SALEM — The prospect of transferring federal land to state ownership roused sharply differing opinions in the Oregon Capitol recently, but the controversy may be legally moot.

Concerns over federal mismanagement of forest and range lands in Oregon serve as the impetus for House Bill 3444, which would require the U.S. government to cede most of its public lands to the state.

Oregon lawmakers are also considering House Bill 3240, which would form a task force on the subject, as well as House Joint Memorial 13, which would urge the U.S. President and Congress to make such a transfer.

However, legal experts say that Oregon and other states likely face insurmountable challenges in trying to gain ownership of federal property.

Such proposals generally reflect dissatisfaction with federal agencies but don’t have solid legal footing, said Robert Keiter, a law professor and director of the University of Utah’s Wallace Stegner Center of Land, Resources and the Environment.

“My guess is it has much more political salience given antipathy toward the federal government rather than any serious legal credibility,” he said.

During a April 2 hearing on the legislation, Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, blasted the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management for sequestering employees in cubicles while forests grow overstocked and weeds overtake the landscape.

“The bloated bureaucracies that control these lands seem incapable of change,” Whitsett testified before the House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water.

Supporters of the bills claimed that the U.S. government’s ownership of more than half of Oregon’s land mass effectively starves county governments of property tax revenues, leading to insufficient funds for law enforcement and other crucial services.

Federal agencies are also hindered by environmental laws that prevent logging and other practices that generate revenues and mitigate fire risks, proponents said.

“Rather than focusing on the symptoms, we should be concentrating on the root of the problem,” said Tootie Smith, a Clackamas County commissioner.

Environmental groups testified against the legislation, arguing that federal management is necessary to protect species and water quality.

Federal lands belong to the public and should be valued for wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities, not just “extractive purposes” such as logging, mining and grazing, said Rhett Lawrence, conservation director for the Oregon Chapter Sierra Club.

If federal land were transferred to state ownership, the property would still be subject to the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, Lawrence said.

The National Environmental Policy Act would no longer apply to the lands, however, which would shut out the public from decisions on how its managed, he said.

NEPA requires federal agencies to study the environmental consequences of their actions and is frequently the basis for lawsuits seeking to block grazing and logging.

Representatives of Trout Unlimited and the Native Fish Society also spoke against the bills, arguing that the state would face a huge burden in maintaining the ecological work that’s currently done by federal scientists.

The committee hearing focused on the merits of the legislation, but the state’s authority to require the transfer of federal land likely poses a major obstacle for supporters.

Lawmakers in Utah successfully passed similar legislation in 2012, but the state’s own legislative attorneys came to the conclusion that it has a “high probability of being declared unconstitutional.”

Under legal precedent established by the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government has broad authority to retain ownership of public lands, said Keiter of the University of Utah.

Land transfer proponents rely on language in state enabling laws that refer to the disposal of federal lands, but these provisions are taken out of context since the U.S. government retains discretion whether to actually sell property, he said.

Arguments for land transfers that cite the “equal footing doctrine” — under which new states are treated equal to the first 13 — have also failed in court, since the doctrine applies to political rights and not land ownership, Keiter said.

“It’s a very difficult argument for proponents of transfer to make,” he said.

SALEM — A bill that would create standards for residential beekeeping in Oregon is one step closer to becoming law after proponents defused an earlier controversy.

During the initial public hearing for House Bill 2653 in February, beekeeper groups testified against the legislation due to fears of burdensome new fees and regulations.

“We’re really terrified of this,” Joe Maresh, president of the Portland Metro Beekeepers Association, said at the time.

Rep. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, said the bill’s intent was to set a baseline for residential beekeeping rules, which currently vary greatly depending on the city.

Some cities ban beekeeping, while others have no rules to ensure safety and prevent conflicts, he said.

Since then, Gorsek has consulted with concerned beekeepers to overhaul HB 2653’s language and overcome their objections to the bill.

The original legislation simply directed the Oregon Department of Agriculture to “establish standards by rule” for residential beekeeping.

Under the new version, ODA will consult with Oregon State University to write “best practices” for residential beekeeping, including recommendations for avoiding nuisance problems.

Those best practices will then be disseminated to cities and counties, which may adopt ordinances consistent with the recommendations.

“I think we came to a good compromise,” said Gorsek, noting that the amended version of HB 2653 emphasizes voluntary action by municipalities.

The revised bill faced no opposition during an April 2 work session of the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources and was unanimously referred to the House floor with a “do pass” recommendation.

After that vote, OSU came up with an “exceptionally large fiscal impact” of $300,000 to implement the bill, though that funding may be included other pollinator-related bills, said Gorsek.

Due to the fiscal impact, however, the legislation was referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, which handles funding requests.

The House Ag Committee also approved a package of bills to fund bee diagnostics and pollinator health outreach at OSU during an April 7 work session.

Committee Chair Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, said the bill was innovative and commended Gorsek on resolving the differences of opinion “without getting stung.”

Several other bills were also approved by the committee during the work session:

• House Bill 2474, which requires veterinary facilities to register with the Oregon State Veterinary Medical Examining Board.

• House Bill 2184, which directs the Oregon Department of Transportation to provide an online link to day use pass information at state parks.

• House Bill 2209, which creates a task force on shellfish to study environmental problems facing the industry.

Legislation to prohibit unsecured dogs from traveling on truck beds except in farm vehicles — House Bill 2687 — was not approved by the committee after Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove, said he opposed the bill. Witt asked Barreto and Rep. Susan McLain, D-Hillsboro, to propose an amendment to the legislation.

The Portland City Council may ban the use of neonicioinoid pesticides, which the city currently uses at the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park and at Peninsula Park.

Parks Commissioner Amanda Fritz introduced the ordinance last Wednesday and the council is set to vote on it this morning.

Neonicotinoids are one of the most widely used pesticides in the world. The Oregon Department of Agriculture documented seven bumble bee death incidents related to the application of neonicotinoids on trees since June 2013, six of which happened in the Portland metro area.

Portland Parks & Recreation currently relies on neonicotinoids to control the pest known as the rose midge, found only in the Rose Test Garden and Peninsula Park.

The neonicotinoid used to control the pest is called “imidacloprid,” and applied in a granular form to the top layer of the soil.

The ordinance calls for a phased elimination of the neonicotinoid pesticide at these locations over time, while alternative pest control methods are developed.

In the meantime, the city will continue “limited and judicial use” of the pesticide.

The ordinance calls for some immediate action:

• Parks staff will provide a plan to Fritz within four months to phase out all purchase of commercial nursery stock, trees and other plants treated with neonicotinoids.

• City bureaus and offices will purchase plants that are neonicotinoid-free.

• Parks staff will develop a phase-out plan with goal for complete phase-out by Dec. 1, 2017 unless otherwise justified.

In the meantime, the search for alternative methods begins.

“Neonicotinoids kill more than pollinators — they kill beneficial insects in the garden and the soil that help manage pest outbreaks,” the ordinance reads.

Parks still will evaluate alternatives to address pests, including organic methods such as mulches, non-toxic sprays.

They’ll also develop a management plan for the rose midge, not just for successful rose management “but as guidance to the general public, showing that successful pest management is possible with practices that protect bees and other pollinators.”

A pilot project will test the viability of using alternatives to neonicotinoids to manage the rose midge and other pests in the park system.

The pilot will include test beds at Peninsula Park or other locations with rose gardens will include consultation from experts at Oregon State University, businesses, nonprofit groups, government agencies and others.

Parks staff will monitor the test plots and report back two years after planting. If it’s successful in combating the rose midge and other pests, staff will do a cost-benefit analysis.

If the pilot is successful, Parks will convert all city rose garden beds to neonicotinoid-free methods, requesting increased funding for the new method in the city budget if necessary.

If the pilot is unsuccessful, neonicotinoid pesticide use may continue on a site-by-site basis as the ordinance allows.

PORTLAND — Containerized farm exports from the Port of Portland are unlikely to revive without a reconciliation between the longshoremen’s union and the container facility’s operator, a port official says.

The Hanjin shipping line stopped calling at the facility last month due to low productivity, but the port hopes to eventually restore direct container service to Asia.

While other carriers still use the port, Hanjin handled most of the container volume. Agricultural exporters who relied on Portland must now ship to Asia through more distant terminals.

However, ocean carriers will be reluctant to take over for Hanjin in Portland until a longstanding dispute is resolved between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and ICTSI Oregon, the container terminal’s operator, said Sebastian Degens, general manager of marine and terminal business development at the port.

It’s possible the relationship must still “hit rock bottom” before such a truce can occur, Degens told Capital Press at an April 1 panel discussion on agricultural trade in Portland.

ICTSI and ILWU are mired in several lawsuits that also involve the port and the National Labor Relations Board.

The union was recently ordered to pay $60,000 for contempt of court after a federal judge found longshoremen had violated an order not to engage in work slowdowns.

Meanwhile, ICTSI is challenging another ruling in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that dismissed some of its claims against the union.

If the two sides can bury the hatchet and vow to cooperate, that would help overcome the container terminal’s “inconsistent and unreliable” reputation — perhaps convincing Hanjin to return or another major carrier to replace the company, Degens said.

“We have to work our way out of that hole,” he said.

Apart from the specific conflict between longshoremen and ICTSI, ocean carriers are awaiting a broader labor agreement between the union and West Coast container terminals, Degens said.

The ILWU’s leaders recently struck a tentative deal with the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents operators, but the contract must still be ratified by the union’s rank and file this spring, he said.

Until the agreement is finalized, longshoremen are working without a contract that spells out how disputes are arbitrated.

Such grievance procedures are a necessary first step toward resuming normal operations at the port, Degens said. Otherwise, allegations of safety violations can drag on for extended periods of time while ships wait to be loaded and unloaded.

“The arbitration mechanism is really important,” Degens said.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Wildlife advocates have criticized Bend police for shooting a cougar, saying it could have been tranquilized and relocated, or left to leave on its own.

It’s the second time in about two months a cougar was killed in the city, The Bulletin newspaper reported.

A hiker at Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint reported the animal Saturday a few yards off a trail.

At the time, police said, there were about 40 visitors in the 100-acre park, an old cinder cone volcano where trails lead to a pinnacle 500 feet up, offering panoramic views of the Central Oregon high desert.

Less than an hour later, after a dispatcher found no state fish and wildlife trooper available, police shot and killed the cougar. It was a 120-pound male 2 to 3 years old.

“Chances are if it would have been left alone, it wouldn’t have been there in the morning,” George Wuerthner, a Bend biologist and spokesman for Predator Defense told KTVZ-TV.

The state does not have a case on record of a wild cougar attacking a person, said Brooks Fahy, executive director of the group.

Oregon Wild spokesman Erik Fernandez said the animal should have been darted and relocated.

Police Lt. Clint Burleigh said the department’s tranquilizer darts are for use on dogs and would take 15 minutes to affect a cougar.

“If it takes that long to tranquilize the cougar, then it can create a more dangerous situation in an uncontained area,” he said.

The state Parks Department defers to other agencies in dealing with cougar or bear sightings, said spokesman Chris Havel.

“Sometimes that means trapping and sometimes, unfortunately, it means killing if we have a territorial problem,” he said.

The last time a cougar report was confirmed at the park, in 2004, the trails were not so popular and the surrounding neighborhoods were not so densely populated, said Susan Bethers, park manager.

She said she had just begun working at Pilot Butte and saw the cougar herself, along with the former park manager.

The former manager decided to leave the cougar alone and close down all of the trails on the butte, she said, and by the next day the cougar was gone.

SALEM — A bill meant to encourage the construction of artificial beaver dams in Oregon’s Malheur Lake drainage basin to improve stream conditions has divided environmental groups.

House Bill 3217 would create a pilot project in the area streamlining the permitting process for these structures, which are intended to restore stream functions to the benefit of the environment and landowners.

The Oregon Natural Desert Association is supporting the legislation but several other environmental groups came out against it during a March 31 hearing before the House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water.

Currently, landowners who hope build artificial beaver dams must undergo a difficult permitting process, said Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem.

While they may benefit from better forage conditions, the expense and bureacratic hurdles prevent many landowners from pursuing such projects, he said. “Not every rancher is going to be willing to spend that kind of money.”

Under HB 3217, regulators could provide a “general authorization” for artificial beaver dams in that basin so that landowners would not have to obtain a separate removal-fill permit for each structure. The dams would also be exempt from fish passage requirements in some circumstances.

The goal is to slow down “flashy” streams that are often dry and ultimately create habitat for the reintroduction of actual beavers, said Martha Pagel, a representative of Silvies Valley Ranch near Burns, Ore., which uses the structures.

“It promotes voluntary stream restoration by private landowners,” she said. “It is not an end run around permitting.”

Many streams that now cut deep gullies through the landscape historically meandered through marshy meadows, said Gordon Grant, a hydrologist with the U.S. Forest Service.

That hydrology was changed when beaver populations were reduced through trapping and a combination of other factors, Grant said.

Beavers will not re-occupy such streams until they’re restored and contain the right food sources, he said.

Artificial beaver dams can help reconnect streams to their historic flood plains, allowing them to store water, said Alan Hickenbottom, a board member of ONDA.

The structures help slow the runoff of melting snow and increase groundwater recharge, he said.

WaterWatch of Oregon recognizes the bill’s good intentions but is opposed to it as drafted, said Brian Posewitz, attorney for the group.

It’s unclear why the stream restoration goals can’t be accomplished under the existing regulatory structure, he said.

The exemption to fish passage requirements is “dangerous,” Posewitz said.

Artificial dams do not precisely mimic their natural counterparts, which permit fish to migrate, said Tom Wolf, executive director of the Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited.

“They’re not solid structures, they have holes in them,” he said.

Clem said the bill is intended to serve as a pilot program for streams that are currently dry much of the year but may someday contain fish if conditions are restored.

“They’re dry gulches,” he said.

The Master Gardeners program offered through Oregon State University Extension is well-regarded for the advice, workshops, garden tours and demonstrations its volunteers provide to people learning how to grow and care for plants.

But don’t expect Master Gardeners to provide marijuana tips when Measure 91 takes effect July 1 and Oregonians are allowed to grow up to four plants per household.

A policy adopted by OSU notes that the university receives federal funding, and the feds still classify cannabis as illegal. The university and its extension programs are governed by the federal Controlled Substance Act, the Drug Free Workplace Act and the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act.

To avoid the risk of losing federal funding, the policy states, “OSU Extension, staff and volunteers do not provide advice or referrals on the culture, care and/or use of marijuana.”

Because marijuana remains a federally controlled substance, OSU is not planning any courses on marijuana propagation, cultivation or production, the university said.

Pot quality would suffer and Oregon’s conventional farmers would swamp the market if they turned their skill, equipment, land and infrastructure to marijuana production, an Oregon State University expert says.

Seth Crawford, who teaches a pot policy class at OSU, said Oregon already produces far more high-quality cannabis than the state consumes, and could meet the state demand on 35 acres of farmland in Southern Oregon.

Crawford said Oregon’s growers could supply the total U.S. cannabis market on just 5,000 acres.

“Throw in another 500 and you’d cover Canada, too,” Crawford said.

He said Oregon now grows the best pot in the country at reasonable prices, and quality would decline if large growers jumped into the business. Existing growers have refined their techniques over 20, 30 or 40 years, in some cases, he said.

“There’s a difference between large-scale agricultural producers and these marijuana producers,” he said. “They’re still small scale compared to a 10,000-acre wheat ranch. The way the Oregon market evolved was thousands of small growers producing high quality products and unique products. You couldn’t do it on an industrial scale.”

There don’t appear to be any conventional farmers clamoring to jump into the market. And for now, seeding the back 40 with sativa isn’t legal.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which will regulate wholesale commercial production under Measure 91, has yet to draft specific rules.

The law, which was approved by voters in the November 2014 election and takes effect July 1, allows individuals to possess up to eight ounces of pot and grow up to four plants per household for personal use.

As pot prohibition laws begin to recede nationally, however, the prospect of bigger markets and industrial-sized grow operations occasionally comes up in casual, just-wondering type of conversations, some producers say. What if Oregon’s grass seed growers decided to grow the other kind of grass? What if the state’s nursery operators turned their greenhouse expertise to marijuana production?

Crawford said they shouldn’t bother, because supply already outstrips demand.

Crawford said cannabis — unofficially — is Oregon’s most valuable crop, with an estimated annual value approaching $1 billion. Based on his surveys of legal and illegal growers, the state’s “internal marijuana demand” in 2014 was about 150,628 pounds. At $150 an ounce, that’s $361 million.

Medical marijuana growers grew and exported 391,694 pounds above the Oregon demand, worth another $587 million, Crawford said. That makes the farm gate value of Oregon’s pot exports alone greater than the combined value of hazelnuts, pears, wine grapes, Christmas trees and blueberries, according to Crawford’s estimates.

Crawford said his figures are based on self-reported data from growers he reached through a “chain referral” survey technique, in which the first respondents invite others in their social network to take part, and the sample size grows in a snowball fashion. Still, the underground nature of the industry makes it difficult to get precise information, Crawford acknowledged.

Bruce Pokarney, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said the department has no way to assess the state’s cannabis crop value. “But, assuming the OSU numbers are correct, marijuana would likely be at the top of the list of commodities in terms of production value,” he said in an email.

The department assists other commodity groups with research, marketing and regulations, but is in a holding pattern as the Legislature decides how to implement Measure 91, Pokarney said. “Once the Legislature provides direction, we will have a better idea of how we will be involved in supporting the industry.”

Crawford teaches a sociology class titled, “Marijuana Policy in the 21st Century.” Students were asked to produce a collectively-authored paper with their recommendations for how marijuana should be grown, sold and distributed in Oregon.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon police officer shot and killed a cougar after it was spotted just above a popular hiking trail.

KTVZ-TV reports that the animal was seen Saturday evening near the summit of Pilot Butte, a 500-foot-tall, extinct cinder cone volcano, in Bend. It was a large male, just 15 yards from a paved road and hiking trail used by hundreds of people daily.

Police Lt. Nick Parker says officers evacuated visitors over safety concerns. The department considered tranquilizing the cougar, but darts can take up to 15 minutes to work.

It was the second cougar killed in Bend in just over two months. On Jan. 30, state Fish and Wildlife agents killed a cougar in a tree above a home. They said it would have been too risky to try to relocate the animal.

SALEM — A pair of bills that would modify permissible activities in Oregon farm zones have raised concerns among agriculture and property rights groups, but compromises appear possible.

At issue is what nonfarming commercial activities will be allowed on land zoned for agriculture.

The current language of House Bill 3368, which would allow home occupations to take place in an “outdoor setting” in farm zones, is making the Oregon Farm Bureau nervous.

As currently written, the provision is “incredibly broad” and could be “a tremendous deviation from existing practices and extremely disruptive,” said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the group, during a March 26 hearing of the House Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water.

While the bureau is concerned that the bill would allow for a “myriad of commercial uses” that could interfere with farming, Nash said she hopes that amendments will narrow the scope of the legislation.

If the language better reflects the bill’s intent — allowing farmers to hold weddings and similar events — then OFB would be willing to reconsider its position on the bill, she said.

The bureau’s view was largely shared by the 1,000 Friends of Oregon conservation group and Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development, which said they also want to see modifications to the bill.

Legislation that would reduce allowable activities in farm zones, House Bill 2829, caused similar worries about overbreadth with the Oregonians in Action property rights group.

The bill defines the type of “private parks” that are permissible on farms, clarifying that they’re intended only for “passive outdoor recreational opportunities,” such as picnicking or hiking, and not active uses, such as paint ball competitions and tracks for motor vehicles.

Rep. Ken Helm, D-Beaverton, said he introduced the bill out of concern that such active “private parks” may change the nature of farmland in a way that’s difficult to reverse.

Helm said he plans to propose an amendment to HB 2829 to limit the new definition to private parks on high-value farmland.

While areas with low-quality soils can also be disrupted by active recreation, that’s a more nuanced situation that can be discussed later, he said.

Dave Hunnicutt, president of Oregonians in Action, said his group was prepared to oppose the bill as originally written but is amenable to a narrower version.

Some properties zoned for farming actually have very little agricultural value — such as an extremely rocky land — so it doesn’t make sense to strictly limit recreation activities and events on them, he said.

SALEM — A pesticide expert has warned Oregon lawmakers that legislation proposing to ban neonicotinoids could prompt a return to more toxic chemicals among farmers.

Neonicotinoid pesticides were blamed for pollinator die-offs in Oregon and critics say the chemicals also have sublethal effects that are responsible for poor bee health.

House Bill 2589 would prohibit the application of “nitro-group” neonicotinoids, including clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, but the Oregon Department of Agriculture could make exemptions to the ban in “unusual circumstances.”

Paul Jepson, director of Oregon State University’s Integrated Plant Protection Center, said a “blanket ban” could disrupt farmers’ transition to more environmentally gentle methods of controlling pests.

Growers have relied on neonicotinoids as they’ve used fewer broad-spectrum organophosphate pesticides in recent years, but may take up the older chemicals if the ban is approved, Jepson said during a March 26 hearing on multiple pesticide bills being considered by the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

While neonicotinoids can pose a problem for pollinators, such risks can be managed effectively, he said.

Farmers in Oregon have a history of responding to such hazards and state and federal regulators are being diligent in regulating neonicotinoids, he said.

Over time, farmers can transition from broad-spectrum pesticides to more pest-specific techniques, such as encouraging predatory insects, Jepson said. “It sounds slightly airy-fairy, but believe me, it isn’t.”

Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, said he introduced HB 2589 due to concerns that neonicotinoids are affecting not only pollinators but other insects and birds.

Though there are studies to support arguments for and against banning neonicotinoids, research generally indicates the pesticides are harmful, he said.

Holvey noted that in 2013, the European Commission — a governing body of the European Union — voted to restrict three neonicotinoids: clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam.

“We need to take precautionary measures to ensure the sustainability of our environment,” he said.

Aside from the neonicotinoid ban, Holvey has sponsored other pesticide legislation that’s being reviewed by the committee: House Bill 3123, which would ban aerial applications except during emergencies declared by state regulators, and House Bill 3482, which would require pesticide applications to be reported to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

During the hearing, Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, spoke about several bills he has introduced:

• House Bill 3428 would create new certification requirements for aerial pesticide applicators.

• House Bill 3434 would appropriate money — likely about $2 million — for three new pesticide investigators and a claims processor at ODA.

• House Bill 3429 would establish standard operating procedures for state agencies to handle pesticide complaints.

• House Bill 3430 would create a telephone hotline for people concerned about pesticide misuse.

The committee ran out of time during the March 25 hearing, so further discussion of the proposed legislation was carried over until a future date.

Committee Chair Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, said he plans to hold a work group to distill the proposals into a concise piece of legislation to be introduced in April.

Witt urged testimony to focus on peer-reviewed science and “best practices” that would promote environmental and economic health.

“We are on a problem solving mission rather than a description of the problem,” he said.

Despite their close familiarity with the slimy pests, farmers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley continue to be baffled by slugs.

Growers and researchers recently puzzled over the mollusk’s onslaught against numerous crops during Oregon State University’s “Slug Summit,” held March 25 in Salem.

Slugs have grown as a problem in recent decades but it’s debatable why they’re causing more damage, farmers and scientists from OSU and USDA agreed.

Effectively thwarting the pest also remains a mystery.

The decline of field burning and rise of no-till and reduced tillage farming are sometimes blamed for increased slug numbers, creating better opportunities for the pest to find safe harbor.

However, some farmers reported persistent slug problems despite tilling heavily and burning fields.

Other theories for the pest’s rise include climate change and the lower prevalence of toxic pesticides, but the lack of a clear culprit is one reason that more slug research is needed, according to summit participants.

In some years, a crop will be devastated by slugs despite the use of poison bait, but the same field will respond positively to treatment in other years, several growers said.

Metaldehyde, a chemical commonly used to dessicate slugs, doesn’t always kill them, said George Hoffman, an OSU faculty research associate.

Those surviving mollusks are quick to develop an aversion to the slug bait, which varies in effectiveness depending on weather and crop conditions, he said.

For example, it’s less effective during low temperatures and harder for slugs to find in structurally “complex” mature field crops compared to those that have recently germinated, Hoffman said.

Young slugs also avoid metaldehyde granules in favor of fungi and other food sources, so the chemical can be taken up by earthworms rather than the target pest, experts said.

It’s unlikely that more toxic pesticides for slugs will come onto the market because of harmful collateral consequences for other species, said Paul Jepson, director of OSU’s Integrated Plant Protection Center.

Disrupting the pest’s reproduction with pheromones or releasing natural predators are viable options, but these measures must be employed in concert to be effective, he said.

“There are plenty of things that eat slugs and really love them, but the problem is they’re not sufficient,” Jepson said.

Summit participants broached several other possible control methods, including nematodes and diseases that affect slugs.

Shutting off genes that are crucial to the slug’s life cycle with mollusk-specific “RNAi” pesticides was also discussed.

For chemical manufacturers to focus on the problem, they’d have to foresee a profitable return on investment for a mollusk-specific pesticide, said Sujaya Rao, an OSU field entomologist.

Such a chemical would also have to work and be registered for a broad variety of crops, which poses a challenge, she said.

Dan Arp, dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, said the university recognizes that slug research is a priority for farmers in the region.

The university is seeking increased state funding for extension agents who could deal with the issue, he said. However, current proposals by key Oregon lawmakers would only raise funding for extension services enough to keep up with inflation, Arp said.

Regardless of potential funding increases, new positions may be created as existing OSU faculty members retire, he said. The university may also designate a “strike team” of existing professors and agents to help study and control slugs.

“We need this coordinated effort, it has to be done that way,” Arp said.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown will be in Bend March 27 to celebrate the state’s efforts to conserve greater sage grouse habitat and possibly stave off an endangered species listing.

The event coincides with the Oregon Department of State Lands completing a conservation agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that covers 540,484 acres in Eastern Oregon. The document, called a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances, or CCAA, is going through a required public review period.

The CCAA is similar to agreements signed with other non-federal landowners throughout the sage grouse range in Eastern Oregon. The federal wildlife service, which implements the Endangered Species Act, previously signed CCAA accords with soil and water conservation districts representing ranchers and other private landowners in Harney, Baker, Crook, Deschutes, Grant, Lake, Malheur and southern Union counties. In all, more than 4 million acres of sage grouse habitat is covered under conservation agreements.

The state land covered under the agreements includes only an estimated 638 of the state’s 24,000 sage grouse and eight known leks, or breeding areas, but is significant because it makes management plans “seamless across the landscape,” said Lanny Quackenbush, Eastern Oregon manager for the Department of State Lands.

Because private and government land containing sage grouse habitat often are adjacent to each other, having a single management plan simplifies things, he said.

“One of our motives was to have it be very compatible and look pretty much like what private landowners have on their own land,” Quackenbush said.

Almost all the state land covered under the agreement is leased for grazing, he said.

Under CCAA plans, landowners agree to manage their land in a way that benefits sage grouse. Landowners have described the measures as reasonable: they agree to do such things as mark fences, put escape ramps in water troughs, keep grazing cattle out of leks and remove western juniper trees, which crowd out native sage and provide perches for sage grouse predators such as hawks and ravens. One Southeastern Oregon rancher, Tom Sharp, famously described the agreements as “What’s good for the bird is good for the herd.”

In return, landowners are protected from additional regulations for 30 years, even if sage grouse are eventually listed as endangered.

Quackenbush, the state lands manager, said the tradeoff is attractive.

“You’re wanting to do what is good and right for sage grouse, and on the other side is regulatory certainty,” he said.

The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Deschutes National Forest headquarters, 63095 Deschutes Market Road, Bend. Ann Mills, the USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, and Department of State Lands Director Mary Abrams also will attend.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Southern Oregon wasn’t on the radar for one of its newest commercial enterprises this time last year.

Ryan Harvey, a San Diego chef with an entrepreneurial bent, developed recipes for beef and chicken bone broth that he turned into a side business a year and a half ago.

Bare Bones Broth Co. shared space with a restaurant where Harvey cooked his specialty product at night. With online customers snapping up bone broth faster than he could produce the next batch Harvey and his wife, Katherine, began searching for a commercial kitchen to call their own.

“We were looking at old restaurants in San Diego,” Harvey said. “But location doesn’t matter, because we’re an e-commerce company. The stuff we did in San Diego could be done anywhere.”

Ultimately, they determined San Diego was beyond their price range.

“We had been looking for a contract manufacturer to make our products since we started a year and a half ago,” Harvey said. “We were in the process of working with one in Denver, but it fell through.”

In November, Alex Poythress, who runs a local marketing firm and is Katherine’s brother, suggested they take a look at Medford. It made economic sense with lower lease and production costs, and it moved the operation 800 miles closer to its beef bone supplier — Bartels Farms in Eugene.

Business consultant Tim Thompson said the Rogue Valley was a good fit for Bare Bones — which uses organic produce and bones from pastured and grass-fed animals — because of its resources and its affinity for the healthy living Real Food Movement.

“With their supplier in Eugene, it made shipping the original ingredients that much easier,” Thompson said. “Trying to cram the kitchen lifestyle into the San Diego lifestyle with its heavy expenditures and taxes would make it difficult to grow expand. It’s just easier in Southern Oregon; and they had family in the area so it was an easy connection to make.”

After checking out the former Sakura Japanese Sushi restaurant location at 1206 N. Riverside Ave., a few blocks south of McAndrews Road, Harvey was sold on the Rogue Valley.

“I came up three weeks ago, checked out the kitchen, and one week later drove up and got started,” Harvey said. “It was clear that it hadn’t been used as a restaurant in some time, so most of the work to get going was demolition.”

Even with limited production schedules, leaving customers ranging across 40 states asking for more, the startup has pushed monthly sales to $32,000. Depending on how quickly the operation ramps up, Harvey estimates revenue will range between $500,000 and $600,000 this year.

Broths comprised 12.8 percent of the $4.7 billion soup industry during 2012. While overall soup sales remain flat, organic and healthy broths and soups have gained market share. Their customers typically view broth as fuel and medicine, to drink, cook and eat to optimal health.

“We make the product fresh every week,” Harvey said. “We were only able to make so much, and we were selling out every week. There was a lot of money and sales we weren’t able to make because we weren’t able to support demand; that’s what this move is about.”

Rogue Valley manufacturers often encounter shipping challenges, but Thompson said Bare Bones’ clients won’t notice a difference.

“Shipping is an issue they had already solved with packages arriving at their door. With large enough orders they can get shipping for free using UPS or FedEx, the way they’ve been doing it from San Diego.”

Including the owners, the company will have four people on the job by month’s end. The plan to add a handful more over the next six months to a year.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by hospitality we’ve gotten so far as we get this going,” Harvey said. “We’ve reached out to farmers and ranchers and everybody we’ve met and told them our plans has been really excited.”

SALEM — Irrigators in Oregon’s Klamath Basin are seeking more flexibility in how they manage water due to concerns of looming drought in the region.

However, legislation that would allow Klamath irrigators to transfer or lease water rights has met with suspicion from opponents of a controversial dam removal project.

Currently, water transfers and leases aren’t permitted in the Klamath Basin because the ownership of water rights in the region is still being legally adjudicated.

Senate Bills 206 and 264 would permit such transfers for water rights that have already been quantified and allow state regulators to participate in a “joint management entity” with irrigators in the upper Klamath Basin as part of a legal settlement.

“We want to have the same flexibility that other landowners in the state do,” said Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, during a March 23 legislative hearing.

Klamath Basin irrigators must already leave water in-stream for federally protected fish, but allowing them to technically lease that water would avoid the risk of forfeiting water rights, he said.

“This is putting the basin on equal footing with the rest of the state,” said Richard Whitman, natural resources advisor to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.

While the bills refer to two legal settlements between irrigators, tribes and conservationists, the legislation in “no way” represents a codification or ratification of those agreements, Whitman said.

Opponents of those broader Klamath deals — which allocate water use and require the removal of four hydroelectric dams, among other provisions — claim that SB 206 and SB 264 are necessary for the legal settlements to proceed.

“They are integral parts and pieces of them,” said Tom Mallams, a Klamath County commissioner and opponent of dam removal, during the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources hearing.

Proponents claim removing four dams from the Klamath River would restore water quality and hyrdrological function, but critics say it would release toxic sediments and reduce property tax revenues for counties.

Farmers who rely on the Klamath Irrigation Project and those who are upstream of it have signed two separate water use deals with tribes, which hold “time immemmorial” water rights in the region.

However, those deals still hinge on dam removal and federal funding for environmental restoration efforts.

Mallams said that local residents continue to oppose dam removal and claimed that farmers have signed onto the broader settlements under duress as they fear losing the ability to irrigate.

“They have a loaded gun to their head,” he said.

SILVERTON, Ore. — Luis Mendoza of Molalla High School and Addie Howell of Jefferson were elected president and vice president of Oregon FFA for 2015-16, and will head a student organization that is growing and changing.

Given the way delegates danced to blaring hip hop music during session breaks at the state convention this past week, FFA may stand for Funky Farmers of America. Or, considering the intense interest that has led to an FFA chapter forming at a deeply urban Portland school, maybe call it Food and Fiber of America.

Either way, FFA membership in Oregon is about 5,600 students, up from 4,800 a few years ago, and the organization’s breakaway from state Department of Education funding has paid off in the form of industry support.

The result is an organization that appears freshly vibrant while still rooted in the FFA traditions of agricultural education and leadership training. The organization’s intended message hasn’t changed, either, said Kevin White, executive director of the Oregon FFA Foundation.

“Basically, FFA is life changing,” White said.

Some farmers were indifferent FFA members in high school, of course, and some weren’t members at all, but others say they gained from the experience.

“It taught me the importance of a firm handshake, how to look people in the eye when talking to them, how to address people with respect and how to speak in public,” Willamette Valley farmer Brenda Frketich said in response to a Facebook query.

Kathy Freeborn Hadley said she and her husband, Troy, were active in FFA as high school students. Hadley said she still farms Willamette Valley fields she rented as part of her FFA project.

“Probably the biggest benefit I gained was the leadership and speaking skills from attending conferences and participating in contests,” she said on Facebook.

It wasn’t that long ago, however, that Oregon FFA faltered as public schools, cramped for money, eliminated the ag science, home economics and shop classes that often paralleled FFA involvement.

In 2011, Oregon FFA became financially independent from the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon FFA Foundation, a non-profit, was formed to raise money from industry sponsors. White, a former California state FFA vice president and national secretary, was hired to run the foundation.

White said FFA has three main components: Classroom instruction, supervised agricultural projects and leadership training. “It’s not just a club on campus,” he said.

Rising interest in where food and fiber come from have helped the organization grow, White said. “That’s only making FFA more relevant,” he said.

Madison High School in Northeast Portland, with a low-income, high-minority student population, recently formed a chapter. White said.

Although state funding for FFA has been eliminated, school districts are beginning to re-establish career and technical education, or CTE, programs, said Reynold Gardner,a specialist with the state education department. He credits Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences with providing the “cultural lead” in reviving the programs.

Students elected to statewide office are seniors, but delay entering college to spend a year traveling the state working with local chapters.

Mendoza, the newly-elected president, said he met with touring state officers when he was a freshman.

“That definitely inspired me,” he said. “I thought, wow, I can do this. Follow your dreams, don’t give up.”

In addition to Mendoza and Vice President Howell, other state officers are Secretary Joe Matteo of Sutherlin, Treasurer Alyssa Smith of Elkton, Reporter Ricky Molitor of Madras, and Sentinel Bailey Myers of Nyssa.

By LEE JUILLERAT

For the Capital Press

William “Bill Kitt” Kittredge, a cowboy who became a successful Oregon rancher and businessman, was honored as one of Oregon’s most influential leaders during the state’s first 100 years by the Oregon Legislature last week.

House Concurrent Resolution 6, sponsored by Rep. Gail Whitsett and Sen. Doug Whitsett, both of Klamath Falls, along with representatives from Eastern Oregon, passed unanimously. Kittredge’s family members, including his nephew Jack Nicol, Nicol’s sister Nancy Thompson and Nicol’s son Mark, were in attendance on the Senate floor for the speech by Sen. Whitsett.

The resolution read March 19 notes Kittredge, who was born in 1876 in Washington Territory, was 16 years old when he started as a cowboy in Eastern Oregon. He worked for large cattle companies and participated in cattle drives, including one that spanned 1,600 miles.

He began acquiring a small herd of cattle in 1900 and eventually owned 19,000 head when he died in 1958, when Kittredge controlled more than 1 million acres of land and was Oregon’s largest independent cattleman.

The resolution also credits Kittredge with purchasing and irrigating unproductive land and turning it into meadowland and for “reclaiming swamplands and turning them into bountiful grain fields.” He was honored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for providing habitat and feed for wildlife, especially for migrating ducks and geese.

Although he never had a formal education, Kittredge served as director of the National Cattlemen’s Association, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, vice president of the Pacific States Livestock Marketing Association and director of the Tri-State Livestock Credit Corporation.

One of his proudest accomplishments, according to the resolution, was founding and serving as president of the Klamath Production Credit Association, an agricultural bank formed to provide loans to farmers and ranchers who were losing their properties during the Great Depression.

Three of Oregon’s growing wolf packs, perhaps 20 wolves in all, now use parts of the Mount Emily Wildlife Management Unit between Pendleton and La Grande. The same area is home and hunting range for an estimated 100 cougars.

A study underway by an Oregon State University graduate student takes a look at what happens when two of the West’s iconic predators compete for food and habitat.

“Certainly from a science perspective, it’s a really cool study,” said Katie Dugger, an associate professor at OSU who is overseeing the research. Graduate student Elizabeth Orning is conducting the study as her Ph.D. dissertation.

As part of the work, researchers have placed GPS or radio collars on eight cougars and on at least one wolf each from the Mount Emily, Meacham and Umatilla River packs that frequent the area.

On her research website, Orning said increasing populations of large North American carnivores provide an opportunity to study two that share habitat, home ranges and prey.

The steady growth of Oregon’s gray wolf population, which has increased from 14 to 77 confirmed wolves since the end of 2009, made interaction with cougars inevitable.

“We could kind of see this was going to happen,” said Dugger, of OSU.

Although larger than wolves, cougars are likely to fare worse in the competition because they are solitary animals. Wolves travel in packs and can kill adult cougars, compete for deer and elk, chase cougars off carcasses they’ve been feeding on and force them into steeper, brushier terrain, Dugger said.

“We do expect wolves to change the way cougars use the landscape,” Dugger said.

The biggest impact of wolves on cougars might be an increase in cougar kitten mortality, Dugger said. A wolf pack could drive off a mother cougar or force her up a tree while it kills and eats the young or a sub-adult that doesn’t know enough to climb out of harm’s way. At least two cougar kittens are wearing radio collars as part of the study, Dugger said.

The study area is a geographical wildlife unit designated by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which is collaborating on the research. It includes portions of the Umatilla National Forest and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla reservation.

Online

https://sites.google.com/site/mtemilywolfcougarstudy/

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The National Weather Service says a snowstorm is expected to hit the Oregon Cascades on Monday and Tuesday, with 3 to 6 inches in the forecast.

The accumulation won’t be nearly enough to allow skiing at the largely snow-free Willamette Pass and Hoodoo ski areas. The Register-Guard reports that Willamette Pass and Hoodoo are having among their worst seasons ever. They were open for just a few days in early January.

Weather experts have said a large ski-season-saving series of snowstorms is unlikely this spring, given weather patterns over the Pacific Ocean.

But, at least for the next couple days, Western Oregon may get the right mix of moisture-laden clouds and cold air currents to create some mountain snow.

A high of 70 is forecast for Eugene by Thursday, with a high of 60 at Willamette Pass.