CORVALLIS, Ore. — About 200 friends, colleagues and family of Kelvin Koong gathered June 5 at Oregon State University’s Oldfield Animal Teaching Facility to celebrate Koong’s 28 years of service to the university.

Koong, who began his career at OSU in 1987 as associate director of the College of Agricultural Sciences Experiment Station, is retiring June 30.

He spent the past three years as executive director of the university’s Agricultural Research Foundation.

Between those two assignments, Koong held several positions, including a two-year stint as dean of the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine, interim dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and interim director of the OSU Extension Service.

Several praised Koong during the celebration for his willingness to take on the different assignments, many for short durations, and for putting his best behind each position.

“It seems like every time we had a sticky job to do, we’d ask Kelvin,” said former OSU President John Burns.

“Some folks in a temporary role would’ve just filled out their time,” said U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., who worked with Koong on establishing a four-year veterinary college at OSU. “Not this guy. He said, ‘Why don’t we have a four-year veterinary college?’”

Schrader, a veterinarian who was serving in the Oregon Legislature at the time, said Koong was able to bring Republicans and Democrats together to back the effort to expand the veterinary college from two years to four years at a difficult budget time.

“This was a bill that we couldn’t afford,” Schrader said, “but somehow, Kelvin Koong found the money.”

Schrader said Koong also was instrumental in eliciting state funds to help back the construction of the now nearly three-year-old College of Veterinary Medicine’s Multi-Animal Teaching Facility.

“He’s very good at making us do the right thing at the end of the day,” Schrader said.

Sharon Harmon, executive director of the Oregon Humane Society, praised Koong for his work in establishing the first of its kind hands-on program for veterinary students to train at the Humane Society’s Portland shelter.

“This was groundbreaking,” Harmon said. “Prior to this, there was no partnership between a humane society and a university in the U.S.

“This program is now in place in 14 universities across the country,” she said.

“Kelvin deeply cares about this institution and the students who go here,” said Katie Fast, new executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, who worked with Koong often in the Legislature in her role in government affairs for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Phil Ward, state executive director of the Farm Service Agency who worked with Koong while serving first as assistant director and then as director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, characterized Koong as “the best relationship builder I’ve ever known. And those relationships have stood the test of time.”

Thayne Dutson, former dean of the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences, said what many believed in closing his comments.

“OSU is a better place now because you were here,” Dutson said. “Thank you, Kelvin.”

Wilcox Farms, a 106-year-old family business, was selected Agri-Business of the Year by the Strategic Economic Development Corporation of Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties.

The award from SEDCOR, the lead economic development group for the three counties in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, is presented annually to a business that achieves excellence in agri-business and maintains the role of ag in the economy.

The company is based in Roy, Wash., and has egg farm operations there and in Aurora, Ore., and a processing facility in Great Falls, Mont. Its products are sold at Fred Meyer, Safeway, Roth’s, Lamb’s, Natural Grocers, New Seasons, Costco and LifeSource Natural Foods stores.

Wilcox was founded in 1909 and now is in its fourth generation of family operation. In recent years the company has committed itself to raise chickens in a cage-free environment and on organic feed. It has been certified by Certified Humane, Food Alliance, Salmon Safe and Oregon Tilth.

SALEM — A bill aimed at encouraging mediation over biotech crop disputes is poised to become law in Oregon, but the original idea has been scaled back substantially.

An amended version of House Bill 2509 is headed for a vote on the Senate floor after earlier passing the House despite some unexpected pushback from critics of genetically modified organisms.

Under the initial version of the bill, a farmer who refuses to engage in mediation but then loses a lawsuit over a biotech crop dispute would have to pay the opposing party’s legal bills.

Although HB 2509 quietly passed the House without attracting controversy, it met with resistance in the Senate, where GMO critics pounced on it as being unfair to non-biotech growers.

Friends of Family Farmers, Our Family Farms Coalition and the Center for Food Safety argued that growers shouldn’t be forced into mediation that could prevent them from obtaining timely legal relief if they’re threatened with cross-pollination from GMOs.

Critics also objected to the lack of time and cost limits on mediation, claiming it could become prohibitively expensive and thus discourage growers from approaching neighbors with concerns.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture’s oversight of the mediation program was also called into question, since some GMO critics claim the agency is biased in favor of genetic engineering.

An amendment to HB 2509, recently adopted by the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, gives farmers the option of seeking mediation through ODA or the USDA.

The time and cost of mediation is capped at four hours and $2,500, and the threat of liability for the opposing party’s legal expenses is removed from the new version.

Instead, if a lawsuit is filed, a judge “may impose sanctions” against a farmer who refuses mediation and “may consider that unwillingness when determining whether to grant or deny a preliminary injunction.”

These changes have convinced Friends of Family Farmers, which is closely involved in legislative negotiations over GMOs, to drop its opposition to HB 2509.

The group was nervous about the attorney fee provision because biotech companies like Monsanto and Syngenta have tremendous legal resources they could deploy to aid biotech growers, said Ivan Maluski, its policy director.

“I don’t think you need to encourage people toward mediation with stiff penalties,” he said.

While Maluski acquiesced to HB 2509, he said it’s “laughable” to consider the bill an important step in state oversight of GMOs.

He would prefer the legislature adopt a proposal that would create control areas where biotech crops are subject to restrictions, such as isolation distances.

“The legislature has really accomplished nothing significant on this issue so far,” Maluski said.

The Oregon Farm Bureau, which opposes stricter GMO regulations, is still supportive of HB 2509 even though it’s been toned down, said Katie Fast, vice president of public policy for the group.

“It doesn’t have as many teeth to push people into mediation” but the bill will still hopefully help them to find ways to coexist, she said.

The Oregon Farm Bureau isn’t aware of any lawsuits over cross-pollination among organic, conventional and biotech growers, so a more drastic approach is unnecessary, Fast said.

More stringent proposals debated this year appear to be a “solution in search of a problem,” she said. “We’re hearing of very few neighbor-to-neighbor conflicts.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A fake life-sized orca that spouts water and plays recordings of its real-life counterparts is being deployed to scare off hundreds of sea lions crowding docks off the Oregon coast, but it ran into a snag its first day on the job.

The orca was brought over land from Bellingham, Washington, on Thursday, but as soon as it hit the water at Astoria, its engine flooded, KGW-TV reported. Officials in Astoria say they have found a replacement motor and the fake orca will make it to the water near the docks within several hours.

The fake orca, named “Island,” belongs to a whale watching business and was originally built in the 1980s. It’s outfitted with a Suzuki eight-horsepower outboard motor and speakers.

The replica orca is actually a boat and will be driven around in the waters near Astoria, free of charge to the port. It will also tow a smaller, 7-foot-long orca behind it.

Sea lions have become a nuisance to the city and commercial fishermen because they damage docks, prevent boaters from using them and eat too many salmon.

In recent weeks, the Port of Astoria tried creative ways to keep the animals away, including installing beach balls, colorful tape, chicken wire and electrified mats — but were not successful.

The sea lion population has increased dramatically in recent decades. The animals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but the law includes provisions allowing for deterrence of the sea lions to protect private property.

Officials said it’s not known if the sea lions will actually be scared of the phony killer whale. Wildlife official say sea lions are smart and might figure out it’s a fake.

“It’s a theory, we don’t know how it will work. An orca is a natural predator to a sea lion. But we don’t know if they will totally ignore it, or swim for their lives,” said Port of Astoria Executive Director Jim Knight.

Knight said one of the sounds the fake orca will emit is a “call to dinner” — usually emitted by the killer whales in the wild after they kill a sea lion or seal.

The famous insurance marketplace Lloyd’s of London is pulling out of the cannabis insurance business.  That’s surprised agents in Oregon who’ve used Lloyd’s for almost a decade to insure medical marijuana businesses. “It had been one of the oldest programs in the country,” said Todd Foster, an agent with Oregon Cannabis Insurance. Foster’s company has offices in Portland, Medford and Bend and provides liability, property and inventory insurance to a wide range of clients -- from warehouse grow operations to marijunana gelato makers. According to Marijuana Business Daily, in a memo explaining the decision, Lloyd’s cited the conflict between federal and state law in the United States.  The company concluded that money stemming from legal state marijuana sales could be subject to federal anti-money laundering laws. Foster said about 30 of his clients are insured through Lloyd’s. The policies protect against risks like general business liability — for example, a customer slipping and falling — and property and inventory loss from fire or robbery.Foster hasn’t yet heard whether Lloyd’s will actively cancel policies or will not renew them when they expire. He is working to switch his clients over to five other insurers who are willing to work with cannabis businesses. The only one Foster is willing to name is Hannover Re of Germany, a large insurer that recently launched a marijuana program to compete with Lloyd’s. “The other four I’m going to keep close to my chest,” Foster said. Amy Margolis, a cannabis attorney and a lobbyist, said the timing of Lloyd’s decision creates a challenge in Oregon where many people are preparing for a legal market and trying to legitimize their businesses.  She expects the OLCC will require legal cannabis businesses to carry liability coverage. That’s among the requirements established in Washington state.  “You can tack this issue up along with the banking issue. We’re asking cannabis businesses to be active participants in a traditional business market. They can’t access banking and now it has become much more difficult to access insurance,” she said.

OPB

In the event of a distant tsunami coming to the Oregon coast, you might not expect boat owners to head out to sea.

But that’s what many commercial and sports fishers do — to protect their vessels from the groundings, capsizes and collisions in harbors when tsunami waves near the shore.  In deep water, a passing tsunami is such an elongated hump that sailors might not even notice.

The state has released the first in a series of local advisories showing coastal boat operators where to go and what to do in the event of a distant tsunami.

Back in 2011, when boat owners heard a tsunami was on its way to the West Coast from Japan, many headed out to sea. The passing tsunami wasn’t a problem for them.  But in Crescent City, California, for example, the fleet couldn’t return because of harbor damage.

Jonathan Allan, with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI), says to make matters worse, a storm was approaching.

“It presented some challenges because people were evacuating quickly and weren’t necessarily adequately prepared, both in terms of having support staff on their vessels, you know fuel, etc. to be out there for extended periods of time, or food etc.,” he said.  “And so they were having to come up with alternative options for where to safely move to.”Those who didn’t have enough fuel returned to Crescent City, but had to anchor in some unusual spots.

Others had to sail to Humboldt Bay or Brookings Harbor, in Oregon, ports that some captains had never negotiated before.

The new DOGAMI advisory’s focus on a distant tsunami is important.

When a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake hits right off the Oregon coast, the resulting tsunami is expected to reach land in about 10 minutes.  So there won’t be time for boaters to head out to deep water.

But if the earthquake happens in Alaska, boat operators will have about four hours; if it occurs in Japan, they have about nine hours.

In 2011, after the Japan earthquake, what boat owners did in the end was keep close contact and help each other out.

Allan says the state’s new advisories focus on Newport and Toledo, but other locations will follow. “The regionally-released map is the first of its kind on the Oregon coast for a specific port community,” he said “It’s providing information to recreation and commercial boat operators as to the types of responses they can take in the event of a distance tsunami taking place.”

Terry Thompson is a commercial fisherman and a Commissioner for Lincoln County, and he thinks the advisory will help boat owners make good decisions. “A lot of people think they’re just going to go a short distance off shore,” he said. “They don’t realize that in a major tsunami, they’ve go to get outside of 100 fathoms. In a distant tsunami - that would be one like in Alaska or Japan - they’re going to have to get a shorter distance.”

In Newport and Toledo, that “shorter distance” could still take a couple of hours to reach. Boat operators would have to reach an area where the water was 30 fathoms - that is water at least 180 feet deep.

Thompson says when the next tsunami hits, boat owners need to take account of more than just the new map — they need to ask themselves questions like: “What’s the weather forecast?” and “How much time do I have?”

“Can you get to port and get up the hill before the tsunami hits, is the question,” he said. “In a distant tsunami, I’d have a chance. In a near shore tsunami and I’m off shore, I may just gamble for going to the deep, but I may be out there for a while.”

Walter Chuck’s small fishing boat was out of the water in 2011, so he didn’t have to make any difficult decisions. But he served on the committee that put the new advisories together.

He said some people wanted more details included. But he disagrees.

“I think if the plan was too detailed and there were too many steps, I think that in essence you would give someone a false sense of security that if you followed this plan, you would be okay,” Chuck said. “And in the event of a disaster, everything is very variable.”

He says when the next tsunami hits, he’ll monitor the marine channels and take advice from the U.S. Coast Guard.

http://www.opb.org/news/article/state-issues-first-local-advisories-for-distant-tsunamis/

SALEM — A bill to extend limited canola production in Oregon’s Willamette Valley will move to a vote on the Senate floor over the objections of a specialty seed growers’ group.

House Bill 3382, which allows canola to be grown on 500 acres in the region through 2019, had already passed the House and was approved on June 3 by the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources with a “do pass” recommendation.

Lawmakers contemplated banning canola in the Willamette Valley in 2013 due to fears of cross-pollination with related seed crops but instead opted for a six-year moratorium.

During the first three years, Oregon State University was directed to study volunteer plants, cross-pollination and disease issues associated with canola on 500 acres annually.

Growers who want to continue raising canola are now pressing lawmakers to extend that 500 acres of production through the final three years of the moratorium by passing HB 3382.

The Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Association and the Friends of Family Farmers group oppose the bill, fearing a larger “seed bank” of canola, among other issues.

Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, said that opponents have also expressed concerns with the integrity of OSU’s study, such as the amount of scientific peer review it will receive.

To assuage their concerns, an amendment to HB 3382 specifies that canola can only be grown in the region for another three years if it’s cultivated under the same restrictions as during the OSU study, he said.

Under the amendment, OSU’s study must also be reviewed by experts on vegetable seed production and include data on canola and brassica seed production in several other regions in the U.S. and around the world.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture must also make recommendations based on OSU’s study about what protections are necessary to ensure coexistence between the canola and specialty seed industries.

Opponents of HB 3382 said the revisions weren’t to overcome their objections, stating they’re afraid the ODA will intrepret the bill as authorizing the agency to allow unrestricted canola production after 2019.

Edwards said the legislature will inevitable have to make further decisions about canola after 2019.

Although the amendment did not result in a “Kumbaya moment” of agreement, it nonetheless has enough support among lawmakers, he said.

The committee unanimously referred the bill to a vote on the Senate floor, though Sen. Floyd Prozanzki, D-Eugene, said he will continue to analyze the bill and may ultimately change his mind.

SALEM — Farmers will face a lower risk of lawsuits over aviation and agritourism accidents under two bills that seem likely to become law in Oregon.

House Bill 2038, which absolves landowners of liability for aviation-related injuries on their property in most circumstances, was approved unanimously by the Senate on June 1 after earlier passing the House.

Legislation that protects agritourism operators from lawsuits, Senate Bill 341, was unanimously referred for a vote on the House floor with a “do pass” recommendation on June 2 by a key committee. The bill has already been approved by the House.

Both bills have overcome opposition from the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association, which feared the proposals would deprive negligence victims of their day in court.

Under the original language of HB 2038, aviation was simply added to a list of recreational activities for which landowners cannot be held liable unless they charge an entrance fee to their property.

An amended version of the bill clarifies that this protection doesn’t extend to landowners who cause harm to aircraft operators through gross negligence after allowing the use of their private airstrips.

Farmers who own airstrips testified in favor of the bill, arguing they shouldn’t be held legally responsible for pilots who routinely land on their property without permission.

While much of the debate focused on planes and airstrips, the bill also protects landowners from liability for accidents related to aviation sports such as hang gliding and parachuting.

Under SB 341, agritourism operators wouldn’t face liability for death or injury as long as they post notices that warn visitors of the inherent dangers of being on a farm.

The bill wouldn’t apply to growers who demonstrate “negligence or willful disregard” for safety, intentionally harm visitors, don’t properly inspect equipment that hurts someone, know of an undisclosed danger, or don’t comply with land use laws for agritourism.

Supporters of SB 341, including the Oregon Farm Bureau and Friends of Family Farmers, hope that reduced liability will encourage more agritourism and persuade insurers to offer coverage for such activities, eventually lowering premiums.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Oregon is expected to see above-normal wildfire danger starting in July, and fire seasons imposing restrictions on open burning are starting in the southwestern corner of the state.

The National Interagency Fire Center’s latest report on nationwide wildfire potential shows much of Oregon at normal in June, with drier areas of the state moving into above normal. By July, above normal fire potential spreads across the Northwest, and continues through September.

“The focus of above normal fire activity during the core of the fire season will likely be in the Northwest,” the report said.

East of the Cascades, more lightning than usual is expected in July and August, which the report says “will prove to be the deciding factor for the intensity of fire season 2015.”

Last year Oregon saw more than 3,000 wildfires burn nearly 1 million acres — about 1,500 square miles — of forest and rangeland, the fire center reports.

Long-range forecasts from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center call for summer to be warmer and drier than average.

In the short term, late spring rain has moistened trees, brush and grass, but as summer wears on, wildfire activity is expected to become “robust,” the report said.

“This will be amplified by the lack of snowpack at higher elevations, which should allow the conditions necessary for long duration timber fires to occur unusually early,” the report said.

Fire seasons are starting in the southwestern corner of the state. The Oregon Department of Forestry is declaring fire season starting Friday in Jackson and Josephine counties. That is about the same time as the past two years, said Department of Forestry fire prevention specialist Brian Ballou. Fire danger will begin at moderate. Outdoor burning and fireworks will be prohibited on state-protected lands.

“This will be the third drier-than-normal fire season in a row for southwest Oregon,” state District Forester Dan Thorpe said in a statement.

Fire restrictions also went into effect on the so-called wild section of the Rogue River, popular with whitewater rafters, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Six small lightning fires were put out after being ignited Sunday evening in Douglas County.

Pendleton Grain Growers sold or closed several divisions after losing nearly $8 milllion in 2014 but has refocused on core business areas and hopes to regain profitability this year, its chief executive said.

Rick Jacobson, a Pendleton native and former Norpac executive called out of retirement in 2012 to get PGG back on its feet, said restructuring and cost containment measures implemented over the past three years are paying off.

“I’m sitting here feeling pretty optimistic,” Jacobson said. “We’re positioned to make money in the 2015 crop year.”

PGG, a grain marketing and supply cooperative founded in 1929, spread itself too thin as it diversified, Jacobson said. The co-op jettisoned agronomy services, an auto shop, farm supply business and an irrigation service. The discontinued services accounted for about $7.5 million of the company’s losses in 2014, Jacobson said.

The co-op also sold excess inventory and recapitalized its debts into a new loan package. Jacobson said PGG has a $20 million line of credit and is in good position at this point.

The troubles came to light in 2012 when the USDA temporarily suspended PGG’s grain license. The suspension meant growers’ grain deposits were not guaranteed and was a “serious issue,” Jacobson said. The co-op’s board approached Jacobson and asked him to step in as manager.

Digging into PGG’s books revealed severe accounting problems, including earnings being overstated by about $10 million over the years. Jacobson said the co-op’s accounting procedures were “inadequate” but said there was no evidence of fraud or criminal malfeasance.

PGG will now concentrate on grain, seed, fuel and other energy products and transportation, Jacobson. A subsidiary irrigation business, Precision Rain, operates in Island City, Ore.

PGG has a network of 19 grain elevators and serves wheat, barley, corn and canola growers.

In a prepared statement, PGG board Chairman Tim Hawkins said the co-op will provide local market services for years to come.

“We have done the hard work together,” he said, “and although some of the steps were difficult, we are now in a stronger financial position and have put in place a meaningful foundation for the future.”

The Oregon Senate has approved a bill giving farm regulators the authority to revoke nurseries’ shipping permits to prevent the spread of plant diseases.

Senate Bill 256, which also raises the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s cap on nursery license fees, passed 23-5 during a Senate vote on June 2.

The Oregon Association of Nurseries supports the bill, which the group has likened to a “nuclear deterrent” against nursery producers who ignore plant health standards.

The risk is that a diseased shipment from a negligent company will create an out-of-state outbreak and endanger Oregon’s entire nursery industry, according to OAN.

The maximum license fee on nurseries would increase from $20,000 a year to $40,000 a year under SB 256 and the millage rate on their revenues would increase from five to 10 mills. A mill is a tenth of one percent.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture’s inspection authority is also revised under the bill to allow for a more “document-heavy” approach that focuses on prevention and auditing rather than on-the-ground inspection.

The legislation will now be considered by the Oregon House.

The legal battle over grazing on public lands has flared up in southern Oregon with a new lawsuit over the Fremont-Winema National Forest.

Environmentalists are accusing the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of signing off on grazing in the forest despite “incomplete and inaccurate information” about harms to the Sprague and Sycan river basins.

The plaintiffs — Oregon Wild, Friends of Living Oregon Waters and the Western Watersheds Project — claim cattle are trampling streambanks, widening channels and raising water temperatures to the detriment of fish.

Negative impacts to the threatened bull trout have resulted in violations of the Endangered Species Act, while the degradation in water quality contravenes the Clean Water Act and National Forest Management Act, the lawsuit claims.

Damage to the “scenic value” of the area also breeches the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, according to the plaintiffs.

The complaint alleges repeated problems with overgrazing, poor fence conditions and unauthorized cattle in at least 10 grazing allotments are within the bull trout’s “critical habitat.”

Some allotments also haven’t been monitored for grass stubble height and other parameters of rangeland health, the complaint said.

The Forest Service’s own data shows that water temperatures in the streams exceeded Clean Water Act standards in “multiple years,” but despite these issues the government concluded “livestock grazing was not likely to adversely affect newly designated bull trout critical habitat,” the plaintiffs claim.

The environmental groups have asked a federal judge to declare the government’s grazing authorizations to be unlawful and issue “temporary, preliminary or permanent injunctive relief” as necessary.

The Forest Service had no comment and a representative of the Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said he was disappointed that ranchers in the area will be subject to litigation at a time they’re already contending with water shortages.

The OCA will look into the situation and seek to assist ranchers in the area, said John O’Keefe, the group’s president-elect.

“We’re definitely concerned,” he said.

The recent lawsuit comes after a couple years of relative calm in the controversy over grazing on public land in Oregon.

In 2012, several consolidated complaints over grazing in the Malheur National Forest came to an end after the federal government established new conditions for ranchers to follow.

In 2013, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to block grazing in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s half-million-acre “Louse Canyon” area while the agency re-evaluated grazing authorizations.

Oregon State University plant pathologist Chris Mundt reported at Hyslop Farm Field Day May 27 that sharp eyespot is back infecting Willamette Valley wheat, and doesn’t appear to be leaving any time soon.

“We were hoping it would go away,” Mundt said, “but that’s not the case.”

Sharp eyespot appeared in the valley at unheard of levels last year, causing yield losses as high as 50 percent in one field and between 10 and 20 percent in others, according to Mundt.

The disease was indiscriminate last year, appearing in wheat fields up and down the valley and on nearly all the common varieties, he said.

This year appears no different. Sharp eyespot is just as prominent, he said, and has been spotted in Central Oregon wheat stands as well, dousing hopes that last year’s outbreak was an anomaly that wouldn’t be repeated.

Mundt said he is finding it in every clump of wheat he pulls up in the valley.

Plants infected with the disease will exhibit black areas on stems, Mundt said, and at high infestation levels will lodge.

Mundt is speculating that a new strain, or population, of the sharp eyespot fungus, Rhizoctonia cerealis, is responsible for the infestation. He said literature shows it also is appearing in China.

The disease has appeared sparingly in the valley over the years, Mundt said, but never at high levels.

Among research being conducted on the disease, researchers are studying whether certain fungicides, such as the strobilurins, are effective at controlling it. “We’ll know at the end of this year,” Mundt said.

Researchers also are planning to put out trials this fall to study whether delaying planting can lower plant susceptibility.

Mundt also reported that barley yellow dwarf virus is appearing at unusually high levels in Willamette Valley wheat this year.

“This is the worst barley yellow dwarf I’ve ever seen in the valley,” he said.

He speculated that last fall’s high temperatures facilitated aphid survival, contributing to the spread of the disease. Aphids transmit barley yellow dwarf virus between plants.

Mundt said certain varieties, such as Bobtail, are showing better resistance to barley yellow dwarf than others. And, he said, if growers can hold off planting wheat until the end of October, it can help slow the spread of the disease.

“If you have any way to back off seeding to mid- to late October, it would be good not only for your individual farm, but for the valley as a whole,” he said.

In general, Mundt said, planting late lowers plant exposure to diseases.

PORTLAND — The unexpected collaboration of industry, environmentalists and government agencies that saved mill jobs in Oregon’s Grant County could be a model for restoration forest policy elsewhere, panelists said at a May 27 timber symposium.

Working with the U.S. Forest Service, the Blue Mountains Forest Partners forged a 10-year agreement to restore 272,000 acres of the Malheur National Forest through thinning projects and other work. The work, funded by a $2.5 million allocation from USDA, provides logging and mill jobs, reduces fire danger and improves the ecosystem, panelists at the Forests and the Economy Symposium said.

“We had the idea we were the smartest guys in the room,” said Bruce Daucsavage, president of Ochoco Lumber Co. “When we hit the wall a couple years ago, we needed help.”

The company in 2012 announced it would close its John Day sawmill because it could not get a sufficient supply of logs from the national forest. The mill was Grant County’s biggest private employer, providing 70 to 80 jobs in a county of 1,700 people, and the prospect of closure was grim news.

But the potential job losses, combined with issues of forest health and the prospect of catastrophic fire in overgrown woods, provided common ground for finding a solution, panelists agreed.

The agreement, essentially science-based, long-term landscape management contracts, required Ochoco Lumber to make some changes, Daucsavage said.

“I have to take that science and figure out how to make a profit with it,” he said. “We go out in the woods and figure out what will work.”

Processing and marketing small logs removed during thinning work is “always a challenge,” Daucsavage said. The company invested $12 million in new facilities. It installed a whole log shaver, which produces shavings for use as animal bedding, and added the capacity to make wood chips or compressed wood bricks for heating.

In joining partners such as Sustainable Northwest and the Western Environmental Law Center, the company “opened ourselves up,” Daucsavage said. “We will never get everything we want, but what we’ve got going right now is wonderful.”

“They gave up management as usual and embraced a (forest) restoration approach,” said Susan Jane Brown, staff attorney with the law center.

The approach was different for the law center, as well. “I’m a litigator. My day job is suing the Forest Service and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) over forest practices,” Brown quipped. The task of “bringing science to the table” involved experts and community stakeholders going out on the ground where forest policy issues are coming up, she said.

Daucsavage, Brown and Patrick Shannon, forest program director with Sustainable Northwest, said collaboration may work in Eastern Oregon because so many involved in forest policy issues, from all sides, have hit bottom and are looking for solutions.

“Industry wasn’t seeing logs come off (the national forests) and my side wasn’t seeing old growth protection,” Brown said.

Other issues covered during the symposium included panel discussions of the “missing middle” in forest policy and the cost of wildfire suppression.

The event was hosted by InvestigateWest, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, and the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communications.

A federal judge has rejected a request by two Oregon alfalfa farms to block Jackson County’s ban on genetically engineered crops from going into effect.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke has found the GMO ban is not pre-empted by the state’s “right to farm” law, thereby allowing the ordinance to become effective on June 5.

The “right to farm” statue prohibits ordinances and lawsuits that treat a common farming practice as a trespass or nuisance, but it does not protect activities that harm commercial agriculture, the judge said.

Oregon’s legislature passed the law to shield farmers from urban encroachment and complaints about smells, noises and other irritations, he said.

“While farming practices may not be limited by a suburbanite’s sensitivities, they may be limited if they cause damage to another farm’s crops,” Clarke said.

Growers are able to file lawsuits over such grievances under the “right to farm” statute, and Jackson County’s ordinance simply “serves to prevent such damage before it happens” — even if it hasn’t yet occurred, he said.

Clarke also found that lawmakers intended to permit the GMO ban when they excluded Jackson County from a 2013 bill that pre-empted other local governments from regulating biotech crops.

He pointed to testimony from lawmakers representing the county who claimed the ordinance was necessary to avoid unwanted cross-pollination between biotech crops and those that are conventional or organic.

Former Gov. John Kitzhaber also stated that Jackson County was specifically exempt from Senate Bill 863, the state pre-emption law, when he pushed lawmakers to approve it, said Clarke.

Plaintiffs in the case — Schulz Family Farms and James and Marilyn Frink — claimed that SB 863 did not affect the “right to farm” law, which they interpreted as protecting their genetically engineered alfalfa crops from being destroyed.

While Clarke has dismissed the farmers’ arguments regarding “right to farm,” their claim seeking $4.2 million in compensation from Jackson County remains alive in the case.

The growers argue that forcing them to remove about 300 acres of herbicide-resistant “Roundup Ready” alfalfa amounts to the county condemning their property for public use, which requires just compensation.

Capital Press was unable to reach the plaintiffs or Jackson County for comment.

The Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit critical of biotech crops, considers the ruling a “big win” but expects the plaintiffs will challenge it before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said George Kimbrell, senior attorney for the group.

The judge has recognized that genetically engineered crops pose a significant commercial threat to non-biotech growers, which was a key issue in the litigation, Kimbrell said. “This case is a resounding affirmation of the right of farmers to protect themselves from GE contamination.”

A bill aimed at expanding government oversight of “rails-to-trails” across farmland in Oregon, intended to prevent disruptions to agriculture, has died in committee.

House Bill 3367 would have required conditional use permits for certain projects in farm zones, such as converting railroad tracks to bike paths, which would allow neighboring farmers to weigh in on such proposals.

The Oregon Farm Bureau and conservation groups supported the bill, arguing that dealing with ongoing public recreation poses a much greater challenge for farmers than the passage of an occasional train.

Growers know when trains will travel across their property and can plan their operations accordingly, but they face greater difficulties when spraying, tilling or moving livestock near bikers and other visitors, proponents of HB 3367 said.

The Oregon Recreation and Park Association opposed the original version of the bill for allegedly threatening to interfere with a process that’s successfully created hundreds of miles of trails in the state.

Trails rarely encounter the type of problems anticipated by farmers, opponents of HB 3367 said.

Even trails that cross the farmland of willing landowners would be subject to greater scrutiny by county governments under the bill, ORPA said.

“Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water,” said Stephanie Redman, the group’s executive director, during a recent legislative hearing.

The original version of HB 3367 passed the House by a strong margin, but during Senate hearings, ORPA pressed for an amendment that would only require permits when the land is acquired through eminent domain.

Representatives of Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development testified that permits are already required for certain trails, though not those which modify existing transportation easements.

Several park officials, however, told lawmakers that this process hasn’t been followed unfirmly across the state.

In the end, the Senate Committee on Environment decided to let the bill die during a May 27 work session rather than schedule further deliberations.

Cindy Robert, lobbyist for the ORPA, said the concept isn’t necessarily a “dud” but more time is needed to clarify existing regulations and how they’ve been applied.

Hopefully, a solution that makes sense for everyone can be found during a future legislative session, she said.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Checks totaling $20 million are being sent to 18 timber counties in western Oregon under terms of a federal subsidy renewed by Congress.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday that the money is being distributed to the so-called O&C counties under terms of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act.

The counties once received so much money as a share of logging on the so-called O&C lands that some didn’t have to levy taxes. But when logging was drastically cut in the 1990s to protect the northern spotted owl and salmon, Congress created a series of safety nets. The latest one had expired, but was revived by Congress.

The money has been steadily decreasing, and counties that depend on it the most have trouble providing services.

Associated Press

Armed with rifles equipped with silencers, government hunters have started shooting seabirds on an uninhabited island at the mouth of the Columbia River, to reduce their consumption of juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged Wednesday that wildlife control personnel from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services started over the weekend implementing the corps’ plan to cut by more than half the numbers of double-crested cormorants nesting on East Sand Island between Oregon and Washington, where they eat millions of juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean. The island is the biggest double-crested cormorant nesting site in North America, and some of the salmon are protected species.

Bob Winters, program manager for the corps, said a team of three to four wildlife control personnel armed with .22-caliber rifles would be killing birds on the island through August. The goal is to reduce the colony from about 14,000 breeding pairs to 5,600 pairs by 2018.

The Audubon Society of Portland has challenged the killing in a federal lawsuit that argues the corps is ignoring the biggest threat to salmon, hydroelectric dams on the Columbia. Conservation director Bob Sallinger called on the corps to allow independent observers on the island so the public can know how the killing is being carried out, and to call off the killing until the lawsuit has run its course.

“The idea of turning the largest cormorant colony in the United States into as shooting gallery and killing cormorants on the nest is a low point in terms of recent wildlife management efforts,” Sallinger said.

Winters said Wildlife Services personnel are focusing on portions of the colony where eggs have yet to hatch, so as not to create a situation where chicks are left without parents to feed them. Numbers of how many birds have been killed and eggs oiled to prevent them from hatching are to be posted on a corps website on Thursdays each week.

He added that the corps has a contract with people who are verifying the culling is being done in accordance with the environmental impact statement.

ONTARIO, Ore. — Oregon State University researchers have alerted onion growers in the region to be on the lookout for the iris yellow spot virus in this year’s crop.

The virus has been detected in several volunteer onions, said OSU Cropping Systems Extension Agent Stuart Reitz.

“I haven’t seen it in the crop yet but if we’re seeing it in the volunteers, it’s only a matter of time before it shows up in the crop,” he said. “I expect to see it showing ... up in the crop any time basically.”

About 25 percent of the nation’s fresh bulb onions are grown in Eastern Oregon and Southwestern Idaho and the virus is one of the industry’s top production challenges.

It weakens the onion plant and can significantly reduce growth, which is important in the onion industry because larger-sized bulb onions fetch higher prices.

The virus is transmitted to onions by thrips and the insect’s populations are starting to build up rapidly, Reitz said.

“We’re consistently seeing 1 to 2 adult thrips per plant, which is a healthy population for this time of year,” he said.

The virus was detected in last year’s crop in early June.

Reitz said growers should be focusing on controlling volunteer onions, since they act as early season reservoirs for thrips and the virus to move into the crop.

“People need to get all of the volunteer stuff away,” said Nyssa farmer Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association.

Nyssa grower Reid Saito said the virus is one of the industry’s top two problems, along with the nutsedge weed.

“We don’t have a real good handle on it,” he said. “You just never know when it’s going to show up. Year to year and area to area, the virus pressure varies.”

Saito said he has seen onion fields that look great “and then when the virus shows up, I’ve seen the whole complexion of the crop change from good to terrible in a matter of days.”

Reitz and Skeen credit an aggressive thrips control program with helping keep virus pressure low last year compared with the previous several years.

2013 was a bad year for the virus but last year was mild by comparison, Skeen said, and that was due in part to farmers spraying earlier and more often for thrips.

Farmers should be out scouting their fields now and acting quickly if any virus pressure is detected, Reitz said.

“People should be checking their crop very carefully to see if any virus shows up,” he said. “The people who had less severe pressure last year were the ones who stayed on top of it.”

For more information about thrips and the virus, contact Reitz at (541) 881-1417.

A proposal to increase restrictions on genetically engineered crops has been revived in the Oregon Legislature a month after a similar bill died in committee.

House Bill 3554 would allow the Oregon Department of Agriculture to establish “control areas” where biotech crops — even those deregulated by federal authorities — would be subject to additional rules, such as isolation distances.

Growers who fear cross-pollination from genetically modified organisms could petition ODA to create a “market production district” in which such crops would face similar regulations.

Farm suppliers would also have to report sales of biotech seeds to the agency.

The new bill is a compromise because state officials could choose whether to designate control areas or market production districts, said Ivan Maluski, policy director of Friends of Family Farmers, a group that supports stronger GMO regulation.

“It’s done in a way that gives ODA the authority without telling them what to do,” he said.

Under earlier legislation, which died in the House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water in April, the agency would be required to establish control areas for biotech crops.

Clarifying ODA’s authority over GMOs is necessary because the agency currently believes it loses the power to regulate once they’re commercialized by USDA, Maluski said.

“Right now, they pretty much argue their hands are tied,” he said.

Opponents of the bill are disappointed that the control area concept has been resurrected, even though such designations aren’t mandatory under HB 3554.

“It might be scaled back in some respects, but none that are meaningful,” said Scott Dalhman, policy director of the Oregonians for Food and Shelter agribusiness group.

Subjecting biotech crops to control areas is a “draconian” idea that was previously rejected because it effectively allows some farmers to dictate what others can grow, Dahlman said.

Traditionally, farmers who signed contracts that guarantee price premiums in return for high seed purity were responsible for living up to those specifications themselves, he said.

Under HB 3554, growers can demand that the government dictate their neighbors’ farming practices to ensure the contract terms are met, he said.

Dahlman and other biotech proponents want lawmakers to pass House Bill 2509, which would create a mediation system overseen by ODA to resolve conflicts over genetically engineered crops.

Critics of GMOs, on the other hand, claim that a stronger statewide policy is necessary because lawmakers pre-empted most local governments from regulating such crops in 2013.

“There’s a lot of interest in the legislature following through on that promise,” Maluski said.