to growing food but run up against one of agriculture’s basic problems.

“What started me off on this path is that I work with a lot of landowners who are on land without water rights,” Garrett said.

The most recent, or “junior,” water rights holders are the first to be shut off during shortages, and Garrett said some people interested in dry farming came to it after losing irrigation in 2015. Others lack the capital to sink a well or set up an irrigation system.

In urban areas, master gardeners who are paying for expensive city water make up a growing contingent of people interested in dry farming, Garrett said.

It’s not for everyone, however, and it’s not as simple as keeping the sprinklers turned off. Dry farming is best suited for Western Oregon and Western Washington, where the soil soaks up plentiful rain from fall, through winter and into the spring. In addition, dry farming requires careful site selection, soil preparation and planning, Garrett said. Seeds and plant starts are planted deep to put them closer to the damp soil below.

Garrett said melons, peaches and tomatoes grown by the dry farming method attain intense flavor.

Allen Dong, who operates Regulus Associates farm in Elmira, Ore., west of Eugene, is hosting one of the field day events. He’s a former University of California-Davis irrigation researcher, and said dry farming comes with trade-offs.

Dry farming hastens plant maturity and shortens the season, he said, but yield decreases in a linear relationship to water availability.

Dong grows dry beans and garlic for market, and dry farms the garlic to help with disease control. “I get a higher yield if I irrigate, but it’s not very marketable when they get all that gray mold.”

Plants don’t care where water comes from, he said, and will seek it out in the soil profile if not getting it from irrigation.

“For people with no water rights, they can do dry farming with no irrigation, but they have to keep in mind there’s a lot of competition for that water stored in the soil profile — mainly weeds.”

He said people trying to dry farm must reduce planting density, remove cover crops that will compete for water and make sure no tree roots are snaking underground to steal moisture.

He said a model of reduced irrigation, rather than no irrigation, is a better choice for farmers.

“There are things you have to pay attention to with dry farming,” he said. “You can make a lot more mistakes when you reduce irrigation, and still come out ahead.”

LANGLOIS — The Langlois Public Library invites children ages 3-15 to Build a Better World during its 2017 Summer Reading Program.

ONTARIO, Ore. — Eastern Oregon is on the path to landing a major rail transload facility, and that news is sending a jolt of excitement through the region’s agricultural industry.

The Oregon Legislature’s recently passed $5.3 billion transportation bill includes $26 million to create a transload facility near Ontario in Malheur County.

A transload facility allows shipping containers to be transferred from one mode of transportation to another, in this case between truck and rail.

The facility would be a big benefit to the area’s agricultural sector, particularly the onion industry, Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, said.

“It would drive down the cost of freight significantly,” he said. “It would be a real benefit to our community.”

The facility could benefit the region’s alfalfa, timber, dairy and other industries as well but it would be a huge win for the onion industry, Bentz said during a public presentation June 13 in conjunction with a Malheur County Onion Growers Association board meeting.

“The entire facility is built around the onion industry,” he said. “Eighty to ninety percent of the facility is going to be for you guys.”

Onion growers and shippers applauded plans for the facility.

“This thing is huge,” MCOGA President Paul Skeen, a farmer, told Capital Press. “It’s a big, big deal. It will allow us to move product faster and cheaper.”

Most of the region’s onions are shipped by rail to the East Coast. They currently have to be taken by truck to the nearest transload facility in Wallula, Wash., before heading east.

It costs onion growers in Eastern Oregon and Southwestern Idaho about 50 cents per 50-pound bag to do that, said Grant Kitamura, general manager of Murakami Produce, an onion shipping company.

With a transload facility near Ontario, “That could be money in our pockets,” he said. “This is going to be a real salvation for our local onion industry.”

Shay Myers, general manager of Owyhee Produce, an onion shipper, estimates the transload facility could result in about $15 million per year in freight savings for the Oregon-Idaho onion industry.

“That’s just freight savings; it doesn’t include new market share that might be created by that (new) freight advantage,” he said.

Bentz, who was vice-co-chair of the 14-member committee that hammered out the transportation bill, said the biggest advantages of the transload facility would be reducing freight costs and speeding up delivery times.

He said the facility would attract product from the nearby Boise area and as far away as Burley in southcentral Idaho.

Kay Riley, general manager of Snake River Produce, an onion shipper, said that when it comes to shipping to the East Coast, the Oregon-Idaho onion industry enjoys about a 50-cent per bag natural geographic advantage over onion growers in Washington.

However, he added, that advantage is wiped away by the fact Oregon-Idaho onions have to backtrack to Washington before being shipped by rail to the East Coast.

“This (transload) facility would re-establish that advantage,” he said. “It’s huge (and) could be a real game-changer for us.”

Oregon’s attorney general is threatening to sue the Trump administration if it tries to change the boundaries of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The Department of Interior is currently reviewing the status and size of national monuments across the country.

In his final days in office, President Obama invoked the Antiquities Act to expand Southern Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument by nearly 50,000 acres. The region is considered a bio-diversity hotspot in the West.

Supporters of the expansion fear the current review will be used by the Trump administration to reverse course.

In a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum threaten to sue if that happens.

“As you review the vibrant landscape within the Cascade-Siskiyou region, I know that you and the President will share our desire to preserve it for future generations, she wrote. “However, if the President attempts instead to revoke or reduce the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, we stand ready to take appropriate legal action.”

State attorney Paul Garrahan said the Trump administration would be exceeding its executive-branch powers if tries to undo Obama’s action.

“The Antiquities Act does not include authority for the President to reduce or reverse a decision to designate a national monument,” said Garrahan, who is in charge of the Natural Resources Section at the Oregon Department of Justice.

Two timber companies filed a lawsuit earlier this year to block the expansion. That suit is on hold pending the result of the current federal review.

This week, the Interior Department recommended that the administration keep Washington’s Hanford Reach National Monument and Idaho’s Craters of the Moon intact.

It’s unclear if those decisions will have any bearing on the outcome of the Cascade-Siskiyou review. It’s also unclear what the Interior Department is using to make its recommendations, says Oregon State Representative Pam Marsh, whose district include the Monument.

“I don’t really understand what the criteria is that they’re looking at this point,” she said.  “And is it the same criteria across all monuments?”

Reports have surfaced that Zinke will be visiting Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument this weekend to meet with stakeholders. The Interior Department would not confirm those reports.

Jefferson Public Radio’s Liam Moriarty contributed to this report.

Statesman Journal

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — More than 350,000 fingerling trout are being dropped from helicopters into lakes across the mountains of Oregon.

The goal of this week’s drop is to offer fishing opportunities to those willing to venture into the backcountry, The Statesman Journal reported. The fish to be stocked in high mountain lakes include juvenile brook, cutthroat and rainbow trout.

“Trout fishing is still by far our most popular type of fishing in Oregon,” said Mike Gauvin, manager of recreational fishing for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “The thing about Oregon’s high lakes is there are not a lot of places in the lower 48 United States where you can have this kind of wilderness fishing experience.”

The fish drop happens every two years, and it usually takes two years for the small fish to reach the 8-inch size where anglers can keep them.

The trout are transported mostly by helicopter in a custom shuttle carrying 30 individual canisters that hold a few gallons of water and up to 1,000 fingerling trout. The canisters are opened by remote control from inside the cockpit while the chopper hovers over a lake.

A helicopter crew can seed as many as 20 lakes with 20,000 trout in a single one-hour flight. In other areas, the agency still must use the old-fashioned way of getting trout to the outback — afoot or on horseback.

Biologists generally use 3-inch juvenile fish because the 100-foot fall is less traumatic for them than larger fish.

Ninety-five percent of the little fish survive the drop, but biologists believe they may have a tougher time surviving once they’re in the lake. The state will experiment with larger trout in some locations, to see how their survival rate compares.

Spots near Salem that will get fish include numerous lakes in the Cascade Range, including in the Mount Jefferson, Mount Washington and Three Sisters wilderness areas. The Fish and Wildlife website includes a statewide list.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a logging accident that killed a man in northwestern Oregon.

The Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office says 32-year-old Casey Schlundt of McMinnville died Wednesday when an unexpected log shift caused a cable to break. The logs and Schlundt fell about 50 feet. He was pronounced dead at the scene in Tillamook.

The sheriff’s office and Oregon OSHA are conducting the investigation.

In the wine world, and in the curious niche it occupies in Oregon agriculture, it is big news that a professor, a wine climatologist, is moving from one college to another.

Greg Jones, although as unassuming an academic as you’ll find, carries that kind of heft.

Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., in Yamhill County where the state’s wine industry came of age, announced that Jones has been hired to oversee its Wine Education Program. The college offers an interdisciplinary minor in the subject, which seems unfair to previous generations of college students.

Nonetheless, Jones is leaving Southern Oregon University in Ashland, where he directs the Division of Business, Communication and the Environment and is a research climatologist with SOU’s Environmental Science and Policy Program. He’s considered an expert on how climate variability and change affect grapevine growth and wine production.

The website Great Northwest Wine said Jones’ move to Linfield is “international news.” Tom Danowski, president and CEO of the Oregon Wine Board, described Jones as a “longtime friend to Oregon’s grape growers and winemakers.”

“His stellar global reputation for excellence in his field continually reminds us how lucky we are to have him here in Oregon’s wine community,” Danowski said in a prepared statement.

Linfield President Thomas Hellie said Jones has “earned an international reputation for his research on wine, climate and the environment.” In a prepared statement, he said Jones is a “perfect fit for Linfield.”

Jones agrees. The opportunity was unexpected, he said, but came at a time when he was ready for change and new challenges after 20 years in Ashland. The move puts him physically at the nexus of Oregon’s expanding and well-regarded wine industry, with 100 wineries within 50 miles.

Equally exciting, Jones said, is the chance to shape Linfield’s wine education program. The first task, he said, is to make wine studies an academic major in addition to a minor. He said Linfield will not compete with universities to crank out winemakers, but instead will offer a broad liberal arts overview of how wine functions as a business and a sustainable agricultural enterprise.

He envisions students getting a four-year degree in wine studies from Linfield, then perhaps going on to master’s degrees in viticulture from Oregon State, Washington State, the University of California-Davis or elsewhere.

Jones organized the industry’s Terroir Congress that was held at Linfield in the summer of 2016, with about 100 scientists attending from around the world. Wine Business Monthly named him one of the top 50 industry leaders last year as well. The Oregon Wine Press chose him Wine Person of the Year in 2009 and the website intowine.com picked him as one of the 100 most influential people in the industry in 2012 and 2013. He’s one of 10 Americans honored for his work with the Portuguese wine industry.

Jones, 57, said his interest in wine climatology is a “chicken or egg” question. His parents, Earl and Hilda Jones, founded Abacela Winery in Roseburg, Ore., in 1995. It was questions his father asked while starting the Tempranillo varietal winery that started Jones thinking about the niche science of wine climatology.

Jones said he still has projects in Southern Oregon and will remain involved with the region and will continue producing his email climate reports.

“I’m really not leaving, I’m just residing somewhere else,” Jones said.

“I’m grateful for all SOU and the Southern Oregon wine region have allowed me to do,” he said. “It’s been a wonderful 20 years.”

AGNESS, Ore. (AP) — A 3.2-million-board-foot timber sale federal officials said was designed as a landscape restoration project will reap little financial benefits other than the first major repairs in three decades to a popular forest road.

Compared to other sales, the Green Knob timber sale fetched pennies on the dollar from a Brookings mill that will pay $350,000 in culvert replacements so its trucks can use Bear Camp Road to ship its mill enough logs to build 200 homes.

Known on maps as Forest Service Road 23, Bear Camp Road is a one-lane, paved road over the Siskiyou Mountains used by lower Rogue Canyon rafters and others.

It will be closed for up to two months beginning Monday so contractors for South Coast Lumber Co., the sale’s purchaser, can begin replacing 22 culverts along a 7.5-mile stretch to return the 30-year-old road to log-truck worthiness for fall logging.

Tina LaNier, the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest’s Gold Beach district ranger, said Green Knob was crafted over 201 acres to improve large-tree growth, reduce wildfire intensity and improve habitat for species such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

“The point of the sale is landscape restoration,” LaNier said. “We’re increasing resiliency of these stands to fire. We’re trying to improve late-successional characteristics.”

The sale also was managed knowing that whoever bought it would have to improve the road, where failed culverts lead to sloughs in the pavement and washouts that dump unwanted sediment into the Rogue River.

“We knew it needed repair,” said Jim Campbell, the forest’s timber-sale contracting officer. “Almost every culvert in that road is rusted out.”

Knowing potential buyers would need to recoup the estimated $350,000 in required road improvement through lowered timber costs, the forest set the minimum bid at $10.34 per thousand board feet of timber, Campbell said.

South Coast Lumber was the only bidder and offered just the minimum bid, which is less than 5 percent of the forest’s five most recent sales, which garnered $200 to $250 per thousand board feet of timber, according to Andy Hill, a forest resource specialist.

At the sale price, Green Knob’s 3.2 million board feet of timber will add $33,088 to forest coffers, making the Bear Camp Road repairs by far the sale’s largest financial benefit to the forest.

“When you look at it, that’s what it’s showing,” Campbell said. “But we don’t really look at things that way. That (road improvements) was a secondary issue.”

About 16,000 board feet of timber goes into the average 2,000-square-foot home. A board foot is a 1-square-foot board of usable timber that is 1-inch thick.

Completed in the late 1980s, Bear Camp Road is seasonally closed by snowdrifts and is the only paved road between Galice and Agness. It has become a staple for rafting companies and private parties shuttling trailers for people rafting the Rogue’s Wild and Scenic Section, as well as summer motorists looking for a forest drive that offers spectacular panoramas of largely unscratched backwoods.

It was originally built to safely transport log trucks, but the original corrugated galvanized steel culverts have failed over time, causing regular sloughing of the serpentine soils there and requiring repairs almost annually.

While forest roads are public, upgrades to log-haul quality are the responsibility of those who buy timber sales transport logs on those roads. The Green Knob sale is the first in the area, hence the first with major road improvements built into the sale.

“They are good tools for us to repair the road,” assistant forest engineer Paul Podesta said. “(But) we are not going to fix all the issues with that sale.”

Campbell said the forest plans more timber sales in that area, with more improvements to Bear Camp Road, but to lesser financial levels than the Green Knob sale.

“It just happened that this sale footed the bill for most of it,” Campbell said. “The future timber sales will pay a hefty price to haul over that road.”

Oregon State University Extension Service is looking to taxpayers for help funding local outreach and education programs in Umatilla and Morrow counties.

A citizens advisory committee has proposed creating two new service districts for OSU Extension — one in each county. If approved by voters, the districts would tax at a rate of 33 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

That money would go toward paying for things like additional staff, supplies, maintenance and utility costs. OSU Extension not only has farm and livestock agents working across both counties, but supports educational programs such as 4-H and Master Gardeners.

The Umatilla County extension district would also include OSU’s Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center north of Pendleton and Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, where scientists conduct experiments to improve farming practices.

Mary Corp, who serves as both the regional administrator for OSU Extension and director at CBARC, said the districts would add much-needed sustainability to the budget. Twenty-five of Oregon’s 36 counties already have extension districts in place.

Both county boards of commissioners would oversee the districts and set their budget committees, constituting three citizens and three commissioners.

Corp said they are aiming for May 2018 to place the district on the ballot, though it will be a long process going forward.

First, OSU Extension must convince Umatilla and Morrow county commissioners to approve an order initiating the development of a special district. Then, Corp said, they will be looking to get resolutions of support from all 17 incorporated cities across the two counties.

Voters will have the final say, and though new taxes are never the most popular choice, Corp said she is confident in the communities’ support for OSU Extension.

“People really see a lot of value in the work we do,” Corp said.

As it stands, OSU Extension is already supported in part through general fund dollars from both counties. In their most recent budgets, Umatilla County will be contributing $321,090 while Morrow County has earmarked $167,065.

Still, Corp said funding is on the decline due to cuts in state and federal funding. That has left OSU Extension without the ability to fully staff programs or address new needs.

An advisory group consisting of eight different stakeholders started meeting about a year and a half ago to go over their options, and they decided in May that a service district would be the best choice to generate long-term stability.

The agricultural research stations, meanwhile, are also finding themselves scraping for funding. Back in 2008, the university decided that 25 percent of each station’s budget must come from local dollars, and since then Corp said CBARC has received a block grant worth $250,000 from the Oregon Wheat Growers League.

“If I didn’t have that block grant coming in, I would be in the red,” Corp said.

However, Corp said the Wheat Growers League no longer has the money to continue that level of support as wheat prices and acreage decline.

“They’ve told me they see this (grant) sunsetting very soon,” she said.

At HAREC, director Phil Hamm said he has also had to go fundraising for as much money as he can just to keep the doors open. Some dollars have come from the Oregon Potato Commission, and some from local growers.

“It’s been a pain in my neck to go out and search for dollars,” Hamm said.

An extension district would ensure the facilities remain in shape, Hamm said, with substantial economic rewards for the region. Agriculture contributes roughly a half-billion dollars in farm gate value for both Umatilla and Morrow counties, and that total increases to $1 billion if you add in the value from trucking and food processing.

OSU Extension helps to keep the industry thriving with programs and research, Hamm said.

“We have provided what our stakeholders would say is very important information for what they do,” he said.

OSU Extension will make its initial pitch to Morrow County commissioners on July 19. The same presentation will also be given to Umatilla County commissioners, though a date has not yet been set.

Don Russell, Morrow County commissioner, said Corp has already met with each commissioner individually. Initially, he is in favor of the district but has some questions about whether the state will pull additional funding if it moves forward.

George Murdock, Umatilla County commissioner, said the county is extremely supportive of OSU Extension.

“It’s one of those things where the return on investment is many times over,” Murdock said. “We’re talking high-value operations that require a high level of sophistication. That’s the return we’re getting from cooperative extension.”

Hamm said the district would be beneficial across all sectors of extension, from farmers to families with children in 4-H.

“It’s nice to see all these folks appreciate what we do,” he said.

THURSDAY, JULY 13

HEPPNER, Ore. — A new invasive weed has been spotted for the first time growing in southern Morrow County.

Plumeless thistle, which has previously been identified in neighboring Grant County and a few small locations in Wallowa County, was recently found by a landowner while out spraying for other types of thistle in the area.

While it may look similar to Scotch thistle or musk thistle — with their distinctive rose-colored flowers — plumeless thistle is distinct from its fellow invasive brethren. The weed can grow more than 4 feet tall, with spiny leaves measuring 4-8 inches long.

Blooms usually occur between May and July, and each plant can produce up to 1,000 seeds. Once established, plumeless thistle can degrade pasture land by crowding out more desirable forage, making it all but impossible to graze cattle.

Landowners who suspect they may have plumeless thistle on their property should call the Morrow County weed control office at 541-989-9500. Early detection and rapid response is key to controlling the weed before it can become widespread.

The Pacific Northwest wheat crop is at the point when adult plant stripe rust resistance is kicking in and hot, dry weather has slowed the disease’s development, a top researcher says.

Stripe rust in winter wheat fields is under control, but low levels of rust pustules are still active in spring wheat, said Xianming Chen, research plant pathologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Pullman, Wash.

Fungicide application is no longer needed except in late-planted fields, at higher elevations or where there is a lot of soil moisture, Chen said.

Stripe rust was still severe this year, especially in winter wheat, Chen said. Late plantings and early fungicide applications reduced the amount of stripe rust in spring wheat, he said.

The disease can reduce yields in a highly susceptible wheat variety by up to 60 percent. No highly susceptible winter wheat varieties are grown in the region, but popular varieties such as Xerpha, Clearfield 102 and Eltan can have a yield loss of as much as 30 percent, Chen said.

As farmers consider fall planting, Chen recommends that farmers consider a variety that has high resistance to stripe rust.

Syngenta Ovation has more resistance but still needed a fungicide application this year.

Spring wheat varieties JD, Diva, Louise, Whit, UI Platinum, Dayn and Glee are resistant. Babe, WestBred’s WB 1035CL+ and Syngenta’s SY 605 CL are particularly susceptible, he said.

Chen hopes to see more acres of the Washington State University soft white spring wheat Seahawk and the WestBred hard red spring wheat Expresso, which don’t require any fungicide applications.

In addition to the Western states, stripe rust has also been reported in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi. Noth Carolina, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin, Virginia, Delaware, Tennessee, Michigan, Kentucky, Nebraska, Indiana, Georgia, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota and New York.

Chen said the disease’s distribution was similar to last year. The biggest losses were last year in the Great Plains, while damage was less this year, due to relatively dry conditions in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, he said.

A blue-green algae outbreak in a Lake County, Ore., reservoir has killed 32 head of cattle.

The outbreak began on KV Bar Ranch about June 12. John Shine, owner of the south-central Oregon ranch, said the steers “just started dying.” That afternoon 11 died, and the rest followed within 72 hours. Although Shine is the ranch owner, the cattle lost belonged to another rancher.

“We had a reservoir that cattle have been drinking out of for 60 years, and never had a problem. Then this breeze comes from the north and carried this layer of scum 3 to 4 feet from the edge and that’s what they were drinking. We noticed the cattle had blue legs,” Shine said. “We thought it was poison at first. We didn’t know what it was.”

The color and the smell were the most noticeable things to Shine.

“It’s a turquoise color; it’s not green,” he said. “It smelled like rotten seaweed at the ocean.”

Despite its name, blue-green algae are actually bacteria. It occurs naturally in many fresh and still waters, and is recognizable by a collection of surface scum that “looks like a green paint spill,” said Dr. Rod Ferry, veterinarian at Lakeview Animal Hospital. Although some blue-green algae species are harmless, others produce a toxin that in large doses can affect the liver or the nervous system. The toxin can affect both animals and people.

“It’s unusual to lose 32 (cattle) in one hit,” said Theo Dreher, a microbiology professor at Oregon State University. “It’s probably not infrequent in cases of ranch land cattle where a few stock die, but this is pretty exceptional, and points out the danger that does exist when you get one of these blooms.”

They suspect that the bloom formed because of Oregon’s increased rainwater this winter and spring, after several years of drought. During that time excess manure may have washed into tanks, ponds or reservoirs, which caused an increased nutrient load for the algae to feed on and grow, creating the bloom, Pete Schreder, OSU Extension livestock agent, said in an email.

Wind can also help aggregate the clumps of algae.

For producers, losing 32 head “is relatively devastating,” Schreder said.

After they eat the toxin, cattle will quit eating, stagger or be unable to rise from lying on the ground. Eventually, they will go into a coma and die. Death can come up to 72 hours after initial exposure.

“There is no treatment available. It’s pretty impractical to treat cattle with a lethal dose because it just can’t save them,” Ferry said.

Ranchers should be diligent and check all water sources for anything atypical. If they see anything suspicious, keep livestock away from the water and call the local OSU Extension office.

This is the first reported case of blue-green algae in Lake County, Schreder and Ferry said.

“I’ve been here for 30 years and haven’t seen it in this county to this degree,” Ferry said. “It’s not something experienced here.”

There have been other sightings of blue-green algae in Oregon, according to Dreher, the microbiology professor. Toxic species have been found in the South Umpqua River, Detroit Lake, Upper Klamath Lake, South Tensile Lake and areas of Lake Billy Chinook, according the Oregon Health Authority’s algae bloom advisories website.

While some algaecides are available to treat smaller ponds, they are temporary and costly. Any chemical treatments will affect too many other natural systems in the water, and would not be feasible, Schreder and Dreher said.

“We really just have to let it run its course. It grows and blooms, and then dissipates over time,” Schreder said.

Dreher estimated that the dissipation period can last a couple of weeks.

“In a small reservoir many things can happen. The bacteria can die off and be eaten by other organisms and bacteria, or it could settle out on the sediment under the water and stop growing or it can be disrupted by currents and wind until the concentration lowers,” Dreher said.

Dreher also reminds producers to be aware of the algae if they’re irrigating their pastures, as that might cause further exposure problems.

Once a bloom has been formed, reservoirs or ponds can be more susceptible in the future.

“All water has the capability, but it happens when the stars align just right,” Schreder said. “We’re looking into the summer and can’t predict if we’re going to have more blooms; we just have to watch and see. We want to alert people to be diligent and keep an eye out on ponds and reservoirs this year.”

SALEM — Bills that aimed to bring industrial hemp into the mainstream of Oregon agriculture have died despite lacking strong opposition or a hefty price tag.

Hemp seed could be tested for purity by Oregon State University under House Bill 2371, which would also have brought the crop under an official OSU research pilot program.

A new industrial hemp commission devoted to raising funds for research and promotion would have been created under House Bill 2372, similarly to several other Oregon agricultural products.

Both proposals unanimously passed the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee in April but then languished in the Joint Ways and Means Committee until the end of the 2017 legislative session.

“It’s the biggest mystery I’ve ever bumped into in this building,” said Rep. Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, the bills’ chief sponsor.

The work of the Oregon Industrial Hemp Commission would have been paid by grower assessments, while the research and seed testing program would have “minimal impact” on OSU and an “indeterminate” cost for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which could charge fees to hemp farmers.

“There was zero opposition and some pretty substantial reasons why they should pass,” said Matt Cyrus, a hemp grower from Deschutes County who lobbied for the legislation.

Oregon’s hemp industry finds itself in a “slight gray area” under federal law, but HB 2371 would have brought OSU research activities into alignment with federal language in the 2014 Farm Bill, which allows some hemp production, he said.

“It was more of a technical housekeeping bill,” Cyrus said. “It was a fairly important bill for the industry.”

Without the proposal’s approval, OSU will be constrained in communications and advice to hemp growers, said Jay Noller, head of the university’s crop and soil science department.

The university can still conduct research without the bill, but it’s not permitted to provide Extension services to hemp producers, he said.

“We’re kind of hamstrung here,” Noller said.

If HB 2371 had passed, ODA-registered hemp producers would have automatically become OSU research program participants, giving OSU greater leeway to work with them under federal law, he said.

“It means we’ll be waiting until things get cleaned up,” Noller said.

When asked about the hemp bills’ failure, the co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, said that fewer than “one-in-three bills were able to move through the committee and pass both chambers, due to time constraints and other factors.”

Courtney Moran, attorney and lobbyist for the Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers Association, did not respond to requests for comment.

Rep. Wilson, the bills’ chief sponsor, said he met with leaders of the Ways and Means Committee, as well as Gov. Kate Brown, to explain the significance of the legislation.

“I am absolutely stunned by this development,” Wilson said. “Everybody in this place knew what this was about and what it would do. I can’t figure out who the enemy was.”

While the industrial hemp commission would have been “nice to have,” the statutory language changes in HB 2371 are imperative to bring Oregon’s hemp industry in line with federal requirements, he said.

Wilson said he never received any feedback about why the latter bill shouldn’t be passed and plans to re-introduce it in 2018.

“I plan to bring this one back,” he said.

Wednesday, July 13

A team of researchers has developed a method that speeds up diagnosis of crown gall disease, which can damage or kill valuable nursery stock, berry bushes, grape vines, roses, and nut and fruit trees.

The testing procedure marks a “huge step forward” in eventually allowing growers to test for crown gall on-site, providing results in about 30 minutes, said Jeff Chang, an associate professor at Oregon State University. Now, testing takes about 2.5 hours, with growers taking or sending plants to OSU’s plant clinic for identification of diseases.

There is no cure for crown gall disease, but quicker, on-site confirmation of the pathogen’s presence will allow growers to isolate, remove and destroy infected plants, potentially halting the spread of the disease.

“They can accelerate that (detection) process and save on how many plants they have to throw away,” Chang said.

Crown gall is caused by a soil-borne bacteria called Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which enters plants through plant tissue wounds caused by such things as pruning cuts, boring insects and freeze damage. The pathogen genetically modifies plant tissue, stimulating it to produce swollen knobs called galls.

The disease can kill young plants and disfigure nursery stock to the point that it can’t be sold and must be thrown away.

The researchers, funded by a grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, developed molecular tools to diagnose crown gall.

Chang and post-doctoral researcher Elizabeth Savory co-wrote a report on the study. Skylar Fuller, a recent OSU graduate, designed the detection mechanism under Chang’s and Savory’s mentorship. Other collaborators were Alexandra Weisberg, also a post-doctoral researcher, and Melodie Putnam, the plant clinic director. The team used variations of gene sequences originally developed by OSU Professor Walt Ream.

On a research boat on the Columbia River, Laurie Weitkamp with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grabs two buckets filled with water and about a dozen young salmon and steelhead.

“Ooh, we got some steelies!” she says.

By stretching a net across the river below Bonneville Dam, researchers are intercepting the fish swimming toward the ocean to see what they’ve been eating.

What they really want to know is whether the fish are eating bugs that came from marshes restored for their benefit. That’s key to proving habitat restoration is helping the fish grow and survive.

Federal agencies have spent millions of dollars restoring salmon habitat on the lower Columbia River as part of a massive effort to save salmon from the impacts of hydroelectric dams.

In the Columbia Basin, 13 species of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead are navigating a river system loaded with dams.

The federal plan to help them has been challenged and rejected in court five times in more than 20 years. In that plan, the agencies told the court that restoring marshes in the estuary will help save threatened and endangered fish. The court’s response has been along the lines of: Oh yeah? Prove it.

That’s where Weitkamp comes in, with an elaborate research project funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

After measuring and labeling the fish, Weitkamp hands them to Meredith Journey, who uses a syringe to take a blood sample.

She’ll test the blood for a growth hormone released by the liver that will tell them whether the fish has recently been eating.

From there, the fish go to Angie Munguia who clips their fins for genetic testing and puts them in a cooler.

“We try to put them on ice as soon as possible to try to stop the digestive process in the stomach,” she said. “The more it digests, the harder it is to ID prey in the stomach.”

Later, the fish will get sliced up and analyzed at what Munguia calls “cutting parties.”

Looking inside the stomach will tell Munguia what bugs the fish have been eating, but her work doesn’t stop there. With further analysis, she can also tell what plants those bugs were eating before they became fish food.

Together, Weitkamp says, these tests help build the government’s case that restored marshes are feeding fish and helping them survive.

“Generally, the bigger you are, the fewer predators can eat you,” she said. “So big fish generally have higher survival when there are [more] predators around than really small fish.”

While Weitkamp is catching salmon and looking in their stomachs, other researchers are studying the bugs coming out of restored marshes. Their goal is to connect the dots between bugs in the marsh and bugs in the fish.

“Then we can kind of put it together, but it’s tough,” Weitkamp said.

The question of just how much habitat restoration improves salmon survival has become more and more pressing as judges have repeatedly rejected the federal plan for protecting salmon from dams.

In his ruling last year, federal District Court Judge Michael Simon called the uncertainty of habitat restoration a “significant deficiency” in the government’s plan. He said the agencies should look at other options, like spilling more water over dams or removing some dams altogether.

Michael Tehan, assistant regional administrator with NOAA Fisheries, said it’s clear the judge wants more certainty about how much benefit the salmon can get from habitat restoration. What’s not clear is whether the agencies can deliver.

“Through all these court rulings, the judge has been asking the question: We want to know exactly how much,” he said. “The science just doesn’t allow you to pin it down with that kind of certainty.”

That raises questions about whether the agencies need more science or a different strategy for helping salmon.

“There are some folks who are questioning: Why are you continuing to pursue habitat projects if you’re not getting credit from the courts?” Tehan said.

Will the science satisfy the court?

Mike Langsley, a fish biologist with the Corps of Engineers, says the agencies have made significant improvements in salmon survival through the dams themselves. Fish passage is up to 98 percent in some places.

That leaves them looking at where else they help salmon survive. Breaching dikes and opening up floodplains seems like it should help.

“Because we know historically that’s how it looked,” he said. “You’ve got a place salmon can’t access. You open it up so they can access it. So how do you figure out whether that’s good or bad?”

He said science can show the fish are using the habitat and eating the bugs it produces, but that might not be enough to prove more salmon are surviving to adulthood as a result.

“They feed. They grow. Just being in there maybe is good,” he said, “but it’s a very difficult thing to say that’s going to increase smolt-to-adult return rates by some percentage.”

Weitkamp says there’s still a lot we don’t know about how to help salmon survive.

“I mean, each salmon species makes its life slightly differently, and it’s really fascinating to try to uncover: What is their strategy? What are they thinking?” she said.

For her, the need to save imperiled fish from dams in the face of a seemingly never-ending lawsuit means she’ll always have more questions to answer and more work to do.

In other words, she said, “job security.”