Oregon farm regulators have cleared the expansion of four dairies classified as “confined animal feeding operations” over the objections of vegans and animal welfare proponents.

Earlier this year, five dairies requested that the Oregon Department of Agriculture approved changes to their waste management plans, with four those facilities seeking to increase their herds.

While such requests are usually routine, the expansion proposals attracted the attention of critics who complained the larger dairies will increase pollution, harm air quality, spur more antibiotic usage and lead to animal welfare abuses.

Many of these objections were heard during an ODA public meeting in September 2015, and critics also submitted written comments about the modified plans.

In a response to comments, ODA explained that it’s role is limited to water quality concerns. Complaints about air quality, animal welfare and antibiotic usage are outside its jurisdiction in enforcing the federal Clean Water Act.

“Most of the comments were not pertinent to our permit,” said Wym Matthews, manager of the agency’s CAFO program, noting that this fact probably won’t appease critics. “They probably will not be happy with our response.”

However, the agency will impose new conditions on the five dairies, which are located in Tillamook, Marion, Coos and Klamath counties.

In fields where manure is applied, the dairies will have to test soil nutrients annually instead of every five years. Those tests must also specifically check the soil’s nitrate levels, in addition to total nitrogen and phosphorous levels.

Dairies were previously required to only check for total nitrogen and phosphorous, but they must now break out nitrates because federal standards set limits for that particular soluble nutrient in drinking water, said Matthews.

While these conditions will currently apply only to the five dairies that requested waste management plan changes, ODA is in the process of updating its overall Clean Water Act permit for CAFOs, which will require other facilities to also comply with these measures later in 2016, he said.

Friends of Family Farmers, a non-profit group that submitted comments about water quality concerns, is heartened that soil tests will check specifically for nitrates and that samples will now be taken more frequently, which is aimed at preventing excessive nutrient buildup.

“Those were all issues we had flagged. We were making sure they weren’t engaged in a rubber-stamp exercise,” said Ivan Maluski, the group’s policy director. “I think it’s encouraging they included our suggestions.”

Any new regulatory requirements create challenges for dairies, particularly smaller ones without many employees, but producers tend to be agile in meeting such standards, said Tammy Dennee, assistant director of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association,

As for the controversy over the expansions, Dennee said it’s hard to say whether to expect similar objections in the future.

“Unfortunately, it was much to do about very little,” she said.

COOS BAY — The Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area is sponsoring the second annual GIRLS ROCK event 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, at Sunset Middle School Commons, 245 S. Cammann St., in Coos Bay.

COOS BAY — The Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area is sponsoring the second annual GIRLS ROCK event 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, at Sunset Middle School Commons, 245 S. Cammann St., in Coos Bay.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Cheers erupted at a packed community meeting in rural Oregon when a sheriff said it was time for a small, armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge to “pick up and go home.”

The group objecting to federal land policy seized buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday. Authorities have not yet moved to remove the group of roughly two dozen people, some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan. The group also objects to a lengthy prison sentence for two local ranchers convicted of arson.

“I’m here today to ask those folks to go home and let us get back to our lives,” Harney County Sheriff David Ward said Wednesday evening.

Schools were closed following the seizure of the refuge because of safety concerns in this small town in eastern Oregon’s high desert country and tensions have risen. Ward told the hundreds gathered at the meeting he hoped the community would put up a “united front” to peacefully resolve the conflict.

Group leader Ammon Bundy has told reporters they will leave when there’s a plan in place to turn over federal lands to locals.

Several people spoke in support of Bundy and his followers at Wednesday’s meeting.

“They are waking people up,” said 80-year-old Merlin Rupp, a long-time local resident. “They are just making a statement for us, to wake us up.”

Earlier Wednesday the leader of an American Indian tribe that regards the preserve as sacred issued a rebuke to Ammon’s group, saying they are not welcome at the snowy bird sanctuary and must leave.

“The protesters have no right to this land. It belongs to the native people who live here,” Burns Paiute Tribal leader Charlotte Rodrique said.

Bundy is demanding that the refuge be handed over to locals.

Rodrique said she “had to laugh” at the demand, because she knew Bundy was not talking about giving the land to the tribe.

The standoff in rural Oregon is a continuation of a long-running dispute over federal policies covering the use of public lands, including grazing. The federal government controls about half of all land in the West. For example, it owns 53 percent of Oregon, 85 percent of Nevada and 66 percent of Utah, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The Bundy family is among many people in the West who contend local officials could do a better job of managing public lands than the federal government.

The argument is rejected by those who say the U.S. government is better equipped to manage public lands for all those who want to make use of them.

Among those groups are Native Americans.

The Burns Paiute tribe has guaranteed access to the refuge for activities that are important to their culture, including gathering a plant used for making traditional baskets and seeds that are used for making bread. The tribe also hunts and fishes there.

Rodrique said the armed occupiers are “desecrating one of our sacred sites” with their presence at refuge.

Bundy’s group, calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, says it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, reported back to prison Monday.

The Hammonds are long-time local residents who have distanced themselves from the group Bundy’s group. They were convicted of arson three years ago and served no more than a year. A judge later ruled that the terms fell short of minimum sentences requiring them to serve about four more years.

At the emotional community meeting Ward, the county sheriff, said he understood the problems some had with the ranchers’ court case. However he said people needed to express but their anger peacefully and lawfully.

“I’ve got my own frustrations, we’ve got visitors in town that have their frustrations, but there’s appropriate ways to work out our differences,” he said.

Southwestern Oregon Community College students who have excelled during the 2015 fall term were honored by being included on the academic excellence, dean's, and honor roll lists. To receive academic honors, students must have had at least 12 credit hours.…

Southwestern Oregon Community College students who have excelled during the 2015 fall term were honored by being included on the academic excellence, dean's, and honor roll lists. To receive a…

The minimum wage for H-2A visa foreign guestworkers in Washington and Oregon has been increased 27 cents an hour to $12.69 for 2016 by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The rate went up 56 cents to $11.89 per hour in California and up 61 cents to $11.75 in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

The rate is down 10 cents to $11.27 in Nevada, Utah and Colorado and up 66 cents to $11.20 in Arizona and New Mexico.

The mandatory minimum, known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate or AEWR, is based on Department of Labor surveys of agricultural wages by region. It is above state minimum wages and is intended to prevent wages of similarly employed U.S. workers from being adversely affected by the importation of foreign workers.

“We wish it wouldn’t go up because the (federal H-2A) program is expensive. It’s a high minimum wage added onto housing and transportation growers provide,” said Dan Fazio, director of WAFLA, formerly the Washington Farm Labor Association, in Olympia.

Idaho’s AEWR is 62 percent higher than its minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and “that’s substantial,” he said. It increases industry’s costs, he said.

The increases Idaho and California reflect tightening labor supplies, he said.

Most pickers make more than the AEWR on piece rate because they work fast. But AEWR increases push piece rates higher, Washington tree fruit companies have said.

The highest 2016 AEWR in the nation is the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas at $13.80. The lowest is Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina at $10.59.

A year ago the rate increased 55 cents per hour in Washington and Oregon and yet the use of H-2A workers in Washington still rose from 9,077 in 2014 to 11,844 in 2015.

Increases have been largest after big crop years in which wages rise because of larger labor shortages, Fazio said.

“In the Pacific Northwest we have a severe labor shortage,” he said. “The last time the state conducted a labor survey was almost two years ago. The shortage was nearly 15 percent. We need another survey. It’s crucial, but we can tell labor is short because we get few, if any, referrals from the state.”

He was referring to required advertising for domestic workers at the AEWR rate before an employer can get DOL approval for H-2A workers.

Washington uses more H-2A workers than any other Western state, mainly in cultivation and harvest of tree fruit. Use in packing tree fruit is increasing. Most of the workers come from Mexico.

“We will have nearly 15,000 (H-2A) in 2016. Imagine what we would do if we had 15,000 fewer seasonal workers. We would be sunk, devastated,” Fazio said.

The H-2A program allows agricultural employers to hire foreign guest workers on temporary work visas to fill seasonal jobs. Employers must show a shortage of U.S. workers in the area and provide housing, transportation and a minimum wage.

Rapid growth of H-2A workers in landscape nurseries, berries and tree fruit is likely in Oregon and in tree fruit and hops in Idaho as annual growth slows from 40 to 15 percent in Washington where use already is high, Fazio has said.

Wafla hired and provided to growers 7,895 of the 11,844 H-2A workers in Washington in 2015, DOL statistics show. Zirkle Fruit Co., Selah, hired 2,889.

The DOL certified 17,942 H-2A workers for Florida in 2015, 17,696 for North Carolina and 14,393 for Georgia. Washington ranked fourth at 11,844 and California was fifth at 8,591. Louisiana, Kentucky, New York, Arizona and South Carolina completed the top 10.

Oregon hired about 250 H-2A workers in 2015 and is expected to increase by 100 this year, WAFLA has said. Idaho was at 30 and likely will increase to 50.

The top 10 H-2A users in 2015 by crop or occupation were: tobacco, 14,544; berries, 12,520; apples, 7,507; hay and straw, 6,989; oranges, 5,882; melons, 5,843; nursery and greenhouse, 5,109; agricultural equipment operators, 4,974; fruits and vegetables, 4,639; and onions, 4,610.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — The small, armed group occupying a remote national wildlife preserve in Oregon has said repeatedly that local people should control federal lands — a sentiment that frustrates critics who say the lands are already managed to help everyone from ranchers to recreationalists.

With the takeover entering its fourth day Wednesday, authorities had not removed the group of roughly 20 people from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon’s high desert country. But members of the group — some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan — were growing increasingly tense, saying they feared a federal raid.

Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum said Tuesday evening that he believes federal officials have issued warrants for the arrest of five group members — including himself and Ammon Bundy — but Finicum offered no details.

The FBI in Portland referred calls to the Harney County Joint Information Center, which said in a statement it had no information on arrests or arrest warrants and that authorities were “still working on a peaceful resolution.”

Bundy said they would take a defensive position anticipating a possible raid. Late Tuesday, the group moved a large plow vehicle to block the refuge’s driveway.

Bundy told reporters Tuesday the group would leave when there was a plan in place to turn over federal lands to locals — a common refrain in a decades-long fight over public lands in the West.

“It is our goal to get the logger back to logging, the rancher back to ranching,” said the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights.

The younger Bundy’s anti-government group is critical of federal land stewardship. But environmentalists and others say U.S. officials should keep control for the broadest possible benefit to business, recreation and the environment.

Randy Eardley, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman, said the group’s call for land ownership transfer didn’t make sense.

“It is frustrating when I hear the demand that we return the land to the people, because it is in the people’s hand — the people own it,” Eardley said. “Everybody in the United States owns that land. ... We manage it the best we can for its owners, the people, and whether it’s for recreating, for grazing, for energy and mineral development.”

Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland, said in a statement this week that occupation of the refuge “holds hostage public lands and public resources to serve the very narrow political agenda of the occupiers.”

The armed group seized the refuge’s headquarters Saturday night. Bundled in camouflage, earmuffs and cowboy hats, they seem to be centered around a complex of buildings on the 300-square-mile high desert preserve.

Finicum said the power was still on at buildings at the refuge. “If they cut it off, that would be such a crying shame. All the pipes would freeze,” he said.

Ammon Bundy offered few specifics about the group’s plan to get the land turned over to local control, but Finicum said they would examine the underlying land ownership transactions to begin to “unwind it.”

The federal government controls about half of all land in the West, which would make the wholesale transfer of ownership extremely difficult and expensive.

For example, it owns 53 percent of Oregon, 85 percent of Nevada and 66 percent of Utah, according to the Congressional Research Service. Taking over federal public lands in Idaho could cost the state $111 million a year, according to a University of Idaho study.

Bundy said the group felt it had the support of the local community. But the county sheriff has told the group to go home, and many locals don’t want them around, fearing they may bring trouble. A community meeting was scheduled for Wednesday. Harney County Sheriff David Ward said in a statement the meeting was to “talk about their security concerns and the disruptions that the behavior of the militants on the refuge are causing for our people.”

So far, law enforcement hasn’t taken action against the group, whose rallying cry is the imprisonment of father-and-son ranchers who set fire to federal land.

The group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom said it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, reported back to prison Monday.

The Hammonds, who have distanced themselves from the group, were convicted of arson three years ago and served no more than a year. A judge later ruled the terms fell short of minimum sentences that require them to serve about four more years.

The takeover comes amid a dispute that dates back decades in the West. In the 1970s, Nevada and other states pushed for local control in what was known as the Sagebrush Rebellion. Supporters wanted more land for cattle grazing, mining and timber harvesting.

———

Associated Press writer Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this story.

An organization that represents a broad range of outdoor enthusiasts said “misguided politicians” who call for taking over or selling off public land paved the way for armed militia members who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters south of Burns, Ore.

Among other things, militia members have said they want to return federal land to full commercial use by loggers, miners and others. In a statement released Jan. 5, the Outdoor Alliance said legislators in 11 Western states have introduced bills that would accomplish similar aims.

The alliance, based in Washington, D.C., said militia members and politicians miss the point of why some land is set aside and regulated by agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and National Park Service.

“From the perspective of the outdoor recreation community,” the Outdoor Alliance said, “the most important point is this: It’s not just the gunmen’s tactics that are wrong, but their ideas, as well. These folks want to take over public lands, and their actions do harm to the wonderful idea that these places belong to all of us.”

When politicians advocate “unconstitutional positions” about the legitimacy of federal land management, it “emboldens people willing to point guns at the public servants responsible for managing our American public lands,” the alliance said.

Outdoor Alliance describes itself as a nonprofit coalition of groups representing hikers, climbers, rafters, mountain bikers, backcountry skiers and others committed to conserving public land.

The group’s full statement is at: http://www.outdooralliance.org/policy-news/2016/1/4/gunmen-threaten-to-take-public-land-by-force-in-oregon

A lawsuit over a pricing dispute between an Oregon hazelnut farmers cooperative and the estate of a deceased entrepreneur in the aviation and agriculture industries has been settled.

In September 2015, the Hazelnut Growers of Oregon cooperative was accused of violating a contract with the estate of Delford Smith, the founder of now-bankrupt Evergreen Aviation and Evergreen Agricultural Enterprises in McMinnville, Ore.

The complaint claimed that HGO agreed to pay Smith, who died in 2014, 35 cents per pound above the field price established by the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association, which sets prices between farmers and processors.

Smith’s estate alleged it was owed an added $150,000 for delivering 1 million pounds of hazelnuts to the cooperative because the field price for hazelnuts ultimately increased from $1.15 to $1.30 per pound.

On Dec. 28, a judge in Multnomah County Circuit Court dismissed the lawsuit at the behest of the plaintiffs.

The dispute could have had implications beyond the contract between HGO and the Smith’s estate because members of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association aren’t allowed to pay higher prices to individual farmers.

Jeff Fox, CEO of the cooperative, said HGO reached a settlement with Smith’s estate but could not comment on the specifics.

The disagreement arose after creditors attempted to garnish the revenues of Smith’s estate after his death, HGO became involved in the proceedings because it had rights to hazelnuts delivered by Smith, Fox said.

The estate’s lawsuit against HGO was the result of confusion over the meaning of “field price,” as the cooperative eventually paid its members more than the initial rate set after harvest, he said.

Smith’s estate believed it was owed 35 cents above the final price, rather than the original rate, which led to the dispute, Fox said. “I probably should have done a better job clarifying that within the contract.”

Capital Press was unable to reach the attorney representing Smith’s estate.

As to the question about preferential payments, Fox said the cooperative is not subject to the contract between farmers and the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association. However, a company owned by the cooperative, Westnut, is a signatory, he said.

Even so, HGO tries to “minimize any disruption” over prices, so the contract with Smith was intended to pay the same level above the initial field price as other growers received, Fox said.

Doug Olsen, president of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association, refused to comment on the situation.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — The armed activists who flocked to a remote wildlife refuge to take a stand against the federal government also looked prepared for a nippy day of hunting or fishing.

They were bundled in camouflage, plaid shirts, ear muffs and cowboy hats in the bleak, snow-covered high desert of eastern Oregon where they seemed more likely to encounter a bird or animal than a member of the public outside their own group or the throng of news media beyond the pickup trucks blocking the entrance to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

That may be one of the main reasons law enforcement hadn’t taken action Monday against the group numbering close to two dozen who were upset about the imprisonment of father-and-son ranchers who set fire to federal land.

“These guys are out in the middle of nowhere, and they haven’t threatened anybody that I know of,” said Jim Glennon, a longtime police commander who now owns the Illinois-based law enforcement training organization Calibre Press. “There’s no hurry. If there’s not an immediate threat to anyone’s life, why create a situation where there would be?”

Schools were closed for the week in Burns, about 30 miles north of the refuge, out of an abundance of caution, but no one had been hurt and no one was being held hostage on Monday.

The takeover puts federal officials in a delicate position of deciding whether to confront the occupiers, risking bloodshed, or stand back and possibly embolden others to directly confront the government.

The activists seized the refuge about 300 miles from Portland on Saturday night as part of a decades-long fight over public lands in the West.

The armed group said it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, reported back to prison Monday.

The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago for fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006, one of which was set to cover up deer poaching, according to prosecutors. The men served no more than a year until an appeals court judge ruled the terms fell short of minimum sentences that require them to serve about four more years.

Their sentences were a rallying cry for the group calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, whose mostly male members said they want federal lands turned over to local authorities so people can use them free of U.S. oversight.

The group — led by two of the sons of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 Nevada standoff with the government over grazing rights — sent a demand for “redress for grievances” to local, state and federal officials.

“We have exhausted all prudent measures and have been ignored,” Ammon Bundy said.

The group, which included a couple of women and some boys and girls Monday, did not release a copy of its demands and Ammon Bundy would not say what the group would do if it got no response.

President Barack Obama said Monday federal authorities were monitoring the situation, but agents made no apparent moves to surround the property or confront the group — an approach that reflected lessons learned from bloody standoffs at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, in the early 1990s.

That prompted complaints from many observers who suggested the government’s response would have been swifter and more severe had the occupants been Muslim or other minorities.

“There seems to be somewhat of a reluctance to think white people are as dangerous as people of color,” said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

Beirich said the group was emboldened by the government’s failure to hold Cliven Bundy or his supporters accountable in 2014 after hundreds of armed anti-government activists rallied to his defense when federal authorities started seizing his cattle over more than $1 million in unpaid grazing fees.

Michael Barkun, an emeritus professor at Syracuse University who has studied extremist groups, said not confronting the Oregon group could embolden others.

“You can say, well, a negotiated settlement emboldens them,” he said. “But by the same token it deprives them of a confrontation that some of them want.”

The Hammonds have distanced themselves from the protest group and many locals, including people who want to see federal lands made more accessible, don’t want the activists here, fearing they may bring trouble.

Seeds of the dispute date back decades in the West, where the federal government owns about half of all land.

In the 1970s, Nevada and other states pushed for local control over federal land in what was known as the “Sagebrush Rebellion.”

Supporters wanted more land for cattle grazing, mining and timber harvesting and opponents wanted federal government to administer lands for the widest possible uses, including environmental and recreational.

The refuge established in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect birds from hunters selling plumes to the hat industry has expanded to 300 square miles over the years.

The valley rimmed by distant mountains contains lakes and marshland and now surrounds the ranch Dwight Hammond bought with his father in 1964.

Hammond said his family resisted pressure to sell the ranch as the federal government chipped away at his grazing allotments and increased fees on other lands.

Ammon Bundy said the group plans to stay at the refuge as long as it takes.

Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Brian Melley contributed from Los Angeles.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Father-and-son ranchers convicted of setting fire to federal grazing land reported to prison Monday as the armed anti-government activists who have taken up their cause maintained the occupation of a remote Oregon wildlife preserve.

Federal authorities made no immediate attempt to retake the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the remote high desert of eastern Oregon, which about two dozen activists seized over the weekend as part of a decades-long fight over public lands in the West.

There appeared to be no urgent reason for federal officials to move in. No one has been hurt. No one is being held hostage. And because the refuge is a bleak and forbidding stretch of wilderness about 300 miles from Portland, and it’s the middle of winter, the standoff is causing few if any disruptions.

Meanwhile, the armed group said it wants an inquiry into whether the government is forcing ranchers off their land after the father and son were ordered back to prison for arson on federal grazing lands.

The group, calling itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, demanded a government response within five days related to the ranchers’ extended sentences.

Ammon Bundy — one of the sons of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 Nevada standoff with the government over grazing rights — told reporters that Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven Hammond, were treated unfairly.

The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago for fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006, one of which was set to cover up deer poaching, according to prosecutors. They said they lit the fires to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires.

The men served their original sentences — three months for Dwight and one year for Steven. But an appeals court ruled the terms fell short of minimum sentences that require them to serve about four more years.

Their sentences have been a rallying cry for the group, whose mostly male members said they want federal lands turned over to local authorities so people can use them free of U.S. oversight.

The father and son reported to a federal prison Monday in California, said Harney County, Oregon, Sheriff David Ward. He provided no other details.

The Hammonds have distanced themselves from the protest group and many locals, including people who want to see federal lands made more accessible, don’t want the activists here, fearing they may bring trouble.

Schools in the small town of Burns, about 30 miles from the refuge, were closed for the week out of concern for student safety.

For the moment, the federal government was doing nothing to remove them, but the FBI said it was monitoring the situation. The White House said President Obama was aware of the situation and hopes it can be resolved peacefully.

The refuge was established in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect bird populations that had been decimated by plume hunters selling feathers for the hat industry.

It sits in a wide snow-covered valley rimmed by distant mountains and contains lakes and marshland. The preserve has grown over the years to about 300 square miles and surrounds the ranch Dwight Hammond bought with his father in 1964. Dwight Hammond said his family has resisted pressure to sell the ranch as the federal government chipped away at his grazing allotments and increased fees on other lands.

The refuge contains about 10 small buildings, some of which had been entered by the occupying group. Other members of the group blocked the entrance to the headquarters.

The takeover prompted an outcry far beyond Oregon from both those who want to see federal lands opened to more ranching and logging and others who were astounded that private citizens with guns could seize government property without any intervention by law enforcement.

The tactics of the group were condemned by Democrats and Republicans alike.

Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who is familiar with the Bundys from their standoff in his state, said the group could not continue breaking the law, but that everyone should remain patient.

“These people say we want to return (the land) to the people,” Reid said. “The people have it right now.”

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he hoped the group would “stand down peaceably” with no violent confrontation “sooner rather than later.”

Ammon Bundy said his group had sent a demand for “redress for grievances” to local, state and federal officials. The group, which included a couple of women and some boys and girls Monday, did not release a copy of its demands. Bundy would not say what the group would do if it got no response.

“We have exhausted all prudent measures and have been ignored,” he said.

The dispute harkens back to a long-running struggle over public lands between some Westerners and the federal government, which owns nearly half the land in the West.

In the 1970s, during the “Sagebrush Rebellion,” Nevada and other states pushed for local control over federal land. Supporters of that idea want to open more land available for cattle grazing, mining and timber harvesting.

Opponents say the federal government should administer lands for the widest possible uses, including environmental and recreational.

Bundy said the group plans to stay at the refuge as long as it takes.

Keith Landon, a longtime resident of Burns who works at the Reid Country Store, said he sympathizes with the Bundys’ frustrations. Landon was a logger until the federal government declared the spotted owl a protected species in the 1980s — a decision that hurt the local logging industry.

“It’s hard to discredit what they’re trying to do out there,” he said. “But I don’t want anybody hurt.”

Melley reported from Los Angeles.

Add the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association to the list of groups that don’t approve of the militia takeover of a federal building south of Burns.

In a prepared statement Jan. 4, OCA President John O’Keeffe noted that Harney County ranchers have been “very resourceful” in working with federal agencies on wildlife issues in particular.

“Furthermore, OCA does not support illegal activity taken against the government. This includes militia takeover of government property, such as the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.”

However, OCA Executive Director Jerome Rosa said the organization continues to support Burns-area ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, who reported to federal prison Monday to serve additional time for burning BLM land. The OCA believes their re-sentencing was a “classic case of double jeopardy” and is calling for clemency.

The self-described militia members are led by Ammon Bundy, who took part in the 2014 armed standoff at the Nevada ranch of his father, Cliven Bundy, over the family’s non-payment of federal grazing fees. The younger Bundy and fellow believers arrived in Burns vowing to “support” the Hammonds. They took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters during the New Year’s holiday weekend when it was closed and vacant.

The militia members appear to have few if any ties to the case or to the local area.

Ironically, as O’Keeffe referenced, Harney County ranchers worked extensively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other local, state and federal agencies on improving habitat for Greater sage-grouse. The voluntary conservation agreements signed by county ranchers set a standard for habitat protection on private property throughout the West and are credited with keeping sage-grouse off the federal endangered species list in 2015. A county rancher, Tom Sharp, coined the phrase that summed up the collaboration: “What’s good for the bird is good for the herd.”

O’Keeffe said the OCA is circulating an on-line petition asking the White House to review the Hammond’s case.

(AP) An attorney for two Oregon ranchers whose impending prison sentences led an armed group to take over a national wildlife refuge says they will seek clemency from the president.

Kendra M. Matthews, a lawyer for Dwight and Steven Hammond, said Monday that the father and son will ask President Barack Obama to pardon them. They were convicted of arson for setting fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006 and served some prison time.

A judge said in October that their terms were too short and ordered them back to prison. Matthews reiterated that the Hammonds intend to surrender Monday to begin serving their terms.

Their sentences have been a rallying cry for the group who say they ultimately want to turn over the refuge land to local authorities so people can use it free of U.S. oversight.

The self-described militia members occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters building south of Burns, Ore., don’t seem to be getting much support from groups that might otherwise share their political views.

The Oath Keepers, a group of current and former military, police and other “first responders” who pledge to “defend the Constitution” against government intrusion, is telling its followers that the Oregon ranching family at the center of the issue doesn’t want an armed confrontation.

“We cannot force ourselves or our protection on people who do not want it,” Oath Keeper founder and President Stewart Rhodes said in a post.

“Dwight and Steven Hammond have made it clear, through their attorney, that they just want to turn themselves in and serve out their sentence. And that clear statement of their intent should be the end of the discussion on this. No patriot group or individual has the right or the authority to force an armed stand off on this family, or around them, against their wishes. You cannot help someone who does not want your help, and who are not willing and ready to take a hard stand themselves.”

The discussion takes an odd turn, however, in a “false flag” post carried on the Oath Keepers website (www.oathkeepers.org). It alleges some of the militia members are actually federal “provocateurs” whose role is to provoke a shootout that will justify “citizen disarmament” by the Obama administration, which it refers to as “the regime.”

“My initial reaction was to observe that at least afterward we’ll know who the federal snitches are because they will be the only ones who survive the raid to take back the building,” wrote a poster identified as Mike Vanderboegh.

“For the regime, this could not come at a better time. The old Roman adage ‘cui bono’ (a Latin phrase meaning “To whose benefit?”) applies here. There is nothing on the talking heads channels as yet, but by Monday, when Obama meets with his Attorney General on the subject of citizen disarmament, you can bet the farm that this will play right into that narrative. Perfect timing. You’ve got to give the federal handlers of these pukes credit. This is precisely the sort of offensive action on the part of the ‘militia terrorists’ that they needed.”

Meanwhile, Harney County Sheriff David Ward, criticized by militia members for not taking up their cause, made his thoughts clear:

“On January 2, 2015 in Harney County, Oregon, a group of men and women seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters located in Harney County, Oregon. The refuge headquarters was empty at the time of the seizure due to it being the weekend.

“These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to over throw the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States.

“We are currently working jointly with several organizations to make sure the citizens of Harney County are safe and this issue is resolved as quickly and peaceful as possible. At this time we do not have any information that any other areas in Harney County are in immediate danger.

“We ask that people stay away from the refuge for their safety. We also ask that if anyone sees any of these individuals in the area to please contact law enforcement and do not confront the individuals themselves.”

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — People in this rural eastern Oregon town are used to worrying about friction between the federal government and locals, but the armed takeover of a nearby national wildlife refuge is raising concerns to a new high.

Keith Landon, a longtime resident of Burns and employee at the Reid Country Store, said he knows local law enforcement officials who fear their kids will be targeted by angry militia members.

The mother of one of his kids is now involved with an officer, and they decided to send their children to another town after feeling threatened by an angry protester, Landon said.

“I’m hoping most of it’s just muscle, trying to push,” he said. “But it’s a scary thing.”

Armed protesters, whom authorities say are coming from outside the area, took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns on Saturday after participating in a peaceful rally over the prison sentences of local ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond.

The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago for fires that burned on federal land in 2001 and 2006. They served their original sentences — Dwight, three months and Steven, one year — but an appellate judge ruled in October that the terms were too short under federal minimum sentencing laws.

Both men were ordered back to prison for four years each. They have said they plan to turn themselves in Monday.

The decision to send the men back to prison generated an outcry and plays into a decades-long dispute between some Westerners and the federal government over the use of public lands.

Brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy are among those occupying the refuge. Their father, Cliven Bundy, was involved in a standoff with the government last year over grazing rights in Nevada.

Ryan Bundy told The Associated Press on Sunday that he hopes to turn over the land to local authorities so people can use it free of federal oversight. He said he hopes the takeover will prompt others to take action across the country to seize control of federally managed land.

Ammon Bundy has previously called on members of militia groups to take a stand with those at the refuge.

The FBI is working with local and state authorities to “bring a peaceful resolution to the situation,” the bureau said in a statement late Sunday. It said it is the lead investigative agency and would not release details about the law enforcement response to ensure the safety of officers and those at the refuge.

At the property, several pickup trucks blocked the entrance and armed men wearing camouflage and winter gear used radios to alert those at the refuge buildings when reporters were allowed in.

Ryan Bundy declined to say how many people were at the site.

“The end goal here is that we are here to restore the rights to the people here so that they can use the land and resources. All of them,” Bundy said.

That means ranchers can graze their cattle on the land, miners can use their mineral rights, loggers can cut trees, and hunters and fishers can shoot and cast, he said.

The Bundy brothers say the group plans to stay at the refuge as long as it takes.

“We’re planning on staying here for years, absolutely,” Ammon Bundy told reporters over the weekend. “This is not a decision we’ve made at the last minute.”

If the situation turns violent, Ryan Bundy contends that it will be because of the federal government’s actions.

“I mean, we’re here to restore order, we’re here to restore rights and that can go peacefully and easily,” he said.

Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said the group came to town under false pretenses.

“These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States,” Ward said in a statement Sunday.

Landon, the longtime Burns resident, said he sympathizes with the Bundys’ frustrations. Landon was a logger until the federal government declared the spotted owl a protected species in the 1980s, damaging the local logging industry.

“The spotted owl started the downfall of our community, then (President) Clinton made the Steens Mountains a wilderness area or whatever. Five generations of ranchers that had been on the Steens, kicked them off,” he said. “It’s hard to discredit what they’re trying to do out there. But I don’t want anybody hurt.”

He said that on the surface, it doesn’t look like much has changed in Burns, a high desert town of about 2,700 people.

“It’s weird — I woke up this morning expecting the town to be crawling with this and that agency. But you don’t see any of it. They’re keeping a low presence,” Landon said Sunday.

However, most of the hotels in the area are booked, and he’s noticed that officers are doing their patrols in pairs instead of alone. The biggest difference since the takeover is the undercurrent of worry, he said.

“I’m glad they took the refuge because it’s 30 miles away,” Landon said. “I mean, they could have took the courthouse here in town.”

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — A family previously involved in a showdown with the federal government has occupied a building at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon and is asking militia members to join them.

Ammon Bundy — the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights — told The Oregonian on Saturday that he and two of his brothers were among a group of dozens of people occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

The protest began as a rally in support of Oregon ranchers facing jail time for arson.

Ammon Bundy posted a video on his Facebook page asking for militia members to come help him. He said “this is not a time to stand down. It’s a time to stand up and come to Harney County,” where Burns is located. Below the video is this statement: “(asterisk)(asterisk)ALL PATRIOTS ITS TIME TO STAND UP NOT STAND DOWN!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! COME PREPARED.”

In an interview with reporters late Saturday night that was posted on Facebook, Bundy said he and others are occupying the building because “the people have been abused long enough.”

“I feel we are in a situation where if we do not do something, if we do not take a hard stand, we’ll be in a position where we’ll be no longer able to do so,” he said.

Bundy said the group planned to stay at the refuge indefinitely. “We’re planning on staying here for years, absolutely,” Ammon Bundy said. “This is not a decision we’ve made at the last minute.”

Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward told people to stay away from the building as authorities work to defuse the situation, the Oregonian reported.

“A collective effort from multiple agencies is currently working on a solution. For the time being please stay away from that area. More information will be provided as it becomes available. Please maintain a peaceful and united front and allow us to work through this situation,” Ward said in a statement.

An Idaho militia leader who helped organize the earlier march said he knew nothing about activities after a parade of militia members and local residents in Burns walked past the sheriff’s office and the home of Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven.

Ammon Bundy’s father, Cliven Bundy, told Oregon Public Broadcasting on Saturday night that he had nothing to do with the takeover of the building.

Bundy said his son felt obligated to intervene on behalf of the Hammonds.

“That’s not exactly what I thought should happen, but I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “You know, if the Hammonds wouldn’t stand, if the sheriff didn’t stand, then, you know, the people had to do something. And I guess this is what they did decide to do. I wasn’t in on that.”

His son Ammon told him they are committed to staying in the building, Cliven Bundy told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

“He told me that they were there for the long run. I guess they figured they’re going to be there for whatever time it takes—and I don’t know what that means,” Cliven Bundy said. “I asked him, ‘Well how long can ya, how long you going to stand out there?’ He just told me it was for long term.”

Beth Anne Steele, an FBI spokeswoman in Portland, told The Associated Press the agency was aware of the situation at the national wildlife refuge. She made no further comment.

Some local residents feared the Saturday rally would involve more than speeches, flags and marching. But the only real additions to that list seemed to be songs, flowers and pennies.

As marchers reached the courthouse, they tossed hundreds of pennies at the locked door. Their message: civilians were buying back their government. After the march passed, two girls swooped in to scavenge the pennies.

A few blocks away, Hammond and his wife, Susan, greeted marchers, who planted flower bouquets in the snow. They sang some songs, Hammond said a few words, and the protesters marched back to their cars.

Dwight Hammond has said he and his son plan to peacefully report to prison Jan. 4 as ordered by the judge.

Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, said they lit the fires in 2001 and 2006 to reduce the growth of invasive plants and protect their property from wildfires.

The two were convicted of the arsons three years ago and served time — the father three months, the son one year. But a judge ruled their terms were too short under federal law and ordered them back to prison for about four years each.

The decision has generated controversy in a remote part of the state.

In particular, the Hammonds’ new sentences touched a nerve with far right groups who repudiate federal authority.

Ammon Bundy and a handful of militiamen from other states arrived last month in Burns, some 60 miles from the Hammond ranch.

In an email to supporters, Ammon Bundy criticized the U.S. government for a failed legal process.

An influx of new or beginning farmers who need feed for goats, llamas, alpacas and sheep in addition to cattle prompted Oregon State University Extension to offer a class Thursday, Jan. 14 on Growing Quality Hay.

The class is scheduled from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Josephine County Extension Auditorium, 215 Ringuette St., Grants Pass. The cost is $15. To register on-line, go to https://secure.oregonstate.edu/osuext/register/968, or contact Sharon Evans at OSU Extension, at 541-476-6613.

The class is offered through OSU’s Small Farms Program. Paula Burkhalter, assistant to the area’s Small Farms Agent, Maude Powell, said a good number of beginning farmers attended the class when it was offered two years ago in neighboring Jackson County, and 20 to 25 are expected this year. With many new farmers in Southwest Oregon, there appears to be an ongoing need for understanding what quality hay is and its role in producing healthy livestock, Burkhalter said.

The class will cover types of hay, nutritional content, the process of cutting and curing hay, required equipment, soil management and the importance of having a forage analysis done. The impact of poor quality hay on livestock health will be covered as well.

The extension office also is offering a series of classes on farm management in January, February and March. The series follows a sequence intended to help farmers in their first five years, with sessions titled Dream it, Grow it, Do it, Sell it, Manage it and Keep it. More information is available at http://extension.oregonstate.edu/sorec/farms.

ONTARIO, Ore. — Many farmers and others in Eastern Oregon fear efforts to significantly raise the state’s minimum wage would result in businesses moving across the border to Idaho.

Townhall meetings will be held in Eastern Oregon next week to inform people about the different proposals to raise the state’s minimum wage and discuss the impacts they could have.

One proposed ballot measure would increase Oregon’s minimum wage from $9.25 to $15 an hour over three years and another would raise it to $13.50 over that same period.

Idaho’s minimum wage is $7.25.

The meetings are being organized by Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, who said he has heard from many people that the current $2 an hour difference between the two states’ minimum wages makes it extremely difficult to create new jobs in Eastern Oregon.

The unemployment rates in Malheur, Grant, Harney and Baker counties in Eastern Oregon are 2-4 percentage points higher than the rates in Idaho’s Canyon, Payette and Washington counties, which border Oregon.

Bentz believes the difference between the states’ minimum wages is a big reason for that disparity.

“It’s been difficult just to attract jobs” in Eastern Oregon, he said. “It’s going to be impossible if (the minimum wage) goes higher....”

Several proposals to raise the state’s minimum wage were introduced in the Oregon Legislature last year, including one that would have increased it to $15 in 2018.

Passing legislation that increases Oregon’s minimum wage is expected to be a priority during the upcoming legislative session.

Farmers and agribusinesses in Eastern Oregon said they couldn’t compete against their colleagues on the Idaho side if the state’s minimum wage is increased substantially and Idaho’s stays the same.

“I guarantee you there will be packing sheds in this valley that move to the other side,” said farmer Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. “They’ll have to. They won’t have any other choice.”

Owyhee Produce General Manager Shay Myers said his onion packing plant in Nyssa couldn’t compete against its Idaho counterparts if Oregon’s minimum wage is raised to anywhere near $15 an hour while Idaho’s doesn’t change.

“There are only two ways to cut labor costs: moving or automation,” he said. “It might be easier for me to move across the border.”

A minimum wage proposal by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, recognizes the different costs of living between Portland and rural Oregon and seeks to head off the proposed ballot measures.

Dembrow, chairman of the Senate Workforce Committee, proposes to create three minimum wage zones in the state, with the highest rate being in the Portland area and the lowest in rural areas such as Eastern Oregon.

“It makes more sense to me to have the minimum wage more closely tied to the cost of living in the different parts of Oregon,” he said. “Clearly, the cost of living here in Portland is much higher than it is in Ontario.”

EAGLE POINT, Ore. (AP) — Medina Russell pulled an antique medicine bottle from a zippered pouch belted to his waist.

Although the label was burned off by a Christmas Day fire that gutted the historic Butte Creek Mill, the unbroken bottle was still filled with decades-old pills and its cork stopper was intact.

“My pouch runneth over,” Medina Russell said to mill owner Bob Russell (no relation) of the vintage treasures gradually filling his pouch.

“You did find some stuff!” Bob Russell said to his friend and fellow antiques collector. “I had all my pharmacy stuff stored under the eaves.”

Volunteers, many of them antiques experts, began sifting through the charred rubble of the mill Wednesday. The last working, water-powered flour mill west of the Mississippi was also home to the office and personal antiques collection of Bob Russell, a lifelong collector. The volunteers are combing through a completely collapsed section of the building, staying away from the unstable sections that are still standing.

Bob Russell and Medina Russell looked through more of the vintage finds — some blackened and some almost unscathed.

A poker chip. An American-Indian ax head made of stone. A black-and-red woven Navajo rug. A glass paperweight bearing the image of President William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901. A Pluto-the-dog toy made of wood and string. A pocket mirror with a picture of a newfangled toilet promising “A Tank of Everlasting Quality.”

“They are finding things that miraculously have survived,” Bob Russell said.

He said there are many more objects that could be found, including an Alexander the Great coin dating from 336 B.C.

“It really is a needle in a haystack — or worse,” he said of the chances of finding the small coin in the mounds of rubble.

Dried beans once sold at the mill are scattered throughout the site. Bob Russell said the beans were cascading out of the mill’s doors like waterfalls as firefighters battled the blaze with their hoses.

He said the historic property was “barely insured” through Lloyd’s of London, an insurance firm in England known for insuring unusual and costly items.

With the historic mill stones and foundation in place, Bob Russell is hoping to rebuild. Many of the walls and part of the roof still stand, but the architectural features are unstable. Fire investigators have not been able to enter the main part of the building yet.

Investigators and Jackson County Fire District 3 staff walked the site and used a crane to get a bird’s-eye view of the burned mill.

The company Epic Scan is creating a three-dimensional map of the structure that is accurate to within one-hundredth of an inch, Bob Russell said.

The 3D imagery could help in the reconstruction of the mill and is also helping fire investigators.

“We want to know how big the rooms were, where the fire originated and how it spread,” said Ashley Lara, public information officer for District 3.

Investigators are interviewing people and gathering evidence, but the investigation could take anywhere from two weeks to a year, she said.

“This mill is a huge piece of history,” Lara said. “It’s heartwarming to see how many people are supporting Bob Russell.”

More than 100 volunteers have stepped forward to help, and donations are coming in from around the globe. Area businesses such as Eagle Point Hardware, Lowe’s Home Improvement and Home Depot have donated materials. A vase filled with white flowers from well-wishers stood out against the blackened building.

“The support has been overwhelming,” Bob Russell said.

With the fire so recent, Medina Russell said the loss of both the mill and Bob Russell’s antiques collection is raw and painful.

“I still wake up in the middle of the night almost crying because of knowing what he had,” Medina Russell said. “I never in my wildest dreams thought I would see the mill in this condition.”