TIMBERLINE LODGE, Ore. – Making her way on cross-country skis to take a snowpack reading near this historic lodge on Mount Hood, hydrologist Julie Koeberle stopped to admire the sight of big firs bent silent with weight.

“It’s so awesome to see the snow hanging on the trees,” she said. “We sure didn’t see that last year.”

Irrigators, wildlife managers, hydro-power operators and others throughout the Pacific Northwest and Northern California are expressing similar relief. A series of pounding December storms brought unrelenting torrents of rain to the coasts and valleys and, in the mountains, snow at last.

While skiers and snowboarders celebrate abundant snow for its

recreational aspects, it is the snowpack’s stored water that will help irrigate crops, cool salmon and spin turbines in the summer months to come.

“Snowpack is the lifeblood of the West,” said Koeberle, who works with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland. “This is such a relief from last year.”

As of Dec. 29, nearly 7 feet of snow had accumulated at Timberline Lodge, elevation 5,960 feet, and it contained 21.5 inches of water, Koeberle said. The water content now is greater than the 20 inches measured at the peak annual snowfall in April 2015. The past season’s Northwest snowpack was largely gone by May.

With three to four months of additional snowfall possible this season, the region may ease the grip of drought that’s stunted crops, killed fish and left forests and rangeland dry and vulnerable to fierce fires.

“This is a great way to start,” Koeberle said. “To be already better than last year is a little bit comforting.”

The NRCS maintains 730 SNOTEL monitoring sites in 11 states, 82 of them in Oregon, that electronically report snowfall and water content information. The Oregon sites as of the end of December were reporting water levels that were 150 percent of normal for that date.

Last year, nearly half of Oregon’s long-term monitoring sites measured the lowest snowpack level on record.

Koeberle led a news media tour Dec. 29 of the SNOTEL site near Timberline, and demonstrated how hydrologists take samples of the snow and weigh it to measure water content. The same information is available electronically, but the annual media event gives hydrologists an opportunity to discuss the water supply outlook.

Because of the December snow, the water supply in most of the state is likely to improve this coming year. But Koeberle said it’s too early to declare the drought over.

Some complications remain. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said the rest of the season will be warmer than normal in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.

Koeberle said the region may have “dodged the El Niño bullet” for now.

“Normally, during most El Niños, it would be warm and dry and we just would not have gotten any precipitation at all,” she said by email. “I am concerned that January could bring us warm and dry conditions based on the CPC forecast.”

The Oregon Farm Bureau has made several staffing changes, including hiring two new employees, after a longtime lobbyist for the group left for another organization.

Katie Fast, formerly the Farm Bureau’s vice president of public policy, took a job as the executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an agribusiness industry group, earlier this year.

The Farm Bureau has since promoted Jenny Dresler from government affairs associate to director of state public policy, which is a new position, said Anne Marie Moss, OFB’s communications director.

“It’s more a restructuring than a direct replacement,” Moss said.

Dresler joined the Farm Bureau a year ago after previously working for Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, in legislative and campaign operations. She holds a master’s degree from Oregon State University in environmental science.

Stepping into the role of government affairs associate is Tyler Alexander, who recently graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School and has previously worked for OFB as a law clerk.

Alexander and Dresler will join Mary Anne Nash, who will serve as public policy counsel, in representing the Farm Bureau’s interests at the Oregon Legislature.

The group’s other new hire is Jacon Taylor, who will be traveling to county Farm Bureau organizations level to assist volunteers as a regional coordinator and field representative.

PRINEVILLE, Ore. (AP) — The two single-engine air tankers stationed for the first time this summer in Prineville ended up dropping a large amount of fire retardant around Oregon.

The Bulletin of Bend reports that according to Oregon Department of Forestry data, the two firefighting planes dropped nearly a quarter of all the retardant used to fight fires around the state in 2015.

The planes were part of a $5 million program to increase Oregon’s firefighting fleet. In previous fire seasons, the department used three or four large takers. This year the state used six small tankers and only one large airliner.

The Prineville planes provided air support on about two dozen fires, flying about 250 times this year. Oregon Department of Forestry spokeswoman Christie Shay says they will likely be back next season at Prineville.

COOS COUNTY — Oregon State University has announced students who have earned honors for fall term 2015. To be included on the honor roll list, students must have carried at least 12 graded hours of course work.

Selina Heppell, a conservation biologist, is the new head of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University.

Heppell is the first woman to head the department in its 80-year history. The department is the largest within the College of Agricultural Sciences, with nearly 800 students, and among the largest natural sciences department on campus.

Heppell replaces Dan Edge, who earlier in 2015 was appointed the college’s associate dean. Heppell had been serving as interim department head since Edge’s appointment.

In a prepared statement, ag college Dean Dan Arp described Heppell as a distinguished researcher and teacher who had provided “terrific leadership” as interim head of the department.

Heppell has been on the OSU faculty since 2001. She has specialized in studying slow-growing species such as sturgeon, sea turtles, sharks and West Coast rockfish. Among other work, she has used computer models and simulations to study how fish respond to human impacts and climate change — and how they may respond to future climate change.

Heppell and her husband, Scott Heppell, teach a conservation biology course in Eastern Europe and have done fish research in the Caribbean.

EAGLE POINT, Ore. (AP) — The owner of a historic Oregon grist mill that burned in a holiday fire says rebuilding may be possible.

The Mail Tribune newspaper reports the landmark water-powered Butte Creek Mill was deemed a total loss after the Christmas morning fire.

Owner Bob Russell says his first impression is that rebuilding would not be possible. But when he took another look over the weekend, he changed his mind.

He says the new mill would be smaller and won’t produce as much flour, but it may be possible to open in some capacity.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Sundays

Sundays

Sundays

Sundays

ONTARIO, Ore. — A series of snowstorms over the Owyhee Basin has resulted in snowpack levels more than twice their normal amount for this time of year.

That has given farmers in Eastern Oregon who get their irrigation water from the Owyhee Reservoir a reason to be optimistic for the first time in several years.

The basin has experienced four straight years of reduced snowpack levels and the 1,800 farms that depend on the reservoir have had their annual water allotment slashed by two-thirds the past two years.

Water has stopped flowing through the Owyhee Irrigation District’s 400 miles of canals, laterals and ditches in August the past two years, two months earlier than normal.

But as of Dec. 24, snowpack in the basin was at 233 percent of normal for that date.

“I’m really pleased with what I’m seeing so far,” said dairyman and farmer Frank Ausman, a member of the Owyhee Irrigation District’s board of directors. “We’re sitting quite a bit better at this time than we were the last couple of years.”

But Ausman and other farmers said the snow needs to keep falling in order for growers to have an adequate water supply next season.

“It’s definitely ... a good start but it’s a little early to start counting our chickens,” Ausman said.

OID Manager Jay Chamberlin said the storms have laid down a lot of snow proportionally over the whole watershed, unlike last year when the sparse snow the basin received was spotty.

“Keep it coming. This feels good,” he said.

The reservoir provides water for 118,000 irrigated acres in Malheur County in southeastern Oregon and around Homedale and Marsing in southwestern Idaho.

Farmers in this area have had to alter their rotations and farming practices as a result of drastically reduced water supplies the last three years. A lot of farm ground has been left idle and growers have planted a lot more crops that require less water but also bring less income.

While farmers and water supply managers expressed optimism at the current snowpack situation in the basin, they also cautioned that it’s still early in the snow season and the reservoir needs a lot more water.

To guarantee a good water supply year, the reservoir needs about 450,000 acre-feet of storage water, Chamberlin said. It’s holding about 50,000 acre-feet right now.

“We’re going into 2016 in a lot better shape than we did the last three years,” Chamberlin said. “But we have a whole lot of room in an empty bucket. We can take whatever (is sent) us.”

Farmer Paul Skeen likened the current water situation to being early in a football game. While farmers are leading, there’s a lot of ballgame left, he said.

“Yes, things don’t look nearly as bleak as they did last year,” said Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. “But we’re a long ways from the fourth quarter. We’re just finishing the first quarter of the game.”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Maybe it’s time to call crime-buster Elliot Nest to take down that pesky bird of prey “Owlcapone.”

A few blocks away from the state Capitol in Salem, the year is ending the way it began — with an aggressive owl going after people.

At least two attacks have been reported more than a mile north of a park where joggers were attacked in January, said Julie Curtis, spokeswoman for the Department of State Lands.

Dwight French said he was jogging from his office to a parking garage Monday when he felt a bump on the back of his head. He turned around and saw an owl fly into the trees and stare at him. As he crossed a street, the owl hit him again and then a third time.

“At the moment it was just really bizarre and kind of scary for a minute,” he told the Statesman Journal.

French sustained several little cuts. He said it looks like he “got a really violent haircut.”

The January attacks on several joggers got national attention, most of it humorous.

Inspired by a segment from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Oregon’s capital city posted “angry owl” warning signs in the park where the owl was likely defending its nest against perceived threats. The Statesman Journal had an online naming contest, with “Owlcapone” getting the most votes. And, of course, there’s an Owl Attacks Facebook page.

David Craig, a biology professor and animal behavior specialist at Willamette University, said there’s no way of knowing if the owl that attacked French is the notorious Owlcapone establishing a new home or if it’s another barred owl.

He said this is the time of year when owls are courting and establishing their territory, which makes them aggressive. They lay eggs as early as February.

If an owl scratches you and it breaks the skin, Craig recommends monitoring the wound like you would a cat scratch.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Police say an Oregon man angry with his tax situation left a flock of seven chickens inside the state revenue office.

Police in Eugene said in a news release they responded to a report Wednesday afternoon of chickens left in the lobby of the Oregon Department of Revenue.

Police and an animal welfare officer rounded up the fowl, and they were taken to an animal shelter.

Officers gave 66-year-old Louis Adler, of Creswell, a trespass notice requiring him to stay away from the office or risk a citation.

The Register-Guard reports no people or animals were injured.

Adler couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

State agency spokesman Derrick Gasperini told the Guard the staff had prior dealings with Adler and he was “frustrated by the outcome.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An environmental group plans to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over delaying protections for the foothill yellow-legged frog.

The Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday filed a notice of intent to sue; it says the federal government is two and half years late in deciding whether to list the frog under the Endangered Species Act.

The center petitioned to protect the frogs in 2012. Earlier this year, Fish and Wildlife made a positive finding on the petition — but hasn’t finished the status review or made a decision on the listing.

Federal officials declined to comment on pending litigation.

The frogs, which have yellow color under their legs, live in Oregon and California streams. Their population has declined due to logging, mining, livestock grazing, dams and other threats.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon county is looking for non-lethal ways to deter wolves after experiencing its first livestock kills in October.

The Herald and News reports that Klamath County will put together toolboxes of deterrents for landowners with a $6,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The county will also contribute $600 to the project.

The county will work with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to create the boxes.

Officials believe a wolf called OR-25 killed on calf and injured two more in the Fort Klamath area in late October and early November.

Klamath County commission chairman Tom Mallams says the $6,600 won’t be used to compensate the livestock owners. That money will come from the wolf depredation compensation fund.

COOS COUNTY — Oregon State University has announced students who have earned honors for fall term 2015. To be included on the honor roll list, students must have carried at least 12 graded hours of course work.

COOS COUNTY — Oregon State University has announced students who have earned honors for fall term 2015. To be included on the honor roll list, students must have carried at least 12 graded hou…

PORTLAND — Hunger in Oregon is leveling off thanks in part to a growing collaboration with the state’s farmers and their donations of surplus fruit and produce, the Oregon Food Bank’s chief executive said,

That’s not to say the problem is solved. Food Bank CEO Susannah Morgan said 800,000 people in Oregon and Southwest Washington, one-in-five residents, go hungry at times.

“If this was a disease we would call it an epidemic,” Morgan said. “This is a crisis.”

But for now the hunger numbers don’t appear to be increasing, Morgan said in speech this month to the Oregon Board of Agriculture. The board toured the Food Bank’s operations in Portland and helped pack some food for distribution.

In her speech to the board and in a followup interview, Morgan said Oregon’s farmers have greatly increased their contributions of fresh fruit and produce. The Oregon Food Bank and others nationally primarily received and distributed canned and boxed food in the past, but the state organization set a goal of increasing vegetable and fruit distribution by 50 percent over multiple years.

Instead, with farmers pouring in an additional 2 million pounds of potatoes, carrots, onions, pears, apples and other crops, the Food Bank blew that goal out of the water in one year, Morgan said.

The Food Bank takes in produce that is surplus, blemished or otherwise not suitable for commercial markets. Food is distributed through a network of four bank branches and 17 independent regional food banks serving Oregon and Clark County, Washington.

While the food bank can’t afford to pay farmers much for food — or anything in many cases — state and federal legislation now encourage crop donation.

The 2014 Oregon Legislature passed a law giving farmers a 15 percent tax credit on the wholesale price of their donation. As part of a federal spending bill passed in mid-December, Congress permanently extended an enhanced tax deduction for charitable contributions of food by businesses.

Morgan said the possibility of no one in the region missing a meal is “doable in my lifetime.”

“It’s partly in our grasp because of our new and growing relationship with farmers,” she said.

In her talk to the ag board, Morgan said low income is the single biggest reason people ask for food assistance. About 72 percent of recipients live at or below the federal poverty line. More than a third of them are retired or disabled.

“Hunger hurts the most vulnerable,” Morgan told the ag board. She said 52 percent of recipient households have children, 20 percent are elderly and 20 percent have a veteran in the household makeup.

“This is the population that we continue to try and serve,” Morgan said. “Hunger remains a steady, persistent and excruciating large problem in our state and in our region.”

A lawsuit over the effect of water reservoirs on the threatened Oregon spotted frog could result in irrigation disruptions for more than 4,600 farmers.

Growers in two Central Oregon irrigation districts are nervously watching the case, which pits the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the agency operating the Crane Prairie and Wickiup reservoirs.

The lawsuit alleges the reservoirs have altered natural water flows in the Deschutes River to the point of interfering with the frog’s life cycle. While the complaint asks a federal judge for injunctive relief, it doesn’t specify what form such an order may take.

“We’re just sort of waiting to see what their next move is,” said Shon Rae, communications manager for the Central Oregon Irrigation District, which depends on water from the Wickiup Reservoir.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the frog’s egg masses are flushed out when the water levels in the reservoirs rise rapidly.

When water is later released from the reservoirs for irrigation, other egg masses along their margins are dried up, the complaint alleges.

River flows are reduced as water accumulates in the reservoirs, stranding adult and juvenile frogs on dry land and isolating their populations, resulting in in-breeding, the group claims.

The Center for Biological Diversity contends that the federal government has violated the Endangered Species Act by operating the reservoirs in a harmful manner before it completes a required consultation about the effects on the frog.

An adverse ruling in the case could have a huge impact on nearly 1,000 farmers in the North Unit Irrigation District, which in dry years relies on the Wickiup Reservoir for nearly 100 percent of its water.

Even in years with healthy snowpack and precipitation levels, the district gets roughly half of its water from the reservoir.

“To return it to a natural hydrologic flow is difficult, at best, without harming local farmers and ranchers,” said Mike Britton, the district’s general manager. “How that would be accomplished, we really don’t know.”

The Central Oregon Irrigation District’s 3,650 growers use water from the Crane Prairie Reservoir to supplement their irrigation needs during the early and late parts of the season, depending on river flows.

Oregon spotted frogs have survived in the area even though the reservoirs were created nearly 100 years ago, Rae said. They’ve also developed a large population surrounding the Crane Prairie Reservoir.

“Essentially, we’ve created habitat for them,” she said.

Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the environmental group, acknowledged that the frog lives on the margins of both reservoirs and benefits from the stored water.

However, the reservoirs have to be managed with fewer major fluctuations, since quick buildups and releases of water are chaotic for the frogs, he said.

“They can still deliver water to the irrigators, they just need to do it in a more careful way,” Greenwald said. “They have to do things more gradually and at different times of the year.”

Such changes in management would inevitably hurt irrigators, said Mike Britton of the North Unit Irrigation District.

More water would be stored in the reservoir during irrigation season, reducing the amount diverted for agriculture, and more water would be allowed to pass through dams during the winter, decreasing storage levels, he said.

“It’s quite a conundrum,” he said, noting that lower river levels in summer would hurt threatened fish. “There are other species to be considered, not just the frog.”

Irrigators want to help the frog by replacing irrigation ditches with pipes, which saves water and makes them less dependent on the reservoirs, said Rae. More efficient irrigation practices will also help in this respect.

Although the irrigation districts aren’t named as defendants in this lawsuit, the Waterwatch of Oregon environmental group has said they’ll be named as defendants in another spotted frog case that will also include the Tumalo Irrigation District.

Such litigation threatens to distract irrigators’ focus and sap resources from such improvements, she said. “It would be great if they wouldn’t sue us so we could just complete the process.”

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A disproportionate number of attacks on civilians in Yemen's conflict appear to be carried out by the Saudi-led and U.S.-supported coalition, the United Nations human rig…