EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The National Weather Service says a “very small tornado” touched down Tuesday afternoon on the main campus of Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. The funnel cloud touched down in a parking lot.

Weather Service meteorologist Jeremiah Pyle in Portland says three vehicles suffered “significant damage” and there was minor damage to a fourth. He said he has not heard of any injuries.

Pyle said the Weather Service was not able to estimate the strength of the tornado but witness accounts and numerous photographs convinced meteorologists that one did occur at about 4 p.m.

The spokesman says a security officer at the college watched the tornado touch down and a faculty member with a background in meteorology collected and forwarded photographs that outlined a damage path.

Eugene is about 100 miles south of Portland.

Associated Press

SALEM (AP) — State biologists are telling the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission there is enough information to consider taking the gray wolf off the state endangered species list.

A draft status review was posted Tuesday on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website with materials for the commission’s next meeting. The meeting’s agenda includes a formal staff recommendation that the commission determine there is significant information to start the rulemaking process.

A final decision is not scheduled until August in Salem, but the commission is to make the first step in the process — deciding whether it has enough information to consider the issue — when it meets April 24 in Bend.

At last count, Oregon had 77 wolves descended from animals introduced in Idaho in the 1990s. The 76-page status report says they are projected to increase at a rate of 7 percent a year, and the probability of a major drop in population is very low. There is plenty of habitat available on public lands, and wolves continue to expand their range, establishing at least one new pack in the western third of the state.

The rate of wolf attacks on livestock has been low, the review notes.

Hoping to gain greater freedom to kill wolves attacking livestock, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association has been pressing for the commission to delist wolves since a statewide census last winter showed they had exceeded their restoration goal of four breeding pairs producing pups that survive a year for three years running. At last count, there were at least seven breeding pairs, six in northeastern Oregon and one, led by the famous wanderer OR-7, in the southern Cascades.

Arguing that wolf numbers are still too low to justify lifting protections, conservation groups favor continuing endangered-species status to assure wolves continue to thrive.

A bill (HB 3515) to prohibit the commission from listing wolves as threatened or endangered has been introduced in the Legislature. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for Thursday in the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Taking wolves off the state’s endangered list would not open up hunting. However, their rising numbers have already triggered a relaxation of rules that now make it possible for ranchers to shoot wolves they see attacking herds.

Balancing the demands and capacity of the Northwest’s electrical power system while taking wildlife and alternative energy sources into account has become an enormously complex task, a member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council says.

Henry Lorenzen, 70, a Pendleton, Ore., attorney and third-generation wheat farmer, recently won unanimous reappointment to the council from the Oregon Legislature. Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana each appoint two members to the council; Oregon’s other representative is Bill Bradbury, a former secretary of state.

The council, formed in 1980, is charged with balancing the region’s energy and environmental demands, with special attention to preserving the Columbia River’s ability to benefit both.

The region is projected to have adequate power supply for the next several years, but Lorenzen said the Columbia River hydroelectric system is nearly “tapped out” in its ability to cover the fluctuations of alternative sources such as wind power.

A wind turbine, common in the eastern reaches of the Columbia River Gorge, may produce 4,200 megawatts of electricity one day and 100 megawatts the next, depending on the wind, Lorenzen said.

Balancing the system to handle peak demand is “enormously complicated” but makes the council position enjoyable, he said.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to deal with issues at a policy level, which I am absolutely passionate about,” Lorenzen said.

It also allows him to stay home in Pendleton. Even as he was leaving for college at Oregon State University, he was promising himself that he would return to the family farm.

He had some marks to make first. He earned an electrical engineering degree at OSU, then attended Harvard University for a master’s degree in business administration before picking up a law degree from Lewis & Clark College in Portland.

He clerked for legendary federal Judge James Burns, then spent six years with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He did criminal defense work for one year and civil litigation for the next five.

But the farm was calling. In 1984, he and his wife, Marcia, moved back to Pendleton and he joined a law firm in town. Among other work, Lorenzen represented multiple electrical cooperatives in the region.

He also served on the state Environmental Quality Commission as it issued the permit to destroy the nerve gas stored at the military’s Umatilla depot. At Lorenzen’s suggestion, the incinerator design included a carbon filter to capture any accidental emissions.

Lorenzen also served for a time on the state Board of Higher Education.

A proposal to extend canola production in Oregon’s Willamette Valley has passed a key legislative committee despite the opposition of seed producers.

House Bill 3382, which would allow farmers to grow 500 acres of canola in the region for an additional three years, was unanimously referred to the House floor with “do pass” recommendation by the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources on April 14.

A six-year moratorium on canola production in the Willamette Valley was approved by lawmakers in 2013, but 500 acres of the crop were allowed to be cultivated as part of a three-year study by Oregon State University.

Under HB 3382, the crop would continue to be grown on 500 acres annually for the rest of the moratorium.

Specialty seed producers who fear that canola “volunteers” will disrupt their operations, possibly by causing unwanted cross-pollination with other brassica crops, argued the bill would increase the canola “seed bank” by 1,500 acres.

They urged the committee to reject any extension until OSU completed its study.

Carol Mallory-Smith, a weed scientist at the University, testified that so far canola has not posed a greater pest or disease risk than other brassica crops and its volunteers could be controlled with the same methods as for radishes and turnips.

Committee Chair Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, also recently announced that a work group on pesticides has agreed to propose a package of bills.

The legislation would require the Oregon Department of Forestry to conduct an analytical review of no-spray pesticide buffers and implement standard operating procedures for the Oregon Department of Agriculture to receive and investigate pesticide complaints, he said.

The proposal would also double penalties for pesticide violations, require ODA to post an electronic list of restricted use pesticides and provide funding for these programs, Witt said.

The work group’s package does not include several more restrictive proposals included in other bills, such as a ban on neonicotinoid pesticides and a prohibition against most aerial pesticide spraying.

SALEM (AP) — The Oregon Legislature on Monday opened debate about several proposals to boost the minimum wage as high as $15 an hour.

The idea is hugely popular with voters and interest groups on the left, but it’s far from clear whether it has sufficient support in the Legislature.

House and Senate committees held three hearings on the minimum wage, including a rare evening session to allow people to weigh in after business hours. But the committees took no formal action.

Oregon currently has the nation’s second-highest wage floor at $9.25 an hour, $2 higher than the federal minimum.

The proponents say raising the minimum wage would help low-wage workers escape poverty. They say people who work shouldn’t have to rely on government assistance.

“No one who works should live in poverty,” Justin Norton-Kertzen, who works with an interest group seeking to raise the minimum wage, told the House Committee on Business and Labor.

Business interests are mounting aggressive opposition, calling the idea a job-killer and warning it would raise prices for consumers and make Oregon less competitive to employers. They say raising the minimum wage would significantly increase their labor costs, in part because workers higher on the wage scale also would expect an increase.

Oregon businesses have competitors around the globe, including in countries with significantly lower labor costs, said John Zielinksi, a farmer who grows pears, apples, peaches and hazelnuts near Salem.

“To retain our employees, we will need to pay wages well above the minimum wage, making pears and apples from Oregon less competitive than fruit from other states and countries,” Zielinksi, who is president of the Marion County Farm Bureau, told the Senate Workforce Committee.

Several restaurant owners asked lawmakers to create a tip credit, allowing them to pay tipped workers less than the minimum wage if tips take their total pay above the threshold.

“This would put me out of business and put these people on the unemployment line,” said Mike Gardner, owner of a Roseburg company with 80 full- and part-time employees that provides in-home care for seniors and people with disabilities in Douglas County. The payments for in-home care are capped by state and federal regulations, Gardner said.

At least 10 bills have been introduced dealing with the minimum wage. Proposals range from setting the floor at $10.75 to $15 per hour, with effective dates ranging from 2016 through 2018.

Some of the bills would merely lift the statewide pre-emption that prevents local jurisdictions from adopting their own minimum pay laws. The option is a potential compromise if lawmakers can’t reach a consensus on where to set the floor or how quickly to phase it in.

In addition to raising the minimum wage, the Legislature also is considering requiring businesses to offer paid sick leave. Business groups said it would be difficult for them to absorb both a paid-leave mandate and a higher minimum wage.

Not all business owners were opposed.

“When people are making more money, they spend more money,” said Marci Pelletier, “which means they will be spending more money in our small businesses, which is exactly what we need — more customers.”

Pelletier owns Shwop, a membership-based clothing store in Portland.

With nearly 100,000 pounds of waste pesticides collected and properly disposed of, Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Stewardship Specialist Steve Riley views the state’s first round of pesticide collection events as a success.

“I would say it definitely met our expectations,” Riley said.

The department is wrapping up its first round of collection events with two in May:

• May 9 in Coos Bay, Ore.

• May 22 in Dallas, Ore.

The department added the Dallas event — the eighth and final event of the biennium — because of widespread interest in a collection event held in December in McMinnville.

“We had a little extra money in our budget and we knew that the Yamhill (County) event was really popular and we were getting calls asking if we were going to have another one in the Willamette Valley, so we figured this was an opportunity to squeeze in one more before the end of the biennium,” Riley said.

ODA collected an average of 15,000 pounds in the first six collection events, Riley said, with the low recorded at an event in Hermiston in October, where 14 participants brought in 8,600 pounds of waste pesticides; and the high recorded in the McMinnville event, where 54 participants brought in 39,218 pounds of waste pesticides.

The department is conducting the events with help from the Department of Environmental Quality. DEQ formerly conducted collection events on a hit-and-miss basis using grant funds and other sources, according to Kevin Masterson, toxics coordinator for the DEQ.

ODA put $200,000 of the $1.5 million lawmakers allocated its Pesticide Stewardship Program in the 2013-15 biennium toward the collection events, marking the first time the state had a steady stream of dedicated funds for pesticide collections, Riley said.

The department contracts with Clean Harbors Environmental Services to conduct the events.

The department launched its first event a little more than a year after the program was funded with an event in Milton-Freewater. Events followed in Hermiston, Ontario, Madras, the one in McMinnville, and an event in Medford on March 7.

The department chose sites for the collection events based on “what we thought would be the heaviest pesticide use area and whether they had had an event recently or not,” Riley said. “We wanted to go into areas that we knew had not had events for a while.”

Because the program is now part of ODA’s line-item budget, Riley said he expects it to be funded in the next biennium budget, but he couldn’t say at what level.

“I think there is plenty of need for this,” he said. “I think we are just hitting the tip of the iceberg. Washington has been doing this for 20 years or so and they have collected over 2 million pounds. And the reason they have been able to do this is because Washington has had consistent funding.

“Now that we have had one round of events, I think people are definitely more aware of it and will be more likely to use this service the next time around,” he said.

Riley said to look for the department to revisit some sites in the next biennium and to travel to some new sites. “I think it will be a mixed bag,” he said. “I think we will go back to some of the same areas, and we will select some new areas.”

The ODA’s free pesticide collection events are open to farmers and other commercial and institutional operators in counties near event sites.

Interested participants must apply no later than two weeks prior to an event by mailing or emailing an application to Clean Harbors, which conducts the events. Applications can be obtained through local soil and water conservation districts or by calling Clean Harbors at 253-639-4240, extension 2813.

SALEM — Legalized marijuana in Oregon may spur more home-building on farmland unless regulators revise existing land use rules, according to legal experts.

To build a dwelling on high-value farmland, the property must generate at least $80,000 in gross revenues for several years under current rules.

Because marijuana sells at prices far beyond conventional crops, it would be relatively easy for landowners to meet that income test and build more homes in farm zones, legal experts say.

“People who want to protect farmland are afraid of speculation — not for growing marijuana, but for development,” said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Association of Oregon Counties, during a recent forum on marijuana policy. “I suspect some of those rules will be tweaked.”

Voters approved legalized recreational marijuana in Oregon last year, and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is aiming to write regulations for commercial production of the psychoactive crop by 2016.

Oregon’s land use system is intended to permit farm dwellings for commercial growers and discourage “martini farms,” but marijuana has thrown the current income-based approach into question, said Bill Kabeiseman, a land use attorney.

“The economic implications of marijuana growing have changed the underpinning of the rule,” Kabeiseman said.

The possibility that lawmakers and regulators will change the income test, possibly with a marijuana-specific provision, is more likely than a marijuana-fueled surge in home-building, he said.

For example, Oregon lawmakers are considering a proposal that would disallow dwellings in conjunction with marijuana production on land zoned for exclusive farm use.

Leland Berger, an attorney for marijuana businesses, said he’s concerned about that concept because marijuana growers face security risks and may want to live near their crop.

“I think there’s got to be a better way to structure that,” he said.

Marijuana legalization has also raised questions about whether the crop will make growers eligible for property tax deferrals.

Bovett of the Association of Oregon Counties, said that marijuana will probably end up qualifying for such deferrals but some counties will probably seek to restrict its cultivation in farm zones.

Whether counties have the legal authority to prohibit or limit marijuana production is still being debated.

Oregon counties may enact local regulations unless clearly pre-empted by state law, Sean O’Day, legal counsel for the League of Oregon Cities, said.

O’Day said that local ordinances for marijuana are not pre-empted by Measure 91 — which legalized the crop — but marijuana attorney Leland Berger said that was the initative’s intention.

Revisions being considered by lawmakers may strengthen language that pre-empts local ordinances on marijuana production and processing, Berger said.

Even so, counties could argue that they are allowed to regulate marijuana because the Oregon statute is pre-empted by federal law, under which the crop remains illegal, Kabeiseman said.

“Can a county prevent a particular type of farming is an interesting question,” he said.

SALEM — Rails-to-trails and similar projects crossing Oregon farmland would be subject to greater public scrutiny under a bill intended to reduce potential conflicts with agriculture.

Under House Bill 3367, recreational trail projects — such as converted railroad easements — would have to obtain conditional use approval from county governments in exclusive farm zones.

The House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water has passed the bill 6-1 for a vote on the House floor with a “do pass” recommendation.

County governments are currently confused about whether such projects are allowed outright under Oregon’s land use laws or if they’re subject to permitting requirements, according to the bill’s proponents.

Recreational trails can create obstacles to driving farm machinery onto fields and pose safety problems when farmers are spraying chemicals, tilling or performing other common practices, said Stan Snyder, a farmer near Albany, Ore.

“All these things are not really compatible with bikers going through there,” he said during a previous hearing before the committee.

Due to the current uncertainty, recreational trails may be subject to a different interpretation of the law in each county they cross, said Jim Johnson, land use specialist for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

A controversial rails-to-trails project in Benton County was scrapped, but similar proposals exist in several other counties, he said. “This is an issue that is very timely.”

The conditional use permit process ensures that neighboring farmers can weigh in on recreational trail proposals so that counties can evaluate potential impacts on agriculture, proponents say.

“It does not ban them or make them onerously difficult to approve,” said Steve McCoy of the 1,000 Friends of Oregon conservation group.

The proposal has drawn opposition from the Oregon Recreation & Park Association, which interprets Oregon’s land use law as allowing trails outright in farm zones.

Hundreds of miles of trails in farm zones have been created under this interpretation, often along corridors and easements that already permit transportation, said Cindy Robert, a lobbyist for the Oregon Recreation & Park Association.

Adding more bureaucratic “red tape” to impede the building of recreational trails is unnecessary, she said. “For the most part, the system has worked.”

Local governments in Oregon could restrict pesticides and genetically modified organisms despite statewide pre-emption laws under a ballot initiative proposed for the 2016 election.

Proponents hope to pass a “Right to Local, Community Self-Government” amendment to Oregon’s constitution written to immunize local ordinances from state and federal pre-emption.

Currently, the state government can pre-empt cities and counties action on nearly every subject, said Paul Diller, a law professor at Willamette University.

“This amendment would flip that presumption in many more instances,” he said.

While the proposed amendment wouldn’t have any power over federal pre-emption — that would require a change to the U.S. Constitution — it would override state pre-emption with a simple majority vote if it gets on the ballot, Diller said.

“We want to be part of the decision-making process,” said Mary Geddry, a chief petitioner for the ballot initiative.

State regulatory agencies currently make decisions by which local communities must abide, she said. “We want to democratize the process.”

Pre-emption is a key subject of recent battles over GMOs, which were banned by Jackson and Josephine counties last year. Benton County will vote on a GMO prohibition in May and supporters in Lane County are trying to get a similar initiative on the ballot.

However, state lawmakers in 2013 pre-empted local regulations of GMOs except in Jackson County, where the measure had already qualified for the ballot. Local regulation of pesticides is also pre-empted in Oregon.

Unenforceable county GMO bans and other pre-empted ordinances would likely be retroactively activated if the ballot initative is approved by voters, said Diller.

“I would assume it would apply to anything that’s still on the books,” he said.

Overturning state pre-emption would affect numerous other laws that set a statewide standard, such as the statute against local rent control ordinances, Diller said.

“I think it would be an absolute boondoggle if it passes, not just for agriculture but a host of other issues,” said Scott Dahlman, policy director for Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an agribusiness group that supports state pre-emption of GMO and pesticide rules.

The proposal to overturn state pre-emption is part of the “same movement” as GMO prohibitions, as well as restrictions on oil and gas pipelines, he said.

To qualify for the Oregon general election ballot in 2016, supporters must collect more than 117,500 valid signatures. As a constitutional amendment, the initiative faces a steeper hurdle than the roughly 88,000 needed to get a statutory measure on the ballot.

To begin the process of drafting a ballot title, though, supporters only need to gather 1,000 signatures.

“That’s not a very high bar,” said Dahlman.

Shawn Mehlenbacher, the Oregon State University hazelnut breeder who developed varieties resistant to deadly Eastern Filbert Blight, says a Benton County ballot measure to prohibit genetically engineered organisms would restrict his research.

Joseph Beckman, an OSU biochemistry and biophysics professor, believes he is closing in on a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, the fatal and incurable nervous system disorder more commonly known at Lou Gehrig’s disease. He says the ballot measure would force him to close down his research or somehow move it off campus and out of Benton County.

An OSU evaluation of Measure 2-89, which is on the May 19 ballot in Benton County, says they aren’t alone. The university said the measure might effect 120 or more faculty and stop research projects that have attracted about $18.3 million in outside funding.

Backers of the measure strongly disagree, and describe the measure as protecting the local food system from “international food corporations whose profit motives limit what you eat and the quality of your life.”

Nonetheless, the Oregon State analysis says the measure would stop research on cancer, bioenergy, wood crops, agricultural diseases and any other work that involves genetically engineered material. The Benton County voters’ pamphlet says the measure requires all GE organisms in the county to be harvested, removed or destroyed within 90 days of the measure taking effect. The measure applies to corporations or governmental entities, according to the voters’ pamphlet.

Mehlenbacher, who is credited with saving Oregon’s $120 million hazelnut industry, said his current work uses traditional breeding methods and would not be prohibited under the measure. But research he has proposed — to verify which gene is the filbert blight gene – would not be allowed, he said. Mehlenbacher said he doesn’t plan to develop GMO hazelnuts, but the blight research requires using genetically engineered organisms.

He said the ballot measure is “extreme.”

“And to do it in the county where the state’s land grant university is located is even more extreme,” he said.

Beckman, director of OSU’s Environmental Health Sciences Center and a principal investigator at the Linus Pauling Institute on campus, tells an even starker story.

He and other international researchers are investigating a copper compound treatment that may extend the lives of ALS patients. Beckman uses mice and rats that are genetically modified with human genes that cause them to develop the disease.

Without treatment, the rodents die in four months. But treated rats and mice have survived for 18 months now, and continue to thrive.

“I basically stopped the disease with this compound,” Beckman said. He has prepared a research paper for publication and hopes to begin trials on human patients this summer.

The prospect of the measure passing and being told, “Oh, you have to get rid of it in 90 days” is a disappointing sign of anti-science thinking, Beckman said. Some people may see it as a way to “strike a blow at Monsanto” but haven’t thought through the consequences, he said.

“I’m a huge proponent of supporting small farms and diverse foods, I love the farmer’s market,” he said, “but it’s easy to get wrapped up in emotion.”

Moving the research project out of Benton County while maintaining the research animals in sterile conditions would cost perhaps $30,000 or $40,000, Beckman said.

“I would sue, the best I can,” he said. “Whether I can, as a state employee, I don’t know,” he said.

One of the measure’s chief backers says OSU’s analysis is incorrect. Harry MacCormack,founder of the organic Sunbow Farm, said the measure applies only to organisms that would enter the local food stream.

“What they’ve done is take out of context a line (in the ballot measure text) that says no GMOs are allowed in Benton County,” MacCormack said.

MacCormack, who worked 31 years at OSU’s English and theater departments, said the measure must be interpreted by the intent of its ballot title. “All this covers is GMOs that would interfere in the local food system,” he said.

He said Mehlenbacher, for example, could work with genetically engineered organisms in the lab, and use them to speed up breeding non-GMO hazelnuts with traditional methods. Beckman’s and other medical research using genetically engineered organisms could continue, he said.

The Oregon Legislature in 2013 passed a law that prohibits local jurisdictions from banning GMOs on their own. MacCormack and other backers of Measure 2-89 say a local food system ordinance would pre-empt the state law; others sharply disagree with that legal interpretation.

According to the voters’ pamphlet, the measure would establish a local food system right and a “right to seed heritage,” which would protect seeds from infection, infestation or drift from genetically engineered organisms. “Natural communities” such as soil, plants and water systems would be granted legal rights and would be named as plaintiffs in any legal action brought to enforce the right of natural communities to be free of GE organisms. Natural communities would have a legal right to be free from the patenting, licensing or ownership of their genes.

The measure is opposed by the county commissioners, the Benton County Farm Bureau, the Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Association, many local farmers and many OSU professors and researchers.

Three of them — Philip Mote, Brandon Trelstad and Kevin Ahern — filed a voters’ pamphlet statement calling the measure “an example of a laudable goal taking a significantly wrong turn” and one that “reaches well beyond what its proponents say it will do.”

In regards to GE safety, the three said, “it’s important that research is conducted in the controlled, contained settings provided by a research university.”

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Federal biologists have agreed to consider changing Endangered Species Act protections for the northern spotted owl from threatened to endangered.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will announce Wednesday there is enough new scientific information in a conservation group’s petition to warrant a hard look, which will take about two years. A notice will be published Friday in the Federal Register.

After the northern spotted owl was listed as a threatened species in 1990, it became a symbol for Endangered Species Act protections that harm local economies. Conservation groups won court-ordered logging cutbacks to protect owl habitat that put many Northwest timber towns into an economic tailspin from which they have yet to fully recover. Political efforts to ramp up logging in the ensuing years have largely failed.

Paul Henson, supervisor for Fish and Wildlife in Oregon, says a lot has changed since the original listing. Back in 1990, the biggest threat to the owl was cutting down the old growth forests where the owls live. Now it is the barred owl, an aggressive cousin from the East Coast that migrated across the Great Plains and invaded spotted owl territory. Those two areas will be the focus of the review, he said.

“The bad news is that the spotted owl population has continued to decline,” despite logging cutbacks of about 90 percent on federal lands in Washington, Oregon and Northern California, Henson said. “The good news is we know why it is declining,” and have begun taking steps to deal with the barred owl.

Spotted owl numbers have continued to decline, and the species is estimated to number less than 4,000. The bird’s status was last reviewed in 2011, when Fish and Wildlife felt it still warranted protection as a threatened species. The agency typically reviews the status of protected species every five years. This review was brought on by a petition from the conservation group Environmental Protection Information Center in Arcata, California. The review is set to be finished by September, 2017.

In addition to protecting and promoting old growth forest habitat for the owl, the agency is conducting an experiment to see if killing barred owls in selected areas in the three states will allow spotted owls to move back into their old habitat. Some barred owls have been killed in Northern California on private timberland and the reservation of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. After surveys for spotted owls and barred owls are finished, killing barred owls is to begin this fall in Oregon and Washington. The experiment should be finished in three years.

An endangered listing would change little on the ground, Henson said. Habitat protections and prohibitions against killing owls would remain the same. No more money would be available for restoration. One difference is that Fish and Wildlife would lose the use of the 4(d) rule, which gives the agency some flexibility to relax protections on threatened species if protections are harmful to people. There are currently no 4(d) rule actions in place on the spotted owl.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Federal hydrologists say the latest numbers reinforce the forecasts: Rivers and streams throughout Oregon will have flows far below normal this summer due to the meager mountain snowpack.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service released its April surface water outlook on Tuesday.

Precipitation has been at or near normal in most basins, but warm temperatures have left the amount of snow in the mountains at record lows, between 8 percent and 32 percent of average across the state.

That means basins with major reservoirs for storage are expected to do relatively well. The Willamette River at Salem, for example, is predicted to have flows 76 percent of average.

But even they will drop far below normal as the summer wears on, due to low flows in streams feeding the reservoirs.

And basins depending on snowpack for most of their water storage are expected to do poorly. The Silvies River at Burns is forecast to be at 17 percent of average.

The water year started off well, with strong storms, even though they came with warm temperatures. The report says the most significant snowfall came in late December, and if temperatures had remained that cold the rest of the winter, snowpack would be near normal. But January was relatively warm and dry, and the precipitation that has fallen since has been mostly rain. March came in warm and sunny, and left with raw cold and some snow in the Cascades.

As of April 1, 76 percent of snow monitoring sites were at their lowest level on record. Though April 1 normally marks the peak snowpack for the year, more than half the monitoring sites reported bare ground.

The U.S. Drought Monitor puts most of Oregon in drought conditions, with the southeastern corner in extreme drought. Inflow to the Owyhee Reservoir is forecast at 24 percent of average.

Inflows to Upper Klamath Lake, the primary reservoir for the Klamath Reclamation Project straddling the Oregon-California border, are forecast at 39 percent of normal.

In southwestern Oregon, the Rogue River at Gold Hill is forecast to be 69 percent of average.

In central Oregon, the Deschutes River south of Bend is forecast at 79 percent of average.

In northeastern Oregon, the Grande Ronde River at Troy is forecast to be 52 percent of average.

BOARDMAN, Ore. — Northeast Oregon farmers have spoken loud and clear against having Idaho Power’s proposed Boardman to Hemingway transmission line cut across their high-value irrigated land.

One local organization is lobbying Salem for help, though lawmakers expect the effort will fall short.

Senate Bill 873, introduced by the Oregon Farm Bureau with support from the Northeast Oregon Water Association, would require developers of overhead transmission lines to seek out alternative routes avoiding the region’s most productive farmland.

The bill would also update the definition of “highly productive farmland” to include what are known as confined animal feeding operations, such as livestock feedlots and dairies.

J.R. Cook, founder and director of NOWA, said the bill is not trying to force a moratorium on energy development, but would protect hundreds of millions of dollars worth of agriculture in Umatilla and Morrow counties alone.

“This is not a new issue,” Cook said. “There’s been legislation attempted multiple times.”

Boardman to Hemingway is also not a new proposal. Idaho Power identified the need for a major overhead transmission line as early as 2006 to swap power between the two regions.

The 500-kilovolt line would stretch 305 miles from a substation at Boardman to just southwest of Boise in Melba, Idaho.

The Bureau of Reclamation released its draft environmental report for the project in December 2014, which identified Idaho Power’s preferred route for the line. Farmers were immediately concerned about where the company could to build towers in the Morrow-Umatilla project area: over irrigated fields, dairies and the massive Boardman Tree Farm.

Given the interruption to normal farming practices, Cook said farmers stand to lose $330 million in revenue over 30 years.

“We don’t think that’s in the best value of the state,” he said. “You can’t make any more (of this land).”

If approved, Boardman to Hemingway would cross five Eastern Oregon counties: Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Baker and Malheur. SB873 was introduced March 3 and sponsored by Sens. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, and Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, as well as Reps. Greg Barreto, R-Cove, and Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario.

The bill specifically requires utilities to demonstrate their lines would be built on the least valuable farmland possible before getting the go-ahead from the Energy Facility Siting Council. If a line is built on high-value farmland, it would be up to the developer to show there was no better alternative. Cook said that is in line with land use laws for all other non-farm uses.

But so far, the legislature hasn’t taken up the issue. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, and has not received a hearing. Bills have until Friday to see some forward-moving action, or they will likely die before making it onto the floor for a vote.

Hansell, who serves on the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, said he has already been told by the committee’s chairman, Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, that he will not do anything with the bill.

“The conversations are continuing, but the feeling is this won’t be a bill that moves forward this session,” Hansell said.

In a statement from Idaho Power, spokesman Brad Bowlin said the company does not support legislation that would make it more difficult to site transmission lines.

“By setting a higher bar for transmission lines, SB873 could result in a policy that would impede the development of much-needed critical transmission infrastructure,” Bowlin said.

Cook said he isn’t ready to give up on the bill yet. Private landowners are being forced to rely on a process that offers them few protections, he said, and SB873 would adhere to the state’s goal of prioritizing high-value agriculture.

Legislation that would restrict “non-therapeutic” antibiotic use in livestock production is pitting doctors against veterinarians in Oregon.

The Oregon Medical Association and the Oregon Health & Science University recently came out in favor of Senate Bill 920, which would disallow the use of antibiotics to promote growth or prevent disease in farm animals.

The groups argue that limiting such uses is necessary to prevent resistance to antibiotics among microbial pathogens.

Brian Wong, chair of OHSU’s infectious diseases division, said that treating healthy animals with antibiotics increases the danger that humans will encounter diseases that are immune to these crucial drugs.

Wong testified on behalf of OHSU and OMA during an April 6 hearing before the Senate Committee on Health Care, which is reviewing SB 920.

The Oregon Veterinary Medical Association opposes the bill because its definition of “non-therapeutic” includes antibiotic uses that are necessary to ensure herd health, such as when a disease is “expected or is in the beginning stage.”

Veterinarians use antibiotics to manage populations, unlike doctors who treat individual people, according to testimony submitted by Chuck Meyer, the group’s president.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is already reducing antibiotic use in livestock by ending treatments aimed at weight gain and feed efficiency by the end of 2016, he said.

While drug manufacturers will make the changes voluntarily, the revised labels will make it a federal violation to use antibiotics for growth promotion, Meyer said.

Lawmakers on the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources recently heard testimony on a parallel bill — House Bill 2598 — that would also regulate non-therapeutic antibiotics in livestock.

On the Senate side, however, an amendment to SB 920 would eliminate language that allows private parties to file lawsuits accusing livestock producers of violating the antibiotic restrictions.

The Oregon Farm Bureau and the Northwest Food Processors Association fear this provision will invite “nuisance” litigation against growers while clogging the state’s court system.

SALEM — The controversy over canola has resurfaced in the Oregon Legislature in a bill that would extend limited production of the crop in the Willamette Valley for three years.

In 2013, the legislature approved a moratorium on canola production in the region for six years due to fears that it will interfere in the cultivation of related seed crops.

During three years of the moratorium, Oregon State University was authorized to study canola cultivation on 500 acres annually in the valley.

Under House Bill 3382, farmers would be permitted to continue growing 500 acres of canola for the remaining years of the moratorium.

Carol Mallory Smith, an OSU weed science professor, said research has uncovered no difference between canola and other brassica seed crops such as turnips and radish in terms of pest and disease risks.

While the Willamette Valley has recently faced an outbreak of blackleg disease in brassica crops, there’s no scientific evidence that the pathogen is related to canola production, she said during an April 7 hearing before the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

OSU’s research indicates that control practices for “volunteer” canola plants that germinate in fields are the same as for radish and turnips, Mallory-Smith said.

“There’s nothing unique about canola in that system,” she said. “It would not need to be treated differently than other brassica crops.”

Kathy Hadley, who farms near Rickreall and Silverton, said canola has helped “clean” fields of weeds that are difficult to kill in grass seed crops by giving farmers additional herbicide options.

Canola can also be grown without irrigation and with the same equipment as grass seed while generating healthy economic returns, she said.

“Canola has been a very valuable rotation for us.”

If farmers are unable to grow even 500 acres during the final three years of the moratorium, that will bring existing commercial relationships to a “grinding halt,” Hadley said.

Opponents of HB 3382 argue that canola production should not be extended before OSU has even completed its research.

“We’re asking to continue a well-crafted project,” said Greg Loberg, public relations chair of the Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Association and general manager of the West Coast Beet Seed Co.

Changing the law now would have a “chilling effect” on companies that produce brassica seed in the region, causing them to question investments in processing capacity, said Nick Tichinin, president of the Universal Seed Co.

Opponents of the bill claim that another three years of canola production will increase the “seed bank” of potential volunteers by 1,500 acres.

They worry that volunteers from fields and seeds from contaminated equipment will allow canola to spread, potentially cross-pollinating with other brassica crops and weeds to the detriment of seed producers, who have millions of dollars in sales at stake.

Proponents counter that cross-pollination can be prevented by leaving the same “isolation distances” around canola as other brassica crops grown in the valley.

Much of the fear surrounding canola is caused by genetically modified varieties, but Oregon farmers can reap higher profits by growing conventional varieties, according to proponents.

SALEM — A proposal to allow industrial development outside urban areas in several Oregon counties is touted as economically stimulative, but opponents claim it threatens statewide land use planning.

Senate Bill 716 would permit three counties near Portland to designate a “large-lot industrial reserve” of 150-500 acres without having the property within an urban growth boundary, as is currently required.

Proponents say the legislation would allow counties to seize on opportunities for high-tech development that are currently barred by a lack of adequate large industrial sites.

“Generally, we don’t have big blocks of those,” said Sen. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, who introduced the bill.

The Oregon Farm Bureau opposes the bill because large tracts would take farmland out of production, changing the character of the surrounding areas.

Such shifts lead to increased development pressures and prompt agribusiness suppliers to leave as they lose their base of farm customers, said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for OFB, during an April 6 hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

“We’re not getting more high value farmland in Oregon,” she said. “It’s a limited resource we need to protect judiciously.”

The original version of SB 716 would affect Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, but a proposed amendment would substitute Columbia County for Washington County in the pilot program.

Tootie Smith, a Clackamas County commissioner, said the bill includes a mitigation component under which the total acreage of urban and rural reserves within each county would remain unchanged despite the new industrial designations.

Making large lots available for development is critical to attract job-creating companies that are seeking to build new facilities, she said.

“By having this tool at our disposal, Clackamas County can better market itself,” Smith said.

However, several opponents disputed whether Portland metropolitan counties face a scarcity of industrial land.

Tim Knapp, mayor of Wilsonville, said there are currently more than 7,800 acres of industrial property available in the metro region, but some portions aren’t adequately supported with roads, sewers, water pipelines and other infrastructure.

“We’re very concerned that adding more acres competes with the scarce resources that already are available,” he said.

Companies seeking to develop large tracts of more than 100 acres are actually rare and considered the “white whale of economic development,” said John Williams, deputy director of planning at the Metro regional government.

Lawmakers who want to spur jobs should instead focus on funding infrastructure within existing industrial parcels, he said. “The real focus in our region is to make them development-ready.”

Opponents also criticized the bill for undermining the land use planning process, which allows for long-term decisions on where industrial zones should be located.

Urban and rural reserves that set out areas for development and farmland preservation were created with public input and were subject to litigation and a legislative settlement last year.

Through that process, it was decided that land south of the Willamette River near Wilsonville, known as French Prairie, should be a rural reserve due to the burdens that development would place on transportation and water, said Charlotte Lehan, a councilor for the city.

Lehan said SB 716 is meant to undermine those decisions to allow for the development of the area.

The “grand bargain” passed by Oregon lawmakers last year, which resolved disputes over urban and rural reserves, should be allowed to stand because it resulted from difficult compromises, said Larry Dyke, a farmer near North Plains, Ore.

“A deal is a deal. Everybody is in, so let’s just leave it alone,” he said.

AURORA — One of the first tasks Oregon State University’s two new agricultural college administrators set for themselves was a tour of research and extension stations. Associate Dean Dan Edge and Sam Angima,assistant dean for outreach and engagement, wanted to hear from OSU staff and the producers who rely on the statewide network of stations for advice and information.

“You don’t want to come into a new office and assume everything’s fine,” Angima said during a stop April 1 at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora.

Edge and Angima visited OSU’s Mid-Columbia station in Hood River and the Food Innovation Center in Portland before stopping at North Willamette. The center, about 20 miles south of Portland, is a key contact point for berry farmers, nursery operators, hazelnut orchardists and Christmas tree growers, among others.

Angima said OSU staff quickly made one thing very clear: “They are spread too thin,” he said.

“There are huge demands across all our units,” Edge agreed.

The statewides, as they’re called, haven’t regained full staffing from cuts imposed during the recession, but OSU officials believe they’ve now got the Legislature’s attention and may receive budget help. Edge, noting OSU’s ag and forestry programs were ranked seventh best in the world, said the university provides the best “pound for pound” return on the state’s investment.

Edge was head of OSU’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Science before moving to the associate dean position Feb. 1. Angima was regional administrator of OSU Extension on the North Coast, based in Newport. He moved to the Corvallis campus job March 1.

Angima said one of his goals is to break down barriers between the College of Ag and other departments. In some cases, researchers from other OSU departments do field outreach that the Extension program can help with, he said.

“We can’t sit in an ivory tower and expect things to happen,” he said.

A group meeting with Angima and Edge offered some thoughts on their interaction with the North Willamette and other extension and research centers.

One of them, Bill Sabol of Arbor Grove Nursery in St. Paul, said on-line advice and information has its place, but personal interaction with Extension experts is more valuable. Without it, “You lose contact with your customers,” he said.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has declared drought emergencies in three more counties — Crook, Harney and Klamath — due to low water levels and record low snowpack.

Brown declared a drought emergency in Malheur and Lake counties last month. She added the latest three on Monday.

The counties asked the state to take action, and the Oregon Drought Council considered the requests in light of water conditions, future climatic forecasts and agricultural impacts.

The drought continues to have significant impacts on agriculture, livestock and natural resources in each of the counties.

In the governor’s words, “Oregon’s unusually warm and dry winter has potentially dire consequences.” The declaration allows increased flexibility in how water is managed to ensure that limited supplies are used as efficiently as possible.

A nonprofit organization founded by blueberry farmers is launching a campaign April 11 to raise awareness of Type 2 diabetes and its effects on child health.

The Blueberry Family Health Foundation is timing the launch of its first campaign with the April 11 opening of the Florida Blueberry Festival in Brookesville, Fla. Located near Tampa, the area is one of two communities serving as pilot-project sites for the campaign. The other is Portland, where the Blueberry Family Health Foundation campaign will be featured at the LifeWise Oregon Berry Festival, July 17 and 18 at the Ecotrust Event Space, 721 NW Ninth Ave.

Blueberry farmers from across the nation were behind the formation of the foundation in September 2013, including Fall Creek Farm and Nursery in Lowell, Ore.; Homegrown Organic Farms in Porterville, Calif.; Thomas Creek Farms, also in Porterville; HBF International in McMinnville, Ore.; Agricare in Jefferson, Ore.; Naturipe, Family Tree Farms and Driscoll’s, all from California; several farms from Florida; a Michigan farm; a British Columbia farm; Atlantic Blueberry Co. from Hammonton, N.J.; and farms in Georgia, North Carolina and elsewhere.

The organization’s board of directors includes Amelie Aust, owner and board member for Fall Creek Farm and Nursery; Karen M. Avinelis, president of Thomas Creek Farms and representatives of the financial and diabetes medical professions.

Kari Rosenfeld, sister of Fall Creek Farm and Nursery President Dave Brazelton, serves as executive director of the foundation.

Rosenfeld has been active in the diabetes community since 1993, when her 7-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Rosenfeld has extensive management experience in for-profit and nonprofit organizations and has created and led national and international health-awareness programs and campaigns, including the American Diabetes Association Youth Advocacy Program.

The foundation’s Activate the Awareness Campaign includes messaging through Florida Blueberry Festival advertisements, which are being broadcast across four regional television stations and will air approximately 800 times. It will include message-sharing with upwards of 60,000 festival attendees over the course of the two-day festival, and it will include distribution of coloring activity sheets to help kids learn about eating a “healthy rainbow of fruits and vegetables.”

Rosenfeld said the organization developed its campaign materials with help from leading pediatric endocrinologists and nutritionists.

“The plan is to leverage our relationships in the local health-care and community organizations to post and distribute these materials in the venues where those most at risk have access to help, while at the same time engaging local media to raise awareness among care providers and the general public,” Rosenfeld said.

Rosenfeld characterized the foundation’s work as “a multi-year philanthropic strategic plan to raise awareness of children’s risk of Type 2 diabetes.”

“Because a key barrier to prevention of Type 2 diabetes in children is lack of awareness, we have created a campaign to raise awareness that 1 in 3 children are now facing Type 2 diabetes, and that it is preventable,” Rosenfeld said.

The foundation is inviting people to join and get involved in its effort, especially healthy food and produce organizations.

“This organization is open and eager to work with all individuals and companies,” Rosenfeld said. “If you want to help shine a spotlight on a newly brewing health epidemic where your products are part of the solution, we are eager to talk about how to scale the program and impact your community,” she said.

Online

www.bbfamilyhealth.org

BOARDMAN, Ore. — As a potential source of renewable energy, giant cane could be the answer to saving Portland General Electric’s coal-fired power plant in Boardman long after the facility quits using coal by 2020.

On the other hand, as an invasive species, giant cane could spread wild across the Columbia Basin, choking out native vegetation and undoing years of work by local tribes to restore river habitat.

A proposed bill in Salem attempts to strike a balance between the competing environmental interests. House Bill 2183 would require farmers who grow giant cane for biomass or other commercial uses to post a $1 million surety bond with the Oregon Invasive Species Council. The money would pay for costly eradication efforts, should the crop escape from the field.

Not surprisingly, PGE is opposed to the measure while continuing research into alternative fuels that could be used to power the Boardman Coal Plant. In 2010, the state’s largest utility decided to phase out coal at Boardman instead of paying for hundreds of millions of dollars in new emissions controls. The plant is relatively young — it opened in 1977 — and employs 122 people.

One possible biomass fuel is giant cane, formally known as Arundo donax, which PGE has spent several years growing in small test plots.

HB2183 not only calls for a $1 million bond for growing giant cane in 400 acres or less, but an additional $25,000 for every acre above 400 acres. PGE has estimated it would take 8,000 tons of biomass every day to keep the Boardman Coal Plant humming, and scientists initially anticipated they could grow 25 tons per acre of Arundo donax locally.

At that rate, it would take 320 acres of giant cane just to power the plant for a single day. Brendan McCarthy, government affairs specialist for PGE, said there are still too many unknowns about whether HB2183 would make Arundo donax unfeasible on a large scale.

McCarthy did say the bill is “unnecessary,” especially considering the Oregon Department of Agriculture already has rules in place for growing giant cane — which includes a $1 million bond, along with numerous stipulations on where and how to grow.

“Arundo donax is invasive in other parts of the country,” McCarthy said. “The concerns are valid, and we took those into consideration for the stringent growing conditions we have.”

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation also opposes HB2183, but for a very different reason. The tribes would rather ban the cane in Oregon, which they say is as alarming a noxious weed as it is promising as a biofuel.

In a letter sent March 2 to the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gary Burke, chairman of the CTUIR Board of Trustees, said HB2183 would essentially give the legislature’s approval to grow a highly invasive species with minimal controls to prevent escape.

“The CTUIR supports the use of biofuels, but does not support the introduction and use of invasive, noxious weeds as biofuel,” Burke said.

Arundo donax is a perennial bamboo-like cane native to eastern and southern Asia, as well as the Mediterranean Basin, parts of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. At maturity, the plants can grow more than 20 feet tall and form in dense stands around water.

An analysis done by the tribes in 2012 suggests the cane’s rhizomes, or reproductive stems, could be easily spread by natural factors such as flooding and high winds, as well as by humans and animals. If the plants took hold in a riparian area, they would out-compete native species that otherwise provide habitat for cultural First Foods, including salmon, deer and elk.

The same analysis also shows growing the cane on the farm would take roughly the same amount of irrigation as alfalfa, which the tribes say is bound to displace some food crops or drive increased demand for Columbia River water.

“The CTUIR, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, as well as various federal and state partners, have spent millions of dollars to restore habitat and flows in the basins, efforts that are threatened by introduction of a crop that has a potential to escape and destroy the ecosystems we’ve sought to protect,” Burke said.

Stopping giant cane after it has escaped is an expensive proposition, since weed control officers can’t use the same treatments and herbicides so close to waterways. That’s why ODA calls for a surety bond in its rules, and continues monitoring for infestations three years after a grower’s permit has expired.

Morrow County gave PGE permission to grow up to 300 acres of giant cane for its trials in 2011. Helmuth Rogg, director of plant protections and conservation program areas for ODA, said the agency will re-evaluate their rules should the utility decide to grow on a larger, commercial-size scale.

“We worked on this for quite some time with the Invasive Weed Council,” Rogg said. “We have the county weed folks checking constantly in areas downstream to see if there’s Arundo donax that has escaped one way or another.”

Other than at Boardman and a small feral population in southwest Oregon, Rogg said the cane is not grown anywhere else in the state.

Giant cane is far from the only biofuel considered at Boardman. PGE is also testing 17-18 other materials, including wheat straw, wood chips and sawdust. Before the material can be fed into the plant, it must go through a process known as torrefaction, where it is burned in the absence of oxygen to create something similar to a charcoal briquette.

A test burning of biomass at the plant is scheduled for sometime later this spring.