EAGLE POINT, Ore. (AP) — Livestock producers are feeling the effects of drought at an intensifying rate.

On the heels of two sparse rain years, pastures are drying up and herds might follow suit if the trend continues into next year.

Fourth-generation Eagle Point rancher Ron Anderson figures plenty of his fellow ranchers are in a world of hurt.

“We had no snowpack to speak of in comparison to what we used to,” Anderson said. “So when the snow’s gone, you know the runoff slows down. If you’re in the right place, you still get some runoff. There are places in Oregon where once that snow is gone, they don’t get nothing. If we don’t get a wet winter, or a lot of snow this year, then we’re really in for it. That could be a disaster.”

Anderson said it is reminiscent of the climate shift in the late 1970s.

“If you’re not in the right place, you can’t irrigate,” Anderson said. “You might only get one or two irrigations, well that don’t grow any feed, so that makes it difficult. You take a dry year on dry-land farming, you might get nothing.”

While herd sizes have remained stable over the past decade, they’re much smaller than they were 40 years ago, Anderson said. At the same time, there are fewer acres devoted to hay and feed production.

With pastures drying up this summer, farmers and ranchers resort to buying hay, more than likely from outside of the Rogue Valley.

“People will have to buy some hay to survive this drought,” Anderson said. “The price is pretty high right now compared to last year ... good alfalfa will be $200 and something a ton.”

The Klamath Basin has long been an option, but that’s not a given this year.

“There was quite a little rain damage there on the first cutting,” he said.

Anderson is among the cattlemen whose herds graze locally, then are moved across the state line in the winter.

“There’s worse drought in California than there is here,” Anderson said.

Last week, Jackson County livestock producers gained eligibility to apply for 2018 Livestock Forage Disaster Program benefits for small grain, native pasture and improved pasture.

The program provides compensation for producers who suffer grazing losses for covered livestock due to drought on privately owned or leased land, or fire on federally managed land.

“We’re so far behind on water that we won’t catch up,” said Phillip Morton, local executive director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, which administers the disaster relief program. “But if we don’t have a good fall, winter and spring going into next year and the rain stops in February like it did this year, it’s going to be much worse.”

The lack of ready forage and high cost of hay could hit hard, Morton said.

“Local herds disappear,” he said. “Producers can’t afford to feed them, and it becomes cost-prohibitive to feed your herds, so folks start selling off cattle. We’ll see less livestock in the county, and producers will get a setback in their herd development. Of course, if a lot of cattle start showing up on market, the natural thing is for prices to come down.”

Until the most recent farm bill was passed, the Farm Service Agency awaited a presidential declaration. Now, the agency follows the U.S. Drought Monitor. Adjacent counties were previously included, so if Klamath County had a dry year, Jackson County was eligible.

While the drought assistance is welcome to livestock owners, it’s not a sure thing.

“They’re usually pretty good at helping you fill out the paperwork. Then you’ve got to wait and see if there are funds available, passed by Congress, where it goes and how much,” Anderson said.

Often it turns into a waiting game.

“The biggest complaint I hear is these guys meticulously fill out the forms and they never hear anything,” said Applegate Valley farmer Warren Merz.

“When you figure all the farmers trying to raise dryland hay crops, or dryland grain,” Anderson said, “you’ve got the irrigated crops, so they’re not quite so bad, as long as you don’t run out of irrigation water in these districts.”

While this isn’t the worst summer in his recollection, John Dimick of Eagle Point said the string of dry summers is taking a toll, and wildfire smoke is creating additional woes.

“The smoke is heavy enough that the second-cutting hay crop is not growing,” Dimick said. “Those guys that have actually cut some hay have had a real hard time getting it dry, because of the lack of direct sunlight. Pastures are not growing like they should be, so if you are a dryland pasture guy, you’re in big trouble. There are some people that are really hurting for feed because it’s so dry. There’s just not a lot of green grass growing out there.”

HERMISTON, Ore. — Henry the lamb might just be the most valuable lamb in history.

After Maddy Thomas, an 11-year-old 4-H student from Echo, showed him at the Umatilla County Fair his sale brought in $23,200 — totaling about $162 per pound at an auction where lambs were averaging $7 per pound.

The auction marked the one-year anniversary of Maddy’s diagnosis of a brain tumor, and the money will go to help her family cover continuing expenses related to her treatment. Her mother, Jenny Thomas, said she doesn’t have words to describe how grateful she is for the “unbelievable” show of support.

“Anyone who has had a sick child knows the kind of bills that come, and I’ve had to miss a lot of work,” she said.

The lamb didn’t start out as a fundraiser idea. Maddy just wanted to participate in a “normal” activity after finally finding a cancer treatment that was working and she was regaining some of her strength. She got Henry in May and began walking, feeding and grooming him.

“I liked him because he liked to head butt me and he was always playful,” Maddy said. “I liked walking him around the house.”

Jenny said the exercise was so good for Maddy — using muscles she hadn’t used in months and giving her an incentive to stay outdoors — that doctors told her she could drop her occupational and physical therapy. She lost some of the weight that steroids in her treatment had caused her to gain, and color returned to her cheeks.

“He gave her a purpose,” Jenny said.

When fair time came, Maddy brought her lamb to the barns with the other youth and enjoyed a week at the fair. Like all 4-H students, when the youth livestock auction rolled around on Saturday she found it bittersweet.

“It was hard saying goodbye,” she said.

Jenny said she had heard “rumblings” that community members at the auction were conspiring to make sure Maddy’s lamb went for a little extra, but she thought that meant $10 per pound. Instead, the price just kept rising as more people realized something special was happening and jumped in with bids of their own, then cheered on other bidders.

Both Jennie and livestock auction superintendent Marie Linnell described the atmosphere during the bidding as “electric.” Linnell said that even auctioneer Ford Bonney started choking up as he continued to take bids.

“It was like electricity was running through the air,” Linnell said. “The feeling there was incredible.”

The bidding ended at $50 per pound, but the fair also allows “add-ons” from people who didn’t win an animal but still want to contribute to the youth who raised it. The add-ons came pouring in, bumping it up to $78 per pound that day. First it was adults and businesses, then other Umatilla County 4-H and FFA members started contributing a portion of their proceeds. Linnell said last week support was still trickling in, but the 143-pound market lamb has brought in $23,200 from more than 60 adults, businesses and 50 youth.

“We always say these 4-H and FFA kids are the cream of the crop,” Linnell said.

Henry the lamb went on to resale, and Maddy said she is already looking forward to raising another lamb next year.

“It was fun,” she said.

Meanwhile Jenny said the money raised from the sale — Linnell said the fair won’t be taking a commission off the top — will help the family with medical and travel expenses, and some will be put into a college fund for Maddy.

Maddy also said she wanted to thank everyone for their support.

Linnell said she has never seen anything like what happened last week, but the community has always been extremely generous at the youth livestock auction in her 12 years as superintendent. With Maddy’s lamb, it was the highest grossing auction to date. Without factoring in Maddy’s lamb, it was the second highest at $480,750 on 251 lots.

Anyone who wants to add on a donation to Maddy’s lamb before the deadline next Friday can email Linnell at mlinnell5@gmail.com or stop by the fair offices at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center.

A federal judge has dismissed a racketeering lawsuit filed by Oregon landowners against neighbors who allegedly produce marijuana but the plaintiffs can refile their complaint.

Last year, several people filed a lawsuit accusing neighboring property owners near Lebanon, Ore., of growing marijuana in violation of the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act.

U.S. District Judge Michael McShane has now ruled that the injuries alleged by the plaintiffs, including unpleasant noises, foul odors and reduced property values, aren’t the kind that can be compensated under RICO.

The 10 plaintiffs — Robert Ainsworth and Tami Ainsworth, Karl and Lucinda Frink, Gordon and Elaine Griswold, John and Linda Lindsey and William and Suzanne Whitaker — claimed they’d been adversely affected by a “persistent stench,” traffic, greenhouse fans and guard dogs.

According to the complaint, because marijuana remains illegal under federal law regardless of its legalization in Oregon, RICO has been violated by the defendants: Mark Owenby, Michelle Page, Jenny Silveira, Howard Brown, William Templeton, Elisha Templeton and Bryan Philp.

Whether or not the marijuana is still grown at the site is a point of dispute — the defendants say it’s hasn’t operated since October 2017 while plaintiffs claim it’s still functional.

Though the judge found that the plaintiffs have constitutional standing to file the lawsuit, he has decided that diminished “use and enjoyment” doesn’t qualify as an “injury to property” under RICO, even considering their “out-of-pocket expenses for firearms, fencing, gates, and security cameras.”

Such costs arise from an alleged personal injury that’s not covered by RICO “because those losses are derivative of their emotional distress and not a property interest recognized under Oregon law,” McShane said.

The reduction in the plaintiffs’ property values is speculative, since they haven’t shown any attempt to “rent, sell or otherwise monetize their property interests,” rendering the alleged harm “abstract” and uncompensable under RICO, he said.

However, the judge will allow the landowners to amend their complaint to make such a claim “in good faith” and he agreed that the marijuana operation was a plausible cause of any alleged reduction in property value.

“If plaintiffs cannot sue to vindicate the federal drug laws and recover for any compensable injuries, it is difficult to imagine a person who could,” McShane said.

Capital Press was unable to reach the plaintiffs’ attorney, Rachel McCart, for comment.

Alex Tinker, attorney for the defendants, called the ruling “a very well reasoned opinion” that recognized the facts don’t allow for a RICO case to move forward in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A similar case was allowed to proceed in the 10th Circuit, which has different case law regarding RICO.

Tinker said he expects it will be difficult for the plaintiffs to “plead around” the problems identified by McShane, which may bode poorly for several other marijuana-related lawsuit filed by the same attorney.

“At the very least, it should give the plaintiffs a bit of pause in those cases,” he said.

The courtyard at Monrovia’s 1,200-acre plant nursery in Dayton, Ore. was buzzing with bees Tuesday as visitors toured elaborate displays set up for the company’s 2018 Handcrafted Expo, which runs through Sept. 7.

Kate Karam, editorial director for Monrovia Nursery — one of the largest growers in the country — highlighted new selections for 2019, including hydrangeas, roses and rhododendrons, which she said have jumped in popularity over the last several years.

“It’s been a really steady category for a very long time,” Karam said. “A couple of big designers in the U.K. started doing big designs with them. All of a sudden, everyone wants rhododendrons.”

The fourth annual Monrovia expo kicked off July 30, overlapping with the 2018 Farwest Show, the industry’s largest trade show on the West Coast. An estimated 6,000 people are expected to attend Farwest, Aug. 22-24 at the Oregon Convention Center in downtown Portland.

Both events come at a time of promising growth within the industry. According to figures released by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, wholesale and retail nurseries posted their second-best sales year on record in 2017, at $947.7 million.

Greenhouse and nursery plants were the most valuable agricultural commodity in Oregon in 2017, followed by cattle and calves at $695.2 million, hay at $585.1 million, milk at $500.7 million and grass seed at $455.2 million.

Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries, hailed the latest figures in a statement, adding that more than three-fourths of what is grown in Oregon is shipped over state lines to destinations as far as the East Coast.

“The wholesale nursery industry is a traded sector that serves markets in every time zone of the United States, as well as Canada and overseas, and brings significant dollars back to the Oregon economy,” Stone said.

Oregon is the nation’s third-leading greenhouse and nursery state, behind only California and Florida.

Jonathan Pedersen, vice president of business development and intellectual property for Monrovia, attributes strong sales nationwide to the rebounding U.S. economy. Indeed, the Oregon industry’s best sales year came in 2007, topping $1 billion worth or products just before the Great Recession hit, causing sales to decline.

“The landscape and nursery industry is very tied to housing starts,” Pedersen said in an interview at the 2018 expo. “When housing rebounded after the recession, so did we.”

Along with new houses, Pedersen said landscaping is the number one return on investment for current homeowners to increase their curb appeal, adding $1.15 to $1.20 in value for every dollar spent.

Monrovia has four nurseries across the country, including Dayton, with the others in Visalia, Calif.; Cairo, Ga.; and Granby, Conn. Corporate offices are located in Azusa, Calif. The company grows roughly 4,000 different varieties of plants.

Josh Cady, a sales manager for Monrovia, led a tour of the Dayton nursery, which handles most of the plant propagation and is the only nursery of the four to have a tissue culture lab.

Tissue culture now accounts for 26 percent of propagation inside the greenhouses, Cady said.

“It’s a great way for us to keep selections true to type,” he said.

It generally takes at least three or four years before plants are ready to ship to stores, and as many as six years for certain varieties. From seedling to shipping, Cady said the goal is consistency.

Looking ahead, Pedersen said the company is focused on breeding plants that require less intensive care and maintenance. Western Oregon is a great place to grow nursery plants, he said, based on climate and availability of water.

Pedersen is hesitant to predict the future, but said that as the economy continues to do well, the industry will also continue to thrive.

“We’re a discretionary income product,” he said. “Right now, it looks good.”

In its century of existence, the Cooperative Extension System has been a valuable resource distributing university-driven, science-based information — mostly about farming and gardening — to the public. But in today’s less agricultural America, the Extension network is adapting, expanding its rural focus into cities and suburbs too.

Urban and suburban communities have their own health needs, says Wiley Thompson, a regional director for Oregon State University Extension. “Some live in ‘food deserts.’ They want to further their education but may not want to move, and many want to intensively garden and manage their compact green spaces,” he says.

“I sense the need for Cooperative Extension is stronger than ever,” says Thompson, who previously chaired the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Cooperative Extension, formalized by the federal Smith-Lever Act of 1914, was designed to translate know-how from technical Land Grant campuses into practical knowledge, and share it with local communities. Most of that outreach was about agricultural production and livestock, gardening, food preservation and safety, nutrition, sewing, early childhood development and 4-H Club activities, says Amy Ouellette, associate director of University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.

A century ago, 41 percent of America’s workforce was engaged in farming. The comparable figure in 2000 was only 1.9 percent, prompting questions about Extension’s continuing relevance.

Over the past few decades, Extension’s funding has gone flat or been slashed, its offices closed or consolidated, and its staffing reduced.

“In the early days, about one-third of our funds came from the federal government, one-third from the state and one-third from counties,” Ouellette says. “Federal funding has been stagnant. Now it’s about 12 percent of our budget.”

In New Hampshire, state financial support is funneled through the university system (about 40 percent), while counties contribute about 15 percent, she said. Grants, contracts, fees for service and gifts cover the balance, Ouellette says. Other states use similar funding models.

Despite the cutbacks, most Extension programming is still provided without charge, says Scott Reed, Oregon State’s Extension Service director.

Cooperative Extension remains the one-stop shop for soil test kits, planting information, farm financial health and youth leadership workshops. You can join Extension Agents for field trips to pick out promising calves or lambs for 4-H competition at County Fairs.

“We teach in support of positive youth development, preventive health behaviors, improved water quality, sustainable natural resources, and available high quality and safe food, among other items of public value,” Reed says.

Extension is the only deliverer of science-based, unbiased education in rural settings, and can’t abandon its rural commitment, he says. But if it’s to thrive, it also must go where the people are, he believes, reaching more people through community colleges and virtual learning environments, and through partnerships with educational non-profits and other groups.

Extension’s outreach technology already has pivoted toward community settings with hybrid in-person/online courses.

“We have electronic records of those who participate,” Reed says. “We know what they’re interested in and we go proactive with that.”

Education delivery is a crowded field in urban settings with a variety of non-profits and foundations providing services. “In those areas we’ve become wholesalers of information, expeditors and facilitators, rather than retailing directly to clients,” Reed says.

“There’s not enough of us to go around.”

The new efforts often mean hiring staff with more diverse interests and backgrounds. “We can never forget our roots, but they (staff) must be willing to adapt and innovate both in knowledge and delivery,” says Thompson.

For more about the future of the nation’s Cooperative Extension System, see: https://www.joe.org/joe/2014december/comm1.php

SEATTLE (AP) — Smoke from wildfires clogged the sky across the U.S. West, blotting out mountains and city skylines from Oregon to Colorado, delaying flights and forcing authorities to tell even healthy adults in the Seattle area to stay indoors.

As large cities dealt with unhealthy air for a second summer in a row, experts warned that it could become more common as the American West faces larger and more destructive wildfires because of heat and drought blamed on climate change. Officials also must prioritize resources during the longer firefighting season, so some blazes may be allowed to burn in unpopulated areas.

Seattle’s Space Needle was swathed in haze, and it was impossible to see nearby mountains. Portland, Oregon, residents who were up early saw a blood-red sun shrouded in smoke and huffed their way through another day of polluted air. Portland Public Schools suspended all outdoor sports practices.

Thick smoke in Denver blocked the view of some of Colorado’s famous mountains and prompted an air quality health advisory for the northeastern quarter of the state.

The smoky pollution, even in Idaho and Colorado, came from wildfires in British Columbia and the Northwest’s Cascade Mountains, clouding a season that many spend outdoors.

Portland resident Zach Simon supervised a group of children in a summer biking camp who paused at a huge water fountain by the Willamette River, where gray, smoky haze obscured a view of Mount Hood.

Simon said he won’t let the kids ride as far or take part in as many running games like tag while the air quality is bad.

“I went biking yesterday, and I really felt it in my lungs, and I was really headachy and like, lethargic,” Simon said Monday. “Today, biking, you can see the whole city in haze and you can’t see the skyline.”

One of Colin Shor’s favorite things about working in the Denver area is the view of the high peaks to the west. But that was all but gone Monday.

“Not being able to see the mountains is kind of disappointing, kind of sad,” he said.

Forest fires are common, but typical Seattle-area weather pushes it out of the way quickly. The latest round of prolonged smoke happened as hot temperatures and high pressure collided, said Andrew Wineke, a spokesman for the state Ecology Department’s air quality program.

It’s a rare occurrence that also happened last year, raising concerns for many locals that it may become normal during wildfire season. Wineke said climate change is expected to contribute to many more fires.

“The trend is clear. You see the number of forest fires increasing, and so there’s going to be wildfires,” Wineke said. “There’s going to be smoke. It’s going to be somewhere.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said airplanes bound for the Sea-Tac International Airport, Seattle’s main airport, may be delayed because of low visibility.

In Spokane, air quality slipped into the “hazardous” range. Thick haze hung over Washington’s second-largest city, forcing vehicles to turn on their headlights during the morning commute.

The air quality was so bad that everyone, regardless of physical condition or age, will likely be affected, according to the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency.

In California, wind blew smoke from several wildfires into the San Francisco Bay Area, where haze led authorities to issue an air quality advisory through Tuesday. They suggested people avoid driving to limit additional pollutants in the air and advised those with health problems to reduce time outdoors.

Health officials say signs of smoke-related health symptoms include coughing, scratchy throat, irritated sinuses, headaches, stinging eyes and runny nose. Those with heart disease may experience chest pain, irregular heartbeats, shortness of breath and fatigue.

Patients at Denver’s National Jewish Health, a respiratory hospital, were reporting worsening symptoms, hospital spokesman Adam Dormuth said.

In Portland, six tourists from Lincoln, Nebraska, posed for a photo in front of the Willamette River with the usual Mount Hood backdrop shrouded in haze. The group of siblings and friends rented an RV and drove in to visit a sister who recently moved to the area.

“We are disappointed that we can’t see the mountains and the whole city, because our relatives live here and tell us how pretty it is, and we’re missing it,” Bev Harris said. “We’re from tornado alley, and we don’t have wildfires. It’s a different experience.”

———

Flaccus reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press reporters Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane, Dan Elliott in Denver and Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this story.

Idaho Power Co. in each of the last three years spent more to help irrigators upgrade or replace equipment, and is on track to see more gains in 2018. The Boise-based utility is sending proportionately less electricity to these customers, one of the program’s goals.

Participants in the Irrigation Efficiency Rewards program can receive cash incentives for a portion of the cost to install a new, more efficient system or to make energy-efficiency improvements to existing infrastructure. Company officials say demand has been increasing largely independently of year-to-year changes in water supplies and crop prices. A bigger factor appears to be a tight supply of skilled labor.

“This year’s participation is significantly above expectations,” said Dan Axness, who coordinates Idaho Power’s irrigation customer segment. “If we continue at the same rate, we will exceed last year’s incentive savings and payments.”

Idaho Power paid 33 percent more in incentives to irrigators in 2016 compared to 2015, and 0.35 percent more last year compared to 2016. Energy savings — the amount of electricity the company would have supplied irrigators if the upgrades weren’t in place — grew more than 12 percent between 2015 and 2016, and by 7 percent between 2016 and last year.

Irrigators in 2015 used about 2.05 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, and the program saved 14.03 million kilowatt-hours, paying about $1.5 million in incentives, according to Idaho Power data. Irrigators accounted for more than 14 percent of the utility’s total load that year, Axness said. A kilowatt is 1,000 watts. The average home uses about 950 kilowatt-hours per month.

From 2016 to 2017, the amount of saved energy increased from 15.75 million kilowatt-hours to nearly 16.9 million. Incentives paid increased from $2.007 million to $2.014 million. Irrigation usage dropped from 1.95 billion kilowatt-hours to 1.77 billion.

So far this year, Idaho Power has realized irrigation-related energy savings of 12.28 million kilowatt-hours and spent about $1.42 million on incentives.

Many irrigators install or upgrade systems outside irrigation season, so more growth is likely this year, Axness said. “While you’re doing it is a good time to think about improving it,” he said.

A short supply of skilled labor is a bigger driver of demand than year-to-year changes in water supply and even in crop prices, Axness said.

Water supply in Idaho Power’s service territory was lower than average two years ago, well above average last year — reducing Idaho Power’s irrigation-related electricity output, or load, he said — and is around average this year except in southeastern Oregon. The company this year slightly increased the rates paid by Oregon non-residential customers including irrigators.

Axness said this year has seen more interest in Irrigation Efficiency Rewards projects in eastern Oregon, where the water content in several reservoirs is well below average.

“There is a continuing effort to have more water-efficiency projects in that area served by Owyhee Reservoir and others,” he said.

“It seems like labor is driving things,” Axness said. “The one thing we hear more than anything else is the labor savings.”

As labor availability becomes more challenging, “we see more conversions from flood and wheel-line irrigation to center-pivot irrigation and a much smaller amount of drip irrigation,” he said.

Idaho Power recently sees more irrigation projects on farms that are consolidating or expanding, and a fair number of projects on small acreages - whether it’s a small farm converting to sprinkler irrigation or a small, possibly oddly shaped parcel where a center pivot is now viable due to technological advancements and labor shortages, Axness said.

“I often wonder how a porducer or irrigator can afford to do it, and they often say they cannot afford not to do it,” he said.

Idaho Power has about 20,000 irrigation meters, or services. About 4,000 customers operate one meter each, and about 2,000 including many sizable agriculture producers operate the remaining 16,000, he said.

“Crop demands are so important and crop water use is so important that the year-to-year changes (in water supply) over the last few haven’t appeared to be a factor” in demand, he said, notwithstanding this year’s water-savings efforts in dry southeastern Oregon. Irrigation Efficiency Rewards participation rose even as alfalfa hay prices dropped in 2016 and ’17, he said.

Idaho Power added 294 irrigation customers last year, a company fact sheet said. Its total customer base exceeds 547,000.

Online:

Program detail:

https://bit.ly/2LdzPBm

The U.S. Forest Service has named a new regional forester for the Pacific Northwest covering Oregon and Washington.

Glenn Casamassa, a longtime Forest Service employee and former supervisor of the Arapaho and Roosevelt national forests and the Pawnee National Grassland in Colorado, will take over Sept. 17 at the Portland office. He succeeds Jim Pena, who retired July 3.

Casamassa is a 30-year veteran of the Forest Service. As the regional forester, he will oversee 16 national forests, two national scenic areas, the Crooked River National Grassland in Oregon and two national volcanic monuments.

In a statement released by the Forest Service, Casamassa said he is committed to working with agency employees, tribes and local communities to share stewardship of public lands across the two states.

“Being good neighbors and setting a standard of excellence for public and customer service are priorities for the region in working alongside the people who care for, value, and depend upon these lands,” Casamassa said.

Casamassa earned his bachelor’s degree in forest ecology from Utah State University, and completed post-graduate work in logging system engineering at the Oregon State University College of Forestry. He began his career as a forestry technician, working as a seasonal firefighter on the Tonto National Forest in Arizona.

Casamassa landed his first permanent job on the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, and from there went to work on the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Utah. He has also served as district ranger of the Moab and Monticello ranger districts on the Manti-La Sal National Forest, and was the regional environmental coordinator for the Forest Service Intermountain Region, spanning portions of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada.

Casamassa also worked as a legislative affairs specialist at the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. Forest Service Interim Chief Vicki Christiansen said Casamassa has played a leading role in reforming regulations at the national level, and brings with him “tremendous land management and conservation leadership experiences.”

Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said he is looking forward to working with Casamassa to address outstanding issues — namely livestock and grazing guidelines — in the final draft of the Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision, which sets goals and desired conditions for 5.5 million acres in the Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman and Malheur national forests in Eastern Oregon.

“We’re really excited about the opportunity to work with him,” Rosa said.

Dianne Guidry, who has served as the acting regional forester since Pena retired in July, will resume her role as deputy regional forester after Casamassa arrives.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Eugene is a fine place to be if you’re a bee.

The Register-Guard reports that an environmental group dedicated to protecting bees, butterflies and pollinators has given the Oregon city a Bee City USA designation.

Eugene is the 71st city to get the honor from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

An international decline in bee populations has environmentalists worried about the insects.

Five years ago, beekeepers and others urged Eugene leaders to stop using a pesticide suspected of killing honeybees at a golf course and on downtown flower pots. The city stopped using the pesticide in 2014.

Eugene also received the designation because it has 10 parks where herbicides are not used.

Krystal Abrams of Beyond Toxics, a Eugene-based environmental group, says the city uses pesticides sparingly, only when it has to control an outbreak.

Organic hazelnuts can fetch a premium price but growing them without conventional tools also leaves farmers prone to unforeseen risks, according to experts.

Farmers who cultivate hazelnuts organically — or aspire to do so — learned about dealing with the challenges during an Aug. 15 tour of operations near Lebanon and Scio, Ore., organized by the Organic Hazelnut Growers Association.

Without access to most chemical sprays, organic growers have to be creative in battling the multitude of pests and diseases that can afflict the crop, according to speakers.

“You really can’t just do it for the return. It’s a different system of farming if you’re not used to it,” said Drew Katz, transition coordinator for Oregon Tilth, an organic certifier.

One scourge facing organically grown hazelnut trees is Eastern Filbert Blight, a fungal pathogen that conventional growers can fight with systemic fungicides.

Organic farmers can treat their orchards with copper but the substance must be re-applied after rain, requiring multiple applications during the storm season.

Copper can also build up in the soil to the point that it’s toxic to the trees, said Nik Wiman, an Oregon State University orchard specialist. “It can hurt plant growth in the long term.”

Keeping the orchard floor clean in preparation for harvest is also more labor-intensive without the “chemical mow” offered by herbicides, requiring the planting of cover crops as well as mowing and tillage.

Sharp-point fluvellin is a problem weed that can wrap around components of harvesting equipment and has spread through an organic orchard owned by Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners, an investment firm.

Don Hatai, the company’s farm manager, said he’s thinking about planting perennial grasses to “shade out” the weed, but may need to switch back to conventional treatments to control it.

In general, it’s advisable to establish an orchard block with conventional methods before transitioning it to organic production, Hatai said. “You need to get that tree to grow.”

For example, there’s no organic spray to control flathead borers, which tend to feed on younger trees, he said. Once they reach about five years, though, the insect doesn’t inflict as much damage.

Disrupting the reproduction of filbertworms — which eat kernels — with pheromone treatments can control their populations in organic orchards.

However, mating disruption is most effective at keeping the number of insects low, rather than treating an orchard that is already teeming with them.

“You can’t manage a big population,” Wiman said.

Organic farmers can spray for filbertworms with Entrust, a biopesticide, which has a “synergistic effect” when combined with neem oil, he said. The worry is that growers are becoming too reliant on the chemical, threatening its effectiveness.

To transition to organic production, an orchard cannot be treated with a prohibited substance for three years.

Farmers who have already transitioned their land to organic production must plant new orchards with organically grown seedlings, unless they’re not available, said Katz.

If growers can demonstrate they can’t obtain the variety, quantity or quality of organic trees they need, they can then plant conventional stock, he said.

Apart from agronomic considerations, processing is another complication for organic hazelnut growers.

The options for “custom processing” are currently limited due to the small volume of organic hazelnuts, which is why the Organic Hazelnut Growers Association is looking at options for a dedicated facility.

To maintain her crop’s organic status, farmer Linda Perrine must use an accredited organic pasteurizer, processor and commercial kitchen.

While a pound of her hazelnut kernels sell for up to $11 wholesale and $15 retail, the expense of producing an organic crop is considerably greater, she said. “The broader public doesn’t understand why there is so much cost difference.”

Founded in 1852, seven years before Oregon became a state, a farm in Saint Paul, Ore., is continuing to build on its legacy as a family operation.

Mullen Farms is one of two sesquicentennial farms designated this year by the Oregon Century Farm and Ranch Program along with 12 century farms. The sesquicentennial award recognizes families who have continuously farmed portions of their original family acreage for 150 years or more. Farms designated century farms have been in continuous operation 100 years.

“We are definitely a family farm,” said Jerry Mullen, great-great grandson of one of the farm’s founders, Patrick Mullen.

Through the years, it has been important to every generation to keep the farm going and in the family, Mullen said. Mullen never knew his dad, who died when Mullen was two years old, but Mullen spent a lot of time with his grandfather, Charles S. Mullen Sr., who taught him about the farm.

On the property is a house where Mullen’s grandfather was born and lived for 101 years.

“It was important to my granddad especially that we kept the farm together,” Mullen said.

Mullen recalled growing up on the farm mentioning how they had their own pigs, dairy and granary. “I grew up with all that to self-sustain and then grow enough to make some cash,” Mullen said.

Over time the farm has grown from 150 to 1,300 acres as the Mullen family has added other farms and land to the business. They now grow mainly seed crops and hazelnuts.

Keeping the farm’s legacy alive is important to Mullen. “We are doing everything we can do at this point to make sure it is a viable farm going forward,” he said.

The other sesquicentennial farm honored this year is the Robinson Stillwell Taggart Farm in Dayton. It was founded in 1844 when Benjamin and Elizabeth Robinson came to the Oregon territory on a wagon train.

The farm is still in the family, though pieces of it were sold off during the Depression.

“(The farm) has been a source of pride for our family for generations,” said John Taggart, current owner of the farm.

The farm is leased to a couple who Taggart says he is close to and trusts. Taggart lives in Eastern Oregon and wants to keep the farm because of its history.

Also on the list are 12 newly designated century farms:

• J.G. Kuenzi Farm, H.M.K., began in 1917 after the founder traded a smaller farm in Mt. Pleasant for the 217-acre farm near Silverton. The farm has grown different types of berries over the years, as well as grass seed, hogs and clover.

• Watts Ranch in Klamath County was founded in 1910 when its founders, Jim and Jack Watts, moved to Oregon from Utah. The family runs cattle and grows hay.

• Brown Farm, in Morrow County, goes back to 1912 when Chris P. Brown, an immigrant from Denmark, purchased 350 acres to grow wheat. His grandson and his grandson’s wife, Chris E. and Kathy Brown, currently run the operation.

• Wilsonview Dairy Inc. was founded in 1918 in Tillamook County by the Josi family, which immigrated from Switzerland and began a dairy in a lease-to-buy arrangement.

• Henry W. Jones Farm in Yamhill County has been operated by four generations of the Jones family. They have grown many crops including clover, wheat, oats and silage corn. Today, the farm is run by Steve Jones, the great grandson of the original founder, Henry W. Jones, who purchased the farm in 1918.

• Howard-Allstott Ranch in Umatilla County was founded by William Howard in 1884, when the homestead claim was approved. The ranch was eventually passed down throughout the generations to Richard and Dorothy Howard Allstott, the great granddaughter of the founder.

• The Rockwell-Doherty farm was founded in 1906 by Seth and Sarah Rockwell in Umatilla County. The farm has seen many different uses through the years, including fruit orchards, raising horses and growing irrigated wheat, pasture grass and alfalfa. Richard Doherty now runs it for the family.

• Tilla-Bay Farms in Tillamook County began when Fred and Gotfried Josi purchased the land in 1918. In the beginning the dairy operation consisted of 24 milk cows. Today the dairy is operated by the founder’s granddaughter, Terry Mizee and her husband, Bart, along with their son, Kurt Mizee.

• DeLano Farms in Clackamas County was founded by Hatsil DeLano in 1916 as a nearly 57-acre plot and today has grown to 216 acres. Over the years the farm has shifted from dairy and vegetable production in the early years to cattle and hay production and added a horse barn and arena. Karen DeLano now runs the horse barn and Renata Squier raises cattle and hay.

• Sandoz farm was founded in 1880 in Wasco County by three brothers, Alphonse, Arnold and Charles Sandoz. They grew root vegetables, fruit trees and grapes. Ted, Charles Lee and Mary Sandoz are the third generation and operate a farmstand where they sell USDA beef and pork along with fruit, vegetables and other products.

• Beitel Farm was established in 1915 by Alois and Cecilia Beitel in Marion County. Currenty the farm grows grass seed is being passed on from John J. and Debbie Beitel to the next generation, John R. Beitel. In the early days the farm was typical of many farms during the time with chickens, sheep, cows and pigs.

• Tideman Johnson Farm goes back to 1880 when Tideman and Olava Johnson settled 60 acres in Multnomah County. At one point part of the farm was donated to the city of Portland as a park. The original farmland still owned by the family is around 8 acres. However, the family continues to farm the land in cooperation with several organizations. The awards ceremony for the century and sesquicentennial farms will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 25, at the Oregon State Fair picnic grove area.

The Oregon Century Farm and Ranch Program is administered by the Oregon Farm Bureau Foundation for Education. It is supported by a partnership among the Oregon Farm Bureau, the State Historic Preservation Office, OSU University Archives and by generous donations of Oregonians.

For information, contact Andréa Kuenzi, program coordinator, at 503-400-7884 or cfr@oregonfb.org. The application deadline for 2019 is May 1.

It’s not unusual for toxic algal blooms to close a lake or pond. And in recent years, these algae have been contaminating another type of swimming spot: the Willamette River. In early August, the Oregon Health Authority advised Portland residents to keep themselves and their pets out of the water in certain areas.

Such warnings have become increasingly common along Portland’s stretch of the Willamette, and most of the blooms have been traced back to one location: the lagoon on Ross Island just upstream of downtown Portland. The Human Access Project, an organization that aims to get more Portland residents swimming in the river, wants to change the nature of Ross Island lagoon to prevent blooms like this in the future.

Thanks to restoration efforts, Ross Island is a small oasis in the middle of the Willamette. It hosts populations of deer, riparian forests and dozens of types of birds.

But the lagoon has all the things toxic algae needs to thrive, according to Dr. Theo Dreher, a microbiologist at Oregon State University. These blooms are caused by cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, which live best in warm, stagnant, nutrient-rich water. The lagoon has all three.

“The bacteria grow in the lagoon, like a lake. But they can be swept out through a passage downstream, where they can remain viable for quite a long time,” Dreher said.

It’s the same type of phenomenon that contaminated Salem’s water earlier this summer: Cells from a toxic algal bloom in Detroit Lake flowed down the Santiam and into the city’s water.

According to the Oregon Health Authority, there have been a few small blooms linked to other areas on the Willamette over the years. But none of those blooms have produced enough toxins to lead to a health advisory. The lagoon at Ross Island, however, has created severe blooms four out of the last five years. Those blooms have been linked to record-high temperatures in the air and in the river, and low snowpack in the Cascades.

Once there’s been a major bloom in the area, Dreher said, you’re more likely to get another. Some cyanobacteria survive the winter, waiting for the right conditions to bloom again. And climate change is expected to make those conditions occur more frequently.

Willie Levenson, whose official job title is ringleader of the Human Access Project, is concerned that the blooms could get large enough to make summer river swims a thing of the past.

“It’s possible blooms could start in the spring and last all summer, if we don’t do something,” Levenson said.

He’d like to see water circulation restored to the Ross Island lagoon, which did not always exist. It was created in 1926, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a levee between Ross and Hardtack islands, cutting off much of the water circulation.

“Maybe we could build a channel, or put in pumps or a fish passage,” Levenson suggested.

Dreher said getting the stagnant water moving probably would stop the blooms, because cyanobacteria don’t reproduce well in moving water.

Doing so would require cooperation from multiple actors. The Ross Island lagoon is listed as a contaminated site by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. For the last several years, Ross Island Sand and Gravel capped and cleaned known contaminated sites, and began restoring the lagoon by filling in parts of a 300-foot-deep mine site.

Any effort to restore water circulation couldn’t conflict with Ross Island Sand and Gravel’s restoration orders, according to Randy Steed, the company’s president and chief operating officer.

Steed said the company is open to suggestions, as long as they fit within the constraints of their operating permits. But, he noted, any cooperation with the Human Access Project is in very early stages. According to Steed, “we haven’t even spitballed any plans yet.”

Additionally, the company does not control the entire island system: It only operates on the north end of the island. Other parts of the island are controlled by the Port of Portland. Other parts of the island are owned by the city of Portland and maintained as green space.

In the meantime, the Oregon Health Authority continues to monitor the Willamette for toxic algae. Currently, there are no detectable levels of cyanobacteria-caused toxins outside of Ross Island lagoon, and the health authority has updated their advisory to reflect this. But summer isn’t over, and the water in the lagoon is still dotted with bright green colonies. The bloom could come back, and the river could become unsafe to swim in again.

The Portland Water Bureau has identified a likely location for a new treatment plant for the city’s drinking water, which comes from the pristine Bull Run Watershed east of Portland.

The bureau has until 2027 to design and build the plant under an agreement it reached with the Oregon Health Authority last year after testing found a tiny microbe, cryptosporidium, in the city’s water source.

Some forms of the microbial pathogen can cause serious and even fatal illness in humans, while other varieties don’t appear to easily infect people. 

The preferred site for the plant is a 95 acre parcel of land in the unincorporated community of Cottrell, roughly halfway between Gresham and the Bull Run Watershed.

The water bureau acquired the property decades ago, anticipating that as federal drinking water regulations changed it might need to build a treatment plant.

Director Mike Stuhr says the site is surrounded by farms and nurseries. It has the appropriate zoning for a plant and is at an elevation that will help maintain the flow of water through Portland’s pipes. Portland’s water system is almost entirely gravity fed.

“It’s a little early to predict, but one of my goals is gravity’s cheap, gravity is free, nobody’s figured out to bill us for it yet. So we want to maintain as much of the gravity system as possible,” Stuhr said.

Stuhr and bureau staff presented the Portland City Council with an update on plans for the treatment facility this week.

The bureau has also identified a preferred technology for the plant: a granular media filtration system.

It’s the most common type of treatment used by large water systems in North America. Granular systems typically use a combination of sand and anthracite, a type of coal, to filter out sediment and microbes.

The bureau wants the new plant to have the capacity to treat 140 to 160 million gallons per day, based on the projected daily demand for water through 2045.

The water bureau has not developed an updated cost estimate for the plant, but pressed by Commissioner Nick Fish, Stuhr said the technology the bureau prefers should put costs at the low end of an initial estimate of $350 to $500 million.

But Stuhr cautioned that a number of factors make it difficult to predict construction costs, including new tariffs that have created uncertainty around the future price of steel. 

“I can say generally, from listening to my staff talk, we’re seeing increasing prices,” Stuhr told OPB. 

Next week, the water bureau will ask the city council to authorize two major decisions related to the multi-million dollar construction project.

The bureau wants to hire the environmental engineering firm Brown and Caldwell to assist with high-level project planning and design oversight decisions.  

The bureau is also seeking approval to use alternative criteria to evaluate bids for the construction project.

That would allow it to select a general contractor based on qualifications, as opposed to the lowest cost, according to the bureau.

Portland’s City Council voted unanimously in 2017 to direct the water bureau to pursue plans to build a filtration plant for the city’s drinking water.

Up until that year, Portland had been the only large city in the country with a variance from EPA rules that require treatment of surface water sources for several microbial pathogens.

Portland received the variance on the basis of the extraordinary environmental protection of its water source, the Bull Run Watershed, and testing that established little presence of cryptosporidium in the city’s reservoirs and their surroundings.

In 2017, routine testing began regularly detecting very small amounts of cryptosporidium in the city’s water supply. While no public health outbreak of cryptosporidosis was detected, the Oregon Health Authority announced it was revoking the water bureau’s special variance.

In addition to removing any cryptosporidium from the water supply, a treatment plant will also remove sediment from the water. Bureau staff say that will make the city’s drinking water system more resilient to climate change and to natural disasters like wildfires and earthquakes.

Federal officials have announced a new plan that’s meant to help lower the risks of mega-fires. Northwest lawmakers are helping roll out the strategy to reduce hazardous fuels and improve forest health.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called the plan a “real game plan for reducing the 80 million acres of hazardous fuels that constitutes the backlog on Forest Service lands.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Forest Service would work closely with state and local officials to identify the best areas to treat using thinning, prescribed fire and “unplanned fire in the right place at the right time,” said Vicki Christiansen, interim chief of the Forest Service.

“The current forest conditions demand our attention,” Christiansen said during a news conference. “Treatments to reduce fire severity have been conducted for years, yet catastrophic wildfires have continued to grow. Although locally successful, these treatments have rarely succeeded at the scale needed for the lasting impacts across the landscapes.”

That would mean increasing the number and size of forest projects on larger areas and across boundaries, said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. He called the newly released plan a “smarter and more aggressive” way to accomplish those goals, by working more closely with state and local partners and public and private landowners. All would share in decision-making, he said.

“Fire, as you know, knows no boundary,” Perdue said.

Every state has a fire action plan that has outlined areas the most in need of treatment, said George Geissler, Washington’s state forester and president of the National Association of State Foresters.

“We have already identified where this (treatment) work needs to be focused, regardless of who owns that land,” Geissler said. These state action plans can be guidelines for coordinating firefighting across different boundaries, according to the report.

The strategy would also make use of technological advances, like remote sensing, fire simulation tools and mapping technologies.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., noted one recent example of technology helping firefighting efforts: A drone helped spot a fire that had started behind firefighters. This plan, she said, brings technology and management to all levels of forest management to help reduce fuel buildup, especially in what’s known as the wildland-urban interface.

“It is about ensuring that we have efforts to scale and face the real science of this problem, help at-risk communities prepare to respond and make sure firefighters have adequate resources so they can be as safe as possible,” Cantwell said.

She said it’s important to put fires out as soon as they start, so that they don’t grow into mega-fires. That’s not the same approach many scientists now recommend — more often they think some wildfires need to burn when they don’t directly threaten communities.

Another big challenge to fighting wildfires is climate change, which Cantwell said is leading to “more fire starts and more volume in the types of fires that are burning all across the West.”

Agriculture Secretary Perdue did not directly acknowledge the affect of climate change on wildfire risk. Instead he said, the plan is about “focusing on what we can do today in order to mitigate the impact of longer fire seasons, hotter fire, drier conditions.”

Wyden said climate change and mega-fires are creating “clean air refugees who literally are traipsing from place to place just to find breathable air.” People like pregnant women, children and older adults, who he said are escaping the smoke in Southern Oregon.

In a speech earlier in the day on the Senate floor, Wyden railed on federal policy he said exacerbated climate change — and thereby increased the risks of mega-fires. He took aim at the Trump administration’s rejection of the Paris Climate Agreement, the Environmental Protection Agency’s vehicle fuel standards rollback and the Interior Department’s rollback of environmental protections.

“I was one who voted for (Interior) Secretary (Ryan) Zinke. He said he was going to be a ‘Roosevelt Republican.’ He said that nine times in his hearing in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. And I thought … I’d give it a shot,” Wyden said. “I now consider that one of the worst votes I’ve cast in my time in public service.”

Zinke sparked controversy this week when he blamed “environmental terrorist groups” for California’s severe wildfires, while refusing to acknowledge that climate change was a major factor.

Climate change affects everyone, he said, not just people experiencing the “new normal” of wildfires and choking smoke in the West. There, Wyden said, it’s no longer a fire season, but a fire year.

“This is not the stuff of fiction. This is real life for communities across the West that are just getting clobbered by fire,” Wyden said. “This is climate change at work.”

BEND, Ore. (AP) — A farmer near Bend shot and killed a cougar earlier after it killed two Shetland sheep and a turkey on his property.

The Bulletin reported Thursday that Mark Davidson found the dead sheep Monday hidden under sticks and pine needles in a pasture closest to his house. He spotted the dead turkey near a barn.

Later Monday, Candy Davidson let their dog outside and checked on the sheep. Her flashlight caught glowing eyes and she ran inside to tell her husband, who shot the cougar with a .22-caliber rifle.

The couple as required by law later contacted the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Assistant district wildlife biologist Randy Lewis responded and determined the cougar was a healthy 3-year-old male.

State law says a landowner in Oregon is allowed to kill a cougar if it is causing damage to their property.

Capital Press

Worldwide prices for spot-market raw sugar are down by more than one-third since November 2016, to around 11 cents a pound, reflecting flat demand as international production stays strong.

The situation has little short-term impact on Southern Idaho and southeastern Oregon sugar beet growers who comprise the Boise-based Amalgamated Sugar cooperative that owns three sugar factories. But these producers, who operate on a separate refined-sugar price, face their own challenges.

U.S. wholesale refined beet-sugar prices are around 36 cents a pound — back to 2015 levels following a dip, but not much above averages seen 20 and 30 years ago, according to American Sugar Alliance data. The price averaged 27.06 cents in the 1980s, 26.63 cents in the 1990s and 27.79 cents in the 2000s. Adjusted for inflation, U.S. wholesale refined-sugar prices through 2017 were down 41 percent since 1985 in light of 127 percent inflation, the alliance reported.

Alliance data also said the worldwide cost of producing sugar has averaged 46 percent more than the world spot-raw sugar price over the past 29 years based on a cost of 19 cents a pound and production cost of 13 cents - and stood at 54.5 percent above that price recently, based on a 12-cent price and 22-cent production cost.

A Reuters survey of 10 analysts at the start of ths month projects the worldwide spot-market price for raw sugar to finish the quarter at 11.5 cents per pound and finish the year at 12 cents, down nearly 21 percent from 2017.

Jack Roney, American Sugar Alliance director of economics and policy analysis, said world sugar production has been rising rapidly in the last few years as demand has been declining. Global sugar subsidies are on the rise, enabling producers to stay in business and dump excess sugar into the world market, he said.

The U.S. government limits the amount of foreign sugar that enters the country in an effort to balance supply and demand. The U.S. has a non-recourse loan program that uses the crop as collateral. The government does not make payments to producers.

The refined-sugar price, which includes a buffer from the world raw-sugar “dump” price, “is not running a whole lot above the average level of the last three decades, so it’s a challenge for our guys given that the cost of everything goes up,” Roney said. “It forces our guys to do everything they can to get costs down, and only the most efficient are surviving — as it should be for any business.”

“The only reason we are surviving is efficiency gain on the production side,” New Plymouth, Idaho, sugar beet grower Galen Lee said. Getting more efficient on the farm and in the factories has paid off, “but at some point, you run out of how efficient you can be.”

Lee, who is president of the Nyssa-Nampa Beet Growers Association and serves on the boards of the American Sugar Beet Growers Association and the Boise-based Amalgamated Sugar grower cooperative, said the recent drop in the world spot-raw price has some impact “because it shows there is some extra supply of sugar out there.”

Lee’s beet acreage didn’t change much from last year to this year, he said.

Amalgamated Sugar spokeswoman Jessica McAnally said one share in the cooperative represents one acre of sugar beets. Per a “planting factor,” growers may plant less than an acre per share in a given year — mainly because of plant-capacity needs rather than market conditions or pricing, she said. The company’s three Idaho plants run close to capacity from year to year.

Eric Erickson, who manages Amalgamated’s factory in Nampa, said production volumes essentially haven’t changed since he took the job in 2012.

Online:

https://sugaralliance.org/

The Blue Mountains elk herd will grow on public lands, but not on farmland, according to goals set in a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife plan that’s circulating for comment.

The department estimated last year the southeast Washington herd had dropped to between 4,250 and 4,700 elk after a hard winter. The department hopes the herd will rebound to the previous level, about 5,500 animals.

Fish and Wildlife district wildlife biologist Paul Wik said the department plans to encourage growth on the public land in the herd’s core area, while suppressing elk on surrounding private land. “We do not want to grow elk in the agricultural zone, where damage is a major concern,” he said.

The herd ranges over Asotin, Columbia, Garfield and Walla Walla counties, and dips into northeast Oregon. Almost half the herd’s 3,500-square mile territory is farmland, and damage to agriculture has been a longstanding problem, according to Fish and Wildlife.

The department once received about 10 claims a year from farmers seeking compensation for elk damage. The number dropped to one or two claims after the department in 2012 stopped paying claims under $1,000 and required landowners to share the cost of hiring a crop adjuster to assess the damage.

The department says the herd’s population peaked in the 1980s at roughly 6,500 elk. The department adopted a management plan in 2001, and the plan proposed this month will replace that when final. There’s nothing dramatic about the new plan. Wik said it reflects how Fish and Wildlife actually manages the herd now.

“We’re going to continue doing what we’ve been doing with this elk herd for the past 10 years,” he said.

The department lists among its accomplishments since 2001 acquiring the 8,500-acre Schlee Ranch and the 10,500-acre 4-O Ranch for wildlife areas.

To keep elk off farmland, the department has hazed animals, built fences, issued kill permits and allowed hunting. The department reports that more than 100 landowners have agreements to work with wildlife managers to prevent damage.

Although the plan is to keep elk off farms, the animals move to where they find food to their liking, Wik said.

“I think we’re doing our best to work with landowners or groups of landowners to resolve their issues,” Wik said. “Whether we’re always successful is probably up for debate.”

The department will hold two public hearings this month and take written comments until Sept. 15. The plan can be viewed online at wdfw.wa.gov/publications/02010/.

The hearings will be:

• 6 to 8 p.m., Aug. 29, Center Place Room 109, 2426 N. Discovery Place, Spokane Valley.

• 6 to 8 p.m., Aug. 30, Dayton Memorial Library, 111 S. Third St., Dayton.

Comments can be mailed to: Blue Mountains Elk Herd Plan, Wildlife Program, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2315 North Discovery Place, Spokane Valley, WA 99216-1566; or submitted online to www.surveymonkey.com/r/BlueMtns

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pledging to work more closely with state and local officials to prevent wildfires and fight those choking California and other western states.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says officials are targeting wide swaths of land — including cutting down small trees and underbrush and setting controlled fires — to reduce the frequency and severity of fires now burning across the western United States.

Perdue, who toured the California fires this week, said at a news conference Thursday the new effort will strengthen stewardship of public and private lands throughout the West.

California and other states face longer and more destructive wildfire seasons because of drought, warmer weather attributed to climate change and homes built deeper into forests. Yosemite National Park’s scenic valley reopened Tuesday after a 20-day closure because of smoke.

Chris Hopkins moved to Pine Forest for the trees. He was drawn to the hilly, forested community in Washington’s Methow Valley, and decided to build a cabin there in the 1990s, “before we really knew about fire danger,” he said.

Then came the Carlton Complex in 2014, which burned more than 250,000 acres just down the valley from Pine Forest. And then the Twisp River Fire the following year. It came even closer to Pine Forest and killed three young firefighters. Chris’s brother lost his home in the Carlton Complex, as did more than 300 others.

“We had spent most of the day clearing brush but it wasn’t enough,” Hopkins recalled. His brother and sister-in-law had lost power and were in their home with the shades drawn to stay cool when they heard a knock on the door. It was someone from the Forest Service telling them they needed to evacuate immediately. “Sure enough there was a 30-foot wall of flames heading towards them,” Hopkins said.

For people like Hopkins and his brother, whose homes straddle what’s called the “wildland-urban interface,” wildfire risk is the new normal, and the risk is increasing as more people move into places where cul-de-sac meets forest or sagebrush.

Heather Dean knows everyone in Pine Forest. She and her husband walk their two dogs twice a day along the dirt roads that weave through the forest. In the winter they snowshoe and cross-country ski on the extensive trail system that connects Pine Forest with surrounding Forest Service land.

Wildfire has always been a part of this dry, forested landscape — as it has in many parts of the West — but as more people have moved in the wildland-urban interface over the past century, federal and state agencies have aggressively suppressed fires that would have otherwise burned at lower intensity and cleared out the underbrush that builds up in a forest over time.

“Our biggest problem is that the forest has largely been left to its own for a good chunk of the time that Pine Forest has been here and it’s gotten too overgrown,” Dean explained.

Now, when Dean walks through Pine Forest she sees too many trees, too close together with too much undergrowth. The recommended density of this forest is 25–30 trees per acre, according to forestry health experts Dean consulted. On some plots in Pine Forest that number is closer to 600. That’s a lot more fuel to burn.

But she and others in the community are working to do something about it. Pine Forest residents now pay $350 more in homeowners association dues to cover the cost of thinning the trees in the common areas and along shared roads. The homeowners association contracted with a logging company to give individual property owners the option of paying out of pocket to have extra thinning done on their property if they choose. Dean said that when she bumps into her neighbors on her frequent walks she’s been heartened by their response.

“A lot of people think, I can do this all myself, but then they realize it’s really a lot of work,” she said. “We are much more likely to get it done if we band together and do it.”

Dean said that 60 percent of the 135 lots in Pine Forest have now been thinned. “If you can get 60 to 75 percent participation you’ve made a significant reduction in your risk of a large fire, so we’re hopeful.”

That risk remains, of course, but by taking the “all for one, one for all” approach, as Dean calls it, the Pine Forest community has reduced its risk. Fire resilience is a team effort, if you ask wildfire scientists. An individual homeowner can do everything correctly on his or her property, but if a neighbor’s lot has a dense, overgrown forest, a fire can intensify and spread across the tree canopy to destroy even the best-protected homes nearby.

Since 1990, more than 60 percent of new homes in California, Oregon and Washington were built in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Washington has more homes in the WUI than any other state, according to Headwaters Economics. The National Academy of Public Administration predicts a 40 percent increase in homes in the WUI between 2001 and 2030.

Fire destroyed an average of 3,000 homes in the wildland-urban interface annually over the last decade, according the Federal Emergency Management Administration. And with hotter, drier summers and a longer fire season, experts predict that number to rise.

Despite the risk, across much of the rural West, local governments and planning departments are hesitant to prevent or hamper development.

“I’m not real big on over-regulating people,” said Andy Hover, an Okanogan County commissioner who lives near Pine Forest in the Methow Valley. “You would hope that people, when they buy a piece of property, that they understand what they’re doing when they buy that property.”

Hover said it’s the responsibility of each individual homeowner, not the entire community, to protect his or her property from fire risk. And it’s not necessarily the job of the county to tell people where and how they develop their property, in light of that risk.

“Rules and regulations are kind of like — well, is that really what we want? It’s a little more tricky to lay out policy that everybody can get behind,” Hover said.

Okanogan County released an updated comprehensive plan — its plan for managing population and business growth — soon after the Carlton Complex fire. There was no mention of wildfire in the document. A revised draft plan makes mention of wildfire risk but does not provide specific guidance on imposing building requirements or prohibiting development in wildfire-prone areas. Hover was not a commissioner when the plan was developed.

In cash-strapped counties like Okanogan that once depended on logging or mining for jobs and tax revenue, home construction is a major economic and tax revenue driver.

“There’s a whole new cash cow in a lot of communities and that’s residential development,” said Ray Rasker, executive director of Headwaters Economics. “So when they see a proposal for a new subdivision it’s understandable for county governments to say, eagerly, ‘Let’s approve this because we get more tax revenues from that.’”

Headwaters Economics has worked with local governments across the country to provide guidance on building codes and community planning to improve wildfire resilience.

Rasker said this is not about halting development because of a perceived risk. It’s about incorporating the growing body of information about wildfire behavior into development practices. “The science is there, the knowledge is there, to know how to do it better than we have in the past,” Rasker said. “We can’t guarantee that you can 100 percent make a place fireproof but for the most part, in much of the West, you really can say yes to development — but under certain conditions.”

Last year Amy Snover and her family walked every corner of her property in Pine Forest, tying ribbons around trees to be cut down. She remembers the fir tree along the walkway where they’d hang their bikes to tune them up after a ride, or the ponderosa pines that grew up through the deck.

“We would sit out there under the tree canopy and sometimes sleep on the deck and watch the birds flying in and out of the trees,” Snover recalled. Every decision to cut was painful, but she knew it was necessary. And Snover knows more about wildfire and climate-change risks than most. She is the director of the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington.

“I’m taking my baby steps and trying to push myself as much as I can,” she said, chuckling at herself. “I think that because I spend all day, every day, thinking about what climate change means for this region and that we have some amount of inevitable change and we need to make choices accordingly —”

She paused, her shoulders slumped. “They’re not easy choices so it’s interesting to be living through that and watch that tension and challenge in myself.”

Snover said there is no guarantee that spending hundreds or thousands of dollars thinning trees, upgrading deck materials or swapping out a shingle roof for a metal roof will immunize a home to wildfire — just as there’s no guarantee that instituting a carbon tax or buying carbon offsets or driving an electric car will solve climate change.

“This is what we as a society are wrestling with in all areas of climate change,” she said. “It’s pretty depressing and feels insurmountable and you think, I’m a little plot of land in the midst of a big forest — nothing I do matters. I always turn it around and say, ‘The only thing that matters is what you do.’”

— Joseph Winters of OPB contributed to this report.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management Vale District is accepting applications through Sept. 14 for Women in Wildland Fire Boot Camp trainees.

The district by Sept. 21 plans to select participants in the camp, scheduled for the Oct. 19-21 and Oct. 26-28 weekends near Juntura, Ore.

The paid training will combine classroom instruction and hands-on field exercises ranging from firefighting techniques, tools and equipment to communications and safety, the district said in a news release. Students will be paid $12.74 per hour. Training materials, personal protective equipment and meals will be provided.

Completing the boot camp fulfills several entry-level requirements to work as a wildland firefighter, and qualifies participants to apply for seasonal employment with federal agencies or private contractors, the district said. Twenty to 25 students are expected to participate, spokeswoman Larisa Bogardus said.

New wildland firefighters, according to minimum federal qualification requirements listed in application materials for the boot camp, must successfully complete basic training the camp provides; pass a work-capacity test at the “arduous” level, complete a three-mile walk in less than 45 minutes while wearing a 45-pound vest; and be at least 18 at the time of hire next June.

The BLM Vale District said wildland firefighters play a key role in using fire to strategically manage sustainable, working public lands, in addition to controlling and suppressing wildfires that threaten communities and natural resources.

For information, call Cassandra Fleckenstein at(541) 473-6295. For application materials call (541) 473-6297 or email candrews@blm.gov.

Online

https://www.blm.gov/office/vale-district-office