Wednesday, June 28

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — The U.S. Department of the Interior will pay nearly $465 million this year to local governments primarily in rural areas that have come to rely on the funds because they cannot levy taxes on federal lands.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the sum in Nevada on Monday.

The $13 million increase this year is slightly less than the average annual growth of $22 million over the last decade.

Most of the money goes to Western states, where the Interior Department collects most its $8.8 billion in annual revenue from commercial activities on public lands.

California will see more than $48 million this year from the program.

Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Utah will each receive between $30 million and $40 million.

Alaska, Nevada and Wyoming will each get more than $25 million.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A lengthy legal battle over the alcohol industry’s exclusive rights to distribute marijuana in Nevada won’t affect the state’s plans to begin recreational pot sales at medical dispensaries on Saturday, state officials said.

The Nevada Tax Commission also approved emergency regulations Monday with stricter labeling and packaging requirements aimed at protecting children. Among other things, the rules prohibit edible pot products modeled after products marketed primarily to children or bearing likenesses of animals, fruit or cartoon characters.

The marijuana industry is eager for the fast-approaching July 1 kickoff of recreational sales in Nevada, where demand from tourists is expected to eventually make the state’s market bigger than other states where it’s legal, including Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

The state intends to appeal a Carson City judge’s order that only alcohol wholesalers can obtain pot distribution licenses, Stephanie Klapstein, Taxation Department spokeswoman, confirmed Monday.

It won’t happen on an emergency basis, and it won’t affect retail sales starting Saturday, Klapstein said.

State regulators argued they have the authority to issue distributor licenses to existing medical dispensaries if there aren’t enough applicants from the alcohol industry to meet demand. Judge James Wilson disagreed.

“Nobody said they are going to just roll over and accept the court’s finding. It’s a fairly big issue,” said Michael Willden, chief of staff to Gov. Brian Sandoval.

But that fight is for another day, he said, because Sandoval has decided they don’t want to pursue that matter through an emergency regulation.

In the meantime, properly licensed medical dispensaries can sell off their stockpiles for recreational use and expect to have enough supply to meet demand for three weeks or longer. The state anticipates at least some alcohol wholesalers will be licensed to distribute pot by then.

“I get the sense that most, if not all, dispensaries will have sufficient inventory to serve retail customers until distributors are up and running,” Nevada Dispensary Association President Andrew Jolley said Monday.

Nevada officials estimate 63 percent of recreational pot sales will go to tourists. More than 40 million tourists visited Las Vegas last year.

“I think it is going to be the largest cannabis market in the country until California gets its sales going,” said Nancy Whiteman, co-owner of Colorado-based Wana Brands. The firm sells edible marijuana products through a Nevada affiliate to about half of the Silver State’s 60 licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

California law prohibits recreational sales until at least Jan. 1, 2018, and industry experts anticipate Californians will be among those travelling to neighboring Nevada to take advantage of recreational sales starting Saturday.

“I think there will be long lines,” Whiteman said. “I think because of the sheer historical precedent and the novelty of it that people will want to be a part of that first day.”

Medical dispensaries licensed to sell recreational pot must comply with the new regulations regarding children, including labels that state, “THIS IS A MARIJUANA PRODUCT,” and “Keep out of reach of children.”

Whiteman said her company has about 15 edible labels it must redesign before those products can be sold in Nevada, primarily gummies.

“We are frantically having our graphic people rework those as we speak,” she said.

Clint Cates, director of compliance for Mainstream Partners and Kynd Cannabis Co., said his company is changing molds used to produce chocolates infused with marijuana to comply with the new rules.

That adds to the firms’ wholesale costs, “but we knew that was coming because we are the strictest regulated industry in the country,” Cates said. “This is the ‘big boy’ state. If you are the ‘who’s who’ of the cannabis industry, you are in Nevada because of our tourism.”

COOS BAY, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College hosted its 56th annual commencement on Friday, June 9, 2017.

BOARDMAN, Ore. — State regulators have denied a request by multiple environmental and animal rights groups to suspend operations at Lost Valley Farm, the controversial new 30,000-cow dairy permitted earlier this year near Boardman.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality are jointly responsible for administering Oregon’s confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, program. The agencies issued a hotly contested water pollution permit for Lost Valley Farm on March 31, which became final on April 20.

Opponents of the dairy farm have filed what’s known as a petition for reconsideration, urging ODA and DEQ officials to change their minds. The coalition also asked for a stay of Lost Valley’s permit, which was rejected in a ruling handed down June 23.

“Petitioners have failed to provide any evidence of exactly what harms, if any, their members will sustain during the reconsideration period,” the ruling reads in part.

Petitioners include the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Columbia Riverkeeper, Food & Water Watch, Friends of Family Farmers, Humane Oregon, the Humane Society of the United States, Oregon Physicians for Rural Responsibility and Oregon Rural Action. They argue Lost Valley threatens to contaminate local groundwater and surface water as the dairy ramps up to full capacity over the next three years.

So far, Lost Valley has brought in just more than half the cows it is permitted to handle — 16,000 total, with about 8,700 milking cows. Estimates show that, at 30,000 cows, Lost Valley will produce 187 million gallons of wastewater and manure every year.

ODA and DEQ claim they crafted a permit that will be the most protective of water quality to date. For example, Lost Valley is required to have 11 groundwater monitoring wells on site, which is seven more than usual. The facility will also be inspected at least three times as often as other dairies.

Tarah Heinzen, staff attorney for Food & Water Watch, previously told the East Oregonian they knew it was unlikely the state would stay Lost Valley’s permit. Their petition for reconsideration remains under review, and the groups may still consider a formal appeal in court.

Greg te Velde, owner of Lost Valley Farm, previously said that suspending his operation would have just as harmful an effect on the cows as it would his business. Without the CAFO permit, te Velde said he would have nowhere else to go with the cows. It is entirely possible they would have to be sold for slaughter, he said.

In addition, te Velde said he would likely face foreclosure in Oregon after roughly $100 million worth of investment since 2003. Previously, te Velde ran Willow Creek Dairy on land leased from nearby Threemile Canyon Farms.

A spokeswoman for Lost Valley said the farm is pleased with the latest decision, and continues to focus on its operations.

LAKESIDE — A sign in the DVD section states the usual for visitors to the Lakeside Library.

Tuesdays

An Oregon ranch is challenging the federal government’s decision to eliminate grazing on more than 8,000 acres of public land to study vegetation.

Cahill Ranches of Adel, Ore., has filed a complaint alleging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s decision will encourage juniper encroachment and wildfires while harming sage grouse populations.

“Eliminating grazing is not necessary to prevent irreparable damage to sage grouse or sage grouse habitat and the best available science shows that eliminating management will increase the risk of loss of habitat from rapidly spreading and intense wildfire and juniper expansion,” the lawsuit said.

A representative of BLM said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Rangeland conditions within the 8,282-acre Sucker Creek pasture have been determined to be in good health by the BLM, whose decision to re-authorize grazing in the area for 10 years drew no objections from environmental groups, the complaint said.

The agency has also already conducted a juniper research project in the area, the complaint said.

Cahill Ranches postponed juniper removal on its property between 2007 and 2014, providing the BLM with a “control area” for comparison with areas where the invasive trees were removed.

After the conclusion of the study, which determined sage grouse reproduction and survival improved in areas treated for juniper, Cahill Ranches resumed removing the trees from its property.

The BLM’s decision to halt grazing in the pasture to study the natural development of vegetation is thus unnecessary, particularly since it is near two federal refuges where grazing is already prohibited, according to the plaintiffs.

Meanwhile, prohibiting grazing within the Sucker Creek Pasture will “significantly reduce or eliminate” Cahill Ranches’ cattle operations on the larger Rahilly-Gravelly Allotment, the complaint said.

The pasture makes up 44 percent of the 18,678-acre allotment, so disallowing grazing there would disrupt the ranch’s ability to rotate cattle, which is necessary for vegetation to recover in some areas while it’s consumed elsewhere, the plaintiffs claim.

“The decision to eliminate grazing from the Sucker Creek pasture fails to consider the overall impact on the economic viability of the Cahill Ranches, and consequently, whether Cahill Ranches can afford to continue sage grouse habitat improvement projects,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit calls the decision to halt grazing in the pasture an “artifact of a top-down decision process that fails to account for the local conditions on the ground” in violation of federal administrative, land management and grazing statutes.

Attorneys with the Western Resources Legal Center, a nonprofit representing Cahill Ranches, are asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke in Medford, Ore., to overturn the decision as unlawful.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28

BANDON — Grab your grocery bag and hoof it down the farm trail.

SALEM — Supporters of a bill to relax Oregon’s land use restrictions in slow-growing counties were unable to overcome objections to the proposal despite several revisions.

Nonetheless, Senate Bill 432 was referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means on June 26 by the Senate Rules Committee, albeit without a “do pass” recommendation.

Under the original language of the bill, counties with fewer than 50,000 residents that have experienced no growth since the previous federal population census were exempted from statewide land use planning goals.

The amended version of SB 432 allows such slow-growing counties, and the cities within them, to adopt exceptions to statewide land use planning goals.

Such exceptions cannot take place on high-value farmland or adversely affect areas protected under a preservation plan for the Greater sage grouse, a sensitive bird species.

The amendment also clarifies that counties that experience population growth greater than 4 percent or 1,000 residents between census reports cannot qualify for new land use exceptions.

“For all the angst over this bill, the impact on the ground is very small,” said Dave Hunnicutt, executive director of Oregonians In Action, a property rights group that supports SB 432.

The Association of Oregon Counties and the League of Oregon Cities also support the bill, with representatives testifying that it provides economically-struggling counties with more autonomy.

Local governments are often blocked from undertaking relatively minor land use change because they can’t afford the costly studies required, said Erin Doyle, intergovernmental relations associate with the League of Oregon Cities.

The bill’s scope would effectively be limited to eight of Oregon’s 36 counties: Baker, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Sherman, Wallowa and Wheeler.

Although the proposal’s breadth was narrowed, the Oregon Farm Bureau and the 1,000 Friends of Oregon conservation group have maintained their opposition to SB 432.

Easing development in rural areas has raised worries about skyrocketing land values, potentially pricing farmers and ranchers out of the market while reducing sales for key agricultural suppliers, said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for Oregon Farm Bureau.

“The biggest concern is everyone around them will parcelize out,” she said.

High-value farmland is defined narrowly in the bill, excluding irrigation properties and those valuable for ranching, said Mary Kyle McCurdy, deputy director of 1,000 Friends of Oregon.

Land use restrictions haven’t been shown to suppress economic development, but SB 432 would create different rules for different counties, said McCurdy.

“Predictability will be gone,” she said.

COLFAX, Wash. — More farmers are raising chickpeas for the first time, so the McGregor Co. offered plot tours last week devoted to the pulse crop.

Chickpea acres were up 150 percent year over year, said Cat Salois, the company’s director of research. “We felt it was pretty important to go ahead and put some kind of educational program on.”

The tour showcased insecticides, nutrition, fertility, fungicides and weed control for the crop.

Salois believes the higher interest is because chickpea prices are up and wheat prices are down.

Chickpeas — also known as garbanzo beans — are selling for $36 to $37 per hundredweight in Washington and Idaho. Soft white wheat ranges from $4.85 per bushel to $5.05 per bushel on the Portland market, near or below the break-even point for farmers.

“A crop that used to be considered a rotation is now holding the farm,” Salois said.

“I see more acres of garbanzos right now, and I also see garbs where I’ve never seen them before,” said farmer Dean Farrens, who has raised chickpeas east of Walla Walla, Wash., for 15 years.

He attended the tour to get more information about weed control and emergence.

“They’ve been a pretty solid crop for us over the years,” he said.

Colfax, Wash., farmer Dan Harder has raised chickpeas for 17 years.

“If you haven’t raised them before, you better go talk to somebody who has,” Harder said. “There are guys that have raised really good garbanzos year after year after year, and those are the guys you want to talk to and find out what they’re doing.”

Weeds such as dog fennel, lambsquarter and prickly lettuce are the biggest problems, Harder said.

“Chickpeas do not yield well with weed competition, because they don’t compete,” he said. “And diseases can wipe you out.”

Carryover of chemicals used in wheat propagation can also be a big problem, Harder said.

Harder believes chickpea acreage could drop by as much as half next year as its prices decrease and wheat prices increase, but Salois predicts wheat prices won’t rally for several years. Chickpea prices could remain strong for the same amount of time, she said.

Farmers don’t think about managing chickpeas the same way they think about managing wheat, Salois said.

“If we’re going to treat it like the cash crop it is, things like zinc and (molybdenum) ionputs on seed, addressing fertility needs and understanding if we feed that crop, we will get more yield, are really the big take-home,” she said. “It’s not just about playing defense; we can play offense with these guys, too.”

McGregor is also investigating a “no-grow zone” on their plots where the chickpeas failed to emerge. The company submitted soil samples to determine whether a pH reaction or salt reaction occurred, Salois said. A form of pythium, a fungus resistant to the fungicide metalaxyl, could also be a factor.

Salois said the situation could occur for other growers.

Saturdays

MYRTLE POINT — Coos County Fair Culinary Department has category prizes sponsored by area businesses to go along with your potential "Blue Ribbon Pride."

PORTLAND – Time will tell, but Oregon and Washington producers of specialty snacks and drinks hope they made a tasteful impression on a visiting trade mission team from China.

Makers of cider, wine, mead and beer and vendors of various nut, seed and fruit snacks set up display tables two consecutive days at an event organized June 21-22 by the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The China trade group was on its way back from a Fancy Food Show in New York, and the Portland visit was its only other stop.

Trade mission members sampled products as they moved from table to table.

“There’s been some interest,” said Doug Furlong, who described himself as the “boss nut” of Doug’s Nuts, based in Eugene. He sells nut mix snacks in a variety of flavors and combinations. He said Chinese buyers appeared to be looking for upscale products and “Everybody likes the packaging.”

Paula Phillips, president of Pure Steeps in Portland, offered visitors tastes of the company’s Wonder Drink Kombucha, a fermented tea. One trade mission member took a sip and said it reminded him fondly of a drink served at home in his childhood.

Phillips and company marketing representative Linda Shively said Pure Steeps sells in Hong Kong, but is not yet in mainland China. Their kombucha is organic and shelf stable, and appeals to the Chinese desire for healthy beverages.

Phillips grew up in Taiwan and conversed easily with trade mission members. “She can tell you about kombucha in two languages,” Shively said.

Holly Witte, of A Blooming Hill vineyard and winery in Cornelius, west of Portland, offered samples of her Pinot noir, Riesling and blush wines. Witte said she’d been researching the Chinese market and “I knew they would love our label.”

She said the company has exported a bit to China in the past. “What does it take? It takes exposure – and a great product,” she said.

Corrine Konell, of Sandy, Ore., displayed her protein bars made with goats’ milk dairy products. Konell said she is not quite ready to scale up production enough to sell in China, and most likely would look into Canada and Europe first. But she was interested in gauging reactions to her chewy bars, and was gratified by the buyers’ interest.

Adam Carlson, of Seattle Cider Co., joked he was “crashing the party” of Oregon producers. The company sells hard cider in Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom, and China is a promising future market.

“You look at how fast the Chinese middle class is growing, and the rise of discretionary income,” he said.

China is Oregon agriculture’s fourth largest export market, behind Japan, Canada and South Korea. A minimum of $240 million worth of Oregon ag products is shipped to China annually. The figure is incomplete because some Oregon-grown or manufactured goods are shipped from ports in Washington or California, and aren’t counted toward the total.

Online: A link to the ODA’s trade and marketing section

A judge has ruled that counties can’t sue the State of Oregon for financial damages, potentially undermining a $1.4 billion class action lawsuit over state logging practices.

Linn County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Murphy has reversed an earlier ruling in the case, which held that Oregon’s “sovereign immunity” doesn’t bar counties from seeking such damages.

In his most recent June 20 decision, Murphy has agreed with Oregon’s attorneys that counties — as subdivisions of the state — cannot sue the state government for money.

Murphy said he’s “well aware this interpretation contradicts” his earlier opinion, but he will provide the plaintiff counties with “the opportunity to re-plead their case in such a manner that is supported by the law if they can.”

“Like peeling a very large onion this case contains complex layers of legal issues and theory that can take time to unravel,” he said.

The judge has left open the possibility for the plaintiffs to seek an “equitable” remedy, such as an injunction or order that requires the state government to take certain actions without paying financial damages.

However, the counties have repeatedly said they’re not aiming for Oregon to change its logging practices, but instead seek compensation for insufficient timber revenues.

The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 14 counties that donated forestland to the state government in exchange for a portion of logging proceeds.

The counties argues that a 1998 rule change emphasizes environmental and recreational values over timber harvest, thereby violating a contract that required logging to be maximized.

John DiLorenzo, attorney for the counties, said his clients may decide to recharacterize their complaint or seek clarification from an appellate court regarding sovereign immunity and other issues.

In the long term, such an opinion would provide a “road map” for the litigation, DiLorenzo said.

“Maybe we’re better off having clear declarations from the appellate courts on what the law is,” he said.

Capital Press was unable to reach an attorney representing Oregon in the case.

Ralph Bloemers, an environment attorney with the Crag Law Center, said that Murphy’s latest ruling has effectively “torpedoed” the counties’ lawsuit.

“In essence, he’s granting the motion to dismiss for sovereign immunity,” Bloemers said, adding that he expected the state’s attorneys to refile a motion for the complaint to be thrown out.

“The case should be dismissed,” he said.

The plaintiffs face an uphill battle if they decide to seek an equitable remedy, Bloemers said.

It’s tough enough to win an injunction, let alone an order requiring the state government to manage its forests a certain way, he said.

MADRAS, Ore. (AP) — Just before sunrise, there’s typically nothing atop Round Butte but the whistle of the wind and a panoramic view of Oregon’s second-highest peak glowing pink in the faint light.

But on Aug. 21, local officials expect this lookout point just outside the small town of Madras to be crammed with people from around the world, all hoping for the first glimpse of the moon’s shadow as it crosses Mount Jefferson’s snow fields. Then, a solar eclipse will throw the entire region into complete darkness for two minutes.

The first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse to cross the continental United States in 99 years will first be visible in Oregon, and Madras is predicted to be among the country’s best viewing spots because of its clear, high-desert skies, flat landscape and stunning mountain views.

Up to 1 million eclipse chasers will descend on Oregon for the celestial event, and officials are bracing for as many as 100,000 of them in and around Madras.

In this vast expanse of ranches and farms, rural, two-lane roads could mean traffic jams of cosmic proportions. Every hotel in Madras is booked, some residents are renting their homes for $3,000 a night, and campers are expected to flood the national forests and grasslands during peak wildfire season.

The state’s emergency coordination center will gear up, and first responders will prepare to respond to any trouble as they would for an earthquake or other natural disaster. Cell towers could be overwhelmed, traffic will be gridlocked, and police and fire stretched to the max managing the crowds.

“Bring extra water, bring food. You need to be prepared to be able to survive on your own for 24 to 48 to 72 hours, just like you would in any sort of emergency,” said Dave Thompson, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation. “This is pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s really worth seeing. But you’ve got to be prepared or you won’t enjoy it.”

When the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, the path of totality — meaning total darkness — from the moon’s shadow will begin on Oregon’s coast, then cross the north-central part of the state from west to east.

But as the hype builds, authorities are increasingly worried that people who planned to watch from the notoriously foggy coast could move east at the last minute if the forecast sours. And Oregonians who live outside the path of totality could decide to drive to one of the prime viewing spots at the spur of the moment, creating havoc on the roads, said Cory Grogan, spokesman for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.

In addition, many tourists will be camping in hot, tinder-dry conditions, or even sleeping in their cars. First responders have been planning for months for a worst-case scenario: evacuating tens of thousands of people while trying to get fire engines through gridlocked roads. Cellular towers also may be crippled by the volume of people texting, calling and posting photos, making it difficult for fire crews to communicate.

Federal and local officials will stage engines and other resources at key locations, and firefighters from other agencies and private companies will send extra crews. But it’s impossible to plan for everything, and tourists frustrated with traffic may use forest access roads as shortcuts, further raising fire risk, said Kent Koeller, a recreation planner with U.S. Forest Service outside Madras.

“Just driving off-road - having that contact with a hot muffler or a catalytic converter - could start an ignition,” he said. “And in these fine fuels, it could spread very quickly.”

Lysa Vattimo was hired two years ago to coordinate the town’s planning efforts with more than 50 local, state and federal agencies. She spends her days trying to think of every possible consequence of having tens of thousands of people in a town of just 6,500 — and her nights worrying she missed something.

The town and surrounding campsites have rented nearly 700 portable toilets, including some from as far as Idaho, to meet demand. Sanitation trucks will run almost around the clock, transporting trash to 50-yard-long dumpsters before it rots in triple-digit temperatures.

Gas stations are filling their underground tanks in advance, and businesses are being told to use cash only, to avoid bringing down the wireless network. Banks are stocking their ATMs, local hospitals have canceled vacations, and pregnant women close to their due dates are being told to leave to avoid getting stuck.

“What we’ve asked our residents to do is get prepared ahead of time. About a week out, fuel up on propane, gas, whatever fuels they need, get their prescriptions, go to the doctor, do what you need to do,” she said. “And then stay home.”

In Madras, hotels were booked years ago, and spots at 25 campgrounds in and around the town are going fast. Farmers are renting out their land for pop-up campgrounds, and thousands of parking spaces for day trippers are getting snapped up.

The Black Bear Diner, one of the town’s most popular restaurants, expects to serve 1,000 people a day during the week leading up to the eclipse. Owner Joe Davis has ordered five weeks of food for one week of business and will have an abbreviated menu of 10 items to speed service.

“The Black Bear Diner has been here in Madras 18 years, and I’m sure this will be by far the busiest week - and probably double the busiest week - that we’ve seen,” he said.

But amid all the hubbub and anxiety, most residents have kept sight of the wonder.

Darlene Hoffman is one of the few here who watched the last total solar eclipse to touch Madras 38 years ago. Hoffman, 80, recalls how the birds stopped singing and the horses prepared to sleep as the sky gradually darkened and a hush fell over the land.

“It was really something to see. It really was,” she said. “That amazed me more than anything.”

NAMPA, Idaho (AP) — Washington County Commissioners have passed an Emergency Declaration ahead of the August 21 solar eclipse.

KIVI-TV reports the county near the Oregon border is expected to get tens of thousands of visitors eager to witness the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse seen in the U.S. in nearly a century.

A county disaster services spokesman says the commissioners passed the declaration Monday so they could ask the state for assistance in case more resources are need.

The declaration states that the solar eclipse may cause risk to public safety, financial damage, excess cost for labor, clean up and property damage in Washington County.

It will be in effect until the end of August.

PENDELTON, Ore. — It was about a year ago when Pendleton farmer Henry Lorenzen learned, much to his surprise and disappointment, that a portion of his land would not be re-enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program.

As a third-generation wheat grower with 4,000 acres west of town, Lorenzen remembers hearing “horror stories” from his father about dust storms that would sweep across the fields, eroding soil and kicking up a dusty haze that reached all the way to Interstate 84.

Not only did the gusts cause some very serious traffic problems — like the 1999 pileup on I-84 that killed six people and injured 27 others — but created significant farm management and environmental issues as well.

“You lose topsoil, and ultimately you lose productivity,” Lorenzen said.

The Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, was established in 1985 to help protect vulnerable areas. Administered by the Farm Service Agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CRP is essentially a rental agreement between the government and landowners where a portion of farmland is taken out of production and planted in native grasses, which in turn helps protect against erosion, increase wildlife habitat and improve water quality.

General CRP contracts run for 10-15 years, with payments averaging around $45 to $65 per acre. Land enrolled tends to be less suitable for growing crops, and is scored by the feds based on a number of environmental criteria, known as the Environmental Benefit Index.

The program, however, was slashed in the 2014 Farm Bill, which lowered the national enrollment cap from 32 million acres to 24 million acres. A report by the Congressional Research Service indicated the reduction would save $3.3 billion over the next 10 years.

More than 50,000 acres of land are set to expire from CRP later this year across Umatilla, Morrow and Sherman counties, and that is forcing landowners to make some difficult decisions about what to do next. They could get it back into farming, though the low price of wheat may make it difficult to turn profit. They could try to sell the land, but without a steady stream of revenue, the value may not be nearly what it was.

For Lorenzen, the situation is less dire. Only a small portion of his farm was enrolled in CRP, and he has already managed to lease half of that ground to another farmer.

The real challenge, Lorenzen said, is for people who retired and put their entire property in CRP. Given the market conditions, it will be an uphill struggle to find growers willing to take on substantially more acres.

In Sherman County, growers will meet Friday to discuss their options moving forward. Meanwhile, Lorenzen also worries about worsening erosion along I-84.

“It’s going to be a significantly changed environment,” he said.

Umatilla County has 143,994 acres enrolled in the program, along with 110,913 acres in Morrow County and 78,800 in Sherman County, according to figures provided by the Farm Service Agency.

In order to satisfy the shrinking cap, all three counties will see 13-18 percent of those acres expire by the end of the fiscal year Oct. 1 — including 21,456 in Umatilla County, 20,122 in Morrow County and 10,794 in Sherman County.

Taylor Murray, conservation specialist with the Farm Service Agency state office in Tualatin, said there was no general CRP sign-up this year and he does not expect one will be held for the foreseeable future.

There is a subset of CRP, called the Highly Erodible Land Initiative, that still has room under the cap, though Murray said the criteria for enrollment are much more strict, leaving many farmers on the outside looking in.

“I do firmly believe that, going forward, the process is going to be much more competitive,” Murray said.

Murray is cautiously optimistic that the new USDA administration, led by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, could allocate another half-million acres nationwide for general CRP.

“We could definitely get a piece of that,” Murray said.

Until then, local growers are crunching the numbers to determine their best course of action.

Bill Jepsen, who farms wheat about 14 miles south Ione, has figured out the equation. As of Wednesday, soft white wheat was selling at $4.86 per bushel. For southern Morrow County growers, they pay an additional 70 cents per bushel to ship the grain west, putting the net price at $4.16.

Assuming an average yield of 45 bushels per acre, that’s $187.20 per acre on a crop that’s grown once every other year — given the region’s summer-fallow rotation. Now, a typical lease agreement divvies the receipts up one-third for landowners, and two-thirds for farmers. That leaves $56.16 per acre to the landowner every other year.

Compare that to CRP, where a landowner may make up to $65 per acre every year, and it’s not difficult to see where the economic advantage lies.

“It’s pretty simple math,” Jepsen said. “The lease won’t compare to CRP.”

Don Wysocki, extension soil scientist for Oregon State University, said negotiating those leases will be the biggest point of contention for farmers looking ahead.

“Do you really want to take on more land with the price of wheat, is the question,” Wysocki said.

Murray, with the Farm Service Agency, said he’s heard of people try to sell land instead of putting it back into farm production. But that poses its own set of economic challenges.

Todd Longgood, a broker with the Whitney Land Company in Pendleton, said the issue of declining CRP acreage is having an appreciable effect on land values. Three or four years ago, Longgood said, CRP ground was trading at an all-time high, around $1,000 to $1,300 per acre. Now, it has fallen to around $500 to $700 per acre.

“Today, we’re seeing a drastic decrease in the land values,” Longgood said.

There is still demand for the high-producing agricultural land, Longgood explained. But without the steady income that CRP provided for less productive acres, sellers are being forced to adjust their asking price.

While there hasn’t been a market glut yet, Jim Whitney, the owner and president of the Whitney Land Company, said there is a “very real possibility” they could become oversupplied with CRP land depending on how landowners react.

“It makes no sense to put more ground into wheat right now,” Whitney said.

There are other natural attributes that could make expired CRP land attractive to potential buyers. Some farmers may consider using the ground for growing organic crops, since it hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals in over a decade. Any springs or water sources could provide flexibility to convert the land to cattle pasture.

Wildlife and recreational opportunities are also a big plus, Whitney added.

“People pay a lot of money for recreation today,” he said.

Though the market is cyclical, Longgood said the conditions now have lent themselves to a perfect storm.

“There’s still demand for (land). It just has to be priced adequately,” Longgood said.

Eric Orem, a Morrow County wheat grower who farms primarily on leased ground, said that while CRP is a good tool, he was never a big fan of the program and felt it took opportunities away from younger farmers.

“If you look back in the mi-d ‘70s, there were 270 to 280 farmers and now there’s about 75 or 80,” Orem said. “A big chunk of that was ground put into CRP.”

With more land available, Orem said more farmers could get the chance to start working, which would benefit communities economically.

As opposed to CRP payments going to landowners who may not even live in the county, growers will be out hiring employees spending money at local farm equipment dealers.

But he acknowledged that is easier said than done with today’s wheat prices, not to mention the high up-front cost of putting CRP ground back into production.

“Those are really tough grasses to kill,” he said. “It takes a lot of heavy tillage to get it worked out. Then, what you find there are almost no nutrients left in the soil.”
Orem said he expects farmers will be picky if they decide to take on more leased land, especially on ground that may already be marginal at best.

Murray said he realizes the difficulties growers are facing, while adding the Farm Service Agency is doing everything it can to advocate for more acres in the program.

“There will be some hard decisions, for sure,” Murray said.

Sherman County, Ore., commissioners and Azure Farms agreed to a weed control plan that may settle a dispute that pitted the organic operation and its supporters against conventional wheat growers who don’t want weeds spreading into their crops.

The farm near Moro in the north-central part of the state agreed to control weeds, with “control” defined as “little or no noxious weed seed production that would affect neighboring fields” and spread by the wind. Conventional farmers are chiefly concerned about seeds from Rush Skeleton, Canada thistle, White top, Diffuse napweed and Morning Glory, or Bindweed.

The agreement allows Azure Farms to use any method it sees fit, while the county’s weed district staff has the right to monitor Azure’s fields, pastures and range ground for compliance. County employees can access the fields by permission and appointment only, and must be accompanied by Azure Farms staff, according to the agreement.

If a weed patch is in more than 50 percent flower production, Azure Farms will have seven days or a “mutually agreed upon reasonable amount of time” to take action. If it doesn’t, Sherman County can spot-spray the weeds and mark the area in hopes the farm can maintain organic certification.

“This looks fine,” farm manager Nathan Stelzer said in a late-night email following a June 21 meeting with the county court. “Thanks for the good interactive communication and discussion today. I think we can have a very good working relationship, now that we know each other better and have a clearer understanding of the meaning of ‘control.’”

Commissioner Tom McCoy said he’s optimistic the farm, its neighbors and the county have reached an agreement that will work for all three.

That wasn’t the case earlier this spring. The farm’s weeds have been an irritant to other farmers for several years, especially those who grow certified wheat seed. This year, the weeds were described as “rampant.”

Sherman County officials warned Azure they would ask the state Department of Agriculture to quarantine the farm, and said they would spray weeds with herbicide if the farm didn’t get a handle on the problem.

But using conventional week killers would cause Azure to lose organic certification for three years after the last application.

Azure Farms appealed to its fans and followers on social media, and county officials received an estimated 59,000 emails critical of their stance on the issue.

At a county court meeting in May, held in a high school gym to accommodate the crowd, residents said they were angry about being vilified on Facebook and called names by people they’d never met. Nathan Stelzer and his brother, David, who is president of Azure Standard in nearby Dufur, apologized for the social media outburst.