An Oregon livestock nutrition company has prevailed in a lawsuit over trade secrets against a former employee who was found to have intentionally destroyed evidence.

A federal judge has entered a default judgment against Yongqiang Wang, the former employee, as punishment for deleting emails and giving away a computer likely containing information related to trade secrets owned by Omnigen Research.

U.S. District Judge Michael McShane said the “extreme measure” of a default ruling against Wang was justified because he severely interfered with the orderly administration of justice in the case.

“These actions have deprived the plaintiffs of evidence central to their case and undermined the court’s ability to enter a judgment based on the evidence,” McShane said.

Roger Hennagin, the attorney representing Wang, said he could not comment on the ruling because he hasn’t yet been able to discuss it with his client, who works in China.

The complaint against Wang was initially filed last year by Omnigen, a company founded by former Oregon State University professor Neil Forsberg and later sold to Phibro Animal Health for $23 million.

The lawsuit accused Wang of planning to sell feed additives in China that were based on trade secrets stolen from Omnigen, a company that employed him between 2005 and 2013.

Omnigen’s feed additives, which counteract hemorrhagic bowel syndrome in cattle, are used by roughly 20 percent of the U.S. dairy cow herd and the company hoped to expand its reach to China.

Wang obtained “sham” patents in China from confidential information he accessed while working for Omnigen and secretly launched two companies, Mirigen and Bioshen, to sell the additives in that country, the complaint alleged.

In a counterclaim against Omnigen, Wang denied relying on his former employer’s trade secrets and claimed Forsberg unjustly enriched himself by failing to share profits with Wang, as earlier promised.

According to McShane, the case was “plagued” by evidence problems “from its inception,” with Wang deleting more than 4,000 files from his computer despite a preliminary injunction requiring him to preserve evidence.

While many of the files were recovered, some documents that were probably relevant to the case were permanently destroyed, the judge said.

Both Wang and his wife also deleted emails detailing their involvement in the formation of Mirigen and Bioshen and donated a desktop computer to Goodwill shortly after the preliminary injunction was issued, McShane said.

While the default judgment means that Wang has lost the case, the judge still intends to hold a hearing to establish damages owed to Omnigen.

His tracking collar went dead in 2015, but OR-7, the wandering wolf, is alive and well. This spring, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service trail camera caught him trotting along with what a wildlife biologist said is an elk leg in his mouth.

Federal wildlife biologist John Stephenson said OR-7 was taking food back to his den. For the fourth consecutive year, OR-7 appears to be denned up with the same unidentified female who joined him in the Southwest Oregon Cascades in 2014.

The Rogue Pack, of which he’s the alpha male, numbered six over the winter. This spring, Stephenson saw tracks in the snow of at least five wolves. OR-7 has shown up in trail camera photos several times this spring, most recently on May 18.

“He looks good,” Stephenson said.

OR-7 is now 8 years old, which is somewhat old for a wolf in the wild, Stephenson said. It became Oregon’s best known wolf when it dispersed from the Imnaha Pack in Northeast Oregon in 2011 and cut a diagonal across the state and into California. Because he was wearing a tracking collar, wildlife agencies and the public could follow his travels, and for better or worse he came to symbolize the return of wolves to Oregon’s landscape,

OR-7 was the first documented wolf in California since 1924, but eventually returned to Oregon and established what ODFW named the Rogue Pack in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. He and his mate have produced several litters of pups over the years.

His mate has never been caught or collared and is something of a mystery. Analysis of her scat, however, showed she is related to wolves from Northeast Oregon or Idaho.

Stephenson said he hopes to fit a new tracking collar on OR-7, his mate or one of the other adults in the pack.

___

Oregon and Washington berry farmers and crop consultants say that the harm inflicted by a hard winter on blackberry bushes is becoming clear.

Bushes are failing to bloom, and some farmers have cut canes to the ground, sacrificing this year’s crop in hopes of rebounding stronger in 2018.

“Probably the hardest decision a farmer has to make is scrap his crop. But if you don’t see blooms, you won’t see fruit,” said Ridgefield, Wash., berry farmer Jerry Dobbins. “The damage is catastrophic. It’s every place.”

Oregon dominates U.S. blackberry production, while berry growers across the Columbia River in southwest Washington have been adding blackberry acres. Growers produced large crops in 2015 and 2016, but saw prices fall. The U.S. is a net importer of blackberries, with berries coming from such countries as Mexico, Chile and Serbia, according to the USDA.

Although this year’s domestic crop apparently will be smaller, Woodland, Wash., berry grower George Thoeny said he fears that imported berries will hold down prices that farmers receive.

“We hope the price will rise some, but we won’t know until the season is over,” Thoeny said. “I think the industry is looking at a disaster.”

The Willamette Valley and southwest Washington weathered a cold winter, followed by a wet spring. March was the second-wettest on record in southwest Washington, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, which has records dating back to 1885.

John Davis of Crop Production Services said he has never seen a blackberry crop like this in his 38 years as an agricultural consultant in both states. “If you look, there’s damage in every field,” he said.

Although the extent of the damage only recently became evident, he said he believes the cold snaps caused the harm, more than the rain.

“Week by week, I noticed there was more and more damage showing up,” Davis said. “The blackberry crop went from what I thought would be a good crop to marginal.”

Crop consultant Tom Peerbolt said that in parts of Washington County, a prime berry growing area west of Portland, the temperature dropped to 5 degrees. With blackberries coming into full bloom before the July harvest, growers are assessing the damage, he said.

“The blackberry crop is not going to be a full crop this year,” he said. “If we don’t get any additional weather extremes, we can maximize what we’ve got out there.”

Peerbolt said that raspberries, blueberries and strawberries are fine, an observation confirmed by others.

Chad Finn, a berry breeder with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service at Oregon State University, said freeze damage was spotty.

Berry test plots in Corvallis and at OSU’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora survived the cold. Fields in the Forest Grove area west of Portland and nearer the Columbia River Gorge, where cold air pools, sustained damage, Finn said.

Peerbolt said freeze damage was heaviest at farms growing the Marion blackberry variety.

On a tour of farms in Clark and Cowlitz counties Tuesday, Dobbins pointed to fields of Black Diamond and Columbia Star blackberries that were damaged, too.

He estimated that yields in slightly damaged fields will be down 10 percent.

Dobbins cut 5 acres to the ground. As he watches his remaining 55 acres struggle to bloom, he said he wishes he had cut more acres.

He said he produced 550,000 pounds of blackberries last year and lost money because of low prices. He said that he will do well this year to grow 300,000 pounds.

“The price has got to be up, but will it be where it should be?” he said. “I’m under the thumb of offshore fruit.”

The EO Media Group, the parent company of the Capital Press, has assumed management of the Northwest Agricultural Show from Amy and Mike Patrick.

The Patricks, and Amy’s parents, Jim and Shirley Heater, have guided the show for 48 years.

“It is with great confidence that Mike and I transition the event to EO Media Group,” Amy Patrick said. “I believe they have a broad range of resources that can bolster and improve the show, taking it to its 50th anniversary and beyond.”

Joe Beach, editor and publisher of the Capital Press, praised the family’s management of the show.

“The Heater family built the Northwest Ag Show into an Oregon institution. In no small measure the family is the show,” he said. “As a family business ourselves, we have a particular appreciation for the responsibility we have to maintain what they have created. We are happy that the Patricks and the Heaters are working with us on the 2018 show to ensure a smooth transition.”

Amy Patrick has agreed to help EO Media Group through the transition period to maintain continuity. Jim Heater, show founder and longtime manager, will continue to work with the show and provide the move-in/move-out services for exhibitors.

The 49th annual Northwest Agricultural Show will take place Jan. 30 through Feb. 1, 2018, at the Portland Expo Center.

Beach said the Capital Press has had close ties with both the show and its exhibitors for years, so when the show became available it seemed like a natural fit.

“We’re new to the show business” Beach said, “but we bring a fair amount of promotional and management expertise to the venture, and have some exciting ideas about how we can build on the show’s past successes.”

Patrick reflected on her long association with the show.

“It has been my pleasure to work with so many great exhibitors during my time as manager of the Northwest Agricultural Show,” she said. “The show holds a special place in my heart after growing up with the event and learning the ropes from my parents. As I move on to other career ventures, I will continue to be supportive and interested in the event; the exhibitors truly became like an extended family to me.”

SEQUIM, Wash. (AP) — A team with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to catch more invasive European green crabs on the Dungeness Spit on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula.

The Peninsula Daily News reports 60 crabs had been caught as of Thursday after more traps were placed.

Crews at the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge first found green crabs April 13, which is the first sighting of the crustacean along that section of the peninsula.

Staff with Washington Sea Grant’s Crab Team say the green crab, which some scientists have called one of the worst invasive species on the planet, is identifiable by five spines on each side of its eyes, and can be green, brown or reddish.

Researchers say the crab often is blamed for damaging shellfish harvests and seagrass beds in the northeastern U.S.

JACKSONVILLE, Ore. (AP) — Bill and Barbara Steele moved to this sleepy corner of Oregon to start their own winery after successful, high-powered business careers.

Now, more than a decade later and with award-winning wine to show for their hard work, they are adding a new crop: marijuana.

Oregon’s legalization of recreational pot two years ago created room for entrepreneurial cross-pollination in this fertile region abutting California’s so-called Emerald Triangle, a well-known nirvana for outdoor weed cultivation.

Recreational marijuana won’t be legal in California until next year, but a few miles north of the border in Oregon, a handful of winemakers are experimenting with pot in hopes of increasing their appeal among young consumers and in niche markets.

“Baby boomers are drinking less. Millennials are coming into their time, economically, where in 2016 they were the fastest-growing consumers of wine, both in dollars and volume,” said Barbara Steele, who runs Cowhorn Vineyard & Garden in rural Jacksonville with her husband.

“They’re looking for an experience of ‘wine and weed.’”

The Steeles leased their land to grow 30 medical marijuana plants last year, and this year they are growing double that amount to be branded with the same label as their wine. They started with seeds in plastic cups under incubators in their laundry room, and pride themselves on a “seed to smoke” philosophy.

This year’s crop also is for medical use, but the Steeles are seeing the benefits of the expanding market from legal recreational pot. Their weed was reviewed alongside one of their white wines in Stoner Magazine, an Oregon cannabis publication.

“That conversation is possible here because our quality — the agricultural possibility — is so high. This is an amazing growing region,” Barbara Steele said.

It’s hard to know exactly how many in the wine industry are looking at pot here, but there’s plenty of buzz surrounding the subject.

Some vineyards are ripping out portions of grapes in favor of marijuana plants or leasing land to private growers. Others are talking about wine-and-weed tourism, including high-end shuttles that would stop at local wineries for tastings and at marijuana farms for glimpses of how pot is prepared for market.

“There are a few wineries setting up very large recreational grows right now,” said Brent Kenyon, of the marijuana consulting business Kenyon & Associates, based in southern Oregon. “The ‘weedery’ and the winery. I think that’s huge, and we see it developing.”

But that enthusiasm comes with a caveat. Marijuana is still federally illegal, and wineries must keep their wine and weed businesses separate or risk losing a federal permit that allows them to bottle and sell wine.

That means establishing two distinct lots for tax purposes and keeping two licenses with the state, said Christie Scott, alcohol program spokeswoman for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which also licenses recreational marijuana. Vineyards that grow grapes but don’t have a liquor license, however, could get a recreational marijuana license, she said.

In the nearby Illinois Valley, Katherine Bryan is tackling these challenges as she launches a marijuana business with her son.

She owns Deer Creek Vineyards with her husband, but her pot operation will be called Bryan Family Gardens and will operate on land next to the vineyard.

“We want to be as transparent as possible because when you’re under the federal government umbrella for your wines, you have to be very, very careful,” Bryan said.

She plans to grow several hundred marijuana plants with a focus on organic cultivation and an eye toward a high-end market.

They already have some buyers lined up and are installing greenhouses and lighting as they await approval of their recreational license.

“I get $2,000 a ton for my pinot gris grapes, whereas I can make potentially $2,000 or more per pound of cannabis,” Bryan said. “We have 31,000 plants out here for grapes, so I’m pretty sure I can handle 300 to 500 cannabis plants.”

Mark Wisnovsky, of Valley View Winery in Jacksonville, says some vintners are upset because of the stigma associated with marijuana. But his family’s winery was the first in the Applegate Valley in 1971, and everyone thought they were crazy then, too, he said.

The family isn’t cultivating marijuana now, but Wisnovsky has been a vocal supporter of those who want to do so.

Diversifying with weed could save vineyard owners who have overplanted grapes for years, he added.

“A job’s a job, and money’s money, and we have capabilities here that are unique,” he said. “We either take advantage of the situation or let it steamroll over us.”

PALOMINO VALLEY, Nev. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s budget proposal calls for saving $10 million next year by selling wild horses captured throughout the West without the current requirement that buyers guarantee the animals won’t be resold for slaughter.

Wild horse advocates say the change would gut nearly a half-century of protection for wild horses — an icon of the American West — and could send thousands of free-roaming mustangs to foreign slaughterhouses for processing as food.

They say the Trump administration is kowtowing to livestock interests who don’t want the region’s estimated 59,000 mustangs competing for precious forage across more than 40,000 square miles (103,600 sq. kilometers) of rangeland in 10 states managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The budget proposal marks the latest skirmish in the decades-old controversy pitting ranchers and rural communities against groups that want to protect the horses from Colorado to California.

“This is simply a way to placate a very well-funded and vocal livestock lobby,” Laura Leigh, president of the nonprofit protection group Wild Horse Education, said about the budget proposal.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and other interests have been urging BLM for years to allow sales of wild horses for slaughter to free up room in overcrowded government corrals for the capture of more animals.

Doug Busselman, executive vice president of the Nevada Farm Bureau, blamed the stalemate on the “emotional and anti-management interests who have built their business models on preventing rational and responsible actions while enhancing their fundraising through misinformation.”

Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama also grappled with the spiraling costs of managing the nearly 60,000 horses on the range and another 45,000 currently kept in U.S. holding pens and contracted private pastures.

Over the past eight years, BLM’s wild horse budget has more than doubled — from $36.2 million in 2008 to $80.4 million in 2017.

Trump’s budget anticipates the $10 million savings would come through a reduction in the cost of containing and feeding the animals. The savings also would include cutbacks involving roundups and contraception programs.

The 1971 Free-Roaming Wild Horse and Burro Act permits the sale of older, unadoptable animals. But for years, Congress has approved budget language specifically outlawing the sale of any wild horses for slaughter.

Horse slaughterhouses are prohibited in the U.S. but legal in many other countries, including Canada, Mexico and parts of Europe where horse meat is considered a delicacy.

Then-BLM Director Neil Kornze said a year ago that the horses represented a $1 billion budget problem for his agency because it costs $50 million to round up and house every 10,000 horses over their lifetime.

Still, he said the agency had no intention of reversing the long-standing policy.

However, the Trump administration wants a change, saying through the BLM that the “current program is unsustainable and a new approach is needed, particularly when overall federal funding is so constrained.”

It says the budget would allow the agency to manage the wild horse program in a more cost-effective manner, “including the ability to conduct sales without limitation.”

BLM rounded up more than 7,000 horses in 2012, but only about 3,000 in each of the past two years due primarily to budget constraints.

As of March, BLM estimated that more than half of the horses roaming the range were in Nevada (34,780). An additional 13,191 burros were on the range— about half in Arizona.

The BLM asserts that U.S. rangeland can sustain fewer than 27,000 horses and burros.

“The original intent of the act was to make sure those animals had a healthy presence on the range, but also that they be kept at a number that is sustainable,” said Ethan Lane, executive director of the National Cattlemen’s public lands council. “You have horses starving to death ... and irreversible damage to western rangelands.”

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Trump’s budget proposal was shocking.

“Wild horses can and should be humanely managed on-range using simple fertility control, yet the BLM would rather make these innocent animals pay for draconian budget cuts with their very lives,” ASPCA President Matt Bershadker said.

Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign, said the plan could put the horses on the brink of extinction.

“America can’t be great if these national symbols of freedom are destroyed,” she said.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A renowned strawberry researcher in California broke patent law and violated a loyalty pledge to his former university by taking his work with him to profit from it in a private company, a jury in San Francisco decided Wednesday.

Professor Douglas Shaw formed his own research firm with others after retiring from the University of California, Davis, where for years he had overseen the school’s strawberry breeding program, developing a heartier and tastier fruit.

Jurors in the federal court decided that he used seeds developed at UC Davis without gaining the university’s permission.

The rift struck fear in some farmers in California, the No. 1 strawberry-growing state, that it would stymie research and cause them to lose their competitive edge. California last year produced 1.6 million tons of strawberries valued at roughly $2 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The university’s strawberry breeding program is now under new leadership, providing farmers and consumers with new generations of the fruit, school officials said.

“This federal jury decision is good news for public strawberry breeders at UC Davis and all strawberry farmers throughout California and the world,” said Helene Dillard, dean of the UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

After reading the verdicts, Judge Vince Chhabria, who oversaw the trial, scolded both sides, expressing doubt about the sincerity they claimed to have for the strawberry industry.

“If you really care about strawberries, and if you really cared about California’s Strawberry Breeding Program, you would figure out a way... to avoid subjecting them to this custody battle,” he said.

Shaw had first sued UC Davis after he retired, saying that the university unfairly destroyed some of his work and keeps some of his other research locked in a freezer, depriving the world of a better strawberry. He had sought $45 million for lost research. The university countersued.

Shaw, 63, is a giant in the strawberry world, heading the university’s lucrative breeding program for more than two decades alongside plant biologist Kirk Larson. Most of California’s strawberry farmers grow plants developed by Shaw and Larson.

The two men developed 24 new varieties, allowing growers to double the amount of strawberries produced while retaining the fruit’s succulence. They created strawberries that were more pest- and disease-resistant, more durable during long-distance travel and capable of growing during the shorter days of spring and fall.

The partners say their work netted the university $100 million in royalties. How much they themselves made at UC Davis is unclear, but they say they contributed more than $9 million of their own royalties toward the university’s breeding program.

They retired from the university in 2014 because, they said, the school was winding down the program. Working in partnership with growers and nurseries, they launched a business called California Berry Cultivars, based in Watsonville, to develop new strawberry varieties.

Attorney Sharyl Reisman, who represents the professors and the California Berry Cultivars, said that despite the disappointing verdict, her clients wish to find a way to collaborate with the university.

Damages the professors owe in the case will be decided later, the judge said.

A.G. Kawamura, a strawberry farmer, former California agriculture secretary and part owner of the California Berry Cultivars, said the judge’s comments signal a need for much more work to settle the dispute, even after the trial.

“We still believe there’s good reason to hope for a collaborative progress for all parties to move our strawberry industry forward without litigation,” Kawamura said. “We are still committed to being an important part of the California strawberry industry.

WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s a glimmer of hope for America’s ailing honeybees as winter losses were the lowest in more than a decade, according to a U.S. survey of beekeepers released Thursday.

Beekeepers lost 21 percent of their colonies over last winter, the annual Bee Informed Partnership survey found. That’s the lowest winter loss level since the survey started in 2006 and an improvement from nearly 27 percent the winter before.

The U.S. government has set a goal of keeping losses under 15 percent in the winter.

“It’s good news in that the numbers are down, but it’s certainly not a good picture,” said survey director Dennis vanEngelsdorp. “It’s gone from horrible to bad.”

Reduction in varroa mites, a lethal parasite, is likely the main cause of the improvement, said vanEnglesdorp, a University of Maryland entomologist. He credited the reduction in the parasite to a new product to fight the mite and better weather for pesticide use.

The 10-year average for winter losses is 28.4 percent.

“We would of course all love it if the trend continues, but there are so many factors playing a role in colony health,” said bee expert Elina Lastro Nino at the University of California Davis, who wasn’t part of the survey. “I am glad to see this, but wouldn’t celebrate too much yet.”

For more than a decade, bees and other pollinators have been rapidly declining with scientists blaming a mix of parasites, disease, pesticides and poor nutrition.

While usually hive losses are worst in the winter, they occur year round. The survey found yearly losses also down, but not quite to record levels. About one third of the honey bee colonies that were around in April 2016 were dead a year later, the survey found. That’s better than the year before when the annual loss rate was more than 40 percent.

The survey, originally started by the U.S. government and now run by a nonprofit, is based on information from nearly 5,000 beekeepers who manage more than 360,000 colonies. University of Montana’s Jerry Bromenshenk said the study gives too much weight to backyard beekeepers rather than commercial beekeepers.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon timber company reportedly plans to sue its home state for $3.3 million after its plans to buy the Elliott State Forest recently fell through.

The Coos Bay World reports attorneys for Lone Rock Timber Management Company of Roseburg alerted the Oregon State Lands Department of their plans last week in an email.

Lone Rock was the sole bidder for the 82,500-acre forest, which was on sale for $220 million as a way to meet its financial obligation to produce funds for public education. The state land board reversed its decision to sell it earlier this month.

Lone Rock’s attorneys say the company has suffered millions of dollars in out-of-pocket losses and lost business opportunity, and will seek tort claims for misrepresentation and negligence.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Summer travelers may well find themselves stuck in long security lines and squeezed into cramped seats. For frequent travelers, or those who can and want to pay extra, perks are available including upgrades to first-class seats,…

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Summer travelers may well find themselves stuck in long security lines and squeezed into cramped seats. For frequent travelers, or those who can and want to pay extra, perks are available including upgrades to first-class seats,…

BANDON -- A fun afternoon at the pool site on Aug. 19 will help ensure everyone in Bandon knows the location of the future pool. Mark your calendars and come along for an afternoon of music, sunshine, food and cold…

Jake Gibbs, a forester with more than 20 years of experience, has been chosen as the next president and CEO of Starker Forests, the venerable family timber company based in Corvallis, Ore.

Gibbs began work May 22 and will take over as president and CEO on July 15, when the company’s board of directors meets. Gibbs comes to Starker from another family business, Lone Rock Timber Management in Roseburg, Ore., which was involved in a controversial proposal to purchase the Elliott State Forest.

Gibbs began as a tree planter, gained silviculture and logging experience and in 2016 was listed as Lone Rock’s external affairs director.

In a message to Starker employees, Gibbs said he is “excited and humbled” to be selected to lead the company. “I’m not an OSU grad, but don’t hold that against me,” he said. Starker Forests is heavily involved in community affairs and is a major supporter of Oregon State University’s forestry program, including the annual Starker Lecture series.

Gibbs replaces Bond Starker, who announced his retirement pending the selection of a replacement. The company was founded by his grandfather, T.J. Starker, who taught forestry at OSU and purchased timberland in the area.

Oregon wheat farmers, like their counterparts in Washington and Idaho, are using additional fungicide treatments to stave off stripe rust this year.

Christina Hagerty, a plant pathologist with Oregon State University’s Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center near Pendleton, said a heavier than normal snowfall and extended periods of cold and rain from fall to spring resulted in conditions ideal for diseases.

She said the season is shaping up to have higher than average stripe rust infections, and the weather conditions also were conducive to development of snow mold and wheat mosaic virus, which Oregon growers usually don’t see.

The situation is part of a conundrum faced by North Central and Eastern Oregon’s dryland wheat producers in particular. In Pendleton, 9.14 inches of rain has fallen since January — 3 inches more than normal, according to the National Weather Service.

Additional precipitation in a region that gets by on 8 to 20 inches of rain per year is always welcome, but can come with a cost.

“The conditions that lead to good, strong, healthy plants often overlap with conditions that lead to good, strong, healthy pathogens,” Hagerty said. A lack of moisture limits plant growth, but it also keeps pathogens in check, she said.

“I have heard folks with far more experience than me say that big rust years often have the highest yields,” she said.

Christopher Mundt, a plant pathology professor who supervised Hagerty’s Ph.D. work at OSU, said he sometimes jokes that stripe rust emergence is a good sign. “That means they’ve got enough water to have a good crop,” he said.

He said growers were able to see stripe rust developing last fall.

“Rust got established really early,” he said. “It’s a pathogen that has a very high reproductive rate, it goes through multiple generations of reproduction. Anytime it starts early, there’s more chance for buildup.”

Disease-resistant varieties developed by wheat breeders kept stripe rust at bay for years, but new strains have spread, Mundt said.

Snow mold is more of a problem in colder areas such as Eastern Washington, he said. It can form when snow falls on wet ground and keeps it at 32 degrees for extended periods. In Oregon it’s rare, and plants often can shake off and grow out of initial damage.

Dry, hot weather can shut down stripe rust, especially in wheat varieties bred to have high temperature, adult plant resistance. Otherwise, fungicide applications are effective, but costly, the researchers said.

“Growers are out there looking for it,” Mundt said. “They’ve picked up the lesson that you can’t let rust get away from them.”

“It’s very expensive,” Hagerty said. “These are decisions our producers don’t take lightly, and our research and extension personnel spend a lot of time thinking about and understanding that cost tradeoff.”

Reduced wheat prices “make those decisions that much more challenging,” she said.

Hagerty said producers who use fungicide properly, following label directions, shouldn’t have a problem.

“Our customers know they can count on high quality Oregon wheat to be on label,” she said. “As long as you’re on label, you’re good to go on that.”

RICHLAND, Wash. — Generic promotions for maraschino cherries will continue this year but the outlook beyond that is doubtful as fewer processors make maraschinos and don’t want to pay for common promotions.

Norm Gutzwiler, a Wenatchee grower and president of the National Cherry Growers & Industries Foundation, raised the subject at a Washington State Fruit Commission meeting in Richland on May 17.

There was talk of dissolving NCGIF in the fall and possibly replacing it with a new national cherry association patterned after the U.S. Apple Association. It would discuss issues of fresh and processed cherries and lobby the federal government when needed.

NCGIF was formed in 1948 to lobby against excessive processed cherry imports. It is funded by assessments on growers and donations from processors in Washington, Oregon, California and Michigan. It once had an 18-member board that included growers and all kinds of processors — brine (to make maraschinos), frozen, canned, glazed and juice. But in the last eight to 10 years only briners have been involved with growers and now the briners have dropped out, Gutzwiler said.

The board is now two growers each from Washington, Oregon, California and Michigan, he said.

Seneca Foods Corp. of Marion, N.Y., bought out Diana Fruit of Santa Clara, Calif., and Gray & Co. of Portland with its operations in Oregon and Michigan. A California company is buying out the briner portion of Oregon Cherry Growers in Salem, the largest briner in the Pacific Northwest.

“Some of the new processors haven’t been in the business before and haven’t been interested in joining any industry group. They don’t want to pay the promotions and that makes the future of NCGIF uncertain,” said Dana Branson, a Hood River, Ore., grower and NCGIF administrator until a year ago.

The foundation has averaged $300,000 annually for generic maraschino cherry promotions, depending on crop size, which is a small budget, she said.

Gutzwiler said that level of promotions will continue this year from 2016 assessments and donations but that NCGIF likely will dissolve this fall because growers don’t want to shoulder the whole cost. Assessments would end, he said. The budget once was a 50-50 split between growers and processors, he said.

SALEM — A proposed bill imposing new financial liability on biotech patent holders in Oregon would effectively banish genetically engineered crops from the state, opponents claim.

Under House Bill 2739, biotech patent holders would be liable for triple the economic damages caused by the unwanted presence of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

The bill is now before the House Rules Committee, which is considering an amendment clarifying when landowners can file lawsuits over GMOs on their property and the defenses available to patent holders, among other provisions.

The amendment would also ensure that patent holders cannot transfer liability to farmers who cultivate GMOs, though they could transfer liability to seed companies.

“It’s putting the onus on the producers and people who sell these crops rather that grow them,” said Amy van Saun, an attorney with the Center for Food Safety, a non-profit that supports HB 2739.

By making patent holders liable for unwanted GMO presence — either through cross-pollination or seed dispersal — the bill reduces potential conflicts among farmers, said Elise Higley, executive director of the Our Family Farms Coalition, which supports HB 2739.

“We don’t believe the GE farmer should be held responsible when they follow all the rules,” Higley said during a May 23 legislative hearing.

Biotech crops have “tracer genes” to identify patent holders, eliminating confusion about the source of an unwanted GMO, she said. “There’s no arguing about it. It’s just black and white science.”

Critics of HB 2739 believe the underlying goal of the proposal is to stop production of GMOs in Oregon.

For developers of genetically engineered crops, the risk of lawsuits would likely outweigh the benefits of licensing biotech traits to growers in the state, opponents say.

“If this bill passes, those seed companies may stop selling to Oregon completely,” said Shelly Boshart-Davis, whose family plants genetically engineered alfalfa between rows of hazelnut trees.

Likewise, Oregon State University breeders would be reluctant to use new gene editing techniques due to the financial risks of licensing the resulting crop varieties, said Dan Arp, dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

“As the patent holder, we would be liable for the judgment,” Arp said.

The bill was subject to sharp questioning by several Republican lawmakers, but the committee’s chair, Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, ended the hearing without any remarks about HB 2739’s future, such as a possible work session.

In April, the House Judiciary Committee moved the bill without recommendation to the House Rules Committee, where it’s not subject to the same legislative deadlines as in other committees.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument is celebrating its third birthday. But the flickering of candles on the cake may dim under the glare of federal scrutiny.

The 496,330-acre monument, created by President Barack Obama on May 21, 2014, has become a point of pride for some and a bone of contention for others. On April 26, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a review of the OMDP, along with 26 others including the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico.

Earlier in April, the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association urged President Donald Trump to eliminate certain large-scale national monuments, including the OMDP. NMCGA officials said they are first seeking the elimination of the OMDP monument, but, if that doesn’t happen, they’d back a reduction in its size.

NMCGA President Pat Boone, from Elida, points to testimony to the state Legislature given by an NMCGA member who owns and operates a cattle ranch within the boundaries of OMDP, 77 percent of which is covered by the monument designation but all of which is impacted due to the layout of private and state trust lands within their grazing allotment.

That rancher, like others, is concerned that language in the monument designation remains vague as to what is to be protected, Boone said. Protecting wildlife and plant populations, which vary over time, creates uncertainty and will lead to burdensome government regulations, forcing ranchers out of business, he said.

“Perhaps the largest concern or fear from the ranching community is that, even after three years, there remains so much uncertainty,” Boone wrote in an email to the Sun-News. “No one knows what the impacts, financial or otherwise, are going to be. The designation puts an additional layer of unknown bureaucracy on ranchers.

“We question what this will do financially. Will lenders who hold mortgages on ranches, livestock and/or equipment continue to lend? Will cattle numbers be cut? Will visitors and environmentalists try to drive livestock use from the lands,” Boone continued. “If these questions had answers, attitudes might be different.”

RETURN TO ORIGINAL PLAN

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce said he has heard those concerns and believes the monument area around the Organ Mountains should be maintained at the roughly 60,000-acre footprint originally proposed.

“The law is very specific,” Pearce said. “The footprint is supposed to be as small as possible to protect individual items . you can’t just say we want to protect open space.”

Ranchers are also concerned about border safety and the possible inability of law enforcement to easily enter the monument, Pearce said. They point to concerns by landowners near the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona where entire blocks of acreage are inaccessible and closed to the public for safety reasons. Those landowners also have to deal with the refuse left by immigrants making the dangerous border crossing, he said.

When visiting landowners near the OMDP recently, Pearce said they rarely see anyone using the monument for recreation and question the need for the designation.

Three sites in the Organ Mountains — Dripping Springs Natural Area, Aguirre Spring Campground and the Soledad Canyon Day Use Area — have seen a marked increase in the number of visitors. Tracking visitor growth in other areas of the monument is difficult. Using the numbers at those three sites, economic experts calculate an $8.2 million to $33.8 million benefit to the area.

Pearce notes the monument’s designation comes with a cost as well. The first casualty of the designation was the moving of the Chile Challenge, an off-road and 4X4 event in the Robledo Mountains that drew $4 million a year to the region, Pearce said. That event now takes place in Sierra County.

“In the West, the custom and culture is ranching,” Pearce said. “It’s something that the law was not supposed to change, our custom and culture, and it is.”

It’s legally unclear whether Trump or any future president could single-handedly eliminate or shrink a national monument. A more-certain path to eliminate or reduce the size of a monument would be an act of Congress signed into law by the president.

Through July 10, the Department of the Interior is asking the public to comment on 22 monuments — including OMDP — designated or expanded under the Antiquities Act since 1996.

Greg Carrasco has ranched on roughly 14 sections of land on the western edge of the monument, the northern half of which lies within the monument, for 14 years. He believes that additional federal oversight and regulations are burdensome and the current lack of a management plan, which BLM is developing, will favor preservation of wildlife and plants at the expense of proper land management techniques which ranchers have long practiced.

He also fears access to improvements such as fences, wells and water tanks will be limited. Each instance of a downed fence or out-of-service water tank could require individual permits, he said. And, he notes, those water systems installed and maintained by ranchers are often the only source of water for wildlife in the area.

Regulation “has tended to result in the loss of grazing capacity for ranchers,” he said. “We’ve already had a couple of preliminary meetings with the Bureau of Land Management about additional restrictions to access improvements, maintain improvements. I’m somewhat concerned about what long-term brush control and other options may be limited by these regulations.”

Bill Childress, manager of the BLM Las Cruces District, said the process of developing a management plan for the monument is under way. Meetings were held with stakeholders and user groups in early 2017. Now, the BLM is working on a management situation analysis. Once that is complete, likely in October or November, the formal planning process will begin. A finalized management plan should be complete in 2020, Childress said.

Like many, Carrasco sees the benefit of having a national monument for the Organ Mountains, but said it should be limited to that area. That would also allow the BLM to make more improvements for public access along the Organs and create a better destination for outdoor recreation, he said.

“I think the Organs are a majestic backdrop to Dona Ana County and Las Cruces in particular,” Carrasco said. “Concentrate the resources we have and make them a great destination for tourists and all kinds of outdoor activities. I very much would like the monument reduced back in size to the roughly 58,000-acre area on the foothills of the Organs.”

“The ranching community has been buried in regulation and limitations over the past 25 years,” the NMCGA’s Boone said. “More often than not, we can see what the outcomes down the road will be but we have no standing to protest until a rancher is put out of business. I characterize this as the ‘dead body theory.’ No one will do anything until there is a ‘dead body.’ But there is no way to revive a dead body — or a ranch that has been driven to the ground.”

The Westland Irrigation District is abandoning years of work to secure additional water from the Columbia River in order to defend a lawsuit filed by patrons alleging “massive misappropriation” of senior water rights.

Farmers reacted with surprise and disappointment Monday during a special district board meeting, where members voted unanimously to back out of the Central Project — one of three proposals to pump mitigated Columbia River irrigation water in Umatilla and Morrow counties.

Unlike the neighboring Stanfield and Hermiston irrigation districts, Westland does not have the ability to switch over to Columbia River water when flows from the Umatilla River drop below a certain point in the summer. That means the district depends entirely on Mother Nature, as well as stored water in McKay Reservoir.

Riding the momentum of a regional effort led by the Northeast Oregon Water Association, or NOWA, Westland had sought to tap into the Columbia and guarantee a full irrigation season for producers. It even appeared the district was on the verge of a deal, holding weekly meetings with patrons to iron out legal and logistical details moving forward.

Instead, the Central Project fell apart over a lawsuit accusing Westland of systematically cheating small farmers out of their senior water rights for the benefit of a few larger farms with junior rights. The case, which was originally tossed from federal court, will proceed in Umatilla County Circuit Court after Judge Michael Gillespie denied the district’s motion to dismiss last week.

A trial will likely be scheduled in the next six to nine months, according to Westland board chairman Bob Levy. And though Levy said he is confident the district will prevail, he felt it was unfair for patrons to invest in the project up front only to have it potentially stalled by legal challenges.

“The district is looking to defend this litigation for months to come,” Levy explained to a room full of patrons who packed the Umatilla County Fire District 1 station on Westland Road. “If the plaintiffs are successful ... it disturbs the Central Project, and the Central Project will not work.”

The Central Project would have cost roughly $14.4 million, financed by patrons who agreed to buy the water. The state of Oregon also approved a funding package for water delivery projects during the 2015 Legislature, with $11 million earmarked for the basin.

However, according to the resolution passed Monday, the project as it was conceived depended on Westland’s “longstanding water delivery and distribution practices” that are now being challenged in court. Plaintiffs in the case argue the district is in violation of Oregon’s “first in time, first in right” water appropriation system.

Levy also said the lawsuit precluded Westland from applying for its share of state funding within the fixed time frame.

After reading over the resolution in silence, farmer Hoss Hodges, whose parents arrived in the district in 1968, could barely contain his frustration.

“This really interferes with our future,” Hodges said after slamming the table with his hand.

Others were more subdued while lamenting what they described as a lost opportunity.

“We damn sure needed that Columbia River water,” said Butch Shockman, who owns a small amount of land along Bridge Road in Hermiston.

The value of agricultural land in the Columbia Basin increases exponentially with irrigation. Without water, dryland crops such as wheat may yield around $100 per acre. Add one acre-foot of water and that value grows to $500 per acre; add three acre-feet, and the value rockets to $5,000 per acre.

Patty Horn, whose family has owned Butter Creek Ranch in the district since the 1960s, said she is worried that without sufficient water in the future, her son will eventually inherit a sandlot.

“If I lose my water, my land become worthless,” Horn said. “It took 30 years for us to get a shot at Columbia water. It’s a shame to see it go over a few suing the district.”

The lawsuit in question was filed by a group of patrons who, together, farm more than 1,650 acres with senior water rights that date back to 1903. They claim they are being cheated out of water to benefit three large farms with more than 5,000 acres, including Levy’s L&L Farms, Amstad Farms and Eagle Ranch, to the tune of $2.9 million in damages.

Dixie Echeverria, who owns ELH LLC and is one of the plaintiffs on the case, said in a written statement that they have “grave concerns” about the management of the district. In his ruling, Judge Gillespie encouraged both sides to consider mediation.

“This case is not this court’s first experience with a small district’s members suing the special district they are members of,” Gillespie wrote. “In very real terms, the district’s costs are borne directly by all of its members in one way or another.”

J.R. Cook, founder and director of NOWA, said it was painful to see the Central Project slip out of Westland’s grasp. But he added that does not mean the organization is ending its effort to secure bucket-for-bucket mitigated Columbia River water rights and pass them off to entities that can put them to use.

The overall vision includes three project areas, stretching from Boardman to east of Hermiston.

Cook said Westland had been positioned to be first in line to get a pipeline in the ground as one of those three projects. Instead, the NOWA board will explore other options.

“I think Westland is going to look back on this in five years and regret it,” Cook said.