ONTARIO, Ore. — If onion growers could push applications of Movento back a little later in the season, they might have more success controlling thrips, Oregon State University research is showing.

Onion thrips are the biggest pest problem for bulb onion growers in Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Besides causing feeding damage, which results in smaller onions, the insects can transmit the iris yellow spot virus, which can devastate onion fields.

According to OSU researchers in Ontario, an aggressive spraying program to keep thrips populations down is the only effective way for onion growers to control the insect.

OSU Cropping Systems Extension Agent Stuart Reitz said Movento is one of the most effective pesticides in controlling immature populations of onion thrips and recommendations have been for growers to start their spray program off with Movento and apply it early in the season because it takes awhile for it to absorb into the plant and become effective.

But if growers in this area apply the pesticide too early, its residual effect is gone by late June or early July, right as thrips populations in the area are starting to soar, he added.

Pushing use of Movento back a little later in the season can result in better control when thrips numbers are exploding, Reitz said.

“If you can push using that to a little later in the season, I think you can get a bigger bang for your investment,” he said. “If you use another material early in the season to hold those low populations in check and put the Movento out a little bit later, I think it will ultimately pay off.”

OSU researchers in Malheur County have been conducting field trials supported by the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee to try to find the best way for onion growers to manage thrips.

Nyssa farmer Bruce Corn said the various onion-related trials there have greatly benefited the area’s onion industry over the years and growers have high hopes the thrips trial will help them manage thrips with as little spraying as possible.

“It sounds very reasonable,” he said of Reitz’ Movento recommendation. “We really depend on them and look to them to figure out the best way to do things.”

Because of the roller-coaster weather in the valley this year — it’s gone from hot early to cooler, than hot again and cooler — populations of thrips, which like hot, dry weather, have been spotty, Reitz said.

“Thrips pressure has come up and gone down and come up and gone down,” he said.

Growers have had decent success this year in controlling thrips but they’ve had to spend money to do that, said Nyssa grower Paul Skeen.

According to Skeen, it costs a grower about $50 per acre on average each time they spray for thrips.

“We feel like we’re keeping them under control this year,” he said. “Of course, we’ve already sprayed five times and we still have a ways to go.”

Nursery owner Angela Bailey began work July 18 as the new grass roots coordinator for Oregonians for Food and Shelter, the ag and timber lobbying group.

Executive Director Katie Fast said the OFS board went through a planning process with stakeholders to review the group’s work and focus, especially since the 2015 retirement of Paulette Pyle, the organization’s revered and well-known connection to legislators and regulatory agencies.

The review process made it clear there was a gap in working with producers who need to be telling their story at the local level, Fast said.

“We’re challenged around GE (genetically engineered) crops, aerial spraying and pesticides in general,” she said. “We want to focus on working with people on a community level, and give them the tools to engage around the issues,”

Bailey, owner of Verna Jean Nursery near Gresham, Ore., has the experience to do that, Fast said.

Bailey, known to friends as “Angi,” served as the Oregon Farm Bureau’s second vice president in 2015 and won the Outstanding Farm Bureau Woman Award during its 2014 annual meeting. She’s also a graduate of the American Farm Bureau’s communications “boot camp,” She’s been active with the Oregon Association of Nurseries and other groups.

She and her husband, Larry, have two daughters. Bailey hadn’t planned a career in the nursery business but took over the nursery in 2005 after her mother died unexpectedly. The nursery specializes in ornamental trees, including Japanese maples and monkey puzzle trees.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has denied a change-of-venue request from a defendant charged in the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Jason Patrick sought to have the upcoming trial moved out of Portland, citing the extensive media coverage.

In her ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Anna J. Brown agrees that press coverage has been extensive, but says it has been factual in nature and not so overwhelming that a sufficient number of potential jurors could not be impartial.

She also notes the passage of time between the occupation that ended Feb. 11 and the trial scheduled to start in September.

Patrick is among 26 defendants indicted on a charge of conspiring to impede federal officers from doing their jobs at the refuge. Seven men have already pleaded guilty.

ONTARIO, Ore. — An Interior Department funding bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives includes a provision that blocks a proposed national monument in Malheur County, Ore., that is strongly opposed by local ranchers and farmers.

The bill passed 231-196 July 14 and is headed to the Senate.

It includes a proposal by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., that prevents funds from being used to create a national monument in Malheur County.

Oregon Natural Desert Association, a Bend, Ore.-based environmental group, has proposed creating a national monument on 2.5 million acres in an area of the county known as the Owyhee Canyonlands.

It would cover 40 percent of the county and encompass about 33 percent of the county’s total grazing land. County residents voted 9-1 against the idea during a special election in March.

Walden said in a news release that the House vote sends “a strong message to the president that the overwhelming majority of local residents and the People’s House oppose a monument.”

“The people of Malheur County have already spoken on this issue and they’ve come out adamantly opposed to a proposed unilateral national monument declaration on the Owyhee River canyon,” Walden said. “Now the U.S. House has also voted on my proposal to block a monument in Malheur County.”

Walden’s communication director, Andrew Malcolm, said Walden will do everything he can to stop the proposal.

“We’re going to continue to speak out against it and use every tool available to try to stop this monument,” he said.

The vote was applauded by Jordan Valley rancher Mark Mackenzie, vice president of the Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition, which was formed this year to represent ranchers, farmers and others who oppose a national monument designation.

Regardless of what happens to the bill in the Senate, “it’s sending a loud message ... that, hey, we’re not happy with this proposal,” Mackenzie said.

He said if a monument is created, a completely new set of rules would have to be drawn up for it and that unknown is concerning to ranchers.

“It’s very, very upsetting for the industry because we don’t know what we’re going to get,” he said.

Malheur County is Oregon’s No. 1 cattle producing county with about $134 million in farm-gate receipts annually.

Livestock sales yards in Idaho and Oregon recently donated $17,300 to the OBSC to support its campaign to oppose a national monument.

Producers Livestock Marketing Association donated $11,600 it raised during cattle auctions in June in Vale, Ore., and Treasure Valley Livestock donated $5,700.

Opponents of the national monument proposal worry that having 40 percent of the county’s land designated as a national monument would restrict grazing and access to these lands and harm the local economy.

The national monument proposal “is a huge concern over here,” said Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. “That’s why we voted 93 percent ‘no’ on it.”

ECHO, Ore. — A headache for farmers and fish on the lower Umatilla River for decades, the Dillon Dam is finally near its end.

The Umatilla Basin Watershed Council and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation plan to remove the troublesome diversion dam near Echo by next summer. Not only has the concrete structure long blocked passage for native salmon, steelhead and lamprey, it has been a maintenance nightmare as gravel bars routinely wash over the irrigation headgate.

But before the dam can come out, water rights for the local Dillon Irrigation Co. need to be rerouted from another source. The watershed council came up with a design in 2014 that taps into the neighboring Westland Irrigation Canal, running 11,000 feet of pipe down Andrews Road and back into the Dillon Irrigation Ditch — completely bypassing the dam.

Funding for the project appears to be in place after the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Restoration and Enhancement Board approved a $175,500 grant in May. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission still needs to approve the grant at its Aug. 5 meeting in Salem, but Jon Staldine, executive director for the watershed council, said their proposal has been well-received.

“They saw it was really a collaborative project,” Staldine said.

The watershed council had already received $350,000 from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and $20,000 from the CTUIR to build the pipeline. Staldine said the grant from ODFW will allow them to start construction in November or December, wrapping up by February so farmers can get back to work.

“The pipeline is the key project,” he said. “If that doesn’t happen, the dam won’t be removed.”

Dillon Dam is operated by the Dillon Irrigation Co., which was established in 1897. The company is currently made up of three landowners with approximately 1,400 total acres. Mike Taylor owns the Double M Ranch, the largest of the bunch, and also serves as president of the irrigation company.

Taylor has been talking about getting rid of the Dillon Dam for 15 years before the watershed council took the reins. He said the Dillon Irrigation Co. collects $10 per acre from landowners, most of which goes toward paying for maintenance at the dam.

Whenever high flows sweep down the river, it washes gravel and debris that plugs up the headgate and fish ladders at the dam. It’s up to the producers to come in and clean up the mess. Taylor said they’re looking forward to having a more reliable water delivery system from the Westland Canal.

“Getting the dam out of the river is a good thing,” Taylor said. “We’ve been working on it for a while.”

Once the pipeline is complete, the watershed council and tribes can turn their attention to physically removing the dam from the river. Staldine said they are working together on a design and applying for permits, which could take four to six months to be approved.

If all goes smoothly, in-stream construction will take place sometime between July 15 and Sept. 30 of next year. Staldine said they haven’t yet worked out the cost, but said it will be paid for out of the tribes’ Fish Accords with the Bonneville Power Administration.

Dillon Dam was originally built in 1915 and replaced sometime in the mid-1970s. It does have fish and lamprey ladders, though Staldine said they’re not up to current standards. Bill Duke, fish biologist with ODFW in Pendleton, said the dam has been a complete barrier to lamprey in past years, and a partial barrier to salmon.

“In some years, it’s a significant portion of the fall chinook run that gets delayed down there,” Duke said.

Staldine said the problem affects juveniles as well as adult fish stuck below the dam. The likelihood of survival for juveniles reared below the dam are virtually non-existent due to high water temperatures in the summertime, he said.

Yanking the dam will allow more fish, including fall and spring chinook runs, to make it to their traditional spawning grounds farther up the Umatilla River, boosting survival and providing more fishing opportunities.

“We won’t have fish caught below that are essentially getting fried every year,” Staldine said.

Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences has named David Stimpson, who has spent the past 20 years working in seed science and technology for Dow AgroSciences, as its new Seed Laboratory manager.

Stimpson will start in his new position July 29.

He replaces Adriel Garay, who retired Dec. 31 after 19 years as the lab’s manager.

Dan Curry, director of seed services for OSU, said he has known Stimpson for 15 years through their participation in the society of Commercial Seed Technologists. Stimpson currently is vice president of the organization and is in line to be its president next year.

“He is a good guy,” Curry said. “A lot of people are telling me, ‘You picked the right person.’ We feel pretty good about it.”

“Dave has extensive experience in seeds, seed industry development, seed physiology, seed analysis and commercial seed quality and compliance,” said Jay Noller, head of the college’s Crop and Soil Science Department.

Curry, who has been serving as interim director of the lab since Garay’s retirement, said he is anxiously awaiting Stimpson’s arrival.

“My arms are open for Dave to get here,” Curry said. “We need a full-time manager, and we are really happy that Dave has decided to take the job.

“He is the right person, and we are anxious for him to get started,” Curry said.

Curry said the college conducted an international search to fill the position.

PORTLAND — Love it or despise it, this quirky city can make or break the fortunes of Oregon’s farmers and ranchers.

With 610,000 people living within the city limits, and 1.7 million in the three counties that make up the greater metro area, Portland is the chief consumer, shipper, marketer and brander of the state’s agricultural production.

What happens here ripples far beyond the city, which makes Portland politics important from Pendleton to Prineville and from Powell Butte to Paisley.

When current state Treasurer Ted Wheeler decided to run for Portland mayor and won enough votes in the May primary to avoid a runoff in November, rural producers took notice.

He won’t take office until January, but some in agriculture believe Wheeler’s ascendancy could improve urban-rural relations.

Wheeler lives in Portland, but he’s a sixth generation Oregonian with rural roots. His family was in the timber business; the Tillamook County town of Wheeler, on the Oregon Coast, was named after his great-grandfather, who started a mill there. His mother’s side comes from the Fossil area, in Eastern Oregon.

Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said Wheeler has a “very strong affinity” for Oregon ag due to his background.

“Because of his experience, he has that statewide perspective,” she said. “He’s very sensitive to the fact that Portland does have a big influence on the rest of the state.”

Coba knows Wheeler; among other encounters, he stood in for then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski to accompany Coba on an Oregon ag trade mission to Asia several years ago.

“He hasn’t consulted me (on ag issues),” Coba said, “but if he had a question I think he would be very comfortable calling on me.”

For his part, Wheeler said he’s fully aware of both the urban-rural divide and urban-rural interdependence.

“You can’t talk about success in the agricultural industry without talking about the role urban areas play,” he said. “Urban communities in America are increasingly clueless about the challenges facing rural communities.”

But he said urban and rural areas also have issues in common. During a visit to Roseburg, he heard people express concern about the homeless, just as they do in Portland. In Klamath Falls, there was worry about escalating housing costs, another Portland concern.

“If we just assume urban and rural communities are so different that we have nothing in common, then we’re losing an opportunity to collaborate, share ideas and find common solutions,” he said.

Wheeler said he has interacted with the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and nursery groups in the past.

“The urban-rural divide has been around a long time,” Wheeler said. “It’s not new, and it’s not unique to Oregon. There’s always been people who exploit it for political gain. You won’t see me do that.”

He’ll take office in a city that decides every election and can swamp statewide discussions of pesticides, labor, GMOs, wages or regulatory issues. Its land-use, water use and traffic patterns can affect what farmers grow, how they grow it, how they get it to market and how they use and move equipment.

“Land and transportation are the two things he can make a difference in,” said Jeff Fairchild, produce director for 18 New Seasons grocery stores in the Portland area. He deals with about 50 growers who sell to New Seasons, and must find ways to deliver their products to the city.

Dan Arp, dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, said he would remind Wheeler that agriculture is the state’s second largest economic driver. Oregon ag produces $5 billion in annual farm-gate value and is a major source of jobs, Arp said.

The state produces more than 200 commodities and is equally diverse in terms of acreage and farming methods, he said. Portland’s celebrated “foodie” culture is supported by an agricultural sector that provides high-quality foods and beverages, with an emphasis on sustainability, Arp said.

Coba, the state ag director, said development of the proposed James Beard Public Market, named for a renowned chef from the city, could showcase Oregon agriculture in downtown Portland.

“Clearly there’s a passion around food in Portland, we all know that,” she said.

Others in agriculture note Portland’s influence on issues ranging from gas taxes to the minimum wage. Another said Portland ought to take greater advantage of nearby agricultural production to eliminate the city’s food “deserts,” the areas where poor people don’t have ready access to fresh, healthy food.

Many in ag hope the new mayor realizes the Port of Portland and Portland International Airport are agriculture’s pipeline to world markets, whether it’s hazelnuts to China, wheat to Japan or blueberries to South Korea. Port delays, labor strife and an inadequate transportation infrastructure cost producers time and money, and they believe fixing those problems should be a priority.

Wheeler agrees, and said it is a statewide issue.

“A lot of the future success of the agricultural industry hinges on partnering with the urban area and the Port of Portland,” he said.

“I think there’s a general lack of understanding about what it takes to make agricultural enterprises successful from an economic standpoint,” he said. “That’s an area where I have a lot to learn and to share with my constituents, and I look forward to those opportunities.”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal court judge has allowed an Oregon standoff defendant Kenneth Medenbach to be released from jail while awaiting trial, but he will keep the last holdout in the armed takeover in custody.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones said Wednesday he remained concerned about David Fry’s mental instability and threats of “suicide by cop” before his surrender to FBI agents.

Jones also said a psychological report on Fry states that Fry is concerned about invasions from outer space and has spoken of a wish to be reincarnated as a woman.

Fry objected to the judge’s characterization of those statements. The 27-year-old has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to impede federal officers from doing their work at the refuge.

Fry was the last occupier to surrender at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Feb. 11.

A combination of old friendships and new technology resulted this summer in about 80,000 pounds of fresh cherries being distributed to food banks that help hungry Oregonians.

John Burt, executive director of Farmers Ending Hunger, said he approached prominent orchardist Ken Bailey a couple times in the past and said, “Ken, we need to talk about cherries.”

Farmers Ending Hunger is a non-profit that lines up donations of fruit, vegetables and meat from Oregon farmers and ranchers — 4 million pounds last year. Burt, a retired OSU Extension supervisor in the Mid Willamette Valley, works his connections to reach producers. The donations flow through Oregon Food Bank, which distributes to local food banks that give food boxes to needy families.

Burt said it wasn’t a hard sell with Bailey, part of the multi-generational family that operates Orchard View Farms in The Dalles. “Great operation, great farm, great family,” Burt said. “He already knew what he wanted to do.”

Orchard View is providing about 14 1,000-pound totes per week, about 55,000 pounds through mid-July. The original target was 100,000 pounds, but Burt said the donation will probably reach 80,000 pounds.

The donated dark cherries are culls that the commercial market doesn’t want because they are perhaps under-sized, off color, or slightly bruised. Burt said the cherries are fine. “The fruit is gorgeous,” he said. “What we’re getting is just beautiful.”

As it turned out, Orchard View put in a new optical scan sorting system over the winter that made the donation process even easier. The system essentially photographs each cherry 25 to 30 times, working at a rate of 1,000 cherries per second, and automatically routes each cherry to cull or market totes. The system practically eliminates hand-sorting labor costs and results in a product of uniform quality, size and color.

But even the culls are good cherries, Bailey said.

“Generally it looks good,” he said. “It may be a little soft, but as long as it gets moved in a couple few days, it’s a very good product.”

Orchard View Farms and other producers can claim tax credits for the crop donations.

Farmers Ending Hunger bought pallets of plastic clamshell containers. Volunteers with Oregon Food Bank fill the containers with 4-pounds of cherries, and they’re included in food boxes given away by various organizations.

The value of the donation is undetermined at this point. Burt said he recently saw a similar 4-pound clamshell container of cherries on sale at a Costco store for $9.95.

Bailey said providing the cherries doesn’t slow down his processing line, as they flow into the same type of totes he uses otherwise and Oregon Food Bank handles the transport.

“This seems to be working out very well this year,” he said.

A dispute is brewing between an Oregon farmer and an irrigation district over the ownership of land underlying a canal.

Farmer Jim Gordon and his company, Kodiak Ventures, claimed ownership of the land beneath the canal through the “quiet title” process, under which property ownership uncertainties are resolved.

The previous owners of the property deeded all the land to Gordon, but mistakenly excluded the land beneath the irrigation canal and laterals, said Paul Sumner, his attorney.

After Gordon issued a public notice of the legal action, the North Unit Irrigation District — which operates the canal — filed a motion to intervene in the case.

The irrigation district claims to actually own the land beneath the canal, which it has operated since 1948, and has requested a state judge to reject Gordon’s claim.

Capital Press was unable to reach the NUID’s manager, Mike Britton, or its attorney, Alan Stewart, for comment as of press time.

Sumner said the implications of the NUID’s claim are “very troubling” because it would effectively mean that irrigation districts own the land beneath canals.

“If this argument is correct, it would be correct for every canal,” he said.

Sumner said the irrigation district simply has the right to operate the canal, but Gordon should have the right to own the underlying property.

Otherwise, he and other farmers could face land use restrictions based on parcel size or be denied access across property owned by irrigation districts, Sumner said.

It’s likely that NUID wants ownership of the property underlying the canal to build hydroelectric facilities without having to buy the land, he said.

AMITY, Ore. (AP) — A fire has destroyed a building near Amity in Western Oregon.

John Stock with Amity Fire told KOIN the building housed a machine shop and antique farm equipment such as tractors and cars inside.

Fifty firefighters were battling the Wednesday morning blaze at one point. The building and its contents were destroyed. No one was injured.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ammon and Ryan Bundy will be reunited at a downtown Portland jail.

The men who are awaiting trial on charges related to the armed occupation of an Oregon bird sanctuary were recently separated, with Ammon Bundy shipped to a jail in outer northeast Portland.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert Jones granted Ryan Bundy’s request to have them housed in the same jail as they prepare their legal defense ahead of the September trial.

Though jail officials prefer to have co-defendants separated, the judge said this is “an exceptional case and an exceptional relationship.”

Also Monday, the judge allowed standoff defendant Jason Patrick to be released from custody before trial.

ALBANY, Ore. — The State of Oregon is urging the dismissal of a lawsuit that alleges state forest management prioritizes environmental concerns to the detriment of logging.

Earlier this year, Linn County filed a complaint against Oregon for allegedly depriving multiple counties of more than $1.4 billion due to a forestry rule that emphasizes wildlife, water quality and recreation over timber harvest.

During oral arguments Monday in Albany, attorneys for Oregon said the case should be thrown out because the forests are meant to be managed for the greatest permanent value to the state, not to the counties.

This “greatest permanent value” is allowed to include many factors beyond timber production under laws that allowed counties to donate their burned and logged forests to the state government, said Sarah Weston, an attorney for the state.

“The statute does not require revenue maximization,” she said. “The statutes have always provided for multiple values and multiple uses.”

Counties acquired these forest lands by foreclosing on property tax liens during the Great Depression but turned them over to state ownership in exchange for a portion of future logging revenues.

Oregon’s attorneys claim that Linn County cannot sue the state to receive compensation for breach of contract, and that the county’s challenge to the “greatest permanent value” rule can only be heard by the Oregon Court of Appeals, rather than in a county court.

Because the lawsuit seeks to recover damages for insufficient logging in the future, it clearly intends to alter the meaning of “greatest permanent value,” said Scott Kaplan, another attorney for the state.

Either the state changes its definition or it’s potentially liable for hundreds of millions of dollars, he said.

“This is absolutely a challenge of state policies of forest management,” Kaplan said.

Linn County argued that contracts between the counties and the state government are enforceable.

“The counties gave up assets in exchange for promises,” said John DiLorenzo, attorney for Linn County.

Counties would not have donated vast tracts of land if they’d known the state would change the terms of the deal at will, he said.

“We believe that’s precisely what the state has done in this case,” DiLorenzo said. “Counties must have a way to enforce their bargains.”

More than 650,000 acres in Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Douglas, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, and Washington counties were given to Oregon based on “promises and assurances” on which the state government has since fallen short, the lawsuit claims.

The law that lays out Oregon’s forest management obligations was written when the United States was preparing to enter World War II and must be understood in that context, DiLorenzo said.

At the time, the greatest value of the land was to produce a large amount of timber for the war effort, rather than to preserve wildlife habitat or aesthetic beauty, DiLorenzo said.

Legal precedents also indicate that Oregon was obligated to maximize revenue from those lands, he said.

Several environmental and fishing organizations claim this interpretation is erroneous.

The optimum management of state forests was bound to be contentious and so that question was left to the discretion of the Oregon Department of Forestry, said Ralph Bloemers, an attorney representing the groups.

“It’s not up to the county, or the timber industry, or the conservation community, what that should be,” he said.

There’s also nothing in the law stating that revenues take priority over other uses, Bloemers said. “It continues to be a huge gaping hole in their complaint.”

Linn County also argues the lawsuit should be certified as a class action, which would allow other counties to participate in the litigation.

There are numerous potential plaintiffs with common legal arguments that would be more efficiently resolved as part of a single case, Linn County claims.

The issue of class certification will be heard at another hearing that’s scheduled for Aug. 17 in Albany.

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan to recover threatened bull trout.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan filed the lawsuit on April 19 in U.S. District Court in Oregon, accusing federal wildlife officials of not doing enough to help the trout and saying the recovery plan violates the Endangered Species Act with its inadequacies.

The agency released its Bull Trout Recovery Plan in September outlining actions to boost bull trout populations in six recovery units spread over Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana and a tiny portion of Nevada.

A spokesman with FWS said the agency wouldn’t comment on pending litigation, but biologists with the federal agency have defended the plan as realistic.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Proponents of certain water solutions in the Klamath Basin say an energy bill amendment that passed the U.S. Senate provides key support for improving facilities and other initiatives.

The amendment by Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, both Democrats, authorizes measures first proposed as part of the 2010 Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, although it doesn’t address the controversial removal of four dams on the Klamath River.

The provision allows the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to help farmers in the basin deal with reduced water supplies as a result of future water-sharing agreements and to provide reduced-cost power for irrigation, the senators said in a news release.

The provision, which also enables the bureau to do certain upgrades of irrigation facilities, was part of an energy bill that passed the Senate, 85-12, on April 20 and now heads to a Senate-House conference committee.

“It’s really good news,” said Beatty, Ore., cattle rancher Becky Hyde, who represents the Upper Klamath Water Users and is a long-time proponent of the KBRA. “The nice thing is, we’re slowly … starting to put regulatory assurances for species back into place for agriculture. This facilities bill resurrects some of the power stuff (in the KBRA).

“We still have a long way to go on water balance, but we’ve got some good things happening,” she said.

As is often the case in the Klamath Basin, the measure is not without controversy. Lawrence Kogan, an attorney for the Klamath Irrigation District, and representatives of U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., were meeting with Reclamation officials on April 21 to discuss the objections of basin irrigators to some of the plans.

Kogan said the bureau is using coercive tactics to pressure the KID to accept terms of a government loan to replace a nearly 100-year-old flume on one of its main canals by linking future water deliveries to the district’s acceptance of the contract.

“It’s a poison-pill bill that will kill the basin because Congress doesn’t even know what it’s put in the bill,” Kogan said. He accuses proponents of “deception,” arguing their true aim is to turn much of the basin into non-productive wildlands.

But the senators insist that their amendment, along with other parts of the newly resurrected Klamath Basin plan, will benefit agriculture as well as fish and wildlife. The aim is to bring down power costs for basin irrigators, whose electricity costs are higher than those in similar Reclamation projects, officials say.

The plan will “help ensure that Klamath agriculture is a sustainable foundation of the local economy,” Merkley said in a press release.

It’s been a decade since the expiration of a 50-year contract between the U.S. Department of the Interior and PacifiCorp caused power rates in the region to skyrocket from a half-cent per kilowatt-hour to as much as 10 cents, Hyde said. The lower rates were a trade-off for the ability to pump water through the project for its Klamath River hydroelectric facilities.

While the bill doesn’t identify a funding amount, it enables the bureau to find lower-cost power for irrigators with projects that promote energy efficiency and renewable energy, the senators said. One solution could be putting in micro hydro facilities along irrigation canals or the river, Hyde said.

“Micro hydro is a really interesting concept,” she said. “One of the things (the bill) asks for is to study in a really expedited way what’s the best return for dollars invested in energy infrastructure upgrades, so that means solar could play a role or micro hydro could play a role.”

The bill’s passage in the Senate comes two weeks after top state and federal officials gathered in Klamath, Calif., on April 6 to sign the final version of a dam-removal plan they announced in February. The plan calls for a nonprofit organization to take control of the four dams from owner PacifiCorp and seek a go-ahead for their removal from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In addition, the parties signaled a plan to revive the KBRA, a companion to the original Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, with federal legislation that would provide money to operate two diversion dams within the basin that PacifiCorp would turn over to Reclamation so irrigators wouldn’t have to pick up the cost, Craig Tucker of the Karuk Tribe has said.

Most of the 42 original signatories have been working for the past few months to revive provisions in the original agreements, which expired when Congress failed to authorize dam removal by the end of 2015. Going through FERC for dam removal could make it more politically palatable for lawmakers to support other aspects of the agreements.

“I’m very hopeful” the amendment will survive the House-Senate conference, Hyde said. “I think it’s a great thing. I’ve been hopeful in the past … but my sense is the thing has got momentum.”

An environmentalist legal challenge against Oregon’s decision to remove wolves from the state’s endangered species list has been dismissed due to legislation passed earlier this year.

Wolves were delisted by state wildlife regulators last year, but three environmental groups — Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity and Oregon Wild — asked the Oregon Court of Appeals to reverse that decision, claiming it wasn’t based on sound science.

Earlier this year, lawmakers passed House Bill 4040, which held that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife had followed the law in delisting wolves.

Opponents of the bill claimed it would deny the environmentalists their day in court. Supporters, on the other hand, argued the lawsuit was filed to pressure wildlife regulators while Oregon’s wolf recovery plan is updated.

Gov. Kate Brown signed the bill despite environmentalist calls for a veto in March, stating in a signing letter that the “trajectory of wolf populations in Oregon remains strong.”

The legislation was expected to nullify the legal challenge, which proved correct — on April 22, the Oregon Court of Appeals held that HB 4040 rendered the environmentalist petition moot.

Wildly fluctuating April weather sent Oregon’s snowpack up, down and now, in some areas, melted out.

It’s still too early to project water trouble this summer — the return of cool weather could help retain snow or even increase the snowpack a bit — but as the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland put it, “What a difference three weeks can make.”

At the first of April, everything looked great for irrigators, fish and wildlife managers and others who monitor and care about streamflows and reservoir levels. Heavy snow and rain blanketed Oregon this past winter, and the amount of water contained in the snowpack was at or above normal in nearly every river basin in the state.

But April brought unseasonably warm weather, include a record-high temperature of 85 degrees on April 7, measured at Portland International Airport. By April 22, the amount of water stored in the snowpack, called the snow water equivalent, was well below the 1981-2010 median.

The Deschutes and Malheur regions of Central and Southeast Oregon measured 11 percent and 31 percent of normal, respectfully. Other river basins measured from 51 to 83 percent of the median for this time of year.

Some NRCS automated monitors show no snow remaining, hydrologist Julie Koeberle said.

“It went fast, because of the warm temperatures,” she said.

Oregon’s snowpacks typically begin to melt in April, but at a slower pace that sustains streams through the hot months.

Koeberle said the NRCS will have a better handle on things within the next couple weeks, as snow survey teams hit the mountains and take a closer look. Sustained cooler temperatures would be helpful, she said.

On-line: Read the USDA’s water and climate update.

Pacific Northwest farmers should scout their winter canola, brassica and crucifer crops for black leg fungus.

“Industry concern is still at a heightened level,” said Victor Shaul, seed program manager with the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

Black leg was found in Oregon and Idaho, but not yet in Washington, which has a crucifer quarantine and accepts only seed certified as black leg-free.

Black leg affects brassica and crucifer crops, including spring and winter canola, rapeseed, mustard, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, turnips and tillage radish.

Also a concern is volunteer canola or mustard. Reports of volunteer canola in fields and ditches are up over past years, said Karen Sowers, an oilseed cropping systems research associate with Washington State University.

Spring canola is being planted, but farmers will want to check their fields shortly, Sowers said.

Fungicides won’t help existing black leg, Sowers said, but will prevent it from spreading.

WSU, University of Idaho and Oregon State University researchers are available to answer grower questions or test possible instances of black leg, Sowers said.

OSU recently held a workshop to train people to spot black leg symptoms in canola. Symptoms first appeared on trials in February, which means they were infected at some point last fall, OSU extension soil scientist Don Wysocki said

Black leg could have been around a while before people started noticing it, Wysocki said.

“That suggests to me it hasn’t been a big bust on yield — we would have noticed huge yield losses, and we haven’t seen that,” he said. “We’ve had it, but maybe it’s a tolerable level.”

Wysocki would like to research fungicide treatments, to determine if a preventive fall or spring treatment would prevent the infection, including the costs and benefits.

“How much more seed would you get by putting on a fungicide at those times?” he said. “Those are questions we can’t answer at this time.”

Sowers recommends awareness.

“It’s not a fear factor at all,” she said. “It’s a treatable thing, but we need to keep it under control so it doesn’t get to Washington state.”

A WSDA public meeting in Yakima, Wash., on the crucifer quarantine, slated for May 12, was postponed. Researchers expressed concern over language proposing variety trial ground be isolated from crucifer production, said Shaul, the WSDA seed program manager.

“Certain trials need to be in a production field so it’s treated just like commercial canola would be,” he said. “Having that requirement kind of negates the point of having a trial.”

Introducing black leg through trials is not a concern, Shaul said.

Sowers recommends a four-year crop rotation between brassica or crucifer crops and planting only seed certified as free of black leg.

Shaul asked industry members to alert the department if they find a seed lot that isn’t certified.

“At this point, we’re strictly at an educational level working with seed suppliers,” he said. “As we encounter companies that may not be aware of the quarantine, we’re working with them so they understand our rules.”

Several warehouses are caught in the middle of a legal dispute over radish seeds between Oregon farms and an out-of-state bank.

Both the farms and the bank claim to own the radish seeds, which are currently stored at five Oregon warehouses.

Whether those warehouses are acting as “agents” of the farms or the bank will be a key legal question in a lawsuit that’s scheduled to go to trial on June 7.

“The core question is the agency question,” U.S. Chief District Judge Michael Mosman said during an April 20 court hearing in the case.

The lawsuit involves multiple Oregon farms who are fighting for the right to sell off radish seeds they initially grew in 2014 under contract for Cover Crop Solutions, a Pennsylvania company that was unable to pay for the crops due to weather-related demand disruptions.

The Oregon farms filed liens to ensure they’d be treated as secured creditors with collateral in the company’s assets if it went bankrupt.

Meanwhile, Northwest Bank of Warren, Pa., also claimed the radish seeds served as collateral for a $7 million loan taken out by Cover Crop Solutions.

The dispute prompted the bank to file a lawsuit against numerous Oregon farms in federal court, seeking a declaration that it had a priority security interest in the seed.

As the June 7 trial date approaches, it now appears the role of warehouses used to store the seed will be pivotal in the litigation.

The farmers say they merely turned over the seeds for cleaning and storage, meaning they retained possession of the crop at the warehouses.

Farmers don’t “wash their hands” of responsibility for the seed when it’s taken for cleaning and storage, so they continue to own it until it’s accepted by the purchaser, which never occurred in this case, said Paul Conable, an attorney for the growers.

“If the warehouse had burned down or the seed had been stolen, the risk of loss is borne entirely by the grower under the contract,” Conable said.

The bank, on the other hand, claims the warehouses acted as agents of Cover Crop Solutions, so the seeds were part of the company’s inventory and served as the bank’s collateral.

Jonathan Radmacher, an attorney for Northwest bank, argued “there is nothing more for the growers to do” once the seed is accepted by the warehouse, which performs cleaning, packing and shipping based on instructions from Cover Crop Solutions.

“It’s not as if the seed is ever going to the CCS office. It’s always going from the warehouse to the buyer,” Radmacher said.

Several important legal question hinge on who owns the seed at the warehouse facilities.

For example, farms claim to have “possessory liens” on the crop, even if it was stored at a warehouse, that are superior to the bank’s security interest in the crop.

Several growers who never delivered their radish seed to a warehouse have already won this legal point.

In February, Mosman ruled that Hawman Farms, one of the defendants, had a valid priority lien due to its continuous possession of the crop. Since then, other farms in a similar position were also found to have valid priority liens.

Northwest Bank says the remaining farmers don’t have possessory liens because the radish seed became the inventory of Cover Crop Solutions once it arrived at the warehouses.

While those growers did file grain producer liens to retain a security interest in the crop, their liens have all since expired, the bank claims.

Farmers counter that the grain producers liens could not have expired because they haven’t yet “attached” to the crop, which would only occur if it were actually purchased.

The bank also claims grain producers’ liens don’t apply in this situation because the crop was produced under contract, with Cover Crop Solutions supplying farmers with radish seed.

The farmers were paid for growing and harvesting the seed, then returning it to Cover Crop Solutions, so they didn’t have actual ownership of the crop, the bank claims.

Attorneys for the farmers counter that the liens are valid under Oregon law and that contractual terms make it clear Cover Crop Solutions was supposed to purchase the radish seed.

EO Media Group

ECHO, Ore. — As small towns test strategies to attract economic development, Echo’s approach might best be described as “Plant it and they will come.”

It’s a sort of reversal of many cities’ strategy: Instead of focusing on attracting businesses in order to grow the tax base and have money to beautify the city, Echo is focused on beautifying the city to attract more growth.

“Basically, is the chicken first or the egg?” asked Diane Berry, city manager.

Berry, supported by the city council and private and public partners, has aggressively sought grants for art, trees, flowers and historical preservation in the city of 715 people. The city has also worked to extend that beautification to residences through programs like Christmas light contests and tree giveaways.

It hasn’t brought a grocery store or gas station to town, or allowed the few Main Street businesses to open more than two or three days a week. But it has gained Echo a reputation as a “hidden gem” of Eastern Oregon, complete with vineyards, tasting rooms, a golf course, camping, a museum, antique store, highly rated eateries and a historic downtown.

“People come here and they rave,” Berry said.

Arguably the biggest partners with the city in developing Echo’s downtown have been Lloyd and Lois Piercy. The pair, who own Echo West Vineyard and Sno Road Winery, have renovated several of Echo’s historic buildings and are in the process of restoring more. Their projects — past and present — include the old one-room schoolhouse, the former grocery store, a downtown garage, the historic Koontz Building and the former Echo Hotel. They also hold several events each year that draw tourists in, including the Red 2 Red bike race across their land and an annual car show that benefits the high school shop class.

“We love Echo, we love the historical aspects of Echo, and it just kind of snowballed from there,” Lois Piercy said.

She said preserving the buildings’ historical aspects while also adapting them to modern — uses like the winery — take a lot of time and money. But the Piercys enjoy hearing from past and present Echo residents who remember the buildings in their glory days.

“I love the memories and the nostalgia that just pour in,” Lois Piercy said.

The Piercys also love the rich soil around Echo, which Lois Piercy said has produced “wonderful” grapes in the vineyard.

In addition to being good for growing grapes, Echo has also proved fertile for trees and flowers. The city regularly wins awards from the America in Bloom and Tree City U.S.A organizations, some of which are almost unheard of for a town so small.

“We’ve played on that and tried to build up community pride,” Berry said.

One of the many events focused on building up that community pride was Wednesday afternoon at the Echo Tree Fair. It seemed to be working, too. As elementary school students played leaf identification bingo, answered questions about trees and made rubbings of bark, they demonstrated a sound knowledge of trees and a pride in Echo’s beauty.

“Trees are used to make lots of things,” fourth-grader Abby Gaede said in answer to a question about why it’s good for a city to have trees. “We’ve actually won Tree City U.S.A.”

Echo School fifth-grade teacher Rick Thew, who on Wednesday was in the city hall ballroom teaching students about the effects of forest fires, said those types of community events were one of the things he enjoyed about Echo.

“I like the small-school community aspect, where everyone is watching out for everyone,” he said.

Thew doesn’t actually live in Echo, however, because when he began working for the school district he and his family couldn’t find a house in Echo that fit their needs. Now they commute to the school every day from Stanfield.

Thew’s living situation points to one of the ironies of Echo: It’s a “bedroom community” with a scarcity of bedrooms.

Berry said some people don’t like hearing Echo categorized as a bedroom community, but the fact that the majority of its residents are either retired or working in a different community means it’s “just a fact of life.”

However, Echo isn’t really seeing new housing development other than a new house or two a year on Echo Heights, north of the city. That means people like Thew — attracted to Echo for its beauty, amenities and small-town vibe — can find themselves out of luck when looking for housing that fits their needs.

Fortunately, Berry pointed out, Stanfield is less than five miles away and Hermiston is about a nine-minute drive in good conditions.

It’s a good thing, because even though Echo residents can get a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Echo Ridge Cellars or duck gnocchi from the Wheat & Barley Pub, there’s nowhere in town to buy an egg or a chicken breast.

Peggy Haines, an Echo resident who shops at the Main Street Market in Stanfield, said as much as she loves Echo’s quaint, small-town feel that’s the one thing she would like to see change about it: a market or grocery store.

“It would be nice if you’re cooking and need some flour or sugar to just run to the store,” she said.