Oregon heads into the summer showing no sign of drought for the first time since 2011, according to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The agency’s monthly water outlook report for June said the state will have adequate water for irrigation and recreation this summer even though May was drier than normal. Since the “water year” began Oct. 1, a heavy winter snowpack and a cold, rainy spring combined to fill reservoirs and restore streamflows to normal or better throughout the state.

Even the snowmelt is going better than usual. Most of the snow below 5,000 feet elevation is gone, but at many monitored sites the snow melted slower than usual — up to three weeks late in some areas, according to NRCS.

The NRCS report is at http://bit.ly/2rBudu9

Meanwhile, research climatologist and professor Gregory Jones of Southern Oregon University said the weather into mid-June will remain unsettled, with lower temperatures and rain returning to the West Coast. The warm spell that marked the start of the month brought a “flush of growth” to vineyards, but it will give way to weather that’s more like early- to mid-spring instead of summer, said Jones, who specializes in the impact of climate variability on grapevine growth and wine production.

Despite the cool down, the forecast is that June will end up warmer than normal from the Pacific Northwest into California, Jones said in a climate update he circulates by email.

BANDON -- The weather was great and the mood was light at Bandon City Park on Saturday morning as several dozen "superheroes" gathered for the first-ever Family Health Day.

PENDLETON, Ore. — The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association announced this week its intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its failure to complete an environmental study that would remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in the lower 48 states.

Citing the agency’s lack of decision-making following the publication of its 2013 proposed rule in the Federal Register to remove the gray wolves from the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered Species, Jerome Rosa, executive director of Oregon Cattlemen, said the membership voted to file a 60-day letter of intent to sue U.S. Fish and Wildlife at its Pendleton spring quarterly meeting June 2.

Rosa said the Cattlemen will be represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation of Sacramento, Calif.

“One comment we’ve gotten through the years is that the cattle industry often tends to be playing defense,” Rosa said. “Many of our members feel by moving forward with this we are being on the offensive side of things instead of trying to defend what we do.”

Todd Nash, the Cattlemen’s wolf committee chairman, said the absence of a completed analysis three years after U.S. Fish and Wildlife closed its public comment period regarding its environmental policy analysis to delist gray wolves from the endangered species list was one reason for the suit.

“They are legally bound to do that within one year and that’s the preface pressing forward with lawsuit,” Nash said.

The lack of manpower Fish and Wildlife dedicates to managing wolves was the other frustration that led to litigation, Nash said.

In Oregon, like Washington and Utah, managing wolves is complicated.

Through an appropriations bill Congress removed gray wolves from the Endangered Species List in Montana, Idaho and parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah in April 2011. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife then took over sole management of wolves living east of U.S. Highway 395, Oregon Highway 78 and U.S. Highway 95.

In November 2015 wolves were removed from the state endangered species list, but west of that line wolves remain protected by the federal Endangered Species Act.

In the vastly larger landscape of the western portion of the state under federal jurisdiction, Nash said the agency is woefully understaffed.

“This is no discredit to John (Stephenson, wolf biologist),” Nash said, “but he is one guy.”

Nash said the Cattlemen believe the U.S. Fish and Wildlife needs to increase its staffing to better capture, collar and monitor wolves and complete its effort to delist gray wolves through the National Environmental Policy Act.

A vote was taken to sue the federal government at the Cattlemen’s November annual meeting in Bend as well, Nash said, but the members were waiting to see if the Washington Cattlemen were interested in taking legal action along with them. While a contingency of Washington Cattlemen members were in attendance at the Oregon Cattlemen’s Pendleton last week and participated in lengthy discussions regarding the intent to sue, Nash said they are not yet on board.

“Washington is going to take it back to their board and discuss it and

California will likely throw in with us,” Nash said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Officials in Oregon have approved construction permits for the first all-wood high-rise building in the nation.

Construction on the 12-story building, called Framework, will break ground this fall in Portland’s trendy and rapidly growing Pearl District and is expected to be completed by the following winter.

The decision by state and local authorities to allow construction comes after months of painstaking testing of the emerging technologies that will be used to build it, including a product called cross-laminated timber, or CLT.

To make CLT, lumber manufacturers align 2-by-4 boards in perpendicular layers and then glue them together like a giant sandwich before sliding the resulting panels into a massive press for drying. The resulting panels are stronger than traditional wood because of the cross-hatched layers; CLT can withstand horizontal and vertical pressures similar to those from a significant earthquake with minimal damage.

They are also lighter and easier to work with than regular timber, resulting in lower cost and less waste.

For this project, scientists at Portland State University and Oregon State University subjected large panels of CLT to hundreds of thousands of pounds of pressure and experimented with different methods for joining them together.

The project materials also underwent extensive fire safety testing and met fire codes.

State officials hope the building will stir greater interest in high-rise construction using mass timber and help revitalize the state’s lagging logging industry. Logging, once a major source of revenue in Oregon, has dropped sharply in the past few decades because of greater environmental protections for salmon and the spotted owl. The loss of the industry has devastated some of the state’s rural communities.

“Projects like the Framework building present a new opportunity for Oregon that we are perfectly suited to take on,” Gov. Kate Brown said. “Oregon’s forests are a tried and true resource that may again be the key to economic stability for rural Oregon.”

The Portland building will be filled with subsidized apartments and bank offices.

PORTLAND — An Oregon ranching couple claims their lawsuit over grazing and water rights against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was wrongly dismissed.

Jesse and Pamela White of Malheur County have asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a federal judge’s decision to throw out the case for jurisdictional reasons.

During oral arguments in Portland on June 6, attorneys for the Whites and BLM sparred over whether the federal agency had a legal duty to alter or remove water reservoirs before reducing the ranch’s grazing levels.

The dispute originated in the 1960s, when BLM constructed 20 reservoirs that impaired water rights now owned by the Whites.

In exchange, in 1973 the agency permitted the ranch an additional 1,400 animal unit months on the federal land. An AUM is enough forage to support a cow-calf pair for a month.

When the Whites tried to enforce their water rights with the Oregon Water Resources Department more than two decades later, however, the BLM determined the agreement was invalidated. In response, the agency decided in 2008 to remove or retrofit the 20 reservoirs while phasing out the couple’s extra 1,400 AUMs.

A complaint filed by the Whites claimed the BLM never lived up to that agreement but nonetheless entirely canceled the additional grazing.

A federal judge dismissed that case in 2015, in part because the matter is under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Water Resources Department.

Alan Schroeder, attorney for the Whites, told the 9th Circuit that BLM was regardless obligated to finish work on the reservoirs, which was a final federal decision by the agency.

“They have not conformed to what they said they were going to do, yet they took the AUMs,” Schroeder said.

Since the BLM hasn’t completed the 2008 agreement, the ranchers should have their grazing levels restored — a matter over which OWRD does not have authority, he said.

“They have no jurisdiction over the AUMs, and that’s what the appellants are complaining about,” Schroeder said.

David Shilton, an attorney for BLM, said the agency doesn’t have a duty to take a “discrete agency action” in this case, but is only required to follow Oregon water law.

If there’s an impairment to the Whites’ water rights, the BLM must follow the advice of OWRD’s local watermaster, Shilton said.

“Their remedy is with the Oregon Water Resources Department,” he said.

Once the ranchers breached the 1973 agreement by invoking a “water call,” the BLM was no longer obligated to provide additional grazing, he said.

As for the agency’s 2008 decision, “it’s not a contract like the 1973 agreement,” Shilton said. “BLM did not create any new legal obligations.”

LANGLOIS -- The Langlois Public Library invites children ages 3-15 to "Build a Better World" during its 2017 Summer Reading Program. This year’s program will include building with recycled materials, learning about photography composition and exploring ancient technologies.

SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle City Council on Monday approved a new tax on soda and other sugary beverages as way to raise millions for healthy food and education programs.

The ordinance calls for a tax of 1.75 cents per ounce to be paid by distributors of beverages such as Pepsi and Coke, sports drinks, energy drinks and other sweetened drinks. The tax excludes diet drinks.

Supporters such as public health advocates and community groups cheered after the measure passed on a 7-1 vote. They say it would cut down on the consumption of sugary drinks that have little nutritional value and are linked to obesity, diabetes and other health problems.

Businesses and labor groups spoke out against the tax, saying it would hurt small businesses and cost jobs. Other critics called it regressive, saying it would affect low-income consumers the most.

Seattle joins a handful of other cities nationwide that have a soda tax. Last month, voters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, resoundingly rejected a soda tax proposal, but Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Oakland, California, have approved taxes on sugary beverages.

Councilman Tim Burgess, who sponsored Seattle’s measure, said there’s incontrovertible evidence that sugary drinks have negative health outcomes and that people of color are disproportionately targeted. “Liquid sugar has zero nutritional benefits,” he said.

Mayor Ed Murray proposed the idea in February to raise millions for programs that promote access to healthy food and help address education disparities between white and minority students.

Jennifer Cue, president of Seattle-based Jones Soda, said the company believes in the intention of the funds. But Cue said it wasn’t fair to target one industry.

Keep Seattle Livable for All, a coalition of businesses, said in a statement Monday that “this job-killing tax that will drive up costs and further increase income inequality in Seattle.”

Some of the money raised by the tax would also go to job retraining and placement programs for workers adversely impacted by the tax.

Community groups backed the measure because it would direct money to programs aimed at helping working families that can’t afford healthy foods.

Some people spoke in favor of the tax but recommended that the council consider including diet drinks as a matter of fairness. The mayor revised his initial plan to include diet sodas after a racial-equity analysis showed they tend to be favored by wealthy people and white people.

Still, Tammy Nguyen, an organizer with the community group Got Green, said “this is a significant a victory by and for working families throughout Seattle because the new law puts closing the food security gap as the number one investment priority for the tax revenue.”

Tuesdays

California growers are wrapping up perhaps their best and largest sweet cherry harvest ever as Washington’s harvest gets underway.

“This is by far one of the best crops in history on all fronts. Quality is awesome and as of today we’re almost 8.3 million boxes,” Chris Zanobini, executive director of the California Cherry Advisory Board in Sacramento, said.

The crop will end up at nearly 9 million, 18-pound boxes, possibly surpassing the 8.7 million box record crop of 2008, he said. It was 5.1 million boxes last year after losing about 3 million boxes to rain.

California’s cherry industry has had many disappointments in recent years. Rain or heat significantly reduced crops several seasons. Inadequate winter chill led to poor fruit set in 2014 and a crop of just 2.7 million boxes. And 2005 and 2006 were at 3 million boxes or less.

Roger Pepperl, marketing director of Stemilt Growers, Wenatchee, Wash., said California’s weather has been “impeccable” and its cherry crop the “best ever.”

Stemilt is a large cherry producer, packer and marketer in Washington and operates in California through its company, Chinchiolo Stemilt California, in Stockton.

“It’s diminished volume now, but it’s been super high quality in color and sugar. Consumers are turned on and the table is set for a great Washington deal,” Pepperl said.

The Pacific Northwest crop is forecast at 22.7 million boxes with Washington harvesting 81 percent of that. The Northwest counts by 22-pound boxes and California by 18-pound boxes.

Washington harvest began with the Chelan variety at Doebler Orchard near Mattawa on June 6. The day before, John Doebler was removing Extenday reflective fabric between rows used to hasten ripening and was placing picker bins.

“We probably have eight or nine days on Chelans. Volume looks decent. It’s a nice crop,” Doebler said.

Stemilt would start packing the fruit in Wenatchee on June 7, he said.

Never short of pickers in the beginning, his biggest worry was the weather and a 70 percent chance of rain showers on June 8. He has already called in a helicopter once to dry the crop.

It’s a limited run for the first cherries but packing will crank up in earnest about June 15 as more orchards start picking, Pepperl said.

Growers without H-2A-visa foreign guestworkers for picking will have labor worries, and enough packers “is always a challenge,” he said.

“This labor environment is not getting any better. We think we will have enough labor packing through the season but we will have to manage it like crazy,” Pepperl said.

On May 15, Scott Brown, production manager of Morada Produce in Linden, Calif., said labor was so tight that California growers were making tough choices on which cherries to pick and which to leave.

Zanobini said he doesn’t know how extensive that was but that he’s heard few complaints about labor.

Shipments averaged 250,000 boxes per day between May 5 and June 4, with a peak of 377,000 boxes on May 23, Zanobini said. Mother’s Day and Memorial Day were good sales and prices have been very good, he said.

About 70 percent of California’s crop was sold to all regions of the U.S. and 9.4 percent to Canada, 9 percent to South Korea and the balance to Japan, China, Hong Kong and a few others, he said.

Volume is now dropping, and harvest will finish in Hollister on June 12-14, he said.

SALEM, Ore. — The Marion County Farm Bureau will present its 2017 Modern Agriculture Award to NORPAC Foods on stage June 30 at the Elsinore Theatre before the start of a concert by country-western artist Ned LeDoux.

“Our purpose is to promote, protect and advance farm interests in Marion County. This award is a formal expression of thanks for the major investment made in recent years by NORPAC Foods to expand its operations in Salem,” said John Zielinski, president of the Marion County Farm Bureau, in a press release. “NORPAC has been committed to our valley and its growers for over 90 years, and this latest investment strengthens all of agribusiness here. Marion County Farm Bureau appreciates the work and the people of NORPAC Foods. Please join us for a great evening and concert.”

Tickets for the concert, which starts at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 30, can be found at ElsinoreTheatre.com, or by calling the box office at 503-375-3574. Reserved seat prices range from $20 to $30.

NORPAC Foods Inc. is a farmer-owned cooperative that grows and processes frozen vegetables and fruit, along with canning vegetables. Headquartered in Salem, NORPAC is Oregon’s largest fruit and vegetable processor.

NORPAC was established as Stayton Canning Co. in 1924 and now operates processing and packaging facilities in Stayton, Salem, Brooks and Hermiston, Ore., and in Quincy, Wash.

The co-op was among the first processors to use quick-freezing units to produce what are known as Individually Quick Frozen, or IQF, products.

More than 200 farmers grow on contract with NORPAC, raising 27 different crops ranging from strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower to zucchini, corn, beans and peas. According to the co-op website, NORPAC is Oregon’s largest vegetable and fruit processor and the largest unionized agricultural employer in the state.

The co-op has about 1,000 full-time workers and employs up to 3,500 during the peak harvest and processing season.

GASTON, Ore. — It was the most telling sentiment Nellie McAdams heard as she toured the state, putting on workshops to help farmers and ranchers with the gut wrenching question of what will happen to their land when they retire.

It was beautiful and tragic in the same breath. “We’re so blessed to have this land,” someone would say. “It’s such a burden.”

It summed up an aspect of Oregon agriculture, maybe the emotional ledger, that may not be seen in other businesses. After all, McAdams said, not many other business owners live where they work.

“It’s more than just land,” she said. “It’s heirloom, legacy, your family heritage. Being a farmer isn’t just an occupation, it’s an identity.

“You can’t retire from being yourself,” McAdams said. “You’re passing over what makes you, you.”

But eventually, farmland must be passed on to someone, somehow. A son or daughter may be interested in taking over, but sometimes they are not. Sometimes parents aren’t willing to let go. And sometimes, dealing with the situation is like pulling the bandage off family wounds.

Sale to a stranger has its own pitfalls. Oregon has many earnest agricultural neophytes, but how many can afford land and equipment? If another farm is the buyer, will it operate with the same care as generations of family members?

To McAdams, Farm Preservation Program director for Rogue Farm Corps, the succession question has emerged as one of the most critical issues facing Oregon agriculture. Among other work, Rogue Farm Corps trains beginning farmers, placing them in internships with commercial farms.

McAdams specializes in farm succession, and has put on workshops statewide to get farm families thinking about how they want to handle the transition.

It’s an issue McAdams is familiar with; she’s taking over the family farm from her parents. The family has about 400 acres, including about 100 acres in hazelnut trees, 150 in second-growth timber and about 150 acres leased for clover seed, grass seed and winter wheat.

In her workshops, McAdams urges farmers to consult with an estate attorney, and maybe even a family counselor.

McAdams would like to see a program, perhaps through OSU Extension, that makes more farm succession experts available to help families work through the financial and personal issues.

She urges people to start planning. “A lot of farmers don’t know what the next step is,” she said.

Again, she’s working from experience. Her father, David McAdams, is an estate attorney who worked the farm on weekends, and the family had its own work to do when it came time for succession planning.

They agreed to set it up in a way that Nellie McAdams will be able to take over the farm and buy out her younger brother, who loves the farm but wasn’t interested in farming.

But every Christmas, just to be sure, the family takes out the will and talks it over.

Nellie McAdams

Occupation: Farm Preservation Program director, Rogue Farm Corps.

Personal: 37, grew up in Southwest Portland but spent weekends at the family’s hazelnut farm in Gaston, Ore. Her father, David, is a retired attorney; her mother, Nita, is a retired teacher.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Dartmouth College, law degree from Lewis & Clark College.

Career path: Consultant with Ecotrust, staff attorney for Friends of Family Farmers, now with Rogue Farm Corps, http://www.roguefarmcorps.org/, which provides training for beginning farmers. Also on the board of directors for East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District in the Portland area.

Her specialty: Farm succession research and planning.

Notable: From December to May did 38 presentations, traveling 7,260 miles and speaking to 1,396 people.

Common thread: Even as they reach or surpass retirement age, farmers and ranchers have intense physical and emotional ties to the land, and it is difficult for them to let go.

Groundbreaking work: Co-wrote “The Future of Oregon Agricultural Land” with cohorts from Oregon State University and Portland State University. Report showed average age of Oregon farmers is near 60, and that 64 percent of state ag land could change hands over the next two decades as they retire or die. “How that land changes hands, who acquires it, and what they do with the land will impact Oregon for generations,” the report said.

Seeking solutions: She’s among the backers of House Bill 3249 in the Oregon Legislature. The bill includes funding for working land easements, covenants and conservation management plans, as well as succession training and a tax study.

Pacific Northwest wheat and pulse growers are turning to new strategies to control mayweed chamomile, a weed that is developing resistance to Group 2 herbicides.

“It worked too well, and when things work well, people tend to overuse them,” said Drew Lyon, weed science professor at Washington State University. “If you use a particular mechanism of action over and over again, you eventually shift the population to those individuals that are resistant.”

Group 2 herbicides block the function of an enzyme essential to protein synthesis in the weed.

WSU, Oregon State University and the University of Idaho recently released an extension publication about managing the weed, also known as dog fennel.

The weed is more of a problem in pulse crops, particularly in lentils, so Lyon expects more problems as farmers turn to pulses in response to low wheat prices.

Winter wheat can lose 5-10 percent of its yield to the weed, but if mayweed chamomile goes to seed, the seed can survive in the soil.

Spring wheat tends to come up at the same time, so mayweed chamomile can mean a loss of up to 25 percent of the crop.

“The real key to controlling this is trying not to let it produce seed,” Lyon said. “Once that seed bank’s filled up, you have a problem for quite some time.”

Early moisture this year delayed most pulse planting, helping to reduce the weed in those crops. But “a fair bit” still can be found in winter wheat, Lyon said.

The weed tends to be more of a problem in higher rainfall zones.

Tillage can be effective. Lyon recommends putting the seed down deep and then not plowing again for eight to 10 years.

No-till farmers can switch to herbicides using different modes of action, stop raising pulses or switch to more competitive pulses. Peas are more competitive against the weed than chickpeas, which fare better than lentils.

“If you’re going to grow a pulse crop, you grow a pulse crop that’s as competitive as possible, and that would be peas,” Lyon said. “Of course, chickpeas and lentils have probably the better price, so there’s some incentive to go ahead and plant those.”

Some different chemistries have proven successful, but Lyons cautions that reports of resistance to other herbicides are already starting to come in.

“Growers need to be careful about their use and try to rotate crops and herbicide chemistries,” he said.

Online

http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/PNW695/PNW695.pdf

Saturdays

Several irrigators are challenging the agency’s order shutting down irrigation from Wood River and its tributaries in the Upper Klamath Basin due to a water call from the Klamath Tribes in April.

The tribes have “time immemorial” water rights under an OWRD determination, giving them priority over the irrigators, whose oldest water rights date back to 1864.

OWRD determined that flows in the Wood River have fallen below the tribes’ in-stream water right of 323 cubic feet per second, which is intended to preserve fish and riparian health.

However, the irrigators’ lawsuit claims that OWRD’s water flow gauge is inaccurate or incapable of measuring the full amount of water in the Wood River.

Other measurements of the river have gauged flows of 427 to 502 cubic feet per second, but OWRD’s local watermaster has refused to recognize these reports, according to the petition for judicial review.

The irrigators have asked Marion County Circuit Court Judge Courtland Geyer to overturn OWRD’s final order prohibiting water diversion and to issue an injunction against enforcement of future water calls until proper measurements are taken.

Aside from the Wood River, other water calls in the Upper Klamath Basin were also validated by OWRD for the Williamson and Sprague rivers. Irrigators in the region estimate the orders have affected roughly 300,000 acres.

The other case filed against OWRD concerns the agency’s decision to allow a planned dairy near Boardman, Ore., to withdraw more than 400 gallons per minute from a groundwater aquifer.

In April, the agency issued the Lost Valley Dairy a “limited license,” which allows water withdrawal for up to five years while owner Greg te Velde secures a more permanent source of drinking water for his cattle.

Columbia Riverkeeper, Center for Food Safety, Humane Oregon and Waterwatch of Oregon argue the limited license is unlawfully detrimental to the public interest due to alleged water and air pollution from the dairy.

They also claim OWRD’s conclusion that groundwater is available and withdrawals won’t affect senior water rights aren’t supported by substantial evidence.

The environmentalists’ petition for judicial review asks Marion County Circuit Court Judge Sean Armstrong to reverse or modify the agency’s order.

A spokeswoman for OWRD said the agency is reviewing the lawsuits with its attorneys at the Oregon Department of Justice.

BOARDMAN, Ore. — Opponents of a 30,000-cow dairy farm in Morrow County are pressuring state regulators to change their minds on a recently approved water pollution permit for the facility, or risk taking the matter to court.

A coalition of groups has filed what’s known as a petition for reconsideration, asking the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality to take a closer look at Lost Valley Farm and either tighten protections or reject the dairy outright.

Members of the coalition include the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Columbia Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, Friends of Family Farmers, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Humane Oregon and Oregon Rural Action.

Lost Valley Farm received its confined animal feeding operation permit on March 31. At the time, ODA and DEQ claimed they had crafted “the most protective of any (CAFO) permit issued to date,” requiring 11 groundwater monitoring wells on site — seven more than usual — and a minimum of three annual inspections, versus one every 10 months.

The permit became effective on April 20, and a spokeswoman for Lost Valley said the dairy is now up and running at the former Boardman Tree Farm. There are currently 16,000 animals at the farm, with about 8,700 being milking cows.

Regulators anticipate Lost Valley will build up its herd to a full 30,000 cows over the next three years, making it the second-largest dairy in Oregon. Only Threemile Canyon Farms is larger, with 70,000 head of cattle just 25 miles away in Morrow County.

Part of the CAFO permit outlines how Lost Valley will manage an estimated 187 million gallons of wastewater and manure produced each year. And though the agencies responded to 4,200 public comments about the project, opponents remain deeply concerned about potential contamination of surface water and groundwater.

“This mega-dairy threatens to spew mega pollution, creating an environmental nightmare for the people and wildlife unlucky enough to share the landscape,” said Hannah Connor, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Lost Valley Farm is located within the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, which was designated in 1990 due to elevated levels of groundwater nitrates. Opponents say adding another large dairy in the area poses significant health risks from further groundwater contamination.

None of the petitioners have had the chance to review Lost Valley’s revised Animal Waste Management Plan, according to the petition, which lays out how the dairy will collect wastewater and use it to irrigate feed crops. Connor said the groups also want to see a plan that takes into account not only nitrogen and phosphorous from manure, but harmful antibiotic residue and pesticides.

“We really believe the agencies have some significant changes they can make here,” Connor said.

ODA and DEQ have 60 days to reply to the petition, or the groups say they will likely file an appeal. Connor said there is no indication yet their concerns will be fixed.

Wym Matthews, CAFO program manager for the Department of Agriculture, could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Greg te Velde, owner of Lost Valley Farm, defended the operation’s management practices and said he is confident the coalition’s challenge is without merit. Te Velde has been milking cows in the area since 2002, having previously established Willow Creek Dairy on land leased from Threemile Canyon Farms.

“We have worked in Oregon for over 15 years, and have consistently met the state’s high standards,” te Velde said. “Our operation at Lost Valley Farm includes protection for water quality that go further than any other dairy authorized by Oregon’s CAFO program, and has been closely vetted by state regulators.

Tarah Heinzen, staff attorney for Food & Water Watch, described the petition for reconsideration as one step below a formal appeal of the CAFO permit. The petition also asks agencies to stay Lost Valley’s permit, though Heinzen admits that is unlikely to happen.

While Heinzen said the permitting agencies did make some improvements between the draft and final permit for Lost Valley it falls well short of what is required to protect waterways. Approval of Lost Valley could also set a dangerous precedent for Oregon dairies moving forward, she added.

“We think this is a very important test case for the state to take a very close look at the potential environmental impacts of a facility this size,” Heinzen said.

SALEM — As Oregon’s 2017 regular legislative session enters its final month, multiple farm-related bills have either passed or are making significant progress, while others are in limbo.

Many proposals that seek new funding or contain a financial element are awaiting action in the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, which is not subject to regular legislative deadlines.

The most controversial bills dealing with pesticides, antibiotics and genetic engineering have largely died, but others — such as a bill imposing liability on biotech patent holders — have been directed to committees where they can survive until the session’s end.

However, numerous bills that either faced minimal resistance or were amended to overcome opposition have recently cleared key committees or been approved by the full Legislature, including:

• Wetland rebuilding exemption: Under House Bill 2785, agricultural buildings destroyed in fires and other natural disasters could be rebuilt without obtaining fill-removal permits, even if state regulators believe they’re located in wetlands.

The proposal was sparked by the plight of Jesse Bounds, who tried rebuilding two burned-down hay barns only to find out he was subject to steep wetland mitigation penalties from the Department of State Lands.

The bill breezed through the House without a hitch, but it faced some headwinds in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

A couple of Bounds’ neighbors objected to the bill, mostly due to complaints about his hay-compressing operation.

Members of the committee also expressed some concerns about language in HB 2785, requiring the time-consuming drafting of an amendment clarifying the bill’s purpose and parameters.

However, the bill is now headed for a vote on the Senate floor after obtaining the committee’s unanimous approval.

• Historic farm houses: Concerns about limited housing availability in Oregon prompted lawmakers to propose several bills allowing “accessory dwelling units,” or ADUs, on farmland or otherwise easing land use restrictions.

Most of these bills have died, but one proposal has gained solid traction: House Bill 3012 allows historic homes to be used as ADUs instead of being demolished when a new house is built in a rural residential zone.

The bill unanimously passed the House and now awaits a vote on the Senate floor after clearing the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

• Hard cider land use: Producers of hard cider would be subject to the same land use rules as winemakers under Senate Bill 677, which is awaiting Gov. Kate Brown’s signature after winning unanimous approval in the Senate and more recently, the House.

The Oregon Farm Bureau expressed some reservations about SB 677 without outright opposing the bill, which allows cideries to serve food and offer bed-and-breakfast lodging, among other provisions.

• On-farm sewage treatment: Waste from septic tanks will now be allowed to be treated on-site in farm zones, where it’s applied to fields as fertilizer, due to House Bill 2179.

Human manure treated in stationary waste-processing facilities is already used on farmland, but on-site treatment in mobile tanks wasn’t explicitly permitted under Oregon land use law.

A septic tank cleaning company ran into this problem in Jackson County, spurring lawmakers to propose HB 2179, which was recently signed by Gov. Brown after passing the Legislature.

• Irrigation district notification: To avoid disrupting irrigation systems, local governments will be required to notify irrigation districts of planned subdivisions under Senate Bill 865.

The proposal was initially opposed by municipalities, which worried SB 865 would slow down approvals of plats, or subdivision parcel maps, but proponents amended to bill to require notification earlier in the process.

The bill recently passed the House with a vote of 56-1 after earlier winning unanimous approval in the Senate.

PORTLAND — The Pacific Northwest pear crop will be later than last year — which is expected, given the cooler spring. But the puzzling aspect is that it’s lighter for the fourth year in a row.

“It may be good for grower returns and we will have enough pears. It’s not like a crop failure, but it’s a little disconcerting because until the record crop in 2013 we used to have ups and downs, the alternate bearing cycle,” said Kevin Moffitt, president of The Pear Bureau Northwest in Portland.

The Northwest’s fresh pear industry’s promotional arm forecast a 17.6 million, 44-pound box crop for 2017 at its June 1 annual meeting at Portland’s Embassy Suites Hotel.

That’s down 2 percent from 18 million boxes from the 2016 crop and down 10 percent from a five-year average of 19.6 million boxes.

“It’s puzzling. We’re not positive but we think it’s weather, hot summers causing more fruit drop than in the past,” Moffitt said.

Two days earlier in Brollier Key Orchard in Monitor, Wash., west of Wenatchee, Alex Sanchez and Gabby Cortez were thinning Starkrimson pears. The small, purple pears looked scarce enough on trees to maybe not need thinning.

Michael Key, the owner’s son, said d’Anjou is very thin.

“You shake the tree and it self thins. You wonder if you’ll have a crop left. We think it was the cold winter,” Key said.

“It’s been an earlier and bigger drop this year. We heard it’s mostly in the Wenatchee district,” Moffitt said, adding Yakima and Medford are also down and that only Hood River, also called Mid-Columbia, is above last year.

Bosc appears to be the variety hardest hit at 30 percent lower estimate than last year, he said.

There will be solid volumes for domestic sales and the key export markets of Mexico, Canada, India, China and United Arab Emirates, but overall exports will be no larger than from the 2016 crop, Moffitt said.

As of May 31, 4.1 million boxes of the 2016 crop had been exported, which was 12.5 percent below 2015, he said. Exports should finish the season in August at 4.4 million to 4.5 million boxes, he said.

Imports have been down slightly this spring because of a smaller Argentinian crop, which is good, he said.

While lighter, this year’s crop is later than normal, because of a cold winter and cool spring, following two years of warm springs and early pick starts.

Wenatchee and Hood River began picking Starkrimson on July 26 last year, both early records. This year harvest is forecast to start in Medford with Comice and Seckel on Aug. 2. The crop is 17 to 20 days later than last year for most varieties and about a week later than normal, Moffitt said.

California’s crop probably is later, too, but there’s been no estimate yet, he said.

The Pear Bureau renewed grower assessments at 38.5 cents per box for promotions, 3.1 cents for research and 3.3 cents for Pear Bureau administration and funding the Northwest Horticultural Council.

The preliminary domestic and foreign promotions budget will be about $6.4 million, down $1 million for the second year in a row because of smaller crops. With federal Market Access Program money it will be about $9 million.

The forecast of winter and summer-fall pears by district is: Wenatchee, 7.8 million boxes; Hood River, 7 million; Yakima, 1.9 million and Medford 890,500.

The forecast for all districts of top varieties by volume: 8.9 million boxes of d’Anjou; 4.4 million Green Bartlett; 2.2 million Bosc and 1 million Red d’ Anjou.

The 2016 crop was 91 percent shipped as of May 19 versus 95 percent a year earlier. A little over 1.5 million boxes remained to be sold versus 900,000 a year ago.

Domestic sales have been slow this year because of competition from the large apple crop and export sales have been slowed by the strong dollar and economic issues in other countries, Moffitt said.

Yakima and Wenatchee prices of d’Anjou were $23 to $27 per box for U.S. No. 1 grade, size 80s on May 31, the same as April 24 versus $26 to $30.90 a year earlier, according to USDA.

Bosc was $24 to $27 versus $26.50 to $28 on April 24 and was sold out a year earlier.

SALEM — Oregon farm regulators would not lose a biological control program for weeds, as feared earlier this year, under the latest budget proposal before lawmakers.

The weed biocontrol position at the Oregon Department of Agriculture was set to be cut under Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s proposed biennial budget for the agency.

Under the 2017-2019 ODA budget approved by a key group of legislators on May 31, though, the weed biocontrol program would receive more than $250,000 for the biennium.

Weed biocontrol typically involves deploying insects or pathogens that prey on specific undesirable plants, such as cinnabar moth larvae consuming tansy ragwort.

The weed biocontrol position is now vacant but ODA could begin recruiting a new expert if the budget is adopted by the full Legislature and a state government hiring freeze is lifted, said Lauren Henderson, the agency’s assistant director.

Rural weed control departments worried that ending the biological control program would ultimately lead to more money being spent on increased herbicide sprays.

“Without this position being filled, weed departments are relying on the best guess to gather, place, and redistribute the biocontrols,” said Theodore Orr, Umatilla County’s weed supervisor, in written testimony.

Aside from preserving weed biocontrol, ODA’s budget proposal also contains good news for dairy farmers and other “confined animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs, which are inspected by state regulators.

Under Gov. Brown’s proposal, $250,000 dedicated to CAFO inspections would be eliminated from the general fund portion of ODA’s budget, with the burden instead shifting to “other funds.”

“If that shift had happened, we would definitely have to raise the fees,” said Henderson.

The Subcommittee on Natural Resources of the Joint Ways and Means Committee has approved a budget that leaves the $250,000 for CAFO inspections in the general fund category, so fees wouldn’t be hiked to cover that gap.

Even so, the subcommittee’s budget does decrease the general fund portion of ODA’s budget to $23.3 million, down from $24.6 million during the previous biennium.

Much of that reduction is accomplished by shifting certain expenses from the general fund to “other funds” and federal funds, with the overall budget growing to $118 million, up from $112 million during 2015-2017.

For example, nearly $1.4 million for food safety programs would be shifted from the general fund to the “other” category, but ODA believes it has enough cash on hand for the next two years to prevent a fee increase, Henderson said.

Part of ODA’s administrative costs — $300,000 — is also shifted to “other funds,” but this change alone won’t force a fee increase, he said.

“It does put a burden on the other funded programs,” Henderson said.

DENVER (AP) — Forecasters say Hawaii and pockets of the Southeastern and Southwestern United States could face above-normal danger of significant wildfires this summer.

The National Interagency Fire Center’s summer outlook released Thursday shows the risk on the Big Island of Hawaii is expected to be above normal through September.

Forecasters say western Nevada faces above-normal fire danger from July through September. The risk will be high in inland Southern California in July and in parts of Northern California during August and September.

Southeastern Arizona and western New Mexico could have above-normal risk in June.

Forecasters say fire danger will be below normal through July in the Rocky Mountains and in a large swath of the Eastern U.S. from Texas to the Atlantic. The risk will return to normal in late summer.

The Oregon Legislature gave its final approval Wednesday to a bill that puts permanent limits on suction dredge mining.

The practice has been controversial because of noise and concerns about harm to fish habitat and water quality.

Suction dredge, or placer mining, is a kind of motorized in-stream mineral extraction. Picture a lawnmower motor floating on top of a pontoon in a river. The motor powers a large vacuum hose, which is used by a swimming miner to suck up sediment in the search for gold.

Fishing and environmental groups have been trying to limit the practice in Oregon for years. They succeeded in passing a partial moratorium on suction dredge mining back in 2013.  The current bill would slightly modify and codify the restrictions.

While allowing suction dredge mining to continue, the new bill would protects 20,700 miles of rivers and streams considered “essential salmon habitat.”  It restricts when suction dredges can be operated in proximity to a residence or campground.  It also requires permitting by the state.

“The main goal is to prevent this kind of hobby, recreational mining activity from undoing the hundreds of millions of dollars in salmon habitat restoration that we’ve been focusing on for decades,” says Nick Cady, Legal Director of Cascadia Wildlands.

The group has supported Senate Bill 3, which passed the House Wednesday, 38-20. The bill cleared the Oregon Senate in April. It now goes to the governor to be signed into law.

Since the moratorium passed five years ago, the number of suction dredge permits in the state has plummeted — from a recent high of about 2,000 in 2012 to just 156 last year. And while 156 suction dredge mines won’t undo hundreds of millions of dollars in salmon restoration work, a relatively small body of scientific work on the issue does point to the potential for negative effects on aquatic wildlife.

Mining enthusiasts have disputed that their hobby hurts the environment. They say the bill violates federal mining laws and will have negative economic consequences.

Samantha Everett works at Armadillo Mining Shop in Grants Pass. She says her livelihood depends on the miners who patronize the shop being able to access places to mine.

“Oregon’s in deficit, and they’re removing money out of our state?” she said, “I don’t understand the logic.”

She says state lawmakers are trying to close public lands miners have legal access to under federal law.

A large percentage of the suction dredge operations are in southwest Oregon, which has a long mining history.

“They’re locking down … a culture and way of life,” Everett says.

California banned suction dredge mining in 2009. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates the practice in Idaho. Washington has much more permissive rules governing placer mining.