Addressing a question hard on the minds of Southeast Oregon residents, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said during a congressional hearing March 1 that she knows of no plans to designate an Owyhee Canyonlands national monument.

Responding to a question from Rep. Greg Walden, who represents Eastern Oregon, Jewell said the concept was brought up by Keen Footwear of Portland.

“It’s been kicking around, it’s one of the things people have recommended to us,” Jewell said.

But she said the Interior Department, which includes the BLM and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has held no community meetings or discussions about the idea.

“People haven’t been actively in my office asking about it,” Jewell told Walden.

Walden asked if there has been any coordination between the White House and Department of Interior on the issue.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Jewell replied.

The Bend-based environmental group Oregon Natural Desert Association, backed by the Keen Footwear, has proposed a 2.5 million acre Owyhee Canyonlands wilderness and conservation area. Critics say the area is bigger than the Yellowstone, Yosemite or Grand Canyon national parks and would cover 40 percent of Oregon’s Malheur County.

Local opposition is strong. Opponents believe designation would prohibit or severely restrict grazing, mining, hunting and other recreation. Proponents have said traditional land uses will be allowed, but opposition leaders say they don’t believe them.

Opponents worry President Obama will establish the wilderness and conservation area under the federal Antiquities Act, which can be done by presidential order and does not require approval of Congress.

In February he designated three such monuments in the California desert: Mojave Trails National Monument, Sand to Snow National Monument, and Castle Mountains National Monument. They cover almost 1.8 million acres.

Walden and others believe an Owyhee Canyonlands designation would be economically and socially harmful to an area still reeling from the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Walden has called upon the administration to ease tension in the rural West by backing away from the proposal.

On other topics, Walden thanked Jewell for her support of collaborative sage grouse conservation work but said it was frustrating that an environmental group filed a lawsuit over the work. Habitat conservation agreements signed by ranchers and other private landowners were credited with helping keep the Greater sage grouse off the federal endangered species list.

Walden also asked about local reimbursement for costs associated with the 41-day occupation of the wildlife refuge. An analysis by Oregonian/OregonLive estimated the cost in law enforcement presence, school closures, supplies and other items at $3.3 million.

“Because this was a federal facility, and because most of the people who were there were not from Harney County, let alone from the state of Oregon, I do hope the federal government will help figure out a way to help cover some of the local costs,” Walden said.

Jewell said she’s uncertain how the reimbursement question would be handled. “So that’s certainly something that we’re happy to have dialogue on, but I don’t know what the rules are,” she said.

At the hearing, U.S. District Judge Anna Brown agreed with a pre-trial services recommendation that Santilli, an Ohio talk radio host, be granted bail upon condition that he receive a mental health evaluation. Pre-trial services also recommended that Santilli be released to a halfway house with GPS ankle-monitoring.

However, Santilli will remain in custody in Multnomah County because he has been charged elsewhere, too. Santilli is facing felony charges in Nevada related to the 2014 armed standoff between ranchers and the Bureau of Land Management.

To gain release in Oregon, Santilli would first need to win a bail hearing related to the Nevada charges.

Monday was Santilli’s third time trying to obtain release. He was arrested Jan. 26 outside a makeshift FBI headquarters near Burns, Oregon.

Defense attorney Tom Coan argues Santilli is an independent journalist, and did not take part in the Oregon occupation beyond that role. Earlier this month, the ACLU of Oregon made a statement publicly supporting Santilli’s rights to free speech.

Santilli is the host of his eponymous Internet radio show. He broadcast hundreds of hours of the occupation from Harney County.

SALEM — A bill to speed up urban growth boundary expansions on 50-acre parcels in two cities has passed the Oregon House despite opposition from farm and conservation groups.

House Bill 4079 would create two pilot projects — one in a city with fewer than 25,000 residents and one with more — that would be exempt from certain land use rules, with the goal of creating more affordable housing.

Opponents of the bill, including the Oregon Farm Bureau and 1,000 Friends of Oregon, argued that it would short-circuit the UGB expansion process and allow housing developments to sprawl onto farmland.

Several counties — including Clackamas, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Washington and portions of Jefferson — aren’t eligible for the pilot projects.

Bill sponsor Rep. Duane Stark, R-Grants Pass, said HB 4079 was not designed as a “ruse to burst open the UGB” as claimed by opponents.

The bill contains several “siderails” aimed at preventing unintended consequences like shoving low-income residents to the outskirts of cities where they’d have inadequate access to services and transportation, he said.

Under the bill, Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Commission is required to select pilot projects that are near public facilities and services and that minimize adverse impacts to agriculture, Stark said.

“There’s all sorts of stuff out there that’s not farm or forest lands,” he said before the March 1 vote on the House floor.

Rep. Knute Buhler, R-Bend, said Oregon faces an affordable housing shortage due to a “mismatch between supply and demand” and a cumbersome UGB expansion process.

By allowing the 50-acre pilot projects, lawmakers will take a “small bite at the apple” toward correcting this problem, he said. “It allows us to experiment on a small scale before making big changes.”

No lawmakers spoke against the bill prior to the House vote, but HB 4079 did not receive unanimous approval. The bill passed 31-25 and will now be considered in the Senate.

Critics of HB 4079 say that Oregon’s land use laws already require a 20-year supply of buildable land available for housing within a city’s UGB.

If a city doesn’t have enough affordable housing, it can “upzone” certain areas from single-family units to multi-family units, thereby increasing supplies within the UGB, critics argue.

An Oregon farmer is accused of violating the Clean Water Act by stabilizing a riverbank, which he claims was intended to stop erosion.

The federal government has filed a lawsuit against Bill Case of Albany, Ore., for allegedly discharging pollutants into the North Santiam River by repeatedly placing large rocks and gravel within its high water mark between 2009 and 2013.

The lawsuit, filed at the behest of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, seeks an order requiring Case to restore the site to “pre-violation conditions” and pay up to $37,500 in civil penalties for each day of violating the Clean Water Act.

The complaint claims that Case discharged “large riprap rock and dredged material,” which are pollutants, along more than 800 feet of the river as well as nearby wetlands and side channels without a required Clean Water Act permit.

Case said he received verbal permission to stabilize the riverbank from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after it was washed out by a flood in 2007.

“What we did worked fine. There’s no pollution or anything,” said Case.

Floodwaters had swept away brush, trees and soils four feet deep along the river, threatening to do further damage in future years, he said. “If we didn’t do anything, we were going to lose probably 50 acres of the field.”

Case said his work was overseen by officials from the Corps and Oregon’s Department of State Lands, who said he would not need to obtain a Clean Water Act permit as long as activities did not take place within the river.

Later, Case said he also repaired an existing dike along the river after checking USDA maps to ensure the work didn’t occur within a wetland.

“The only time the water even comes in contact with it is during an extreme flood,” he said.

Despite his consultation with federal agencies, the EPA later sent letters accusing Case of polluting federal waters, he said.

Case said he doesn’t understand the purpose of the EPA’s actions, since stabilizing the river bank has actually kept pollution out of the river.

“I don’t have any idea, except maybe they’ve got the big hammer and they’re going to prove they’ve got it,” he said.

Kent Hanson, an attorney representing the U.S. government in the case, referred questions to a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson who said the agency cannot comment on pending litigation.

Oregon’s confirmed wolf population jumped to 110 at the end of 2015, and wolves continue to disperse from the northeast corner of the state and move into new territory.

The annual count, released last weekend by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, marks a 36 percent increase from the survey completed at the end of 2014. The population numbers represent only wolves that have been confirmed by biologists in the field; the actual number is always thought to be higher.

ODFW considers the growth and geographical spread of wolves to be a conservation success story. Livestock producers, who bear the stress and cost of cattle and sheep losses and of defensive measures, are critical of the state’s wolf recovery program.

However, groups such as the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association supported the ODFW Commission’s decision in November 2015 to remove gray wolves from Oregon’s list of endangered species. Wolves remain under federal endangered species protection in the western two-thirds of the state. The Oregon Wolf Plan, which governs how they are handled by ODFW, remains in effect.

Some details from the report:

• 33 pups born in 2015 survived until the end of the year.

• The state now has at least 11 breeding pairs, up from nine.

• Wolves killed 10 sheep, three calves and one herd dog in 2015, and two other calves and one lamb were injured. Two cows and 30 sheep were confirmed killed by wolves in 2014. Many other livestock attacks are not confirmed under ODFW’s investigation protocol, and producers believe actual losses are much higher. They say livestock often disappear in wolf country and can’t be accounted for.

• The state paid $174,428 to 10 counties for wolf work in 2015. Most of it, $119,390, went for measures to prevent wolf-livestock conflict. Another $14,018 was paid directly to livestock producers to compensate them for confirmed losses.

• Seven wolves were confirmed dead during the year. Three were illegally shot; a pair were found dead of unknown cause; a 5-month-old pup apparently died of natural causes; and one found dead had a rodent in its stomach and traces of a harmful chemical in its system.

Of the wolves that were shot, one involved a Baker City man who shot a collared wolf in Grant County while he was hunting coyotes on private property. The man reported the shooting to ODFW and Oregon State Police, and recently pleaded guilty to killing an endangered animal. He was fined $1,000, ordered to pay another $1,000 restitution to ODFW, and his rifle was forfeited to the state.

The other two shootings are under investigation by state police.

Meanwhile, Oregon’s wolves continue to disperse south and southwest.

On Feb. 22 in Klamath County, in south central Oregon, a private landowner found a 500-pound heifer with a bite wound 10 inches long and five inches wide on its left hind leg. A collared wolf, OR-33, was in the area when the attack is believed to have occurred. The wolf left the Imnaha Pack in Northeastern Oregon in November 2015 and traveled through 13 counties.

California’s first wolf group, the Shasta Pack, has Oregon roots. A genotype analysis of scat showed it was “highly related” to the Imnaha Pack. That means at least Shasta’s breeding female was born into the Imnaha Pack, according to California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Online

http://dfw.state.or.us/Wolves/docs/oregon_wolf_program/Oregon_Wolf_Annual_Report_2015.pdf

Farmers may be able to drill new irrigation wells in Oregon’s Harney Basin despite a moratorium imposed by water regulators last year.

Worries about groundwater depletion prompted the Oregon Water Resources Department to halt well drilling in 2015, but the agency is considering rules to allow a limited number of new well permits.

In the meantime, regulators are conducting a study of the area’s groundwater that’s expected to be finished in 2020.

“The ultimate goal will be the stabilization of those groundwater levels,” said Ivan Gall, administrator of the OWRD’s field services division.

Each year, roughly 200,000 acre-feet of groundwater rights are used in the Greater Harney Valley area — where well permits are restricted — while only 170,000 acre-feet are available for use, according to an agency estimate.

Extensive well drilling in the past decade convinced the WaterWatch of Oregon environmental group to protest new permits last year, which led to OWRD’s moratorium while the agency performs the groundwater study.

This spring, the agency plans to enact regulations that would allow well permits to proceed despite concerns about declining groundwater, as long as the applications were filed before April 15.

Martha Pagel, an attorney representing the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, praised state water regulators for providing irrigators with a fair path to move forward if they have pending requests.

“It was a tough message in an area that’s really dependent on agriculture that you can’t develop anymore,” she said during a Feb. 26 meeting of the Oregon Water Resources Commission.

Under the proposed rules, an existing groundwater permit can be canceled to drill a well that generates the equivalent amount of water in another area. This allows farmers to switch to irrigating higher-value soils.

Irrigators who cancel a well permit to drill in another location would lose the original “priority date” for their water rights, unless they complete an official transfer of “certificated” water rights that have actually been developed.

Roughly 25 percent of the permitted wells in the area are currently undeveloped and will likely remain that way due to poor soils, said Dwight French, administrator of the agency’s water rights division.

These undeveloped permits, however, are eligible for cancellation to drill a new well under the proposed rules.

Even without a cancellation, new permits would also be allowed in the northwestern and southern sub-regions of the Greater Harney Valley area if the applications were pending as of April 15.

The agency doesn’t have data showing groundwater declines in these sub-areas but they’re likely part of the same overall water system, said Gall.

In both cases, farmers would be subject to certain conditions, such as setback distances between wells and a lack of interference with existing water rights.

Regulators expect the rules to be adopted on April 13, which is shortly before the April 15 cutoff date for pending applications because restrictions can’t be imposed retroactively.

Currently, 39 applications in the affected area are pending with OWRD and no new ones have been filed for several months.

SALEM — A legislative proposal to offset the cost of minimum wage increases to small businesses, farmers and other natural resources employers appears to be on hold until at least 2017.

Reps. Brian Clem, D-Salem, and John Davis, R-Wilsonville, had proposed giving tax credits to certain employers who are most likely to struggle financially to meet the requirements of a new three-tier minimum wage plan. The plan was laid out in Senate Bill 1532, which passed both legislative chambers earlier this month.

During negotiations with legislative leadership, the plan was whittled down to tax credits of no more than $15 million a year only for employers involved in animal production, aquaculture, crop production, fishing, hunting, trapping and food manufacturing.

That amount was insufficient to cover the additional costs of all of those employers, so lawmakers would have had to find a way to prioritize how to divvy out the tax credits, Clem said.

A group of associations representing agriculture has indicated it wants lawmakers to take more time to figure out those details, rather than push through legislation this session, which is scheduled to end by Sunday.

“The reality is that more time is needed to fully run cost and benefit scenarios to ensure any wage relief actually benefits the agriculture industry as a whole,” representatives from the agriculture industry wrote in a letter to Clem. “We believe there may only be one shot at alleviating the burden S.B. 1532 imposes on agriculture. The solution must meet the needs of our member families without picking winners and losers among the industry.”

The letter was signed by the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, Oregon Association of Nurseries, Northwest Food Processors Association, Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, Oregon Blueberry Commission, Oregon Seed Council, Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers Association, Far West Agribusiness Association and Oregon Wheat Growers League.

“I’m extremely disappointed that our bipartisan effort to try relieve some of the sign burden imposed by the minimum wage bill has been reduced so far,” Davis said. “Part of why there is so little interest in the current proposal is it’s just so small. If we were going to try to cover part or all of increase each year to all businesses, it is hundreds of millions and possibly billions of dollars. This is really a defacto tax we were trying to impose.”

Clem, who voted for the minimum wage bill, said he was concerned that small employers would have to lay off workers due to the cost of the increased minimum wage while larger employers would easily be able to absorb the cost.

The tax credit would have reduced the effective wage rate for those employers. The amount would gradually climb in tandem with the minimum wage, reaching up to $2 per hour per employee in July 2022.

Clem and Davis said their original concept also would have set smaller increases in minimum wage and lifted a ban against setting higher wages in Portland. It became clear early on in negotiations that both of those proposals were too complex to push through the waning days of the Legislature’s 35-day session, Clem said.

The minimum wage plan hikes minimum wages over a period of six years. The amount differs in each of three regions and is set according to a county’s median income and cost of living. In Portland, minimum wage will reach $14.75 in the Portland area, $12.50 in rural and coastal counties with struggling economies and $13.50 in the rest of the state by 2022.

Clem said he plans to pursue the wage support proposal in 2017.

“I think it’s fair to say the independent-minded Democrats are satisfied that if Ag thinks we can wait then we can wait to get it right,” Clem said.

Armed with a lifetime of on-the-ground sheep production, a degree in animal science and years of research at Kansas State and Oregon State universities, Tom Nichols was the perfect choice for president of the Oregon Sheep Growers Association.

Installed at the OSGA annual convention in Sunriver, Ore., Nichols is focusing on OSGA’s mission — representing the interests of OSGA sheep producers, industry-related businesses and sheep industry products.

“Everything is taking a hit now days, but if Oregon sheep growers can stay united I think we can remain strong,” Nichols said. “My immediate goals are to strengthen OSGA’s annual convention, develop a digital communication system with members and the public and to promote our Make It With Wool program to a larger audience.

“I believe in conventions, I think they are important and I always learn a lot by getting together and rubbing elbows with the other people,” he said. “However, to steal fellow producer Mac Stewart’s phrase, one of the first things we need is to ‘right-size’ them and hold them here in the (Willamette) Valley, where most of the producers that attend live and work.”

He also said developing efficient digital communications will help get animal health and other information to members.

Born and raised in Ashland, Ore., Nichols is a fifth-generation Oregonian. His father raised cattle, sheep and timber, and his mother taught school. He attended Linn Benton Community College for two years. From Linn Benton, he joined a brother in Kansas and ended up getting a degree in animal science from Kansas State University, where he lived and worked at the beef and sheep research centers.

Back in Oregon, Nichols worked as a forage technician, ran sheep on valley grass fields for Tony Wahl and managed the Sheep Research Center for OSU.

Today, Nichols lives in Lebanon with his wife, Karen, and 14-year-old daughter, Anne.

“Karen is a sheep grower in her own right and was assistant shepherd at the OSU Sheep Center when I met her,” Nichols said. “She raises horned Dorsets, some Polled Dorsets and Suffolks while Anne, who is very active in 4-H, raises and shows Romneys. In addition to pasturing sheep for other growers, I’m the fence builder, truck driver and anything else that needs to be done.”

Reed Anderson, sheep grower, lamb processor and owner of Anderson Family Ranches in Brownsville, Ore., spoke highly of Nichols in his role as OSGA president.

“Tom has been raising and producing sheep his whole life, has extensive experience working with OSU and is well known with other state and national industry associations,” Anderson said. “He is the most knowledgeable and well-rounded person I know and I look forward to seeing what his leadership brings to OSGA.”

The OSGA board of directors for 2016-2017: president, Tom Nichols, Lebanon; first vice president, Mac Stewart, Salem; treasurer, Brian Dietrich, Silverton; past president, Paul Lewis, Bonanza.

Area vice presidents: Mike Cowdrey, Scio; Tasha Wahl, Shedd; Correy McAtee, Prineville; Kip Krebs, Ione; Morgan McKenzie; Langlois; John Kokkeler, Junction City.

Oregon Make it with Wool director: Chandra Worman, Bend.

Oregon Sheep Commission representative: John M. Fine, Roseburg.

Online

www.sheeporegon.com

Tom Nichols can be reached at nicholslivestock@gmail.com

With financing in place, a Minnesota-based energy company plans to build its first commercial refinery that will transform farm waste into natural gas and liquid fertilizer at the Port of Morrow.

Novus Energy has received an $11 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s biorefinery assistance program. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and USDA Rural Development Undersecretary Lisa Mensah made the announcement Friday in Portland.

“This biorefinery will spur economic development, create new jobs and provide new markets for farm commodities in rural Oregon,” Mensah said.

Novus plans to take 750 tons of food waste every day — things like potato peels, onion skins and dairy manure — and convert it into renewable gas at the facility. By allowing the scraps to ferment in tanks, organic material breaks down and releases methane that can be captured and stored.

Joe Burke, Novus president and CEO, said the company has found a way to make that process 40 percent more efficient and is now ready for commercial-scale production. The USDA loan was critical to making the project a reality, Burke said.

“We just can’t wait to go to the next step,” he said.

Novus has spent several years already in Eastern Oregon, conducting small-scale tests using local food waste inside a retrofitted semi-trailer. Burke said he has been working on and off for three years toward a commercial refinery at the Port of Morrow.

The issue ultimately came down to financing. Despite successful tests, Burke said banks wouldn’t lend them money. However, the 2014 Farm Bill expanded the USDA’s biorefinery program to allow the agency to invest in advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals.

Mensah said Novus is one of the first companies to receive a loan under that expansion.

“It’s a very competitive program,” Mensah told the East Oregonian. “We are pleased to see this innovation happening in rural America.”

Novus will break ground on its facility at the port later this summer, Burke said, which will be located near Boardman Foods. The total cost is $25 million, and the plant will provide 5-10 permanent, full-time jobs.

At full operation, Novus will produce 3.8 million cubic feet of renewable gas each day. That’s more than 28 million gallons, which will be pumped directly into the Cascade pipeline on their property. A subsidiary of BP is signed on to buy the fuel.

The plant will also generate 350 gallons of liquid fertilizer daily.

“We’re taking waste and turning it into valuable resources. We’re very excited about that,” Burke said.

———

Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0825.

The 2016 Women in Agriculture Conference will again offer women in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Alaska a unique opportunity to gather for a one-day event focused on education and networking.

The event will be held on March 19 at 31 locations. Headline speakers will be available through webcasts to all locations.

In its fifth year, the conference — sponsored by Washington State University — will feature knowledgeable speakers, inspiring stories and practical advice for learning new skills.

This year’s event, “Power Up Your Communication, Power Up Your Farm” will focus on communication style and how to use it to manage, motivate and influence people.

Conference Chairman Margaret Viebrock, WSU Douglas County extension director, said in a press release, “Whether you communicate on Facebook or face-to-face, it matters how you communicate with others. Understanding your style is a powerful tool for building personal and business relationships.”

The interactive conference will define how women in agriculture communicate for success, she said.

Speakers will include Wendy Knopp and Michael Stolp of Northwest Farm Credit Services, who will help participants discover their communication style to improve decision making and connect marketing to what motivates prospects and customers.

Tangent, Ore., farmer Shelly Boshart Davis will talk about how she improved her communication approach to improve her business strategies, motivate employees, work with her family and increase business sales.

“In addition to improving communications, this conference will help women farmers use their personality traits to change as the situation changes,” Viebrock said.

The conference will be held at the following locations:

Alaska: Fairbanks, Kenai.

Idaho: Bonners Ferry, Caldwell, Cascade, Salmon, Sandpoint, Twin Falls.

Oregon: La Grande, Roseburg, Salem.

Montana: Bozeman.

Washington: Bremerton, Chehalis, Colville, Coupeville, Everett, Goldendale, Mt. Vernon, Nespelem, Olympia, Port Townsend, Pullman, Puyallup, Republic, Spokane, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, Yakima.

The conference registration fee is $30, with an early-bird special of $25 before March 5. The fee includes the workshop, light breakfast, lunch and conference materials.

Persons with a disability requiring special accommodations while participating in this program can contact Viebrock at Viebrock@wsu.edu.

Visit www.womeninag.wsu.edu for details about the conference and registration.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Speed limits on some areas of Oregon are set to increase on Tuesday.

The Bulletin reports that The Oregon Department of Transportation is working to install new signs on U.S. Highway 97, U.S. Highway 20 and state Highway 31 before the change takes effect. The speed limit will also increase on parts of Interstate 84, U.S. 95 and OR 78.

The speed limit will increase to 65 mph in some areas and to 70 mph in some major highways in Eastern Oregon.

The Legislature set aside $735,000 to cover the costs of changing the 275 signs on hundreds of rural highway miles.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ammon Bundy and another 15 defendants pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal conspiracy charges related to the 41-day occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge. Several of the accused, however, expressed doubt that they enjoy the presumption of innocence.

Bundy sat at the main defense table while most of his co-defendants sat in the jury box as they listened to a government prosecutor read the indictment and U.S. District Judge Anna Brown tell them their rights.

Brown reminded the defendants they are considered innocent until proven guilty. One by one, she asked them if they understood. Bundy simply said “yes,” but four co-defendants took the opportunity to express skepticism.

“It’s difficult to understand presumption of innocence when I’ve spent the last month in a jail cell and been led around in shackles and chains,” Ryan Payne said.

Another, Jason Patrick, told the judge: “You’re the federal government; you’re going to do whatever you want.”

The judge tackled several procedural issues during the nearly two-hour hearing, which started with Bundy, sporting a fresh haircut, blowing a kiss toward Odalis Sharp and her children. The family gospel band traveled from Kansas in January to sing at the occupation. One daughter, 18-year-old Victoria Sharp, was at the traffic stop in which authorities arrested Bundy and fatally shot Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum.

The judge said a trial date had been tentatively set for April 29, although court papers show an April 19 date. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said he expects to file a superseding indictment with additional charges after investigators finish examining firearms, electronics, American Indian artifacts and other evidence.

Brown warned Knight to make it snappy, saying the accused deserve a right to a speedy trial — not one in 2017. She also pressed prosecutors to start turning over FBI reports and evidentiary material to defense attorneys and their clients.

“They’ve been in custody for weeks. They need information,” Brown said. She told prosecutors to produce at least some discovery material by March 4.

A total of 25 people are charged in connection with the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which began Jan. 2 and lasted until Feb. 11. The occupiers wanted the U.S. government to relinquish public lands to locals and free two Oregon ranchers who they say were wrongly imprisoned for setting fires.

Defense lawyers and their investigators plan to visit the refuge Thursday and Friday, their first look at the scene. The judge denied Bundy’s request to tag along with his attorneys.

One of the defendants, Kenneth Medenbach, told the judge he plans to serve as his own lawyer and made a motion to have his case dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Brown scheduled a hearing for next week to go over those issues.

ALGOMA, Ore. — It’s scramble time for Bob and Kathleen Buchanan.

“We’re in the frantic week,” says Kathleen, who with her husband owns and operates the Buchanan Angus Ranch in the Algoma area north of Klamath Falls, of preparing for this weekend’s 24th annual Bull Sale at the Klamath County Fairgrounds.

They’ll have 82 Angus bulls at the sale, which begins at noon Sunday. Sale activities actually begin noon Saturday, when the bulls will be available for viewing. A hosted cocktail hour is set for 6 p.m. followed by a free tri-tip dinner. Before Sunday’s sale, brunch will be offered at 10 a.m. with entertainment by Shane Thornton.

“It’s the old-fashioned western hospitality,” Kathleen says of the pre- and post-sale activities, which typically lure upwards of 300 people. “It’s more work, but it’s worth it.”

Unlike the annual Klamath Bull & Select Horse Sale, which was held at the fairgrounds in Klamath Falls earlier this month, the Buchanan’s sale features all Angus bulls. While most are from the Buchanan Ranch, others are from ranches, including one from Eastern Oregon, that have built their operations around the Buchanan’s genetic program. The bulls up for bid are mostly about 14 months old.

It’s a two-person operation for Bob, 62, and Kathleen, 64, who use their 500 acres to raise hay and, more importantly, oversee their carefully selected herd of Angus cattle. They typically breed 150 to 160 cows by artificial insemination annually and have about 125 calves each season.

“This is a hands-on cattle operation. We do all the work here on our own ranch,” Bob and Kathleen emphasize, noting they share daily ranch chores with their border collie dogs. On big work days, they often enlist their three children — especially their cowboy inclined son, Billy — and their children’s families. “We do the breeding, calving, feeding, repairs and maintenance on the equipment and facilities.”

“It’s a beautiful hidden valley,” Kathleen says of the location of their fourth generation cattle ranch that’s been raising registered Angus since 1965. She and her husband believe their mission is to improve the quality of Angus beef in general and their stock in particular.

“We’re into it for the betterment of the industry and the betterment of the herd,” she says. “The reason for doing this has to be to the improve for breed. There really isn’t a good reason for not raising good beef.”

That ever-improving breeding goal has led the Buchanans to concentrate on upgrading their herd. They have been using artificial insemination and embryo transfer technology since 1987, when it was accepted by the Angus Association. They pride themselves on what they describe as “high volume, big ribbed females in a moderate framed package.” The cows are turned out to pasture with young calves, which are born in late December.

Working working hard is the couple’s mantra. As they emphasize, “Our ranch is not a hobby, it is a livelihood. Angus cattle our only business so we have to work hard and perform or we won’t stay in business.”

Staying in business has been a family tradition since 1894. Bob says his family had a large operation of commercial cattle. “I was the rebel,” he tells of converting to breeding Angus, a shift that began in 1965. By the late 1990s, the commercial operation was history.

History, however, is a tradition that dates back to 1894 when Bob’s great-grandparents, John and Marie Hagelstein, who had come to the United States by ship from Germany then moved to Oregon 1893, settled in the Algoma area. His great-grandparents farmed, but Bob’s grandparents, George and Hilda Hagelstein, began raising cattle that, along with such family farm crops as milk, potatoes and eggs, were sold to workers at the nearby Algoma Lumber Mill.

Bob’s history with Angus started as a teenager, when he started buying Angus from Scott Warren in the early 1950s. Gradually, he took over Warren’s operation and moved into a house his uncle Fred had built as a dairy, just up the road from where he had grown up. “I have moved twice in my lifetime for a total of a half-mile,” Bob laughs.

With Kathleen’s help, the Buchanans have crafted a partnership that blends tradition with technology. They computerize their data, information on things like carcass genetics and pregnancy tests, “But we still have to look at and work with the cattle.”

The yearly focus is their bull sale, always held the fourth Sunday of February. They launched the sales to “give everyone first pick” at their sought-after bulls.

Their special touches, along with high quality bulls, have helped the Buchanans’ success.

“We get a lot of repeat customers,” says Bob, noting one ranch has been buying Buchanan bulls since 1973. “We make friends with our customers.”

“You’ve got to show appreciation for your customers,” Kathleen explains, laughingly telling about a long-time friend and buyer who once told her, “I don’t need any bulls. I just came for the cinnamon rolls.”

Along with people at the fairgrounds, the sale is broadcast live on the Internet and reaches potential buyers from across the U.S. and Canada. Last year, the majority of bids came via the Internet. “It’s definitely high-tech, but still old-style Western hospitality. We figure our bulls sell themselves. We like to stay at a size where we can do it ourselves,” Bob says.

The annual sale is critical financially, but the Buchanans says they like all phases of their business.

“I really enjoy the cattle and the people. We deal with the greatest people on the Earth. When they tell you something you can count on that happening,” Bob says. “I love working with the animals. We are kind of our bosses. It’s very rewarding at calving season, seeing the fruits of your thoughts and labor. And the lifestyle. To be able to make a living in a lifestyle you love is nothing short of a blessing.”

SALEM — A bill that would require genetically engineered fish to be labeled in Oregon has died in committee but the proposal will likely be resurrected next year.

House Bill 4122 was approved 32-27 earlier this month by the House and was referred to the Senate Committee on Health Care, which did not act on the bill by the legislature’s Feb. 23 deadline.

Supporters of the bill said it would bolster Oregon’s fishing industry by allowing consumers to easily discern between local wild-caught salmon and a biotech variety approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year.

Critics of HB 4122 argued that labeling would unnecessarily alarm consumers about the safety of such fish and claimed the bill was premature because the FDA is still determining whether federal labeling guidelines for such salmon are appropriate.

Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, the committee’s chair, said during a Feb. 23 hearing that she was generally supportive of HB 4122 but it was “dropped in our lap” only recently, so there wasn’t sufficient time to discuss it during this year’s short legislative session.

Originally, HB 4122 would have lifted Oregon’s ban against local regulations on genetically engineered crops, which the Legislature approved in 2013 as part of a broader package of bills passed during a special session.

The Oregon Farm Bureau vigorously opposed the reversing this pre-emption statute, arguing it would create a patchwork of conflicting county ordinances across the state. Proponents said local control was necessary due to insufficient regulations on biotech crops at the state and federal levels.

However, the initial language of HB 4122 was replaced with the fish labeling provisions, which won the approval of Oregon’s salmon industry but continued to face opposition from biotech supporters and food manufacturers.

The Center for Food Safety, which supported both versions of HB 4122, will continue to educate legislators about genetic engineering in anticipation of proposals being revived in 2017, said Amy van Saun, legal fellow for the non-profit group.

The fish labeling component may be rendered moot by 2017, depending on federal action, said Scott Dahlman, policy director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an industry group that opposed the bill.

However, Dahlman said he wouldn’t be surprised if the biotech pre-emption issue will be raised during the longer legislative session next year.

SALEM — The fate of an environmentalist lawsuit over the removal of wolves from Oregon’s list of endangered species will soon be decided by the Oregon Senate.

Under House Bill 4040, the legislature would ratify last year’s decision by state wildlife officials to delist wolves, effectively neutralizing a legal challenge filed by several environmental groups in the Oregon Court of Appeals.

The Senate will soon vote on HB 4040 having passed a key legislative committee on Feb. 23 and earlier having passed the House.

Proponents of the bill, including the Oregon Farm Bureau and the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, argue that livestock producers could be excluded from any potential legal settlement between the environmental plaintiffs and Oregon’s wildlife regulators, thereby circumventing the public process in setting wolf management policy.

Environmentalists and animal rights advocates fear the delisting will lead to hunting and argue that HB 4040 will preclude judicial review of whether the delisting decision was based on sound science, which the Legislature should not attempt to answer.

Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, said it’s not unprecedented for Oregon lawmakers to weigh in on thorny policy issues instead of having them hashed out during prolonged litigation.

“As public policy makers, we do intervene when we believe it’s healthier to resolve a situation rather than let it happen in a courtroom,” he said.

Edwards joined two Republican colleagues on the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources in voting in favor of the bill, which passed the committee 3-2 and is now headed for a vote on the Senate floor.

The two other Democrats on the committee — Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, and Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland — said they were uncomfortable with lawmakers trying to influence the legal process from the outset.

Prozanski said he would have preferred a bill that would require the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and Oregon Farm Bureau to be included in any settlement negotiations, rather than render the lawsuit moot.

“I’m concerned about us being asked to intervene at this stage in a judicial proceeding,” he said.

Hemp

A far less controversial bill on hemp growing regulations, House Bill 4060, is also headed for a vote on the Senate Floor after passing the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

The bill, which was already approved by the House, eliminates restrictions on hemp that require the crop to be directly planted in fields larger than 2.5 acres and prohibit it from being grown from cuttings or in greenhouses.

These limitations were enacted by the Legislature in 2009, when recreational marijuana wasn’t yet legal in Oregon and lawmakers thought hemp would be grown mostly for industrial products like fiber and oil.

Instead, many growers want to plant hemp on a smaller scale for cannabidiol, a compound intended for medicinal uses.

The Joint Committee on Ways and Means has appropriated $25,000 for a Task Force on Drought Emergency Response, which will consist of up to 15 members chosen by the governor and legislative leaders. The goal of the task force will be to identify short-term, medium-term and long-term tools to combat drought, which caused severe problems for agriculture and the environment last year.

House Bill 4113, which would establish the task force, will now be voted upon by the full House.

The House will also vote on another drought-related bill, Senate Bill 1529, which invalidates rules requiring landscape irrigation by local homeowner associations when a drought has been declared by the governor, the Oregon Water Resources Department or a local government. The bill was approved unanimously by the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Government Effectiveness after earlier passing the Senate.

Local county governments will be allowed to create rangeland protection associations to fight fires in remote areas under House Bill 4007, which will be voted on in the Senate after earlier winning the approval of the House and now passing a key committee in the Senate.

Without this bill, only the Oregon Board of Forestry has the authority to create such associations. The county-created associations will be able to obtain more favorable insurance terms if HB 4007 passes, but they’re still subject to the oversight of the Oregon Board of Forestry.

Ag interests say the three-tiered plan to hike the state’s minimum wage passed by the Legislature is better than some alternatives, but still will have a bit impact on growers and processors.

Under the plan awaiting Gov. Kate Brown’s signature, in July Oregon’s minimum wage will jump from $9.25 to $9.75 statewide.

It will gradually climb to $14.75 in 2022 in the Portland urban growth boundary, which includes parts of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. It will rise to $13.50 in Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Deschutes, Hood River, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, Wasco and Yamhill counties, and parts of Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties outside Portland’s urban growth boundary.

In rural areas, the minimum will increase to $12.50. Those areas include Malheur, Lake, Harney, Wheeler, Sherman, Gilliam, Wallowa, Grant, Jefferson, Baker, Union, Crook, Klamath, Douglas, Coos, Curry, Umatilla and Morrow counties.

Jenny Dresler, state public police director for the Oregon Farm Bureau, said the increased minimum wage will cause some farmers to mechanize while others will probably go out of business because they can’t compete against growers in other states.

“Farmers are price takers. They have no ability to recoup those higher labor costs,” Dresler said.

The three-tiered county wage schedule is a “bizarre choice” since many farms operate across county lines, she said. Growers in some areas will now be less competitive than those in their neighboring counties, Dresler said.

Malheur County onion growers say the plan will have a major impact on local packers.

But the 46 farmers, onion processors and small business owners who traveled 400 miles by charter bus to Salem last month to oppose proposals to raise the state’s minimum wage prevented the outcome from being worse, participants said.

“As bad as it was, it could have been worse,” said Nyssa farmer Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association, which helped finance the trip along with the Malheur County Potato Growers Association.

Bus trip participants told lawmakers that raising the state’s minimum wage would result in agricultural and other businesses moving to neighboring Idaho, which has a $7.25-an-hour minimum wage.

The governor’s original two-tier proposal would have raised the minimum wage to $15.52 in the Portland area and to $13.50 in the rest of the state, so the noise made by the Malheur County crew clearly made a difference in the final outcome, said Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, who helped organize the bus trip.

The change to a three-tier system was made as a result “of the loud noise made by the people of Eastern Oregon,” he said. “I think it’s extremely important that people understand they did have an impact.”

The increase in the state’s minimum wage will still have a negative effect on Malheur County’s agricultural industry, which competes against Idaho farmers and processors just across the border, Skeen said.

While Oregon’s final minimum wage plan is somewhat better than the original, “It’s just a slower death,” he said.

Faced with a much higher minimum wage than their competitors a few hundreds yards away in Idaho, onion processors in Malheur County will do one of two things that will result in fewer Oregon jobs, Skeen said: “They will mechanize or move to Idaho or both. They won’t have a choice.”

The bus trip did some good, said MCPGA President Rob Wagstaff. But based on the ultimate outcome, “I feel like (legislators are) telling us they don’t really care a lot about small businesses here. I’m just frustrated they didn’t hear us a little bit better.”

The minimum wage increase will also have a major impact on Oregon fruit growers, said Jean Godfrey, executive director of the Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers Association, which represents 440 cherry, apple and pear growers.

The group’s producers are in an area that will experience the $13.50 minimum wage rate by 2022.

One fruit grower who penciled out the impact of a $13.50 minimum wage on his 150-acre orchard calculated it would cost him an additional $150,000 a year in wages, Godfrey said.

“If you’re in retail, you can pass the increased cost on to consumers,” Godfrey said. “But we can’t do that. We don’t set our prices. It seems to me the people in Salem don’t understand agriculture and the impact (the increase) has on our industry.”

PORTLAND — Generational changes are expected to stymie per-capita U.S. consumption of wine in 2016, at least temporarily stunting the longtime upward trend, experts say.

The “baby boomer” generation, which consumes the most wine, is now preparing for retirement and feeling pressure to spend less and save more, said Mark Freund, managing director for Silicon Valley Bank, which tracks the wine industry.

Meanwhile, the “millennial” generation faces its own financial concerns — such as paying off student debt — and isn’t as dedicated to wine, he said Feb. 23 during the 2016 Oregon Wine Symposium in Portland, Ore.

Over the long term, though, there’s reason to believe that history will repeat itself and young people will come to prefer wine as they grow older, Freund said.

Other economic factors cut both ways.

Fuel prices are lower, allowing consumers to spend more on wine, but the volatile stock market has raised concerns about recession and inflation-adjusted incomes remain flat, he said.

“It’s difficult for the middle class to get ahead when there hasn’t been real wage growth,” Freund said.

U.S. wineries can also expect to face more foreign competition: While the output of wine-producing countries such as France, Italy and Spain has trended upward, their domestic consumption is down, he said.

That means those countries will be eager to export to the U.S., which has emerged as the top wine consumer in the world, he said.

Young drinkers’ appetite for craft beer doesn’t necessarily have to come at the expense of the wine industry, said Christian Miller, proprietor of Full Glass Research, a market analysis firm.

The popularity of craft beer is associated with consumers seeking higher quality and more intense flavors, which is a “cultural trend” that may also help wine, he said.

“What they’re shedding is the Budweisers and Coors of the world,” Miller said.

The millennial generation represents about 30 percent of the “high frequency” class of U.S. wine drinkers, who buy roughly 80 percent of the wine in the U.S., he said.

Baby boomers comprise 38 percent of high frequency wine drinkers, while the older generation represents 13 percent and “Generation X” represents 19 percent.

Sparkling wines are experiencing consistent growth since 2010, which may bring new consumers to the overall wine industry, Miller said.

Consumers associate Oregon wines with small producers, food friendliness and good value, though the region still isn’t as well-known as the Napa and Sonoma regions of California, he said.

The main reasons cited by high-frequency drinkers for not buying Oregon wine is that they prefer wine from other regions, that Oregon wines aren’t available where they shop and that Oregon doesn’t produce the varietals they commonly drink, Miller said.

In 2016, Oregon wine producers surveyed by Silicon Valley Bank said they expect sales to increase 13 percent in value and 9 percent in volume, which reflects the trend of consumers “trading up” to higher-quality wines, said Freund.

However, about 28 percent of Oregon wineries said they were experiencing poor financial performance, compared to 16 percent for all wineries surveyed, he said. Oregon wineries also reported being more willing to sell their companies than the industry as a whole.

PORTLAND — Average temperatures in various parts of the Pacific Northwest have risen 1.3 to 2.5 degrees since the mid-20th century, forcing changes in how vineyards and wineries operate, speakers at the annual Oregon Wine Symposium said.

Climate change has altered the timing of harvest, changed grape ripening profiles and forced growers and wine makers to account for fluctuating sugar and acid balances and to deal with new pests and diseases, said Greg Jones, a Southern Oregon University professor who specializes in wine climatology.

The past year was the warmest in recorded history globally, Jones said. The “heat content” of the world’s oceans has increased tremendously, he said, which likely will have dramatic impact on weather patterns. “This may be the real issue as we go forward,” Jones said.

Jones and his counterpart from France’s famed Burgundy region, Benjamin Bois, headed a discussion that attracted an estimated 200 people. Mark Chien, coordinator of Oregon State University’s Wine Research Institute, moderated the discussion. Chien noted that Oregon’s niche success within the wine industry began with cool weather grapes, Pinot noir. A warming challenges the industry, he said. The wine symposium and accompanying trade show attract about 1,400 people annually to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. The agenda each year includes detailed discussions of grape growing and wine making. Many of the sessions included Spanish interpretation, a nod to the workforce in most vineyards.

The trade show annually features equipment dealers, label makers and suppliers of corks, barrels and tanks, among many others. Vendor booths ranged from one staffed by the Davis Wright Tremaine law firm, which has a wineries, breweries and distilleries practice group, to MaxYield Falconry, which uses falcons to chase pest birds from vineyards, orchards or berry fields.

The climate change presentation was among the better-attended sessions. Bois, a professor of viticulture and climatology at the University de Bourgogne in France, lent some perspective to the relative youth of the West Coast wine industry when he said 2003 was the earliest Burgundy harvest on record — which dates to the 14th century.

But he said the region’s Pinot noir wine from 2003 is in good shape, suggesting there is some “range and space” within a warming environment in which wine quality is not harmed.

“That does not mean there are not some challenges in climate change,” Bois said.

He said temperature increases linked to climate change have shortened the grape growing season in Burgundy by eight days. Researchers compared bud burst to harvest records from 1951-2000 with records kept 2000-2015, he said. The growth process that took 162 days in earlier times now is done in 154 days, he said, and starts five days earlier. That puts grapes somewhat more at risk for spring frost or summer rain, Bois said.

He said some vineyards in southern France now irrigate, after centuries of not doing so. Soil temperature has increased at a greater rate than air temperature, with unknown impact.

“It’s a black box, we really don’t know what’s going on with soil,” he said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — FBI personnel say they have completed the evidence-collection process at an Oregon wildlife refuge following a 41-day standoff.

The FBI said Tuesday they have turned control of the facility near Burns over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Officials say it will remain closed until further notice.

Government prosecutors also filed a motion Tuesday to push back the trial dates for those arrested following the standoff.

Prosecutors want a federal judge to deem the case complex, citing the large number of defendants and other issues, which would likely send the case into 2017.

Defense attorney Lisa Hay filed a document opposing those efforts.

Standoff leader Ammon Bundy and 15 others are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on a conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors say a superseding indictment with additional charges could be filed next month.

The 41-day armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge cost Oregon counties at least $1.2 million, according to documents obtained by OPB.

The FBI prepared the cost estimate Feb. 13. It illustrates how the counties incurred those costs, from lodging and meals to fuel expenses and overtime.  

The Harney County School District paid some $16,000 for security and counseling services. The school district also spent $160,000 in wages for teachers and staff to stay home during the first week of the occupation.  

Meanwhile, more than $700,000 was spent on backup law enforcement in the area from police and sheriff’s departments across the state. Nearly 200 law enforcement officials from 35 agencies worked 3,678 regular hours during the occupation, according to the documents.  

Of the $700,000, the biggest expenditure went to 4,588 overtime hours for law enforcement, costing those departments more than $400,000.  

The figures compiled by the FBI do not include costs incurred by the Oregon State Police, which played a visible role in assisting the FBI.

Clackamas County spent more than any other department assisting Harney County, racking up $136,000 in costs. Meanwhile, Lane, Marion and Multnomah counties each spent more than $60,000.

Lodging costs alone for all of the assisting law enforcement topped $52,000.  

Local and state officials were in Washington D.C. this week, lobbying the federal government to reimburse counties for the costs.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and other Oregon representatives have introduced federal legislation and amendments since the occupation ended that would shift some of the costs to the federal Interior and Justice departments.

“The vigilantes who occupied the Malheur Wildlife Refuge for over a month sapped resources from local and state governments and inflicted tremendous damage to a valued national resource,” said DeFazio in a statement Monday. “It will take time, money and hard work to clean up the destruction left behind.”