Farmers who won a lawsuit invalidating a ban of genetically engineered crops in Oregon’s Josephine County are now seeking $29,000 in attorney fees from the ordinance’s supporters.

A state judge struck down the county’s prohibition in May, holding that Oregon law pre-empts local governments from restricting biotech seeds.

Voters in Josephine County approved the ordinance in 2014, which was challenged last year by Robert and Shelley Ann White, who wanted to grow genetically modified sugar beets.

While the county government took a neutral position in the litigation, supporters of the ordinance — Oregonians for Safe Farms and Families, a nonprofit, and Siskiyou Seeds, an organic farm — intervened in the case to defend the ban on genetically modified organisms.

The intervenors claimed that the Whites lacked standing to file the lawsuit because they were “hobby farmers” who didn’t have a financial stake in growing GMOs.

Supporters of the ordinance also argued that Oregon’s pre-emption law was unconstitutional because lawmakers created a “regulatory void” by disallowing local rules for GMO crops without imposing their own regulatory scheme.

Josephine County Circuit Judge Pat Wolke rejected those arguments and overturned the GMO prohibition, finding that the conflict between state law and the local ordinance “could not be more clear.”

The plaintiffs’ attorneys are now seeking $29,200 from the intervenors, but not the county, because several of their legal claims “had no objectively reasonable basis.”

For example, the intervenors cited no legal precedents from Oregon to support their argument that the pre-emption statute was unconstitutional and instead pointed to a ruling from Ohio, the petition said.

Though the amount represents less than 20 percent of the plaintiffs’ legal costs, they’re seeking the award in part to deter similar arguments in a future case, according to the petition for attorney fees.

“An award of fees in this case will discourage those similarly situated to abandon meritless claims and to concentrate on those issues which they might impact in a responsible way,” the petition said.

Mary Middleton, executive director of OSFF, said it “would very negatively impact us to pay attorney fees for the other side,” but her attorneys don’t think such an order would have legal precedent.

The group is still deciding whether to appeal Wolke’s ruling but doesn’t think it will impede others from seeking GMO-free zones.

“The movement is growing across the country,” she said.

As for the petition for attorney fees, Middleton said it’s likely an attempt by biotech developers to thwart such efforts.

“I can only speculate, but the way it looks on the surface is they’re trying to scare counties and scare people who object to their agenda,” she said.

SISTERS, Ore. (AP) — Officials on Sunday lifted all evacuation notices for residents in about 900 homes near wildfire burning in central Oregon.

The Oregon Department of Forestry says the fire has scorched nearly 2,100 acres, or about 3 square miles, and was about 72 percent contained as of Sunday morning. No structures have been lost.

Residents throughout Oregon are being told to prepare for the fire season by being ready to go in case of an evacuation. Fire officials urge residents to get ready by assembling emergency supplies, planning escape route and taking other measures.

The cost of fighting that fire has hit about $2.3 million.

More than 600 personnel and five helicopters have assigned to the fire, which was ignited by lightning Tuesday.

Lava Beds National Monument could soon be recognized as one of America’s “best of the best.”

On June 22, Discover Klamath Executive Director Jim Chadderdon and other stakeholders will meet with California Sen. Barbara Boxer to ask her to support designating Lava Beds as a national park.

According to Chadderdon, a national park can come into existence in one of two ways: by presidential proclamation or by an act of Congress.

He said partners along the Oregon-California Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway will ask Boxer to draft a bill upgrading Lava Beds classification in the park system.

The Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway is 500-mile stretch of highway that runs between Crater Lake National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park in California.

Chadderdon said he and stakeholders who belong to the Volcanic Legacy Community Partnership — a nonprofit group that advocates for and markets the volcanic byway — believe the new designation could boost tourism in Southern Oregon and Northern California.

“People want to see the best of the best so national parks get a lot of exposure and a lot of visitation,” Chadderdon said. “Our national park system is the envy of the globe.”

Chadderdon noted that out of hundreds of scenic byways in the U.S., only 31 — including the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway — are designated as an “All-American Road,” meaning it is one of the nation’s most scenic routes.

Chadderdon said about 80 percent of the economic impact from Lava Beds’ tourism accrues to Klamath Falls. He noted that Lava Beds gets about 140,000 visitors per year. Crater Lake gets about 600,000 visitors per year, he said.

“We’ve always marketed this as a ‘two-fer’ — go one day to Crater Lake and one day down to Lava Beds,” he said.

Chadderdon estimated the new designation could increase Lava Beds visitation by at least 15 percent, and boost Klamath Falls’ tourism economy “substantially and sustainably.”

He said Klamath Falls tourism economy generates about $150 million per year. With a new national park in the area, that amount could increase by 5 percent.

Chadderdon said it would not cost the National Park Service if Lava Beds’ classification was upgraded.

“Really, the only cost is that they have to change the signs,” he said.

The 46,000-acre Lava Beds monument was established in 1925. Chadderdon noted that Lava Beds 700-plus caves and lava tubes and history associated with the Modoc War make the monument a good fit for national park.

“The questions is, ‘Is it worthy of being a national park?’ “ Chadderdon said. “I’ve had a few people tell me it’s not, and I’ve had more than that tell me it is. My own judgment tells me it probably is.”

Jan. 10, 1933 — June 2, 2016

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Firefighters trying to put out an early-season wildfire in central Oregon were assisted by rain showers and low winds on Thursday, and a plane used in the battle blew a tire while landing, causing the regional airport to temporarily close.

Disruptions at the Redmond airport were minimal while the plane was removed from the runway, said airport operations manager Winton Platt. He said no one was injured in the incident.

Airtankers were being used to drop fire retardant to prevent afternoon winds from pushing the flames past containment lines toward homes on the north end of the 1,930-acre fire, the Oregon Department of Forestry said on its Facebook page. Light rain produced higher humidity and favorable conditions for firefighters, who were using bulldozers and hand tools to fight the so-called Akawana fire north of Sisters and near Lake Billy Chinook, the department said.

Authorities said Thursday evening the blaze was 44 percent contained two days after it started.

About 900 homes are still considered threatened and residents must be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice, the forestry department said.

“The winds here have subsided quite a bit,” department spokesman Tom Fields said Thursday morning over the phone from a staging area in Sisters. “Yesterday, winds were greater than 20 miles per hour.”

Some 550 firefighters and support staff were working on the fire, backed by helicopters dropping water on the flames, forestry officials said.

On Friday, crews expect to mop up hot spots from containment lines into the interior and strengthen lines on the northeast corner of the fire.

Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday authorized firefighters and equipment from around Oregon to fight the wildfire.

Fields said that because of cooler conditions and the snowpack, the 2016 fire season had been expected to start later.

“This is the first major fire of the season,” Fields said. “It is much earlier than expected.”

Lightning sparked the blaze Tuesday and it was spread by strong winds. Downed trees, some killed by beetles, added fuel to the fire.

The Department of Environmental Quality urged residents in central and southern Oregon to limit their exposure to smoke by keeping windows and doors closed.

The USDA is heading a trade mission to promote U.S. farm goods in a couple of unlikely locations: Ukraine and Romania.

The Eastern European countries rank 86th and 82nd, respectively, as destinations for exports of agricultural and related products from the U.S.

Last year, the U.S. shipped $75 million of farm goods to Ukraine and $81 million to Romania — collectively less than 1 percent of the amount purchased by Canada, the top U.S. trade partner.

However, the two nations have gained in geopolitical importance due to tensions with nearby Russia.

While the military conflict in Ukraine has been highly prominent, Romania has also drawn the ire of Russia over a U.S. missile defense system within its borders.

The trade delegation, scheduled for June 13-17, is led by USDA Acting Deputy Secretary Michael Scuse and joined by several representatives of state governments, companies and organizations, including Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Though Oregon doesn’t currently ship many farm goods to Ukraine or Romania, Coba said the trade mission is an opportunity to explore those markets and show U.S. support for the two nations in light of their problems with Russia.

The trade mission will include meetings with government officials from the host countries and U.S. embassies, as well as tours of facilities owned by multinational agribusiness firms ADM and Bunge.

Coba said she hopes to learn about the state of each country’s middle class, which represents a potential market for Oregon’s high-value farm products.

The value of U.S. farm exports to Ukraine has plummeted from its most recent high of $321 million in 2013 to last year’s level of $75 million, according to USDA data.

Fish products and planting seeds are among the major U.S. commodities shipped to Ukraine, though they’ve decreased along with total exports in recent years.

Oregon would benefit from the demand for these products, so it will be useful to learn whether the drop-off was caused by tariffs, political turbulence or other barriers, Coba said.

Pork, poultry and eggs have also been among the top farm exports to Ukraine.

Exports to Romania have fluctuated widely over the past decade, between $47 million and $96 million, with shipments increasing nearly 60 percent over the prior year to $81 million in 2015.

Soybeans, tobacco, planting seeds and distilled spirits are among the most prominent ag-related exports to that country.

The U.S. had a trade deficit in agricultural goods with both countries in 2015, importing about $158 million from Ukraine and $154 million from Romania.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Firefighters backed by aircraft dropping fire retardant have a wildfire in central Oregon 30 percent contained.

The Oregon Department of Forestry says about 900 homes are still considered threatened and residents must be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. As of Thursday morning, the size of the Akawana fire north of Sisters and near Lake Billy Chinook was 1,930 acres.

The fire was caused on Tuesday by a lightning strike and was spread by strong winds. Downed trees, some felled by beetles, added fuel to the fire.

The Central Oregon Fire Management Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Jefferson and Deschutes County Emergency Management agencies are involved.

Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday authorized firefighters and equipment from around Oregon to fight the wildfire.

As Oregon’s berry season unfolds, breeder’s work is worth savoring

By Eric Mortenson

Capital Press

FOREST GROVE, Ore. — Jim Love can’t help but admire the Marion blackberries now gaining color at Love Farms, which he owns with his brother, John. They planted this particular block in 1965 with their father, and it’s the oldest remaining block among the 75 acres of Marions they tend and harvest.

Their dad, Melvin “Peck” Love, actually started the farm’s transition to Marions in 1961 after visiting a neighbor who was growing a relatively new variety released by the USDA berry breeder stationed in Corvallis. “That thing is a really good berry,” Peck Love announced when he returned. “I think we’re going to plant some.”

All these years later and Marion blackberries — also known as Marionberries — keep coming on: Good-sized, juicy, deep purple to intense black and better tasting than any other blackberry, before or since. A marketing campaign once described them as the “Cabernet of blackberries.”

New varieties, thornless and more cold-hardy, may eventually surpass Marions, Jim Love said, but he suspects they will always retain a market niche among growers and consumers.

“George Waldo did a good job when he developed these originally,” Love said. “Hoods were the same way. Golly, that was our main berry for a long time.”

It is those two iconic varieties — Marion blackberries and Hood strawberries — that established Oregon as a premier berry state, today ranking first nationally in blackberry production, third in raspberries and strawberries and fourth in blueberries and cranberries.

And as the state harvests its array of berries this summer — crops with an annual farmgate value approaching $200 million — it can give a tip of the field cap to that berry breeder, George Fordyce Waldo, a quiet man who worked with the straight-laced fervor of a berry evangelist.

In a 33-year career with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Corvallis, working in partnership with horticulturists at Oregon State University, Waldo bred and introduced the state’s best known, even beloved, berry varieties.

In 1943 he released the Willamette raspberry, which was widely planted for 50 years. He crossed strawberry selections OSC 2315 and Puget Beauty to produce Hoods, which were released in 1965 and retain something of a cult following among consumers for their color and outstanding flavor.

Marions were destined to be his most enduring, commercially successful work. Drawing in part from the invasive Himalaya blackberry that takes over rural hillsides and empty city lots, Waldo developed the trailing blackberry cultivars Chehalem and Olallie and crossed them in 1945 to produce what was first called OSC 928. He released it as Marion in 1956, naming it for the county where most of the test plantings had occurred.

Marions, which like other trailing blackberries are grown on a trellis system, rapidly replaced Evergreens, an upright variety that couldn’t compete with Marion’s flavor. Trailing blackberries also have smaller seeds, which don’t have to be removed during processing, and are more aromatic than erect blackberries.

At its height of popularity, Marions made up half of Oregon’s blackberry acreage. In 2014, Marions alone accounted for $19 million in farmgate value.

Chad Finn, a USDA-ARS research geneticist who now holds Waldo’s berry breeder position in Corvallis, said much of Waldo’s work was “classical plant breeding,” which is “always a combination of art and science.”

Waldo understood the inheritance of plant traits, and had to be able to recognize which berry selections would make good parents, Finn said. He said Waldo’s work in developing trailing blackberries may be overlooked.

“One of the things that I think is lost, really, is that he created a whole crop that never existed before,” Finn said. “That’s remarkable. We would be dead in the water without him or somebody like him.”

George Waldo probably wouldn’t have described himself that way. Finn, the USDA breeder now on station in Corvallis, has studied the work of his predecessors and said Waldo strikes him as a reserved man who didn’t seek the limelight.

Jim Love, the Forest Grove berry grower, said he occasionally saw Waldo in the halls at Oregon State University when Love, now 73, was a student there in the 1960s. Waldo appeared quiet and business-like, Love said.

Waldo was a longtime member of the Corvallis First Baptist Church, and of Gideons International, the group that leaves Bibles in motel rooms. According to one story, when Waldo and associates would tour growers’ fields and stop for lunch, Waldo wouldn’t eat at a place that served beer.

Waldo was born Dec. 2, 1898, in North Dakota, and moved with his family to Oregon in 1913. He graduated from what was then Oregon Agricultural College in 1922 and earned a master’s degree in science from Michigan State University in 1926.

He was hired by USDA and in 1932 was able to return to Corvallis to work in “small fruit investigations” at the experiment station, a partnership of USDA-ARS and Oregon State.

That formal partnership — coupling innovative USDA berry breeders with university horticulturists — is the only one of its kind in the world, said Bernadine Strik, OSU Extension berry crops professor and the berry research program leader at OSU’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora.

The partnership is more than 100 years old and is funded by USDA and OSU, which jointly release new berries, Strik said.

“That facilitates adoption of cultivars of commercial significance in the Pacific Northwest,” she said.

“A lot of the berry crops grown here were bred for this region by this program,” Strik said. “Growers are fortunate to have a public breeding program that is so productive.”

Elsewhere, much of the berry breeding work is done by private companies, she said, and the genetic material is not available to the public or to growers who are not contractually obligated to the company.

The partnership has continuity. Strik has been at OSU since 1987; Finn arrived at USDA-ARS in 1992. Finn decides which selections to cross, and has final say on releases. All the advanced berry trials are managed by Strik at North Willamette.

“My number one goal is to help growers produce sustainable yields of high-quality crops,” Strik said. “In a global market, that’s what you need to be able to do.”

It’s a testament to George Waldo that his best work still grows in Oregon’s berry fields, even though change is afoot.

Hood strawberries sell fast at roadside stands and are in demand from ice cream processors. But the variety most commonly planted the past six to eight years is Tillamook, developed by Chad Finn.

Marion blackberry acreage is in slow decline, dipping from 4,500 acres in 2006 to 3,100 acres in 2015. Processors, worried about liability lawsuits, have fretted for years about the Marion’s fierce thorns getting into jams or pies. Growers wish Marions were more cold-hardy; Jim Love said he “didn’t pick a berry” three times in the past due to cane-killing freezes.

Many are planting new thornless trailing blackberries: Black Diamond and Columbia Star, both released by Finn. Love has some of both, and thinks Columbia Star will be a good one, even if the flavor doesn’t quite match the Marion’s.

“Marions are becoming less (prominent), surpassed by cultivars bred by Chad,” said Strik, the OSU berry crops professor. “That’s what you hope happens; you move forward.

“Oregon continues to be known as the premier blackberry growing region in the world,” she said. “It’s a fact.”

After Waldo retired, he moved to Marysville, Wash., which was nicknamed the “Strawberry City.”

In 1970, the American Pomological Society awarded Waldo its Wilder Medal, given to those who have rendered outstanding service to horticulture.

“Special consideration is given,” the society’s website says, “to work relating to the origination and introduction of meritorious varieties of fruit.”

Waldo died Dec. 22, 1985, a Sunday. He was 87. The family asked that memorials be made to his Corvallis church and to Gideons International, for its evangelical work.

Eastern Oregon wheat fields are already turning shades of amber in the wake of unusually warm weather that kicked off the month of June.

Temperatures in Pendleton reached 96 degrees on Sunday and 100 degrees on Monday, which has the crop maturing about two weeks ahead of schedule. But Mike Flowers, extension cereal specialist for Oregon State University, said there’s still time before harvest and the next few weeks could go a long way toward making or breaking this year’s production.

“This is a critical period,” Flowers said. “If we get cooler temperatures, I think we’ll end up much better than we did last year.”

So far, the forecast looks promising. Marilyn Lohmann, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Pendleton, said a low pressure system has moved in for the weekend, which should push temperatures back down into the 60s and 70s through the end of next week.

Lohmann said the system could also bring rain, though how much is still to be determined.

“It looks like everybody should get something,” Lohmann said.

Every drop of water counts for dryland farmers in June. Flowers said this is what’s known as the grain-fill period for wheat, when plants divert moisture and nutrients to make plump, healthy kernels. Without precipitation, the grain becomes pinched, resulting in a lower test weight and overall yield.

“We need to have moisture during that grain-fill period,” Flowers said. “That’s the million dollar rain.”

Pendleton typically averages about an inch of precipitation for June, though totals may vary depending on location. Areas east of town usually see a little more rain, while areas west of town usually see a little less. Currently, the whole region is down about a quarter-inch of rain for the month, though Flowers said early season precipitation was much better than it was a year ago.

“Our saving grace this year is we’ve had a more normal crop year for average rainfall,” he said. “It’s looking like, with the extra moisture, the crop is going to fare better.”

Not surprisingly, Flowers said the fields are maturing more quickly around Lexington and Heppner, where harvest usually begins sometime around the Fourth of July. In higher rainfall areas, such as Helix and Adams, harvest takes place closer to the middle of the month.

Though he’s based out of Corvallis, Flowers is no stranger to Eastern Oregon, where the majority of the state’s wheat is grown. He was in the area on Tuesday and Wednesday, talking with local growers about conditions in their fields and last weekend’s heat wave.

“It’s going to be another early year for us, just like last year,” he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Umatilla County harvested 11.3 million bushels of winter wheat in 2015, and 3 million bushels in Morrow County. Those yields came after three consecutive years of drought. In 2012, the totals were 16.3 million bushels in Umatilla County and 5.4 million in Morrow County.

If conditions can stay cool, Flowers said he is hopeful they can buck the trend and get back to a closer-to-average harvest this year.

“We hope cooler temperatures will lengthen that grain-fill period as long as we can,” he said. “That will be the crop.”

I am often asked why the community center in City Park is called The Barn. I knew it had been used to stable horses during the war, but I didn't know much more than that ... until I read a…

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has decided against seeking federal funds to conduct on-farm food safety inspections.

The agency will instead wait to see what role the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will play in on-farm enforcement of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

ODA doesn’t have the authority to perform on-farm inspections, though it’s considering asking state lawmakers for that power in 2017, said Stephanie Page, the agency’s food safety director.

“We need to have a conversation with the Legislature before we commit to a grant application to do that work,” said Page.

Farmers are giving the agency “diverse feedback” about whether they’d prefer for ODA to conduct inspections, rather than FDA, she said.

While some farmers would feel more comfortable with ODA, it’s not clear that the agency’s involvement would preclude FDA from doing its own inspections.

For example, FDA concurrently inspects food manufacturers even though ODA also inspects these facilities.

For that reason, some farmers wonder whether there’s any purpose in ODA conducting on-farm inspections, Page said.

“It’s not a done deal we will do inspections. We need to continue to have those conversations with the industry,” she said.

The Oregon Board of Agriculture has affirmed the agency’s decision not to purse inspection funding, voting unanimously to wait until more information is available at its June 8 meeting in John Day, Ore.

While Oregon is only one of a handful of states not to seek FDA funds for on-farm inspections, the agency is asking for about $3.5 million over five years to educate farmers about FSMA.

“I think we need more time to do some more outreach,” said Katy Coba, ODA’s director.

To obtain those funds, ODA must commit to developing a database of farms for the FDA.

If farmers were required to submit information to the database, that would become a public record, which makes some growers uncomfortable, Coba said.

The agency has decided not to pursue a mandatory database and will instead seek voluntary submissions.

The FDA is unlikely to object to the voluntary inventory idea, since the agency recognizes “all states are struggling with how to do that,” said Page.

If the ODA wins grant approval for education and outreach, it plans to create three new staff positions located in major produce-growing areas of the state, she said.

The FSMA rules for farmers only apply to fruits and vegetables that are consumed raw.

If the ODA changes its mind about on-farm inspections, it can apply for that grant in a separate application next spring, Page said.

“That’s a small price to pay to have more time to talk to our stakeholders,” she said.

Oregon’s food processing and beverage manufacturing industries are expected to perform well over the next decade, and the state’s crop production and nurseries will gain as well, according to a new report from the Office of Economic Analysis.

While lacking details, the quarterly economic and revenue forecast by Senior Economist Josh Lehner predicts strong performance by Oregon’s agricultural segments and associated industries, bucking the trend in one case.

Lehner said most Oregon manufacturing will have “very minimal gains” in the coming years. He noted the recent downsizing of Intel, the computer chip manufacturing company and the state’s largest employer, and said the manufacturing’s “cyclical rebound” from the recession has run its course.

“What manufacturing gains are expected are among the state’s food processors and beverage manufacturers, predominantly breweries,” Lehner wrote in the forecast.

Jeff Stone, executive director of Oregon Association of Nurseries, said the report’s projection of an upswing for nurseries is accurate.

Stone said nurseries spent much of the past six years trying to hang on as the state and nation rode out the recession. As conditions continue to improve, the call for landscaping, gardening and agricultural trees and plants picked up with it.

“We have an opportunity to grow significantly over the next 10 years,” Stone said. “I don’t think it will be the rocket ship we saw 20 years ago, but there are shortages out there.

“We’re looking at markets three to five years out, and I think we’re well positioned to grow.”

Depending on the year, greenhouse and nursery products is Oregon’s first or second most valuable agricultural sector, sometimes trading places with calves and cattle. In 2014, greenhouse and nursery products were worth $829 million.

Lehner, the state economist, said overall Oregon continues to see “full throttle” growth rates, with job gains and wage gains outpacing other states. The state is approaching full employment for the first time since 2000, and “underemployment,” the number of people involuntarily working part-time, is back to where it was before the recession. The state’s unemployment rate, 4.5 percent in April and May, is actually below what would historically be considered normal for Oregon during an economic expansion, Lehner said.

Over the past two years, Oregon has added an average of 5,000 jobs per month, a 3.5 percent annual growth rate, according to the report.

Lehner projects continued strong Oregon growth through the end of 2017. The state’s longterm outlook is dampened somewhat by the new minimum wage law, which he said will result in 40,000 fewer jobs by 2025 than would have been the case otherwise.

“Our office is not predicting outright job losses,” Lehner emphasized in the analysis. “However we are expecting somewhat slower growth. Low-wage workers receiving raises in the near term boost incomes. Over time, however, employers will adjust by increasing worker productivity, possibly via capital for labor substitutions.

“The Great Recession caused severe damage that has taken years to repair,” Lehner said in the report. “However, Oregon is now quickly approaching full employment, or a healthy labor market.”

Oregon farmers have prevailed in a legal dispute with a bank over the ownership of radish seed they’d grown but hadn’t been paid for.

Multiple farms in Oregon’s Willamette Valley grew the radish seed in 2014 for Cover Crop Solutions, a Pennsylvania company that became insolvent before taking delivery of the crop.

Last year, the company’s creditor — Northwest Bank of Warren, Pa. — filed a lawsuit against the growers, claiming to own the radish seed they’d produced because it served as collateral for a $7 million loan.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman has now dismissed Northwest Bank’s arguments that growers relinquished ownership of the seed when they delivered it to a cleaner.

The June 6 ruling effectively means they can sell the crop rather than turn it over to the bank.

“It was a total victory,” said Paul Conable, attorney for the farms.

James Ray Streinz, attorney for Northwest Bank, said his client did not wish to comment on the ruling.

The bank had claimed that several seed cleaners effectively acted as “agents” of Cover Crop Solutions, so the radish seed they were storing was that company’s inventory.

When Cover Crops Solutions became insolvent, the inventory became the bank’s collateral because its liens on the crop were of a higher priority than liens taken out by farmers, according to Northwest Bank’s attorneys.

Conable said Mosman’s rejection of this claim shows he understands the functioning of the seed industry.

“It would have changed the seed business if by turning over seed to the cleaner to get cleaned, you were turning it over to the purchaser without getting paid,” he said.

Before reaching a decision on the question of whether seed cleaners were “agents” of Cover Crop Solutions, Mosman dismissed the bank’s lawsuit against several growers who had retained possession of the seed.

In May, the CHS cooperative announced it would license the radish seed variety in question now that Cover Crop Solutions is being liquidated or dissolved.

Future production of the variety will be controlled by CHS, which will also “facilitate purchasing of current inventories and production contracts,” according to a letter the cooperative sent to growers.

Conable said he doesn’t have information about whether CHS will buy the radish seed grown by his clients.

The final water supply report of the season concludes Oregon creeks and rivers will have below normal flows this summer, tightening the amount of water potentially available for irrigation, fish and recreation.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland predicts most streams will be at about 60 percent of normal flow, worse in the southeast corner of the state.

The June Water Supply Outlook reflects an up and down year as monitored by the NRCS snow survey team in Portland.

In a recap, team supervisor Scott Oviatt said heavy winter precipitation helped refill the state’s reservoirs, which dropped precipitously during the drought.

“Water year precipitation (measured Oct. 1 to March 31) has been near to above normal across the state, and has boosted reservoir levels that were near record low at the end of last summer,” Oviatt said in a prepared statement. “This paints a much better picture for water supply this year, compared to last year when reservoir storage was well below average. However, if the summer is hot and increases demand, water users drawing from reservoir sources could still experience possible water shortages.”

Reservoir levels won’t be sustained into the summer by melting snow, because it’s already gone.

About half the state’s snow monitoring sites recorded near normal snowfall this past winter, but the peak of it occurred one to four weeks earlier than normal, the NRCS report said. Then came an early April heat wave, and the snow at most monitoring sites melted one to three weeks earlier than normal, and up to five weeks early at a few sites.

JOHN DAY, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Agriculture has dropped a proposal to give the agency “stop work” authority over food processors and pesticide applicators.

Earlier this year, ODA was considering asking the legislature for a new regulatory tool to prohibit companies from using equipment or taking actions that are potentially hazardous.

These “stop work” orders would be more specific than the agency’s current authority to suspend or revoke the licenses of regulated companies.

After “combing through” existing enforcement laws for state agencies, however, the agency decided to first try using tools that are already on the books, said Lisa Hanson, ODA’s deputy director.

“We feel like we have adequate authority there after a lot of work rethinking the statutes,” she said during a June 7 meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture in John Day, Ore.

It will likely be possible to compel companies to “cease and desist” hazardous activities with statutory tools that ODA has not used in the past, said Katy Coba, the agency’s director.

“If we exhaust those and they don’t work, we can come back and look at new statutory authority,” Coba said.

While the “stop work” idea was scrapped, ODA may still ask for authority to conduct on-farm food safety inspections for growers of fresh produce and manufacturers of animal feed.

Such authority may be necessary if the federal government delegates such inspections — which are required under the Food Safety Modernization Act — to state agencies.

Apart from refining “legislative concepts” regarding agricultural policy, the ODA is also currently examining possible funding requests for next year’s legislative session.

State agencies are expected to face a budget shortfall in the 2017-2019 biennium due to increased costs related to Oregon’s Public Employee Retirement System.

However, state government may obtain several billion dollars in revenue if voters approve a ballot initiative raising corporate taxes this year.

The ODA is conservatively planning for budget cuts if the initiative fails, but the agency has also undertaken a parallel process to identify “asks” if it passes, said Coba.

“It’s kind of a strange budget prep for us,” she said.

The agency will have more specific budget plans ready to submit to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in September, she said.

JOHN DAY, Ore. — Oregon’s farm regulators want to overhaul their noxious weed control strategy to focus on invasives that haven’t yet gained a strong foothold in the state.

The current weed control program at the Oregon Department of Agriculture obtains about 40 percent of its funding from federal agencies and thus focuses much of its attention on public lands.

This approach means that ODA’s highly trained weed specialists are often battling lower-priority “B list” weeds that are already abundant in some regions, rather than “A list” weeds that can still be eradicated, said Helmuth Rogg, director of the agency’s plant program area.

The agency would prefer to put more emphasis on an “early detection rapid response” approach to economically damaging “A list” weeds while delegating the fight against “B list” weeds on public land to counties, Rogg said at the June 6 Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting.

“We’re trying to figure out how to best use the limited resources of state and federal funding,” he said.

To make this change, ODA is contemplating a “legislative concept” to bring before Oregon lawmakers in 2017 that would increase funding for state and county noxious weed control programs by $3.3 million.

ODA’s current noxious weed budget of about $2.2 million in the 2015-17 biennium would be increased by $1.5 million, which would strengthen its “early detection rapid response” and biological control efforts, among other activities, and create a new aquatic weed specialist position.

The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board is spending millions of dollars to improve water quality across the state but invasive weeds can undermine those projects, Rogg said.

Weeds like flowering rush, newly discovered in Oregon in 2014, also pose a risk to irrigation canals, so an aquatic weed specialist is needed to concentrate on such threats, he said. “We need to save that investment.”

Only 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties have weed control districts dedicated to fighting invasives, so under the “legislative concept” $1.8 million would fund such programs across the state.

Federal funding of $1.2 million is needed to “keep the lights on” for the state noxious weed program, but under the ODA’s proposal, some of that money would be sub-contracted to county programs as necessary, Rogg said.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Douglas firs and other trees are dying in Southern Oregon forests, where three years of drought have been taking their toll.

The Mail Tribune reports that experts say even more drought-tolerant trees like Ponderosa pines have lost out in the competition for water. The wet winter couldn’t prevent tree death after years of drought and beetle attacks.

The die-off in Applegate Velley, up the West Cascades and into the Willamette Valley appears to be even worse than those caused by drought in the mid-1990s and early 2000s. The scale of the die-off will be quantified during aerial mapping surveys next month.

Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest plant pathologist Ellen Goheen says there seem to be more dead and dying conifers than at any point during the past 22 years.

HOOD RIVER, Ore. — The Farmers Conservation Alliance was born of destruction, or more precisely, destruction that inspired creativity.

Twenty years ago, rushing floodwaters uprooted trees, knocked out bridges and demolished irrigation equipment in Oregon’s Hood River Valley.

Faced with a clean slate, growers in the Farmers Irrigation District decided to rebuild a more efficient system than the one that had been washed away.

Clogged fish screens were a common problem at the old system’s irrigation diversions. Not only would someone frequently have to remove the debris, but the mechanical devices regularly needed repair.

“Any time you have moving parts, they just wear out,” said Dan Kleinsmith, a former project manager for the district.

Before the flood, the Farmers Irrigation District spent about $90,000 annually to operate and maintain its fish screens, which stop salmon, steelhead and other native fish species from swimming into irrigation lines and pipes while keeping them clear.

Developing their unique replacement “Farmers Screen,” which relies on rushing water instead of machinery to keep the screens clear, turned out to be a heavy investment — roughly $2.5 million over 10 years.

In 2006, the screen concept was licensed to the newly formed Farmers Conservation Alliance with the goal of commercializing the technology so other irrigators could also benefit from it.

Since then, the nonprofit has installed about 40 of the screens, which cost from $15,000 to roughly $1 million, depending on the size of the diversion and level of customization.

Initially, the fish screens were approved by federal authorities on an experimental basis. However, widespread adoption would require proving to the National Marine Fisheries Service that they don’t harm fish protected under the Endangered Species Act.

“To scale our business, we had to become a NMFS-approved technology,” said Julie Davies O’Shea, the alliance’s executive director.

The process was financially taxing, as the nonprofit had to test the screen’s function at various water levels and fish life stages, she said.

The alliance nearly went out of business before finally winning clearance from federal authorities in 2011, but O’Shea said she doesn’t want to “vilify” the government because the process was new for everyone.

Old fish screen designs were “grandfathered in” the federal system, so the alliance had to “face the reality” of having the first new technology to receive more thorough vetting, she said.

O’Shea said she hopes their experience will make it easier to gain approval for future irrigation improvements developed by farmers and others in agriculture.

“How do we transfer that knowledge?” she said.

The basic idea behind the Farmers Screen —— of water moving horizontally over a flat screen — wasn’t new, but it never caught on because it didn’t work correctly, said Kleinsmith, who’s now a project manager for the alliance.

The concept was nonetheless attractive due to the possibility of reduced maintenance costs.

“We liked the idea of water traveling over the top of something rather than slamming into something,” Kleinsmith said.

An important refinement of the Farmers Screen is that water flows into a channel that gradually becomes narrower.

This feature is key because the amount of water in the channel decreases as some of it falls through the screen at the bottom.

If the channel was the same width, the speed of the water would diminish toward the end. However, because the channel is tapered, the water doesn’t lose its velocity.

Because of that, debris is prevented from settling on the screen and causing clogs, Kleinsmith said. “We’re counting on the water to sweep the screen off.”

Aside from installing fish screens, the alliance also helps other irrigation districts to modernize in other ways.

For example, replacing open canals with pipelines reduces water loss from evaporation and seepage, while also creating enough water pressure to generate hydropower.

However, many irrigation systems were built upwards of a century ago, so upgrading them to become more efficient is akin to fitting new parts onto an antique truck, O’Shea said.

The alliance assists irrigation districts with retrofits, including finding partners who can provide funding.

“There’s so much opportunity for environmental improvement,” O’Shea said.

Farmers Conservation Alliance

Organization: Nonprofit group aimed at irrigation system modernization

Founded: 2006

Executive director: Julie Davies O’Shea

Employees: 5

Headquarters: Hood River, Ore.

Annual revenue: $318,000 (in 2014)

Website: http://fcasolutions.org

ONTARIO, Ore. — For the first time since a lingering drought began to grip this area four years ago, Owyhee Irrigation District patrons will receive a full allotment of irrigation water this year.

“It’s really a positive thing for the area,” said Bruce Corn, a farmer and OID board member. “It’s a tremendous change from what we’ve faced the past three years.”

The Owyhee Reservoir provides irrigation water for 1,800 farms and 118,000 acres of ground in Eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. OID patrons receive 4 acre-feet of water during a good water year.

But due to the effects of a sustained drought, they only received 1.7 acre-feet last year and 1.6 acre-feet in 2014.

Because of good snowpack, farmers in this area anticipated receiving 4 acre-feet this year but the OID board chose to be conservative and not allocate the full amount until the water was actually in the reservoir.

The board set the allotment at a tentative 3 acre-feet in March, raised it to 3.8 acre-feet in April and then 4 acre-feet in late May.

OID Manager Jay Chamberlin said a major storm last month dumped a lot of snow in the valley and snowmelt was also higher than anticipated, which increased in-flows into the reservoir.

“Those two things combined gave us an additional 25,000 to 30,000 acre-feet of water that was somewhat of a surprise to us,” he said. “It really gave us a shot in the arm.”

The focus now shifts to trying to ensure there is a decent amount of carryover water left in the reservoir to provide a buffer heading into the 2017 season, Corn said.

There was only 5,000 acre-feet of carryover water left in the reservoir at the end of the 2015 water season, a drop in the bucket compared to the reservoir’s 715,000 acre-foot capacity.

“The hope now is that we can carry over a little water into next year so we don’t start at zero like we did last year,” Corn said.

That means it’s doubtful that any excess water will be sold this year, he said. In years when there is ample water, OID patrons can purchase excess water above their 4 acre-foot allotment.

“We’ve been operating off of the bottom of the tank here,” Chamberlin said in regard to the fact the system has ended the past two seasons with close to no carryover water. “We want to get to the point where we are operating off the top again. It’s going to take some time to get there.”

The reservoir has about 350,000 acre-feet of carryover water following good water years.

Malheur County Onion Growers Association President Paul Skeen said even 150,000 to 180,000 acre-feet of carryover water would provide farmers some breathing room heading into 2017.

“Going into next season with even 150,000 acre-feet would be a whole lot better than what it has been,” he said.

The Langlois Lions Club would like to thank the following for the wonderful support with donations of time, enthusiasm, great plants and just hard plain work for this year's Mary Hildebrand Memorial Plant Sale: Bev Walters, Norma Eikamp, Loretta Hillman,…