GOLETA, Calif. (AP) — Crews have gained some ground against a deadly wildfire burning on the California-Oregon state line that killed a man and injured three firefighters.

California fire officials say the blaze is 30 percent contained as of Monday morning.

The fire, one of many in the drought-ridden U.S. West, killed one person in their home and destroyed 72 structures.

It also injured three firefighters, including one who had severe burns to his face and had to be hospitalized.

CalFire says the firefighter was released Sunday from UC Davis hospital burn center in California.

The blaze that started Thursday near the community of Hornbrook has scorched 55 square miles. It jumped into Oregon over the weekend.

Authorities say a wildfire that shut down Interstate 580 in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday night is fully contained and all lanes have reopened.

Tuesdays

HORNBROOK, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire raging through drought-stricken timber and brush near California’s border with Oregon killed one person and destroyed multiple structures as it burns largely out of control, authorities said Friday.

No other details were released about the death blamed on the fire that threatened 300 homes near Hornbook, a town of 250 people about 14 miles south of the Oregon border. It’s not clear the flames burned homes or other structures like barns.

It was one of dozens of fires across the dry American West, fueled by rising temperatures and gusty winds that were expected to last through the weekend. Heat spreading from Southern California into parts of Arizona, Nevada and Utah threatened to worsen flames that have forced thousands of people to evacuate and destroyed hundreds of homes across the West.

On the California-Oregon border, the fire ignited Thursday and moved swiftly through the region that is home to many retirees, said Ray Haupt, chairman of the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors.

“It moved so fast I’m not sure how much time lagged between the evacuation and when it hit Hornbrook,” he said. “It hit there pretty quick. We know we’ve lost homes and lots of structures, including livestock and horses as well.”

California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, citing “extreme peril” to people and property.

Farther north in Oregon, authorities urged hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts to avoid forests near the state line. Although the flames have not crossed into Oregon, officials are concerned people in remote areas can’t be reached in case they need to quickly evacuate.

The areas of concern include the Pacific Crest Trail, Mount Ashland and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Fire danger could prohibit rescuers from looking for anyone, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said.

Elsewhere in California, a massive blaze northwest of Sacramento had destroyed nine homes, officials said. Firefighters had begun inspecting the fire zone, which covers an area nearly three times the size of San Francisco.

The fire, spanning 140 square miles, was partially contained, but crews struggled in steep, rugged terrain. With the weather getting hotter and drier, and officials said the fire could grow.

In San Diego County, a fast-moving wildfire burned a handful of homes.

Video from news helicopters showed fire crews running along Interstate 8 in Alpine and trying to quell the flames that were spreading along the side of the freeway as a handful of homes were completely engulfed in flames.

San Diego Gas and Electric says nearly 1,700 customers are without power after the fire damaged the electric system.

In the same county, a new fire on the Camp Pendleton Marine base prompted the evacuation of 750 homes.

In contrast, rain helped slow the growth of wildfires in Colorado that have burned dozens of homes. But the threat of a deluge raised the possibility of flooding at a stubborn blaze in the southwestern corner of the state.

Officials issued a flash flood watch for the 85-square-mile area burned by a fire that started June 1. They say it is just smoldering and rain over the coming days should keep it from spreading.

Rain helped a fire in the heart of ski country that has destroyed three houses, including the home of a volunteer firefighter battling the flames near the resort town of Aspen. Gov. John Hickenlooper visited the area Friday.

It also offered relief in the southern Colorado mountains where a blaze has destroyed over 130 homes and forced the evacuation of at least 2,000 properties. The Spring Creek Fire became the third-largest in state history at 165 square miles.

In a Utah mountain area, a wildfire that destroyed 90 structures and forced more than 1,100 people to flee was growing, but fire officials hoped to gain more control after their work Friday. Many homes and cabins likely burned, while others may be sheds or garages.

The fire spans about 75 square miles near a popular fishing reservoir about 80 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, according to the Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands.

It has forced a 35-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 40 to close since Wednesday, said Sonya Capek, a fire spokeswoman. Officials believe human activity sparked the blaze, but an exact cause hasn’t been determined.

As the 2018 Oregon blueberry harvest season heads toward its peak, all signs point to a record crop and high-quality fruit.

“We should see a pretty big jump this year from a roughly 107 million-pound harvest in 2017 to projections in 2018 of 125, 130 or possibly even beyond 130 million pounds,” said Bryan Ostlund, administrator of the Oregon Blueberry Commission. “This absolutely should be a record crop.”

The current record, harvested in 2016, is 116 million pounds.

The one big factor growers mention when speaking of this year’s blueberry crop is cooperating weather, which has contributed to good quality fruit.

“The mild weather has brought the fruit on slow, which has contributed to good quality fruit, and the dry weather has kept that quality up,” said grower Doug Krahmer of Berries Northwest.

“The cool weather has helped us out quite a bit,” said Jeff Malensky of Oregon Berry Packing in Hillsboro.

Yields, both growers agreed, are well above last year when high summer temperatures hurt yield and quality, and slightly above average.

“We ended up with a short crop in 2017, and usually when you have a short crop, those plants come back in a vigorous way with heavy fruit set, and that is exactly what we have seen this year,” Ostlund said.

“This mild weather also has helped the labor situation, because it gives you a bigger window to get the fruit harvested,” Krahmer said. “I have not heard of any labor-shortage issues.”

“We haven’t been behind in fields,” Malensky said, “in large part because of the cool weather, and also because there is more labor available than folks originally thought.”

Even the price for fresh blueberries has been good to date, growers said, but that could change with British Columbia now coming onto the market. Still, there is some good news on that front in that early projections of a big crop in British Columbia have been scaled back. Current projections out of British Columbia are for an average crop. The bad news, however, as Krahmer put it: “An average crop in B.C. is still a lot of fruit.”

Growers to date have no news on the frozen price for the 2018 crop.

“It is a little early,” Malensky said on July 6. “We are just at the front end of the processed fruit starting to come in, so we will get a better idea in the next 10 days how the processed price is looking.”

Asked to summarize the season to date, Malensky said: “Overall, things are pretty good. Could they be better? Yes. Could they be a lot worse? Yes.”

“At this point in time, I’d say things are looking pretty good,” Krahmer said.

HERMISTON, Ore. — One of Eastern Oregon’s most popular crops is back in season.

Hermiston watermelons are nearing harvest as summer temperatures rise into the 90s and triple-digit degrees. High heat should help to ripen the fruit quickly, and growers anticipate they will begin picking in earnest between July 10 and 15.

“I think we’re pretty much on schedule,” said Patrick Walchli, with Walchli Farms. “Quality-wise, it’s by all indications looking pretty good, as far as the fruit set.”

Hermiston watermelons may be a niche crop in terms of overall acres, with about 750 total, but figure prominently in the city’s identity and civic pride. Driving north into town on Highway 395, the Hermiston logo emblazoned on the water tower features a watermelon backdrop along with the slogan, “Where Life is Sweet.”

It isn’t just the locals who have a sweet tooth for Hermiston melons. Shoppers can find the specially branded fruit in Portland, Seattle and across the West Coast. Some shipments have even gone as far as Texas and Georgia.

The secret lies in the region’s sandy soil and desert climate, which provides a perfect combination of hot, dry days and cool nights. Watermelons absorb heat during the day, which the plants metabolize into sugar for energy. Once they cool at night, the respiration process slows and that sugar is stored in the fruit, hence their exceptionally sweet flavor.

Walchli said this year has been a mostly typical growing season, compared to last year when planting got off to a slow start.

“Last season, we had a colder start and this year we had a more favorable May and end of April,” he said. “It’s hard to predict. Melons are very reactive to the weather, more so than some of the other crops.”

Scott Lukas, assistant professor of horticulture for Oregon State University, recently started a new research program at OSU’s Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center with a partial focus on watermelons. He said growers have reported few issues with disease pressure, and for the most part the vines have been growing well.

“This has been a good season so far,” Lukas said. “I’ve heard the plants are looking good, and they are growing as they should.”

Hired by HAREC in 2016, Lukas has spent the last couple of years studying treatments for soil-borne fusarium and verticillium wilt diseases in watermelons. He plans to expand his program next year to include more irrigation trials using remote sensors to monitor soil moisture and help farmers conserve water.

Precision agriculture and modern technology have led to increased yields which in turn has helped to expand markets for Hermiston watermelons throughout the region, said Chris McNamee, a sales representative for Botsford & Goodfellow.

Based in Clackamas with a field office in Hermiston, Botsford & Goodfellow handles all marketing for Hermiston watermelons. McNamee said watermelon sales have increased every year for the last five years, and the Hermiston brand has become firmly established in major metro areas, including Portland and Seattle.

“They’ve supported us really well,” McNamee said. “It’s allowed us to grow, which is great.”

In 2012, Florida, Georgia, California and Texas accounted for two-thirds of all watermelon production across the country. Though Hermiston may account for just a blip on the national watermelon radar, McNamee said they are undeniably popular in the Northwest.

“They get the sugar right, and they get them picked at the right time,” he said. “It stands out compared to the competition.”

Jack Bellinger, with Bellinger Farms, said he has already cut about a dozen watermelons off the vine and is excited about this year’s quality, which he attributes to a consistent growing season.

“People are getting excited to see them on their plates. And we are excited too,” Bellinger said. “The quality this year I think is going to be really exceptional.”

Feb. 28, 1951 - March 31, 2018

Fridays

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said wherever travels across the country farmers want to know the latest about trade uncertainty, labor and the status of the 2018 Farm Bill.

Tuesday’s stop among the rolling wheat fields of Eastern Oregon was no different.

Perdue arrived at Martin Farms in Rufus, Ore., as part of his “Back to our Roots” tour featuring stops around the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

Flanked by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., he took a brief tour of the farm before arriving back in the shop, where about 50 local farmers and county officials awaited for a meet-and-greet that quickly became an impromptu town hall.

After shaking hands and posing for photographs, Perdue focused his comments first on the administration’s looming trade war with China. Starting July6, the U.S. is set to impose a 25 percent tariff on roughly $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. In turn, China has pledged retaliatory tariffs on 545 American products — especially targeting agriculture.

As one farmer pointed out, cash bids for hard red winter wheat have dropped from around $7 per bushel to $6 per bushel amid the turmoil. Between 85 and 90 percent of Oregon wheat is exported overseas.

“I’m well aware of what percentage of crop here in the Northwest goes overseas,” Perdue said. “We are mindful of that, not only in your wheat crop but in your specialty crops.”

Perdue added that U.S. soybeans have taken a 20 percent hit over the last few weeks. Other farm imports subject to increased Chinese tariffs include everything from fresh fruit to beef and pork.

Perdue said the USDA is working on “some sort of compensatory mitigation strategy” for farmers, but did not offer specifics.

“(Trump) knows that you all are great patriots. He knows that you stand behind him when he calls out China for cheating for years,” Perdue said. “But he also knows the bank is going to need more than patriotism to pay the bills.”

Perdue said he is more optimistic about passing a new Farm Bill before the current package expires Oct. 1. Both the House and Senate have passed their own versions of the bill, and though there are differences between the two, Perdue said he believes they can be resolved.

Sherman County farmers also spoke up for changes in regulations they would like to see, including provisions in the National Organic Program requiring organic farmers to comply with all state and local weed ordinances.

That request stems from an incident last year between Azure Farms, a 2,000-acre organic operation near Moro, Ore., and neighboring wheat farms. Growers had complained for years about weeds blowing into their fields from Azure Farms, prompting the county to intervene.

Alan von Borstel, a wheat farmer near Grass Valley, Ore., and vice president of the Oregon Wheat Growers League, asked Perdue about the USDA Transition Incentives Program, which is designed to help get new farmers started while also taking land out of the Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, and putting it back into production.

The program works by paying retiring farmers or ranchers two more years on their CRP contracts, on the condition they sell or rent the land to a beginning grower — someone who has not been a farm or ranch operator for more than 10 years.

However, the transition cannot be made between direct family members, such as father to son, which von Borstel criticized as being discriminatory.

“They want these guys to succeed, yet they build this kind of wall between family members,” von Borstel said.

Logan Padget, a neighboring Grass Valley wheat farmer and member of the Oregon Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers committee, said he got his start in farming thanks to the Transition Incentives Program, taking on a neighbor’s former CRP ground.

The program is a valuable risk management tool, Padget said, especially since it takes two years for a grower to harvest that first wheat crop in a dryland fallow rotation.

“I’d like to see that same opportunity if it arose with my own family,” Padget said.

For his part, Perdue said he is not convinced the program’s rules are discriminatory, but would be open to further discussions.

Jenny Freeborn, whose family farms in the Mid-Willamette Valley, said she would like to see more of a safety net to accommodate Oregon’s diverse specialty crops.

“How you do that, I don’t know,” said Freeborn, chairwoman of the Oregon Young Farmers & Ranchers. “But I do know, as a member of a family farm, I’ve barely followed the Farm Bill at times because it’s not going to have an impact on our farm.”

Perdue said it is his job to make sure these ideas and concerns are heard back in Washington, D.C.

“I’m not (Henry) Kissinger, but I want to be an unapologetic advocate for American agriculture, farmers and ranchers to the president’s administration,” he said.

Later on Tuesday, Perdue visited the site of the Eagle Creek fire in the Columbia River Gorge with Walden, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and local officials. His tour wraps up Thursday in Alaska with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

LANGLOIS - The South Coast Striders invite the public on a hike to Blacklock Point from Floras Lake on Sunday, July 8.

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — An evaluation of nuclear waste storage tanks at the Hanford site in eastern Washington state indicates more of the newest tanks could be at risk of developing leaks.

The Tri-City Herald reports tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions compared the chemistry of the waste inside the site’s oldest double-shell tank to the newer tanks.

According to the Washington Department of Ecology, the evaluation findings suggest building more tanks to hold the 56 million gallons of waste may be required.

U.S. Department of Energy officials say the findings do not mean the tanks are leaking or will leak, but steps are being taken to prevent deterioration.

The oldest double-shell tank was taken out of service after waste leaked over time in between the two shells.

Oregon regulators will allow farmworkers and their families to take shelter indoors from drifting pesticides under controversial rules adopted Monday by the state Occupational Health and Safety Administration, or Oregon OSHA.

The new rules are part of an effort to clarify “Application Exclusion Zones” introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency in its 2015 update of the federal Agricultural Worker Protection Standard.

The zones — or AEZs — require farms and orchards to evacuate workers within 100 feet of where trucks or planes are spraying pesticides, returning only after the equipment has passed. Farmers, however, quickly realized that the law did not address farmworker housing that may be within the AEZ.

The issue is especially problematic for fruit growers in the Columbia River Gorge, who often spray their orchards in the early morning when there is no wind. They argued the AEZ rules would force them to rouse workers from their sleep and remove them from their homes when it would be safer to let them remain indoors.

Oregon OSHA ultimately agreed, and provided for a shelter-in-place compliance alternative so long as doors, windows and air intakes are closed during spraying and the chemical does not require use of a respirator on its label.

“If it’s a structure that can be closed, and given that we’re talking about off-target drift that shouldn’t be occurring in the first place, there is an added level of protection allowing people to shelter in place,” said Michael Wood, Oregon OSHA administrator.

For chemicals that do require the use of a respirator, the rules become much more strict, with the AEZ expanding to 150 feet and removing the shelter-in-place option. That exceeds the normal 100-foot requirement under the EPA guideline.

Pesticide drift is already illegal in Oregon, though it does sometimes occur. The Oregon Department of Agriculture investigated 172 complaints of chemical drift resulting in 38 violations in 2016, and 82 cases resulting in 10 violations in 2017.

Putting the new rules into action means farmworkers and their families will be better protected in Oregon than they are in the vast majority of the country, Wood said. The rules take effect Jan. 1, 2019.

The rules, however, were sharply criticized by both grower groups, who claim the protections go too far, and farmworker advocates, who claim they do not go far enough.

Mike Doke, executive director of the Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers Association, said members are pleased to see a shelter-in-place option for the 100-foot AEZ, but added a 150-foot AEZ for pesticides that require use of a respirator is not backed by scientific evidence.

“We just have to come in and adhere to a whim because somebody thought it was a good idea,” Doke said.

Approximately two-thirds of Oregon’s 314 registered labor camps are in Wasco and Hood River counties, home to most of the state’s pear and cherry orchards. Doke said growers do not heavily use chemicals that require a respirator, but that could change as the industry faces challenges from new emerging pests, such as the brown marmorated stink bug.

In the end, the AEZ rules may force some growers to remove housing or blocks of trees, resulting in lost jobs and production, Doke said. The hardest hit may be small growers, who may be forced to sell to larger companies, he added.

“It’s another cost they can’t incur,” Doke said.

Adam McCarthy, co-owner of Trout Creek Farm Management in Parkdale, Ore., grows pears, apples and cherries for the fresh market on roughly 250 acres south of Hood River. He said they spray pesticides that require a respirator two or three times a year, which will now require him to evacuate as many as 10 housing units around the orchards.

“Now you’re going to have this process where there’s going to be a need for them to leave their living quarters and go somewhere where Oregon OSHA has not defined. ... I think that puts more risk into the equation,” McCarthy said.

Lisa Arkin, executive director of the group Beyond Toxics based in Eugene, Ore., said her organization advocated tougher pesticide rules, including a no-spray buffer to protect labor camps.

House Bill 3549, which passed the Oregon Legislature in 2015, already requires that forest managers conducting aerial sprays cannot come within 60 feet of homes or schools. Arkin said the same standard should apply to agriculture when spraying around farmworker housing.

“The fact that Oregon OSHA has denied even this very modest no-spray buffer for farmworkers and their homes appears to me to be differential treatment for farmworkers,” she said.

Ramon Ramirez, president of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste — the largest Latino union in Oregon — agreed the pesticide protections do not go far enough to protect farmworkers.

“The fact of the matter is that labor camps in the Willamette Valley are in really bad shape, and also in Jackson County and in different places,” Ramirez said. “It is important that farmworkers be protected.”

Ramirez said the union is evaluating its next steps, and may consider legal action. He said the average life expectancy of farmworkers is just 49, compared to 78 for the rest of the country, and workers are also at higher risk for cancer and miscarriages.

“We think farmworkers are being shortchanged on their lives to put food on the table,” Ramirez said.

LANGLOIS - The South Coast Striders invite the public on a hike to Blacklock Point from Floras Lake on Sunday, July 8.

GUINDA, Calif. (AP) — A massive wildfire in rural Northern California has exploded in size and forced evacuations in hot, dry weather that is sweeping through several Western states where blazes are threatening thousands of homes.

The fast-moving fire that started over the weekend northwest of Sacramento grew dramatically to about 70 square miles by Monday, largely burning out of control in rugged terrain with a few cattle and horse ranches and sending smoke and ash as far south as San Francisco.

The fire that started Saturday about 100 miles northeast of San Francisco spread as strong winds pushed smoke south, dusting cars and homes with a thin layer of gray ash. About 300 people were told to flee their homes, and more than 100 buildings were threatened. No injuries were reported.

The flames were chewing through 1.5 square miles of rugged terrain an hour, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Gabe Lauderbale said.

“This fire is absolutely, extremely fast-moving,” he said.

Slightly cooler temperatures were forecast later Monday but gusty winds that could spread the blaze also were expected, Lauderbale said.

The hot, windy conditions fueling the fire and others across the West were expected to persist through the end of July in Utah and parts of California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, U.S. fire officials said. The Southwest, which has been struggling with drought, should get enough rain in early July to reduce the risk of major blazes in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, the National Interagency Fire Center said Sunday.

In Colorado, more than 2,500 homes were under evacuation orders as firefighters battled more than a half-dozen wildfires. Most of the evacuations were tied to a 78-square-mile wildfire in southern Colorado that led to the arrest of a Danish man on arson charges.

Jesper Joergensen, 52, initially said he had started a fire to burn trash but then said he had been grilling in a permanent fire pit the day before the blaze began, according to a court document.

Joergensen, who reported the wildfire, said it started about 20 feet away from the fire pit Wednesday and he tried to put it out, an arrest affidavit said. It says about 25 buildings had been destroyed as of Thursday, when he was arrested. Authorities have not released other details on damage.

Joergensen has been living in the country illegally, the document says, and federal immigration officials have requested that they be allowed to take custody of him if he’s released from jail.

It’s not clear if he has a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

People have fled about 570 homes near a 2-square-mile fire that started Friday west of Colorado Springs. About 360 children at a camp also had to be evacuated by the Chateau Fire.

In neighboring Wyoming, about 150 firefighters tried to contain a wildfire burning in the Medicine Bow National Forest near the Colorado border. It has burned about 33 square miles since June 10. The fire is about 80 percent contained but flared up in the last week, prompting authorities to advise some residents to prepare to evacuate.

A wildfire burning in hot and dry conditions in Utah has forced the evacuation of about seven to 10 seasonal cabins near a popular fishing reservoir. The homes that are threatened about 80 miles southeast of Salt Lake City are not primary residences.

The fire has scorched about 10 square miles near Strawberry Reservoir and officials believe it is human-caused but are investigating, said Jason Curry of the Utah Division of Forest, Fire and State Lands.

Tuesdays

After four months of meetings, the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Commission has come up with a budget request for state lawmakers to fund grants for farmland conservation, preservation and easements.

The 12-member commission was appointed in January to write administrative rules for the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program, established in House Bill 3249 which passed the Legislature in July 2017.

Commissioners are recommending $10 million to run the program, administered by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. The program initially sought $4.25 million, though at the time legislators did not allocate any funding.

OWEB is now seeking public comment on the proposal, with a pair of public meetings scheduled July 16 in Salem and July 17 in Burns.

Nellie McAdams, program coordinator, said the bulk of the money would go toward grants to help Oregon farmers and ranchers develop conservation plans for their property, establish conservation easements or move forward with succession planning to ensure the land remains in agricultural production.

Conserving farmland is essential, McAdams said, not only for the economy and rural communities, but for the environment as well.

“The commission has taken great efforts to integrate both conservation and agricultural outcomes and goals for each of the grant programs,” McAdams said. “This program goes a long way toward ensuring the land can be kept in farming, and can also be a contributor to the ecosystem and conservation values.”

Roughly one-quarter of all land in Oregon — 16.3 million acres — is currently in agricultural production. Over the next 20 years, 10.5 million of those acres will change ownership as the average age of farmers across the state rose to 60 in 2012.

Despite this trend, researchers estimate that most Oregon farms and ranches do not have a succession plan in place, and 84 percent are sole proprietorships. That leaves them vulnerable to being bought and converted to non-farm uses, such as subdivisions, vacation homes and industrial development.

In turn, McAdams said environmental goals become harder to achieve without having larger blocks of open space kept in agricultural production.

“The commission has discussed at great lengths how preventing fragmentation and preventing non-farm uses on farmland can lead to conservation outcomes,” McAdams said.

The Agricultural Heritage Program is intended to complement Oregon’s existing land use planning laws. McAdams said Oregon has lost 500,000 acres from agricultural production and 65,500 acres from Exclusive Farm Use zoning even since the state land use program was adopted in 1974.

Members of the Agricultural Heritage Commission represent a range of interests, from farm production to natural resources and wildlife. The group met seven times since Feb. 1 to write rules for the program, most recently on June 25 at Cascade Locks.

Public hearings are scheduled for 1-4 p.m. July 16 at the Department of State Lands building in Salem, and 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. July 17 at the Harney County Community Center in Burns.

Meta Loftsgaarden, OWEB executive director, said she was impressed at how much the commission was able to accomplish in a short period of time.

“I am floored by the amount of work they got done around the rules,” Loftsgaarden said. “We were really privileged to be working with that group.”

SALEM — Oregon energy regulators recently got a preview of some controversies likely to arise over regulating multiple solar arrays as one large facility.

The potential regulations will be debated by a “rulemaking advisory committee,” or RAC, that was approved by Oregon’s Energy Facility Siting Council at its June 29 meeting in Salem, Ore.

When solar projects take up more than 100 acres of farmland or 320 acres of other land, they come under the EFSC’s jurisdiction and are analyzed for noise and environmental impacts, among other factors.

Solar energy on farmland has increasingly become controversial in Oregon as farm and conservation advocates oppose projects they argue will disrupt agricultural productivity.

The RAC will consider whether several solar projects “functionally aggregate” to have the same impact as a larger facility — for example, several arrays in close proximity that are each smaller than 100 acres but together surpass that threshold.

The committee will also decide whether the possibility of such “aggregate” solar facilities would justify new regulations to avoid projects from being broken up into smaller components to avoid EFSC’s current jurisdiction.

One potentially thorny consequence of new rules would be EFSC taking control of projects that would otherwise fall under local government authority.

Counties are more familiar with the local landscape than EFSC officials in Salem and can make decisions more efficiently than that regulatory body, said Don Russell, chairman of Morrow County’s board of commissioners.

“We would be an advocate for having as much of this done at the local level as possible,” he said.

In Central Oregon, there’s a perception that solar projects will get done faster and in a “business-friendly” manner if they don’t fall under EFSC’s jurisdiction, said Betty Roppe, a council member and mayor of Prineville, Ore.

“We want those things to proceed because we desperately need the electricity,” Roppe said.

Another problem raised at the meeting was unfairness to landowners when one solar facility is developed after another — the first project may not come under EFSC’s purview, but the second one on a neighboring property might.

The council was also urged not to discourage the “co-location” of solar projects that can rely on existing transmission facilities, thus preventing the fragmentation of wildlife habitat.

The scope of the RAC’s mission should be narrow and well-defined, said Rikki Seguin, policy director for Renewable Northwest, a nonprofit that supports renewable energy.

Demand for solar energy is rising but the potential for new regulation can create uncertainty in the market, Seguin said. “The industry doesn’t have time for another rulemaking that takes years.”

Due to the controversial nature of the rulemaking, the RAC was proposed to have about 25 members representing a variety of interests.

While some councilors and attendees called for additional representatives to be added, the large number of members raised concerns about the committee becoming unmanageable.

“I can’t imagine getting anything scheduled with this many people,” said Marcy Grail, a council member and employee of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Ultimately, though, the council voted unanimously to approve the formation of the RAC with 25 members, with the understanding that staff from the Oregon Department of Energy may expand or contract its size.

Brian Charlton has been named interim director at the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center in Klamath Falls, Ore.

A longtime station agronomist and potato researcher is taking the reigns at Oregon State University’s Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center in Klamath Falls, Ore.

Brian Charlton has been named interim director at KBREC, effective July 1. He replaces Willie Riggs, who was appointed regional director for OSU Extension Service’s newly configured southern region.

The move comes as OSU Extension tightens its belt from 10 regions across the state to six. The redesigned southern region includes Klamath, Lake, Douglas, Jackson and Josephine counties.

Riggs previously served as the regional administrator for Klamath, Lake and Harney counties, in addition to his role as KBREC director. With the transition, Riggs steps out of day-to-day management at KBREC, though he said he will continue to work closely with the Charlton.

“We’ll continue our strong relationship there,” Riggs said.

Charlton has spent his entire 24-year career at OSU. He started as a student employee at KBREC while earning his bachelor’s degree in crop and soil science, and has gone on to hold a number of positions at the station, including associate professor, instructor and senior faculty research assistant.

Since 2014, Charlton has served as the Klamath Basin Potato Faculty Scholar, focused on developing new potato varieties for Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Charlton said he is excited to take on a new role while maintaining his research program.

“I’d assume there aren’t too many Oregon agricultural experiment station directors who stated at their respective centers as a student employee, returned as a research assistant and were hired as project leader, then appointed director,” Charlton said. “I’ll be able to bring a unique understanding of branch station operation from top to bottom.”

Riggs led KBREC for 11 years, starting in 2007. As regional director for OSU Extension, he will continue to be based out of Klamath Falls while providing leadership, administration and budget oversight over five counties.

OSU Extension programs include 4-H, SNAP-Ed, farm and horticulture research. Between research and extension, the station has 18 full-time staff and faculty plus two summer interns.

“I enjoyed my time as KBREC director,” Riggs said. “The center has a full complement of faculty and staff that work diligently to meet the needs of our communities.”

OSU Extension is reducing the number of administrative regions statewide in part due to budget cuts, with the organization’s administrative services budget being reduced $1.05 million by 2020.

Other regions include:

• Coast (Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook, Lincoln, Coos and Curry counties).

• Metro Area (Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties).

• West Central (Yamhill, Polk, Benton, Marion, Line and Lane counties).

• Central (Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam, Morrow, Jefferson, Deschutes, Wheeler and Crook counties).

• East (Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney counties).

Different timelines are in place to hire administrators for each region.

The partnership between the farmers and the alkali bees was born out of necessity, with a healthy dose of luck.

Walla Walla County might just be the only place on Earth where you have to brake for bees.

“You can see the signs here,” says Mike Ingham, as he drives by a 20-mile-per-hour speed limit sign with a smaller sign below stating “Alkali Bee Area.” “There’s actually a county ordinance to slow the cars down who go by here, because a speeding car can kill a lot of alkali bees.”

Mike Ingham is a third-generation alfalfa seed farmer outside Touchet, Washington. His family is one of about a dozen in the Walla Walla Valley who are responsible for producing a quarter of the country’s alfalfa seed. That’s a quarter of what’s grown into one of America’s biggest crops — one that feeds cows and livestock the world over. That might sound staggering, but they don’t do it alone: they have millions of tiny, native helpers, thanks to one of the most unique agricultural partnerships in the country.

“This is a really new bee bed, and it is really taking off,” Ingham says, as he drives alongside what initially looks like a barren hillside of parched earth, surrounded by lush, flowering alfalfa fields. But a closer look reveals it’s not barren at all: it’s the bee equivalent of high-density condos. Bees are crawling in and out of thousands of tiny holes.

“If you look up over the horizon there, you can see there’s just a fog of bees,” he says, pointing to the top of the hill. “Nowhere else in the world will you see this.”

The partnership between the farmers and the alkali bees was born out of necessity, with a healthy dose of luck. After the spring snow melt runs out, this stretch of arid land straddling the Washington/Oregon state line gets basically no water through the summer. As a consequence, most in the area, 22,504 acres to be exact, grows alfalfa seed, rotated out with some wheat, because neither requires summer water. The seed is then sold to other farmers to plant as alfalfa hay to the tune of $42 million, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

When American farmers need pollinators, most ship in European honey bees. But honey bees are total cheats when it comes to pollinating alfalfa’s purple blossoms. They hate the way the stamen bops them on the head when they trip the flower, so they sneak in from the side and steal the nectar without pollinating in return.

Alfalfa seed farmers elsewhere buy alfalfa leafcutter bees from Canada instead, which happily trip the flowers but can get quite expensive. But even they are no match for the native alkali bees, with their mesmerizing iridescent stripes, who range 3-to-5 miles per trip and pollinate alfalfa blossoms like evolutionary professionals.

“What we can boast is that these alfalfa seed growers here have yields on a per-acre basis 50 percent greater than anywhere else that alfalfa seed’s produced in the western United States,” says Doug Walsh, an entomologist at Washington State University who works closely with the region’s farmers. “It’s just a beautiful system. It’s neat that we figured out how to make it work.”

One of Marsh’s predecessors first noticed alkali bees’ talent for pollinating alfalfa in the 1950s and began working with farmers to commercialize it. Like many native bees, alkali bees nest in the ground, preferring salty, moist soil. So some farmers started with ditches at the top of salty slopes, so the water would seep down. Others tried trenches full of rocks, soil, straw and water. In recent years, they’ve refined a system of pumps and perforated PVC pipes that run under the ground, which they then cover with tons of table salt.

“We learn what works and what doesn’t work,” says Ingham’s son, Patrick. “We’re such a minority of farmers that do this thing that we’re all left to work together to make it better.”

For the Inghams and their neighbors, cultivating the bee beds has become a way of life handed down and improved on through generations. Tim Wagoner says one of the first jobs his dad gave him when he was little was scaring birds away.

“When the bees come out of the ground, the bees are all wet and they can’t fly, and they got to sit out here like a little salamander on a rock trying to get warm, and the starlings will come in and gobble them up,” he says. “Ever since I was a kid, you’re always excited to come see the bees, and watch them progress and work on the bee beds and expand and do different things.”

So while farmers throughout the West have plowed up the ground where alkali bees nest for crops or inadvertently eradicated them with insecticides, the farmers here have expanded their beds over the decades, at a cost of thousands per acre, and now house a steady population of 18 million bees.

Which isn’t to say it’s always been sunshine and alfalfa blossoms. There have been die-offs in the past due to heavy rains and pesticide use. But with the help of Walsh, who tests for the least toxic pesticides, the region’s farmers have developed a successful integrated pest management program over the past 10 years that involves only spraying when the harmful insects outnumber the beneficial ones by a certain ratio. And they spray only at night when the bees are asleep in their holes. Walsh is also developing remote sensors in the beds to better predict when the bees will first emerge each spring, so farmer’s can alter their spraying to bee-friendly practices over the roughly six weeks the bees are active.

“I sprayed this field a week ago with insecticide, and look, there’s millions of bees right here,” says Wagoner, pointing to the cloud swirling around him. “I think it’s a great opportunity to explain to the people that are anti-pesticide that we are friends of the fuzzies, because we love these bees, and we don’t want to hurt them.”