ONTARIO, Ore. — The effort to build a major rail transload facility in Malheur County that many people say could be a game-changer for the area’s onion industry is reportedly off to a good start.

The facility would allow the bulb onions grown in the Treasure Valley of Oregon and Idaho to be placed on rail cars heading to major markets on the East Coast, instead of being trucked 216 miles West to Wallula, Wash., before making that journey east.

That would reduce transportation costs and speed up delivery times for onions headed to the East Coast, according to onion industry leaders.

“I think it will be great for our industry. The sooner, the better,” said Eddie Rodriguez, co-owner of Partners Produce, an onion shipper in Payette, Idaho.

A $5.3 billion transportation bill passed by the Oregon Legislature this year includes $26 million for the facility, which will focus on the onion industry but could benefit other commodities as well.

Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, co-vice chairman of the committee that crafted the transportation bill, said supporters of the transload facility have been told by Oregon Department of Transportation officials “to move forward with as much alacrity as possible.”

“We are not concerned about having the money. We have the money,” he said. “I think it’s going exactly as planned.”

The Malheur County Court has appointed a seven-member board that will oversee plans for the facility and have authority to enter into contracts necessary for such things as construction, land acquisition and facility leases.

Four of the board members are from the onion industry.

Shay Myers, general manager of Owyhee Produce, an onion shipper in Nyssa, Ore., said the facility is a major deal for the region’s onion industry and needs to be designed with as much foresight as possible.

“I think this is critically important as to whether or not the onion industry exists 20 years from now in this area,” he said. “It’s that big a deal.”

Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association, said the facility can’t come quick enough.

“Our transportation has just become a real bottleneck,” he said. “This is a game-changer.”

The region’s onion industry faces chronic transportation issues, said Kay Riley, manager of Snake River Produce, an onion shipper in Nyssa.

“This should help resolve that,” he said.

Not having to send onions to Wallula first will be one of the facility’s major benefits, Riley said.

“We should have a geographic advantage over Washington, which we’ve kind of lost,” he said. “This should help re-establish that.”

Bentz said possible obstacles to building the facility include talks with Union Pacific breaking down or the community disagreeing on where it should be located or how it should be managed.

There are several possible sites in or near Ontario and Nyssa.

Bentz said conversations with UP are going well and “so far, we’ve been able to avoid those types of disagreements” over location and management.

BROOKINGS, Ore. (AP) — Authorities on Tuesday designated a wildfire in southwestern Oregon as the top firefighting priority nationwide, a spokesman for the Incident Fire Management system said.

Five homes have burned in the 153-square-mile blaze near Brookings, a coastal town near the California border, said Greg Heule, a spokesman for the team, which collaborates with various federal and state firefighting agencies and releases information about blazes around the country.

More than 700 people are under mandatory evacuation and another 1,000 are under an evacuation warning, he said.

The lightning-sparked fire began more than a month ago, but has grown rapidly in the past week with low humidity and strong winds. The weather, however, may start cooperating in the coming days, Heule said.

“Yesterday the fire didn’t move very much at all and today it’s pretty much the same. It gives our firefighters an opportunity to get in there on this and make some progress,” he said in a telephone interview.

There are nearly 800 firefighters on scene and many more crews are streaming in to battle the flames.

No one has been injured in the fire.

It is burning in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in some of the same area affected by a notorious fire in 2002 that remains seared in the memory of those living along the Oregon-California border. That blaze burned 800 square miles.

The terrain is rugged in the remote area, but the flames have reached to within six miles of Brookings, which is about six miles from the California border. Highway 101 remains open, he added.

August is peak wildfire season in the Pacific Northwest, and firefighters are busy throughout Oregon.

In the central part of state, a wildfire in the Three Sisters Wilderness has scorched 18 square miles. An evacuation warning went out Monday for an area that includes Black Butte Ranch, a resort community.

Last week, hundreds of people living near the Western-themed town of Sisters were advised to evacuate. Fire managers worry that winds will push the fire out of the wilderness and into populated areas.

Defendants guilty of occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge have agreed to pay a total of $78,000 in restitution, according to a motion filed in federal court Monday.

The agreement is between the U.S. Department of Justice and 13 defendants who were either found guilty or pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impede federal officers who worked at the refuge from doing their jobs — a felony.

U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown must sign off on restitution agreement before it’s official. She has wide latitude to make changes to the proposal.

The government initially asked the defendants to pay $920,914, according Andrew Kohlmetz, standby council for defendant Jason Patrick, who is among the convicted men.

“We think it’s a reasonable settlement,” Kohlmetz said. “It’s the product of a very involved negotiations by both sides.”

The Department of Interior estimated its total costs for the occupation exceeded $6 million, according to a July 2016 court filing. Law enforcement’s response to the occupation was about $12 million.

The purpose of restitution is to compensate victims for their loss. It typically covers physical and property damages, but generally doesn’t cover law enforcement costs.

Under the proposal, higher profile members of the 41-day long occupation in eastern Oregon could be ordered to pay as much as $10,000, the motion states. While less culpable members could be required to pay $3,000.

“We looked at the totality of the circumstances and concluded that this is the best option for the U.S. government and taxpayers,” said Jason Holm, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland.

If approved, the money would likely to go to the Friends of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a nonprofit that supports the mission of the refuge. That’s according to a source with knowledge of the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The highest profile members of the occupation — brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy — were acquitted of charges by a jury in October. While they’ve been cleared of wrongdoing in Oregon, they remain in custody awaiting trial on charges stemming from a 2014 armed standoff between ranchers and the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada.

The funds from the Bundys’ 13 co-defendants who were guilty would be due immediately, but the government may make considerations for defendants who are incapable of paying, Monday’s joint motion states.

“In exchange for defendants’ agreements to make such payments, the government agrees to forgo all other restitution claims,” the parties wrote.

Kohlmetz said there were so many contested line items in the government’s initial request it could’ve led to another trial.

For example, he said, the government asked for $324,000 for deep cleaning of the refuge buildings.

“I’m sure the buildings needed that, but it struck [Jason] Patrick as a very large line item that needed further explanation,” Kohlmetz said.

Kohlmetz said another factor in restitution is a defendant’s ability to pay.

“All of these gentlemen with the exception of Ammon Bundy had indigent defense council appointed,” he said. “Everyone else had court-appointed lawyers.”

In addition to restitution, many of the defendants will serve time, possibly years, in detention centers.

So far, three of the defendants have been sentenced: Geoffrey Stanek, Eric Lee Flores and Travis Cox.

Brown sentenced them to between two and six months of home detention, plus probation.

Here’s a list of the 13 defendants who could be ordered to pay restitution under the agreement:

Jon Ritzheimer — $10,000 

Jason Patrick — $10,000

Ryan Payne — $10,000

Blaine Cooper — $7,000

Joseph O’Shaughnessy — $7,000

Corey Lequieu — $7,000

Brian Cavalier — $7,000

Darryl Thorn — $5,000

Jason Blomgren — $3,000

Travis Cox — $3,000

Eric Flores — $3,000

Wesley Kjar — $3,000

Geoffrey Stanek — $3,000

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A federal jury in Las Vegas refused Tuesday to convict four defendants who were retried on accusations that they threatened and assaulted federal agents by wielding assault weapons in a 2014 confrontation to stop a cattle roundup near the Nevada ranch of states’ rights figure Cliven Bundy.

In a stunning setback to federal prosecutors planning to try the Bundy family patriarch and two adult sons later this year, the jury acquitted Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart of all 10 charges, and delivered not-guilty findings on most charges against Scott Drexler and Eric Parker.

More than 30 defendants’ supporters in the courtroom broke into applause after Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ordered Lovelien and Stewart freed immediately and set Wednesday morning hearings to decide if Parker and Drexler should remain jailed pending a government decision whether to seek a third trial.

“Random people off the streets, these jurors, they told the government again that we’re not going to put up with tyranny,” said a John Lamb, a Montana resident who attended almost all the five weeks of trial, which began with jury selection July 10.

“They’ve been tried twice and found not guilty,” Bundy family matriarch Carol Bundy said outside court. “We the people are not guilty.”

A first trial earlier this year lasted two months and ended in April with a different jury finding two defendants — Gregory Burleson of Phoenix and Todd Engel of Idaho — guilty of some charges but failing to reach verdicts against Drexler, Parker, Lovelien and Stewart.

Prosecutors characterized the six as the least culpable of 19 co-defendants arrested in early 2016 and charged in the case, including Bundy family members. With the release of Lovelien and Stewart, 17 are still in federal custody.

The current jury deliberated four full days after more than 20 days of testimony. The six men and six women returned no verdicts on four charges against Parker — assault on a federal officer, threatening a federal officer and two related counts of use of a firearm — and also hung on charges of assault on a federal officer and brandishing a firearm against Drexler. Navarro declared a mistrial on those counts.

None of the defendants was found guilty of a key conspiracy charge alleging that they plotted with Bundy family members to form a self-styled militia and prevent the lawful enforcement of multiple court orders to remove Bundy cattle from arid desert rangeland in what is now the Gold Butte National Monument.

Bundy stopped paying grazing fees decades ago, saying he refused to recognize federal authority over public land where he said his family grazed cattle since the early 1900s. The dispute has roots of nearly a half-century fighting over public lands in Nevada and the West, where the federal government controls vast expanses of land.

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre declined immediate comment on the verdicts. He said he’d make a determination later whether to seek a third trial for Parker and Drexler.

Stewart became emotional and reached for tissues as the jury findings were read. He and Lovelien were later taken with their lawyers, Richard Tanasi and Shawn Perez, to be processed by U.S. marshals for release.

Stewart, 38, lives in Hailey, Idaho. Lovelien, 54, is from Westville, Oklahoma, but he led a militia group called Montana State Defense Force.

All four men were photographed carrying assault-style weapons during the standoff near the Nevada town of Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Each had faced the possibility of decades in federal prison if they were convicted.

Jurors saw images of Parker and Drexler in prone shooting positions looking down their rifles through slots in the concrete barrier of an Interstate 15 freeway overpass toward heavily armed federal agents guarding a corral of cows below.

Defense attorneys noted that no shots were fired and no one was injured. They cast the tense standoff with more than 100 men, women and children in the potential crossfire as an ultimately peaceful protest involving people upset about aggressive tactics used by federal land managers against Bundy family members.

Drexler, 46, is from Challis, Idaho, and Parker, 34, is from Hailey, Idaho.

Parker’s attorney, Jess Marchese, said he hoped Myhre will dismiss the two charges remaining against his client.

Drexler’s attorney, Todd Leventhal, referred to defense teams’ complaints that Navarro set such strict rules of evidence that defendants weren’t able to tell why they traveled to the Bundy ranch.

The judge rejected testimony from five prospective defense witnesses, and Drexler and Parker were the only defendants to testify in their defense. However, the judge struck Parker’s testimony for what she said was a deliberate failure to keep his testimony within her rules.

All four defense attorneys declined Aug. 15 to make closing arguments, a gesture of standing mute that Leventhal said may have had an effect on the jury.

“As much as we were shut down from bringing anything up, the jury saw through it,” he said.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 23

It was 1853 when Joseph and Elizabeth Voss founded Voss Farms on 138 acres in the Willamette Valley. They had traveled from Wisconsin by wagon train the year before looking for a new start in the Oregon Territory.

Initially, they raised cattle, sheep and grains, but over the years the crops changed to reflect the market; Voss Farms added berries, orchard crops and Christmas trees.

Today, the farm raises primarily cereal grains.

Over 160 years later, Jeannette Voss and Julie Edy, the great granddaughters of the founders, are still farming. They applied to update their farm status from a century farm to a sesquicentennial, meaning the farm has remained in the family more than 150 years. They will be honored at the Oregon State Fair at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, in the Picnic Grove Boots N’ Brew Area.

“We thought it would be nice to have the recognition,” Jeannette Voss said. “We’re lucky. We want to keep it in the family as long as we can.”

The sisters grew up on the farm and even though Jeannette went on to teach, she always helped out. Extended family has always lived on the farm with them, and Jeannette joked that it was “like the Kennedy compound.”

In addition to the Voss family, 19 farms and ranches in 10 counties will be honored as century farms.

This brings the total number of century farms and ranches in Oregon to 1,200 and sesquicentennial farms and ranches to 39.

The farms and ranches will receive a certificate signed by Gov. Kate Brown and Director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture Alexis Taylor, as well as a historic sign that has the founder’s name and the year the ranch or farm was founded.

The Oregon Century Farm and Ranch Program is managed by the Oregon Farm Bureau Foundation for Education, and supported by a partnership of the Oregon Farm Bureau, the State Historic Preservation Office, Oregon State University Archives and by donations.

To qualify for a century or sesquicentennial award, family farms must submit a formal application and meet the requirements of continuous family operation, a gross income from farm use of not less than $1,000 per year for at least three of the last five years and family members must live on or actively manage it.

Documentation for the application can include photos, original deeds, personal stories, or other records.

The century status recipients are:

• Iwasaki Bros. Inc: Founded in Washington County in 1917 by Yasukichi Iwasaki. Applicant is his grandson, Jim Iwasaki.

• Haskin Heritage Farm: Founded in Linn County in 1917 by Ernest and Lydia (Weirich) Haskin. Applicants are great grandson David H. and LaLona McCready.

• Kranberry Acres: Founded in Coos County in 1917 by Leslie Kranick. Applicants are grandson David Kranick and Marci Murray.

• Sievers Farm: Founded in Morrow County in 1907 by Will and Gertrude Sievers. Applicants are granddaughters Diana Arvieux, Rosemary Wood and Trudy Stenger.

• Four Ridge Orchards: Founded in Washington County in 1908 by Finis Brown. Applicants are grandson David and Bonnie Brown.

• Stubblefield Ranch: Founded in Umatilla County in 1876 by Francis Marion Stubblefield. Applicant is great granddaughter Margot Turner.

• Shady Brook Farm: Founded in Yamhill County in 1917 by Fred and Estella Bunn. Applicants are grandson Tom and Lona Bunn.

• Cattrall Brothers Vineyards: Founded in Yamhill County in 1917 by John C.J. Sartone. Applicants are grand-nephews William “Bill” and Thomas “Tom” Cattrall.

• Misner Family Farm: Founded in Linn County in 1902 by Henry and Alice A. Boyle. Applicants are great grandson Michael and Therese Misner.

• Bar M Ranch: Founded in Linn County in 1891 by Riley C. Margason. Applicants are great grandson Gary and Ingrid Margason.

• Haslebacher Farms: Founded in Marion County in 1911 by Ferdinand Haslebacher. Applicants are grandson Raymond and Mary Haselbacher.

• Belshe Ranch: Founded in Sherman County in 1916 by Clay and Susanna Belshe. Applicant is great grandson James Belshe.

• Oak Creek Farm/Coyle Family: Founded in Linn County in 1914 by W. Hiram Skeels. Applicant is grandson Alton Jefferson Coyle.

• Kee/Crofoot Ranch: Founded in Sherman County in 1917 by Frank and Iva Kee. Applicants are Dell and Nikki Squire; Dell Squire is the nephew of Eben Crofoot Kee, who was a son of the founders.

• Basil and Mary Stupfel: Founded in Marion County in 1917 by Basil and Mary Stupfel. Applicant is grandson Mark Stupfel.

• Herring Farm: Founded in Yamhill County in 1916 by Fredrick C. Herring Sr. Applicant is Lea O. Herring, widow of the late Bland Herring, son of the founder.

• Charles M. Colton and Sons: Founded in Baker County in 1917 by William H. and Charles H. Colton. Applicants are Robert and his wife Lorene Colton — Robert is the great grandson of William — and Michael Colton, great-great grandson of William.

• Nicholson Home Ranch: Founded in Klamath County in 1898 by William Elmore Nicholson. Applicant is Nicholson Investments LLC. William “Bill” S. Nicholson lives on the ranch today. He is the grandson and Larry W. Nicholson is the great grandson of the founder.

• C and S Waterman Ranch: Founded in Coos County in 1917 by Charlie Frank and Mabel Waterman. Applicants are grandson Charlie and Sharon Waterman.

Online

The full narratives are available at http://bit.ly/2g2jCVP

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Conservation groups are airing TV ads, planning rallies and creating parody websites in a last-minute blitz to stop Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke from downsizing or eliminating national monument areas that cover large swaths of land and water from Maine to California.

The deadline for Zinke to announce his recommendations is Thursday following a four-month review of 27 sites ordered by President Donald Trump.

The outdoor recreation industry has hammered home its message that peeling back protections on areas where its customers hike, bike and camp could prevent future generations from enjoying the sites.

In addition, the Wilderness Society has created a parody website featuring Trump and Zinke selling luxury real estate at the sites.

Groups that want to see the areas reduced have been less vociferous, pleading their cases on social media and working behind the scenes to lobby federal officials.

They say past presidents have misused a century-old law to create monuments that are too large and stop energy development, grazing, mining and other uses.

Stan Summers, a Utah county commissioner who chairs a group that advocates for multi-use of public lands, said outdoor recreation companies are peddling lies and misconceptions when they say local officials want to bulldoze monument lands.

Summers said residents treasure the lands that comprise Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in Utah, but don’t want to close the areas to new oil drilling and mining that produce good jobs.

“We want to tend this area like a garden instead of a museum,” he said

The review includes sweeping sites mostly in the West that are home to ancient cliff dwellings, towering sequoia trees, deep canyons or ocean habitats roamed by seals, whales and sea turtles.

Zinke has already removed six areas in Montana, Colorado, Idaho and Washington from consideration for changes. He also said Bears Ears on tribal land in Utah should be downsized.

Environmental groups said the 1906 Antiquities Act is intended to shield significant historical and archaeological sites, and that it allows presidents to create the monuments but only gives Congress the power to modify them.

They have vowed to file lawsuits if Trump attempts to rescind or reduce the monument designations.

No other president has tried to eliminate a monument, but they have trimmed and redrawn boundaries 18 times, according to the National Park Service.

REI and Patagonia have joined a group of 350 outdoor companies, including The North Face, YETI Coolers and Orvis, in signing a letter sent last week to Zinke by the Outdoor Industry Association.

“It’s an American right to roam in our public lands,” the letter reads. “As business leaders, we simply ask that your final report remain true to the Teddy Roosevelt values we share with you — to maintain the national treasures presidents of both parties have protected.”

Patagonia recently ran a TV ad in Montana and Utah with company founder Yvon Chouinard fishing and declaring, “Our business is built on having wild places” and warning that public lands are under the greatest threat ever.

Led by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat from New Mexico, monument supporters plan a rally Thursday at an REI store in Albuquerque.

The Wilderness Society website also features a photo of ancient ruins at Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and the words, “Developer ready.” Each monument was given a fictional price tag, such as $932 million for Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico.

In a description of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine, the website says: “This is the chance for someone to claim a little piece of that offbeat New England charm for themselves and leave hikers, birdwatchers, snowshoers and hunters on the outside, looking in!”

Proponents of downsizing the monuments say state governments are better suited to make management decisions that would ensure federal lands are used for a mix of uses.

“The only reason there is roads in some of these places is because of the mining and the oil and the gravel pits,” Summers said.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s governor and the head of the state police defended the state’s legal marijuana industry in letters to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has been hinting at a crackdown on states such as Oregon that have legalized pot in defiance of federal law.

Gov. Kate Brown noted Tuesday in her letter that Sessions’ earlier letter to her referenced a draft report from the Oregon State Police that concluded a lot of Oregon’s marijuana was being diverted to other states.

Brown and Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton said that draft report was invalid and had incorrect data and conclusions.

Brown said new laws in Oregon, including tracking all pot grown for legal sale from seed to store, will help cut down on diversion into the black market. Brown noted that she also recently signed into law legislation that makes it easier to prosecute the unlawful import and export of marijuana products.

Governors of Alaska and Washington state also recently pushed back against the Trump administration and defended their efforts to regulate the marijuana industry. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker wrote to Sessions earlier this month asking the Department of Justice to maintain the Obama administration’s more hands-off enforcement approach to states that have legalized marijuana.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said the attorney general made claims about the situation in his state that are “outdated, incorrect, or based on incomplete information.”

The governors of Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Alaska wrote to Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in April, warning that altering the Cole memorandum, which restricts federal marijuana law enforcement in states where pot is legal, “would divert existing marijuana product into the black market and increase dangerous activity in both our states and our neighboring states.”

Sessions, however, then wrote to congressional leaders, opposing an amendment that prevents the Justice Department from using appropriated funds to interfere with states’ medical marijuana.

Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who co-wrote the amendment with California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, told The Associated Press recently that Congress is becoming more pro-marijuana, and that more legalization will tamp down the black market.

“The more that we go down the path of legalization, regulation and taxation, diversion becomes less and less of a problem,” Blumenauer said.

Brown told Sessions in her letter that Oregon’s medical and recreational marijuana industry has raised over $60.2 million in revenue and created over 16,000 jobs.

She said her staff looks forward to continuing its work with Session’s office and his representative in Oregon “to end black market marijuana operations, and to provide mutual education and support of our legal and regulated marketplace.”

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Federal scientists and mostly rural interests are gathering at a wild horse conference in Utah that mustang-protection advocates maintain is a thinly veiled effort to promote increased roundups and eventual slaughter of tens of thousands of animals from California to Colorado without public input.

The National Horse and Burro Summit gets underway Wednesday in Salt Lake City, a week after congressional auditors identified countless hurdles but no solutions to the growing number of U.S.-protected wild horses roaming 10 western states.

Utah officials, ranchers and even some federal officials have argued that swollen populations of wild horses, an icon of the American West, have left animals starving and rangelands damaged and depleted, while an ever-increasing backlog of captured mustangs already in government corrals costs taxpayers $50 million annually.

Horse-protection groups contend that cattle cause more damage to rangeland and say that officials kowtowing to livestock interests won’t look at solutions other than euthanizing mustangs.

Those critics say the invitation-only gathering hosted by Utah State University amounts to a “slaughter summit.”

“The largest stakeholder — the American public — is being left out in the cold,” said Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign.

Terry Messmer, a wildland resources professor at Utah State, defended the conference lineup he said was organized by “a broad coalition of horse advocates — not activist groups, but people who are concerned about the welfare of horses and western rangeland management.”

“I suspect some folks are feeling they should be invited,” Messmer told The Associated Press. “It doesn’t have all the people out there who are interested both anti and pro. But it has a good cross-section of the science.”

Aurelia Skipwirth, deputy assistant U.S. Interior Secretary for fish and wildlife and national parks, is scheduled to address the event, along with Keith Norris, co-chairman of the National Horse and Burro Rangeland Management Coalition. Its membership includes a number of groups that advocate for expedited roundups of mustangs, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Association of Counties and Wild Sheep Foundation.

U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Reps. Chris Stewart, R-Utah and Mark Amodei, R-Nev., are among those invited.

Utah is spending up to $50,000 from money set aside for horse and burro programs to co-sponsor the summit, Utah Department of Natural Resources Director Mike Styler told state legislators at a hearing last month.

Styler said his department has a representative on the roughly two-dozen member committee that crafted the meeting’s agenda, along with representatives from the National Audubon Society and The Wildlife Society.

The three-day summit will include a discussion of the challenges that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management faces in trying to manage wild horses, something former agency director Neil Kornze characterized last year as a $1 billion problem.

A report by Congress’ General Accounting Office made public last week outlines many of the challenges, noting that the BLM removed nearly 135,000 horses from the range between 2000 and 2016 while the population on the range doubled and the number of horses in holding facilities increased seven-fold.

The BLM asserts that U.S. rangeland can sustain fewer than 27,000 horses and burros, but there are more than 72,000 wild horses on the rangeland and about 46,000 in holding facilities.

The GAO report said there’s little immediate relief in sight through fledgling contraception programs.

Many horse protection advocates say contraception is the only realistic solution to limit horse populations they feel have more right to roam the range than federally subsidized livestock.

The report also notes that the sale of horses gathered for slaughter is illegal under existing congressional budget language, although President Donald Trump’s administration recommended changing that in a recent budget proposal.

Horse slaughterhouses are prohibited in the U.S. but are legal in many other countries, including Canada, Mexico and parts of Europe where horse meat is considered a delicacy.

The first picture I'm sharing is of McNair's Home Town Hardware before it burned in an arson fire in the early 1970s. At right you can see Davison's Market, later called Bandon Market (or maybe it was the other way…

A team of Inland Northwest researchers is testing new cropping strategies to help dryland wheat farmers adapt to changing climate conditions.

The four-year project — Inland Pacific Northwest Wheat-based Systems: Landscapes in Transition — is funded with $3.4 million from USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

It will build on research findings from the previous Regional Approaches to Climate Change project, a seven-year collaborative project involving the University of Idaho, Washington State University, Oregon State University and USDA Agricultural Research Service.

The earlier research identified a trend toward increased summer fallow in wheat cropping systems in the Columbia Plateau, and even more is expected with changing climate conditions, said Jodi Johnson-Maynard, a University of Idaho soil scientist and team leader for the new research.

The team will look for ways to diversify cropping systems to be more resilient to change in the future, she said.

Those changing conditions have researchers expecting more variability in weather patterns, with warmer, drier summers and perhaps wetter springs, she said.

The research focuses on the challenges to fall moisture in rain-fed cropping systems. Residual moisture in the seed zone is needed to germinate fall-planted seeds, but farmers can’t always count on adequate fall rain. The majority of those fall-seeded winter crops is wheat, and researchers will be looking for new options to give growers diversity, she said.

“We’re trying to deal with seasonality of our moisture and harsh conditions in the fall. Anything we can do with our cropping system to try to deal with those variables would be helpful,” she said.

One thing the team will be looking at is new winter pea varieties that maximize yield. Peas can be planted a little deeper than wheat and might be a better choice in a dry fall without adequate seed zone moisture to germinate wheat, she said.

Researchers will also look at cover cropping, which has attracted interest from growers. The challenge is the relatively short season before winter hits and before spring crops have to be planted, which doesn’t allow for enough biomass to protect against winter erosion or benefit soils.

The team will be looking at cover crop mixes to maximize biomass going into winter and provide good forage quality for cattle in the spring. Instead of killing the cover crop to plant a spring crop, the crop will be grazed – allowing farmers to make money off the weight gain in cattle rather than planting a spring crop.

“The biomatter on the ground and the roots below the ground would improve soil structure and infiltration rates and add nutrients to the soil. Then they could put in another fall crop after that,” she said.

The research is looking at how alternative crops fit into the rotation and how they can improve productivity, she said.

“Certainly, winter wheat will always be a major part of the cropping system in our region. We’re looking at ways we may be able to increase diversity and give farmers flexibility,” she said.

The goal is to keep farmers successful “despite the fact they’re being thrown curve balls with the weather conditions,” she said.

Since taking office, President Trump has signed an executive order giving federal immigration agents more power.

But California Democrats want to thwart Trump’s promise to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally: lawmakers want to make California a sanctuary state.

The measure isn’t the first of its kind. Oregon has had a similar law for decades. But California’s law would be much more limiting in how law enforcement communicates with federal agents.

In fact, if the bill passes, California would have one of the most protective sanctuary state laws in the country for immigrants. 

Advocates for immigrant communities in the Golden State say since the election people have become more fearful of being deported.

“Sometimes they’re afraid to even go out, afraid even to go to the grocery store,” said Alex Vaiz, senior pastor at Vida Church. It’s a small, evangelical congregation that worships behind an art gallery in Sacramento, California.

A bilingual Christian rock band leads the songs at worship services. The parishioners are mostly Latino and many are in the country without legal documentation.

After reports of immigration arrests at courthouses and near schools in California, Vaiz found Immigration and Customs Enforcement camped out in the church parking lot this spring.

Neither California nor so-called sanctuary cities can prevent that since ICE is a federal agency.

Vaiz said he thinks California should do what it can to discourage local law enforcement from collaborating with ICE.

“If we make it harder for them, it causes and creates more safety to our community,” Vaiz said.

That’s pretty much the same line from Democratic lawmakers in California as they work to pass a sanctuary state measure. It would restrict local and state law enforcement from working with or even communicating with ICE, except in cases where federal agents provide a warrant. It would also create an exemption when an undocumented immigrant has committed specific felonies that California classifies as “violent” or “serious.”

California’s sanctuary state measure will take its next step Wednesday, when the state Assembly Appropriations Committee considers it.

Proposed amendments to the bill would allow law enforcement more discretion about when they could communicate with ICE. Those amendments came after Gov. Jerry Brown expressed reservations about the current version.

On a basic level, Oregon’s law does many of the things that Democrats in California are trying to achieve. Supporters say it’s helped separate local police work from federal immigration enforcement.

“So, the federal government, that’s up to you to decide how you’re going to enforce immigration laws,” said Andrea Williams, executive director of CAUSA, a Latino rights organization in Oregon. “But we as Oregonians, we’re not going to have a say and we’re not going to help you do that.”

While the California measure is a response to President Trump, the Oregon law passed with bipartisan support 30 years ago in part to prevent racial profiling — but also to save city and county law enforcement dollars.

Compared to California, Oregon’s law is much shorter and less restrictive. For example, Oregon allows local law enforcement to communicate with ICE.

The debate over the measure in California has focused on public safety.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said officers have better relationships with the communities they police when they don’t enforce immigration law.

“We depend on our communities, particularly our immigrant communities, to cooperate with us. Not only to keep them safe, but to keep all of you safe,” Beck said at a recent news conference.

But much of California’s law enforcement community opposes the bill.

Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown represents the state sheriffs association and said passing the bill may actually hurt immigrants.

“It is in the interest of all of our communities — and especially the immigrant community —  that dangerous offenders who are in this country illegally be deported, so they cannot continue to prey on the innocent victims,” Brown said at a recent hearing on the bill.

Those concerns expressed by Brown played out in Oregon in July.

A man who is in the country unlawfully was released from jail.

Local officials and ICE disagree on the circumstances of his release, but after he was out, he allegedly assaulted two women in Portland.

The U.S. Attorney for Oregon, Billy Williams, said this is why it’s important for local police to be in touch with ICE.

“We have two more unnecessary victims of violent crimes because of the over politicization of the entire topic of immigration,” Williams recently told OPB’s All Things Considered.

The federal government wants the full cooperation of state and local law police when it comes to enforcing federal immigration laws.

But laws like the one California’s considering and the one Oregon has on the books are clearly pushing back against that notion.

The tension could be resolved in two ways. The first is Congress passing a major immigration reform bill, making clear what is and isn’t allowed. That’s unlikely given gridlock in Washington.

The other option would be to sort out the sanctuary state issue in the courts. Already, lawsuits are working their way through the court system.

Those lawsuits could answer questions about how much sanctuary a state can provide immigrants who do not have documentation, and how much local law enforcement must work with ICE.

ONTARIO, Ore. — Gov. Kate Brown will travel to Ontario Aug. 28 to hold a ceremonial signing of the state’s $5.3 billion transportation bill, which provides funding for a major rail transload facility in Malheur County.

The bill provides $26 million for the transload facility, which onion industry leaders say could be a game-changer for farmers because it will allow onions and other commodities to be loaded directly onto rail cars, reducing transportation costs and possibly opening new markets.

The governor plans to meet with producers in Ontario before signing House Bill 2017.

This will be Brown’s second visit to Ontario this year. Before that, farmers can’t remember the last time a governor visited the area in an official capacity.

Local onion industry leaders are encouraging as many farmers as possible to show up for the Aug. 28 signing and thank Brown for her role in helping ensure inclusion of the funding for the transload facility in the transportation package.

“We’re telling people, be sure and thank her and express our gratitude,” said Grant Kitamura, general manager of Murakami Produce, an onion shipping company. “This facility will be a great help to the onion industry and other commodities.”

Dozens of onion storage and packing sheds collapsed under the weight of snow and ice this winter and Brown toured the region in February to see the damage first-hand.

Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, vice co-chairman of the committee that crafted the transportation package, said Brown is following up on what she said she would do when she visited the region in February: help the local economy recover from the damage.

The governor’s visit to the area is “extremely significant and I think it’s a reflection of how supportive she is of this investment in our area,” he said.

Bentz said the transload facility “is a great, big deal to this community and I think she understands that and wants to share in the hope this brings to this community.”

Bentz said ag industry leaders will be notified once specific times and places for Brown’s visit are set.

He said it’s also important for locals to thank the governor for her support of House Bill 2012, which created a special economic development region in Malheur County with the goal of helping farmers and other businesses compete on a more level playing field with their Idaho counterparts.

Nyssa farmer Paul Skeen, who helped escort Brown during her February visit, said her interest in and support for the area is refreshing because Eastern Oregon residents have long felt forgotten by the rest of the state.

“It’s symbolic about how she feels about us,” he said about the governor’s planned visit and ceremonial signing. “It’s been a long time since anybody even recognized we were part of the state.” He said it’s important for farmers and others to show up and thank Brown for her support.

“I plan on being there, shaking her hand and telling her, ‘Thank you,’” Skeen said.

MONDAY, AUG. 21

ABERDEEN, Idaho — Barley breeder Gongshe Hu has sought help from crop researchers in an arid North African country as he starts working to develop a drought-tolerant malt barley variety well suited for the growing craft brewing industry.

Hu, with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, asked officials with an international germplasm collection center in Morocco to send him two-row barley lines with good drought tolerance and high yield potential.

This season, Hu planted about eight lines — all top performers in Morocco’s drought nursery, where they received reduced irrigation — in Aberdeen to expand seed for further evaluation. He hopes a few will perform well in the local climate and make good parents to confer drought tolerance in his breeding program.

Hu explained that craft brewers typically use all-grain recipes, requiring malt barley with lower protein levels than malt used in brewing beers commonly produced by large brewers, blended with corn or rice sugar. Dryland farming conditions, however, tend to elevate protein levels.

Hu’s breeding project will seek to combine drought tolerance with low-protein genetics to create a cross usable by dryland growers raising malt for all-grain brewing.

“It looks like we will have five or six lines that grow pretty well in this environment,” Hu said.

Hu will plant the seeds he’s raising this season in Aberdeen’s drought-tolerance nursery next season to evaluate them against local lines. Hu said it could take as long as a decade for the project to yield new varieties — even with his program speeding the breeding process by raising some generations of crosses in New Zealand during winters.

“At the moment, we’re trying to introduce as much genetic diversity as we can for drought tolerance,” Hu said.

Drought tolerance is also a trait Oregon State University barley breeder Patrick Hayes has prioritized.

“Low protein is always important for malting barley, especially under dryland conditions,” Hayes said.

The American Malting Barley Association added all-malt guidelines for barley breeding in 2014, specifying all-malt varieties should have less than 11.8 percent protein, a percentage point lower than standard malts that are blended with adjunct ingredients.

“A low protein, dryland barley would potentially be useful throughout craft brewing, and would be especially desirable considering increasing environmental pressure throughout barley growing regions,” said Damon Scott, technical brewing projects coordinator with the Brewers Association.

Both the Brewers Association and AMBA have supported research regarding drought tolerance.

“The whole malting barley industry would be interested in any lines that would be more drought tolerant,” said Scott Heisel, AMBA’s vice president and technical director.

Soda Springs dryland farmer Scott Brown, who serves on the Idaho Barley Commission, raises malt barley for large brewing companies, and he generally meets their protein specifications. But Brown believes a lower-protein dryland variety would allow his growing area to tap into the craft market, and potentially enable dryland growers in other regions that now raise only feed barley to produce malt.

WILDER, Idaho — Idaho is projected to pass Oregon this year to become the second largest hop-producing state in the nation.

According to Aug. 10 projections by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Idaho hop growers will produce 12.83 million pounds of hops in 2017 and Oregon farmers will produce 12.75 million pounds.

“We have a chance” at that No. 2 spot, said Idaho hop grower Mike Gooding. “It’s going to be close.”

Gooding said his family has been producing hops in Idaho for 70 years “and Idaho has always been in the third spot for as long as anybody can remember.”

Nabbing the No. 2 spot — Washington is an unchallenged No. 1 with an estimated 72 million pounds this year — won’t mean anything other than bragging rights, Gooding said, but it is a good sign of the health of the Idaho industry.

Idaho has been bearing down hard on Oregon for the No. 2 spot for several years and even if the state doesn’t pass Oregon this year, it appears it’s only a matter of time before that happens.

Idaho hop acres have soared from 3,743 in 2014 to 4,863 in 2015, 5,648 in 2016 and 7,169 in 2017. During that same period, Oregon’s hop acres have also increased, although more slowly, from 5,410 in 2014 to 6,612 in 2015, 7,765 in 2016 and 8,045 in 2017.

But average yield per acre is greater in Idaho — hop yields are forecast to be 1,790 pounds per acre in Idaho this year and 1,596 pounds in Oregon — and NASS projects that will nudge Idaho past Oregon this year.

Idaho yields are higher because the state’s hop farmers grow more of the high-yielding, high-alpha varieties, which grow better in hot, dry climates such as southwestern Idaho, where most of Idaho’s hops are produced, Gooding said.

Those high-alpha varieties produce much higher yields than the aroma varieties popular in Oregon’s hop growing region of Marion and Polk counties, said Oregon Hop Commission Administrator Michelle Palacios.

The difference in land availability and expense between the states’ hop growing regions is a big reason Idaho has added more acres in recent years, Palacios said.

She said Oregon’s hop industry has experienced healthy growth in recent years and Idaho’s success has not come at Oregon’s expense and is good for the overall domestic hop industry.

“I don’t think there are going to be any hard feelings,” Palacios said of the possibility her state could lose its No. 2 hop ranking. “We are still being very successful in our corner of the world. We feel good any time the U.S. hop industry is successful.”

While the battle for the No. 2 spot will be close this year, Gooding said Idaho’s first-year, or baby, hops likely won’t yield as well as some people thought they would when NASS gathered the data it used for its projections.

“The way the babies look, I don’t know that we’ll pass Oregon this year,” he said. “Those babies are not turning out the way people expected when that information was gathered.”

Tuesdays

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff shot and killed a third member of the Harl Butte pack Thursday night and will shoot one more as it tries to deter the pack from devouring cattle in Wallowa County.

The latest “lethal take” is the department’s escalated response to eight confirmed livestock attacks attributed to the pack over the past year. The most recent was a calf found dead Aug. 16 on private pasture. The department killed two pack members earlier this month and announced it would monitor the situation. After the most recent attack, ODFW decided to kill two more adult wolves.

Ranchers represented by the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association said ODFW should kill the entire pack, which apparently included 10 adults and three pups before the three adults were shot this month. Todd Nash, the association’s wolf chairman and a Wallowa County commissioner, said the pack gets after cattle every day.

The ODFW action was condemned by a coalition of 18 conservation groups, which called the shootings “unnecessary and counterproductive” and asked Gov. Kate Brown to intervene. The groups include Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands and the Center for Biological Diversity, all active participants in Oregon wolf management planning and often critical of ranchers and ODFW.

In a letter to the governor, the groups said killing pack members has “deepened public mistrust of ODFW.”

“Rather than a wolf problem, the Harl Butte situation raises disturbing questions about ODFW’s ability and willingness to require livestock operations to make meaningful efforts to avoid conflict,” the groups told Brown.

The letter said killing wolves is expensive and dangerous, and leads to more conflict with livestock.

“Killing disrupts important social structures and affects a pack’s ability to hunt deer and elk. Research has shown it only makes it more likely the animals will turn to livestock to feed themselves and their offspring,” the groups said in the letter.

A spokesperson for the governor’s office was not immediately available for comment.

McMINNVILLE, Ore. — Organic Valley celebrated the grand opening of its new butter plant in McMinnville on Aug. 12 after buying the old Farmers Cooperative Creamery last year.

The plant is the co-op’s first brick-and-mortar facility outside Wisconsin, Hans Eisenbeis, director of Organic Valley public relations, said.

Organic Valley is the nation’s largest cooperative of organic farmers, with 2,013 members, 77 of whom are in Oregon and Washington. After Wisconsin, Oregon produces the next largest volume of milk in the Organic Valley supply chain. The co-op’s sales have topped $1.1 billion, and in 2016 it saw a 15 percent growth in membership and 5.8 percent growth in sales, according to the co-op.

The plant will produce butter and skim milk powder, but in the future could expand to making buttermilk powder and other products.

The creamery has 37 full-time employees on two shifts, Monday through Friday.

Organic Valley’s renovation of the former FCC plant was one of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s business development reserve fund investments to support small business growth, according to her office. The facility received a $350,000 check that Chris Cummings, deputy director of Business Oregon, presented during the opening ceremony.

“Organic Valley knew pretty quickly that McMinnville is the place to do business,” he said.

The event included a tour of Dan Bansen’s dairy in Dayton, Forest Glen Jerseys.

Bansen estimated he had about 800 guests at the farm that morning, according to Sasha Bernstein, a company spokeswoman.

Forest Glen Jerseys was the first farm in Western Oregon to join the co-op with 300 its cows, and is one of the bigger dairies associated with Organic Valley, Bansen said. He has followed organic practices for 24 years.

In Oregon, about 20 percent of the dairies are organic, said co-op member Steve Pierson of Sar-Ben Farms.

At the end of the event, official remarks were made by George Siemon, Organic Valley CEO; Lisa Hanson, deputy director of Oregon Department of Agriculture; Scott Hill, mayor of McMinnville; Pierson; and Cummings.

Siemon thanked FCC for giving them the opportunity to take over the plant, and said that McMinnville was the “strongest regions for the Organic Valley brand.”

Eisenbeis said earlier that Organic Valley had “a cultural fit” in McMinnville — a city that Hill dubbed unique because of its heritage.

“This is a historic building, we’ve seen it for many years,” Hill said of the plant, “but in partnering with Organic Valley we will be taken into the future to produce the best butter in America.”

GILLIAN FLACCUS

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Traffic is already a headache in central Oregon as thousands of people arrive before Monday’s total solar eclipse.

Traffic was backed up about 15 miles at one point on Thursday on U.S. Highway 26 near of Prineville, the last town before the turnoff for an eclipse-themed festival that’s expected to attract 35,000 people in a remote area with narrow, one-lane roads. Drivers then had to contend with another 14 miles of traffic on local roads to the venue.

A handful of gas stations in Bend and Prineville also ran out of fuel Wednesday before getting restocked.

The scene echoed one on Wednesday night, when eclipse traffic first began to swell. Traffic backed up for 12 miles on the same stretch of road, doubling the drive time between the towns of Redmond and Prineville as an estimated 8,000 cars passed through.

“The numbers of people who were coming in, we are beyond capacity really on that highway. Traffic is moving — it’s not stopped — but it’s taking a long time,” said Peter Murphy, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation in central Oregon.

Traffic officials reprogramed traffic lights to provide more time on green lights on east-west routes. The Prineville police also closed the eastbound lane of the highway for a time Thursday and diverted traffic onto local roads so the crush could clear.

In Madras, to the north, traffic also picked up Thursday. Gas stations were still stocked, said Joe Krenowicz, executive director of the Jefferson County-Madras Chamber of Commerce.

The town of about 6,000 is considered one of the best viewing locations in the nation and is expecting at least 100,000 people over the next four days.

“We know that we will run out of gas at some times, but they will refuel. There will be some inconveniences,” he said.

“We’re encouraging people to come into Madras with a full tank of gas if they possibly can.”

Traffic elsewhere in the state was still normal, officials said, but more visitors were expected into the weekend.

“When it comes, it will come as a rush,” said Dave Thompson, chief ODOT spokesman.

About 1 million people are expected to visit Oregon in the coming days — and up to 200,000 to Central Oregon — in the coming days to see the rare celestial event. It’s the first total, coast-to-coast solar eclipse in the U.S. in 99 years and totality — when the moon’s shadow blocks the sun and casts a shadow on Earth — first makes landfall in Oregon, making the state a top destination for eclipse watchers.

State officials are urging travelers to log onto www.TripCheck.com before they leave or call 211, an information number about the eclipse set up for the public.