GRANTS PASS, Ore. — A judge here is considering whether parties that unsuccessfully defended a legal challenge to Josephine County’s GMO ban should pay the plaintiff farmers’ attorney fees.

In May, farmers Robert and Shelley Ann White convinced a judge the county’s GMO ban, approved by voters in 2014, was pre-empted by a state law passed the prior year.

Supporters of the ban — Oregonians for Safe Farms and Families, a non-profit, and Siskiyou Seeds, an organic company — intervened in the lawsuit to defend the county ordinance.

Now, the plaintiff farmers are seeking to recover $29,205 in attorney fees from the intervenors for unnecessarily complicating the litigation.

“All we want is compensation for time that we had to waste,” John DiLorenzo, attorney for the growers, said Wednesday during a hearing on the matter.

The intervenors unsuccessfully argued that Oregon’s seed pre-emption law was unconstitutional because lawmakers created a “regulatory void” by not imposing rules on GMO production.

DiLorenzo said this wasn’t an objectively reasonable argument because the intervenors could point to no legal precedent in Oregon, but instead relied on a ruling from Ohio.

“It had absolutely no bearing on Oregon law,” he said.

Legal questions over state pre-emption of local ordinances have long been settled by previous court rulings, he said.

“Ignoring them would upset years of decisions and throw state pre-emption law into complete disarray,” DiLorenzo said.

OSFF and Siskiyou Seeds countered that the plaintiffs are not allowed to recover attorney fees and are simply trying to send a “chilling message” to prevent similar defenses of local ordinances elsewhere.

The intervenors’ arguments were plausible even if they ultimately didn’t persuade the judge, and attorney fee sanctions can only be awarded when claims are entirely without legal merit, according to their attorneys.

The authority of local governments to set their own rules should be revisited by higher courts in Oregon, which the intervenors are pursuing through an appeal, said Stephanie Dolan, their attorney.

“There are instances where the law is shaken up and changed,” Dolan said.

Because Josephine County’s GMO ban presented a novel legal question, the intervenors were allowed to cite case law from Ohio to argue Oregon’s pre-emption statute was unconstitutional, the intervenors claim.

Sanctions of attorney fees can only be awarded when a party acts in bad faith, but that wasn’t the case here, said Melissa Wischerath, attorney for the intervenors.

“Just losing an argument doesn’t rise to that level,” she said.

The plaintiffs, whose lawsuit is supported by biotech interests, should not be allowed to instill fear about making arguments that challenge the status quo, she said.

“We want to be able to ensure that safe space remains open in our court system,” Wischerath said, paraphrasing a court ruling.

The fee request is also excessive because their lawyers are claiming to have worked unreasonably long hours at higher-than-normal rates, she said.

“Those rates are literally off the chart for this area,” Wischerath said.

Both OSFF and Siskiyou Seeds would be financially devastated by the proposed award, which would discourage similar public policy litigation in other counties, they claim.

“This battle may be uphill but these claims are in no way frivolous and sanctions should not be applied,” said Dolan.

Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Pat Wolke asked DiLorenzo, the plaintiffs’ attorney, whether it would be wise to postpone the sanctions question until the lawsuit is resolved on appeal.

DiLorenzo said any ruling on attorney fees would likely be consolidated with the overall appeal.

Wolke has taken the matter under consideration and said he will issue a written ruling.

Oregon farm organizations are still absorbing news of longtime Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba’s appointment as the state’s chief operating officer and director of the Department of Administrative Services.

Word spread quickly through Oregon’s agricultural groups Wednesday morning. Coba used her 11:30 ag budget conference call with producer organizations to tell them first-hand.

“It’s a hard one for me,” said Katie Fast, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter. Coba’s appointment as DAS director is probably a good move for Oregon in terms of good government because of her experience and management skill, she said.

“However, for Oregon agriculture, we’re all at a little bit of a loss,” she said. “Those are some big shoes to move into.”

Fast said Coba has been a strong advocate for Oregon ag at the state Legislature. She’s also overseen a department management structure that is collaborative with staff and with the industries they regulate, and industry will want to see that continued in the next director, Fast said.

Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said Coba’s departure from ODA is “a huge loss to Oregon agriculture.”

Rosa said Coba is the longest serving state ag director in the country and has done a “tremendous job.” He said her marketing background is unparalleled and has helped commodity groups.

Rosa served on the Oregon Board of Agriculture, which advises Coba and the department, before taking the job with the cattlemen’s association. In both positions, “Her door was always open and very accessible to me,” he said. “She always made time.”

Rosa said he hopes the next director will take a similar approach.

Dave Dillon, executive vice president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, said it’s premature to talk about possible successors. He said Coba was a successful director because she understood the industry, collaborated with producers and kept the department from being “politicized.”

“In my view, Katy’s been a director who wants to make sure decisions are made on good principles, good science, and are thoughtful — not ideological,” Dillon said.

In a state with such a wide variety of crops and producers, that’s important, he said.

He called on Gov. Kate Brown to consult with the people whose livelihoods depend on agriculture before choosing the next ODA director. “To me it’s of vital importance to make sure producer voices are heard,” he said.

Coba’s appointment is effective Oct. 1 but requires confirmation by the Oregon Senate in September, according to a news release from the Governor’s Office.

Coba, who has been agriculture director since 2003, started working in state government in 1985.

Kristin Grainger, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Coba, a Pendleton native, was a “proven leader” and “committed to excellence” in state government.

“Her roots in rural Oregon and Eastern Oregon were influential as well,” Grainger said.

Grainger said the state’s budget development process will likely be a focal point for Coba in her new position.

The Department of Agriculture’s deputy director, Lisa Charpilloz Hanson, will serve as interim director starting Oct. 1, until a successor to Coba is appointed.

Capital Bureau

SALEM — Katy Coba, the director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, has been appointed the state’s chief operating officer and director of the Department of Administrative Services, the state’s overarching administrative agency, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s office announced Wednesday.

Coba’s appointment is effective Oct. 1 but requires confirmation by the Oregon Senate in September, according to a news release from the Governor’s Office.

Coba, who has been agriculture director since 2003, started working in state government in 1985.

Kristin Grainger, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Coba, a Pendleton native, was a “proven leader” and “committed to excellence” in state government.

“Her roots in rural Oregon and Eastern Oregon were influential as well,” Grainger said.

Grainger said the state’s budget development process will likely be a focal point for Coba in her new position.

A news release from the Governor’s Office also cited Coba’s experience as part of the Enterprise Leadership Team, a group of state agency leaders that advises the governor and chief operating officer.

The Department of Agriculture’s Deputy Director, Lisa Charpilloz Hanson, will serve as interim director starting Oct. 1, until a successor to Coba is appointed, according to the news release.

George Naughton has been the interim director of DAS since March 2015, according to Wednesday’s news release. He will continue to be the department’s chief financial officer.

Naughton was appointed interim director when Michael Jordan, the chief operating officer under former Gov. John Kitzhaber, announced his resignation, effective April 1 of that year.

A 450-pound calf that died in Umatilla County was attacked by wolves, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The incident happened in the Meacham Creek area on private land, according to ODFW. A ranch employee found a calf partially under water in a pond on a forested pasture on Aug. 20. The employee tried to save it, but the calf died on the bank, according to a report.

The calf had open wounds in the udder and anus area, and ODFW was notified. Examination of the carcass showed numerous bite marks, and multiple wolf tracks were seen at the edge of the pond.

The attack happened within an area frequented by the Meacham wolf pack, according to ODFW.

Oregon farmers are projected to reap 38,000 tons of hazelnuts this year, which would be a substantial improvement over 2015 but less than some had expected.

The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service has forecast the crop will be 22.5 percent larger in 2016, based on statistical surveys conducted earlier this summer.

Although the average number of nuts collected per tree in the survey was 224, up from 186 last year, they weighed slightly less and a bit more of them were defective, according to the forecast.

Gene Pierce, a NASS statistician, said he noticed more space within the shells than during past surveys.

“The kernel hadn’t filled to the entire capacity of the shell and it had already stopped development,” Pierce said.

Garry Rodakowski, chairman of the Oregon Hazelnut Commission, said he was expecting a larger forecasted crop of roughly 42,000-43,000 tons, but that’s based only on observation.

Predicting the actual harvest is tough because the hazelnut industry isn’t sure exactly how many Barcelona trees afflicted with eastern filbert blight are being removed and how many new disease-resistant Jefferson trees are reaching maturity, he said.

“We’ve got two curves and we don’t know where they meet,” said Rodakowski. “We’ve had a lot of plantings going in, but they haven’t gotten to the production stage as quickly as we’d thought.”

The trees in Rodakowski’s orchard near Vida, Ore., appear to be generating healthy yields, but he owns smaller acreage than some hazelnut growers and has been able to “stay on top of pruning” to keep EFB at bay, he said.

The fungal pathogen also infected orchards in the area later than other portions of the Willamette Valley further to the north, Rodakowski said.

Rodakowski agrees with USDA that some nuts haven’t fully filled shells this year.

“I have seen what they’re talking about, and my speculation would be a lack of moisture,” he said, adding that newer, irrigated orchards wouldn’t have this problem.

The drier, warmer growing season is likely to result in the harvest beginning in mid-September rather than the typical early October, he said.

Crop estimates provided by farmers to the Northwest Hazelnut Co., a processor based in Hubbard, are generally higher than the 38,000 tons projected by USDA, said Jonathan Thompson, the company’s CEO.

“I can tell you the growers we’re talking to are much more optimistic than that,” Thompson said.

While the USDA’s forecast is helpful, processors ultimately wait until the crop is being harvested before making firm commitments to buyers, he said. “It’s just one piece of the puzzle.”

BEND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon state audit says the time, effort and money spent fighting wildfires has strained workers and harmed other programs at the Oregon Department of Forestry.

The Bend Bulletin reports that the Oregon secretary of state released the audit on Tuesday.

According to the report, the wildfire workload has increased and staffing has not kept pace, forcing more employees to do fire-related assignments and work longer hours. The audit says the forestry department is fighting more severe fires with about the same number of employees it had 20 years ago.

The department says it supports and agrees with the audit’s findings. Officials have detailed ways they plan to address the recommendations.

WINCHESTER BAY -- Harbor Baptist Church, an anchor in the community, celebrates 50 years this year.

Nearly 83,000 acre-feet of “water reservations” in Oregon’s Hood River basin have been renewed by state regulators, opening the way for new water rights development.

The Oregon Water Resources Commission voted in favor of extending water reservations in the region for another 20 years during its Aug. 18 meeting in Hermiston.

Oregon lawmakers allowed state agencies to “reserve” water for economic development when they established minimum in-stream flows nearly 30 years ago.

More than 300,000 acre-feet of water were reserved by the Oregon Department of Agriculture in five river basins — Hood, Grande Ronde, Powder, Malheur and Owyhee — but few farmers used the program to actually develop water rights.

Lack of awareness and concerns about environmental barriers limited participation in the program, but the ODA believes there’s now a greater recognition of the need to develop water supplies.

Most water reservations were set to expire between 2016 and 2020, so the ODA has been working to win approval for their renewal by the Oregon Water Resources Commission.

The commission renewed a portion of the Powder River basin’s reservations earlier this year — roughly 26,000 acre-feet — but the 82,900 acre-feet renewed in the Hood River basin was the largest chunk of reservations up for consideration.

Water supplies are a concern in the region because some irrigators rely on flows from glaciers around Mt. Hood that have been shrinking over time, said Margaret Matter, ODA’s water resource specialist.

Irrigation districts in the Hood River basin have already made great strides in modernizing their systems and saving water by piping open canals, which prevents seepage, she said.

“They can’t tighten up their systems much more. If the want water, they need new sources,” Matter said.

In terms of financing storage projects, it doesn’t hurt that the area produces several high-value orchard crops, she said.

John Buckley, manager of the East Fork Irrigation District, said the water reservations would be useful if the district built a reservoir to capture flows in early spring.

The district doesn’t currently have any storage, which would be useful in adding water supplies that can be used during the late irrigation season, when flows are lower, he said.

“With snow depleting on the mountain, we will struggle,” said Buckley.

The Farmers Irrigation District is currently planning to raise a dam, which should provide adequate water capacity, but the renewed water reservations will provide added flexibility, said Les Perkins, the district’s manager.

“A lot of it has to do with keeping the door open to future possibilities,” he said.

Extending the water reservations has not been without controversy, however.

WaterWatch of Oregon, an environmental nonprofit, opposed the renewal proposal because it would “put in-stream values at serious risk,” according to a letter to the commission.

ODA also failed to provide the commission with progress reports for the water reservation, as required by the rules for program renewal, the group said.

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, meanwhile, urged the commission to assess the renewal’s impacts on endangered species due to streamflows declining since the reservations were established.

“The Tribes do not support the proposed 20-year extension unless environmental safeguards are included in the amended basin program,” according to a letter to the commission.

CONDON, Ore. — It’s a limited pallet this time of year in the Columbia Plateau counties. Blue sky above brown fallow, with combines of John Deere green or Case IH red moving in slow, shrinking circuits around golden wheat fields.

It’s an empty landscape, most ways you look. Few buildings and no traffic. And in that emptiness, you can lose track of the broader world. The wheat kernels tumbling into the hopper on Chuck Greenfield’s combine are the reminder of the connection. From Gilliam County, Ore., with fewer than 2,000 people, it will go to flour mills in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines.

“Feed the world,” Greenfield says.

It is a diminished group of farmers who can make a living doing that. Greenfield’s employer, Marc Pryor, said the county had about 150 wheat farmers in the 1970s. Now he estimates the number is in the teens. It’s a classic example of the economy of scale: Like most crops, wheat’s narrow profit margin makes it critical to spread input, equipment and labor costs over more acreage, and it forced many farmers to get bigger or get out.

In 1950, Oregon had 34,000 farms of one to 49 acres. Now it’s down to 21,800 in that size category. The state lost 8 percent of its farmers between the 2007 Census of Agriculture to the next one in 2012.

The weather, crop diseases, equipment breakdowns and the market don’t care. Wheat that sold for $7 a bushel one year brings $5 the next. There may be enough rain to germinate and nourish a dryland wheat crop through the bone-dry summer, and there may not. “It’s pretty tough right now,” Pryor says.

He’s 66 and trying to maintain the farming operation that flourished under his father, Earl Pryor, now retired. His stepmother, Laura Pryor, was the Gilliam County judge for many years. The family business, now called Prycor LLC., farms about 3,500 acres. Marc Pryor monitors the farm from Los Angeles, where he lives and has a business, and returns home to Condon for harvest.

Marc Pryor is president of an engineering forensics business, which involves finding out why materials, products, structures or components fail, or don’t work like they should. Farmers have their own structural problems.

Some are putting land into conservation reserves and making money that way, Pryor says, but that takes land out of production and limits expansion possibilities. Estate taxes can make it difficult to pass farms along to heirs, and in some cases the previous generation still needs to be supported by the farm’s revenue. A strong U.S. dollar can make U.S. wheat more expensive than competitors’, crucial to Pacific Northwest producers whose wheat is exported.

But to people who question the business, Pryor has a ready answer. “Well, we produced over six million pounds of food this year, what have you done?

“And it’s in our blood,” Pryor adds. “That’s why we’re still doing it.”

Chuck Greenfield, the combine driver, talks about the same thing. He turns 72 in September and is the Prycor field manager. He’s worked for the family 35 years.

“You’re kind of independent, you don’t have to deal with a lot of people,” he says. “If you work in a factory, you’re basically a number.”

He glances over, taking his eyes off the machine’s spinning header for a second.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is a good way of life,” he says. “It’s not always bad to sit and listen to the combine.”

His grandson, Justin Waggoner, is driving the red Case IH combine. He went school to learn welding, but returned to the wheat fields.

“I didn’t ask him to come back,” Greenfield says. “He’s got farming in his blood.”

Greenfield and his grandson circle in to the trucks to unload. Truck driver Buster Nation, who says he’s “16 running on 17,” manipulates an auger transferring wheat from a smaller truck to a larger one, which will haul the load to a grain elevator.

The teen says he didn’t know how to do anything when he started this summer; now he can operate every piece of equipment out here.

“This is one of the best learning experiences I’ve ever had,” he says.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Prosecutors plan to call seven Interior Department employees to testify at the upcoming trial of Ammon Bundy and others charged with conspiring to impede workers during last winter’s 41-day occupation of an Oregon bird sanctuary.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow told U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown at a pretrial conference that the employees will explain their work at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and how they were prevented from doing their jobs. They will also identify photos from the refuge and identify defendants driving government vehicles.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the judge agreed with a defense lawyer that the employees can’t simply testify about subjective fears they felt during the occupation.

Monday was the first of what is expected to be several days of pretrial conferences to determine what evidence will be allowed during next month’s trial.

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse may become the lone Pacific Northwest voice on Republican Donald Trump’s agricultural advisory committee.

Three Californians are already on it.

The Trump campaign on Aug. 16 released a list of more than 60 people on its ag committee chaired by Charles W. Herbster, owner of Herbster Angus Farms near Falls City, Neb., and owner of an agriculture and animal health products company.

The committee includes 10 former and current governors, members of Congress, farmers, ranchers and heads of agricultural trade associations.

The identities of everyone on the committee were not readily clear, but it appeared there was no one on the list from the PNW.

Washington state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, director of Trump’s Washington campaign and coordinator for the campaign in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Hawaii, said there was no intention to slight the Northwest.

Advisory committees are added to as they go, he said, adding he’s gained campaign approval to add Newhouse and is awaiting word from the Republican congressman, who serves Washington’s 4th District and is a Sunnyside farmer. Newhouse is on the House Agriculture Committee and is former director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

“The folks on the committee are top notch but it wouldn’t hurt to have someone from the PNW on grain exports and other issues somewhat unique to us,” Benton said.

Newhouse campaign manager Sean O’Brien couldn’t be reached for comment but earlier said Newhouse supports the Republican nominee.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., was on Mitt Romney’s committee in 2012 but is not on Trump’s. Her staff did not respond to questions.

State Sen. Mark Schoesler, a Ritzville, Wash., wheat farmer and majority leader of the state Senate, said he’s voting for Trump and would serve on the committee if asked.

People may have reservations about Trump, “but there are not many Hillary fans out there,” he said, speaking of Eastern Washington.

Heather Hansen, executive director of Washington Friends of Farms & Forests, said the farm labor shortage and trade are important to Washington and it would be good for Trump to hear a PNW perspective on those issues.

Barry Bushue, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, said no comment when asked why no one from the PNW is on the committee and if he supports Trump. Bushue said he’s had no contact with the Trump campaign and that his time is taken up with other things.

Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries, did not respond to a call for comment.

Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers in Irvine, Calif., A.G. Kawamura, former California agriculture secretary and John Kautz, CEO of Ironstone Vineyards north of Sonora, Calif., are on the committee. Nassif and Kawamura served on Romney’s agriculture committee.

Nassif met Trump at a rally in Fresno, Calif., in May and rode on the candidate’s plane with him to San Diego. They talked for 15 to 20 minutes, mainly about immigration, Nassif told Capital Press.

“It was a rare opportunity to talk face-to-face about an important issue to a person who might be president,” Nassif said.

“I knew when I brought up the subject that we had a difference of opinion on immigration reform,” he said. “I wanted to point out that agriculture is a completely different animal than any other industry.

“I wanted to give him sound reasons why we should take into consideration the need to have loyal, hardworking people have a path to citizenship or legalization.”

Nassif said he talked about the need for a new foreign guestworker program for future flow of workers to meet labor shortages.

“He was listening and saying how complicated the issue is. While he never agreed or disagreed, he encouraged me to talk to his staff, and I did. I didn’t ask to be on the committee but volunteered to be an adviser. They put me on,” Nassif said.

Western Growers has not endorsed Trump but he personally supports Trump, Nassif said.

Capital Press has not been able to determine if anyone from the region is on Rural for Hillary, a group not directly affiliated with the Clinton’s Democratic campaign.

In late July, Rural for Hillary, held its first meeting after several months of groundwork. It’s aimed at building support for Clinton in rural communities and agriculture groups.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and former USDA Secretary Dan Glickman are involved, as are Pam Johnson, a farmer and past president of the National Corn Growers Association and two dairy owners in New York.

Wildfires are scorching more than 357,000 acres across the West, including major blazes in Idaho, California, Oregon and Washington state.

The largest single blaze is the Pioneer Fire in the Boise National Forest, burning more than 96,000 acres.

Though the exact amount of ranch land burned or threatened is not known, “we know there’s ranching, we know there’s commercial timber, and public land and recreation,” fire information officer Tom Turk told the Capital Press.

The fire is typical for the forest, Turk said.

“They tend to be large in nature when we have these dry periods,” he said.

The multi-agency InciWeb website provided updates for major wildfires in the last 24 hours.

As of Aug, 22, major fires included:

• The Soberanes Fire in the Los Padres National Forest in Southern California is burning more than 86,000 acres. The Rey Fire is burning roughly 24,000 acres in the same national forest.

• The Blue Cut Fire is burning roughly 37,000 on the San Bernadino National Forest, also in Southern California.

• The Cedar Fire is burning nearly 20,000 acres on the Sequoia National Forest, also in California.

• The 50,000-acre Cherry Road Fire on brush and grass 16 miles west of Homedale, Idaho, near Lake Owyhee in Oregon. The fire is being fought by the Vale District of the Bureau of Land Management.

• The Rail Fire has burned more than 30,000 acres west of Unity, Ore. Fuels include mixed conifers and insect-killed lodge pole pine stands. The total burned area includes 26,610 acres on the Wallowa-Whitman Natural Forest, 3,650 acres on Malheur National Forest and 13 acres of private land.

• The Kahlotus Fire in Washington state, estimated at 22,000 acres and growing, is threatening homes and crops, according to the Washington State Patrol.

• The Hart Road Fire 9 miles north of Davenport, Wash., is burning 6,000 acres in Stevens County and 2,500 acres in Lincoln County, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

• The Yale Road Fire north of Spangle, Wash., is burning roughly, 4,000 acres. The cause is under investigation.

“I don’t have any specifics as far as acres burned or livestock that have been lost, but we know that has occurred, and we’ll be working to assess that in the near future,” said Jeff Sevigney, information officer for the state patrol, about the Yale Road Fire.

Some farmers have plowed a portion of their ground to reduce the fire risk.

“We’ve had tremendous help from the local ag resources in the area, working closely with firefighters to help us establish containment lines, oftentimes utilizing their own equipment,” Sevigney said.

The Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds is being used for livestock and animals evacuated from the fire, Sevigney said.

He blamed warm weather, low relative humidity and high winds for adding to the situation.

“Any time we have extreme fire weather conditions, we have the potential for large fires, and we definitely have a large fire here we’re working on today,” he said.

Sundays

KINGSTON, Ontario (AP) — The rock concert did not begin with a rock song. Instead, it started with flag-waving fans breaking into a national anthem, "O Canada."

TORONTO (AP) — A delirious sold-out crowd and countless Canadians watching live TV from their homes took in the final concert by their rock band The Tragically Hip, whose lead singer and songwriter Gord Downie has been diagnosed with terminal…

SALEM — The 151st Oregon State Fair will feature new attractions, including an FFA greenhouse, a motorsports competition and a new carnival.

The fair runs from Aug. 26 through Sept. 5.

Fair spokesman Dan Cox said fair management this year is focusing on increasing attendance and drawing new audiences to the fair.

Fair management has also restructured several programs for efficiency. Managers combined the 4-H and FFA horse competitions and several other programs.

As a part of the agricultural exhibits, FFA constructed a new greenhouse for horticulture displays with the help of sponsor GK Machinery.

In 2015, fair management was shifted from the Oregon State Parks Department to a public corporation. Cox said this gave the fair more flexibility and allowed it to operate more efficiently.

The restructured management increased fair attendance by 18.9 percent in 2015 and Cox expects that number to grow again in 2016.

“As a quasi-public corporation, we are able to function more like a business with more flexibility and nimbleness,” Cox said.

The biggest addition to the fair will be Machine Mania, which offers a variety of motorsport competitions each day. It will feature tuff trucks, a demolition derby, freestyle motorcycles, truck and tractor pulls, flat track motorcycle racing, outlaw kart racing, professional speedway kart racing and monster trucks. Admission is free with paid admission to the fair.

Portland-based Rainier Amusements will provide carnival rides and attractions to the fair. Rainier will bring Bobsled, a full roller coaster, to the carnival.

Cox said while the fair is adding alot, it is holding onto all of its popular recurring programs.

In 2015 the Oregon State Fair drew 268,000 attendees, not including employees or vendors.

The fair will be the first in the nation to host a cannabis exhibit in 2016. The Oregon Cannabis Business Council will exhibit nine non-budding plants in a secure greenhouse for attendees 21 and over.

Oregon State Fair

Admission: $8 for adults, $5 for children and $1 for seniors. Admission is cheaper if bought in advance online. Military veterans, first responders and immediate families get free admission on Labor Day, Sept. 5.

Dates: Aug. 26-Sept. 5

Parking: $5

Location: 2330 17th St. NE, Salem

Website: http://oregonstatefair.org/

STANFIELD, Ore. — Standing on a stage at the first ever Ag Drone Rodeo, organizer Jeff Lorton compared the day’s events to those in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the site of the first manned flight.

The attendees of Thursday’s events were primarily concerned with unmanned flight, as dozens of people from across the state gathered at Ron Linn Airfield east of Stanfield for a series of drone demonstrations focused on agriculture.

Hosted by the Pendleton Unmanned Aerial Systems Range and Oregon Future Farm, drone manufacturers and vendors like RDO, Insitu and MicaSense flew their UAS. Each company talked about their drone’s crop imaging capabilities and ease of use while piloting it on a short mission.

Lorton said UAS would be a regular part of farming operations within 10 years and there was one working already on Hill Ranches near Pendleton.

“This drone thing you’ve heard so much about is a reality,” he said.

It’s certainly a reality for a group of students at Yamhill-Carlton High School, who are building a drone from scratch.

A Yamhill County farmer commissioned the drone so he could use the unmanned aerial vehicle on his blueberry fields and other crops, Yamhill-Carlton math teacher Jordan Slavish said.

The farmer agreed to pay for half of the cost to build it. A dedicated afterschool group of 6-7 students now gets a hands-on experience building their own drone.

Slavish was accompanied by Jeff Breazile and his son Zach, one of the students working on the drone.

Breazile, an engineer at Intel, said his employer is covering the expenses of the trip to Eastern Oregon, which the contingent is using as an opportunity to find the software they need to compile agricultural data.

Curt Thompson, the career technical education coordinator for the Pendleton School District, said he plans to incorporate some of the ideas from Yamhill-Carlton’s program into Pendleton High School’s UAS classes, which will start in December when the Pendleton Tech and Trade center opens.

Although many in the agricultural industry see drones as a part of the future of farming, some don’t know how quickly it will be integrated.

Todd Thorne, a member of the Pendleton Airport Commission and a former wheat farmer, said he could definitely see drones being used now to help growers of high-value crops like potatoes and tree fruits. But the current cost of investing in a UAS might be too cost prohibitive for a lower-value crop like dryland wheat.

While a quadcopter drone can now be bought for well under $100, the price tag for many of the professional-grade drones being demonstrated cost were in the thousands.

Don Wysocki, a soil scientist with the Umatilla County Oregon State University Extension Service, concurred with Thorne. He said he saw drone operators leasing out UAS services to farmers rather than growers buying drones of their own.

The Ag Drone Rodeo wasn’t the first series of demonstrations for farmers.

Phil Hamm, the station director of OSU’s Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, said his organization hosted some UAS demonstrations at the HAREC field days a few years ago.

Hamm said there’s a great deal of potential for farmers.

For instance, Hamm said UAS can better pinpoint the spots where pests are destroying a crop, allowing the farmer to target that spot rather than blanket a large area with expensive, unnecessary pesticide.

With many growers not having enough time to learn and operate drones themselves, Hamm also thought leasing drone services would probably be the most immediate way UAVs would be integrated into farming.

While he did note that farmers in the Columbia Basin are progressive in their ability to adapt to new technologies, Hamm said drone companies will have to appeal to growers’ business sense.

“You have to prove to them that they can save money,” he said.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Nine living marijuana plants will be displayed at the Oregon State Fair in a first of its kind event for the United States starting next Friday.

The exhibit of the non-flowering, immature plants brings pot cultivation more into the agricultural mainstream less than two years after Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana. The Oregon Cannabis Business Council, which organized the exhibit, says it’s the first time live cannabis will be shown at a state fair anywhere in the U.S.

The group last year had an informational booth about marijuana at the fair and there were no complaints — a key factor in allowing them to go one step further and offer live plants for viewing this year, said Dan Cox, spokesman for the Oregon State Fair.

The specimens were selected by judges at a competition last weekend who chose three winners each in the sativa, indica and hybrid categories.

The entire exhibit will be housed in a translucent tent and extra security will be on hand to check identification so only people 21 and over can enter, Cox said.

None of the plants are allowed have buds, which are more potent than the leaves.

That’s because the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which will regulate the recreational marijuana business, is still finalizing regulations for the nascent industry and it’s currently illegal to transport a flowering plant, said Donald Morse, director of the Oregon Cannabis Business Council.

Those regulations and a licensing process for recreational producers are expected by 2017. The industry hopes to have plants with buds at the fair next summer, Morse said.

The event has raised some eyebrows, but Cox said the Oregon State Fair has always played a role in displaying the latest and sometimes controversial fads in agriculture and state culture. Nearly 20 years ago, he said, the fair had an exhibit on tattoo body art that caused a similar sensation.

“It is a showcase for traditional things. And yet it’s always been a show place for the new, the different and the innovative,” he said.

Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana in a November 2014 ballot initiative after medical marijuana was legalized years earlier.

Recreational marijuana remains illegal in 46 states and under federal law. But in Oregon, the pot business has been booming.

Anticipated state revenue from recreational marijuana through June 2017 was recently quadrupled by Oregon’s Legislative Revenue Office, from $8.4 million to $35 million.

Cox said there aren’t plans to expand pot’s place at the fair beyond the small exhibit, which is in a space rented by industry proponents.

But for weed fans, just getting a place at the table is worth celebrating.

“It’s pretty awesome to be judging actual cannabis plants that are going to go into a state fair,” said Tom Lauerman, one of six judges and an organic marijuana grower who was once arrested in a law enforcement drug raid targeting pot. “It kind of gives me goose bumps even talking about it.”

The fair runs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 5 in Salem, Oregon.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Gov. Kate Brown has asked a judge to quash a subpoena that seeks her testimony at Oregon standoff defendant Ryan Bundy’s criminal trial in September.

Through her lawyer, Brown says she has no information pertinent to Bundy’s guilt or innocence in the case.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports she cites federal doctrine that protects high-ranking officials from “harassing and burdensome requests” for testimony.

Ryan Bundy, his brother Ammon Bundy and six co-defendants are scheduled for trial Sept. 7. They are charged with conspiring to impede federal employees at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge through intimidation, threats or force.

Ryan Bundy issued the subpoena Tuesday for Brown to appear at the trial and to produce any emails or memos between her and the FBI or other law enforcement agencies regarding the 41-day refuge occupation that weren’t already turned over to prosecutors.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s wildfire season is picking up just as much of the state prepares for triple-digit heat.

A fire west of Sunriver led officials to warn people in a subdivision they might have to evacuate. The same situation played out in the southern Oregon town of Paisley, where an 800-acre blaze was one of four that started Wednesday afternoon in Lake County.

In Eastern Oregon, crews set intentional blazes to rob the Rail fire of fuel as it burns about 10 miles southwest of Unity. The wildfire that has scorched 37 square miles produced a large column of smoke that could be seen from Baker City.

Firefighters won’t have comfortable conditions to battle the flames. The forecast for Thursday and Friday calls for temperatures near or above 100 in Western Oregon and it’ll be in the 90s east of the Cascades.

The fire near Sunriver was relatively small, less than a square mile, but its location near the resort community got attention.

Crews worked through the night and continued to focus on the southeast corner, the direction the fire had been moving and an area with homes, said Patrick Lair, spokesman for Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center. Crews got a line around the fire at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday and did back-burning through the night. About 250 people continued to fight the blaze.

The fire northwest of Paisley was moving toward private and Fremont-Winema National Forest lands. The evacuation notice means residents in town of about 250 people should monitor the news and be ready to potentially leave home.

The other fires in Lake County, which borders California and Nevada, were small and posed no threat.