An Oregon pesticide applicator could face reduced penalties for allegedly ignoring the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s order to stop spraying herbicides.

The ODA originally wanted to revoke the pesticide-spraying licenses of Applebee Aviation and its owner, Mike Applebee, for five years in addition to levying $160,000 in fines.

Applebee admitted that his company carried out multiple herbicide operations after ODA suspended its license in September 2015, but claimed he wasn’t timely notified of the order. He also claimed it wasn’t clear the state agency had the jurisdiction to prohibit spraying on federal property.

Senior Administrative Law Judge Jennifer Rackstraw has now found that Applebee Aviation and its owner violated Oregon pesticide law, but has recommended suspending their pesticide-spraying licenses for one year and imposing fines of less than $55,000.

While the company shouldn’t have sprayed without a license and “engaged in a pattern of misconduct,” Rackstraw found that a five-year revocation would be “an excessively harsh sanction” for Applebee Aviation’s violations.

The ODA suspended Applebee’s pesticide license when he was on an out-of-state hunting trip and had limited means to respond to the order, which meant that several operations carried out directly after it was issued weren’t “willful or grossly negligent,” the judge said.

However, Applebee and his company could have done more to shut down spraying once they had “reasonable knowledge” of the emergency suspension order, Rackstraw said.

He also “recklessly disregarded” the ODA’s opinion that the company wouldn’t be able to spray on federal land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, she said.

Applebee proceeded with the operations with the “hope” it was outside ODA’s jurisdiction but without contacting an attorney or BLM for advice, she said.

As for previous incidents in which Applebee’s company allowed herbicide drift and sprayed a pesticide on a prohibited site, Rackstraw said the violations were relatively isolated and “should not weigh heavily” on the penalty analysis.

The ODA did properly consider the impact of insufficient “personal protective equipment” being provided to Applebee employees, the judge said.

While the agency initially sought $160,000 in fines against Applebee and his company, it has since revised that number to roughly $60,000.

In light of her findings, Rackstraw further adjusted it to about $55,000.

Capital Press was unable to reach an attorney for Applebee as of press time.

Bruce Pokarney, ODA’s communications director, said the agency can amend Rackstraw’s proposal and will likely issue a final order by the end of the month.

Applebee may then challenge the final order before the Oregon Court of Appeals.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Arizona man pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his role in the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon and was nearing a resolution to charges he faces from a 2014 standoff with federal agents at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch.

Blaine Cooper, 37, of Humboldt, Arizona, admitted to a federal judge in Portland on Thursday that he appeared in a video with occupation leader Ammon Bundy, urging patriots to show up at the refuge with firearms, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

“I could see how calling people out to a refuge armed could be intimidating,” Cooper said.

Federal prosecutors had no evidence that Cooper carried a gun at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said the man was part of the first convoy of people to arrive there on Jan. 2, starting an occupation that lasted nearly six weeks.

The group had been in Burns, Oregon, protesting the return to federal prison of two ranchers convicted of setting fires.

Court records show Cooper will be sentenced Nov. 18. He’s expected to receive six months in prison, with credit for time served, and six months in a either a halfway house or home detention.

He’s the seventh defendant to plead guilty in the case. Another 19, including Ammon Bundy, are awaiting trial.

Meanwhile, it was revealed in court that Cooper has reached a tentative deal in the Nevada case, likely pleading guilty to two charges.

Krista Shipsey, Cooper’s defense lawyer, asked Cooper’s co-defendants and others to respect his choice.

“It’s incredibly hard for him to be here today,” Shipsey said. “He felt he needed to take care of this, but I hope they respect this is what’s best for him.”

Cooper had wanted to resolve the cases for a long time, she said.

“He is very apologetic about his behavior,” Shipsey said. “He felt like a nobody, and this movement gave him a purpose in his life. ...The fame took over his senses.”

AURORA — Blueberry Field Day at Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center included the expected technical discussions of fertilizers, pesticides and cultivars, but then a bird swooped in and stole the show.

That would be Copper, a fierce-eyed falcon trained to scare the bejeebers out of pest birds that damage blueberries, wine grapes or orchard crops. Falconer Kort Clayton, owner of Integrated Avian Solutions, let Copper loose for a demonstration flight during a field day presentation on bird control options. Compared to Copper’s buzz bomb performance, discussions of humic acid and boron applications barely stood a chance.

Copper, a 4-year-old Red-naped Shaheen, is one of Clayton’s five falcons and the one that usually accompanies him to field demonstrations. “He’s super reliable,” Clayton said. “He’s a flashy flier, he’s not really bothered by crowds.”

There was more to Copper’s appearance than show, because bird damage is a major problem for fruit and berry producers. Growers across the country use chemical repellents, netting, noisemakers and pulsating lasers to keep birds out of fields, with mixed results.

Cornell University estimated that 10 percent of the U.S. blueberry crop is lost to bird damage. In Oregon’s blueberries, a crop worth $102 million annually, the loss can be significant.

A 2013 USDA study estimated birds cause $189 million damage annually to Honeycrisp apples, wine grapes, blueberries and tart and sweet cherries in just five states: Oregon, Washington, California, Michigan and New York.

The USDA study also said bird damage costs per hectare (2.47 acres) ranged from $104 in Oregon tart cherries to $7,267 in Washington Honeycrisp apples.

To scare or discourage bird, growers use such things as propane cannons, flagging or netting. During the field day bird abatement presentation, company representative Rick Willis described the Bird Gard system, which is in place at the OSU research plots. The system’s microprocessor, which can be powered by a solar panel, plays robin and starling distress calls, and the call of predatory red-tailed hawks — all of which unnerve pest birds.

Another presenter, Marc Gaffrey of Bird Control U.S., explained how the company’s Agrilaser scares birds by shooting harmless laser beams across fields.

The system, mounted on a swiveling tripod, can be moved from place to place, and a hand-held model is available.

Clayton’s falcon, however, was the hit of the presentation. Copper, released from his perch on Clayton’s gloved hand, immediately swooped low over the OSU blueberry plots, then ascended in a corkscrew pattern until he was nearly out of sight. Clayton said falcons’ vision is 10 times better than humans’, and he’s called birds in from 3 miles away by swinging a lure. The birds wear a GPS transmitter, enabling Clayton to know where they’ve been.

The problem with other bird abatement systems, he said, is that pest birds eventually learn they won’t be harmed and are no longer frightened away. But they immediately recognize and react in terror to predators such as falcons, Clayton said.

“Habituation is the Achilles’ heel of traditional bird control techniques,” he said. “Pest birds do not habituate to natural predators.”

Clayton said falcons work best in fields of 80 acres or more. Falcons occasionally kill birds they’re chasing, but primarily deter pests by hazing them. The service typically costs $20,000 to $30,000 per season, he said.

Bernadine Strik, OSU berry crops professor and research program leader, said growers should install bird abatement systems before berries begin to turn color.

“Once the birds get a taste, it’s impossible to get them out,” she said

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected Ammon and Ryan Bundy’s request for a trial delay.

The Bundys and more than a dozen other defendants are scheduled for trial in September on charges stemming from the January takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Ammon Bundy’s lawyer, Marcus Mumford, seeks both the delay and his client’s pretrial release, contending he and Bundy have been unable to watch hours of video evidence with his client still jailed.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that Bundy was recently moved from the jail in downtown Portland to one on the outskirts of the city.

In arguing against a delay, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said the September date allows the Bundys to have a fair and speedy trial in Oregon and time to prepare for a February trial on a different matter in Nevada.

A renewed move by Oregon’s Clackamas County to designate more land for future industrial and commercial development prompted an unusual response from the county’s Soil and Water Conservation District.

Usually, the district’s board isn’t very political, General Manager Tom Salzer said. But the county’s decision to review the status of 1,625 acres got the conservation district’s attention. The county commissioners want to know if land in three areas south and southeast of the Portland urban center, now set aside as 50-year “rural reserves” and thus open to farming, would be more beneficial as “employment lands.”

The commissioners want to review the status of 800 acres south of the city of Wilsonville; 400 acres adjacent to the urban growth boundary of the city of Canby; and 425 acres south of the Clackamas River along Springwater Road. County officials believe the land should revert to “undesignated” rather than rural reserves.

Board members of the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District decided they should speak up. On June 29, Salzer delivered a letter to the five-member county commission. The primary point was succinct: “The District believes the County’s current initiative to create employment lands may not adequately consider the long-term value of high-value farmland. A significant amount of the land proposed for reconsideration as employment land is high-value farmland, an irreplaceable natural resource.”

Salzer said the conservation district’s board is concerned about the longterm future of farmland in Clackamas County, which despite being adjacent to Portland remains one of Oregon’s top five agricultural counties. The county is particularly known for growing Christmas trees, nursery crops and berries.

But it’s also known for political contention — some Portlanders derisively call it “Clackastan” — and for opposition to Metro, the land-use planning agency for the tri-county Portland area. The current county commission chair and vice chair, John Ludlow and Tootie Smith, are generally viewed as favoring job growth and development over land-use restrictions.

The commissioners point to an economic study by a consulting firm, Johnson Economics and Mackenzie, that said the county is short between 329 and 934 acres of industrial land and up to 246 acres of commercial land, an overall shortage of up to 1,180 acres over the next 20 years.

The conservation district, however, has some concerns. The acreage south of Wilsonville involves land adjacent to the Aurora Airport and Langdon Farms golf course. It has long been proposed for development by its owners, while farm groups and land-use watchdogs oppose development spreading into prime Willamette Valley farmland.

The acreage next to the city of Canby is Class 1 agricultural soil, some of the best farmland in the valley, said Jim Johnson, the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s land-use specialist.

The conservation district is alarmed at the prospect of losing more farmland, said Salzer, the general manager.

“This is remarkable,” he said. “It’s the first time this board has stood up as a unanimous body and said, ‘Wait a minute. Farmland is being threatened and we need to do something about it.”

Jeff Becker, the conservation district’s board chair, said the board doesn’t want to antagonize the county commissioners but simply wants to promote discussion of the issue.

“We don’t want to fire darts,” Becker said. “We don’t want to attack their policies. I know they get pressure (from all sides).”

But Becker said issues such as food supply need to be considered when development is discussed.

“If you get rid of farmland, it’s gone forever,” he said.

The county commissioners had questions and comments for Salzer when he delivered the conservation district’s letter.

Commissioner Ludlow said any development on the land in question would be years out. “We’re 1,100 acres short of job-producing land,” he said. Commissioner Smith said farming requires a “whole host of behaviors” that young people don’t want to engage in, and said much of the land under consideration is “fallow,” not actively farmed.

“It may be fallow at this time, but if you build on it, it’s gone,” Salzer responded.

The current development proposal covers familiar ground about a lack of land for economic development. A bill introduced in the 2015 Oregon Legislature would have allowed Clackamas, Washington and Columbia counties to designate industrial reserves of up to 500 acres outside of established urban growth boundaries, but it died in committee.

This time, Clackamas County is going it alone and apparently will work through Metro.

Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah counties, which include the greater Portland area, agreed in 2010 to designate urban and rural reserves. Urban reserves will be considered first when the urban growth boundary is expanded for houses, stores and industries. More than 265,000 acres in the three counties were designated as rural reserves, meaning they would remain as farms, forests or natural areas until 2060.

“The facts on the ground have changed dramatically since the original reserves adoption,” the Clackamas commissioners said in a letter to Metro, “prompting the need for corresponding changes to reserve designations. We cannot pretend that those changes didn’t happen, or allow the matter to be dismissed as simply a change in leadership.”

PORT ORFORD — Just a few minimizes a day and you could relieve suffering, speed healing, increase concentration and generate peace and calm by using gentle breathing techniques and body movement.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Court of Appeals has decided to reconsider a lawsuit against the state that was dismissed a couple months ago over its decision last year to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list.

It means environmentalists will have another chance to argue for an independent, judicial review of the delisting decision — as well as challenge the validity of House Bill 4040, one of the Legislature’s most controversial new laws this year that ultimately led to the case’s dismissal in late April.

“The issues presented by this judicial review and by HB 4040 are complex matters of public importance,” Judge Erika Hadlock wrote in the court’s decision Tuesday. “Without deciding what, if any, effect HB 4040 has on this judicial review, the court determines that the issues of possible mootness and the validity of HB 4040 are more appropriately decided by a department of the court following full briefing.”

The controversy stems from the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission’s November decision to delist the gray wolf as endangered, a move aimed at managing the species’ replenishing population that environmentalists say was premature and based on questionable science.

As environmentalists were asking the court for a review of the delisting decision, some Republican lawmakers crafted HB 4040 as a means to block the case. The idea was that, with the Legislature’s stamp of approval that the decision was air-tight according to law, reviewing that decision was a moot point and the case itself, therefore, would be too.

The bill was blasted by many residents, conservationists and Democratic leaders, including Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, as an overreach by the Legislature into judicial branch-matters and therefore potentially unconstitutional — an argument environmentalists reiterated in court this week.

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a “notice of probable mootness” soon after HB 4040 was signed into law, prompting the case’s dismissal on those grounds on April 22.

Nick Cady, attorney for Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands, which brought the case along with Oregon Wild and the Center for Biological Diversity, said the case was reconsidered after they challenged the constitutionality of HB 4040 and also the court’s process for the dismissing the suit.

“It’s really a crazy, convoluted issue that makes it that much more confusing,” Cady said. “Now we’re going to be dodging around the issue of whether or not (the wildlife commission) used the best-available science, which is why we were all here in the first place, and now we have to also argue about separation of powers and other legal nuances that’s just going to make this more convoluted.”

Officials at the wildlife department and Gov. Kate Brown’s office declined to comment. The Oregon Cattleman’s Association, an intervener in the lawsuit that also helped craft HB 4040, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel Oregon Farm Bureau, also an intervener, said in a statement her group didn’t take a position on Tuesday’s reconsideration.

“However, nothing in the ruling pertains to the merits of the Commission’s decision to delist the wolf, which Farm Bureau firmly believes was good law and good policy,” Nash said.

LANGLOIS -- On Your Mark, Get Set… Read! Summer Reading program 2016 at the Langlois Library presents "Off to the Races" at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 9. Get active with this fun event featuring a variety of races and activities.…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend $27.5 million on cranberry concentrate, buying a fraction of the surplus berries that are suppressing prices.

The purchase of the value-added product will soak up 30 million pounds, or 300,000 barrels, of cranberries, according to the industry’s Cranberry Marketing Committee, which announced the purchase in a press release June 29.

“We’re pleased to hear that. Certainly when you have an inventory of 7 million barrels, it’s nice to have some help getting rid of that,” Washington cranberry grower Malcolm McPhail said July 1.

Total U.S. production in 2015 was about 8.4 million barrels, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The cranberry surplus has hovered around 90 percent in recent years, swelled partly by a bumper crop of nearly 9 million barrels in 2013. Farmers have seen prices fall every year since 2009.

The average price growers received in 2014 was $30.90 per 100-pound barrel. The USDA is due to issue a report Wednesday on the 2015 crop.

“Any sale of cranberries helps our growers,” Ocean Spray cooperative spokeswoman Kellyanne Dignan said. “From our perspective, we appreciate the USDA’s attention to the cranberry industry.”

The USDA purchases surplus food to stabilize prices under a program created during the Depression. The government distributes the food to schools, summer camps and charities.

The USDA has been a regular customer for cranberry farmers. The purchases included buying 680,000 barrels for $55 million around Thanksgiving 2014. A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers from the five cranberry-producing states lobbied for the purchase.

“We are grateful for the continued support of the USDA and appreciate the positive impact that this bonus buy has on our industry,” the marketing committee’s executive director, Michelle Hogan, said in a written statement.

A Massachusetts task force in mid-June made several recommendations to help that state’s cranberry growers.

The recommendations included providing grants, tax credits and low-interest loans to farmers to renovate bogs and increase yields.

Other recommendations called for programs to pay farmers to convert bogs to wetlands to reduce production.

Cranberries are the top farm crop in Massachusetts, the country’s second-leading cranberry producer.

Washington, the fifth-leading cranberry state after number-three New Jersey and number-four Oregon, has 1,700 acres planted in cranberries. “I think everybody is hanging in there,” McPhail said.

SALEM — The Oregon agricultural industry is gearing up for battle against a campaign to pass a corporate sales tax measure on the November ballot by shedding light on how the tax will affect individual companies and farmers.

Under Initiative Petition 28, the Mt. Angel-based Wilco farm supplies and fuel cooperative faces a 1,388-percent increase in its state corporate income tax bill, from $168,000 to $2.5 million per year, CEO Doug Hoffman said.

The tax would apply only to the $100 million in sales at Wilco Farm Stores in Oregon; direct sales to the cooperative’s 3,000 members are exempt, Hoffman said.

The ballot measure targets C corporations, imposing a 2.5 percent tax on their Oregon gross sales exceeding $25 million. It’s expected to raise about $3 billion a year in new state revenue.

The nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office says the tax will act largely as a consumption tax, raising prices for consumers and businesses.

The union-backed campaign A Better Oregon says the state needs that revenue to bolster support for education, health care and senior services. Proponents also note that corporations’ income tax contributions to state revenue has declined as a percentage from 18.5 in the mid-1970s to 6.7 now, according to a study by the Oregon Public Policy Center.

While the campaign says the tax targets big out-of-state corporations, it also affects some Oregon businesses with high sales receipts but relatively low profit margins, said Dave Dillon, executive vice president of Oregon Farm Bureau.

Wilco typically nets income of 2.5 to 3.75 percent of gross sales, Hoffman said. In some years, such as 2009, the company doesn’t make a profit. One reason he opposes IP 28 is that even companies that lose money have to pay the tax as long as their gross sales exceed $25 million.

Supporters are unmoved.

“A Better Oregon was specifically designed to protect farm co-ops and it won’t raise taxes on the supplies farmers buy through their co-ops,” said Katherine Driessen, a campaign spokeswoman. “A Better Oregon was also designed to make large pesticide companies like Wilco and Monsanto pay their fair share in taxes. Based on the claims that Wilco has made, it has to do at least $100 million in non-farm co-op sales. It can and should pay more to support or schools and critical services.”

Dillon said those extra costs will be passed onto farmers.

The impact of the tax could be felt at every point of sale, as suppliers and retailers increase prices to cover their additional costs.

The gas and diesel that Wilco sells, for instance, changes hands several times before it gets to the end consumer, Hoffman said. By that time, the tax may push the cost up 5 to 7 percent, he said.

That will impact farmers who have to drive their products to market. The tax also will drive up the cost of fertilizer, farming equipment and other necessities for producing and selling a crop, Dillon said.

“We are going to have folks out of work, and there isn’t going to be an economy to pick them up,” said Katie Fast, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter.

The tax is estimated to slow growth in private sector jobs by 38,000 in the next five years years, but public sector jobs would grow by 17,000 in the next five years, according to the Legislative Revenue Office.

A recent study by Portland State University, commissioned by A Better Oregon, found that the tax would boost public sector jobs by 33,600 by 2027 and slow growth in private sector jobs by 13,500.

“You don’t see Wilco take a stand on many things,” Hoffman said. “We believe we have the story that touches people in a small way It will affect us and our consumers We couldn’t let it stand and suck it up and not get involved.”

Support for international trade slipped in Oregon while the major candidates for president criticized the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that Congress could consider later this year.

According to two polls conducted by DHM Research, the percentage of Oregonians who believe foreign trade is an opportunity for economic growth dropped from 65 percent in March 2014 to 53 percent in April 2016.

During that time, the percentage of Oregonians who believe trade is more of a threat to the economy increased from 19 percent to 36 percent.

“Our polling data reveal that Oregonians are less certain that international trade is a good deal for our state and our country in 2016 than they were two years prior,” says DHM Research founding partner Adam Davis.

The drop in support followed repeated attacks on international trade treaties by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. All three candidates came out against the TPP, even though Clinton had previously called it the “gold standard” of such treaties.

“The seemingly 24-7 coverage of Trump and Sanders this past year has taken its toll on public understanding and appreciation of the benefits of trade,” Davis says. “It’s been a constant drumbeat of Americans losing jobs and big companies being the only beneficiaries of policies like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”

Doug Badger, executive director of the Pacific Northwest International Trade Association, deplores the criticisms. Although Trump, Sanders and — to a lesser extent — Clinton have all claimed such treaties have reduced the number of American jobs, Badger says the opposite is true, especially in Oregon.

“Trade is creating jobs in the country and the region, which is especially dependent on trade. And they are good-paying jobs,” says Badger, whose organization is aligned with the Portland Business Alliance and is pushing for approval of the TPP.

Badger notes that support for international trade is still above 50 percent in Oregon, which he says is a good thing. But he worries the criticisms by the presidential candidates will make it harder to win approval of the TPP and future trade agreements.

“The politicians are saying one thing but the economy is saying another when it comes to trade,” he says.

Davis agrees there’s little public understanding of the benefits of trade.

“Like we see in our research about public understanding of the basics of governance and public finance, there’s a great deal of ignorance about international trade. And the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement? You got to be kidding; there’s next to no facts-based understanding of what it is and how it affects Oregon’s economy — positively or negatively,” Davis says.

TPP opponent Michael Shannon of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign argues that just the opposite is true.

“The public isn’t responding to the politicians, the politicians are responding to the public,” Shannon says.

“People are tired of stagnant wages and increasing inequality, and previous trade deals have shipped good paying jobs with benefits overseas,” says Shannon, whose organization includes labor, environmental and social justice organizations.

Shannon and other opponents point to a recent study by the United States International Trade Commission that says some manufacturing jobs would be lost because of the TPP, although other sectors of the economy, like agriculture, would benefit.

Davis confirms his company’s polls are finding deep public dissatisfaction with the economy.

“Nearly half of Oregonians believe that America has gotten the short end of the stick, perhaps in a nod of agreement with Trump and {img:116920}Sanders about the exportation of manufacturing and other blue-collar jobs that once served as the backbone of our economy. Many of these same people are not considering, because they’re not aware, the benefits of international trade such as lower prices and the availability of a wider range of goods and services,” he says.

A 2013 study by the Value of Jobs Coalition found that $20 billion worth of Oregon goods and services were exported in 2012. There were 490,000 jobs tied directly or indirectly to international trade that year, up 20,000 from 2010. And the amount of Oregon’s trade-related employment grew 7.5 times faster than total employment between 2004 and 2011, said the study, which was supported by such business groups as the Portland Business Alliance and the Port of Portland.

The TPP is an agreement between the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. According to Badger, seven of Oregon’s top 11 export markets were on this list in 2015, and they accounted for nearly half of all of Oregon’s export value that year.

“The export of Oregon goods and services will only increase if we can reform the rules and reduce the tariffs with our major trading partners,” Badger says.

Shannon counters that the biggest companies, such as Nike, benefit most from such deals, not average workers.

Because of the political climate, some observers believe President Obama will ask the lame-duck session of Congress to approve the TPP after the November general election.

Several growers in Northeast Oregon are accusing the Westland Irrigation District of cheating them out of water to benefit larger farms.

A federal complaint claims the district unconstitutionally deprived the plaintiffs of water and seeks $2.9 million in damages as well as an injunction requiring the Westland Irrigation District to enforce the plaintiff’s water rights and properly deliver water.

Plaintiffs include ELH LLC, Oregon Hereford Ranch LLC, Paul Gelissen, Maurice and Lucy Ziemer, Frank Mueller, Craig and Cynthia Parks and Richard and Kristine Carpenter.

Mike Wick, the district’s general manager, said it would premature for him to discuss the lawsuit.

“Our board hasn’t had a chance to meet to discuss the complaint,” he said.

The Westland Irrigation District will hold a special executive session about the litigation that’s scheduled for July 5 in Echo, Ore.

According to the complaint, the district “facilitated large scale theft” over the past six years from 10 farms with senior water rights, which own between 58 acres and 837 acres each, to deliver water to three operations with more than 5,000 acres.

The lawsuit claims those three farms with junior water rights — L&L Farms, Eagle Ranch and Amstad Farms — diverted more water than they were allowed.

The district used several methods to make the overpumping possible, including fraudulent accounting and improper contracts, the complaint said.

“Defendant’s misappropriation of plaintiffs’ senior water rights has deprived plaintiffs of the opportunity to double crop their farms and shifted that lucrative opportunity to junior water rights holders in violation of Oregon water rights law.”

Capital Press was unable to reach a representative of L&L Farms as of press time.

David Prior, whose family owns of Eagle Ranch, said he hadn’t heard about the litigation.

“We don’t have any information because we’re not in the lawsuit, so I can’t comment,” he said.

Skeeter Amstad, whose family owns Amstad Farms, said it’s too early for him to comment on the lawsuit but said his company is transparent in its water use and has done nothing wrong.

“We work extremely hard to get water through all the legal channels,” he said.

Dixie Echeverria, co-owner of plaintiff ELH LLC, said she was alerted to the problem when her company didn’t receive all the water to which it was entitled during the spring.

Westland Irrigation District didn’t provide answers to her questions and the Oregon Water Resources Department’s local watermaster refused to intervene in the dispute, she said.

The lawsuit was filed to ensure senior water rights in the district are protected, Echeverria said.

Litigation filed by farmers against their own irrigation district is rare, according to an Oregon water law attorney who didn’t want to be named.

An irrigation district’s board of directors is supposed to ensure proper water allocations, but these governing bodies are often dominated by the largest landowners, the attorney said. “That’s potentially a problem.”

If the board’s directors refuse to take action or are accused of wrongdoing themselves, farmers have few alternatives aside from litigation, the attorney said.

State watermasters regulate at the point of diversion from a public water source, but they aren’t involved in internal water distribution, the attorney said. “They leave that to the district to manage.”

Members of the Farmers Cooperative Creamery in McMinnville, Ore., have accepted an agreement that allows dairy farmers to apply for membership in the much larger Northwest Dairy Association of Seattle.

FCC dairies have 60 days to decide whether to apply. The two organizations have cooperated informally for several years on processing and marketing, according to a news release from FCC executive Mike Anderson. FCC has about 60 dairy members.

Northwest Dairy Association, also a cooperative, has about 500 dairy members in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Northern California. Its members produce about 8.9 billion pounds of milk annually. The cooperative’s marketing and processing subsidiary is Darigold Inc., which operates 11 processing plants in the Northwest.

A Farmers Cooperative Creamery plant in McMinnville is not included in the agreement with NDA. Anderson, the FCC executive, said that does not necessarily mean the plant will close.

In an email, Anderson said the agreement with NDA “is an extension of a relationship that has been developing for a number of years and is driven by common interests and good business opportunities and planning for a bright and secure future for all dairymen.”

Ukraine and Romania are hungry for U.S. investment in grain storage, irrigation and other agricultural infrastructure, said Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba.

Major U.S. companies are best poised to immediately take advantage of opportunities in Ukraine and Romania due to their expertise working in foreign nations, said Coba, who recently returned from a trade mission to the two countries.

In the future, though, there may be greater openings for Oregon farm exports to the Eastern European countries, particularly as they need more high-quality seed, she said.

“If democracry continues to grow, those are markets for us to keep our eye on,” Coba said.

The USDA led a trade mission of state agriculture officials and agribusiness representatives to Ukraine and Romania on June 13-17, after which Coba visited Croatia with her two daughters.

A major challenge for U.S. farm exports to the two countries is transportation — air freight is expensive, while ships must take a meandering route through the Mediterranean and Black Seas, she said.

“It’s quite a truck for our stuff,” Coba said.

The U.S. shipped $321 million worth of farm goods to Ukraine in 2013, but that amount had plummeted more than 75 percent by last year, according to USDA trade data.

“The Ukrainian economy collapsed after the overthrow of their president in 2014,” Coba said.

That year, Ukraine’s parliament ousted the nation’s Russian-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, leading to Russia’s invasion of its Crimea region and conflicts along its eastern border.

During the trade mission in Ukraine, U.S. officials toured a grain facility owned by Archer Daniels Midland and participated in the opening ceremony for an oilseed crushing facility built for nearly $300 million by Bunge.

Ukraine has insufficient infrastructure for irrigation, storage and processing of crops, so the nation is looking for American help to expand its production capacity, Coba said.

“They’ve got a long road ahead of them,” she said. “The U.S. presence there is critical.”

Romania also faces changes to its agricultural system, which is dominated by a large number of farmers who cultivate relatively small plots of land, Coba said

The country’s government wants to increase its agricultural efficiency, which is often achieved through consolidation, while protecting its small farmers, she said.

U.S. farm exports to Romania have ranged from roughly $50 million to $100 million per year over the last decade, while our imports from that country tripled last year, to more than $150 million.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Arizona tattoo artist pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges in the Oregon’s ranching standoff case.

Brian Cavalier, a bodyguard for standoff leader Ammon Bundy and his father Cliven Bundy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and possessing a gun in a federal facility. Cavalier admitted in federal court in Portland that he conspired with others to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the refuge near Burns.

He became the sixth defendant to plead guilty in the continuing case. The other five took deals in which government prosecutors agreed to dismiss the gun charge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said prosecutors, in exchange for Cavalier’s acceptance of responsibility, will recommend a sentence far below the maximum of 11 years in prison, likely 15-21 months.

Cavalier also faces charges in Nevada for his involvement in a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents at Cliven Bundy’s ranch. Gabriel said Wednesday’s plea agreement is with Oregon alone, and there are “no promises” in the Nevada case.

Cavalier, 45, traveled to Oregon this past winter to participate in the Ammon Bundy-led occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a protest against the federal control of Western lands and the imprisonment of two ranchers convicted of setting fires.

Cavalier stayed for only five days before going back to Arizona. He had a run-in with police there and returned to Oregon.

He was arrested Jan. 26 along with Bundy as the two traveled to a community meeting away from the refuge. Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, the occupation spokesman, was in a different vehicle and was fatally shot by Oregon State Police during the traffic stop.

Gabriel noted that Cavalier was armed during his initial stay at the refuge, but didn’t have a gun when he returned to Oregon and was unarmed during the traffic stop.

Cavalier told the judge his actions could have led to the intimidation of federal employees. Gabriel took exception to the word “could,” and the defendant rephrased his answer. In response to another question, he said: “Yes, your honor. I did agree with at least one other person to impede,” emphasizing the last word.

Cavalier will be sentenced Sept. 30, three weeks after most of the remaining 20 defendants — including Ammon Bundy — are scheduled to go on trial.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon is one of several states without a routine water testing program, leaving many bodies of water unmonitored for harmful algae blooms.

The Bulletin reports a handful of the state’s lakes are shut down each summer because of harmful algae blooms. The blooms, sometimes called blue-green algae, are caused by toxin-producing bacteria and often form a green paint-like scum on the surface of the water. It can cause health problems for humans and can kill livestock and pets.

Most blooms are only a minor inconvenience, but environmental authorities are concerned that climate change and runoff are increasing the frequency and severity of harmful algae blooms and putting people and animals at greater risk.

Algae expert Dr. Wayne Carmichael says the blooms will get worse unless people address water quality.

THURSDAY, JULY 7

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Tuesday that she will be taking a stance on a ballot measure that would raise taxes on businesses, but she’s not yet ready to do so.

The initiative, currently referred to as IP-28, has qualified for the November ballot. It would raise taxes on businesses with sales that exceed $25 million, generating a projected $3 billion dollars per year in tax revenue.

“I will be making a decision,” Brown said following an event in downtown Portland. “The bottom line is as governor I believe it’s important that I consider all of Oregon, all of Oregon’s businesses and the people throughout the state. I think that it’s more important that I get the decision right than have it be done quickly.”

Brown said she’s meeting with businesses and service providers as she tries to determine whether or not she’ll support the tax measure.

Many in the business community oppose the ballot measure, arguing it will harm Oregon’s economy. Public employee unions, the measure’s biggest supporters, said the state needs additional funds.

On that point, Brown agreed.

“We are facing a revenue shortfall in the next biennium roughly in the neighborhood of $1.4 billion,” Brown said.

Former Gov. John Kitzhaber has been critical of the measure as well as Brown’s neutral stance on the tax measure.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Residents of a remote county in eastern Oregon where an armed group seized a federal wildlife refuge have voted overwhelmingly to keep in office a top local official who had denied the occupiers access to a county building.

“I feel so good about the outcome,” Harney County Judge Steve Grasty told The Associated Press over the phone from the county courthouse in Burns. “The voters have spoken. What’s important is to move ahead, see where is the common ground. ... People won’t always agree but we can find what we can work on together.”

Grasty had faced the special recall election Tuesday because he refused to let the activists, who said they were protesting federal land-use policies, use a county building to host a meeting. Supporters of the recall say Grasty violated rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.

According to unofficial final results, 2,038 residents, or 70 percent of votes cast, opposed recalling Grasty; 861 residents, representing 30 percent of ballots, voted to remove him.

“Looks like a strong statement was made,” Harney County Clerk Derrin E. “Dag” Robinson said.

The first recall effort in this high-desert county in 21 years underscored divisions that remain more than four months after the 41-day occupation ended Feb. 11.

The group took over the refuge in opposition to federal government overreach in the West, where a lot of land managed by the federal government.

“I certainly hope, after tonight, we can work as a community to heal, let the past go, and move forward in a positive way,” Robinson said.

Most signs in a nearby town and on ranch fence posts were for Grasty, who, even though he prevailed in the recall effort, retires in December.

“I’m going to save packing up until the end of the year,” Grasty told AP. He had earlier said that if he lost the recall, he’d put his belongings in a box and leave right away.

He had told the AP in a recent interview that he viewed this special election as a referendum on how he and other county officials handled the takeover of the 188,000-acre Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

More than two dozen occupiers were arrested amid the takeover, and one was shot dead at a roadblock confrontation with law enforcement. Several have pleaded guilty to conspiracy in exchange for the dismissal of a charge of firearms possession in a federal facility. Most of the remaining defendants, including leader Ammon Bundy, are scheduled to go to trial Sept. 7.

The headquarters of the refuge, 30 miles south of Burns, is still closed, though refuge roads are open. Refuge manager Chad Karges said he expects the headquarters to reopen in late summer or early fall.

The county’s last recall election, in June 1995 against another county judge and a county commissioner, resoundingly failed, Robinson noted. The recall petition had complained, among other things, that the judge had “purchased luxury automobiles with the taxes of people struggling to survive.”

“They were Fords, Crown Victorias,” Robinson, who that year worked for the county clerk’s office as an intern, remembered with a laugh. “They were not luxury cars.”

The issues this time are rooted in something more serious — seizure of federal property by occupiers from out of state, plus the deadly confrontation. Their presence, and that of hundreds of law enforcement officers, put county residents on edge.

Grasty said he stands by his decision to deny Bundy and his group from using a county building.

“He had already taken over, with firearms, a whole compound of buildings. And (the request) didn’t make sense to me, nor did it fit public policy about public safety,” Grasty said.

Robinson said Harney County recently got a scanning machine for examining ballots and tallying election results; this election was the second time the county has used it.

He said he had posted on his own Facebook page to try to boost voter participation. The county lacks a radio station and has only a weekly newspaper.

Voter participation in the Tuesday recall vote was 64 percent.

ALBANY, Ore. (AP) — After having to throttle down for more than a week due to periods of pounding rainfall and spotty hail, mid-Willamette Valley farmers put combines back to work in area grass seed fields over the weekend.

They are looking forward to several days with temperatures in the mid-to-upper 80s and only a 10 percent chance of rain on Saturday.

“It’s very early in the season, but it doesn’t appear the rain caused many problems,” said Oregon State University seed specialist Clare Sullivan. “There were patches of hail that appear to have affected some fields. Rain wise, I haven’t heard anyone complaining about that.”

The hail may have shattered some seed heads, loosening the seed prematurely from the shaft of the plant that had been swathed and was in the drying stages before being picked up by a combine.

Sullivan said it’s also too early to say whether unusually warm weather — several days in the high 90s a month ago — had a detrimental effect on seed size.

“Usually, extreme heat will speed up the ripening process, which can result in lighter weight seed,” she said. “But I think that by the time the hot weather arrived, the plants were already ahead of last year in their growing cycles and were going through their physiological changes.”

Sullivan said the rains have also helped keep the regrowth grasses green.

It’s interesting to see the contrast of the bright green grass under the swath rows,” she said.

Oren Neuschwander started harvesting grass seed fields near Eicher Road Monday afternoon and said that, so far, things were looking good.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in May that about 118,000 acres in Oregon are devoted this year to annual ryegrass, down about 4 percent from 2015.

The number of acres of perennial ryegrass is expected to remain unchanged at about 97,000 acres.

The USDA reported that numbers in 2015 were lower then usual due to drought conditions.

Growers also reported heavy damage from winter cutworms, mice and slugs.