IONE, Ore. — Dryland farming is challenging enough at Bill Jepsen’s family farm in arid northeast Oregon, where it rains only 12 inches per year on average, providing precious little moisture to grow a healthy crop.

Factor in poor soil health due to erosion that strips fields of organic matter, and the problem only worsens.

For years, Jepsen said, conventional tillage left the farm wide open to water erosion washing down the open hillsides. Land that once had 3-4 percent soil organic matter was whittled down to 1 percent. Something had to be done to improve long-term sustainability.

“The erosion was just killing us,” said Jepsen, who farms 5,300 acres, growing mostly wheat and barley, 14 miles south of Ione, Ore.

Jepsen, who began his career as a veterinarian in Hermiston, Ore., eventually took over the farm from his father, Bob, who retired in 1991. Six years later, they converted entirely to no-till and direct seeding to stem the tide of erosion.

The recovery process has been slow, with most fields now containing somewhere between 1 and 2 percent soil organic matter. But Jepsen said he’s never going back — that is, unless he’s forced to.

“No-till has been the key to conservation,” he said. “You don’t need as much fertilizer. Your plants do better. Healthier soils will grow more. It’s a lot of things.”

One prickly issue, however, is putting no-till to the test in southern Morrow County.

Russian thistle, or tumbleweeds, continue to spread as they roll across the desert, depositing thousands of tiny seeds along the way. Invasive weeds such as Russian thistle compete for limited moisture on farmland, reducing yields for the soft white wheat already experiencing depressed market prices.

And, unlike other pesky weeds, Russian thistle has developed a resistance to glyphosate, forcing farmers to turn to more expensive herbicides.

“We’ve had to come up with a plan,” Jepsen said. “How do you deal with resistant Russian thistles?”

The answer for many farmers, Jepsen said, has been to revert back to tillage. He, along with seven of his neighbors and the Oregon State University Extension Service, did apply for a grant in 2017 through the USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program to eradicate Russian thistles from approximately 100,000 acres, though the project did not receive funding.

As for Jepsen, he has managed to maintain no-till farming practices by targeting Russian thistles using what is known as a WeedSeeker sprayer. The machine incorporates infrared sensors, which are able to detect the young green thistles among stubble. It then sprays only when it encounters those weeds, reducing the amount of herbicide needed.

“It allows you to use chemicals that kill thistles that you couldn’t otherwise afford,” Jepsen said.

Jepsen was recognized as a Pioneer Direct Seeder by the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association at the group’s 2017 cropping systems conference, though his on-farm experimentation extends beyond just adopting no-till.

Jepsen has collaborated with the OSU Extension Service on a multi-year trial examining the effectiveness of rotational crops for dryland wheat, including canola, garbanzo beans, lentils, flax and mustard. Ideally, Jepsen said the best thing for soil is to grow a crop on it every year, though the dry Eastern Oregon climate usually prompts farmers to go with a crop-fallow rotation to rebuild soil moisture.

“On dry years, every little drop of moisture counts,” Jepsen said. “When you grow anything, it robs soil moisture.”

At the end of the day, Jepsen said he always turns back to cereals such as wheat and barley.

“For the climate we have here, those are the best crops,” he said.

Mary Corp, regional administrator for OSU Extension Service in Morrow and Umatilla counties, described Jepsen as a creative, innovative grower and cooperator. The university has conducted several plot trials on Jepsen’s land, from rotational crops to disease control.

“For extension, we rely on growers to be so generous with their land, and their time, and their equipment, in order to do those on-farm studies that provide the information farmers need,” Corp said. “It’s really critical to the success of the extension faculty that are based out in the counties.”

Jepsen said he is always tinkering and adjusting his practices, and keeping a close eye on the latest technology. Five years ago, he hired Infrared Baron Inc., of Hermiston, to take aerial photos that he later used to create maps showing where wheat was growing best in each field.

The data allowed Jepsen to adjust his seeding and fertilizer rates to get the most bang for his buck, with export prices still hovering around $5.50 per bushel out of Portland.

“There’s always a way to do something better,” he said. “That’s what makes life interesting.”

Bill Jepsen

Age: 62

Occupation: Owner, Jepsen Farm

Hometown: Ione, Ore.

Education: Doctor of veterinary medicine, Iowa State University, 1980; studied pre-veterinary medicine and agronomy, Washington State University, 1973-75

Family: Wife, Nancy, and five grown children: Matt, Dan, Amy, Eric and Rebecca

Despite a sudden, hard freeze at the end of February, cherries and pears appear to be faring well in the Columbia River Gorge.

Mike Doke, executive director of the Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers, said it is still too early to predict yields, but early season blossoms look healthy and strong heading into summer.

“Things look really good this year,” Doke said. “Everything is right on schedule.”

Mother Nature gave growers quite the scare in February, as mild weather had orchards budding several weeks ahead of schedule, Doke said. By month’s end, temperatures had fallen into the 20s, threatening to damage the crop.

Fortunately, Doke said growers were ready.

“There were some losses, but nothing really that big at all,” he said.

Pears are the eighth most valuable crop in Oregon, valued at $181.5 million in 2016. Cherries rank 14th in the state, at $79.2 million.

The vast majority of Oregon cherries — about 62 percent — are grown in Wasco County in the Columbia River Gorge, while 67 percent of pears are grown in neighboring Hood River County.

Doke said growers should have a crop estimate within the next month. Cherry harvest typically begins around late June, and pear harvest usually follows in late August and early September.

“It was a really successful bloom that both areas had,” Doke said. “That bodes well.”

Oregon State University has also hired a new extension horticulturist for the Mid-Columbia region to assist growers on the ground.

Ashley Thompson officially joined OSU Extension on April 30. She will be responsible for tree fruit production in Hood River and Wasco counties, combining two faculty positions into one.

Thompson takes over for Lynn Long, who partially retired in 2017 after 29 years working for OSU Extension in The Dalles, and Steve Castagnoli, who remains director at the Mid-Columbia Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Hood River.

“I’m excited to be here,” Thompson said. “I’ve already gotten a lot of good input from farmers and the community.”

Thompson is new to the Columbia River Gorge. She previously earned her doctorate in horticulture from Virginia Tech and most recently was working as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“I’m really interested in working with farmers,” Thompson said. “Also, I’m interested in working with different crops.”

As far as pests, Thompson said cooler weather has kept codling moths from causing too many problems around the area. Spraying for western cherry fruit flies won’t begin for another three to four weeks, she said, and growers are keeping a close eye on marmorated stink bugs.

“I think it’s going to be a good year here, overall,” she said.

A cherry pre-harvest tour is scheduled for Tuesday, June 5 at 7:45 a.m. The group will meet at Dahle Farms on Knob Hill Road in The Dalles. Talks will focus on new cherry rootstocks, early ripening cultivars and cover crops for soil health

For more information, contact Thompson at 541-296-5494.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — There’s a sense of relief at the U.S. Forest Service because of the billions of additional dollars made available by lawmakers over the next decade to fight catastrophic wildfires but also a duty to spend it wisely, the acting chief of the U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday.

Vicki Christiansen, speaking at the National Interagency Fire Center about the recently approved Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, said the money will help the agency avoid raiding other parts of its budget and allow work to prevent wildfires while also tackling a backlog of trail and road maintenance.

“We really have an opportunity to put the work on the ground, improve the conditions of the national forests and create more opportunity for access and recreation as well,” she said.

Also taking part in the news conference was Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Republican U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo of Idaho. The lawmakers for about five years had been trying to pass the legislation to pay for catastrophic wildfires rather than using money from elsewhere in the Forest Service’s budget, a practice termed “fire borrowing.”

“The passage of our legislation to end fire borrowing means today that westerners can celebrate an uncommon triumph for common sense,” Wyden said.

Previously, a 10-year average of firefighting spending was used to set the Forest Service wildfire fighting budget.

But the wildfire season has become longer and wildfires themselves more destructive in the last several decades. In 1990, the Forest Service spent about 13 percent of its budget on wildfires. Last year it reached 55 percent at $2.4 billion, a season that saw 8,500 homes and business destroyed, about 15,500 square miles burned, and 14 wildland firefighters killed.

Experts at the National Interagency Fire Center at the news conference predicted another tough wildfire season this year for the U.S. West.

The Wildfire Disaster Funding Act this year gives the agency $3.2 billion to spend fighting wildfires and another lump sum next year. Starting in 2020, the wildfire budget will be fixed at $1.1 billion but the agency will be able to tap into about $2.2 billion to pay for catastrophic wildfires. That $2.2 billion cap climbs to nearly $3 billion by 2027.

The Forest Service manages about 300,000 square miles that include 154 national forests, 20 national grasslands in 43 states and Puerto Rico.

Wyden last week asked Christiansen to prepare a document explaining how the Forest Service planned to spend money now available for use outside of fighting wildfires. Christiansen said Wednesday the agency had drafted an outline and expected to present a completed version to Wyden and other senators in five or six weeks.

Besides the infusion of money, the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act includes aspects intended to streamline some forest projects, including allowing logging through “categorical exclusions” that limit some objections.

Jonathan Oppenheimer of the Idaho Conservation League, an environmental watchdog group that has challenged federal land management agencies in court, said the group generally backed the new law because of the negative impacts to campgrounds, trails and roads that the Forest Service couldn’t afford to maintain under the previous budgeting system.

“It really has had a significant impact on Idahoans and other American’s ability to utilize and enjoy their public lands, so we see this as a big step forward,” he said.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration wants to ease restrictions on oil and gas leasing and other activities across a huge swath of the American West that were put in place to protect an imperiled bird.

The move involves conservation plans for greater sage grouse approved in 2015 under former President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump has vowed to increase U.S. energy production and open more lands to drilling.

Conservation groups critical of Trump’s energy policies warned Wednesday’s proposal could unravel a years-long effort to shore up the bird’s struggling population.

Interior Department officials said the revisions to the Obama-era plans were aimed at increasing flexibility on public lands where the birds reside — not undoing protections outright. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, was among elected officials in the region who voiced support for the move, saying it allowed for a “Colorado-specific approach.”

Sage grouse are ground-dwelling, chicken-sized birds known for an elaborate mating ritual in which males strut around breeding grounds with large, puffed-out air sacs protruding from their chests. The species’ population declined sharply in recent decades due in part to drilling, grazing and other human activities.

Wednesday’s proposal affects conservation plans for grouse in Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, California and Oregon. The birds also are found in portions of Montana, Washington state and the Dakotas.

A spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke described Wednesday’s proposed changes as largely technical in nature. They were made in response to feedback the agency received about the 2015 plans from governors in sage grouse states, spokeswoman Heather Swift said.

The changes could open some areas previously closed to leasing, and allow waivers or exceptions to rules that prohibit drilling pads and wells in other areas.

“There’s not a significant environmental impact,” Swift said.

Kathleen Sgamma with the Western Energy Alliance said the industry lobbying group was pleased that Zinke was “moving forward with rewriting the sage grouse plans.”

Environmental groups earlier this week filed two lawsuits in federal court alleging the administration since taking office has sold energy leases on hundreds of thousands of acres in at least four states in violation of the Obama-era plans.

The groups asked the courts to reverse those lease sales and block several upcoming sales.

Michael Freeman with Earthjustice, the law firm representing environmentalists in one of the cases, said the administration’s latest proposal doesn’t mean it can ignore the conservation plans already in place.

“They were still in effect when the lease sales were held,” Freeman said.

The proposed changes are expected to be finalized in October.

More export containers are switching from trucks to railcars at the Port of Portland’s intermodal facility on their way to Seattle and across the Pacific Ocean.

While the port is optimistic about the venture’s prospects, a competitor claims it’s done little but divert business from the private sector.

After a “spotty” January, the rail transload facility at the port’s Terminal 6 moved 1,536 containers in February and 2,181 containers in March, said Ken O’Hollaren, its marine marketing director. Those numbers include export and import containers.

The final numbers aren’t yet available for April, but O’Hollaren said he expects the number of containers handled to remain stable or grow.

“We’re on an upward trend,” he said.

Shippers of straw, hay, seeds, grains, potatoes, wood products and other agricultural goods relied on Terminal 6 for access to Asian markets, but ocean-going container carriers stopped calling on the facility about three years ago.

Apart from lower productivity blamed on a prolonged labor dispute with the longshoremen’s union, the inland port cannot accommodate increasingly popular megaships and isn’t a major import destination.

With the loss of ocean container shipping in Portland, exporters were forced to send containers to more distant ports in Seattle and Tacoma.

The port has since settled its disagreement with the longshoremen’s union and recruited the Swire ocean carrier company to call at the facility, but container exports remain much lower than in the past.

Re-opening Terminal 6 as an intermodal facility was intended to allow exporters to transfer containers from trucks to rail rather than trucking them all the way to Seattle and Tacoma.

Truckers could then deliver more than a container per day, which isn’t possible when driving to ports along Washington’s Puget Sound.

At this point, two ocean carriers, Cosco and CMA CGM, are using BNSF Railway to ship containers to and from Portland’s Terminal 6, O’Hollaren said.

The port is hopeful BNSF will attract more ocean carriers to the facility, but both parties are pleased with the arrangement and expect it to continue beyond the current six-month trial period, he said.

The Port of Portland has traditionally been oriented toward container exports, which have been stronger than container imports. This imbalance is a problem because imports are necessary to make empty containers available for exports.

Initially, the intermodal facility had two north-bound trains of export containers for every one south-bound train of import containers, but the disparity has since narrowed, O’Hollaren said.

“Cargo is moving in both directions,” he said.

Due to the new intermodal facility, Northwest Container Services — which also provides rail transload services in Portland — expects to handle roughly one-third fewer containers this year, said Gary Cardwell, the company’s divisional vice president.

While the corresponding drop in revenues won’t affect the company’s ability to operate, it’s had to lay off 18 people, or about one-quarter of its workforce, he said.

“I’m not sure what benefit the port has really brought to the table with this service,” Cardwell said, noting the T6 intermodal facility is duplicating a service his company has offered for 30 years.

An analyst’s report commissioned by the port has found that cargo moving through the Terminal 6 facility hasn’t been sufficient to make it financially self-sustaining, he said.

The facility is now operational thanks to an $11 million settlement with a former terminal operator, but that doesn’t solve its fundamental economic problem, Cardwell said.

“That’s going to run out eventually, and then what are we going to do?” he said.

Seeking a greater voice in how federal lands are managed within its borders, officials in Crook County, Ore. recently approved a natural resources policy that details social and economic values.

The 56-page documents includes sections on agriculture, timber, mining, recreation and wildlife. But perhaps most importantly, it contains language about how the local government can invoke coordination with agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 requires the Forest Service and BLM to work with local governments — such as cities, counties or tribes — when making management decisions.

Karen Budd-Falen, a prominent land use attorney from Cheyenne, Wyo., joined Crook County Judge Seth Crawford to discuss the process of coordination Monday during the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association Midyear Event in Sunriver, Ore.

Though coordination is not specifically defined in statute, Budd-Falen said the law dictates that agencies “shall coordinate with local governments.” That could take several forms, she said, one of which is known as a “consistency review” with local land use planning.

However, Budd-Falen was quick to add that coordination does not mean counties can sidestep the National Environmental Policy Act. It does mean local interests are guaranteed a seat at the table.

“This is not a way to veto the federal government,” Budd-Falen said. “Once you fall off the edge of federal statutes, that’s where you are going to get ignored.”

Crook County, population 21,000, includes a portion of the Ochoco National Forest. Crawford said the Crook County Natural Resources Policy was devised after Oregon Wild, a Portland-based environmental group, proposed the Ochoco Mountains Natural Recreation Area, a move that he said essentially amounts to a land grab.

“Luckily, our community is pretty savvy about what it means to add regulation to public lands,” Crawford said.

By writing the plan and invoking coordination, Crawford said the county is better situated to push back against the recreation area.

Nearly 53 percent of Oregon is federal land. Baker County has also adopted a natural resource plan. More controversially, Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer attempted to invoke coordination by deputizing 11 residents to write a natural resources plan, though Ron Yockim, the county’s counsel, found that in doing so Palmer had overstepped his authority as sheriff.

Crawford said it took several years to write the Crook County plan, which Budd-Falen helped to review.

“We’ve been doing the same thing for 50 years, and it’s been getting worse and worse every day,” Crawford said. “Let’s try something new.”

Budd-Falen said the concept of coordination is finally starting to register after 25-30 years of work. The Trump administration is now pushing coordination, she said, and land use plans are a way of getting agencies to consider local interests.

“Part of what your local land use plan is going to do is get them to focus on your county, or your district,” she said. “It’s easier, I think, when you have the local land use plan. It’s consistent, all along.”

With the May 15 primary election fast approaching, Oregon gubernatorial hopefuls Greg Wooldridge and Sam Carpenter made a campaign stop April 30 to speak with ranchers at the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association Midyear Event in Sunriver, Ore.

Wooldridge and Carpenter are part of a crowded Republican field looking to take back State Capitol for the first time since 1987. Bruce Cuff was also scheduled to talk at the convention, though he recently dropped out of the race and endorsed Wooldridge for governor. Notably absent was Knute Buehler, another front-runner for the GOP nomination.

Wooldridge, a retired U.S. Navy captain, took the opportunity to criticize incumbent Gov. Kate Brown for signing Senate Bill 1528, disconnecting Oregon from a federal tax provision that grants so-called “pass-through” businesses — those that do not pay corporate income tax — an additional 20 percent deduction on state income taxes.

The Legislature will convene for a one-day special session May 21 to consider extending an existing tax break to sole proprietorships. About 4 percent of the benefits would go to the agriculture and forestry sectors, according to a state estimate. Still, Wooldridge said Brown’s decision not to veto SB 1528 amounts to taking a quarter-billion dollars away from small businesses.

If elected, Wooldridge said he will work to bridge the urban-rural divide and fix the state’s Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS.

“It’s time to open the dream again of being exceptional,” he said. “Our best days lie ahead.”

Carpenter made no secret of his hard-right political views and support of President Donald Trump. His campaign slogan, “Make Oregon Great Again,” mirrors that of the president’s successful 2016 run for the White House.

Oregon is a natural resources state, Carpenter said, praising farmers and ranchers as stewards of the land. As governor, he said he will set his sights on cutting government regulations and red tape.

“I’m not going in with a scalpel. I’m going in with a chainsaw,” Carpenter said. “And don’t think I don’t know how to run one.”

In addition to the gubernatorial candidates, OCA hosted state Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, and Rep. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, both of whom are up for election this year. Earlier this year, Bentz was appointed to the Senate seat vacated by Ted Ferrioli, who joined the Northwest Power and Conservation Planning Council, and Findley was appointed to the House seat vacated by Bentz.

Following his first legislative session in February, Findley said he thought to himself, “Holy crap, we don’t get a lot done. We sure run around a lot, though.”

“I don’t believe partisan politics should play a role in what we do,” he said.

Findley said the Senate Bill 1528 was, by far, the biggest disappointment of the short session.

“I firmly believe the $240 million that would not be passed on to small business is a big mistake,” he said. “Small business is our generator. Without that, we’re all in deep, deep trouble.”

Bentz, on the other hand, is a veteran of the Legislature, having served 11 years in the Oregon House. He said he has the experience to get things done in Salem, stressing bipartisanship in a Democrat-controlled state.

“You can be right as rain, and get no votes,” Bentz said. “I don’t know how many taxes I’ve stopped that otherwise would have been passed on to you.”

Jerome Rosa, OCA executive director, praised both Bentz and Findley as friends and allies of the ranching industry, and presented both men with campaign donations on behalf of the organization.

On any given day in Washington, D.C., lobbyist Ethan Lane says he is fighting a six-front war to protect the interests of Western ranchers. Between flaws in the Endangered Species Act, treatment of feral horses on rangeland and environmental legislation backed by multi-million dollar outdoor recreation companies such as Patagonia, Lane said the West has become a “laboratory for bad federal policy.”

“We are winning more than we are losing,” said Lane, executive director of the Public Lands Council and keynote speaker Sunday at the 2018 Oregon Cattlemen’s Association Midyear Event in Sunriver, Ore. “But I want you to understand the reality of the fight we’re in.”

About 100 ranchers from across the state attended the three-day OCA program, which featured a variety of presentations on wolf management, water issues and government decision-making. Lane capped the first day with a review of national priorities heading into what he expects will be a tightly contested election year.

First, he said the Public Lands Council has identified three changes needed to the Endangered Species Act. One is to remove the “blanket 4(d)” rule, which grants the same protections for threatened species as endangered species.

By eliminating the rule, the Department of the Interior would be forced to come up with specific rules for individual threatened species. And, as Lane noted, both the Interior and Agriculture departments are more friendly to ranchers’ concerns under the Trump administration than they were during the Obama administration.

“We have a great working relationship with people who want to do something good for this industry,” Lane said.

The other two changes to the ESA have not yet been announced, though Lane said one has to do with critical habitat and the other has to do with consultations under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wild horses are another contentious subject, with an estimated horse population of 83,000 across 10 Western states, according to a Bureau of Land Management report. That is more than three times what the agency says the land can sustain.

The BLM is asking Congress to euthanize, sterilize or sell for slaughter tens of thousands of horses over the next decade. But Lane said wild horse advocates — including Eric Trump’s wife — are likely to have a close say within the administration.

“The Department (of the Interior) is definitely very concerned with how we’re going to respond to this,” he said.

The outdoor recreation industry has also become a major political player, Lane said. He referenced a proposal to reintroduce grizzly bears in the North Cascade Mountains in Washington state.

Companies such as Patagonia may have the money, Lane said, but the ranching industry has the grassroots support on the ground needed to punch above its weight class.

“It’s our job to punch back, and make sure cattlemen’s voices are being heard on this issue,” he said.

At the state level, OCA political advocate Rocky Dallum said the February short legislative session in Salem was relatively calm. A carbon cap-and-trade bill was debated, though top Democrats previously said 35 days was not enough to pass such a complex measure. Lawmakers similarly decided not to take up a bill that would have tied wolf-livestock compensation directly to wolf population.

Dallum said he expects both proposals will be back on the table in 2019. In the meantime, he is keeping a close eye on how elections will shake up Legislature, and whether Democrats will be able to secure a supermajority in the House.

Maintaining close relationships with more moderate Democrats, such as Reps. Brad Witt, Brian Clem and Caddy McKeown, will be critical moving forward, Dallum said.

The linchpin, of course, will be the governor’s race, Dallum said. He believes Republican candidate Knute Buehler, of Bend, has the best shot of winning the party nomination to run against Democratic incumbent Kate Brown.

“It will be absolutely critical to get a change in the administration,” Dallum said.

Politics aside, the first day of the OCA Midyear Event also featured a talk from Monique Udell, an assistant professor with Oregon State University, who discussed her latest research into the effectiveness of biological deterrents for wolves.

Biological deterrents include a combination of wolf urine and feces intended to keep the territorial predators at bay. However, in a study that was funded in part by the Oregon Beef Council, Udell said the deterrents did not seem to have a statistically significant effect.

Udell was quick to add that the study focused on captive wolves, and more research is needed.

Udell said wolves are generally fearful of unfamiliar sights and sounds. She mentioned fladry, flashing lights or alarm boxes as effective non-lethal tools, but recommended they be used in rotation so the wolves do not become habituated.

“Wolves are very persistent animals,” Udell said. “They do learn very quickly.”

Jim Bob Collins, the 37-year-old owner of Table Mountain Cattle Company near Mitchell, Ore., talked about the learning curve for young ranchers and what it takes to be successful in the business.

As a fourth-generation rancher, Collins said his place is already paid off, but for those looking to start their own legacy, he worries about rising land prices eventually becoming insurmountable.

As an industry, he said it is important for ranchers to stick together, and to be there for one another during the tough times.

“This job can be really hard at times,” Collins said. “You need help getting over that hump.”

Capital Press

The mounds Travis Tyson sees popping up on his family’s 10-acre spread south of Nampa, Idaho, are starting to remind him of the gopher-heavy 2015.

He’s seeing gopher mounds earlier, and more than usual.

“This year, it is starting to feel like the numbers are increasing,” Tyson said.

A mild winter gave burrowing rodents such as pocket gophers and meadow voles a productive early start to what could be a big year for the pests known for harming property, crops and even irrigation infrastructure.

“It’s starting out busy,” Canyon County, Idaho, Pest Superintendent A.J. Mondor said. The office near Middleton is dealing with a lot more gophers, and more voles, compared to a year ago, he said. That reflects the mild winter this year and the heavy, long-lasting winter a year ago, he said.

Canyon County pays a bounty of $1 per tail of a gopher caught in the county. Mondor said totals have been down overall in recent years, which may be correlated with a county program that involves placing owl nesting boxes on participating properties.

Idaho State Department of Agriculture Program Manager Sherman Takatori said he has received reports of some higher vole populations in parts of eastern and southcentral Idaho.

“The (vole) population has a nasty habit of exploding when conditions are favorable” due to their high capacity for reproduction, he said.

Voles can have several generations of young in a year, though in typical years, predation and disease keeps populations below levels that can cause major damage, Takatori said. Population spikes often reflect ideal environmental conditions, or reduced predator populations and disease incidence.

As for gophers, they lack the reproductive capacity of voles, so in general, “unless you neglect to control them, you can keep them down,” he said. For example, many growers of alfalfa and other deep-rooted crops keep gophers in check.

But gopher problems can materialize on ag ground next to public land or another environment where there isn’t much rodent control, Takatori said. “They tend to migrate into fields and be tough to keep up with.”

On their acreage south of Nampa, Tyson and his wife, Kristen, live on a developed acre with their three young children. They leave the other nine acres as natural pasture for goats, chickens, and — soon, they hope — some cattle.

Three years ago, on the heels of a mild winter, they had Idaho Gopher Control treat the acre around their home and barn. The Melba-based business exterminates burrowing rodents via carbon monoxide fumigation. Travis Tyson said the gopher population immediately subsided, and the animals never came back in substantial numbers.

But if he continues to see mounds, he might call again.

“I have a choice,” Tyson said. “I could go out by myself with old-fashioned, wood gopher traps, or — if I get behind — I would possibly reach back out to Idaho Gopher Control.”

Keeping up with rodents is key to controlling them, said Michael Williams, who is in charge of receiving products at the D&B Supply Store on Overland Road in west central Boise. The store’s customers include many rural property owners.

“We’re getting a lot of requests for rodent control, for sure,” he said. One popular request is for a product designed to kill small rodents without attracting or harming house pets.

Voles and mice likely have been more prolific thanks to the warmer winter, Williams said.

D&B customers are reporting voles showing up in populated areas, he said.

“They are nasty little things in the yards,” Williams said. “You can bait them or snap-trap them, but it’s just a matter of getting after them when you see them.”

On agriculture land and rural residential properties in southwest Idaho and part of eastern Oregon, rodent-control specialist Rod Zehr sees a 25 to 30 percent increase from a year ago in gophers, and a corresponding increase in time spent at each client’s property. He also is seeing some ground squirrels, including on desert-adjacent properties where they haven’t been reported previously.

Gophers are seen more on alfalfa or waste ground than on onion or row-crop fields that farmers work more frequently, he said.

Increasingly popular pivot irrigation systems provide gophers with good nutrition and breeding conditions, and allow them to be more broadly distributed in fields compared to gravity systems, Zehr said.

Brisk construction in the greater Boise area is one factor boosting demand at Idaho Gopher Control, said Erin Turpin, who owns the business with her husband, John Turpin.

“Not necessarily weather-related, there is so much construction,” Erin Turpin said. “Construction has been pushing gophers and voles into the suburbs from the fields, so that has been a huge impact.”

And after a building or house is completed, animals can move from that former habitat to parks, sports fields and path systems often completed as part of a larger development, she said.

While rodent displacement isn’t necessarily tied to numerical changes in the population, the company’s work on agricultural and other rural properties has brought signs gophers and voles got off to a strong start this year, Turpin said.

Gophers and voles don’t hibernate, and “the mild weather did not slow them down (reproductively) as much as the typical Treasure Valley winter,” she said April 30. “We started seeing the first litters of gophers and voles in late January and early February, and typically we don’t see the first litters until the end of February or early March. And we are already starting to see the second cycle of litters happen.”

Agricultural crops appear to be growing at a healthy pace, which figures to provide more food and good breeding prospects for gophers and voles, Turpin said.

Idaho Gopher Control business volume through April 30 approached volume for all of last year, she said. She expects to start getting extermination requests related to ground squirrels, which hibernate, as May unfolds and the weather moves from warm to hot.

Meanwhile, Tyson will keep monitoring his property, and keeping an eye on neighboring properties, for signs of gophers.

He won’t push his neighbors too hard when it comes to rodent control, though he will be willing to help them.

“We’re all just trying to live the country lifestyle,” Tyson said.

A federal judge in San Francisco will not suspend or modify a court injunction aimed at protecting threatened coho salmon from a deadly parasite in the Klamath River.

The ruling, handed down late Monday by Judge William Orrick, further delays the start of irrigation season for local farmers and ranchers heading into what is expected to be a difficult drought year.

Scott Cheyne, assistant director of the Klamath Irrigation District, said the holdup is already having a negative effect on agriculture across the basin — wheat fields are stunted, ranchers are worried about growing enough forage for cattle, and row crops, such as garlic, are especially under stress.

“We’re looking at some higher temperatures coming,” Cheyne said. “We did get some moisture over the weekend, but it’s far from getting us where we need to be.”

PacifiCorp, which operates a system of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, did agree last week to transfer 10,500 acre-feet of water to the Bureau of Reclamation to begin charging canals on the Klamath Project. Operators began releasing 100 cubic feet per second of water from Upper Klamath Lake on April 26.

KID typically starts irrigation season on April 15, Cheyne said. He expects it will be at least another month before they get their water allocation this year.

“We’re already more than two weeks past our start date,” Cheyne said. “It’s a crucial time. We’re on a short season. It’s not like we’re going to pick up extra time at the end. We have a set number of growing days here, and you can’t take a month out of it and expect that you will be OK.”

The latest conflict in the basin centers on a parasite in the Klamath River known as C. shasta, which infects juvenile salmon on contact and can be fatal. The Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes in northern California sued the Bureau of Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries Service in 2017, arguing that mismanagement of the river below the four major dams led to a deadly outbreak of C. shasta in 2014 and 2015.

Orrick, the judge, ultimately granted an injunction requiring 50,000 acre-feet of stored water in Upper Klamath Lake to flush and dilute C. shasta until at least 80 percent of the salmon have finished migrating to the ocean — usually sometime after June 1.

The Bureau of Reclamation is also required by law to maintain minimum water levels for an endangered species of sucker fish in the lake, and allocate water for irrigators. Supplies are already tight this year, with Gov. Kate Brown declaring a drought emergency for Klamath County in March. Stream flows are expected to range between 24 and 58 percent of normal through September, according to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Feeling the pinch, the Klamath Water Users Association, along with KID and several other districts, filed a motion to stay the injunction, which would have allowed irrigation season to begin on time. Orrick denied the request, stating the defendants “do not show newly discovered evidence sufficient to justify suspending or modifying the injunctions.”

“While all of the parties present important equitable concerns, I issued the injunctions because the law demands that endangered species are entitled to primary protection,” Orrick wrote in his ruling.

Mike Orcutt, fisheries department director for the Hoopa Valley Tribe, said he was pleased with the decision. Salmon are of the utmost importance to tribal culture, he said, and the protections are critical for the species’ survival.

“The importance of the fish to the tribes is no less than the air we breathe,” Orcutt said. “My job is to make sure our children and grandchildren have the same opportunities that our elders did.”

Last year’s fall Chinook run in the Klamath River was the worst on record, with a surplus of just roughly 1,600 fish. The tribes are guaranteed half the harvest per their fishing rights, Orcutt said, leaving them with just 814.

Amy Cordalis, general counsel for the Yurok Tribe, said they shut down their fishery for the first time ever last fall, harvesting just 216 salmon for the tribal elders program.

“We’re very pleased that the judge did the right thing to uphold the law and protect the river,” Cordalis said.

Scott White, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said the group is obviously disappointed with the ruling. He said irrigators have taken 25,000 acres of farmland out of production since the 1990s to provide more water for fisheries, yet they are worse off now than they were before.

“Maybe we need to change our mindset and rethink our approach,” White said.

Jerry Enman, a KWUA board member and farmer near Merrill, Ore., said that science used to support the injunction has not been peer reviewed, and federal fisheries biologists have raised serious questions about whether dilution flows are valid.

Laura Williams, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls, Ore., said the agency expects it will have about 200,000 acre-feet of water for irrigation when the season begins, and possibly more depending on how much of the 50,000 acre-feet of stored water is left over after dilution flows.

“It all depends on what goes in to Upper Klamath Lake,” Williams said.

Brad Kirby, president of KWUA and manager of the Tulelake Irrigation District, said the injunction leaves them with little water to work with this year going forward. The allocation is usually around 390,000 acre-feet during a normal season.

“We’ve threaded the needle in the past, and will do what we can to do it again,” Kirby said.

Cordalis, with the Yurok Tribe, said they have a lot of respect for upper basin irrigators and hope to continue working with them on finding a long-term solution to the water situation.

“We all rely on the resources of the Klamath Basin,” she said.

After years of double-digit growth, Oregon’s craft beer sales are slowing. Some think legal cannabis might be playing a role.

Deschutes Brewery CEO Michael LaLonde tells The Bend Bulletin that legalized cannabis has affected sales. “It’s so potent today. Someone might go and have a beer and do some edibles, and the combination of those two things means they don’t consume as much alcohol,” he said.

But Elan Walsky, the co-owner of Coalition Brewing, isn’t so sure. He thinks cannabis presents a unique opportunity. He says his fastest-growing product is the brewery’s Two Flowers India Pale Ale. It uses CBD, a non-psychoactive ingredient of cannabis. “And you know the two industries really share a lot of the same hallmarks,” he said. 

“They both share a focus on quality and locality. They’re both regulated in the same way and of course hops and hemp are very closely related genetically.”

The slowing craft beer market has also been attributed to limited shelf space at stores, and a customer move from large bottles to smaller containers.

CENTRAL POINT, Ore. — Grange Co-op awarded $13,500 in scholarships to high school seniors at their annual meeting on April 25.

Twelve scholarships, totaling $12,000, were presented by Grange Co-op. One $1,500 Rogue Co-op Scholarship was presented by Rogue Credit Union, Medford Food Co-op, Ashland Food Co-op and Grange Co-op.

Since 2012, Grange Co-op has awarded $80,500 in scholarships to high school seniors, and in conjunction with Rogue Co-ops, another $9,500, totaling $90,000.

“Providing education is a fundamental principle for cooperatives, and we could not be prouder to support such a fine group of young men and women in pursuit of higher education,” stated Barry Robino, CEO of Grange Co-op, in a press release. “This scholarship program offers students an opportunity to learn how the cooperative business model impacts their communities, providing them with insight they may not previously have known.”

Awarded for their academic excellence and community involvement, the following students received a $1,000 scholarship. Abby Andrus from Mount Shasta, Calif.; Abby Togerson from Grants Pass, Ore.; Blake Aho from Klamath Falls, Ore.; Daphne Hobbs from Garberville, Calif.; Liliana Tapia from Macdoel, Calif.; Ryan Laws from Central Point, Ore.; Rose McFarland from Eagle Point, Ore.; Dale Theron from Fortuna, Calif.; Virginia Gonzales from North Bend, Ore.; Carlie Paquette from North Bend, Ore.; Francesca Abusmas from Grants Pass, Ore.; and Matthew Hageman from Medford, Ore.

Awarded the Rogue Co-ops scholarship for $1,500 was William Byrd from Roseburg, Ore.

Grange Co-op and its members also had the pleasure of donating $10,000 to the Oregon FFA, which was presented during the annual meeting. Receiving the check on behalf of Oregon FFA was Southern District FFA President Trevor Morgan and Oregon FFA Executive Director Kevin White.

An Oregon rancher unlawfully trespassed on public land by grazing cattle without government authorization in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, according to a federal judge.

Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman has ruled in favor of the U.S. government in a lawsuit accusing Tyler Smith of Wallowa County of repeatedly trespassing in the national forest.

The ruling upholds the earlier findings and recommendations of U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Sullivan, who rejected several of Smith’s arguments against the government’s trespass claims.

The case will now to proceed to trial to determine whether Smith should be subject to an injunction and required to compensate the federal government for damages.

In its complaint, the U.S. sought to prohibit Smith from using these and other public lands without permission and to recover the cost of restoring the government’s property in an unspecified amount.

Forest Service officials saw cattle with Smith’s “lazy 7p” brand grazing on allotments in the forest multiple times without authorization, even after Smith received warnings from the government, according to the U.S.

The rancher has shown no evidence the grazing was accidental or that cattle escaped onto federal land, while the “government’s undisputed evidence gives rise to an inference of intentional grazing,” Sullivan said.

Smith offered several reasons his cattle were allowed to graze on federal land, but the judge said “none of these legal theories has any legal validity” or factual support, according to the ruling.

The rancher claimed that a “quitclaim deed” from his grandfather allowed for cattle grazing in the area, but Sullivan said the deed didn’t encompass a grazing permit that had been revoked years earlier due to violations.

The judge also rejected Smith’s argument that under a “split estate,” he owned grazing rights to the land while the government owned the timber and mineral rights.

“The Court is unaware of any doctrine of property law whereby ownership of land is divided into split estates in the way defendant alleges, and has not been presented with any legal authority for such a theory,” Sullivan said.

Although the rancher disputed the authenticity of photographs showing his cattle grazing on public land, these pictures were “supplemental illustration” to the testimony of Forest Service officials, which provided sufficient evidence in the case, the judge said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Get ready for a little bit more pain at the pump this summer.

Crude oil prices are at the highest level in more than three years and expected to climb higher, pushing up gasoline prices along the way.

The U.S. daily national average for regular gasoline is now $2.81 per gallon. That’s up from about $2.39 per gallon a year ago, according to Oil Price Information Service. And across the U.S., 13 percent of gas stations are charging $3 per gallon or more, AAA said last week.

“This will be the most expensive driving season since 2014,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for Oil Price Information Service.

The price of U.S. crude oil has been on a mostly steady incline since last June and last week hit $68.64, the highest since December 2014. Benchmark U.S. crude closed Friday at $68.10. Oil prices near $70 shouldn’t put the brakes on economic growth, however. While they’re boosting costs for some sectors of the economy, the energy sector and related industries have more money to spend on equipment and workers.

But higher oil prices are certainly an inconvenience for drivers, especially those with lower incomes.

“The good news is, both at the global level and the U.S. level, this is occurring at a time when growth is fairly robust,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Markit. “But consumers as whole will be hurt, mostly because gasoline prices are going up.”

Kevin Lanke, a motion picture lighting technician in Redondo Beach, California, says he’s now paying about $3.39 per gallon to fill up the 25-gallon tank in his 2000 Land Cruiser SUV. That’s about 20 cents more per gallon than a couple of months ago.

“I would fill up my car and it would be $52 or $53,” said Lanke, 51. “Now it’s in the mid $60s for the same amount of gas.”

Lanke keeps the recent increase in perspective, noting that three years ago he and his fellow Californians were paying over $4 per gallon. But he’s already weighing his options, saying if gas goes to $4 a gallon he’ll buy a more fuel-efficient car to use as his main ride and drive the Land Cruiser only when he needs it.

Several factors have helped drive oil prices higher. A wave of global economic growth has driven up demand for oil. At the same time, production cutbacks initiated by OPEC last year have helped whittle down oil supplies.

In the U.S., oil supplies were running 1.1 million barrels lower at the start of this summer’s driving season, which runs from April through September, than a year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That has amplified the typical increase in gas prices seen this time of year. Pump prices normally rise as demand increases from families going on vacation and taking to the highways on road trips. Already, U.S. consumer demand for gasoline hit a record high for the month of April, according to the EIA.

Drivers in Western states such as California, Oregon, Washington, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, are paying the most at the pump. The average retail price in those states is running from $2.95 to $3.61 per gallon.

Average retail gasoline prices are lowest in a swath of mostly East Coast states, including Florida, New Hampshire, Delaware and Georgia. They’re ranging from $2.68 to $2.80 per gallon.

Still, prices remain well off from 2008, when crude oil prices jumped above $130 per barrel and average retail gas prices surged to an all-time high of $4.11 per gallon.

“People forget very, very quickly,” Kloza said, noting that the average U.S. gasoline price remains well below where they stood five years ago at $3.60 per gallon.

“We’re seeing a higher price environment... but I don’t think we’re going to look at really apocalyptic numbers,” he said.

The EIA projects that the U.S. retail price for regular gasoline will average $2.74 per gallon this summer, up from an average of $2.41 per gallon a year earlier. Gas prices to rise each spring through Memorial Day and slowly decline as the summer goes along.

For all of 2018, the agency expects that the national retail price for all grades of gasoline will average $2.76 a gallon. That would translate into an additional $190 spent on fuel by the average U.S. household this year compared to last, the agency said.

“At the higher income levels, this won’t really have much of an effect,” said Behravesh. “But it’s a bigger deal for lower-income families, because a bigger share of their budgets goes to things like gasoline.”

In broader economic terms, the rise in oil and gasoline prices will help crude producers in states like Texas and North Dakota and will likely boost capital spending industrywide. Spending by oil companies fell sharply as oil plunged below $30 a barrel in 2016, dragging on U.S. economic growth.

Industries that rely heavily on fuel, such as shipping companies, airlines, vehicle fleet operators and other transportation companies, are seeing rising costs, which eventually will be passed on to consumers. Diesel fuel hit its highest national average price in more than three years over the weekend at about $3.06 per gallon. American Airlines said it spent $412 million more on fuel in the recent first quarter than in the year-ago period.

At current levels, U.S. crude oil prices won’t noticeably hamper the economy, said Behravesh.

“You would have to get up into the $90-$100 range for it to really have a big impact on growth,” he said. “At these levels, it may shave off a tenth of a percentage point off global growth.”

One reason oil likely won’t get to that level is the emergence of the U.S. as a major global oil producer. Higher prices encourage U.S. oil companies to crank up output.

“That rise in U.S. production and further rises in U.S. production will put a cap or a damper eventually on higher oil prices,” Behravesh said.

SALEM — Oliver Menle is barely a year old and has already hugged a llama. His mother, Alyssa Menle, said the Oregon Ag Fest April 28-29 at the Oregon State Fairgrounds was an eye-opening experience for the whole family.

“I grew up in the city; this is a new experience for me, too,” Menle said. “Oliver enjoys the animals best, and big brother and Daddy are all about plants and rocks and seeds, so that was their highlight.”

Six-year-old Alyson Drawbaugh never sees calves or pigs or ponies — usually just cats and dogs in her Salem neighborhood. She liked the pony rides best, with being licked by a calf a close second.

“It’s fun to be able to get out of the house and come here where we can see a lot of the farm animals up close,” Alyson’s mother, Melissa Walton, said. “I was joking with her that the black-and-white cows are where the swirl ice cream comes from.”

Ag Fest Executive Director Michele Ruby said the event brings all sectors of agriculture together to make learning about it fun.

“I think one reason our event is so successful is that we stay very focused on our mission, which is to help Oregonians better understand where their food and flora and fiber comes from,” Ruby said.

The festival has dozens of sponsors and more than 800 volunteers that include farmers and ranchers, ag students and 4-H members.

“Oregon is lucky because we have an abundance of farmers and other volunteers that really want to tell their story and engage, and we want to tap into that,” Ruby said. “It’s a grassroots event so it’s easy to love being a part of Ag Fest.”

An estimated 22,000 people attended the two-day event, which boasts 55-plus varieties of farm animals and more than 25 hands-on activities for kids. They can plant seedlings, dig potatoes, grind their own wheat for pancakes and watch chicks hatch.

“Our focus is certainly young families, but we try to have a little something for everyone,” Ruby said.

The antique tractors were a huge hit with 2½-year-old Sender Romine of Newberg.

“I grew up in a suburb of L.A., so this is a foreign world to me,” Sender’s mother, Tiana Romine, said. “I want my children to have a closer relationship with farming and agriculture. I would like that for them because I think it’s important.

“I think it has a long-running effect, even if they don’t remember all the specifics, maybe in what they choose to do for a career or just their kindness and respect for animals and farmers alike,” Romine said. “We watched the sheep shearing and my son was just riveted.”

Four-year-old Westley Johnson smiled through his entire pony ride. With Daddy out of town, mom Karli Johnson needed a break and the Ag Fest on a sunny afternoon seemed like just the thing.

“I needed a break, too,” Westley said.

Klamath Project irrigators got a much-needed break Thursday with the release of 100 cubic feet per second of water from Upper Klamath Lake to begin charging canals for the upcoming irrigation season.

PacifiCorp, which operates a system of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, agreed to transfer 10,500 acre-feet of water to the Bureau of Reclamation to help jump-start the project heading into a drought year.

Farmers and ranchers are still waiting on a federal judge in San Francisco to issue a ruling that will determine when they can start irrigating, and how much water they will have available. A 2017 court injunction requires the bureau to hold 50,000 acre-feet of stored water in Upper Klamath Lake through early June to flush away C. shasta, a deadly parasite that infects threatened coho salmon.

Based on current projections, it is not possible to satisfy the injunction while also maintaining minimum lake levels for endangered sucker fish and deliver irrigation water to farms, according to the bureau. The Klamath Water Users Association and local irrigation districts have asked Judge William Orrick to stay the injunction, which would provide clarity for irrigators moving forward.

The judge held a hearing April 11, later indicating he was “inclined” to modify the injunction. Additional briefings were due Thursday.

Scott White, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said he is hopeful for a ruling possibly as early as this week. Until then, he said charging the canals will ensure they are ready to deliver irrigation water as soon as they receive an allocation.

“We’re not out of the woods, but we’re starting to see some daylight,” White said.

PacifiCorp agreed to a temporary water transfer from reservoirs that support the Klamath Hydroelectric Project. Jeff Nettleton, area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation, said the proposal satisfies all court requirements as well as target flows downstream of Iron Gate dam in California.

Reclamation intends to return water to the hydroelectric reservoirs between July 1 and Sept. 30, Nettleton said.

Tim Hemstreet, director of renewable energy development for PacifiCorp, said the utility understands the difficult circumstances basin farmers face this year.

“PacifiCorp recognizes that the 2018 water year is extremely challenging in the Klamath Basin and is happy to make adjustments to how we operate our hydroelectric project to help balance the many competing demands for water,” Hemstreet said.

White said farmers should have an easier time conveying groundwater from wells to their fields with the canals charged. The development comes not a moment too soon for garlic and row crops, which are feeling the effects of warmer and drier weather.

Ross Fleming, a fifth-generation farmer in the Henley area south of Klamath Falls, said he has 50 acres of garlic planted this year compared to 28 acres a year ago.

“It needs water. It’s kind of a shallow rooted crop,” Fleming said. “If you don’t have water on it now, you’re going backwards.”

Fleming, who also grows potatoes, alfalfa and small grains, said charging the canals will help immensely getting water where it is needed on the farm.

“I’m just tired of the uncertainty,” he said. “You just can’t run a farmer here without water.”

The USDA took a second whack Friday at reducing the cranberries piling up in cold storage and chilling grower returns.

The agency proposed a 25 percent reduction in the 2018 crop to help bring the supply of cranberries closer to demand. The proposal follows a USDA order, finalized in early April, to divert 15 percent of the 2017 crop from the U.S. market.

In both cases, the USDA is acting at the request of the industry’s Cranberry Marketing Committee. The committee, made up of farmers and handlers, reports that a growing surplus has driven prices below the cost of production for some growers.

The order will apply to some 1,100 growers and 65 handlers in 10 states, including Oregon and Washington.

“We’re just fighting with more fruit than is usable,” Washington cranberry farmer Malcolm McPhail said. “I think you just face the facts and do something about it.”

The cranberry supply has grown over the past half dozen years as U.S. farmers produced record crops and growers in other countries increased production, particularly in Canada. Meanwhile, consumption has been flat and is not influenced by lower consumer prices, according to USDA.

The marketing committee estimated last summer that after the 2017 crop was harvested, the surplus would reach 10.9 million barrels, or 115 percent of annual sales. A barrel equals 100 pounds.

USDA volume controls will not eliminate the surplus. The USDA estimated that diverting 15 percent of the 2017 harvest will reduce inventories by 1.1 million barrels. A 25 percent reduction in the 2018 crop would remove another 2 million barrels, according to the USDA.

Ocean Spray, a farmers’ cooperative that handles a majority of the cranberries grown in the U.S., supports the USDA proposal, a spokeswoman said.

Much of the surplus is juice concentrate, a byproduct of making sweetened dried cranberries. Handlers would be able to meet a portion of their withholding obligation by disposing of juice concentrate rather than whole fruit.

Grower allotments would be based on 75 percent of sales history. Organic cranberries, a small part of the market, would be exempt from volume controls. Also, handlers who take in fewer than 125,000 barrels would be exempt, as would handlers who have no carryover fruit and aren’t contributing to the surplus.

Cranberry farmers received an average of $23.50 per barrel in 2016, while the average cost of production was $30 a barrel, according to the marketing committee. The surplus grew from 4.6 million barrels in 2011 to 9.9 million in 2016.

The USDA will take comments on the proposal until May 29. Comments may be submitted online at regulations.gov.

In the national tug-of-war over public employee unions, Debora Nearman presents an interesting case.

The Independence, Oregon, woman is an employee of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, and so is represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 503, which negotiates the contract that dictates how much Nearman is paid.

But she’s also the wife of a state legislator, Republican Rep. Mike Nearman, who’s become an enemy of labor. Unions so oppose Mike Nearman’s stances that SEIU 503 chipped in more than $50,000 in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat him at the ballot box in 2016.

That upset Debora Nearman. Now, she’s suing her union, her employer and other state officials.    

In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, Nearman argues she’s unconstitutionally being forced to help bankroll SEIU efforts like the campaign against her husband. She’s asking a federal judge to rule against laws that allow money to be automatically diverted from her paycheck to pay for union services.    

The suit names SEIU Local 503, the director of ODFW and the director of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services as defendants.

The lawsuit, filed on Nearman’s behalf by the Virginia-based National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW), is part of a national effort that could wind up destabilizing public-employee unions around the country.  

In Oregon and more than 20 other states, public employees who don’t want to join a union are still required to pay dues to fund collective bargaining that’s carried out on their behalf. They’re not required to pay for a union’s political advocacy efforts, however.

Nearman, a conservative Catholic who disagrees with the SEIU’s political stances, says she shouldn’t be required to pay anything.  

“There is no justification, much less a compelling one, for mandating that nonmembers support SEIU, which, upon information and belief, is one of the largest, most powerful and politically-active organizations in Oregon,” the lawsuit filed Wednesday states.

Nearman believes her money is being improperly used to advocate for ballot measures and campaigns.

The suit asks a judge to deem forced union payments unconstitutional, to stop the state from collecting union money from her check, and to pay her back money that she’s had to pay — a little less than $1,000 in 2016, according to filings.

In essence, Nearman’s arguing that Oregon should be a “right-to-work” state, in which employees who aren’t interested in being union members aren’t forces to pay union dues. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the group funding Nearman’s case, is pushing similar suits in five other states.

One of those, Janus v. AFSCME, is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, and could have a sizable effect on unions nationwide. Earlier this year, Nearman filed a brief in that case, making many of the same arguments included in her lawsuit.

Patrick Semmens, a spokesman for NRTW, says Nearman’s lawsuit could speed up change in Oregon if the Supreme Court agrees that compelled payments to unions violate the First Amendment.  

“It would be a way to more quickly have those rights be enforced,” Semmens said.

State officials didn’t immediately return requests for comment about the suit. The SEIU issued a statement, saying it was part of an effort to “undermine worker rights and public services.”

“We have not been served and of course can’t comment on the lawsuit, but we can say that there is an effort in several states to use lawsuits like this one to make it more difficult for unions to represent and protect workers,” said SEIU Local 503 executive director Melissa Unger.

Nearman’s husband, Mike, first won office in 2014, representing a House district outside of Salem that includes Dallas and Independence. In the time since, he’s gotten a reputation as one of the state’s more conservative legislators and a vocal opponent of union initiatives — like 2016’s failed Measure 97, which would have taxed corporations.

According to Debora Nearman’s lawsuit, the SEIU chipped in $53,260 to a political committee called “The Real Mike Nearman Committee” in 2016. The committee “aggressively campaigned against Plaintiff’s husband and distributed fliers that disparaged him.”

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah militia group leader pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to blow up a federally owned cabin in Arizona in what prosecutors call a case of domestic terrorism.

William Keebler, 59, was angry about federal management of public lands and wanted to retaliate against the government, federal prosecutors said. He came under investigation after joining Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s armed 2014 standoff over grazing fees amid hot debate over federal control of public land in the West.

“We hope this prosecution would be an object lesson for any would-be terrorist who would attempt to use violence, either in the domestic or international context,” said Andrew Choate, assistant U.S. Attorney for Utah.

Keebler could face up to five years and 10 months in prison at a sentencing set for July.

Keebler led a small group of about seven people called the Patriots Defense Force in the desert about 40 miles west of Salt Lake City. Three of his followers were FBI agents who started investigating him after the Bundy standoff, according to testimony in the case.

Keebler’s friends have said he was set up by the agents who gave him the inert device he tried to detonate near Mt. Trumbull in June 2016. He took pains to make sure that no one was around when the device went off, defense attorneys said.

Prosecutors, though, say the violence would have escalated if he hadn’t been arrested. Keebler also cased mosques and military facilities before settling on the remote Bureau of Land Management cabin and was willing to shoot anyone who tried to catch him after he thought he detonated the explosive device, authorities said.

The cabin is used to house seasonal workers. A group of college students had been staying there shortly before the attempted explosion, Choate said. They were cleared out after the undercover agents sent word about Keebler’s plans, he said.

Keebler pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempted destruction of federal property. A gun charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement shortly before he was set for trial.

A controversial Oregon dairy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday night, blocking an auction Friday to sell off its 14,500 cattle herd in Boardman, Ore.

The liquidation of Lost Valley Farm’s 10,500 cows and 4,000 replacement heifers was ordered in Oregon state court at the behest of Rabobank, a major farm lender seeking repayment for $60 million in defaulted loans.

However, the bankruptcy petition filed by Greg te Velde, the dairy’s owner, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California automatically stays all foreclosure actions by creditors, including the auction scheduled for April 27 at 11 a.m.

Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, companies typically develop reorganization plans to restructure their debt. Te Velde declined to comment on the bankruptcy case.

Aside from Lost Valley Farm in Oregon, te Velde’s bankruptcy also encompasses his California dairy operations, Pacific Rim Dairy in Corcoran and GJ te Velde Dairy in Tipton.

Together, the dairies have more than 40,000 cattle that are listed as potential “hazard property” that poses a safety threat or requires immediate attention.

Te Velde’s companies owe between $100 million and $500 million to fewer than 1,000 creditors and have between $100 million and $500 million in assets, according to the bankruptcy petition.

A more complete accounting of his financial affairs is due in bankruptcy court by May 10.

Overland Stockyard, a dairy livestock auction in Hanford, Calif., is listed as te Velde’s largest unsecured creditor with a claim of $3 million, followed by Conway Hay Sales of Goshen, Calif., with a $2.9 million claim and Valmont Northwest, an irrigation equipment dealer in Pasco, Wash., with a $2.3 million claim.

Joe VanLeuven, an attorney representing Rabobank, said he is still evaluating the bankruptcy effect on Rabobank’s state court action and the financial receivership for Lost Valley Farm.

A receiver was appointed to oversee the Oregon dairy’s finances and protect Rabobank’s collateral at the same time that an Oregon judge ordered the company to cooperate with the planned auction earlier this month.

VanLeuven said he would not comment on Rabobank’s disposition toward a reorganization plan for Te Velde’s companies. It is unclear what the immediate effects of the bankruptcy will be, thought the immediate impact is the automatic stay, he said.

“The upshot is our auction is not happening today,” VanLeuven said.

Riley Walter, te Velde’s bankruptcy lawyer based in Fresno, Calif., did not immediately return a message for comment.

The auctioneer, Toppenish Livestock, sent several staff members on the hundred-mile trip to Boardman to inform bidders of the latest development. Owner John Top said the company spent three weeks preparing for the auction.

“It’s the height of inconvenience,” Top said.

Aside from its financial troubles, Lost Valley Farm has repeatedly run into regulatory problems in 2018.

Unauthorized discharge of manure and other violations of its confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, permit prompted the Oregon Department of Agriculture to fine the dairy more than $10,000.

Continued wastewater issues were cited in a lawsuit filed by ODA seeking to stop all discharges from the dairy, which would effectively shut it down. That case was settled, allowing Lost Valley Farm to continue operating under certain conditions.

A spokeswoman for ODA said regulators continue to conduct weekly inspections at the dairy. Since the March 16 court settlement, they have observed several more violations — including manure spills — at Lost Valley Farm, which were self-reported but still constitute a CAFO permit violation.

Compliance work is ongoing, the spokeswoman said, adding that no surface water or groundwater sites have been contaminated. When asked about how they are working to comply with the permit, te Velde said, “All I can tell you is we’re doing the best we can there.”

Oregon’s CAFO program permits, on average, 509 facilities and conducted 880 inspections across the state last year. All dairies, regardless of size, are visited approximately every 10 months, and less than 1 percent of inspections resulted in violations that led to civil penalties.