COOS BAY — The Coos Bay School District's effort to overhaul its facilities could get a boost from the state through a new matching grant program.

COOS BAY — The Coos Bay School District's effort to overhaul its facilities could get a boost from the state through a new matching grant program.

A Baker County, Ore., cattle ranching couple who helped forge sage grouse habitat conservation agreements was honored during the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association annual conference Dec. 5-6.

Mark and Patti Bennett, of Unity, were given the 2015 Riley Freeman Award, named for a past OCA wildlife committee chairman who saw the need for cooperation between private landowners and the state and federal agencies that regulate wildlife and natural resources.

The award was jointly established and is presented annually by the OCA and ODFW.

In honoring the Bennetts, ODFW Director Curt Melcher praised them as “model stewards” of their cattle ranch. Like many other Eastern Oregon ranchers, the Bennetts signed a voluntary conservation agreement to maintain or improve habitat for greater sage grouse. Mark Bennett served on a rules advisory group that worked to balance the interests of landowners and regulatory officials.

“Bennett pushed for a reasonable approach to protecting sage grouse habitat while also protecting the economic viability of eastern Oregon and working lands,” ODFW said in a news release.

The voluntary agreements in Oregon were a model for other states, and were a key factor in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision in September to keep Greater sage-grouse off the endangered species list.

PORT ORFORD — The second annual "Seasonal Sensations,"a celebration of the holiday season's music and words, will feature the Cape Blanco Bell Ringers, the Pacific High School Musical Ensemble, Mary Morganti and her piano students, local musicians, poets, story tellers,…

PORT ORFORD — The second annual "Seasonal Sensations,"a celebration of the holiday season's music and words, will feature the Cape Blanco Bell Ringers, the Pacific High School Musical Ensemble…

NEWTON, Kan. (AP) — Kansas authorities say an Oregon man was urged to head home after he was spotted taking pictures of a wheat field wearing nothing “but a hat and a smile.”

The Harvey County sheriff’s office in Central Kansas says the man was first spotted Wednesday afternoon.

Sheriff T. Walton says authorities found the man four hours later — wearing boxers.

Walton said on the office’s Facebook page that an officer told the man and his friend that “Kansas is not as liberal as Oregon” and “suggested they continue their travels” back home.

Walton says it’s technically not illegal to be publicly naked in the county, as long as one is not trying to arouse oneself or others.

Walton added, “You know folks, you just can’t make this stuff up!”

The largest mountain snowfall of the season is expected to hit Western Oregon during the next six days, dropping snow on pass levels and bringing 20 to 40 inches of powder to the Cascade Range.

A system of cold air should transform the heavy rain into heavy snow above 4,000 feet, forecasters with the National Weather Service in Portland said, in a winter storm projected to last through the weekend.

Snow is expected to slam Willamette and Santiam passes with up to 10 inches of snow by Thursday evening. By Friday, the snow level is expected to drop to around 3,700 feet.

“This should be the biggest snow accumulation for the Cascades so far this year,” said Gerald Macke, a metrological technician with the NOAA. “We’re going to see wave after wave of moisture that’s not going to stop until next week, and above 4,000 feet, that should all fall as snow.”

The projected numbers — always to be taken with a grain of salt — are eye-popping.

Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood and Willamette Pass in the Central Cascades could see 20 to 40 inches, while Crater Lake National Park could get upwards of 50 inches by early next week.

PORTLAND — For the record, it is possible to find a job where you do your work while sitting in a yurt with a laptop and a sandwich. The yurt, it should be said, is on the third floor of a 100-year-old building in Portland’s Old Town, where street people provide rambling commentary and futilely shake parking pay stations for loose change.

Inside the old building, up to 400 employees of AirBNB, the international online vacation rental hub whose other offices are in San Francisco and Dublin, Ireland, take calls and emails from all around the world while perched in cubby holes, arranged in themed mini-offices or, yes, occupying the yurt.

But let’s talk about the sandwich.

The greens are from Portland’s Sauvie Island Organics. The ham is from Olympia Provisions, also of Portland, and the chutney was made in-house by AirBNB’s food team. The bread is from Pirate Bread, a North Portland startup.

All of which is intentional. AirBNB provides free breakfast, lunch and all-day snacks to its call center workers five days a week. As much as possible — bananas, orange juice, coffee and chocolate are among the few exceptions — the food is locally sourced. The baked kabocha squash? From Sauvie Island again. The portabella mushrooms? From Hood River, Ore. The maple-cashew-miso cream cheese? Made in-house. Craft beer and wine are available after work shifts, beginning at 5 p.m.

That’s just the casual soup, salad and sandwich bar. Four blocks away, behind an unmarked door along busy Burnside Street, AirBNB operates a full-blown restaurant for its employees. They’re encouraged to take a walk, grab a table and eat family style from shared platters. Again, free.

The employees, of course, eat it up.

Darcy Boles said free, healthy food is an “added, incredible bonus.” Her lunch table mate, Jeralyn Fix, said it’s the best perk of the job. The relaxed work atmosphere is somewhat like home, she said, and she feels free to get up and get a bowl of cereal anytime she likes.

Then there is James Evans Harvey, who on a recent day found a couch in the yurt to her liking. Evans Harvey worked one season for a CSA farmer and gained an appreciation for local food.

“I’m a new mom,” she said, “and for me it’s profoundly important to know the food going into my body and my baby’s body was grown, produced and made with a whole lot of love.”

AirBNB’s food service has a ripple effect, she said. The way she and other call takers interact with customers is “impacted by the way we’re treated here.” The work is “greatly enhanced by feeling we are home.”

The bigger ripple effect may be in the regional food system, especially among small producers and processors who operate relatively close to urban areas.

Kristin Arychuk, AirBNB’s culinary product and vendor lead in Portland, seeks out local farms and processors that can supply the greens, grains and finished goods needed to feed workers. She finds leads at farmers’ markets, looking for partners to provide ingredients and food that is seasonal and sustainable. AirBNB’s corporate culture encourages support of the local economy, she said.

“One of my main emphases is to make sure we ethically and wisely spend our money,” Arychuk said.

It’s a job that requires menu flexibility. “Yes we plan but no we don’t,” Arychuk said. “It’s dictated by what is great right now.”

The Portland center stresses sustainability in other ways as well. It eliminated canned beverages and the food team makes many drinks in-house. It employs re-usable totes, and snacks are delivered in bulk to avoid packaging. Leftover food is re-purposed, if possible, or donated to area missions that feed the homeless. “I feel pretty good about our waste structure,” Arychuk said.

Corporate cafes apparently started as a perk offered by high-tech firms that were competing for talented employees. A 2014 article online at Business Insider said Google had become the “gold standard of dining in Silicon Valley” by operating more than 30 free cafes for the estimated 20,000 employees at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Each cafe focused on using local ingredients, according to the article.

Big buyers such as AirBNB have the power to change the nature of the food system, said Amanda Oborne, vice president of food and farms for Ecotrust, a Portland nonprofit. Oborne was lead author of a report that examined how small to mid-size farms and processors can find success in Oregon’s regional food systems. The report noted that institutions such as schools, hospitals, care centers and jails serve 40 million meals annually, and that “ag of the middle” producers could find expanded markets if they can solve some transportation, warehousing, cold storage and aggregation problems.

Corporate cafes such as AirBNB’s have more money to spend than public institutions, and likewise can have a big impact by seeking out locally produced food and ingredients and “really putting their money where their mouth is,” Oborne said.

AirBNB’s action in Portland is a significant commitment to sourcing within the region, she said.

Buying from local producers requires give-and-take from both sides, she said. Corporate cafes have to work harder and be more flexible to find everything they need, and accept the seasonal ups and downs of supplies. For their part, small farmers and processors accustomed to being paid on delivery have to realize their payment will be delayed as it cycles through a company’s accounting system.

“There isn’t any way around it,” Oborne said. “They get paid, but not that day or the next day, but a couple weeks down the road.”

AirBNB employees, meanwhile, say the free, healthy and locally sourced food they’re being served is a more immediate reward.

Employee Phil Davis said he’s paid less at AirBNB than at a previous job, but the food helps bridge the gap.

“It’s like a hidden benefit in your paycheck,” he said.

GOLD BEACH — A Central Culinary Event was held in Gold Beach on Nov. 13 to connect local farmers, producers and buyers in the area.

GOLD BEACH — A Central Culinary Event was held in Gold Beach on Nov. 13 to connect local farmers, producers and buyers in the area.

Medford resident David Miles grumbles every year about having to turn his clocks forward in the spring and back again in the fall.

This year, Miles decided to respond differently by launching a ballot initiative Nov. 12 to end daylight-saving time in Oregon.

“I complain almost every time there is a time change and do nothing about it, and I didn’t want to be that guy anymore,” he said.

A month later, Miles has 20 volunteers in 15 Oregon towns and cities who have gathered nearly 1,000 signatures — a first step toward placing an initiative on the ballot. He said he expects to hit the 1,000-signature mark by mid-December.

Once the volunteers pass that hurdle, they’ll need to round up a total of 117,578 signatures to send the measure to voters in November.

The proposal abolishes daylight-saving in 2018 and allows voters in individual counties to opt out through an election. Miles added that provision with Malheur County in mind. That county already follows Mountain time to be uniform with neighboring Idaho.

“The fringe benefit is other counties can decide to stay on daylight-saving time, through general county election,” Miles said.

Changing clocks back and forth is disruptive to internal body clocks, sleep patterns and can even be dangerous, he said.

A 2014 study by University of Colorado at Boulder found that fatal traffic accidents spike by 17 percent on the Monday after clocks spring forward.

Daylight-saving began in the United States in 1918 to conserve electricity during the final days of World War I. It became a permanent ritual in 1966 with passage of the Uniform Time Act. The federal legislation was designed to end a confusing patchwork of different time zones in the country but allowed individual states to opt out. Arizona, Hawaii and some U.S. territories have chosen to stay on standard time.

Nowadays, the time change fails to accomplish the goal of saving energy, Miles said.

A University of California Berkeley study found that a two-month extension of daylight-saving time in Australia during the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 failed to curtail electricity demand.

Earlier this year, there were proposals in several states to end time changes by either remaining on daylight saving or adhering to standard time year-round, according to the Washington Post.

Oregon Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, introduced a bill in January that would have let voters to decide whether to abolish daylight saving in 2021.

Dozens of Oregonians testified in favor of the proposal.

Joanne DeWitt, one of those who submitted testimony, said daylight saving causes hazards while serving no purpose.

“I would like to see it go the way of other old dinosaurs,” DeWitt said.

The legislation stalled in the Senate Rules Committee. Some lawmakers were concerned about being out of sync with Washington and California, according to Thatcher’s office.

“I think once one state does it, the others will follow, and honestly, it isn’t that big of a deal,” Miles said “I have never heard people in Arizona say, ‘I hate being off time with Utah.’ They always laugh at the rest of the country at daylight-saving time.”

Albany resident Carrie Davis, one of the volunteer petitioners, said she has always hated daylight-saving time. Her opposition compounded when she had children.

“Now that I have kids, it is apparent to me when we try to change our daily schedule even by an hour, it is so impactful to our whole success through the day,” Davis said. “Trying to get a toddler to go to sleep an hour later or an hour earlier is just challenging, for a superficial social agreement we don’t need.”

The irrigation company that owns the dam at Northeast Oregon’s Wallowa Lake has temporarily withdrawn a water right application that is part of its plan to pay for rehabilitating the structure by selling some of the water from its increased storage capacity.

Associated Ditch Companies Inc., formed by five irrigation ditch companies that originally built the dam nearly 100 years ago, will renew its application to the state Water Resources Department in 2016, project manager Dave Hockett said.

The decision is another detour in a long-running community argument. Federal inspectors, citing the possibility of a breach, have restricted the dam operators to storing about 72 percent of the water it could potentially hold. Associated Ditch Companies, or ADC, maintains that rehab work will allow it to reach the dam’s previously authorized storage capacity, an estimated 12,000 acre feet more than is currently being stored.

The problem has been how to pay for the work, estimated to cost $15 million. ADC has proposed selling about 4,200 acre feet annually of the renewed storage capacity to downstream users. Buyers might include other irrigation outfits, industrial users or community water systems, Hockett said.

Farmers and others in the Umatilla Basin are pursuing ways to recharge aquifers and have expressed interest in drawing water from the Columbia River for that purpose. In the past, they’ve mentioned increased flow that might come from the Wallowa River if the dam is repaired. The Wallowa flows into the Minam River, which joins the Grand Ronde River, then into the Snake and finally the Columbia.

ADC’s plan to finance the repairs by selling water is opposed by community members who believe the water should be retained for local benefit.

The discovery of a bacterial disease, Xylella fastidiosa, has convinced Oregon’s farm regulators to order a quarantine restricting shipments of susceptible plants from nine counties.

The pathogen causes symptoms similar to drought stress and often kills affected plants, as no treatments are available, said Helmuth Rogg, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s plant program area.

A pear nursery in Hood River County first reported disease symptoms earlier this year, which researchers from Washington State University found were caused by Xylella fastidiosa, he said.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture was initially unable to replicate these results but eventually confirmed the bacteria’s presence after refining its test procedures, Rogg said.

The agency then found that pear trees from the National Clonal Germplasm Depository in Corvallis, Ore., were infected with the bacteria and that pear scion wood from that facility had been sent to 22 sites in the state, he said.

ODA is now trying to trace the disease’s source and where else infected plant material may have been shipped.

It’s also issued an emergency quarantine for the nine counties where the pear tree scions were shipped: Benton, Hood River, Jackson, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill. Violating the quarantine is punishable by fines of up to $10,000.

While the bacteria has so far been associated with pear trees, the quarantine prohibits shipments of any host plant material, including oak, maple, blackberry, caneberry, blueberry and stone fruit, said Rogg.

That restriction remains in place until either the counties are found free of the disease or the bacteria’s presence is determined not to exist at a particular nursery production site, he said.

If ODA nursery inspectors do detect the bacteria, affected plants must be destroyed and the surrounding 10 meters around them will be surveyed for further evidence of the pathogen.

Insects that suck sap from plants, such as the glassy-winged sharpshooter in California, are known vectors for the bacteria’s spread, Rogg said.

Disease caused by Xylella fastidiosa has devastated olive orchards in Italy and threatens California wine producers, he said.

Oregon’s climate has traditionally been considered too cold to harbor the bacteria, which is likely why it hasn’t been found in the state until now, he said. With the prospect of warming temperatures, however, the concern is that Xylella fastidiosa will be able to survive here.

The recent discovery will postpone shipments of plant material to Europe until ODA and the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service are able to demonstrate the existence of pest-free areas or production sites, Rogg said.

Cort Brazelton, whose family runs the Fall Creek Farm & Nursery near Lowell, Ore., said he’s optimistic that ODA’s efforts will allow his company to ship blueberry plants to Europe next year.

“We feel confident we’ll be able to comply with all the requirements,” he said.

Brazelton said he’s happy to follow additional steps to ensure that Xylella fastidiosa doesn’t spread to customers in Europe.

“You’d always rather have no barriers but it’s important that individual counties that don’t want pathogens have reasonable protocols so that they don’t come in,” he said. “We do have to comply with the higher global standards because we ship all over the world.”

BEND, Ore. (AP) — As Oregon conservationists turn their attention to the monarch butterfly, field research has found that there are more of the colorful insects in the state than once thought.

The field research last summer by the U.S. Forest Service and volunteers found that Central Oregon is dotted with butterflies, The Bulletin reports. Researchers found 125 adult monarchs and more than 300 caterpillars. Before the data was collected, there were only four or five known spots for monarchs. The survey found about 30 sites.

“We basically put Central Oregon on the map for monarch butterfly conservation,” said Matt Horning, a geneticist with the U.S. Forest Service in Bend.

The new findings could help efforts to revive the species, which is being considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Monarchs are known for their massive migrations, with the trip south for winter taking multiple generations. Some butterflies have been known to fly as far as from Mexico to the Midwest. The butterflies eventually make their way to coastal California before a new generation returns north.

Monarchs are found in Oregon from May to October.

Horning said he plans to further study monarchs in Central Oregon, potentially marking some to learn more about where they migrate.

Katya Spiecker, founder of the Monarch Advocates of Central Oregon, said monarchs are important because they are a good poster child for pollinators, such as bumblebees and wasps, and the problems they face.

“A lot of pollinators, their populations are dropping,” Spiecker said.

A federal agency has twice faulted the longshoremen’s union for unfair labor practices at the Port of Portland, but such rulings won’t directly restore container service at the facility, experts say.

Ocean carriers responsible for the majority of container traffic at the port, Hanjin and Hapag-Lloyd, stopped servicing the facility earlier this year due to low productivity.

The disruption has affected farmers who relied on Portland’s container terminal to export crops to Asia and now face higher shipping costs.

The National Labor Relations Board has found that since September 2012, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union operated cranes and trucks in a “slow and nonproductive manner,” among other actions, to force ocean carriers and the terminal operator to “cease doing business with the port.”

In a previous ruling, the NLRB also found that the union also engaged in earlier work slowdowns and stoppages during a dispute with the terminal operator, ICTSI Oregon.

These findings allow the agency to seek contempt sanctions against the union in federal court.

Capital Press was unable to reach an ILWU spokersperson for comment. Elvis Ganda, CEO of ICTSI Oregon, released a statement saying the union should “accept the validity” of the ruling and agree to restore productivity at the container terminal.

While the terminal operator has prevailed in these NLRB disputes, using these legal victories to actually bring ocean carriers back to Portland is a more complicated matter, experts say.

That’s because the NLRB has ruled that ILWU cannot engage in work slowdowns, but there’s currently almost no work with which to interfere at the container terminal.

“This is a very unusual scenario when it raises the point of enforcing the law,” said Michael LeRoy, a law professor specializing in labor relations at the University of Illinois.

For ICTSI, the NLRB rulings are more likely to serve as bargaining chips in its overall negotiations with the longshoremen’s union, LeRoy said.

The union, the port and the container terminal are also engaged in other litigation in federal court.

It’s possible that ICTSI will use legal victories as part of a public “tit for tat” with the longshoremen’s union but later “wipe the slate clean” so the terminal can again become operational, LeRoy said.

Terminal operators have not traditionally enforced such NLRB rulings to win monetary awards due to fear of creating “lifelong ill will” with the longshoremen’s union, said Jim Tessier, a labor relations consultant and former employee of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents terminals.

“They use it as a negotiating tool,” he said.

ICTSI would be wiser to drop the case against the union as a show of good faith rather than press for penalties, Tessier said. “That would mean the kiss of death for that company, in my humble opinion.”

Ocean carriers won’t return to the port unless they’re convinced the union and terminal operator have reconciled, he said.

ICTSI Oregon has a 25-year lease for the container terminal, so unless the company is willing to make amends with ILWU to restore service, it “will have a nice parking lot,” Tessier said.

Whether the NLRB is willing to seek financial damages or simply regards the legal victories as symbolic is a “wild card,” said LeRoy.

The agency has won major awards in the past, such as a $64 million against a miner’s union for staging illegal pickets, he said.

In that case, however, the pickets were directly preventing the movement of trucks, LeRoy said. At the Port of Portland, the agency would have to prove that ILWU’s actions drove ocean carriers away.

“That is harder to demonstrate,” he said.

The prohibition against genetically engineered crops in Jackson County, Ore., will be allowed to stand if a proposed settlement is finalized, barring a new legal challenge to the ordinance.

Voters in the county approved the ban last year, which prompted alfalfa growers Schulz Family Farms and James and Marilyn Frink to file a lawsuit claiming the ordinance violated Oregon’s “right to farm” law.

In May, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke rejected their argument, finding that the “right to farm” statute is intended to protect growers from lawsuits and ordinances against common farming practices, but it exempts farmers who want to avoid damage to their crops.

“While farming practices may not be limited by a suburbanite’s sensitivities, they may be limited if they cause damage to another farm’s crops,” Clarke said in the ruling.

While the plaintiffs lost this argument, they still sought more than $4 million for the lost value of the biotech alfalfa crops they’d have to destroy when the ordinance went into effect.

Also, the growers would eventually be able to challenge Clarke’s “right to farm” ruling before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals once the original lawsuit was closed.

They’ve now agreed to give up that right and drop their other claims against Jackson County under a proposed settlement that would in turn allow their alfalfa to stay in the ground, but for no longer than eight years.

While other farmers are not bound by the agreement, which must still be approved by the judge, any future lawsuits would have to “grapple” with the finding that the ordinance complies with Oregon’s “right to farm” law, said George Kimbrell, senior attorney with the Center for Food Safety, which was involved in the litigation.

“This settlement preserves their victory,” he said.

It’s unclear whether the biotech industry would want to pursue a new challenge against the ordinance, Kimbrell said.

Shannon Armstrong, attorney for the plaintiffs, said they decided to agree to the proposed settlement because it would safeguard their investment in biotech alfalfa.

Altogether, the two farms planted more than 300 acres of alfalfa that’s resistant to glyphosate herbicides, which makes weed control easier.

“For us, it lifts a cloud of uncertainty,” said Armstrong.

Most local governments in Oregon are pre-empted from regulating biotech crops under a law passed in 2013 that exempted Jackson County because its proposed ban had already been approved for the ballot.

However, litigation is also pending over a similar prohibition passed in neighboring Josephine County in 2014.

Proponents of that ordinance plan to argue that Oregon’s biotech pre-emption statute is unconstitutional, according to court documents.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Portland area was in line for a second soaking Tuesday after heavy rains turned streets into creeks, wreaked havoc on mass transit and forced the evacuation of at least one neighborhood.

Monday’s flooding caused the closure of numerous roads, and heavy rains triggered landslides.

The 24-hour accumulation at Portland International Airport set a record for December. More than 3.3 inches of rain fell in the 24-hour span that ended Monday at 2 p.m. Parts of the Coast Range got even more.

Light rain fell early Tuesday and forecasters expect the region to get soaked later in the day and again Wednesday night.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for much of northwest Oregon and southwest Washington. It’s in effect through Thursday afternoon, but rain likely won’t stop until the week’s end.

The rains are caused by several low-pressure systems moving through the region, one after the other, forecasters said.

The downpours had officials evacuating a neighborhood in Clackamas County, and the American Red Cross opened a shelter there. Several school districts sent students home early Monday and the Oregon Zoo also closed.

A big sinkhole developed in a street in Gresham, a Portland suburb, where crews were also pumping water from an elementary school in Gresham.

The parking lot at Multnomah Falls, a popular tourist stop in the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland, was closed after a creek overflowed its banks.

In Lake Oswego, just south of Portland, several cars were stranded in high water.

The rain also caused Portland’s sewer system to overflow into the Willamette River. Officials said people should avoid contact with the river for at least 48 hours because of bacteria in the water.

Officials say residents should avoid traveling and should watch for flash floods, mudslides, falling trees and power outages. They are also advised to keep children and pets away from floodwaters and avoid walking and driving through high water. Residents whose property is at risk for flooding should use sandbags.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Opponents of Nestlé’s proposed water bottling plant in the Columbia River Gorge have turned in three times the number of signatures required to qualify a local ballot measure blocking the deal.

The citizen measure is being watched around the country, as other communities ponder whether publicly owned water should be given or sold to for-profit corporations, said Julia DeGraw, Northwest organizer for Food & Water Watch.

The measure would prohibit any bottled water exports from Hood River County. The Local Water Alliance, which is leading the campaign, believes it’s the first measure of its kind nationwide.

The deal to build a bottling plant in economically depressed Cascade Locks has been in the works for more than six years. It centers on state-owned water rights at nearby Oxbow Springs.

Cascade Locks had proposed trading its city well water gallon-for-gallon with the state’s Oxbow Springs water, then planned to sell the spring water to Nestlé. The plan faced an extensive review to determine whether it served the public interest.

In April 2015, the city and state decided to pursue a new agreement that would permanently trade water rights instead of just water, eliminating the need for a public interest review.

The decision drew complaints, protests and a formal letter from nine legislators urging Gov. Kate Brown to intervene.

Last month, Brown ordered the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to withdraw its cross transfer application and return to the original water exchange process, which will require a public-interest review.

Nestlé officials said they were disappointed with the decision.

“This will likely further delay much needed economic development in Cascade Locks that our project would bring,” said Dave Palais, natural resource manager for Nestlé Waters North America.

The plant is expected to provide about 50 jobs. The company also is asking for tax breaks.

The plant’s opponents say it doesn’t make sense to send 200 million gallons a year out of a county that has been in a serious drought.

“This project would set a dangerous precedent that Hood River County is a county willing to give away the future of our water security,” said Aurora del Val, campaign director for the Local Water Alliance. “That precedent puts at risk our entire economy, which heavily relies on water, and it is not worth the small number of jobs Nestlé could create at a highly automated bottling plant.”

Nestlé sells 64 brands of water in 43 countries. It taps 50 springs across the United States, but doesn’t have a source of spring water in the Pacific Northwest. Instead, it trucks bottled water here from Sacramento.

RAINIER, Ore. (AP) — Skyla Ade dug her hands deep into the earth, scraping a mound of wet dirt toward her to make a planting hole. She plopped a red cabbage into the dirt and patted it down.

It was a dreary day at Rainier High School last week when Ade, 15, and several students worked vigorously to plant onion and cabbage in the school’s raised garden beds. The students are part of Discovery Club, an after-school group focused on gardening and healthy eating.

Under the direction of Dustin Vinson from Greg’s Gardens & Gifts in Longview, the students plucked weeds from several raised beds before replacing them with onion bulbs and budding cabbage plants. The students crouched beneath hooded sweatshirts and coats to shield themselves from a downpour as they planted.

“I love the rain,” 15-year-old Annie Tygret said, lifting her muddy hands from the garden to reach for another plant.

Discovery Club meets once a week and teaches high school kids to garden and cook quick but healthy meals. Julie Crape, the high school’s agriculture teacher, said the students have learned to make smoothies, healthy carrot cake cookies and apple “nachos” (applies drizzled with warm peanut butter and topped with dried fruit).

This year is the first full year for the club, which is funded by multiple grants. A $400,000 Career Technical Education grant paid for the garden, while $300 from a Fuel Up to Play 60 grant helps pay for other club necessities. Money from a PEP grant pays for supplies.

“The reason we called it Discovery Club is we wanted it to be open to student interpretation for what they want to do,” Crape explained.

On days the kids garden, they plant herbs and vegetables that later are incorporated in cafeteria meals. Students grow oregano, thyme, mint, chives, grapes, strawberries and kale, among other foods. The purpose, Crape said, is to teach healthy habits early on.

“People in this community have a hard time eating healthy,” she said. “They have a hard time coming up with ideas for foods that are healthy and quick. I think it’s important for kids to learn how to cook things that are healthy for them and healthy for their family.”

Ade, who is in Crape’s agriculture class, said the club is an extension of what students learn during school hours.

“It’s something different than our regular routine,” she said, without shifting her gaze from the garden. She studied her work, scanning for space to place another cabbage plant.

“I think I pretty much filled up this bed,” she said to Annie Tygret, who was planting nearby. The two girls continued scanning the dirt for open space.

Annie said she enjoys the gardening aspect of Discovery Club, but cooking is her favorite part.

“We’ve had competitions with making smoothies before,” she said.

Ryan Cash, 15, said he’s interested in both gardening and cooking.

“Ever since I was little I’ve had an interest in farming and cooking,” he said. “In my family, I was always the one that wanted to cook.”

Ryan, who’s been coming to the club for three months, said he hopes to start a farm one day. The work can be tough, he said, but it’s nothing he didn’t expect.

“I sort of thought it would be like this,” he said as he reached for another plant. “I’ve grown up with a big family, so I sort of have a lot of stuff to do.”

A wild duck harvested last month in Morrow County in Eastern Oregon had Eurasian bird flu, but tests were unable to determine whether the strain was a danger to poultry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A sample from the hunter-shot mallard was collected Nov. 7 by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

ODFW state veterinarian Colin Gillin said Friday that preliminary test results caused concern.

The duck would have been the first confirmed case of highly pathogenic bird flu in the U.S. since July. The USDA declared Nov. 18 to the World Organization for Animal Health that the U.S. was free of bird flu, which had prompted trade bans on U.S. poultry products.

The Morrow County duck had Eurasian H5 bird flu, but tests to further define the type and pinpoint the strength of the virus were inconclusive, according to USDA.

“The testing was unable to determine the exact strain of the viruses or whether they were high pathogenic or low pathogenic,” the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced Friday.

There are dozens of bird flu strains. The strains that killed millions of birds last winter and spring were H5N8, a highly pathogenic Eurasian virus, and H5N2, a highly pathogenic mix of Eurasian and North American strains. Migratory waterfowl carry the virus and spread the disease to poultry flocks.

Highly pathogenic bird flu struck poultry farms in British Columbia, Canada, in early December 2014.

The virus was then detected in a wild duck across the border in Washington in mid-December, the first U.S. case of highly pathogenic bird flu in a decade.

The virus eventually spread to 15 states and claimed 48 million birds, the largest animal health emergency in U.S. history, according to USDA.

To be on-guard for bird flu’s return, federal and state agencies have tested more than 24,000 wild birds in the U.S. since July 1.

The only bird to test positive for highly pathogenic bird flu was a mallard duck collected in Utah on July 31.

The virus was apparently fairly common in Morrow County last year. ODFW collected samples from fewer than 100 wild birds at the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge on one day in January and six tested positive for highly pathogenic bird flu.

The last case in a U.S. poultry flock was confirmed June 17.