FORT KLAMATH, Ore. — A trio of cattle deaths in the Fort Klamath area earlier this week are being blamed on the Rogue Wolfpack.

The carcasses of three yearling heifers were found Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings by Butch Wampler, who oversees cattle grazing on Wood River Valley ranch lands owned by Bill Nicholson and leased to DeTar Livestock of Dixon, Calif. The remains have been sent for examination before an official determination is made.

Following the discovery of the first heifer Monday morning, Nicholson said the carcass was too badly eaten to determine how it died. A second dead heifer was found Tuesday morning. Both had been buried but were unearthed following the discovery of a third heifer Wednesday that, according to Nicholson, showed traits consistent with a wolf kill. After the dead heifer that was discovered Tuesday was unburied and skinned, it was determined it also had been eaten by wolves, pending the autopsy.

After finding the third dead heifer, Nicholson contacted Tom Collum, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Klamath Falls district biologist. Video cameras showed six gray wolves from the Rogue Pack, including OR-7, which is collared but no longer transmitting signals, in the Fort Klamath area.

Collum spent Wednesday night camped in a field near the grazing cattle. Other biologists are scheduled to take turns in the field the next several night in efforts to deter the wolfpack. In 2016, when four grazing cattle were attacked and eaten alive by wolves, Collum and others took turns staying overnight using non-lethal methods — massive bonfires, honking horns, beaming strobe lights and firing cracker shells, which travel about 100 yards before exploding — as part of an effort to deter wolf predation.

“We didn’t know the Rogue Pack was back in this area,” Collum said Wednesday, noting they had been seen on the Jackson County side of the Cascades. Last month it was determined a large dog guarding cattle near Prospect had been killed by a wolf. The last confirmed cattle attack by the Rogue Pack was in January, when two calves were killed two days apart near Butte Falls.

Emphasizing that no final determination has been made on the deaths of the three Fort Klamath area heifers, Collum described the kills discovered Tuesday and Wednesday as “textbook.” The carcass of the heifer discovered Monday may be too destroyed to make a determination. He said tracking is difficult because none of Rogue Pack wolves have operating monitors.

Each summer upwards of 35,000 cattle graze on Wood River Valley pastures. Most have been trucked to pastures in the Redding-Cottonwood area of northern California. The relatively small numbers of remaining cattle will be shipped out within the coming month. Nicholson noted all three of the dead cattle are heifers, year-old cows weighing 550 to 650 pounds that have not produced calves. On neighboring fields with mother cows and calves, he said there have not been any known wolf attacks.

“I think maybe the cows protect the calves,” Nicholson speculated.

Noting the same trend, Collum said, “They’ve not protected the same way (as calves with cows). The wolves seem to know that.”

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by an Oregon county that targeted the state over legalized marijuana.

U.S. District Judge Michael McShane signed a formal order dismissing Josephine County’s lawsuit earlier this week, saying a city or county doesn’t have standing to sue a state in federal court, The Daily Courier reported Thursday.

The lawsuit was filed in April and contended that federal law banning marijuana pre-empts Oregon’s law legalizing marijuana for commercial sales.

County legal counsel Wally Hicks says he and the county Board of Commissioners accept the ruling. He told the newspaper that county leaders have not yet discussed whether to appeal.

The lawsuit was the latest battle between Josephine County and the state over pot. After commercial marijuana grows became legal in Oregon in 2016, the county tried retroactively to place limits on them by banning pot grows in areas zoned rural residential.

Marijuana growers appealed and the state’s Land Use Board of Appeals ultimately froze the county’s regulations, saying it hadn’t provided proper notice of its new rule. That set the stage for the federal lawsuit.

The judge found that the state hadn’t “substantively” prevented the county from enacting its own local rules.

The county in southwest Oregon just is miles from the California border, in an excellent region for growing marijuana, and has struggled with a boom in marijuana grows since state legalization.

The county Board of Commissioners recently unveiled a new attempt at restrictions on marijuana farming in rural residential zones. The new proposal would allow legal commercial farms to continue but ban new ones.

A hearing has been set for Nov. 7 on the latest proposal.

To satisfy the notification requirement, the county added flyers to property tax bills that were sent out earlier this month.

SEATTLE (AP) Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY) on Friday reported third-quarter net income of $255 million.

The Seattle-based company said it had net income of 34 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, were 28 cents per share.

The results did not meet Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 39 cents per share.

The timber and paper products company posted revenue of $1.91 billion in the period.

Weyerhaeuser shares have dropped 18 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has increased 1 percent. The stock has declined 17 percent in the last 12 months.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A new court filing says FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita and several colleagues on the bureau’s elite Hostage Rescue Team are under investigation for alleged “lack of candor” in their statements after the shooting of refuge occupation leader Robert “LaVoy” Finicum.

The agents are the subject of an ongoing administrative investigation and review by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, federal prosecutors said in the document filed Wednesday, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

Astarita was among FBI agents and state police trying to arrest leaders of the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as they drove on a remote highway to a community meeting in Jan. 26, 2016.

Prosecutors had alleged that Astarita covered up that he fired at Finicum’s truck after it swerved into a snowbank at a police roadblock. They also alleged Astarita and his colleagues picked up and removed shell casings from the shooting scene.

In August, a jury acquitted Astarita of all federal charges.

While Justice Department officials have said the agents would be investigated for alleged misconduct, the legal brief that prosecutors wrote mentions for the first time that the inquiry regards alleged lack of candor.

Prosecutors made the notation in their legal response to a motion by Astarita’s lawyers about whether certain documents from the Astarita trial should remain under the court’s protective order.

At trial, the government prosecutors played for jurors the FBI’s aerial infrared video that they said captured Hostage Rescue Team agents scouring the scene that night for evidence, bending down and looking under trucks and appearing to pick things up.

Each federal agent testified they were conducting searches for remnants of flash-bang grenades or for lost gear. They also testified that they didn’t hear gunfire come from Astarita and didn’t see him fire any shots that day.

Astarita said he had never fired his gun on duty and didn’t know the type of ammunition he loaded into his rifle Jan. 26.

With Astarita’s acquittal, exactly who fired twice after Finicum stepped from his truck with his hands in the air and shouted, “Go ahead and shoot me,” remains unclear.

Two state police SWAT officers then shot and killed Finicum after he walked away from his truck and was seen reaching into his jacket pocket where police said he had a loaded pistol. The fatal shooting was ruled justified by the Deschutes County district attorney.

Investigators recovered only two shell casings of eight shots fired.

Finicum’s family has a pending wrongful death lawsuit against the FBI, Oregon State Police, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and others.

Oregon farm regulators are contemplating reducing the “exclusion zone” for growing canola in Oregon’s Willamette Valley by more than half from an earlier proposal.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has floated the idea of establishing a new 889,000-acre exclusion zone for the crop, down from the 1.96 million acres proposed five years ago.

Canola is controversial in the region, as some farmers see it as a potentially valuable rotation crop while others fear it will cross-pollinate with other Brassica species grown for specialty seed.

After ODA proposed relaxing restrictions on canola in 2013, the resulting dispute that erupted wound up before Oregon lawmakers, who imposed a 500-acre cap on its production until 2019.

During an Oct. 25 meeting in Salem, Ore., agency officials proposed a map of the significantly reduced exclusion zone to representatives of specialty seed producers, canola growers and other interested parties.

Jim Johnson, ODA’s land use specialist, explained that he designed the map by studying where specialty seeds and canola have been grown and overlaying that data with information about soil quality and available irrigation water.

Specialty seeds are typically grown in higher-quality soils and require irrigation, while canola can be grown as a dryland crop that would compete with grass seed.

“Canola can go places specialty seed can’t,” Johnson said.

In some cases, topographical features like the Chehalem Mountains will serve as a natural barrier between canola and other Brassica species, he said.

The revised exclusion zone also doesn’t include the Portland metropolitan area and forestland, where neither canola nor specialty seeds are likely to be grown, Johnson said.

Shrinking the exclusion zone was also motivated by an Oregon State University study that concluded canola doesn’t pose a greater pest or disease risk than other Brassica crops, said Alexis Taylor, the agency’s director.

“It has gotten smaller based on the additional information we have now,” Taylor said.

At this point, the exclusion zone is just a concept that ODA is exploring and it may be paired with other tools, such as buffers and isolation distances, she said.

Though it’s called an exclusion zone, canola wouldn’t necessarily be entirely prohibited within its boundaries — ODA could allow the crop to be grown within the zone under more stringent rules.

Under its existing authority, ODA can regulate canola and other Brassicas to reduce pest and disease risk, but the agency may ask for additional legal authority when it presents a report to Oregon lawmakers that’s due in mid-November, Taylor said.

The agency’s goal is to allow a new industry — canola production — into the Willamette Valley while limiting and managing the associated risks, she said.

The Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Association, which is concerned about the impacts of canola, would like to extend a “non-voting affiliate membership” to canola growers, said Greg Loberg, public relations chairman for the organization and manager of the West Coast Beet Seed Co.

That way, canola farmers could participate in WVSSA’s “pinning map,” which identifies where certain species are grown to prevent cross-pollination, he said.

Canola growers would be non-voting because they’d likely outnumber specialty seed growers and effectively take control of the association, he said.

The Willamette Valley Oilseed Producers Association, which supports easing canola restrictions, favors canola farmers using the WVSSA pinning map within ODA’s proposed exclusion zone, said Anna Scharf, the association’s president.

Outside the exclusion zone, however, the pinning map for canola and other Brassicas should be managed publicly by ODA and possibly OSU, with rules developed through an administrative process, Scharf said.

Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an agribusiness group, would be amendable to an exclusion zone based on pest and disease risk, but not one that would favor specialty seeds over other crops for market-based reasons, said Scott Dahlman, the group’s policy director.

“We don’t think the department should be in a position of picking winners and losers,” he said.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The bankruptcy trustee for Oregon’s troubled Lost Valley Farm will shut down the dairy and put it up for sale next year.

The Statesman Journal reports trustee Randy Sugarman announced the plan Wednesday for the dairy, which has been out of compliance with its wastewater permit since it opened in Boardman in April 2017.

In a status report to the court, Sugarman says the dairy needs to invest $35 million to $40 million to meet its pollution permit requirements.

Owner Greg te Velde declared bankruptcy in April to stave off a previously planned auction of cows as part of a bank foreclosure.

Sugarman asked the court last week to approve selling the cows at public auction.

Te Velde says he hadn’t heard about the decision to close the dairy.

State farm regulators earlier this month issued a record fine of more than $187,000 to the dairy, citing more than 220 violations of its wastewater permit between last December and late August.

In addition to Lost Valley Farm, two dairies in California — GJ te Velde Ranch in Tipton, and Pacific Rim Dairy in Corcoran — are involved in the bankruptcy proceedings. The dairies have a combined total of 53,382 cattle.

Capital Press staff added to this story.

The Chuck Eggert family, which last year sold Tualatin, Ore.-based Pacific Foods to Campbell Soup Co. for a reported $700 million, has purchased Willamette Valley Cheese Co. of Salem in a move that will take the cheese company organic and considerably increase its production volume.

Charlie Eggert, farm manager for the Eggert family’s four dairies, said the purchase “seemed like a good partnership for us with our dairies and the kinds of things we are trying to do to create jobs in the Willamette Valley.”

“We are just interested in keeping good things around and we’ve always had a lot of respect for Willamette Valley Cheese and the products they create,” he said.

Under terms of the sale, Willamette Valley Cheese Co.’s Rod Volbeda will stay on as facilities manager and cheese maker at the Salem location.

“The idea of staying the same and doing what we’ve always done and then transitioning to organic just made me get excited again,” Volbeda said.

“It was getting hard going by myself,” he said when asked why he sold. “The debt load I had was getting up there, and I’m at the age where I need to slow down a little bit.”

Volbeda, 53, said the company will continue producing its line of award-winning cheeses, including Creamy Havarti, Eola Jack, Fontina, Gouda and Cheddar, and will continue operating its tasting room just west of Salem at 8105 Wallace Road NW.

He declined to give a dollar amount of the sale, but said he was satisfied with the terms. “They gave me a very good job to run this facility and their plan is to build more small cheese operations, and I’m hoping to be involved in that.”

Willamette Valley Cheese Co.’s volume is expected to increase five-fold under the new ownership, he said, from its current 10,000 pounds a week to 50,000 pounds once the transition is complete.

“It is still going to be single-herd milk supply,” he said. “It is just the cows will not be on this facility, so we will not be farmstead.”

Willamette Valley Cheese Co. sold the last of its cows two months ago and has been purchasing milk from Darigold since. That arrangement will stay in place for the near future, according to Eggert.

“We haven’t made the transition yet (to supplying the cheese company’s milk),” Eggert said. “We are working on the details and going through the process with Oregon Tilth on what it is going to take to turn organic and use our milk.

“We don’t have any plans right now as far as when the changeover will take place, but that will ultimately be our goal,” he said. “It is a complicated process and we have never made organic cheese, so we are going to learn as we go.”

The Eggert family operates two organic dairies in the Wilsonville area, one in the Albany area and one near McMinnville. It sells most of its milk to Organic Valley.

Barry Bushue, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau for nearly 20 years, has a new job: Oregon state executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency.

Bushue, who started Oct. 9, replaced Acting State Executive Director Wes Jennings. Prior to Jennings, Phil Ward served as executive director from 2014 to 2016.

“Bushue is a proven leader and advocate for agriculture and natural resources in Oregon with over 25 years of experience in the industry,” the agency wrote in an Oct. 11 release announcing the appointment.

Bushue earlier retired as president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, a position he held for just under two decades.

He said he accepted the FSA position in part because of his respect for the work of the agency.

“I’ve always been a big believer in the USDA,” he said. “And I’ve been impressed with Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

“This was an ideal opportunity for me to work for Oregon agriculture and an agency that I felt has been very strong in its advocacy for agriculture,” he said.

At FSA, Bushue said he hopes to increase awareness of the many loan programs the agency offers through its county offices, including direct operating loans, microloans for small and beginning or non-traditional farmers, direct farm ownership loans and emergency loans.

“I think the programs are useful, they are valuable, they are important, they provide critical safety nets for folks,” Bushue said.

Among other features, FSA loans are designed to help family farmers and ranchers start, improve or expand existing operations, add value to farm products and get young people involved in farming, according to the FSA website.

Leaving the Oregon Farm Bureau’s presidency wasn’t easy, Bushue said. “When you spend that much time with an organization and with the people that supported you, sure it is hard to leave. But that also opened up opportunities for change there that may not have happened as early as if I hadn’t made the decision, and it opened up Farm Bureau for some new, young and exciting leadership.

“There are a lot of young, bright folks at the Farm Bureau that have all the capabilities and more than I had,” he said. “It was a smart time for me to go.”

In addition to serving as Oregon Farm Bureau president, Bushue served as vice president of the American Farm Bureau for eight years, ending in 2016.

The 2018 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree will be cut from the Willamette National Forest’s Sweet Home Ranger District on Friday, Nov. 2.

Two public events will be hosted by Sweet Home Ranger District so Oregonians can both see and celebrate the cutting, part of the ongoing U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree campaign.

Fifty people who register at capitolchristmastree2018.eventbrite.com will be able to attend the tree cutting event. Willamette officials said the number of public attendees is limited by the size of the area surrounding the tree and the need to accommodate tree-lifting cranes and a large truck.

The event will include brief remarks by the Forest Service employees, local officials and partners. Attendees will be shuttled to the site, which is about an hour from Sweet Home on rural forest roads.

The tree cutting will take place between 11:15 a.m. and noon. The tree will be cut with a saw donated by Husqvarna and the tree-lifting crane and supporting equipment provided by Papé and Axis Crane. Attendees will be shuttled back and should return to River Bend County Park by 1:30 p.m. There will be tents and bathroom facilities, but people should be prepared for inclement weather, including rain or snow. For full event details, participant requirements and online registration, visit capitolchristmastree2018.eventbrite.com.

A second celebratory event will be at River Bend County Park at 1:30 p.m. A video of the tree cutting will be broadcast on a giant screen and light refreshments will be provided. The event is open to the public and registration is not required. In attendance will be the “tree team” comprised of Forest Service officials, partners and sponsors.

“We are thrilled to be able to share this exciting part of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree’ s journey with our fellow Oregonians” said Nikki Swanson, Sweet Home District Ranger. “The people of Oregon have been instrumental to the success of this project. From the kindness of our cooperators to everyone who helped make ornaments and tree skirts, Oregonians have come together to send this beautiful Noble Fir and over 10,000 ornaments as a gift from the state of Oregon to the U.S. Capitol and all Americans,”

After the tree is cut, it will go to Sweet Home where it will be prepared for the eastward journey on a Kenworth W990 truck. It will leave Sweet Home on Friday, Nov. 9, for its 3,000-mile road trip through Oregon and across the country to Washington, D.C.

The theme for the 2018 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree is “Find Your Trail!” in recognition of two 2018 anniversaries: the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System Act and the 175th commemoration of the Oregon Trail.

The tree will leave Oregon following the reverse path along the Oregon Trail following stops in Albany, Springfield, McKenzie Bridge, Oakridge, Bend, Detroit, Salem, Oregon City, The Dalles, and Baker City. A series of festive events will be hosted by communities along the way. A complete schedule and list of special events is available at www.capitolchristmastree.com.

The trip to Washington, D.C., is made possible by large and small companies and volunteers locally and across America, including Papé, KGW8, Kenworth Truck Company, Central Oregon Truck Company, SkyBitz, Oregon Forest Resources Institute, Hale Trailer, VanDoI Adventure Vans, Alaska Airlines, Husqvarna, Meritor, Pilot Flying J, Truckload Carriers Association, Willamette Valley Visitors Association, Axis Crane, Eaton, Great West Casualty Company, the National Forest Foundation and the City of Sweet Home.

The U.S. Forest Service has provided the Capitol Christmas Tree every year since 1970. In January 2018, the U.S. Forest Service announced that the 2018 Capitol Christmas Tree would come from Oregon’s Willamette National Forest. The 80-foot noble fir tree was selected by a representative of the Architect of the Capitol in August. It’s the first time in the program’s 47-year history that a noble fir has been a U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree.

The tree will be displayed on the West Lawn of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., with a public tree-lighting ceremony in early December. The last time Oregon was chosen to provide the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree was in 2002, when a tree was selected from the Umpqua National Forest.

Seventy smaller companion trees will also be sent to Washington, D.C. from the Willamette to decorate government buildings and public spaces. Oregonians have contributed 10,000 handmade ornaments.

CHILOQUIN, Ore. — It isn’t that Bill Boyd isn’t friendly, it’s just that he often finds himself being more comfortable around man’s best friends.

“I’d rather be around them than people,” Boyd says of spending time with working cattle dogs. “They’re amazing.”

Making good dogs even more amazing is what the 78-year-old Boyd does in his semi-retirement. During his many years working on and managing ranches, he learned the value of working cattle dogs. “It took me a couple years to get educated,” he says of training dogs, mostly border collies.

His education with working dogs and training them spans a career that’s included stops at ranches in California, Arizona, Texas and, since moving near Chiloquin 16 years ago, Oregon. Before the move, he spent nine years as cow boss for the San Emigdio Cattle Co. near Bakersfield. The 100,000-acre cattle ranch ran upwards of 1,500 cows and 12,000 yearlings, mostly Beefmaster, a breed known for being heat- and insect-resistant, because in Southern California “you needed something that would travel.”

Working with cattle and dogs came naturally. Raised near Bishop, Calif., he drops his hand below his waist as he tells, “I’ve always wanted to be around animals since I was this high.”

Boyd earned degrees in animal husbandry and farm management at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, but his real-life education came while working on ranches.

“I didn’t understand dogs at that time,” he says. He gained that understanding while moving cattle, and by using the dogs to teach cattle to come to him. “If the cattle come to me,” he explains, “they don’t get bit.”

He’s also learned the dogs inevitably will “take a pounding. When you’re working cows and calves they’re going to get run over.”

His dog, Rusty, a 12-year-old border collie, has had his share of broken bones but he still jumps at the opportunity to work cattle or sheep.

“He had it in him and he’s not afraid of anything,” says Boyd, explaining he looks for characteristics he says are inbred in dogs that can be fine-tuned to work on ranches or perform in dog trials.

Rusty and Boyd’s other dogs are kept in individual kennels in a barn behind his house. It’s a wide-ranging group that includes Billy, only a couple months old, and 2-year-old Cinder, who Boyd has been training the past year and will be entered in competition and put up for sale at the Red Bluff Round-Up, a three-day rodeo in April. “She’ll make a good ranch dog.”

Working with dogs — some his own, many belonging to others — begins when they’re as young as 9 or 10 weeks old, first with sheep. “You can’t take dogs to cattle ’til they’re about a year old. If they have confidence, they can work them. It’s just bred into them.”

Some dogs are trained for dog trial competition while some owners want their dogs trained to be obedient or to work cattle.

Because of his background, Boyd says dog owners seek him out. “You’re legitimate,” he says of the reputation he earned by working with dogs on large ranches. “It’s an advantage because I’ve worked with wild cattle. ... I can train dogs real quick.”

He’s passed on his cattle- and dog-handling skills to his children. Two live nearby. His daughter, Jody Boyd, manages the Dixon Ranch in Fort Klamath while his son, Craig, who previously managed yearlings for the San Emigdio Cattle Co., works on the Buckhorn Ranch, which summers cattle in the Fort Klamath area. Two other daughters, Lora and Kristy, live in Bakersfield and Lake Tahoe.

Boyd and his wife, Nedra, live on their 80-acre ranch near Chiloquin. High school sweethearts, they married two years ago following the death five years ago of Merna, Boyd’s wife of 50 years, from Parkinson’s Disease. Nedra, also 78, has two sons and ranched for 22 years near Fruitland, Idaho.

Over the years, Boyd has been the headliner at Bill Boyd Stock Dog & Dog Trial Clinics on Horseback. Although his business, Bill Boyd Stock Dogs, slowed when he suffered back problems, he’s again training dogs, although he says he wants to slow down.

“I’m trying to retire,” he claims, but that hasn’t happened. Not yet. He’s still enjoying working with Rusty and his other best friends.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Researchers say active fault lines on Mount Hood could potentially trigger a 7.2 magnitude quake that could reach Portland.

KGW-TV reports the recently discovered fault lines to the north, south and southwest of Mount Hood extend to the Columbia River.

Ian Madin of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and Ashley Streig of Portland State University found the fault lines during an analysis with new imaging technology. The fault lines were verified through field research.

Streig says the quake would be a short crustal earthquake, and it “would be strong enough to knock you off your feet.”

Streig says the Portland area would likely see “strong ground motions and could suffer liquefaction damage along waterfront areas.”

The volume of timber cut from Northwest national forests is increasing due to collaborative planning and growing state involvement in logging projects, according to an Oregon forest supervisor.

For example, the Willamette National Forest — Oregon’s foremost timber producer and a regular top contender nationally — aims to generate 100 million board-feet in 2020, up from about 75 million to 80 million board-feet in 2018, said Tracy Beck, the forest’s supervisor.

Last year, 66 million board-feet were harvested from the forest, according to federal statistics.

Contrary to the common belief that federal logging projects are being tied up in litigation, lawsuits have only been a filed against a handful of the hundreds of projects in the area, Beck said at a recent timber industry tour in Corvallis, Ore.

“We’re winning most of those cases,” he said. “I really feel like collaboration has helped keep us out of court.”

Collaboratives are groups, such as nonprofits, that help steer the federal government’s thinking on logging and thinning projects and build agreement among the timber industry, environmental groups and others.

Another recent tool that’s expected to increase timber volume from national forests is the “good neighbor” authority granted by Congress in 2014 that allows state governments to carry out projects on federal land.

While such logging projects are still subject to federal environmental laws, states have more flexibility with contracting rules and are able to carry out projects more effectively, said Mike Cloughesy, forestry director of the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, which organized the tour.

Federal contracting regulations are more complicated and have set wages for certain jobs — such as road crews — whereas state regulations allow for more cost-efficiency, he said.

Earlier this year, Oregon lawmakers approved $500,000 for the Oregon Department of Forestry to assist with the planning and implementation of projects under the “good neighbor” authority.

As ODF increases its capacity to manage such projects, the Willamette National Forest hopes to eventually reach about 120 million board-feet in timber volume, said Beck, the forest’s supervisor. The forest is estimated to produce about 1 billion board-feet a year in new timber.

At roughly 650 million board-feet of timber harvested in 2018, the Forest Service region that includes Oregon and Washington this year achieved its highest volume in two decades, he said.

“The future looks bright,” Beck said.

The OFRI tour, held on Oct. 19, included a visit to new mass timber buildings under construction on Oregon State University’s campus using cross laminated timber and mass plywood, which are pre-fabricated panels that allow for the efficient assembly of multi-story wooden structures.

The group of about 50 lawmakers, government officials and industry representatives also walked through long-term research plots at OSU’s McDonald-Dunn Forest that analyzed different harvest and reforestation methods.

The university harvests about 7 million to 9 million board-feet a year from 15,000 acres that include the McDonald-Dunn and surrounding forests, said Steve Fitzpatrick, director of research forests at OSU’s College of Forestry.

Managing the forestland presents unique challenges due to the high volume of tourists and the proximity to residential homes, which can lead to controversies and compromises over forest management, he said.

“You get the full range of emotions, from ‘Well, it’s your property’ to ‘I’m going to sue you,’” said Fitzpatrick.

HERMISON, Ore. — The local agricultural community came together last week to send thousands of pounds of potatoes to Oregon food banks.

In the past, the spuds would have gone to waste, tilled over after they served their purpose as a test plot at the Hermiston Agricultural Research & Extension Center. But four years ago the experiment station decided to start partnering with local producers and the nonprofit Farmers Ending Hunger to put them to good use in food boxes for families in need.

“It’s a great program,” said John Burt, executive director of Farmers Ending Hunger. “It takes a lot of people to make it happen.”

The program starts with test plots at HAREC, paid for by grants from the Oregon Potato Commission and tended by the experiment station. HAREC director Phil Hamm said while some produce grown at the experiment station couldn’t be used for human consumption after being subjected to experiments, the potatoes harvested Wednesday weren’t experimented upon.

Instead, area growers each send 300 tubers to be planted at HAREC. There, plant pathologist Kenneth Frost evaluates them for disease, and contacts growers if he finds any issues.

Hamm said because the acres are a mixture of potato varieties, it doesn’t work to send them all to a french fry plant, for example, but each individual potato is good for eating.

“This is a good use of potatoes that are absolutely OK, just not for a commercial setting,” he said.

On Wednesday, Stahl Farms donated the labor and equipment to harvest the potatoes, which were loaded onto trucks provided by Medelez Trucking. The trucks took them to Walchli Potato to be processed, washed and packaged and sent to a storage facility owned by farmer Steve Walker. Hamm said they didn’t have a final number yet, but it was definitely more than 100,000 pounds of potatoes.

Farmers Ending Hunger, which started in Umatilla County, facilitates donations of fresh food from Oregon farmers to the Oregon Food Bank. Burt said Wednesday’s effort with the test potatoes was a little different than the normal donation, but it was worth the effort. Some of the potatoes will go to CAPECO in Pendleton to be distributed locally, and the rest will be picked up by the Oregon Food Bank to be distributed to their network of food banks throughout the state.

“We will leave as much locally as possible,” Burt said.

Hunger is an issue throughout Oregon. According to the Oregon Food Bank, 14 percent of Oregonians are “food insecure,” meaning they don’t have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of nutritious food. Of those 552,900 Oregonians, 194,070 are children.

The food bank works to lessen hunger by distributing food through 1,200 different local sites around the state and Clark County, Washington. Food is kept in 21 regional food banks, with CAPECO serving as one for northeastern Oregon. Food comes from corporate and individual donations, and Farmers Ending Hunger is one of the top donors. The nonprofit donated 26 million pounds of food crops between 2006 and 2017.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Animal Legal Defense Fund sued Monday to force the U.S. government to target climate change, coming days after a similar lawsuit filed by young activists was temporarily put on hold by the Supreme Court.

Those who joined the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon include scientists, nature enthusiasts and wildlife advocates who say they fear for their safety as wildfires, mudslides and other threats grow more severe, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported .

They say they have a fundamental right to be left alone “free from human interference” in the wilderness and they want a federal judge to declare that the federal government is violating that right by contributing to a dangerous concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Animal Defense Fund member and plaintiff Michael Goetz of Portland said that on a recent backpacking trip, wildfire smoke was so intense that couldn’t see his hand in front of his face, according to the lawsuit.

Outdoor adventure athlete Will Gadd also joined the lawsuit, which said he has witnessed melting ice and glaciers while climbing in conditions that are much more dangerous now than they were years ago when he first began climbing.

“Will is harmed by the government’s actions and inactions to stem the severity of climate change because he is prevented from reasonably and safely exercising his right to wilderness on which he relies for his physical and mental well—being as well as his global status as an outdoor adventurer and educator,” the suit says.

The lawsuit names the U.S. Departments of Interior, Agriculture and Defense; the Environmental Protection Agency; and other agencies.

An Interior spokeswoman said in an email to contact the Justice Department. Their Environment and Natural Resources Division didn’t immediately respond to an email.

The new challenge comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked a high—profile climate change lawsuit that young activists brought against the federal government.

The lawsuit filed in 2015 in Eugene argues that government officials have known for more than 50 years that carbon pollution from fossil fuels was causing climate change and that policies on oil and gas deprive the young people of life, liberty and property.

The 21 young people issued a response Monday to the high court, saying the case poses important constitutional questions that should be evaluated at a trial that had been set to start next week.

The new lawsuit takes a different approach, said Carter Dillard, senior policy adviser for the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

While the young people’s case focuses on constitutional rights to life, liberty and property and protection of public resources, the one filed Monday focuses on “the simple right to be let alone, the right long recognized and protected under banners like privacy and liberty,” Dillard told the newspaper in an email.

SALEM, Ore. — When James Hermes came to Oregon State University’s poultry department 31 years ago, big company buyouts, cage-free egg production and stringent antibiotic restrictions were not issues.

Today, as enters his last full academic year as Oregon State University Extension’s poultry specialist, Hermes is dealing with all three.

Born in North Carolina, Hermes earned an associate’s degree in science from Palomar Community College and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in avian sciences and a Ph.D. in genetics in 1988 from the University of California-Davis.

“I was originally interested in hawks and then game birds instead of chickens but I couldn’t get into graduate school with hawks and there was no significant employment (related to) game birds,” Hermes said. “Because of that, I got involved in what at the time was called poultry husbandry. I changed my major from zoology to avian science, got my degree in hatchery work and incubation and came to Oregon State as an extension agent and then specialist.”

He spends 80 percent of his time teaching and 20 percent advising growers, judging contests and leading workshops on the OSU Extension side. He is currently participating in a three-year pastured poultry program with UC-Davis.

As fewer, larger companies raise chickens in Oregon, the business has changed, he said.

“My ties with the chicken business are reduced, partly because of my job and partly because the chicken people don’t meet any more,” Hermes said.

The switch to cage-free operations by 2025 will also be challenging, he said.

“The cage-free deadline is going to be a tough one to meet because it is very expensive to changeover,” he said. Current cage facilities can’t be modified, he said, so existing buildings are going to have to be pushed down and rebuilt.

“Each company has its own schedule and everyone is doing a little bit — 10 percent the first year, 20 percent the second year and so on,” he said. “At a cost of $40 to $50 a bird and you have a million birds, we obviously are going to be paying more for eggs.”

Restrictions on antibiotics is another change poultry farmers face, he said.

“As to what’s going to happen now with new restrictions on the use of pharmaceuticals, is anybody’s guess. We don’t know what will happen when these egg layers are put on the floor and/or outside where they will be subjected to parasites and bacteria that have never challenged their immune systems before,” he said. “We are definitely in a transition period and we’re going to have to do things differently. My veterinarian friends tell me the new learning curve is going to be steep.”

It remains to be seen who will take over Hermes’ OSU Extension duties and work with 4-H and FFA students and judge contests at the state fair when he retires with plans to raise his beloved game birds at the end of 2019.

“I have a small farm outside of Philomath where I can build pens for up to 1,000 pheasants, chuckers and other games birds if I decide to do that,” Hermes said. “My wife may shoot me because she’s not looking forward to spending our retirement tied to the farm. Hopefully, I can hire some willing students to pitch in so we can get away. After that, it will be helping my daughters get over not being on duty in the chicken booth when Ag Fest rolls around.”

For more information, contact OSU Department of Animal Rangeland Sciences at 541-737-2254 or email james.hermes@oregonstate.edu

Capital Press

Onion quality, size and yield look good as harvest wraps up and storage sheds run full-speed in southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho.

Yields appear to slightly exceed long-term averages.

“Generally, things are quite good so far,” Kay Riley, general manager at Snake River Produce in Nyssa, Ore., said Oct. 19. “Harvest has been exceptional and size has been exceptional.” Quality and appearance also have been excellent, he said.

Quality looked unaffected by heavy rains Oct. 4 and 9 in parts of the region and a light frost early Oct. 15, he said. Most of the crop had been harvested before the frost, he said.

Internal decay can occur after about a month in storage, Riley said. More will be known later, but that does not appear to be an issue so far at Snake River, he said. The operation began packing in mid-August.

The region’s onion industry typically ships around 30,000 semi-truck loads of onions, and shipping as of Oct. 19 was about 2,200 loads ahead of last year’s volume, he said.

“We anticipate having a very good season,” Riley said.

Recent rain and frost likely did not reduce onion quality or yield, said Oregon State University Extension Malheur County Crop Agent Stuart Reitz.

When morning temperatures drop into the upper 20s, growers will wait until later in the day to harvest and handle onions — after any frost comes off outer layers — so they don’t bruise the vegetables, he said. Morning temperatures were around 28 degrees in the area early Oct. 15, “in some areas a couple degrees cooler.

“But the onions are sitting on the ground, so they get some additional heat from the soil,” Reitz said. “And if it doesn’t stay too cold for too long, they don’t suffer that damage.”

Last year’s late-starting season had below-average onion sizes and yields. The current onion crop looks much more like the 2016 crop, which was fairly large, he said.

Good skin color and size, and a high percentage of single-center onions good for processing are among onion characteristics seen this year, Reitz said. Mostly good growing conditions, with few stops and starts, helped overall quality and yield as well as centering.

“It seems like things are going into storage pretty well. You see onions moving, and guys are getting finished up,” said Bruce Corn, who farms between Ontario and Nyssa, Ore. He expects harvest in the area to conclude by the end of the month if conditions hold.

He said on Oct. 19 he would be surprised if earlier rain and frost affected quality, as “the stuff we see moving on the truck looks really good — well cured.” This year’s curing weather has been good, he said.

Nyssa-area grower Paul Skeen said his crop looks “excellent, probably the best I’ve ever seen. Quality and appearance and everything else.”

His harvest was largely completed before the Oct. 15 frost, as was much of the area’s onion harvest, he said. “A lot of onions were in before that happened, so the percentage that actually got some frost on it was pretty minute.”

Around the growing region, yields were good — substantially better than last year and slightly above the five-year average, Skeen said.

By CRAIG REED

For the Capital Press

ROSEBURG, Ore. — Alexis Taylor, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, commented on topics ranging from trade to wolves while visiting with ranchers at an Oct. 16 meeting of the Douglas County Livestock Association.

The back-and-forth conversation between the director and the ranchers included discussion of foreign markets for beef, wolves and compensation for livestock loss, food origins, estate and inheritance taxes and solar farms on agricultural land.

Umpqua, Ore., rancher Kurt Spencer said it is important that Oregon maintains a strong interest in pursuing foreign beef markets. He said the state is not keeping up in that pursuit.

Taylor explained that representatives from the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, the Oregon Beef Council and Country Natural Beef were on a trade trip to China last May. She said Japan has been the state’s top market for agricultural products, but the next key market for Oregon may be China. That country recently reopened its beef market to U.S. producers.

Taylor said 80 percent of Oregon’s agricultural products are shipped outside the state and 40 percent of that total is exported to international markets. She agreed it is important to seek out and establish trade relationships in those foreign markets.

She said it is important that trade trips are set up in both directions so that representatives from China, South Korea and Japan can visit Oregon to meet beef producers and to see where and how beef is raised.

“Trading relationships are long-term investments, not something you build in two years,” Taylor said. “Oregon agriculture can capitalize on our proximity to the Pacific Rim and the growing middle class in Asia.”

Cottage Grove, Ore., rancher Bill Hoyt brought up the importance of having a wolf compensation fund for livestock damage in western Oregon because the wolfpack in southwestern Oregon is dispersing and future conflicts are inevitable.

“To get to the point, we need more funds for compensation for all over the state,” he said, adding that ranchers are willing to work with the ODA and to testify on behalf of the department to the Oregon legislature on wolf issues.

Taylor said it was a point well-taken and that the ODA would continue to support an increase in the fund through the budget process. She added there are always opportunities for stakeholders to testify and provide support for the fund in the budget.

In response to a question from Tenmile, Ore., rancher Marwood Hallett about future trends, Taylor said she anticipates the origin of foods to be an important subject well into the future. She said only 10 percent of the U.S. population now lives in rural areas so the disconnect with food sources is expected. She added 56 percent of Oregon’s population lives in the Portland metro area.

“Consumers want to know the source of food,” she said. “We have generations of people who are now removed from agriculture and we’re less educated as a consumer base as a result. It’ll take time out of our business to try to educate consumers.”

The ODA is involved in the Agriculture in the Classroom program in an effort to provide educational materials on the ag industry to city classrooms.

Regarding solar panels on agricultural land, Taylor said ODA is supportive of all forms of alternative energy, but it comes down to “what is the best use of that land.”

“We want to see the most productive ag land in any part of the state protected,” she said. “We want to provide for both, but in a way that makes sense. We need to be thoughtful about solar in the state, we want it to be compatible with agriculture, but not competitive.”

Glide, Ore., rancher Mark Talcott asked Taylor about estate and inheritance taxes and the difficulty in passing an agricultural operation onto the next generation. Talcott is the fifth generation to own and operate his family’s ranch.

“We’re land rich, cash poor,” he said. “We need relief if family farms and ranches are going to continue. The last nail in the coffin is the Oregon estate tax. There is a loss of family farms because they’re being bought up by corporations that can afford the tax situation.”

Taylor said the estate tax issue is something she has heard talk about in the Oregon Capitol in Salem “so it is on their radar.” She had no further information on whether tax changes were coming.

“I find what you have on your minds very valuable,” Taylor said to the ranchers as the meeting concluded.

Following her stop in Roseburg, Taylor traveled south and made stops in Central Point and Medford to visit with and to hear from others who are involved in Oregon agriculture.

DENVER (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the government to speed up environmental reviews and streamline regulations that he says are hindering work on major water projects in the Western United States.

Trump signed a memorandum aimed at helping the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project in California, the Klamath Irrigation Project in Oregon and the Columbia River Basin system in the Pacific Northwest.

“We will resolve the issues blocking the completion of the Central Valley project,” Trump said in Arizona during a swing through Western states. “I hope you enjoy the water that you’re going to have.”

The announcement is a boost for endangered Republican lawmakers in California’s Central Valley facing tough challenges from Democrats looking to take control of the U.S. House.

Officials did not discuss specific work that the administration aims to speed up for any of the projects. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages most federal water projects in the West, referred questions to the Interior Department. That department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The Central Valley Project is a federally managed water storage and delivery system that primarily benefits agricultural users in California’s rich farming country in the center of the state.

The State Water Project serves agricultural and urban water users, including Los Angeles and much of sprawling Southern California.

The Klamath Irrigation Project is in California and Oregon.

The Columbia River system includes the Columbia Basin Project, which serves about 1,050 square miles of farmland in east central Washington. The project includes the Grand Coulee Dam and three power plants.

The president’s announcement is likely to inflame an ongoing battle in California over divvying up water between cities, farms and environmental needs like the protection of fish.

Farming interests have long pushed to raise Shasta Dam, which holds back California’s largest reservoir as part of the Central Valley Project, by more than 18 feet. The project is opposed by environmentalists who say it would harm threatened fish species and by the Winnemem Wintu tribe, which says it would flood sacred sites.

Several other dams are proposed including Sites Reservoir near Sacramento and Temperance Flat Dam north of Fresno.

The Oregon Forage and Grasslands Council and the Oregon Hay and Forage Association are combining their outreach efforts and will co-host the Fall Forage Festival.

The two-day event, scheduled for Nov. 16-17 in Corvallis, Ore., is a first. Previously, the two groups held separate annual events.

“This is part of our outreach responsibility,” said Jerome Magnuson, a member of OFGC and the chair of the festival’s organizing committee. “The festival is open to anybody who is interested in the producing side of forages or the feeding side. We want to help educate those people and to help promote the forage industry.”

Greg Mohnen, president of OHFA, said he hopes the event will encourage more western Oregon forage growers to join the association that traditionally has had just central and eastern Oregon members.

“There’s always something to learn and by moving the event around we hope we can reach more people and provide them with more information,” said Mohnen who manages the McGinnis Ranch near Bend, Ore.

The Friday, Nov. 16 schedule will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m. in Guerber Hall at the Benton County Fairgrounds. There will be a $30 fee which will include lunch.

Several speakers will follow between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Presentations will be about nutrient value of hays, hay storage and its impact on quality, matching hay to livestock, coping with drought, current research and resources in the Pacific Northwest.

Presenters will include Glenn Shewmaker, a University of Idaho Extension forage specialist; Steve Norberg, a Washington State University Extension forage specialist; Mylen Bohle, an Oregon State University forage specialist; and Jon Driver of Farm Credit Services. Shewmaker will discuss changes in forage quality during storage, Norberg will present new ways to look at forage and hay quality and Driver will talk about the hay market, exports and impacts on the market.

A roundtable discussion with hay growers talking about the issues they face in growing forages is also scheduled.

The main activity on Saturday, Nov. 17 will be the Hay King Contest. There is no fee to attend this event, which will be held at the Oldfield Animal Teaching Facility on the Oregon State University campus. OSU agricultural students are encouraged to attend.

Two- and three-tie bales and sample flacks from bigger bales will be displayed and judged. The classes will be dairy alfalfa, retail alfalfa, grass, grass/legume mix, cereal, cereal/legume (pea or vetch) mix and timothy.

Hay samples with an entry form and $30 per entry made out to OHFA should be sent to the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center, 6941 Washburn Way, Klamath Falls, OR 97603-9365, by Nov. 2. The center will do a chemical analysis of each entry, testing it for several quality indicators.

Growers will then bring to Corvallis a bale or a sample from the hay that was analyzed. Judges will pull the hay apart, evaluating it and talking about its feel, smell, color, maturity and the presence of any foreign substances.

“The judges will look at the way a bale is put together,” Magnuson said. “It’s extremely educational for a grower to listen to a professional evaluate a bale of hay. The networking between growers, buyers and users at this time is also valuable.”

More information on the two-day event can be found on the OFGC or OHFA websites or by calling Magnuson at 541-990-5409.

Oregon winemakers may be fierce competitors in the marketplace, but when it comes to the industry as a whole, they look out for one another.

When a Napa Valley winery rejected 2,000 tons of grapes from Southern Oregon growers just before harvest due to concerns about smoke taint in the fruit, a group of rivals from the Willamette Valley decided to lend a hand.

The coalition — King Estate Winery, Willamette Valley Vineyards, Silvan Ridge Winery and Eyrie Vineyards — purchased over 140 tons of grapes from six growers in Southern Oregon, at full contract price, which they will use to create a 2018 vintage of Pinot noir, Chardonnay and rosé wines under the name “Oregon Solidarity.”

Proceeds from net sales will go to vintners in the Rogue Valley who were left with grapes to rot on the vine.

“We are proud to be part of this first-of-its-kind solidarity effort, working with our colleagues to save what grapes we could from this high-quality vintage,” said Jim Bernau, founder of Willamette Valley Vineyards in Turner, Ore.

Copper Cane LLC, a winery in Rutherford, Calif., buys grapes from approximately 50 vineyards in Oregon to make Pinot noir and rosé, though it recently rejected orders from at least 15 vineyards worth an estimated $4 million over smoke taint from the region’s wildfires.

Joe Wagner, owner and operator of Copper Cane, said in a previous interview that no contracts were canceled, and the winery will continue to work with Oregon growers in the future. However, those same growers are defending the quality of this year’s grapes, and Bernau said independent testing revealed smoke taint at levels below cause for concern.

Because the 2018 rejection notices came so close to harvest, growers say they did not have enough time to find a new buyer for the grapes, leaving them stranded in the vineyard. Ed King, co-founder of King Estate Winery in Eugene, Ore., said that is when he and other Willamette Valley winemakers came up with the game plan.

“We just decided, rather than sit on the sidelines, we would figure out what we could do to help,” King said.

Wineries like King Estate and Willamette Valley Vineyards already buy some grapes from Southern Oregon, but together the coalition purchased an additional $323,750 worth of grapes to make the “Oregon Solidarity” wines.

The wines are now fermenting in the wineries’ cellars until they are brought together for blending. Customers can pre-order wines online beginning Feb. 1, 2019, with the release dates for Oregon Solidarity Rosé on March 1, 2019, Chardonnay on June 1, 2019 and Pinot noir on Aug. 1, 2019. King said they expect to produce between 3,000 and 4,000 cases.

Each wine will be labeled from the Rogue Valley American Viticultural Area.

“Labeling these wines with the Rogue Valley AVA emphasizes the high quality that comes from this wine region, and represents our confidence in these winegrowers and vintage,” King said.

King said he has no concern about the wine quality, and that it will be “top notch.” Smoke taint has been described as producing a “leather,” “burnt” or “ashtray” flavor in the wine due to organic compounds released by fires.

Copper Cane, meanwhile, has also run afoul of Oregon winemakers stemming from allegations earlier this year of misleading labels on its Oregon-sourced wines, such as “The Willametter Journal” and “Elouan.” Wagner, the owner, said the winery is working with state and federal agencies investigating the claims, though he feels they are doing nothing wrong.