Statesman Journal

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — More than 350,000 fingerling trout are being dropped from helicopters into lakes across the mountains of Oregon.

The goal of this week’s drop is to offer fishing opportunities to those willing to venture into the backcountry, The Statesman Journal reported. The fish to be stocked in high mountain lakes include juvenile brook, cutthroat and rainbow trout.

“Trout fishing is still by far our most popular type of fishing in Oregon,” said Mike Gauvin, manager of recreational fishing for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “The thing about Oregon’s high lakes is there are not a lot of places in the lower 48 United States where you can have this kind of wilderness fishing experience.”

The fish drop happens every two years, and it usually takes two years for the small fish to reach the 8-inch size where anglers can keep them.

The trout are transported mostly by helicopter in a custom shuttle carrying 30 individual canisters that hold a few gallons of water and up to 1,000 fingerling trout. The canisters are opened by remote control from inside the cockpit while the chopper hovers over a lake.

A helicopter crew can seed as many as 20 lakes with 20,000 trout in a single one-hour flight. In other areas, the agency still must use the old-fashioned way of getting trout to the outback — afoot or on horseback.

Biologists generally use 3-inch juvenile fish because the 100-foot fall is less traumatic for them than larger fish.

Ninety-five percent of the little fish survive the drop, but biologists believe they may have a tougher time surviving once they’re in the lake. The state will experiment with larger trout in some locations, to see how their survival rate compares.

Spots near Salem that will get fish include numerous lakes in the Cascade Range, including in the Mount Jefferson, Mount Washington and Three Sisters wilderness areas. The Fish and Wildlife website includes a statewide list.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a logging accident that killed a man in northwestern Oregon.

The Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office says 32-year-old Casey Schlundt of McMinnville died Wednesday when an unexpected log shift caused a cable to break. The logs and Schlundt fell about 50 feet. He was pronounced dead at the scene in Tillamook.

The sheriff’s office and Oregon OSHA are conducting the investigation.

In the wine world, and in the curious niche it occupies in Oregon agriculture, it is big news that a professor, a wine climatologist, is moving from one college to another.

Greg Jones, although as unassuming an academic as you’ll find, carries that kind of heft.

Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., in Yamhill County where the state’s wine industry came of age, announced that Jones has been hired to oversee its Wine Education Program. The college offers an interdisciplinary minor in the subject, which seems unfair to previous generations of college students.

Nonetheless, Jones is leaving Southern Oregon University in Ashland, where he directs the Division of Business, Communication and the Environment and is a research climatologist with SOU’s Environmental Science and Policy Program. He’s considered an expert on how climate variability and change affect grapevine growth and wine production.

The website Great Northwest Wine said Jones’ move to Linfield is “international news.” Tom Danowski, president and CEO of the Oregon Wine Board, described Jones as a “longtime friend to Oregon’s grape growers and winemakers.”

“His stellar global reputation for excellence in his field continually reminds us how lucky we are to have him here in Oregon’s wine community,” Danowski said in a prepared statement.

Linfield President Thomas Hellie said Jones has “earned an international reputation for his research on wine, climate and the environment.” In a prepared statement, he said Jones is a “perfect fit for Linfield.”

Jones agrees. The opportunity was unexpected, he said, but came at a time when he was ready for change and new challenges after 20 years in Ashland. The move puts him physically at the nexus of Oregon’s expanding and well-regarded wine industry, with 100 wineries within 50 miles.

Equally exciting, Jones said, is the chance to shape Linfield’s wine education program. The first task, he said, is to make wine studies an academic major in addition to a minor. He said Linfield will not compete with universities to crank out winemakers, but instead will offer a broad liberal arts overview of how wine functions as a business and a sustainable agricultural enterprise.

He envisions students getting a four-year degree in wine studies from Linfield, then perhaps going on to master’s degrees in viticulture from Oregon State, Washington State, the University of California-Davis or elsewhere.

Jones organized the industry’s Terroir Congress that was held at Linfield in the summer of 2016, with about 100 scientists attending from around the world. Wine Business Monthly named him one of the top 50 industry leaders last year as well. The Oregon Wine Press chose him Wine Person of the Year in 2009 and the website intowine.com picked him as one of the 100 most influential people in the industry in 2012 and 2013. He’s one of 10 Americans honored for his work with the Portuguese wine industry.

Jones, 57, said his interest in wine climatology is a “chicken or egg” question. His parents, Earl and Hilda Jones, founded Abacela Winery in Roseburg, Ore., in 1995. It was questions his father asked while starting the Tempranillo varietal winery that started Jones thinking about the niche science of wine climatology.

Jones said he still has projects in Southern Oregon and will remain involved with the region and will continue producing his email climate reports.

“I’m really not leaving, I’m just residing somewhere else,” Jones said.

“I’m grateful for all SOU and the Southern Oregon wine region have allowed me to do,” he said. “It’s been a wonderful 20 years.”

AGNESS, Ore. (AP) — A 3.2-million-board-foot timber sale federal officials said was designed as a landscape restoration project will reap little financial benefits other than the first major repairs in three decades to a popular forest road.

Compared to other sales, the Green Knob timber sale fetched pennies on the dollar from a Brookings mill that will pay $350,000 in culvert replacements so its trucks can use Bear Camp Road to ship its mill enough logs to build 200 homes.

Known on maps as Forest Service Road 23, Bear Camp Road is a one-lane, paved road over the Siskiyou Mountains used by lower Rogue Canyon rafters and others.

It will be closed for up to two months beginning Monday so contractors for South Coast Lumber Co., the sale’s purchaser, can begin replacing 22 culverts along a 7.5-mile stretch to return the 30-year-old road to log-truck worthiness for fall logging.

Tina LaNier, the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest’s Gold Beach district ranger, said Green Knob was crafted over 201 acres to improve large-tree growth, reduce wildfire intensity and improve habitat for species such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

“The point of the sale is landscape restoration,” LaNier said. “We’re increasing resiliency of these stands to fire. We’re trying to improve late-successional characteristics.”

The sale also was managed knowing that whoever bought it would have to improve the road, where failed culverts lead to sloughs in the pavement and washouts that dump unwanted sediment into the Rogue River.

“We knew it needed repair,” said Jim Campbell, the forest’s timber-sale contracting officer. “Almost every culvert in that road is rusted out.”

Knowing potential buyers would need to recoup the estimated $350,000 in required road improvement through lowered timber costs, the forest set the minimum bid at $10.34 per thousand board feet of timber, Campbell said.

South Coast Lumber was the only bidder and offered just the minimum bid, which is less than 5 percent of the forest’s five most recent sales, which garnered $200 to $250 per thousand board feet of timber, according to Andy Hill, a forest resource specialist.

At the sale price, Green Knob’s 3.2 million board feet of timber will add $33,088 to forest coffers, making the Bear Camp Road repairs by far the sale’s largest financial benefit to the forest.

“When you look at it, that’s what it’s showing,” Campbell said. “But we don’t really look at things that way. That (road improvements) was a secondary issue.”

About 16,000 board feet of timber goes into the average 2,000-square-foot home. A board foot is a 1-square-foot board of usable timber that is 1-inch thick.

Completed in the late 1980s, Bear Camp Road is seasonally closed by snowdrifts and is the only paved road between Galice and Agness. It has become a staple for rafting companies and private parties shuttling trailers for people rafting the Rogue’s Wild and Scenic Section, as well as summer motorists looking for a forest drive that offers spectacular panoramas of largely unscratched backwoods.

It was originally built to safely transport log trucks, but the original corrugated galvanized steel culverts have failed over time, causing regular sloughing of the serpentine soils there and requiring repairs almost annually.

While forest roads are public, upgrades to log-haul quality are the responsibility of those who buy timber sales transport logs on those roads. The Green Knob sale is the first in the area, hence the first with major road improvements built into the sale.

“They are good tools for us to repair the road,” assistant forest engineer Paul Podesta said. “(But) we are not going to fix all the issues with that sale.”

Campbell said the forest plans more timber sales in that area, with more improvements to Bear Camp Road, but to lesser financial levels than the Green Knob sale.

“It just happened that this sale footed the bill for most of it,” Campbell said. “The future timber sales will pay a hefty price to haul over that road.”

Oregon State University Extension Service is looking to taxpayers for help funding local outreach and education programs in Umatilla and Morrow counties.

A citizens advisory committee has proposed creating two new service districts for OSU Extension — one in each county. If approved by voters, the districts would tax at a rate of 33 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

That money would go toward paying for things like additional staff, supplies, maintenance and utility costs. OSU Extension not only has farm and livestock agents working across both counties, but supports educational programs such as 4-H and Master Gardeners.

The Umatilla County extension district would also include OSU’s Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center north of Pendleton and Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, where scientists conduct experiments to improve farming practices.

Mary Corp, who serves as both the regional administrator for OSU Extension and director at CBARC, said the districts would add much-needed sustainability to the budget. Twenty-five of Oregon’s 36 counties already have extension districts in place.

Both county boards of commissioners would oversee the districts and set their budget committees, constituting three citizens and three commissioners.

Corp said they are aiming for May 2018 to place the district on the ballot, though it will be a long process going forward.

First, OSU Extension must convince Umatilla and Morrow county commissioners to approve an order initiating the development of a special district. Then, Corp said, they will be looking to get resolutions of support from all 17 incorporated cities across the two counties.

Voters will have the final say, and though new taxes are never the most popular choice, Corp said she is confident in the communities’ support for OSU Extension.

“People really see a lot of value in the work we do,” Corp said.

As it stands, OSU Extension is already supported in part through general fund dollars from both counties. In their most recent budgets, Umatilla County will be contributing $321,090 while Morrow County has earmarked $167,065.

Still, Corp said funding is on the decline due to cuts in state and federal funding. That has left OSU Extension without the ability to fully staff programs or address new needs.

An advisory group consisting of eight different stakeholders started meeting about a year and a half ago to go over their options, and they decided in May that a service district would be the best choice to generate long-term stability.

The agricultural research stations, meanwhile, are also finding themselves scraping for funding. Back in 2008, the university decided that 25 percent of each station’s budget must come from local dollars, and since then Corp said CBARC has received a block grant worth $250,000 from the Oregon Wheat Growers League.

“If I didn’t have that block grant coming in, I would be in the red,” Corp said.

However, Corp said the Wheat Growers League no longer has the money to continue that level of support as wheat prices and acreage decline.

“They’ve told me they see this (grant) sunsetting very soon,” she said.

At HAREC, director Phil Hamm said he has also had to go fundraising for as much money as he can just to keep the doors open. Some dollars have come from the Oregon Potato Commission, and some from local growers.

“It’s been a pain in my neck to go out and search for dollars,” Hamm said.

An extension district would ensure the facilities remain in shape, Hamm said, with substantial economic rewards for the region. Agriculture contributes roughly a half-billion dollars in farm gate value for both Umatilla and Morrow counties, and that total increases to $1 billion if you add in the value from trucking and food processing.

OSU Extension helps to keep the industry thriving with programs and research, Hamm said.

“We have provided what our stakeholders would say is very important information for what they do,” he said.

OSU Extension will make its initial pitch to Morrow County commissioners on July 19. The same presentation will also be given to Umatilla County commissioners, though a date has not yet been set.

Don Russell, Morrow County commissioner, said Corp has already met with each commissioner individually. Initially, he is in favor of the district but has some questions about whether the state will pull additional funding if it moves forward.

George Murdock, Umatilla County commissioner, said the county is extremely supportive of OSU Extension.

“It’s one of those things where the return on investment is many times over,” Murdock said. “We’re talking high-value operations that require a high level of sophistication. That’s the return we’re getting from cooperative extension.”

Hamm said the district would be beneficial across all sectors of extension, from farmers to families with children in 4-H.

“It’s nice to see all these folks appreciate what we do,” he said.

HEPPNER, Ore. — A new invasive weed has been spotted for the first time growing in southern Morrow County.

Plumeless thistle, which has previously been identified in neighboring Grant County and a few small locations in Wallowa County, was recently found by a landowner while out spraying for other types of thistle in the area.

While it may look similar to Scotch thistle or musk thistle — with their distinctive rose-colored flowers — plumeless thistle is distinct from its fellow invasive brethren. The weed can grow more than 4 feet tall, with spiny leaves measuring 4-8 inches long.

Blooms usually occur between May and July, and each plant can produce up to 1,000 seeds. Once established, plumeless thistle can degrade pasture land by crowding out more desirable forage, making it all but impossible to graze cattle.

Landowners who suspect they may have plumeless thistle on their property should call the Morrow County weed control office at 541-989-9500. Early detection and rapid response is key to controlling the weed before it can become widespread.

The Pacific Northwest wheat crop is at the point when adult plant stripe rust resistance is kicking in and hot, dry weather has slowed the disease’s development, a top researcher says.

Stripe rust in winter wheat fields is under control, but low levels of rust pustules are still active in spring wheat, said Xianming Chen, research plant pathologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Pullman, Wash.

Fungicide application is no longer needed except in late-planted fields, at higher elevations or where there is a lot of soil moisture, Chen said.

Stripe rust was still severe this year, especially in winter wheat, Chen said. Late plantings and early fungicide applications reduced the amount of stripe rust in spring wheat, he said.

The disease can reduce yields in a highly susceptible wheat variety by up to 60 percent. No highly susceptible winter wheat varieties are grown in the region, but popular varieties such as Xerpha, Clearfield 102 and Eltan can have a yield loss of as much as 30 percent, Chen said.

As farmers consider fall planting, Chen recommends that farmers consider a variety that has high resistance to stripe rust.

Syngenta Ovation has more resistance but still needed a fungicide application this year.

Spring wheat varieties JD, Diva, Louise, Whit, UI Platinum, Dayn and Glee are resistant. Babe, WestBred’s WB 1035CL+ and Syngenta’s SY 605 CL are particularly susceptible, he said.

Chen hopes to see more acres of the Washington State University soft white spring wheat Seahawk and the WestBred hard red spring wheat Expresso, which don’t require any fungicide applications.

In addition to the Western states, stripe rust has also been reported in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi. Noth Carolina, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin, Virginia, Delaware, Tennessee, Michigan, Kentucky, Nebraska, Indiana, Georgia, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota and New York.

Chen said the disease’s distribution was similar to last year. The biggest losses were last year in the Great Plains, while damage was less this year, due to relatively dry conditions in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, he said.

A blue-green algae outbreak in a Lake County, Ore., reservoir has killed 32 head of cattle.

The outbreak began on KV Bar Ranch about June 12. John Shine, owner of the south-central Oregon ranch, said the steers “just started dying.” That afternoon 11 died, and the rest followed within 72 hours. Although Shine is the ranch owner, the cattle lost belonged to another rancher.

“We had a reservoir that cattle have been drinking out of for 60 years, and never had a problem. Then this breeze comes from the north and carried this layer of scum 3 to 4 feet from the edge and that’s what they were drinking. We noticed the cattle had blue legs,” Shine said. “We thought it was poison at first. We didn’t know what it was.”

The color and the smell were the most noticeable things to Shine.

“It’s a turquoise color; it’s not green,” he said. “It smelled like rotten seaweed at the ocean.”

Despite its name, blue-green algae are actually bacteria. It occurs naturally in many fresh and still waters, and is recognizable by a collection of surface scum that “looks like a green paint spill,” said Dr. Rod Ferry, veterinarian at Lakeview Animal Hospital. Although some blue-green algae species are harmless, others produce a toxin that in large doses can affect the liver or the nervous system. The toxin can affect both animals and people.

“It’s unusual to lose 32 (cattle) in one hit,” said Theo Dreher, a microbiology professor at Oregon State University. “It’s probably not infrequent in cases of ranch land cattle where a few stock die, but this is pretty exceptional, and points out the danger that does exist when you get one of these blooms.”

They suspect that the bloom formed because of Oregon’s increased rainwater this winter and spring, after several years of drought. During that time excess manure may have washed into tanks, ponds or reservoirs, which caused an increased nutrient load for the algae to feed on and grow, creating the bloom, Pete Schreder, OSU Extension livestock agent, said in an email.

Wind can also help aggregate the clumps of algae.

For producers, losing 32 head “is relatively devastating,” Schreder said.

After they eat the toxin, cattle will quit eating, stagger or be unable to rise from lying on the ground. Eventually, they will go into a coma and die. Death can come up to 72 hours after initial exposure.

“There is no treatment available. It’s pretty impractical to treat cattle with a lethal dose because it just can’t save them,” Ferry said.

Ranchers should be diligent and check all water sources for anything atypical. If they see anything suspicious, keep livestock away from the water and call the local OSU Extension office.

This is the first reported case of blue-green algae in Lake County, Schreder and Ferry said.

“I’ve been here for 30 years and haven’t seen it in this county to this degree,” Ferry said. “It’s not something experienced here.”

There have been other sightings of blue-green algae in Oregon, according to Dreher, the microbiology professor. Toxic species have been found in the South Umpqua River, Detroit Lake, Upper Klamath Lake, South Tensile Lake and areas of Lake Billy Chinook, according the Oregon Health Authority’s algae bloom advisories website.

While some algaecides are available to treat smaller ponds, they are temporary and costly. Any chemical treatments will affect too many other natural systems in the water, and would not be feasible, Schreder and Dreher said.

“We really just have to let it run its course. It grows and blooms, and then dissipates over time,” Schreder said.

Dreher estimated that the dissipation period can last a couple of weeks.

“In a small reservoir many things can happen. The bacteria can die off and be eaten by other organisms and bacteria, or it could settle out on the sediment under the water and stop growing or it can be disrupted by currents and wind until the concentration lowers,” Dreher said.

Dreher also reminds producers to be aware of the algae if they’re irrigating their pastures, as that might cause further exposure problems.

Once a bloom has been formed, reservoirs or ponds can be more susceptible in the future.

“All water has the capability, but it happens when the stars align just right,” Schreder said. “We’re looking into the summer and can’t predict if we’re going to have more blooms; we just have to watch and see. We want to alert people to be diligent and keep an eye out on ponds and reservoirs this year.”

SALEM — Bills that aimed to bring industrial hemp into the mainstream of Oregon agriculture have died despite lacking strong opposition or a hefty price tag.

Hemp seed could be tested for purity by Oregon State University under House Bill 2371, which would also have brought the crop under an official OSU research pilot program.

A new industrial hemp commission devoted to raising funds for research and promotion would have been created under House Bill 2372, similarly to several other Oregon agricultural products.

Both proposals unanimously passed the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee in April but then languished in the Joint Ways and Means Committee until the end of the 2017 legislative session.

“It’s the biggest mystery I’ve ever bumped into in this building,” said Rep. Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, the bills’ chief sponsor.

The work of the Oregon Industrial Hemp Commission would have been paid by grower assessments, while the research and seed testing program would have “minimal impact” on OSU and an “indeterminate” cost for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which could charge fees to hemp farmers.

“There was zero opposition and some pretty substantial reasons why they should pass,” said Matt Cyrus, a hemp grower from Deschutes County who lobbied for the legislation.

Oregon’s hemp industry finds itself in a “slight gray area” under federal law, but HB 2371 would have brought OSU research activities into alignment with federal language in the 2014 Farm Bill, which allows some hemp production, he said.

“It was more of a technical housekeeping bill,” Cyrus said. “It was a fairly important bill for the industry.”

Without the proposal’s approval, OSU will be constrained in communications and advice to hemp growers, said Jay Noller, head of the university’s crop and soil science department.

The university can still conduct research without the bill, but it’s not permitted to provide Extension services to hemp producers, he said.

“We’re kind of hamstrung here,” Noller said.

If HB 2371 had passed, ODA-registered hemp producers would have automatically become OSU research program participants, giving OSU greater leeway to work with them under federal law, he said.

“It means we’ll be waiting until things get cleaned up,” Noller said.

When asked about the hemp bills’ failure, the co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, said that fewer than “one-in-three bills were able to move through the committee and pass both chambers, due to time constraints and other factors.”

Wilson, the bills’ chief sponsor, said he met with leaders of the Ways and Means Committee, as well as Gov. Kate Brown, to explain the significance of the legislation.

“I am absolutely stunned by this development,” Wilson said. “Everybody in this place knew what this was about and what it would do. I can’t figure out who the enemy was.”

While the industrial hemp commission would have been “nice to have,” the statutory language changes in HB 2371 are imperative to bring Oregon’s hemp industry in line with federal requirements, he said.

Wilson said he never received any feedback about why the latter bill shouldn’t be passed and plans to re-introduce it in 2018.

“I plan to bring this one back,” he said.

Courtney Moran, attorney and lobbyist for the Oregon Industrial Hemp Farmers Association, said she was equally mystified by the bills’ demise.

Members of a natural resources subcommittee of the Joint Ways and Means Committee expected to consider the bill, and leaders of the full committee said they expected it to be reviewed, Moran said.

“We did everything we possibly could, I feel,” she said. “We’re disappointed in the failure of the co-chairs to recognize the importance of the bills.”

A team of researchers has developed a method that speeds up diagnosis of crown gall disease, which can damage or kill valuable nursery stock, berry bushes, grape vines, roses, and nut and fruit trees.

The testing procedure marks a “huge step forward” in eventually allowing growers to test for crown gall on-site, providing results in about 30 minutes, said Jeff Chang, an associate professor at Oregon State University. Now, testing takes about 2.5 hours, with growers taking or sending plants to OSU’s plant clinic for identification of diseases.

There is no cure for crown gall disease, but quicker, on-site confirmation of the pathogen’s presence will allow growers to isolate, remove and destroy infected plants, potentially halting the spread of the disease.

“They can accelerate that (detection) process and save on how many plants they have to throw away,” Chang said.

Crown gall is caused by a soil-borne bacteria called Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which enters plants through plant tissue wounds caused by such things as pruning cuts, boring insects and freeze damage. The pathogen genetically modifies plant tissue, stimulating it to produce swollen knobs called galls.

The disease can kill young plants and disfigure nursery stock to the point that it can’t be sold and must be thrown away.

The researchers, funded by a grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, developed molecular tools to diagnose crown gall.

Chang and post-doctoral researcher Elizabeth Savory co-wrote a report on the study. Skylar Fuller, a recent OSU graduate, designed the detection mechanism under Chang’s and Savory’s mentorship. Other collaborators were Alexandra Weisberg, also a post-doctoral researcher, and Melodie Putnam, the plant clinic director. The team used variations of gene sequences originally developed by OSU Professor Walt Ream.

On a research boat on the Columbia River, Laurie Weitkamp with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grabs two buckets filled with water and about a dozen young salmon and steelhead.

“Ooh, we got some steelies!” she says.

By stretching a net across the river below Bonneville Dam, researchers are intercepting the fish swimming toward the ocean to see what they’ve been eating.

What they really want to know is whether the fish are eating bugs that came from marshes restored for their benefit. That’s key to proving habitat restoration is helping the fish grow and survive.

Federal agencies have spent millions of dollars restoring salmon habitat on the lower Columbia River as part of a massive effort to save salmon from the impacts of hydroelectric dams.

In the Columbia Basin, 13 species of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead are navigating a river system loaded with dams.

The federal plan to help them has been challenged and rejected in court five times in more than 20 years. In that plan, the agencies told the court that restoring marshes in the estuary will help save threatened and endangered fish. The court’s response has been along the lines of: Oh yeah? Prove it.

That’s where Weitkamp comes in, with an elaborate research project funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

After measuring and labeling the fish, Weitkamp hands them to Meredith Journey, who uses a syringe to take a blood sample.

She’ll test the blood for a growth hormone released by the liver that will tell them whether the fish has recently been eating.

From there, the fish go to Angie Munguia who clips their fins for genetic testing and puts them in a cooler.

“We try to put them on ice as soon as possible to try to stop the digestive process in the stomach,” she said. “The more it digests, the harder it is to ID prey in the stomach.”

Later, the fish will get sliced up and analyzed at what Munguia calls “cutting parties.”

Looking inside the stomach will tell Munguia what bugs the fish have been eating, but her work doesn’t stop there. With further analysis, she can also tell what plants those bugs were eating before they became fish food.

Together, Weitkamp says, these tests help build the government’s case that restored marshes are feeding fish and helping them survive.

“Generally, the bigger you are, the fewer predators can eat you,” she said. “So big fish generally have higher survival when there are [more] predators around than really small fish.”

While Weitkamp is catching salmon and looking in their stomachs, other researchers are studying the bugs coming out of restored marshes. Their goal is to connect the dots between bugs in the marsh and bugs in the fish.

“Then we can kind of put it together, but it’s tough,” Weitkamp said.

The question of just how much habitat restoration improves salmon survival has become more and more pressing as judges have repeatedly rejected the federal plan for protecting salmon from dams.

In his ruling last year, federal District Court Judge Michael Simon called the uncertainty of habitat restoration a “significant deficiency” in the government’s plan. He said the agencies should look at other options, like spilling more water over dams or removing some dams altogether.

Michael Tehan, assistant regional administrator with NOAA Fisheries, said it’s clear the judge wants more certainty about how much benefit the salmon can get from habitat restoration. What’s not clear is whether the agencies can deliver.

“Through all these court rulings, the judge has been asking the question: We want to know exactly how much,” he said. “The science just doesn’t allow you to pin it down with that kind of certainty.”

That raises questions about whether the agencies need more science or a different strategy for helping salmon.

“There are some folks who are questioning: Why are you continuing to pursue habitat projects if you’re not getting credit from the courts?” Tehan said.

Will the science satisfy the court?

Mike Langsley, a fish biologist with the Corps of Engineers, says the agencies have made significant improvements in salmon survival through the dams themselves. Fish passage is up to 98 percent in some places.

That leaves them looking at where else they help salmon survive. Breaching dikes and opening up floodplains seems like it should help.

“Because we know historically that’s how it looked,” he said. “You’ve got a place salmon can’t access. You open it up so they can access it. So how do you figure out whether that’s good or bad?”

He said science can show the fish are using the habitat and eating the bugs it produces, but that might not be enough to prove more salmon are surviving to adulthood as a result.

“They feed. They grow. Just being in there maybe is good,” he said, “but it’s a very difficult thing to say that’s going to increase smolt-to-adult return rates by some percentage.”

Weitkamp says there’s still a lot we don’t know about how to help salmon survive.

“I mean, each salmon species makes its life slightly differently, and it’s really fascinating to try to uncover: What is their strategy? What are they thinking?” she said.

For her, the need to save imperiled fish from dams in the face of a seemingly never-ending lawsuit means she’ll always have more questions to answer and more work to do.

In other words, she said, “job security.”

SALEM — Many attention-grabbing farm-related bills considered during Oregon’s 2017 legislative session died quietly despite much initial fanfare.

Meanwhile, several more-targeted and less-contentious proposals were approved without nearly as much commotion, though they’re likely to have on-the-ground consequences for growers.

Numerous bills drew big crowds to committee meetings where lawmakers heard hours of impassioned testimony.

Limits were proposed for neonicotinoid pesticides, dairy emissions, livestock antibiotics and solar panels on farmland.

New lawsuits over pesticides would have been possible under legislation that removed “right to farm” protections for chemical applications and eliminated the requirement to notify farm regulators before filing complaints.

Every water right in Oregon would have been subject to a new $100 fee under one bill, while irrigators would have to install measuring devices under companion legislation.

Critics of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, attempted to overturn the state government’s pre-emption of local restrictions against such crops. They also supported a bill that would have exposed GMO patent holders to new financial liabilities.

All the above proposals failed, not during dramatic floor votes, but because they were killed off by legislative deadlines.

Lawmakers also sorted through a multitude of attempts to tweak Oregon’s land use laws to relax restrictions on farmland.

A few significant proposals proved successful.

With the passage of Senate Bill 677, companies producing hard cider will enjoy the same land use rules as those producing wine, meaning they can process and sell the beverage on farmland while conducting other agritourism activities.

Several bills would have made it easier to build “accessory dwelling units” to increase housing availability in rural areas.

Under House Bill 3012 — which passed the House and Senate unanimously — historic homes can be converted into such ADUs when a new house is built in a rural residential zone. Previously, the older building had to be demolished to make way for a new home.

It will also be easier to apply biosolids — often called sewage sludge — to farmland.

Biosolids are already regularly used as fertilizer, but they’re often generated by stationary sewage treatment plants.

House Bill 2179 clarifies that human waste from septic tanks can be treated on-site within farm zones in mobile units that travel from property to property.

Another successful bill ensures growers who lose farm structures to natural catastrophes will be able to rebuild without interference from the Department of State Lands.

Last year, the agency tried to block a hay exporter from rebuilding two burned-down barns because they were suspected of being located in a wetland, despite the property’s absence from any wetland maps.

House Bill 2785 clarifies that landowners who want to rebuild farm dwellings and other agricultural structures are exempt from Oregon’s fill-removal laws, as long as they receive county approval and the original destroyed buildings existed before 2017.

Before approving new subdivisions, local governments will have to notify irrigation districts early in the process under Senate Bill 865.

Irrigation districts worried that new housing projects will disrupt canals and other infrastructure, prompting them to propose the legislation.

After some initial resistance from cities, a compromise was struck and SB 865 passed unanimously in the Senate and 56-1 in the House.

On the tax front, farmers won two notable victories.

Beneficial tax provisions — exempting agricultural machinery from property taxes and reducing property tax rates for farmland — were set to expire in seven years under House Bill 2859, whereas they’re currently permanent.

The proposal drew such vehement opposition from growers that the House Revenue Committee decided to scrap those provisions during the bill’s first hearing.

Another tax proposal, House Bill 2060, nearly went the distance.

The bill, which would have excluded small companies with fewer than 10 year-round employees from tax breaks, narrowly passed the House but died in the Senate without a hearing.

Agricultural groups convinced lawmakers to spend money on a couple proposals that are popular among farmers: grants for schools to buy local foods and a fund to pay for farmland-preservation easements.

However, several farm-related spending proposals didn’t gain traction, such as those directing cash to the battles against sudden oak death and invasive weeds.

Bills dedicated to restoring state funding for FFA agricultural education, meanwhile, were approved by education committees in the House and Senate but never received a hearing in the critical Joint Committee on Ways and Means, which allocates funding.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Nevada are about to try again to prove that four men should spend decades in prison for bringing assault-style weapons to a confrontation that stopped government agents from rounding up cattle near Cliven Bundy’s ranch more than three years ago.

Jury selection begins Monday in Las Vegas for the conspiracy retrial of four defendants whose cases were left undecided when jurors weren’t able to reach a verdict in April. Two other defendants were found guilty of some charges.

“They’re going to pare down their case compared to last time,” Jess Marchese, attorney for defendant Eric Parker, said Friday. “The government always fixes their mistakes.”

Todd Leventhal, attorney for defendant Scott Drexler, said prosecutors are now asking the judge to narrow the focus of the trial to the standoff itself, and not let defense lawyers raise arguments about constitutional rights and government land policy. The judge has yet to rule on those requests.

A spokeswoman for acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre declined Friday to comment.

Parker was famously photographed lying on the pavement of an Interstate 15 overpass during the tense April 2014 standoff, looking with his AK-47-style rifle toward heavily armed federal agents below.

“His case comes down to that picture,” Marchese said Friday. “It’s a scary picture.”

Drexler is seen in a similar photo, and images showed Richard Lovelien and Steven Stewart carrying assault-style rifles, but not aiming them.

Yet a 12-member jury that saw the same photos failed to reach verdicts about the four defendants. Most jurors voted to acquit on conspiracy, weapon, assault on a federal agent and other charges.

Defendants maintain they drove to southern Nevada from Idaho and Montana after seeing social media posts about scuffles involving unarmed Bundy family members and Bureau of Land Management agents using dogs and stun guns. Some said they’d never before met Bundy family members.

Officials said the government agents were enforcing federal court orders for Bundy to get his cattle off public rangeland after failing to pay more than $1.1 million in grazing fees.

In the end, no shots were fired in the armed confrontation near Bunkerville. The local sheriff brokered a truce and cows that had been rounded up were released.

The outcome made Cliven Bundy a hero to anti-government activists, and led to his arrest in early 2016 with 18 other men, including four of his sons. All are in federal custody.

Two defendants pleaded guilty last year, and Gregory Burleson and Todd Engel were found guilty during the first trial.

Burleson, of Phoenix, faces 57 years of mandatory prison time on eight charges. Engel, of Idaho, could face up to 30 years in prison. Their sentencings are set later this month.

Bundy, his sons Ammon and Ryan, and two other defendants are due for trial later this year. Six others, including two other Bundy sons, are slated for trial next year.

OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Wildfires barreled across the baking landscape of the western U.S. and Canada, destroying a smattering of homes, forcing thousands to flee and temporarily trapping children and counselors at a California campground.

Here’s a look at the wildfires blackening the West.

CALIFORNIA

Two major wildfires in California have sent nearly 8,000 people fleeing to safety.

About 4,000 people evacuated and another 7,400 were told to prepare to leave their homes as fire swept through grassy foothills in the Sierra Nevada, about 60 miles north of Sacramento, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Sunday.

The fire burned nearly 8 square miles, destroyed at least 10 structures and damaged critical infrastructure, leading Governor Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency to provide assistance to local authorities.

Fire spokeswoman Mary Ann Aldrich said additional homes were destroyed overnight. An inspection team is trying to determine the extent of the damage.

The area burning was about 10 miles south of Oroville, where spillways in the nation’s tallest dam began crumbling from heavy rains this winter and led to temporary evacuation orders for 200,000 residents downstream.

In Southern California, at least 3,500 people evacuated as two fires exploded in size at separate ends of Santa Barbara County and a third one threatened homes near a town in San Luis Obispo County.

One of the fires grew to 12 square miles, traversing a mountain range and heading south toward coastal Goleta.

There was minimal containment and flames shut down State Route 154, which is expected to remain closed for days. At least 20 structures burned, but officials didn’t say if they were homes.

Sarah Gustafson, who moved from Washington to California seven months ago, was out running errands when she saw the pillar of smoke rising near her home. She rushed to retrieve her six cats and then spent the night at a Red Cross shelter.

“It was terrifying,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “The sky was orange and black, you could see flames up on the ridge.”

About 90 children and 50 counselors were stuck Saturday at the Circle V Ranch and had to take shelter until they could be safely evacuated. Buildings have burned but officials weren’t yet sure if they were homes.

Crews were also using an air attack against another blaze about 50 miles north that exploded in size to 37.5 square miles. About 200 rural homes east of Santa Maria were evacuated after the fire broke out Saturday and was fed by dry gusts.

Some of the firefighters working to contain that blaze were sent to nearby San Luis Obispo county when a fire broke out Sunday and threatened numerous structures near the town of Santa Margarita. Officials said the fire burned at least 200 acres.

ELSEWHERE IN THE WEST

Firefighters have been able to build containment lines around about half the wildfire that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people near Breckenridge, Colorado. The fire has not spread since it broke out Wednesday and was still less than a square mile Sunday.

In rural Arizona, fire officials say three homes were among 10 buildings that were burned. The wildfire there has led to the evacuation of the entire town of Dudleyville, about 100 miles southeast of Phoenix.

A wildfire burning in near Summer Lake in south-central Oregon has destroyed a hunting cabin and an outbuilding.

And in Nevada, fire officials have ordered evacuations for a wildfire that is near the same area where another blaze has already burned for days.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Firefighters were contending with more than 200 wildfires burning in British Columbia that had destroyed dozens of buildings, including several homes and two airport hangars. The three biggest fires, which ranged in size from 5 to 8 square miles, had forced thousands of people to flee.

“We are just, in many ways, at the beginning of the worst part of the fire season and we watch the weather, we watch the wind, and we pray for rain,” outgoing Premier Christy Clark told reporters in Kamloops.

Rob Schweizer, manager of the Kamloops Fire Centre, said it had been an unprecedented 24 hours.

“We probably haven’t seen this sort of activity that involves so many residences and people in the history of the province of B.C.,” he said.

REAL Oregon, a new effort to cultivate leaders in the state’s natural resource industries, will convene its first class this fall.

“I think this is something that the natural resource-related industries have recognized as something we need. We want to make sure that it’s diverse, and that all the natural resources are reflected as much as possible,” Greg Addington, executive director of REAL Oregon, said. “We also want it to be sustainable and to produce a network of leaders throughout the state.”

REAL Oregon — an acronym for resource education and agriculture leadership — is targeting participants from all sectors of the agricultural, timber and fishing industries, including farming, ranching and processing.

“I feel really good with the industry’s commitment from agriculture to fishing to forestry, it has been tremendous. As long as we do this right, it’ll be a strong program,” Addington said.

Modeled after Leadership Idaho Agriculture, the REAL Oregon program begins in November and concludes in March of the following year. The program will consist of five 2 1/2-day sessions in Burns, Astoria, Medford, Salem and Boardman.

“Despite having great leaders throughout Oregon agriculture, I’d argue we’re not developing these leaders. Their leadership training is coming from other resources,” said Geoff Horning, executive director of Oregon Aglink. “The mission is simple but complex: Build natural resource leaders who make a difference for Oregon.”

REAL Oregon follows in the footsteps of Leadership Oregon Ag, which was started 15 years ago by Oregon resource groups. That program had only one class and wasn’t financially sustainable, according to Addington.

“That said, I can tell you personally that I thought the class itself was very successful. But I think the fact that it wasn’t sustained left a bad taste in some people’s mouths and it has taken this long to try again,” he said. “The difference this time is that we are modeling it after a more modest program in Idaho. It’s more manageable for now — and more affordable.”

The online application includes a one-page essay and two letters of recommendation. It is also recommended for applicants to speak with employers and spouses because participants are expected to attend all five sessions to graduate, and it is a large time commitment.

The classes will focus on the subjects of board governance, communication skills, conflict resolution, government interaction, public policy, media relations, natural resource industries co-existence, professional presentation, public speaking, strength assessment and urban-rural relationship building.

“The urban-rural divide in Oregon is real. The chasm feels like it’s getting exponentially larger. There is a lot of talk about bridging that gap, but it too often feels like a bridge to nowhere,” Horning said. “Oregon’s natural resource community needs a legion of polished leaders who can both listen and represent our interests. As an industry it’s our responsibility to develop that army. REAL Oregon is that effort by a unified natural resources community to build those leaders moving forward.”

REAL Oregon will accept 30 participants in its first class. The minimum age requirement is 26 years old.

“It’s not that there aren’t great folks under that age, but we want someone on a career path who knows what they want to do, and we don’t want to just get young people. I think it’s important to have a diversity of ages and leadership experience in the class,” Addington said.

The application deadline for the first class is July 28 and the cost of the program is $2,500 a person. While there are no scholarships available at this time, prospective students are still encouraged to apply and indicate in the application if financial help is needed. For more information, Addington can be reached at (541) 892-1409.

Online

http://realoregon.net/

SALEM — Oregon lawmakers have created a state fund dedicated to buying farmland-preservation easements, albeit without the $4.25 million initially sought by supporters.

Proponents of the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Fund are nonetheless cheering the news, since new spending bills were met with skepticism from legislators due to a tight budget outlook.

“It’s pretty incredible to create a program like this in a not-easy legislative session,” said Nellie McAdams, farm preservation program director with Rogue Farm Corps, a group dedicated to training future farmers.

Because the state’s land use system greatly restricts building on farmland, working lands easements aren’t as common in Oregon as in many other states.

Farmers can sell easements on their land that extinguish most development rights while still preserving their ability to grow crops and livestock on the property.

However, existing funding sources for easements are often geared toward conserving wildlife habitat and riparian areas and not production agriculture.

The Oregon Agricultural Heritage Fund would help solve that problem with money dedicated to working lands easements, but the $4.25 million originally planned for the program was viewed by legislators as an unrealistic request.

Instead, supporters focused on getting the program’s basic mechanisms and governance established.

“We can focus in the future on funding,” said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau. “There’s a tremendous public benefit so we’ll be looking for public funds in the future.”

Under House Bill 3249, which passed with strong majorities in the House and Senate in the waning days of the legislative session, nearly $200,000 will be directed to writing rules for the program and forming a commission to oversee it.

“The next step will be finding out who will be shaping this program,” said McAdams.

It’s likely that proponents of the fund will go back to lawmakers in 2019 to seek money for the fund, so the next two years will be devoted to setting priorities for the program, she said.

“That process should probably be long and include a lot of public involvement,” McAdams said.

Another farm-friendly program also won funding late in the legislative session.

House Bill 2038, which provides $4.5 million in grants for schools to buy food from local growers, passed both chambers unanimously on July 7, when the session was expected to adjourn.

Funding for the farm-to-school program was pared down from the original request of $5.6 million, but the program is expected to remain functional with the reduced amount, said Jenny Dresler, state public policy director for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

An Oregon rancher is challenging the state government’s method of determining when groundwater well pumping must be shut down to avoid disrupting surface water rights.

Tom Mallams of Klamath County claims the Oregon Water Resources Department has ordered him to stop pumping from a well near Snake Creek, a tributary of the Sycan River, based on an erroneous mathematical model.

The well was drilled into a confined aquifer that’s not connected to the creek or the river, so pumping restrictions won’t have any effect on surface water flows, according to Mallams.

Mallams has petitioned Marion County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Hart to overturn OWRD’s order because it’s “not supported by substantial evidence” as required by Oregon law.

The agency has derived its conclusions from “general studies of the Klamath Basin” without collecting any data specific to Mallams’ well, according to the petition for review.

Mallams claims OWRD should have instead relied on a well driller’s report submitted to the agency, which found the well is hydraulically separate from surface waters.

A representative of OWRD said the agency is reviewing the legal challenge with attorneys from the Oregon Department of Justice and can’t comment on the litigation at this time.

Mallams’ lawsuit is not the first time that OWRD’s method of gauging groundwater pumping impacts on surface water has provoked controversy.

In 2014, lawmakers proposed several bills requiring the agency to prove that individual wells were affecting surface flows before taking enforcement action.

The proposals were divisive in the agricultural community, with some irrigators arguing they’d disrupt Oregon water law while others claimed they’d protect water rights.

According to OWRD, the new testing requirements would have cost the agency $80,000 per well. Ultimately, the bills died in committee.

Aside from Mallams’ petition, the agency’s decision to restrict irrigation in the Klamath region is facing several other lawsuits this year.

Reacting to a “water call” from the Klamath Tribes — which have the most senior “time immemorial” water rights — OWRD has issued orders halting irrigation on roughly 300,000 acres of land.

Since early June, irrigators have filed four lawsuits disputing the agency’s rationale for enforcement action.

NEW YORK (AP) — Campbell Soup says it has agreed to pay $700 million to acquire Pacific Foods, which makes organic broths and plant-based drinks.

The deal marks the latest effort by Campbell to diversify its product lineup to better reflect changing tastes toward foods that are seen as healthier or fresher. The New Jersey-based company’s other acquisitions have included hummus and salsa maker Garden Fresh and organic baby food maker Plum. But its efforts to focus on fresh have run into some struggles , such a recall of Bolthouse Farm drinks as well as smaller-than-expected carrots that hurt sales.

Pacific Foods generated about $218 million in sales for the year ending May 31, according to Campbell. Campbell says it will continue operating Pacific Foods out of Tualatin, Oregon, where it was founded in 1987.

MERIDIAN, Idaho — Farmers in the Treasure Valley of Idaho and Oregon are bracing for an extended heat wave.

High temperatures in the area are forecast to be near or above 100 degrees for at least the next two weeks.

“It’s going to be a tough job the next couple of weeks,” said Meridian, Idaho, farmer Richard Durrant.

Beginning July 4, the high temperature in Homedale, Idaho, is forecast to reach at least 100 degrees on 16 of 17 days through July 20, and it’s expected to hit 99 the other day.

In Parma, Idaho, and Ontario, Ore., the high is expected to reach 100 degrees 15 of 17 days during that same span, with the other two days hitting 99 and 98.

“Having 100-degree weather here is not unusual,” said Stuart Reitz, an Oregon State University Extension cropping systems agent in Ontario. “But having it linger for a couple of weeks is.”

Most crops in the region are behind schedule because of heavy snow cover that lasted longer than normal, followed by a constant string of spring rainstorms, and could use some warm weather to catch up, Reitz said.

But many crops produced in the region stop growing when temperatures reach the high 90s, he said.

“That just puts them that much further behind,” Reitz said. “It just makes things that much more complicated.”

The biggest danger for farmers during a hot spell like this one is reduced yields and timely irrigation will be important to mitigate yield loss, said Joel Felix, an OSU weed scientist and crop production specialist in Ontario.

“The main concern is losing yield through moisture stress,” he said. “If you don’t irrigate when the crop needs it, you will lose the yield.”

Ontario farmer Bruce Corn said maintaining a proper irrigation schedule will be critical during the heat wave and that also means not over-watering “because over-watering will cause stress, too.”

“You just have to watch your water real close,” he said. “You have to be out in your fields every day to see what the moisture levels are. Twelve hours can make a big difference in this kind of heat. It’s just a matter of watching things.”

Growers need to be aware of what’s happening in each of their fields “and water according to their crop’s need and not just keep water going because it’s so hot,” Reitz said. “You just need to pay attention to what each individual crop and field’s needs are.”

Durrant said he’s particularly worried about the impact the lingering heat will have on wheat quality because the high temperatures come as much of his wheat is starting to fill.

The heat could have an impact on some of the region’s seed crops because a lot of them are in bloom or starting bloom and the heat could affect pollinators, said Fruitland, Idaho, farmer Jon Fabricius.

“Sometimes pollinators don’t work best when it’s that hot,” he said.

A new reduced-toxicity pesticide may remain on the market even though its approval violated the Endangered Species Act, according to a federal appeals court.

Cyantraniliprole, or CTP, was registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2014 as an active ingredient in 14 insecticide brands used on numerous crops. It’s commonly known as Cyazypyr.

The chemical provides a new weapon against the spotted wing drosophila in blueberries and the Asian citrus psyllid in citrus crops.

Environmental groups — Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety and Defenders of Wildlife — filed a lawsuit against EPA claiming the agency never studied CTP’s potential effects on threatened and endangered species.

According to the plaintiffs, CTP may be “fairly persistent” in an agricultural environment even as it degrades, raising the possibility the chemical will accumulate over time.

The plaintiffs pointed to EPA’s own ecological risk assessment that found the insecticide is expected to be sprayed in areas inhabited by 1,377 endangered species.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has now agreed that EPA violated the law by not reviewing the chemical’s potential to affect protected species or consulting about those effects with other federal agencies.

However, the EPA did not have “total disregard” for CTP’s possible adverse consequences, as shown by the ecological risk assessment, and registered the chemical because it’s likely to replace other insecticides more toxic to humans, birds, fish and bees, the D.C. Circuit said.

The D.C. Circuit said it’s convinced that leaving CTP’s registration in place while EPA further evaluates the chemical will maintain “enhanced protection of environmental values.”

The insecticide’s manufacturer, DuPont, intervened in the lawsuit, arguing that CTP’s registration fulfilled the fundamental purpose of the Endangered Species Act.

The D.C. Circuit rejected that argument, ruling that EPA wasn’t excused from the legal requirement to conduct an “effects determination” or consult about the chemical’s impact with other agencies.

Senior Circuit Judge Raymond Randolph dissented from the ruling because he believes the environmental plaintiffs weren’t injured by the pesticide’s approval and thus lack the legal standing to file the lawsuit.