Several Boardman, Ore., corn growers placed highly at the state level in the National Corn Growers Association’s annual yield contest.

Vern Frederickson placed first in Oregon in the no-till/strip till irrigated class with a yield of 309.28 bushels per acre, using DeKalb DKC62-06.

Jonathon Lewis Springstead placed first in Oregon in the irrigated class with a yield of 273.9 bushels per acre using Pioneer 35K02. Springstead did not respond to requests for comment.

Nolan Mills placed second in the no-till/strip-till irriagated class with a yield of 255.29 bushels per acre using Pioneer P1266.

Rod Taylor placed second in the irrigated class with a yield of 267.13 bushels per acre using DeKalb DKC62-08RIB. Taylor could not be reached through the corn organization.

The contest announced 407 state winners and 18 national winners. David Hula of Charles City, Va., won with a yield of 532.03 bushels per acre.

According to the organization, the average yield among national winners was 386.4 bushels per acre, with six national winners recording yields of 400 bushels or more per acre. The U.S. average corn yield in 2015 was 169.3 bushels per acre.

Frederickson said his yields are usually 280 to 290 bushels per acre. Last year he yielded 314 bushels per acre and won the organization’s contest in Oregon, too.

“We farm about 5,000 acres, about 1,200 acres devoted to corn, so we have several people involved in this process,” he said. “It’s a good team effort.”

Frederickson participates in the contest to compare his performance against other farmers in the industry.

“It gives us an incentive to continually improve our process,” he said. “We do hope we do well, but it’s not our primary focus.”

Mills said his winning field averaged five bushels more than his other, non-contest corn fields averaged.

“It’s a good measure to see how we’re doing,” he said. “We try to pick the best field and the best spot.”

The contest helps growers compare varieties and farming practices, Mills said.

Frederickson has several ideas to further boost his yield. He is looking for a 15- to 20-bushel increase, he said.

“The most important thing is, focus on the planting and getting a good stand (and) even emergence,” he said.

Mills also plans to enter again this year. He expects a similar approach to last year.

“Mostly try to stay up on the fertilizer and water and be timely with our inputs,” he said. “More of the same thing we’ve already done, just trying to be timely on all our inputs from planting to harvest.”

SALEM — Opposing sides in Oregon’s continuing wolf argument both believe some aspects of the state’s management plan should be reviewed by independent parties.

Speaking March 18 to the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife Commission, conservationists repeated their view that an external scientific review should have been done before the commission took wolves off the state endangered species list last November.

Livestock, hunting and farming interests, meanwhile, suggested a third-party should make the call on whether livestock attacks are listed as confirmed wolf depredation or only “probable,” which don’t count toward lethal control decisions.

On just about every other aspect of wolves in Oregon, however, the two sides disagree. Panelists representing both sides were invited to meet with the ODFW Commission and stake out their positions as the state begins what is expected to be a nine-month review of the wolf management plan.

The review begins as cattle and sheep producers, hunters and the Oregon Farm Bureau have scored a couple of key victories. First was the commission’s delisting decision in November, and the Oregon Legislature followed that up by passing a bill that protects the decision from legal challenge. Since then, the state’s annual wolf survey showed the state population grew 36 percent in 2015. Wildlife biologist Russ Morgan, ODFW’s wolf recovery manager, said the numbers represent a continuing success story as wolves expand in number and range.

Panelists from Oregon Wild, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and Cascadia Wildlands repeated their view that delisting was premature and not supported by independent scientific review. Representatives said they oppose a state population cap or range limits on wolves. They also oppose sport hunting of wolves, which some think could be an eventual result of delisting and plan revision.

Amaroq Weiss, of the Center for Biological Diversity, said some Oregon actions undermine wolf protection. The Legislature passed a bill increasing the fines for poaching, she said, but excused “unintentional take.”

“The law provides an absolute defense for someone who shoots a wolf and claims he thought it was a coyote,” she said, noting the case of an Oregon hunter who was prosecuted for a 2015 incident. “The state is saying, claim it was an accident and we’ll turn our back.”

Rob Clavins, Northeast Oregon field coordinator for Oregon Wild, said wolf poaching has increased, the delisting and legislative action was “unfair and unethical” and discussions are marked by “renewed conflict and controversy” even as a majority of Oregonians favor wolf protections.

“We’re skeptical, but we are here again,” he told the commission.

The other side had points to make as well.

Mary Anne Nash, an attorney with the Oregon Farm Bureau, said conservationists’ complaints about transparency and scientific review are “in the eye of the beholder.”

“They mean their preferred outcomes, and their science,” she said.

Dave Wiley, with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, said ODFW must protect Oregon’s deer and elk herds as wolf packs expand.

Jim Akenson, conservation director for the Oregon Hunters Association, said it’s “wonderful” to restore wolves to the ecosystem, “But at some point there needs to be management. We’ve reached that point,” he said.

Wallowa County rancher Todd Nash, head of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association wolf task force, said ODFW has too high a bar for confirming wolf attacks and an outside party ought to do it instead. He and others also favor establishing geographic management zones in which wolves could be controlled on a more local basis.

Morgan, the ODFW biologist, said Oregon’s minimum wolf population at the close of 2015 was 110, with 12 packs and 11 breeding pairs. A recently updated count showed 35 pups survived through the year.

Seven wolves are known to have died during 2015: A pup died of natural causes, the Sled Springs male and female pair were found dead of an unknown cause, one wolf ingested poison in some fashion, and three were illegally shot. Two of the shooting deaths remain under investigation.

Oregon State University is studying the interaction of wolves and cougars, Morgan said, and biologists have seen some cases where wolves attack coyotes.

In one case, biologists noted that tracking collars showed wolves at one spot for several days. When they investigated, biologists discovered wolves had dug out a coyote den to get at pups.

Morgan said the state spent $318,322 on wolf management in 2015, a figure that doesn’t include reimbursements to livestock owners for damage or defensive measures.

Of the expenditure, about $225,000 came from the federal government and the state provided about $92,000. The state’s share came from hunting license sales and Oregon Lottery funds.

Expenses include helicopter flights, drugs to knock out wolves and the tracking collars placed on them, Morgan said. “Wolf management is expensive,” he told the commission.

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Christmas trees are being planted on the Big Island in an effort to add a boost to the local economy while giving more residents the chance to take part in the holiday tradition of choosing your own tree.

The Hawaii Forest Industry Association is leading the project with help from volunteers, foresters and horticulturists who have been planting Douglas fir seedlings on the slopes of Mauna Kea, The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported. The hundreds of trees are being grown on Department of Hawaiian Homelands trust land.

A 2012 survey funded by state and federal forest agencies found that 96 percent of the state’s Christmas trees are imported from the mainland, with most being sold at chain stores. The Big Island does have some farms where people can pick their own trees, but not enough to meet the holiday demand.

Those supporting the efforts behind the Aina Mauna Christmas Tree Demonstration Project are looking for a change to benefit the local economy and give more residents the option to pick their own trees.

“It’s a big market if you can get it going,” said Heather Simmons, executive director of the Hawaii Forest Industry Association.

Trial plantings to determine which trees would grow best and could be readily germinated in a nursery took place in 2002. Researchers ended up settling on the Douglas fir, which has a rich green color and relatively low purchase point. The tree is also named after David Douglas, a Scottish botanist who died after falling into a cattle pit near the seedling planting site.

Growing Christmas trees on the Big Island will also help reduce the risk of bringing in invasive species from trees imported from the mainland. In 2014, a shipment of 1,200 trees had to be returned to the Pacific Northwest because they did not pass an invasive species screening in Honolulu.

“If Christmas trees could take off up here, it could offset gorse,” said Spring Kaye, the manager of the Big Island Invasive Species Council.

But those involved in the project also recognize the challenges that come with getting an entire tree farm up and running.

“It takes time to get going,” said Mike Robinson, a forester with the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. He also said it will pay off in the end by providing future generations with a source of revenue.

The project has received funding from the state and federal Departments of Agriculture as well as Hawaii County and DHHL.

ALBANY, Ore. (AP) — It’s too early to tell what will come from this week’s visit by President Barack Obama and his family to Cuba — both politically and economically — but one outcome could be increased agricultural sales of Oregon products to the island.

Politically, the United States slapped a trade embargo on the Caribbean island of 11 million residents after Fidel Castro’s guerrilla army took control in 1959 and allied with communist China and Russia.

But in reality, more than $300 million in U.S. agricultural products were exported to Cuba in 2014 under the Trade Sanctions and Export Enhancement Act of 2000.

In fact, the United States was the leading exporter of agricultural products to Cuba for nine of 11 years since 2000, topping out at $658 million in 2008.

Leading exports have been chicken, corn and soybean meal.

An estimated 70 to 80 percent of all food consumed by Cubans is imported.

President Obama spent two years in secret talks with Cuban officials and in December 2014 announced that diplomatic relationships would be restored. A symbol of that effort was the recent reopening of the U.S. embassy in Cuba.

Bruce Pokarney of the Oregon Department of Agriculture said that although other states in the Southeast or along the Eastern Seaboard would have an easier trade path to Cuba, just 90 miles away from Florida, the expanded Panama Canal has made the trip from the Pacific Northwest to Cuba more economically feasible.

“Obviously, our top market is Asia,” Pokarney said. “But we are always open to looking at new markets. It’s a situation where we want to maintain existing markets and to find new ones.”

Pokarney said Oregon could play a role in providing specialty products such as hazelnuts, which are on a marked upswing among products grown in Oregon. New hazelnut orchards are popping up throughout the mid-valley.

Oregon wines could also be welcomed in Cuba, if not necessarily for its own residents but for the flood of tourists, expected to jump from last year’s 3.5 million.

The number of tourists from the United States jumped 77 percent last year alone.

Those tourists generated almost $2 billion in revenue, or more than 10 percent of the country’s total gross domestic product.

Oregon products that could likely see increased exports include wine, craft beer, blueberries, apples, pears, cherries and beef.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the European Union and Brazil are Cuba’s leading agricultural partners, with the United States third.

The European Union and Canada are Cuba’s largest supplier of wheat with more than $170 million and $67 million in sales, respectively. The United States has not shipped wheat to Cuba since 2011.

Argentina and Brazil were the largest corn exporters and the U.S. was third with $28 million in sales. The United States had been the country’s largest exporter of corn from 2002 to 2012, reaching 64 percent of the country’s corn supply in 2012. That figure dropped to 14 percent in 2014.

Other major exporters to Cuba are Vietnam and Brazil, which supply the majority of the country’s rice. The United States once supplied up to 40 percent of Cuba’s rice needs, but has not exported rice to Cuba since 2009.

Although more than 20 percent of all adults work in agriculture in Cuba, farm products account for less than 10 percent of the country’s total gross domestic product.

Key crops are cassava (yucca), citrus including grapefruit and oranges, coffee, potatoes, rice, sugar, tobacco and plantains.

In 2015, U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., traveled to Cuba with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Schrader noted that his grandmother had emigrated from Cuba and he was interested in learning how the Cuban government has treated Cuban-Americans.

He reported being “welcomed by a warm people who didn’t seem to harp on the embargo and the apparent effect it’s had on the Cuban economy.”

Schrader said there has been little new construction in Havana since the 1950s, people subsist on about $24 income each month and that unemployment is high, especially among young people.

He said Cubans appeared interested in Oregon fruits such as pears and apples and other Northwest produce.

Schrader said there is great opportunity to help Cuban farmers modernize their operations with modern irrigation systems and newer farm equipment.

Schrader said the U.S. can also learn a lot from Cuban farmers, who are well-versed on organic farming since agricultural chemicals were on the embargoed list.

Importing organic goods from Cuba could help meet domestic organic food needs, Schrader said.

SACRAMENTO — Proponents say an updated plan to remove four dams from the Klamath River doesn’t skirt the U.S. Constitution or leave out opportunities for public debate.

In their first announced public meeting since announcing their plan last month, officials from Oregon, California and the federal government said it’s perfectly appropriate to seek dam removal approval through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“In my opinion, we’re not trying anything new here,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife director Charlton Bonham said during the March 16 hearing at the state Environmental Protection Agency headquarters. He added the FERC process for removing dams has existed since the 1920s.

Richard Whitman, natural resources adviser to Oregon’s Gov. Kate Brown, said no interstate compact is being made to set up the “non-federal” entity that would take control of the dams from owner PacifiCorp and handle their removal.

“It’s easy to get confused about this entity,” Whitman said. “That corporation is an independent corporation that is not an instrument of the states of Oregon or California.”

He also said the state is willing to help farming and ranching communities in Klamath County, where Commissioner Tom Mallams contends the dams’ removal would cost the county as much as $500,000 in annual revenue and take away local jobs.

Mallams, who attended the meeting, said he would like to see a settlement that resolves water issues in the Klamath Basin but wants the county “left whole.”

The exchanges came amid a sometimes contentious afternoon of haggling over language in the 133-page “agreement in principle” announced Feb. 2 by PacifiCorp, the states of Oregon and California and the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Commerce. The new agreement was reached after Congress failed to authorize the original Klamath Basin water-sharing agreements by the end of 2015.

The March 16 meeting was attended by representatives from most of the 42 original signatories to the 2010 agreements as well as critics, who in recent weeks have accused dam-removal proponents of meeting in secret and claimed the private entity created under the new plan would still need congressional approval.

The latter argument is based on a legal opinion issued in late January by Oregon Legislative Counsel Dexter Johnston, who opined the private entity amounted to an interstate compact that must be authorized by Congress under the Constitution. But Whitman said Johnston’s opinion was based on language from the original agreements and not the new pact, which the Oregon Department of Justice has assured him is legally sound.

“The amendments we’re discussing today are an agreement to a private party to handle removal of its dams,” he said.

The meeting began as a veritable rehashing of a more than decade-long debate over dam removal, as public officials given a chance to make opening statements argued in favor of or against the idea. Grace Bennett, chairwoman of the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, argued removing the dams is unnecessary to help fish and would expose area residents to risks from the built-up sediment and loss of flood control and water supply.

“This is our livelihood, this is our watershed, this is our home,” Bennett said. “For two decades, the county government has worked with landowners and water users to improve fish habitat and water quality in a successful effort to reverse the last century’s trend of declining salmon runs.”

But Humboldt County Supervisor Mark Lovelace said his county supports dam removal “in this instance” because it will lead to benefits to downstream farms, recreation, the fishing fleet and other on-shore industries.

“Every boat is a small business — an independently owned, family-owned small business,” Lovelace said.

Proponents hope to craft a final version of their agreement and have all the original signatories on board with it by the end of this month, although Klamath Tribes chairman Don Gentry said the final pact would have to be put to tribal members for a vote.

The proponents are also beginning work on a separate pact that would continue the water-sharing arrangements and fisheries improvements in the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, they said.

PORTLAND — About 40 food vendors are taking part March 19 in a CSA Share Fair, at which customers will be able to hook up with Community Supported Agriculture operations that deliver in Portland neighborhoods.

Portland-area farmers, ranchers and fish suppliers will be on hand to discuss CSA options, which include deliveries of vegetables, fruit, meat, wild fish, honey, eggs, flowers and other items.

Other activities include demonstrations by local chefs, a cookbook exchange, food and drink stations and children’s activities. Admission is free.

Saturday is the second time the event has been held. It takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Redd, 831 S.E. Salmon St., Portland. The Redd,established by a non-profit, Ecotrust, serves as a food business “incubator.”

As befits a Portland event, the Share Fair has on-site bike parking and can be reached by bus, streetcar or car.

A CSA is essentially a food subscription service, in which customers pay a set fee for regular deliveries of food, primarily vegetables. They are popular in cities such as Portland where there is a receptive customer base for fresh, local food and support for small, urban farms.

The Share Fair coincides with release of the 2015 CSA Farming annual report, which showed CSAs continue to grow in scope nationally.

The report said the average CSA income increased to $35,443 in 2015 from $30,342 in 2014. Value per box increased to $47.21, compared $36.39 in 2014.

The 10most common items in CSA boxes nationally were lettuce, eggplant, garlic, carrots, Swiss chard, kale, green beans, broccoli, cabbage and cucumbers.

In a city serious about food, OSU innovation center is at home

By Eric Mortenson

Capital Press

PORTLAND — An agricultural experiment station might seem an unlikely resident of this city’s upscale Pearl District, which has gone from gritty warehouses and railyards to gain a self-described “worldwide reputation for urban renaissance.”

But Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center has been perched along Naito Parkway since 2000. And in hindsight, the decision to open the FIC in what became arguably the foodie capital of the U.S. seems an inspired choice.

“Lucky, maybe,” laughs Thayne Dutson, who was dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences at the time.

Nonetheless, the FIC was OSU’s first foothold in Portland, where OSU and the University of Oregon increasingly scrap for attention, money and students. The FIC may have been the first agricultural experiment station — still its technical designation — to open in an urban area. It marked a major and continuing collaboration with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which leases space in the FIC for its marketing, trade and laboratory services.

Staff at the FIC help Northwest food entrepreneurs with product development, manufacturing, safety, packaging, labeling, shelf-life and more. Its sensory science specialist can measure consumer acceptance of new products, and another researcher is working on the use of radio frequency identification technology (RFID) to track products as they move from processor to plate.

Clients range from hundreds of small entrepreneurs learning how to take their idea to market, to giant, unnamed food corporations that pay to test products with sophisticated Portland consumers.

The appointment of a new center director has people mulling the FIC’s role as producers and processors respond to consumers’ demand for better, safer and healthier food.

David Stone, an OSU toxicology professor and director and principal investigator of the National Pesticide Information Network on campus, takes over from retiring Director Michael Morrisey April 1.

Dan Arp, dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, said Morrisey provided the FIC stability, direction and momentum during his nine years as director. Morrisey built a “terrific” staff, Arp said, and allowed them to develop to their full potential.

The FIC can raise its visibility as an integral part of the Portland scene, Arp said.

“Is it as well known as it should be? No, certainly not,” he said.

There’s no question the city is a “foodie hub,” Arp said, and the center can “accentuate that Portland vibe we all know and love.”

Stone said maintaining the center’s existing programs is important, but the FIC’s role will broaden as well. The center will hire a food safety professor this summer to educate people as the federal Food Safety Modernization Act unfolds.

Stone also wants to engage the “underserved” people who don’t have access to healthy food, and to provide more internships and other opportunities for students.

Staff members appear to share Arp’s and Stone’s vision.

“We now have a brand,” said Sarah Masoni, the FIC’s product development manager. “What we need to do next is figure out how to take it to next level.”

Research chef Jason Ball, who joined the staff 14 months ago, said the FIC is much like OSU’s other ag experiment stations in that it responds to needs of the micro-climate.

“And so to have us in the urban center of Portland makes sense from a food entrepreneur standpoint, and also from a sensory standpoint,” Ball said.

“One of the first things you notice is that people in Portland care so much about their food: Where it comes from, how it’s produced and what the ingredients are,” he said.

“The city is full of people who are really invested in food.”

It’s also full of people who make a living with food. An August 2015 study by Portland State University estimated the five-county Portland-area “food economy” employs 100,000 people. The study, “Portland’s Food Economy: Trends and Contributions,” counted jobs in food production, processing, distribution and services.

The authors said Portland alone had 40,000 food economy jobs, from grocery store and processing plant employees to restaurant workers. Food economy jobs accounted for slightly more than 10 percent of all employment in the city and grew by 6.9 percent from 2010 to 2012 alone, according to the study. The growth rate nearly doubled that of non-food jobs.

Establishing the FIC in Portland came before anyone knew that would happen.

Dutson, who retired from OSU in 2008, said the idea came first from Roy Arnold, then the ag school dean.

Arnold hosted a meeting at his house with Dutson, who was experiment station director and the college’s associate director of research, and with Bob Buchanan, then ODA director, and his top assistant, Bruce Andrews.

Arnold believed OSU and the state agency should ramp up their connections. The four men shared a collaborative view of what could be accomplished by establishing a “hotbed of different disciplines.”

It made sense to combine food science and market development activities in the state’s largest city, Dutson said. “It all really fits together.”

Dutson and Andrews eventually succeeded their bosses at their respective institutions, and carried the vision into office with them. They rounded up political support, particularly from then-Sen. Mark Hatfield, and financial help from the USDA and other sources.

The center wobbled a bit in early years, but OSU and the ag department would not let it “die on the vine,” Dutson said. Hiring Morrisey as station director in 2007 — he’d been manager of OSU’s seafood lab in Astoria — was a “very good move,” Dutson said.

Arp, the current OSU dean, has described food as “the handshake between urban and rural.”

“Our name is the College of Agricultural Sciences, but our mission really is food, ag science and natural resources,” Arp said.

“That allows us to take a soil-to-shelf approach to everything we do. That requires places like the FIC to be the point of the spear in doing that.”

Federal regulators are again delving into the process of dividing up roughly 1.6 million acre-feet of water stored behind 13 dams in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Those dams perform flood control during the rainy winter months but also hold water during the spring and summer that’s designated for joint use by irrigators, municipalities, industries, recreationists and fish.

Exactly how much water is allocated for each use is currently undefined, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — which operates the dams — is under an internal deadline to ration it out by mid-2017.

The agency recently restarted the earliest “scoping” phase of the allocation process, which involves collecting information from the public on water needs.

Future irrigation demands calculated by the Oregon Water Resources Department and Oregon Department of Agriculture will be considered by the Corps.

The process of allocating the water was previously undertaken in the 1990s but was postponed by a “biological opinion” that analyzed the impact of dams on several fish protected under the Endangered Species Act, said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

“It halted the process while they did that work,” she said.

Under a biological opinion completed in 2008, the amount of water slated for irrigation is capped at 95,000 acre feet, but the Oregon Farm Bureau and other irrigator groups hope to increase agriculture’s share under the Army Corps’ allocation process.

Currently, irrigators in the Willamette Valley have contracted with the federal government to use 74,000 acre-feet of the water available.

It’s too early to tell how much water will realistically be devoted to irrigation under the allocation plan, which is expected to be submitted for approval by Congress in 2018, said Nash.

Apart from the water supply, growers must have the facilities to convey it to their crops, she said. “That’s been a missing piece for quite a while.”

Due to the expense involved, such infrastructure has largely been built near the river systems on which the dams are located, Nash said. The longer-term goal is to irrigate farmland that’s further away from those sources.

Drought conditions like those in 2015 may increase irrigation demands in future years. More farmers in the region are also growing higher-value crops, such as blueberries, that require summer irrigation.

Greg Bennett, an onion farmer near Salem, Ore., said the Willamette Valley may have an opportunity to increase vegetable production as California farmers continue to face water scarcity.

“I’m really hoping we can realize the value of what we have,” he said.

While the 13 dams have the capacity to store 1.6 million acre-feet, that represents ideal water conditions, said Kathryn Warner, an environmental scientist at the Corps.

Realistically, the dams hold about 1.4 million acre feet of water during an adequate year, and 500,000 acre-feet are dedicated to in-stream uses for fish under the current biological opinion.

The amount designated to irrigation could rise above 95,000 acre feet, but the entire allocation plan must be reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act, Warner said.

This process will include inter-agency consultation on species impacts and may require another biological opinion, Warner said.

MARSING, Idaho (AP) — Small, green blades of grass are sprouting next to bundles of buttercup flowers in some areas of Owyhee County, near Jordan Valley. A contrasting scene to what the hills looked like directly after the Soda Fire last summer, black and scorched.

Ed Wilsey, owner of Wilsey Ranch outside Marsing, said that over the past few months he’s watched the Bureau of Land Management seed the land through aerial tactics and drill seeding.

“I have to give them credit because they seeded fast,” Wilsey said. “Now we just have to hope Mother Nature brings us enough rain.”

While most of the grass seen growing near Wilsey’s ranch was established grass that survived the fire, a mix of rain and sun could help the diverse grass seed the BLM placed sprout within the next month.

The BLM created an extensive rehabilitation plan to help growth of sage brush and grass in Owyhee County, but months after the fire, ranchers are skeptical about the BLM’s chance of success.

During a meeting between Idaho and Oregon BLM officials and local ranchers affected by the fire, the BLM asked ranchers, who used the burned public land to graze cattle, to sign agreements saying they will stay off the land for at least two years. If ranchers did not sign the contracts, the BLM said it could suspend ranchers’ grazing rights.

“We need to get cows out there,” Wilsey said. “Cows will help get the seed in the ground. Just by walking, they dig and create a better land.”

Resting land for two years after a natural disaster is basic protocol. The Soda Fire ended more than six months ago, and many local ranchers are paying high costs per day to keep their cattle off the ground.

According to BLM documents, on Oct. 16 the BLM made the decision to implement emergency stabilization and rehabilitation projects and land treatments “necessary to reduce the immediate risk of erosion or damage due to the Soda Fire.”

The plan, which can be found on the BLM’s website, states the land in Owyhee County must be stabilized immediately. An Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation team of more than 40 natural resource specialists assessed damage and threats to life, property and resources on BLM managed lands in Idaho and Oregon.

In the plan, the BLM recognized four significant threats to the land: expansion of invasive plant species; habitat recovery for threatened species; increased runoff, erosion potential and resulting flooding; and loss of cultural resources.

The BLM plan is to plant desirable grasses and shrubs in the area.

“This will not only combat invasive weeds, it will assist the area in recovering back to sagebrush steppe,” the plan stated. “Which will in turn attract native wildlife, such as greater sage-grouse, deer, elk and hundreds of other sagebrush steppe species.”

The BLM also stated in the plan that fire lines, fuel breaks and other fire preventative methods will be sought to help keep the burned acres safe while sage brush is re-established. According to the BLM, it takes decades for sage brush and its coexisting wildlife to re-establish.

“We plan to implement fuel breaks as we work on rehabilitation plans,” the BLM wrote, “so we can improve the odds that this area will make a full recovery.”

According to the plan, almost 180,000 acres of BLM land burned in Idaho during the Soda Fire. Another 100,000 acres of privately owned land was burned as well.

In fiscal year 2015, the BLM plans to spend $10.8 million on the emergency stabilization portion of the rehabilitation. In 2016, the BLM estimates spending $18.9 million on emergency stabilization.

In the written agreement presented to ranchers during the meeting on Feb. 18, ranchers would have to stay off specific parts of the BLM land for at least two years or until certain objectives are met. BLM officials said in the meeting that ranchers would not have access to land after two years if plan objectives were not met, but they seemed positive that would not be an issue.

The objectives are broken into four sections: drill seeding, aerial grass seeding, natural recovery and other treatments.

Tony Richards, a rancher near Reynolds Creek, spoke up during the meeting saying he was concerned about the objectives.

“We could be off anywhere from six to eight years on parts of our allotment,” Richards said.

Richards and others at the meeting, including Owyhee County Commissioner Kelly Aberasturi, said land owners should not sign the agreement until it states only a two-year figure.

During the meeting, Peter Torma, a BLM range land management specialist, said the objectives are not meant to be unattainable.

“We’re not trying to get cows back in a hurry, but we are not trying to preclude them,” Torma said. “We’re trying to identify a path that we feel is actually going to keep us moving in the right direction.”

According to the agreement, the earliest that ranchers could start grazing on public land would be in the year 2018. Many land allotments will be closed until 2019 because the BLM will perform drill seeding in the fall of 2016.

Other BLM officials during the meeting asked ranchers and farmers to look at the “bigger picture” when it comes to the health of the land, stating the plan could create a long-lasting future and protection from other natural disasters.

At Wilsey’s ranch, it’s hard to tell where the fire burned. New grass is growing on the hills, both seeded and grass that survived the disaster. He said the BLM provided him with enough seed to start growth on his private land, and they aerial-seeded the land around him.

Overall, the success of the grass is a mix of good luck and diligent effort.

“We were lucky we had a wet season,” Wilsey said. “They really did work hard out there, but now we have to hope the seeds germinate. But I have a lot of faith in what they did this fall.”

If Wilsey and other ranchers agree to stay off the land for two years or more while BLM objectives are met, it could cost the ranchers millions.

February and March is calving season for cattle ranchers, and Wilsey already has 60 new head of cattle walking around on his land. Many of Wilsey’s neighbors are feeding hay to their cattle, which is a much higher cost than grazing. Wilsey and others have taken some of their herds and moved them to other ranches to feed.

Wilsey said the cows are used to walking and grazing. Because of this, the animals he chose to keep on site are eating less hay, hoping to start eating the new grass on the other side of the electric fence. Lines of hay sit untouched by hundreds of cows and the new calves.

To keep a cow on another ranch costs $2.50 per day, and Wilsey has 180 cows. To keep a yearling on the ranch costs $1.80 per day, and the Wilsey ranch has sent 150 yearlings. So it is costing Wilsey $720 per day to keep his cows on another ranch to graze.

“The best method is to let the cows graze,” Wilsey said.

The beef from the Wilsey ranch is sold at the Boise Farmers’ Market, the Boise Co-op and many other local markets in the Treasure Valley. He said raising the price of his beef would not help cover costs because his competitors would beat him with lower prices.

It’s the high costs to ranchers like Wilsey that have Owyhee County commissioners concerned. During the meeting on Feb. 18, Commissioner Jerry Hoagland commented that the loss of revenue to ranchers will hurt his county’s economy.

“That’s affecting us beside you,” he said. “Now you’ve got to increase more money to go out and find pasture somewhere else. You can’t survive in that, which means a loss to us.”

Wilsey said he and his wife, Debbie, are playing the waiting game in hopes the seeds germinate and BLM will open its land up soon.

The first step of reviewing and perhaps revising the state’s contentious wolf management plan begins March 18 in Salem when the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission meets with selected panelists.

The review comes as Oregon’s wolf population continues to grow and stake out new territory, a development cheered by activists and frowned at by livestock producers. An annual survey by ODFW biologists showed the state had a minimum of 110 wolves at the end of 2015, up from 81 at the end of 2014. In 2009, the state counted only 14 wolves.

An ODFW wolf report said 33 pups born in 2015 survived through the end of the year.

The ODFW Commission voted 4-2 in November 2015 to remove wolves from the state endangered species list. Environmental groups challenged the decision, arguing among other things that ODFW should have completed the plan review before de-listing wolves. The Oregon Legislature and Gov. Kate Brown approved a bill that ratified the decision and nullified the legal challenge, however.

The plan review may take nine months. Friday’s commission meeting will include input from organizations that have been involved in wolf issues the past 10 years, including Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Oregon Wild, Oregon Cattleman’s Association, Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Hunters Association and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Although no longer covered under the state Endangered Species Act, wolves ranging west of Highways 395, 78 and 95 – the western two-thirds of the state – remain protected under the federal ESA. ODFW officials say the state wolf management plan remains in effect and believe it will protect wolves from illegal hunting.

The commission meeting at 8 a.m. Friday at ODFW headquarters, 4034 Fairview Industrial Drive S.E., Salem.

ANDERSON, Calif. — Private landowners in Northern California and parts of the Northwest are scrambling to adopt conservation plans for the fisher, which may soon be added to the federal list of protected species.

In Northern California, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comments through April 1 on Sierra Pacific Industries’ proposed 10-year enhancement-of-survival permit, which would allow incidental take of fishers in exchange for improving their habitat on its timberlands.

Measures the timber company would undertake on about 1.5 million acres in 16 counties would include limiting logging activities during critical denning periods, taking steps to keep out trespassers growing marijuana and making sure fishers can’t get into water tanks at logging sites and drown, according to USFWS.

The permit “would allow us to continue managing as we would have absent the listing because we are improving habitat conditions for the fisher,” Sierra Pacific spokesman Mark Pawlicki told the Capital Press in an email.

The proposed Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances “provides benefits to the fisher that exceed any protections that would occur from a listing,” he said.

The USFWS is expected to decide April 7 whether to list the West Coast population of fishers as threatened in Washington, Oregon and California.

A mammal about the size of a house cat, the fisher is a member of the weasel family

Sierra Pacific’s application is one of two proposed CCAAs for which the federal government is taking comments. The other is from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, which wants to sign up forest landowners to voluntarily protect fishers to avoid facing tougher land-use limits.

About 60 to 75 landowners have expressed interest in Washington state’s agreement, WDFW wildlife biologist Gary Bell has estimated. The public comment period for that agreement ends March 30.

A similar plan organized by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is under review at the Department of the Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C., and should be out for public comment soon, said Jody Caicco, a USFWS forest resources division manager in Portland.

About eight timber companies have voiced interest in Oregon’s plan, Caicco said. As long as the plan is published before April 7 and the comment period is underway, landowners can sign up within 30 days of a listing, before it is recorded in the Federal Register, she said.

“It’s actually going to be down to the wire, for sure,” Caicco said. “But … all it is is a matter of submitting their application.”

There would be differences between the agreements, officials said. While Washington’s plan would be administered by the state, USFWS would handle applications from individual landowners in Oregon under a single agreement, Caicco said.

In addition, while Washington’s plan protects known fisher sites, California’s is geared toward generally preserving habitat. That’s because animals in Washington are collared, enabling officials to know where they are, while in California they are not collared, said Robert Carey, a USFWS wildlife biologist in Yreka, Calif.

Neither Carey nor Caicco are aware of other landowners preparing CCAA applications on their own, and they doubt there would be enough time. Despite all the scrambling to meet the deadlines, there is no chance a listing decision would be delayed, Carey said.

“The decision was already extended once,” he said. “Originally the decision was due out in October 2015 and they extended it out to April of 2016. … I don’t think they can (extend it again).”

Once a listing is published in the Federal Register, a landowner would not be able to obtain a candidate conservation agreement, Carey said. He or she could submit a Habitat Conservation Plan and apply for an incidental take permit, but they would not give a landowner quite as much latitude, Carey said.

Some landowner groups hope their voluntary conservation efforts will avert a listing of the fisher, as voluntary protection measures were a major factor in the USFWS decision not to list the greater sage grouse. The Washington Forest Protection Association and Washington Farm Forestry Association are among groups supporting the state’s approach.

For Sierra Pacific Industries, the CCAA is seen as a sort of insurance as the company anticipates taking fishers as a result of periodically harvesting and moving timber within the animal’s habitat.

Even if the fisher is not listed, “we will still incorporate the measures in the CCAA in our forest management to assure that the fisher is protected during our normal operations,” Pawlicki said.

ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Mary Lou Masterson Burke, a cattle rancher well known for her expertise in water and private property rights, died March 13 in John Day, Ore. She was 80.

Burke was born July 3, 1935, in Ellensburg, and grew up on the historic Masterson Ranch, homesteaded by her great-grandfather in 1880, in the Teanaway Valley.

She married Pat Burke in 1956 and they ranched and raised their family together in the Teanaway until moving to Fox, Ore., near John Day, in 2006. The family operates ranches near Fox and Ellensburg.

Mary Burke was the first woman president of the Washington State Cattlemen’s Association and was past president of Kittitas County Cattlewomen and Kittitas County Cattlemen. She served on committees of the National Cattlemen’s Association.

“She’s been friends of my grandparents longer than I’ve been alive. She was always an inspiration to me, encouraged me to become an attorney and mentored me,” said Toni Meacham, a Connell attorney active in agricultural issues.

“She would say, ‘Go forth and do good.’ She always told me that,” Meacham said.

Marriage interrupted Burke’s college career but she became self taught in water and private property issues and law and became a knowledgeable resource to legislators and attorneys in the 1980s and 1990s, Meacham said.

She testified before Congress multiple times on agricultural issues and people across the nation consulted her, she said.

Her interest in law was nurtured when she went to work in a law office in the 1970s when cattle prices were low. She had a quick grasp of issues and written material.

“She read the whole ESA (Endangered Species Act) and could digest it, remember it and see the impacts,” Meacham said.

She had a distinctive voice, a way with words and “could insult people and they wouldn’t even know they’d been insulted,” Meacham said. “She didn’t speak frivolously. She always had a point and would get to it even when you thought she was rambling.”

Burke is survived by her husband, Pat, of Fox, and sons Joe, of Fox, and James, of Ellensburg, and other family members.

A funeral service was set for 11 a.m. March 18 at the Ellensburg Presbyterian Church. Memorial contributions may be made to the Presbyterian Church of Mt. Vernon, Ore., or the Washington Cattlemen’s Association Endowment Trust Fund. Arrangements are by Brookside Funeral Home.

PORTLAND — Heavy rain and mountain snow that socked Western Oregon March 10-14 restored the low- and middle-elevation snowpack that had been lost during an earlier warm stretch, but continued weather fluctuations make summer water predictions a guessing game, according to the USDA’s National Resources Conservation Service.

Scott Oviatt, NRCS snow survey supervisor in Portland, said it’s becoming more likely the region will have sufficient water this summer, but an extended warm spell and early snowpack melt could change the outlook.

Irrigation districts and reservoir operators might want to hedge their bets, he said. “If you have the ability to store a little more (water) now, that’s great,” he said.

Oregon river basins are “right at the cusp” in terms of having sufficient water, Oviatt said. In most of them, the amount of water contained in the snowpack — called the “snow-water equivalent “ — is near normal or above normal for this time of year.

Notable exceptions are the Willamette River basin, which is at 83 percent of normal, the Hood-Sandy-Lower Deschutes areas, which are at 84 percent of normal, and the Owyhee Basin, which sits at 82 percent. The comparisons are based on averages compiled from 1981 to 2010.

The snowpack levels are somewhat mixed, but heavy rain this winter has put precipitation totals off the charts. Every Oregon river basin measured by NRCS has recorded precipitation more than 100 percent of normal.

“That doesn’t mean the drought’s over,” Oviatt said. Many reservoirs were low, and refilling them with rain or melting snow takes time.

“It’s a building process,” Oviatt said. “This is a step in the right direction.”

A bill that averts an environmentalist lawsuit by ratifying the removal of wolves from Oregon’s list of endangered species has been signed by Gov. Kate Brown.

Oregon wildlife regulators found that wolf populations have recovered enough to delist the species last year, which prompted three environmental groups — Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild and the Center for Biological Diversity — to petition the Oregon Court of Appeals to overturn the decision.

House Bill 4040, which holds that the delisting process complied with the law, was approved by Oregon lawmakers during the 2016 legislative session and effectively voided the environmentalists’ argument that the decision was illegal.

Brown signed HB 4040 on March 15 over the objections of environmentalists, who urged her to veto the bill, arguing the legislature shouldn’t have interfered with a judicial review of the wolf delisting that they had sought.

SALEM — A ballot initiative to end daylight-saving time in Oregon is on hold until 2017.

Medford resident David Miles launched a petition drive in November to abolish the tradition by 2018.

Miles said his force of about 20 volunteers was insufficient to gather the required 117,578 signatures to place the measure on the ballot in November. As of Sunday, the group had collected about 1,000 signatures, Miles said.

“We have our sights set on next year,” Miles said.

“I had to look at it realistically, as much as I would have loved to have it on the ballot this year,” he added.

Miles said he plans to start a Go Fund Me page to raise money to hire paid petitioners next year.

The community service officer with Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said he started the initiative after feeling tired of complaining every year about losing sleep and adjusting clocks and deciding he should do something about it.

Adjusting the clock forward in the spring may cause spikes in workplace accidents and traffic crashes, according to multiple bodies of research, including one by the University of Colorado.

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

Lawmakers in several states, including California, have proposed alternatives to daylight saving changes or asked that voters decide on whether to keep the practice.

“What I would really like to see the country say is enough is enough and end daylight saving nationally,” Miles said.

He said if more states opt to abolish the practice, there may be more momentum for a national change.

Oregon Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, introduced a bill in January 2015 that would have let voters to decide whether to abolish daylight saving in 2021.

Dozens of Oregonians testified in favor of the measure.

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

The country had an on-and-off-again relationship with daylight-saving time until 1966 when Congress codified it to try to simplify a confusing patchwork of different time zones across the country. Individual states were allowed to opt out. Arizona, Hawaii and some U.S. territories have chosen to remain on standard time.

The No More Daylight Saving Time in Oregon initiative was the first that Miles sponsored.

“I’m not upset it didn’t get on the ballot,” he said. “I learned a lot. I understand that some of my goals were unrealistic. It’ll give me more of an ability to be successful next time.”

In the meantime, he maintains a Facebook page where he’ll give supporters updates on the effort.

https://www.facebook.com/nomoredstinoregon/

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ammon Bundy has come to the defense of a sheriff who is under investigation for his actions during the occupation of a national wildlife refuge in southeast Oregon.

The state agency that licenses police officers has asked the state Justice Department to look into complaints that Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer met with some of the occupiers during the 41-day standoff.

Bundy, the now-jailed leader of the occupation, said in a recording posted on the Bundy Ranch Facebook page that Palmer didn’t get caught in the “political deception” that the people of Burns were in danger during the protest. He says Palmer went to the source and learned that the protesters “would not hurt another person.”

If Palmer is found to have violated standards, he could lose his police certification.

BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) — Seven months after Baker County fought its largest wildfire ever, a helicopter has returned to the region -- this time with wood instead of water.

The Baker City Herald reports that the chopper is dropping hundreds of tons of wood mulch on land burned by the Cornet-Windy Ridge fire. The Forest Service hired Mountain West Helicopters of Provo, Utah, for the work.

The mulch is expected to stabilize steep slopes that were stripped of vegetation by the fire.

Ray Lovisone of Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is overseeing the work. He says it will reduce the risk of mudslides in Stices Gulch and along Highway 245.

Lovisone says the work focuses on about 88 acres where the combination of steep ground and high-intensity fire has caused a high risk of slides.

EAGLE, Idaho — ConAgra Foods, Inc. announced Friday that its Lamb Weston processing facility will expand operations in Boardman, Ore.

The $30 million investment will add additional processing capacity for making formed products such as hash brown patties and potato puffs. The addition of the line at the company’s existing facility is expected to add 50 jobs to the 390 people already employed by the company in Boardman.

With continued increase in demand for frozen potato and formed products, this capacity expansion is necessary to fulfill Lamb Weston’s global growth projections, according to a press release from the company.

Construction on the processing line is expected to begin this spring, with completion in 2017. The added line will increase processing capacity by approximately 50 million pounds.

“With the frozen potato category growing globally, we have tremendous opportunity to support our customers’ growth in the U.S. and around the world,” said Lamb Weston President Greg Schlafer in a press release. “To capture that growth, we need to make more products. Expanding our operations in the Columbia Basin — with access to great potatoes, people and ports — just makes sense.”

The facility in Boardman is close to growing, storage and shipping operations, with easy access to the Port of Morrow. The company opened an initial expansion of the facility in June 2014, adding 300 million pounds of capacity with a new fry line. That $200 million project included plans for the addition announced Friday.

“Lamb Weston’s planned expansion shows their continued commitment to the Port of Morrow, Boardman and the Mid-Columbia region as the right place to do business,” said Gary Neal, general manager of the Port of Morrow. “Their ongoing investments add good paying jobs to our region and we are fortunate to have such great partners at the Port.”

Lamb Weston employees approximately 4,500 people at a corporate office and seven manufacturing facilities in the Columbia Basin, and operates 22 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China.

PORTLAND — Jason Ball has an unusual job at an unusual place. He’s the research chef at the Food Innovation Center in Portland, which itself is a joint venture of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences and the state Department of Agriculture.

The FIC was among the first in the U.S. Ball believes his position is still somewhat unusual, but may become more common over time.

Ball’s job is to help develop food products. He said being a research chef combines the technical skills of culinary arts with the principles and methodologies of food science.

Which leads us to dulse, which is basically a red seaweed. Yum.

But it’s nutritious. OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport figured out 15 years ago how to raise dulse in tanks rather than harvest it from the ocean. The Marine Science Center was raising it to feed abalone when an OSU business professor, Chuck Toombs, took notice and turned his marketing students loose on the project. OSU fisheries researcher Chris Langdon and colleagues patented a strain of dulse, and Ball was hired to figure out what to make with it.

His hiring had its own bit of dulse kismet. Ball was in Copenhagen, working on plant-based ice cream products for the Nordic Food Lab, when he saw the job notice from the Food Innovation Center.

He was snacking on a dulse ice cream sandwich as he emailed then- center Director Michael Morrisey and FIC Product Development Manager Sarah Masoni to ask about the position.

He made sure to mention his snack choice; he got the job and started about 14 months ago.

The first commercial product to come from Ball’s FIC work is a dulse seaweed salad dressing and marinade, sold at New Seasons stores in the Portland area.

Ball enjoys the challenge of developing products that are “less luxurious or appealing.” It’s easy to make lobster or steak taste good, he said, but seaweed?

“I like to say that I am an equal opportunity cook — I don’t discriminate against ingredients,” Ball said by email. “Why can’t we approach all ingredients with that excitement and enthusiasm?”

Jason Ball

Who: Research chef at the Food Innovation Center in Portland, a joint venture of Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Personal: Age 31, originally from Chicago. Worked as a chef there, and in New York and outside London. Bounced about Europe. Began work at FIC in January 2015. Lives in Portland.

Best known for so far: Dulse development work. Developing food than can be made from seaweed, which in turn is grown in tanks, not harvested from the ocean.

All hail vegetables and bread: Finds cooking meat and fish “somewhat easy” and thinks vegetables are more interesting. Enjoys baking bread, especially natural yeast sourdough. “Honestly, warm bread (out of the oven — with butter and salt) is one of my favorite things to eat — so simple, yet so delicious,” he says by email.

His choice for an Oregon breakfast: A frittata with kale sprouts, heritage farm cheese, green garlic, chili flakes and potatoes, probably garnished with herbs and flowers. On the side he’d have a salad of mixed chicories, hazelnuts, herbs and tahini dressing. Fresh bread and coffee, as well.

When not cooking: Can most often be found at Lovely’s Fifty Fifty in North Portland, which he says has the best pizza and ice cream. Ever. “Hands down my favorite restaurant in Portland, maybe even the world,” he says.

A wintertime sighting of sage grouse could prove significant in the legal controversy over proposed wind turbines on ranchland in southeast Oregon.

Nearly five years ago, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved a 12-mile transmission line across its property that’s necessary for the construction of a 100-megawatt wind power project in Harney County.

Ranchers and community leaders hoped the installation of wind turbines on private land would provide a new source of income and jobs in the rural county, which has long stagnated economically.

The Oregon Natural Desert Association and the Audubon Society of Portland filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to block the transmission line, but the BLM says continued legal uncertainty has preventing the project from moving forward.

The dispute has now landed before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which held oral arguments in the case in Portland, Ore., on March 10.

During the hearing, appellate judges Raymond Fisher and Marsha Berzon sharply questioned why the BLM omitted mention of sage grouse being sighted in vicinity of the project in late winter.

Plaintiffs argue the sighting lends credence to their claim that the bird — formerly a candidate for Endangered Species Act protection — uses the area for over-wintering habitat.

“Wind-swept ridges are precisely the types of places you’d expect to find these birds in the winter,” said Peter Lacy, attorney for ONDA.

The environmentalists claim that BLM’s approval of the transmission line violated the National Environmental Policy Act because the agency didn’t specifically analyze whether the project area contained winter habitat for the species.

Instead, the agency extrapolated that sage grouse didn’t inhabit the area over winter from data collected at nearby sites, noting in its “environmental impact statement,” or EIS, that no birds were sighted after December.

Judge Fisher said this extrapolation was based on error, since the record of evidence shows that a consultant observed four sage grouse in the area during a visit in February.

“There is a factual misstatement that appears in the EIS,” he said. “I don’t know how you get around that.”

Judge Berzon also seemed troubled by the BLM’s mistake, saying that if the agency is going to extrapolate, then the extrapolation should be based on particularly solid data.

Peter Krzywicki, an attorney for BLM, acknowledged the report contained a “misstatement” but said the “stray sighting” of sage grouse does not change the conclusion that the species generally doesn’t occupy the area in winter.

The “exceptional case” of sage grouse appearing in the vicinity of the project in February doesn’t mean it’s a regular occurrence, Krzywicki said.

Dominic Carollo, an attorney for Harney County, said the 9th Circuit should defer to the BLM’s expertise about land conditions in the area.

The agency is familiar enough with the region to know the site is too snowy to support winter habitat for sage grouse, Carollo said.

Federal courts are required to defer to agency technical expertise, so it stands to reason they must also defer to its knowledge about something as basic as snow conditions, he said.

Peter Lacy, the attorney for ONDA, countered that wind can blow away snow from such an “escarpment,” uncovering sage brush habitat, so the the agency must conduct site-specific monitoring rather than simply “eyeball it.”