SEATTLE (AP) — Washington’s Department of Ecology faces the possibility of losing millions of dollars in federal money after a judge Tuesday declined to dismiss a lawsuit brought by an Oregon-based environmental group.

The lawsuit, by Northwest Environmental Advocates, of Portland, is designed to force the state to do more to protect Puget Sound from pollution or risk losing more than $3.5 million per year in federal support.

The federal government is supposed to cut certain funding for states that don’t have an approved plan for protecting coastal waterways from pollution related to farming, logging and other activities. Cutting the funding — a punishment dictated by Congress — is supposed to pressure states to control the pollution.

According to the lawsuit, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration haven’t approved Washington’s plan, but they keep giving the state money anyway. The state’s orcas, salmon and other species remain in peril.

“They keep talking about saving these species and protecting human health from pollution, but when push comes to shove they’re not doing anything,” said Nina Bell, the group’s executive director. “Our goal here is not to take money away from the Department of Ecology. It’s to use a tool Congress created to pressure them to do what they’re supposed to be doing, controlling the source of pollution.”

Such fixes include measures such as requiring farmers or loggers to leave enough vegetation on stream banks to keep eroded soil, pesticides or other pollutants from reaching the water, she said.

The federal government asked U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour in Seattle to dismiss the case, on the grounds that Northwest Environmental Advocates lacked standing to sue, among other grounds. But the judge ruled Tuesday that most of the group’s claims can go forward.

The law, he said, is clear. The agencies haven’t approved the state’s program, while awarding more than $83 million through last year.

“On this basis, the agencies have failed to meet their statutory obligation,” he wrote.

Mark McIntyre, an EPA spokesman, said the agency is reviewing the decision.

A spokeswoman for Washington’s Ecology Department, Jessie Payne, said the department is tracking the case and working to improve the state’s handling of such runoff — referred to as “nonpoint” pollution.

“We believe we have a good program, and have identified strategies for improving and strengthening our state’s nonpoint work - especially that associated with agriculture. EPA has been supportive of us moving forward.”

Northwest Environmental Advocates previously filed a similar lawsuit sued to block federal funding for Oregon. That eventually resulted in the state losing $1.2 million last year, and Oregon has made some improvements to its logging practices, Bell said.

Bell said Washington uses the money at issue to fund its pollution control program and to dole out grants for environmental work, such as paying for a farmer to put up a fence to keep cows out of a river. It may seem paradoxical for an environmental group to seek to deprive a state of such funding, but the state’s current approach is simply inadequate, she said.

“Obviously these projects, if they’re maintained, are good for the environment,” she said. “But if you put what they achieve against what needs to be done, it’s a drop in the bucket. We’ll give this guy some money, but everyone else keeps doing what they’re doing.”

LONG BEACH, Wash. — Cranberry growers, whose production has far outstripped demand, have started harvesting the 2017 crop, unsure of the percentage of their berries that will enter the market.

The USDA isn’t expected to decide whether to grant the industry’s petition for volume controls for several months. In the meantime, it’s farming as usual, said Malcolm McPhail, a grower on the Long Beach Peninsula.

“You’re still trying to produce as much as you,” he said.

The federal Cranberry Marketing Committee, made up of growers and handlers, asked the USDA in August to order withholding approximately 15 percent of this year’s crop and 25 percent in 2018 to at least prevent the surplus from growing. The surplus of cranberries exceeds one year’s demand.

The surplus has developed over several years, driven by abundant harvests in Wisconsin and the emergence of Canada as a major cranberry producer. The marketing committee petitioned the USDA for volume controls in 2014, but the USDA cut off consideration, complaining there had been too much chatter between U.S. growers and their Quebec counterparts about reducing the surplus. Since then, the marketing committee has reportedly squelched talk about Canada in meetings.

A USDA spokesman Tuesday said he couldn’t estimate when USDA will make a decision on the cranberry industry’s petition.

According to the proposal, cranberry farmers would deliver their crop as usual this fall, but handlers would be responsible for disposing or diverting to noncommercial uses, such as food banks, 15 percent of the crop, excluding some exemptions. Volume controls would not apply to organic cranberries or the first 12.5 million pounds delivered to a handler.

The handler would have to dispose of or properly divert the berries by Aug. 31, 2018.

In 2018, 25 percent of a grower’s historical production would be restricted.

“I’m very much in favor of withholding,” McPhail said. “You have to do something about the oversupply because it just gets bigger and bigger.”

The cranberry industry last used volume controls to reduce a surplus in 2001. The USDA authorized a 35 percent reduction in output after prices fell to 15 to 20 cents a pound.

Average prices rebounded to 58 cents a pound by 2008, but have fallen to about 30 cents a pound, according to the USDA. Prices vary widely depending on whether growers are independent or in the Ocean Spray cooperative. Growers also receive premiums for color, quality and harvesting earlier or later in the season.

The USDA has forecast the U.S. crop will be 905 million pounds, down 6 percent from 2016. But last year’s crop was a record 962 million pounds. Oregon and Washington are the fourth and fifth top cranberry-producing states, respectively.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cleanups at some U.S. hazardous waste sites have stopped or slowed down because the Environmental Protection Agency does not manage its Superfund staff effectively to match its workload, an internal government watchdog said Tuesday.

Such work is at a standstill or moving slowly on at least four Superfund sites where “human exposure is not under control,” according to a report from the EPA’s inspector general. That means contamination at the sites is unsafe for humans and there is a reasonable expectation that people may be exposed to it, the report said.

The report comes as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has said the cleanup up of more than 1,300 listed Superfund sites is a priority.

Though President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget seeks to cut the Superfund program by 30 percent, Pruitt has insisted he can do more with less money through better management. He formed a committee to study the issue, adopting 42 recommendations. Pruitt has said he will give priority to sites that can be redeveloped or have nearby residents under threat from the spread of harmful chemicals.

Federal money for Superfund is already about half what it was in the 1990s. Though the federal government often goes to court to force those responsible for the pollution to pay, that sometimes fails, leaving taxpayers on the hook. The majority of cleanup money has been spent in just seven highly industrialized states, topped by New Jersey.

The inspector general review was conducted from February 2016 to July 2017, covering the last months of the Obama administration and the early months of Trump’s.

The report said EPA’s Region 10, which includes Idaho, Oregon and Washington, had stopped or slowed work at 49 Superfund sites because of a shortage of staff.

The report pointed to the languishing cleanup of the Lower Duwamish Waterway in Seattle. Eating some fish and shellfish from the river could expose humans to high levels of hazardous chemicals, and even though the state has posted warnings, some people don’t heed them, the report said.

More than half of EPA’s regions reported they could not start work or had to stop work on cleanup projects because of a lack of staff, according to the findings. At least some of those projects are under the Superfund program, which takes on sites that are generally among the most dangerous to humans or the environment.

The report did not list the sites affected, but it did cite another example, the Silver Bow-Butte Area Superfund site in Butte, Montana. A staff shortage has kept the EPA from starting some cleanup work there. The EPA said it does not have enough data yet to determine whether the site qualifies as one where “human exposure is not under control.”

The EPA has made only marginal changes in the way its Superfund workforce is distributed nationally in the past 30 years, the report said. It said EPA managers believe that frequently reshuffling the staff would be disruptive.

EPA did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. In a response included with the inspector general’s report, the agency agreed to develop a plan to redistribute its Superfund workforce.

EPA also agreed to review how the Army and Navy assign priority to environmental cleanup projects at military sites and periodically shift employees to match the list. The inspector general suggested EPA could learn from them.

If you’re one of the 1.7 million Oregonians whose information was potentially compromised by the recent Equifax data breach, don’t expect to get a letter in the mail telling you about it.

That’s because under a 2007 state law, companies that experience electronic security breaches don’t have to personally inform victims if the cost of making such notifications would exceed $250,000 or if the number of people affected exceeds 350,000.

It’s part of a much larger bill that was known as the “Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act.”

In a state-mandated notification to the Oregon Department of Justice on Sept. 7, Equifax stated that 1,721,725 Oregonians were “potentially impacted” by the data breach, which occurred over a period of several months earlier this year.

That’s nearly half of the state’s population. Equifax said roughly 143 million U.S. consumers were affected overall.

The company, which collects information on consumer credit history, said its systems were “exploited” by hackers who were able to access names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and in some cases driver’s license numbers.

The breach was the subject of a hearing at the Oregon Capitol on Tuesday.

Aaron Knott, the Legislative Director for the Oregon Department of Justice, told members of the Oregon House and Senate Judiciary committees that some of them were probably affected.  

“Look to the person to your right, look to the person to your left,” Knott said. “Probably at least half, if not more of you, have been impacted by this. This is an incredibly significant breach.”

Equifax isn’t completely off the hook when it comes to letting Oregonians know about the issue.  

The 2007 law requires companies that experience massive data breaches to post a notice on their website, and to notify “major statewide television and newspaper media.”

The law also requires companies to allow potential victims of a data breach to place a freeze on their credit history. According to the Oregon Department of Justice, Equifax is allowing Oregonians to do this for free until Nov. 21.

LEBANON, Ore. (AP) — Authorities say a small tornado damaged buildings at a dairy farm southeast of Salem in the area of Lacomb.

Lebanon Fire District officials say firefighters were called to Spencer’s Dairy Farm Tuesday afternoon.

Officials say crews found five buildings at the dairy were extensively damaged by wind.

Fire officials say two of the buildings were total losses and that a path of debris and damage was seen for nearly a mile.

Fire officials say none of the eight homes in the area were damaged.

Authorities say multiple power lines and tree branches were down in the immediate area but no injuries were reported.

The National Weather Service in Portland said on Twitter that a survey team assessed the scene and confirmed that a tornado rated EF0 with winds of 65-75 mph happened at 1:07 p.m.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Oregon’s Douglas County attempted to restrict hemp production under rules for growing marijuana before being warned the policy violated the state’s “right to farm” law.

Hemp is considered a crop under Oregon’s land use law, which means it can be grown outright in farm zones.

Medical and recreational marijuana, meanwhile, can be subject to reasonable “time, place and manner” regulations by local governments.

Before planting hemp, farmers must first obtain a permit from the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

As part of its hemp policy, Douglas County requested that ODA not approve hemp licenses unless county officials issued a “land use compatibility statement” to the growers.

The ODA refused because such regulation of hemp would violate Oregon’s “right to farm” law, which prohibits local ordinances restricting common farming practices as nuisance or trespass activities.

Douglas County and ODA have now agreed that hemp production isn’t subject to restrictions, though county officials can still ask to inspect a grower’s state hemp license, said Jim Johnson, ODA’s land use specialist, during a Sept. 19 meeting of the Oregon Board of Agriculture in Klamath Falls.

However, Johnson said other counties — including Jackson, Josephine and Clackamas — may be considering similar regulatory approaches to hemp as had Douglas County.

“All these counties have vocal rural residential populations that don’t like cannabis,” he said.

While hemp doesn’t contain enough of a psychoactive substance to cause similar mind-altering effects as marijuana, some residents nonetheless worry about strong odors and potential “criminal elements,” he said.

“It’s all the same concerns being expressed,” said Johnson.

While ODA objected to regulation of hemp growing, it has acknowledged Douglas County can restrict processing of the crop, similarly to other farm products.

Exactly what constitutes “processing” — as opposed to crop “preparation,” which is allowed outright in farm zones — will likely vary on a case-by-case basis, Johnson said.

Another concern is if county governments began charging fees to inspect hemp-growing licenses, he said.

“It’s something we’re going to keep an eye on,” Johnson said.

Other battles over land use in agriculture are also brewing, Johnson said.

Solar projects on high-value farmland are controversial, and two proposals approved by local officials in Jackson and Clackamas counties are being challenged before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, he said.

“We’re going to start to get some case law on that,” he said.

Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Commission may also soon decide to review rules for solar facilities on farmland, he said.

Such efforts are likely to be opposed as unnecessary by the solar industry, Johnson said. “I anticipate this will be a real fun one.”

Another likely source of controversy is the proposed rezoning of about 800 acres in Columbia County from farm use to industrial use, he said.

The expansion of “Port Westward” is located close to the Columbia river but it also contains prime farmland with irrigation infrastructure and “phenomenal” drainage facilities, Johnson said.

“It’s got all the things highly productive agriculture requires,” he said.

One case that’s attracted a lot of attention probably won’t have much of an impact on Oregon agriculture overall, Johnson said.

In August, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld an order requiring a Jackson County couple to pay more than $200,000 in damages to neighbors and to have their dogs devocalized, or “debarked.”

On its face, the ruling would seem to raise “right to farm” issues, but the dog owners did not established they were engaged in a commercial farm activity, Johnson said.

For that reason, the ruling isn’t likely to set a legal precedent for other farmers who rely on guard dogs, he said.

PORTLAND — Garry Stephenson, director of the Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems at Oregon State University had some advice recently for the state’s organic producers.

Stephenson, keynote speaker at the annual Oregon Organic Coalition’s awards luncheon held in Portland, said organic producers need to be at the table when legislation affecting organic systems is debated. They also should be working directly with ag experts at OSU and should be involved in the upcoming search for a new dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, he said. Dean Dan Arp announced he is retiring in 2018.

In an interview after his talk at the event, Stephenson said the continued market growth of organic products, and the need to support it, should be self-evident.

“I was there to advocate for more research money for organic farming,” Stephenson said. “I’m surprised I have to ask. We should be investing in it more deeply.”

Oregon and the West Coast are organic production hot spots. California leads the nation in organic production value, Washington is second and Oregon is fourth with $269 million in organic sales in 2016 — a $32 million jump in two years, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

University and industry funding for organic research projects “makes the engine run,” but boot-level research also takes place “on thousands and thousands of farms every day,” Stephenson said. “All that problem-solving that occurs there is the foundation for advancing these farming systems.”

Stephenson said farmers always look upon other farmers with respect, and the friction between conventional and organic production doesn’t happen at that level. Rather, it is farming systems and such issues as genetic engineering and herbicide drift that drive a wedge between producers.

“The battles we get into in ag are often about technology, not science,” Stephenson said.

Individuals and businesses were honored during the Oregon Organic Coalition’s annual awards luncheon. Recipients included operators on both sides of the urban-rural divide, such as a Portland brewpub and a livestock auction yard in Lebanon, a small Willamette Valley town.

Awards go to individuals or businesses that demonstrate “innovation in organic practices, service to the industry, expansion of organic business opportunities and overall achievement in the state’s organic industry,” according to a coalition news release.

Winners this year were:

Retailer: Hopworks Urban Brewery, Portland. Founded by Christian and Brandie Ettinger, the brewery uses locally sourced hops that are certified organic and certified Salmon Safe. It’s also a Certified B Corporation.

Livestock Farm: Lebanon Auction Yard, Lebanon. The facility dates to the late 1940s and was purchased by the Cowart family in 1987. It’s considered one of the most modern livestock facilities in Oregon, capable of processing a single animal or a herd. In 2016 it marketed 15,000 head of cattle plus sheep, goats and pigs. It was certified in 2015 as an organic livestock handler.

Organic Certifier: Steller Certification Services, Philomath. The company, founded in 2002, certifies 188 organic operations nationally. It also provides organic certification services to biodynamic farmers and processors, who have an additional set of standards.

Scientist: Ramon Seidler, a former professor of microbiology at Oregon State University. He’s also a retired senior research scientist and GMO bio-safety team leader with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and prepared the EPA’s first bio-safety plan for evaluating genetically engineered microbes and plants.

Processor: Oregon’s Wild Harvest, Redmond. The business uses innovative composting methods and “regenerative” farming to sequester carbon, saves its own seeds from products it grows and is non-GMO, organic and biodynamic certified. Ten percent of its land is set aside as pollinator habitat.

Wholesaler: Bridges Organic Produce, Portland. The distribution company works with mid-size growers in particular, linking them with consumers and pursuing a business model that allows all stakeholders to make informed decisions and wise investments, according to the company website. It partners with organizations such as Fair Trade USA and the Sustainable Food Trade Association “to promote environmental responsibility, sustainable communities and the organic produce trade.”

Crop Farm: Groundwork Organics, Junction City. Founded in 2000, the farm sells organic fruit, vegetables and flowers at seven farmers’ markets, its own roadside stand, to 450 CSA customers and to restaurants, natural food stores and wholesalers. In 2016, Groundwork donated 60,000 pounds of fresh produce to Food for Lane County.

With cooler temperatures and rain hitting the region this week, some firefighters are headed home Monday. The Chetco Bar Fire in Southwest Oregon is 53 percent contained as of Monday morning, while the Eagle Creek Fire in the Columbia River Gorge is 32 percent contained. 

“We still have over 7,500 firefighters and support personnel working in our region,” said Carol Connolly, a public information officer with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland. “But the Eagle Creek and the Chetco Bar numbers are down just slightly.” 

Connolly says despite the rainy weather, crews are expected to be working on both fires for weeks. The Northwest remains the nation’s top firefighting priority.

The rain forces firefighters to think about other hazards. 

“With the rain coming in it’s going to dislodge boulders, it will make the ground not as stable, we could see some mudslides, trees going, rocks falling,” Connolly said. 

Firefighters are working to create drainage and erosion controls in burned areas to reduce the risk of landslides. That’s in addition to continued work to control the fires.

State officials warn travelers to be extra aware when traveling through susceptible landslide areas. 

The current area of concern includes Government Camp, Detroit, Santiam Pass, Corbett, Rooster Rock, Multnomah Falls, Cascade Locks, Hood River, North Bonneville, Stevenson, Carson, and Underwood.

The Dunning family will break from tradition upon introducing their estate-grown Pinot gris later this year — the wine will debut in cans rather than bottles.

The idea is to target the “active wine drinker” who prefer not to lug around a heavy 750-milliliter glass bottle on hikes and other outdoor adventures, said Kyle Dunning, the family’s patriarch.

“There are places you can’t take a bottle where you can take a can,” Dunning said.

Kyle and his wife, Holly, planted the first grape vines on their property near Corvallis, Ore., in 1990, back when their two sons, Parker and Brayden, were still youngsters.

Since then, the family has mostly harvested and sold grapes to winemakers, but they’ve recently taken steps to become more vertically integrated.

Last year, their two grown sons launched a mobile bottling and canning service under the “Knotty Brothers” brand, under which the family’s wine will also be sold.

About 350 cases of the wine cans were fermented by winemaker Joe Dobbes from grapes that were harvested from the family’s vineyard last year.

The Dunnings have a ready-made clientele for the product among the wineries, breweries and cideries across Eastern Oregon and Idaho that contract with Knotty Brothers for bottling and canning services.

Cans offer convenient portion control, as each holds the equivalent of two wine glasses, said Holly. With a 750-milliliter bottle, consumers must either commit to drinking the whole thing or risk degrading the quality of leftover wine by exposing it to oxygen.

For breweries, the cans provide an opportune serving container, so they don’t have to invest in glasses, said Parker. “They don’t need to do anything to sell our wine.”

Many sports arenas and parks don’t allow glass bottles but can be entered with cans, which are also simple to recycle, said Robert Zarate, a canning consulant hired by the Dunnings.

“It’s growing for sure. It’s getting big,” he said.

Between 2012 and 2016, sales of canned wine surged from less than $2 million to more than $14 million in the U.S., according to the Nielsen research company.

That’s still only about 1 percent of the total wine market, but “portability” is seen as a big plus, with 73 percent of consumers saying easy-to-carry containers are important to them, according to Nielsen.

Canning wine involves a somewhat different process than canning beer, since the federal government requires a slightly larger can size — the equivalent of half a bottle, or roughly 12.5 fluid ounces.

The cans are also lined with a polymer coating to prevent wine from eating away at the aluminum container, since it’s more acidic than beer.

Also, each can must be dosed with nitrogen gas to replace oxygen, which spoils wine over time.

Wine cans are less readily available than beer cans, and moderately more expensive, said Kyle Dunning. “Manufacturing of wine cans has not caught up to demand.”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s recommendation to President Donald Trump recommending downsizing the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument has several errors, one of the people who was behind the creation of the monument said Monday.

A memo from Zinke to the president justifying his recommendation that the boundaries of the monument, which lies mostly in Oregon and crosses over into California, be “revised” says motor vehicles aren’t allowed in it.

“There are hundreds of roads inside this monument. I live on private land inside the monument. Do we walk or ride horses?” asked Dave Willis, the chairman of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council.

He also wondered why Zinke’s memo referred to protecting hunting and fishing rights, saying those activities are already allowed in national monuments.

“These factual errors make it look disinformed,” Willis said in a phone interview. “It’s sloppy work or an attempt to make something that’s unacceptable acceptable to people who don’t know better.”

Bob Rees, founder of the Northwest Guides and Anglers Association, said: “Rolling back protections on Cascade-Siskiyou would be the worst attack on Oregon hunters and anglers I’ve seen in my 20 years as a fishing guide. American outdoor enthusiasts should have more access to public lands, not less.”

But counties that rely on logging revenues according to an old pact have objected to the monument’s expansion by President Barack Obama, and a group applauded the reported recommendation.

“Congress already set aside these lands eighty years ago for the specific purpose of sustainable timber production in the O&C Act, and the president — regardless of party — doesn’t have the authority to rewrite the law,” said American Forest Resource Council President Travis Joseph.

Lawson Fite, of the Portland-based council, said the monument’s expansion caused these counties to lose revenue “as future timber sales have been cancelled.”

“These funds are used to support important local services,” Fite said.

Willis said that given scientific studies into the monument’s expansion and numerous public hearings, “it would be sad if this quickie, error-filled report was used to diminish the monument’s boundaries and protections.”

The future of Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument remains cloudy despite the details revealed in a recent leaked report from the Trump administration.

The memorandum to President Donald Trump from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke includes recommendations for 10 national monuments, including the Cascade-Siskiyou, which was nearly doubled in size by the Obama administration early this year.

Originally, the monument consisted of 53,000 acres, with private property purchases incrementally adding 13,000 acres over the years. In 2017, the monument expanded onto nearly 48,000 acres of public land.

While Zinke says the monument’s boundary “should be revised” to remove so-called “O&C Lands” that are dedicated to timber production and “to reduce impacts on private lands,” the report doesn’t state exactly how many acres should be cut, or where.

Critics and supporters of the expansion agree it’s unclear what action Trump may take on the recommendations, given the disputes over management of 0&C Lands.

The federal government initially granted those 2.4 million acres to a railroad connecting Oregon and California, but then repossessed the property in 1937 when grant conditions were breached.

The Oregon & California Revested Lands Act required that the property be permanently managed for a “sustained yield” of timber harvest. For this reason, critics of the expansion say O&C Lands can’t be included in the monument, where commercial logging is prohibited.

Zinke’s report notes that roughly 16,600 acres of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument consist of O&C Lands “harvest land base.” However, the timber industry claims 40,000 acres of O&C Lands within the monument’s boundaries should be open to logging.

The American Forest Resource Council, which represents timber companies, alleges a resource management plan that limits harvest to those 16,600 acres violates the O&C Act, said Lawson Fite, the organization’s general counsel.

Though it’s uncertain whether the Trump administration would remove all 40,000 acres from the monument, or just 16,600 acres, AFRC is encouraged the expansion is being scrutinized, he said.

“We think that by including any O&C Lands in the monument, the previous president overstepped his authority under the Antiquities Act and violated the O&C Act,” Fite said.

The Antiquities Act permits U.S. presidents to establish national monuments, but whether later administrations can shrink their boundaries remains a point of contention.

Zinke believes that Trump can make such revisions, citing 18 such changes made in the past, but monument supporters argue that an attempt to decrease the Cascade-Siskiyou’s boundaries would be unlawful.

“It would be a sad waste of the Department of the Interior’s resources and taxpayer money,” said Dave Willis, executive director of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, an environmental group.

Zinke’s report wrongly indicated that motorized travel within the monument is prohibited and that hunting and fishing are disallowed, Willis said.

It’s unclear whether these errors were due to sloppiness or an attempt to spur support for shrinking the monument, which is opposed by a wide swath of the public, he said.

“It looked like pretty shoddy work,” Willis said.

SALEM — Fighting Oregon wildfires this year so far has cost state, federal, local, tribal and private entities more than $340 million and consumed 678,000 acres, state authorities said Monday.

All of that activity manifested into smoke-filled air and limited visibility for many Oregonians.

The “sheer volume of fires all at the same time and continuous days of growth up through Washington and Idaho” created the oppressive conditions, said Doug Grafe, fire protection division chief at the Oregon Department of Forestry.

More than 8,000 personnel from different agencies have been deployed to fight 1,903 separate wildland fires across the state. That’s more than one-third of the personnel deployed to combat wildfires nationwide, Grafe said.

The most dangerous fires started in late July and early August. The region has been dry since mid-June, with no significant rainfall until Sunday. Tens of thousands of lightning strikes contributed to the severity of the fire season.

Smoke had already captured the attention of most of the state, when the human-caused Eagle Creek fire sparked in the state’s scenic gem, the Columbia Gorge, Sept. 15, trapped 150 hikers and threatened the City of Portland’s water supply, the Bull Run Watershed.

Fire crews kept the fire from that crucial water supply and from the Multnomah Falls Lodge, where flames came within 40 feet of the historic structure.

“A lot of what this fire was doing was spotting out ahead of itself within communities, and they were just having to go after it, and catch it,” said Oregon Fire Marshal Jim Walker. “They did that hand-in-hand with all of the resources, partnering together.”

Rain on Sunday evoked widespread excitement in the Gorge, where firefighters continued to battle flames visible from Interstate 84.

“I think we are in good place with the rain and the conditions,” Grafe said.

Gov. Kate Brown deployed the Oregon National Guard Aug. 2 to respond to several severe fires. National Guard helicopters assisted with the rescue of trapped hikers and poured 1.3 million gallons of water on burning land and structures. ODF has released the helicopters after 45 days of duty.

The conditions on air personnel are as bad, if not worse, than combat, said Dave Stuckey, deputy director of the Oregon Military Department.

The state placed 950 National Guardsmen on state active duty, a high for any year since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when 1,979 Oregon National Guard personnel were deployed, Stuckey said.

Fire crews have suffered no fatalities, but there have been about 34 injuries among National Guard personnel and 23 among ODF personnel.

The governor’s order to deploy the National Guard covered four fires: Eagle Creek, Nena Springs, Milli and Chetco Bar.

Those four fires alone threatened 19,978 residences and destroyed 10. Nearly 8,000 people were evacuated in those areas. The cost of fighting the fire was about $15.3 million, said Oregon Fire Marshal Jim Walker.

Oregon is one of the few states with a wildfire insurance policy but that will cover only 42,000 acres, or about 6 percent of the affected areas in the state, Walker said.

DIXONVILLE, Ore. — At just 21 years old, Trent Pynch is already a couple years into the responsibility of carrying on his family’s ranching tradition.

Both his grandparents, Jim and Bonnie Pynch, and his parents, Jamey and Heidi, had sheep. Trent Pynch has purchased those animals and is now making the decisions regarding their care.

“Since he was 3 years old, all he wanted to do was to get into sheep,” Jamey Pynch said of his son. “He’ll always have livestock, it’s in his blood. My dad had always done this and I’ve always done it.”

Trent Pynch does get help from the older members of his family and from his girlfriend, Arica Hunter, because he has several other responsibilities in addition to his 180 ewes and 12 mother cows. He’s a full-time employee at the Douglas County Farmers Co-op in Roseburg, Ore., in the spring he’s a leader of the Dixonville Livestock 4-H Club and he’s possibly one of the youngest-ever board members of the Douglas County Livestock Association.

“I do sleep occasionally,” he said with a smile. “I’m busy, but that’s how I like it. It keeps me out of trouble.”

Roseburg area rancher George Sandberg said he is not surprised by the young rancher’s involvement in agriculture.

“What I saw in Trent was a lot of ambition, working his way into agriculture by showing sheep, talking to adults and always looking for something to get involved in,” Sandberg said. “He’s in an industry that’s not known for having young people. To be 21 and doing what he’s doing is pretty exceptional.

“There’s just not very many young people in agriculture and Trent is already doing what seasoned people in agriculture are doing,” the rancher added.

Trent Pynch grew up on the family sheep ranch. At age 4, he and his grandmother Bonnie worked together to nurse a sickly, cold bummer lamb back to health. The lamb was then given to Trent and 17 years later his flock has offspring from that ewe lamb.

In the first grade, Trent, with his father’s help, picked out and purchased two ewes at a Roseburg sale. Offspring from those two are also in his flock.

In the fourth grade, the boy became a member of the Roseburg Stockman 4-H Club. Three years later as a seventh-grader, he and his lamb earned grand champion honors in the Douglas County Lamb Show.

In his sophomore year at Glide High School, Trent Pynch got into the sheep business full-time. He took out a loan and purchased 40 ewes from his parents and grandparents. A year later, he diversified his livestock operation by taking out another loan and purchasing 12 mother cows.

In his senior year, he concluded his lamb showing career as a 4-H member with the reserve champion at the lamb show. That same year, he was named the Round Robin Master Showman for both 4-H and FFA, having been judged the best at showing his sheep, pigs and goats. He celebrated by taking out another loan and purchasing 40 more ewes from the family ranch.

Pynch’s success with his livestock operation was recognized in 2015. He had utilized the USDA’s Youth Loan Program and he was named the program’s most successful youth in the nation. He was the first Oregon participant to win that honor.

“He’s really good at being organized and detailed with his animals,” Jamey Pynch said of his son. “He’s got the history of most of his ewes in his head.”

Trent Pynch learned by listening to older ranchers and now, even at a young age, he’s already sharing what he knows. He does that by raising show lambs for purchase by 4-H and FFA members, by being a 4-H club leader and answering questions posed by customers at the co-op.

The young rancher said his realistic goal is to have 200 ewes and 15 mother cows, and to work his way up and to take on more responsibilities at the farmers co-op.

“It’s not just the business aspect, but I enjoy doing this,” he said of ranching. “I don’t picture myself anywhere else. I love it here.”

Federal authorities will soon be sharing preliminary findings of a water study of Oregon’s Upper Deschutes Basin with landowners and other affected parties.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and regional partners will use the input to complete their analysis of water management in the basin, whose water supply demands are eventually expected to exceed supplies by 230,000 acre-feet a year.

One component of the report, which is due in mid-2018, will examine the feasibility of expanding water storage in the region.

The possibilities being studied include raising an existing dam to expand the Haystack Reservoir south of Madras, Ore., or building a new upstream facility.

The study is also looking at creating a new “Monner” reservoir east of Madras or restoring storage in the Prineville reservoir that’s been lost to sedimentation.

Water conservation and water transfers are also being examined in the study, said Mike Relf, project manager with the Bureau of Reclamation’s Pacific Northwest regional office.

“Storage is just one part of the basin study,” Relf said.

The goal is to lay out the benefits and challenges of potential storage options, rather than make any recommendations, he said.

“The idea is not to promote any particular idea,” Relf said.

Building or expanding water reservoirs would entail environmental studies and funding processes that would likely require decades to complete, he said. “Storage would by far be the longest-term idea out there.”

It’s worthwhile to take a closer look at storage possibility, the likelihood of actually starting construction is a long shot, said Mike Britton, general manager of the North Unit Irrigation District, which is one of the partners participating in the $1.5 million study.

Aside from bureaucratic and financial hurdles, storage projects are often unrealistic because they’d flood existing infrastructure, such as gas pipelines and power transmission lines, he said.

“Those types of obstacles are potential deal stoppers,” Britton said.

California, for example, has a long list of potential storage options that haven’t been built for decades, he said. “I doubt we’d be that much different here, unfortunately.”

The prospect of expanding the Haystack Reservoir, however, is making at least one landowner nervous.

Kenny Reed, who owns a ranch abutting the reservoir, worries an expansion would disrupt habitat for bald eagles that he’s conserving under an agreement with the federal government.

Reed has expressed his concerns to the Bureau of Reclamation, which has acknowledged there’s a conservation plan for the area.

“The entire ranch is designated as bald eagle habitat,” Reed said. “We didn’t go through a 20-year process to say it doesn’t matter anymore.”

WELCHES, Ore. — State wildlife officials made more than 50 changes so far to a draft wolf management plan and hope to have it ready for public and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission review by the end of the year.

Conservation groups have criticized what they consider a delay in updating the plan, especially as five wolves have been legally shot since August due to repeated attacks on livestock. Groups such as Oregon Wild argue that ODFW should not authorize lethal action on wolves while a management plan review is pending.

Commission Chairman Michael Finley defended the process.

“I will say there is no intention to delay or pause for the sake of delay,” he said by email. “We have a responsible wolf plan in place and are working to replace it with an updated plan that reflects lessons learned and works to recover the wolf.”

At a Sept. 15 commission meeting at Resort at the Mountain, on the flanks of Mount Hood, ODFW wolf program coordinator Russ Morgan said most of the changes are based on input from the public and from commission members.

“To me that strengthens this document,” said Morgan, who is retiring effective Oct. 1 and was making his last report to the commission.

Commission members thanked Morgan for his work in managing a controversial species, a process in which conservation groups and livestock producers hold opposing and hotly debated points of view.

Commissioner Greg Wolley said people recognize “what a tough spot” Morgan has been in.

“What I’ve found is respect for your professionalism and objectivity,” Wolley said. “It reflects on the whole department and on all of us.”

Morgan was questioned about Oregon’s wolf population. The state confirmed a minimum of 112 wolves at the end of 2016, only one more than the previous year after many consecutive years of rapid population increases. ODFW officials maintain the population survey late last year was hampered by extreme weather and that Oregon has more wolves than were counted.

Morgan said new wolves have shown up this year, ODFW placed more tracking collars on wolves than ever before, and he is encouraged by the numbers.

“There was talk of a stalled population, but one data point doesn’t make a trend,” he said. “I think we will see a promising increase in wolves. Oregon wolves, I’m confident, are doing well and will continue to do well.”

The majority of Oregon wolves remain in the northeast corner of the state, but Morgan said they will continue to disperse into the Cascade Mountains and elsewhere.