BANDON — Youth, oftentimes, is cause for optimism, especially in sports.

PENDLETON, Ore. — Oregon’s farm regulators are simultaneously planning for substantial budget cuts and increases due to the state’s uncertain revenue future.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is anticipating a total budget ranging from roughly $103 million to $124 million in the 2017-2019 biennium, depending on whether voters approve a corporate tax increase in November.

The agency’s budget for the current biennium is about $111 million, which means it faces either a 7 percent reduction from its current level, or a boost of nearly 12 percent.

ODA is scrambling to plan for either scenario, as are other state agencies, because Gov. Kate Brown must complete her proposed budget for the next biennium by Dec. 1. — just weeks after the Nov. 8 election.

“We’re all kind of schizophrenic right now,” said Katy Coba, ODA’s director, during the Sept. 13 Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting in Pendleton, Ore.

State agencies have been asked to submit proposed budget cuts due to a large expected rise in state spending on the Public Employee Retirement System, as well as higher healthcare costs, said Coba.

However, the state government is also preparing for the possibility that Measure 97 passes, she said.

That ballot initiative would raise roughly $3 billion a year by imposing a gross receipts tax of 2.5 percent on certain corporations.

Under the $124 million budget request, ODA would hire multiple new employees focused on food safety inspection, agricultural water quality, information services, human resources and public records, among other investments, Coba said.

Positions would be cut from those and other programs, including confined animal feeding operations and insect pest prevention, under the $103 million scenario, she said.

Much of ODA’s budget is derived from fees on different types of farms and other companies who have a good understanding of what service reductions will entail, Coba said.

The situation is more complicated when dealing with the portion of the budget that comes from state general funds, which aren’t directly funded by the same agricultural constituency that receives ODA services, she said.

An overwhelming majority of Oregon voters support a corporate sales tax measure on the November ballot, according to a new poll by icitizen, a nonpartisan survey firm.

It’s the second poll in less than a week to show Measure 97 with a big lead, but the icitizen survey included several follow-up questions, which indicate that voters’ opinions change when they learn more about arguments for how the gross receipts tax would work.

“This suggests messaging about the effect on an Oregonian’s pocketbook can make for a tighter race in November, depending on either camp’s ability to market the measure in their favor,” said icitizen polling analyst Cynthia Villacis.

The measure, backed by a coalition of public employee unions, would levy a 2.5 percent tax on certain corporations’ Oregon annual sales exceeding $25 million.

The poll, taken from Sept. 2-7, found that 59 percent of 610 respondents favor the tax and 21 percent oppose it. After voters heard arguments against the measure, that support dwindled to 40 percent while opposition spiked to 31 percent. The poll has a 4 percent margin of error.

For instance, 65 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to support the measure if they had to pay $600 per year in the form of higher prices and lost job growth resulting from the tax. That figure is based on a May estimate by the nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office.

Similarly, 59 percent of respondents were more likely to vote for the measure if the revenue were to fill a $2 billion annual gap in funding needed for quality education in the state. That figure comes from the nonpartisan Quality Education Commission.

When asked how the money should be spent, the most common response — from nearly a quarter of those polled — was education spending.

The icitizen poll mirrors another independent survey, this one by DHM Research taken from Sept. 1-6, which found 60 percent of respondents support Measure 97, while 30 percent opposes it.

“At 60 percent (support) in back-to-back polls, Oregonians are clear they want corporations to pay their fair share,” said Katherine Driessen, a spokeswoman for Our Oregon, the nonprofit advocacy group backing the measure. “When we share with voters that large and out of state corporations pay little or no taxes, they’re eager to hold them accountable. They support 97 because Oregon voters know great schools and quality care for our seniors makes Oregon strong.”

So far, the campaigns for and against the measure have played out mostly on social media and in front of editorial boards and civic groups.

“Generally speaking, the numbers in the polls we’re seeing is consistent with polling we’ve seen since last fall,” said Pat McCormick, a spokesman for the Defeat the Tax on Oregon Sales. “The numbers haven’t changed much because there hasn’t been much robust campaign dialogue.”

McCormick said campaigning usually heats up after Labor Day. The opposition campaign plans to debut its first television ad sometime this month, he said.

The debate between the campaigns centers largely on who will pay for the tax. Opponents contend that consumers will pay for the majority of the cost of the tax, while supporters argue that many of the large corporations affected by the tax will absorb most of the extra cost into their national pricing scheme.

The icitizen poll also tested voters’ position on several other measures on the November ballot.

• Measure 94 removes the mandatory retirement of judges at age 75: 53 percent oppose, 33 percent favor, 14 percent undecided

• Measure 95 allows public universities to invest in equities: 29 percent favor, 24 percent oppose, 47 percent undecided

• Measure 96 devotes 1.5 percent of state lottery revenue to fund veteran services: 83 percent favor, 8 percent oppose, 9 percent undecided

• Measure 98 devotes a portion of new state revenue to fund dropout prevention, career and college readiness programs in Oregon high schools: 64 percent favor, 19 percent oppose, 17 percent undecided

• Measure 99 designates $22 million in state lottery revenue for outdoor education for all fifth- and sixth-graders in Oregon: 69 percent favor, 19 percent oppose, 12 percent undecided

• Measure 100 prohibits the sale of products and parts of 12 types of endangered animals: 85 percent favor, 7 percent oppose, 8 percent undecided

PENDLETON, Ore. — The Yamaha RMAX Type II drone growled like a motorcycle just before takeoff Monday at the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center.

Members of the Oregon Board of Agriculture watched from a safe distance as the unmanned helicopter hovered over a small plot of wheat stubble, carrying water to spray for imaginary weeds. Gusty winds cut the demonstration short after a few minutes, but it was enough to prove how the technology is capable of helping farmers better manage their fields.

Specifically, agriculture drones like the RMAX are built with equipment that allows growers to spray crops more precisely, which not only saves money on herbicides and pesticides but also helps the environment by placing fewer chemicals into the soil. Other types of drones — like the experiment station’s own “Octocopter” — can fly different types of cameras and remote sensors over fields to determine where there might be a problem, or predict yields even before harvest.

Young Kim, CEO of a Virginia-based company called Digital Harvest, coined the term “digital agriculture” to describe this convergence of technology in the world of farming. Kim is now one of the leaders behind the Oregon Unmanned Aerial Systems Future Farm in Pendleton, a real-world testing ground for how drones can be used to help farmers across the country grow more food, cheaper.

With the governor-appointed Board of Agriculture in town for its quarterly meeting, Kim said Monday’s test flight at the experiment station north of Pendleton is part of the ongoing research and discussion of how drones will ultimately fit in agriculture, and what exactly they’re capable of doing.

“Those are the kinds of things we want to test right here in Pendleton,” Kim said. “We’re in the market to learn.”

Pendleton is now home to two RMAX drones, one of which is operated by Digital Harvest on the Future Farm and the other by Yamaha, which has opened a local office at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport. Working as strategic partners, the two companies are trying to figure out how the vehicles can be used to safely and reliably spray crops at night, when there’s less heat and wind that could cause some applications to go to waste.

Jeff Lorton, director of the Duke Joseph marketing agency and project manager at the Future Farm, said the RMAX is the most advanced agriculture drone in the world. Yamaha already has 2,500 of the aircraft operating in Japan, though Lorton said U.S. agriculture is where the opportunity for the industry lies.

“Make no mistake, we are the market,” Lorton said.

The RMAX is the product of 35 years of engineering. It weighs approximately 200 pounds, and with a 250-cc engine, Lorton jokes it’s more like a snowmobile with a propeller. The Oregon Department of Agriculture is already interested in what the drone industry has to offer, Lorton said.

“Essentially, ODA is in kind of a period of transition. Digitization of agriculture is creating a whole bunch of new things for them to think about,” he said.

Katy Coba, ODA director and incoming Oregon Chief Operating Officer, admitted there are still hurdles to clear with operations and regulations of agricultural drones in Oregon, but the agency is well aware that this kind of technology represents the future of the industry.

“We know how agriculture is adopting new technology on a day-to-day basis,” Coba said.

Lorton said demonstrations like the one held Monday are a reminder to “wake up, pay attention and get invested.”

“Agriculture is the last great human endeavor to be digitized,” he said. “It’s the biggest thing people do.

JORDAN VALLEY, Ore. — The president’s recent creation of a national monument in Maine, despite local opposition, has Malheur County residents concerned.

Ranchers and other Malheur County residents formed the Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition this year to fight a proposed 2.5-million acre national monument in an area of the county known as the Owyhee Canyonlands.

Malheur County residents voted 9-1 earlier this year in opposition to the proposal, which is being pushed by the Oregon Natural Desert Association, an environmental group in Bend, and Portland’s Keen Footwear.

Monument opponents believe supporters will ask President Barack Obama to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to create the Malheur County monument.

On Aug 24, Obama declared 87,500 acres of land in northeast Maine as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.

Residents who live near that site also opposed that plan, as did the state’s governor, legislature and congressional delegation, according to the Washington Post.

“It does heighten the concern he’s going to do it,” Jordan Valley rancher Mark Mackenzie said about the Maine declaration.

The two cases are not entirely the same. The Maine parcel was gifted to the government by the founder of the Bert’s Bees product line, while the site of the proposed Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument is already controlled by the Bureau of Land Management.

Even though the Maine monument involved private land “and had a little different twist to it, I didn’t sleep very well that night,” Mackenzie said.

Opponents worry a monument designation would severely impact the county’s No. 1 industry, ranching, as well as mining, hunting and recreation because of restrictions and regulations that would come along with it.

“Of course the national monument in Maine is causing concern,” Malheur County rancher Sean Cunningham told Capital Press in an email.

He said a lot of his operation’s recent business decisions are taking into consideration “whether our backyard becomes a monument and how that’ll affect our daily operations.”

After the OBSC ran a TV ad on MSNBC in the Portland region during the Democratic National Convention urging people to oppose the proposed national monument, its membership increased by about 2,500 in 10 days, said Mackenzie, who is a member of the OBSC board of directors.

Membership now stands at 8,100 and the coalition has also started producing videos that feature people who live near where the monument would be located explaining in their own words why it would be a bad idea.

Malheur County rancher and OBSC board member Elias Eiguren said putting a face on the coalition’s message makes it more personal and allows people to understand that what would happen would affect real people.

“I think as more people see those videos ... it will bring more awareness to what’s going on,” he said.

If the proposed national monument is created, it won’t be because people didn’t know about the local opposition to it, said Malheur County Farm Bureau President Jeana Hall.

“The Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition has done a great job of voicing Malheur County’s opinion on this and making sure (people) know where we stand,” she said.

Farmers in Northeast Oregon have discovered three infestations of glyphosate-resistant Russian thistle, also known as tumbleweed, Oregon State University researchers have confirmed.

Multiple growers in several counties reported instances glyphosate failing to kill tumbleweed last summer, which led OSU researchers to collect samples, germinate seeds and spray the offspring with the herbicide.

Last week, Judit Barroso, an OSU weed scientist, confirmed that three of the tumbleweed populations actually were glyphosate-resistant.

Tumbleweed, an iconic Western weed, spreads seeds prolifically when it dries out and literally tumbles across the landscape. Weeds develop resistance when individual plants survive spraying and then multiply.

“The resistance is going to spread really fast, so we need to convince growers to control these weeds in a different way,” Barroso told members of the Oregon Board of Agriculture during a Sept. 12 meeting in Pendleton, Ore.

However, alternatives to glyphosate have serious drawbacks.

Tillage is one option, but it can cause erosion, Barroso said.

Herbicides other than glyphosate are often more expensive, while paraquat — which growers have recently begun using on the weed — is more toxic to humans, she said.

“The wheat grower doesn’t have a lot of room (financially) to spend on weed control,” she said.

While unfortunate, “herbicide resistance is a matter of time,” Barroso said.

Glyphosate usage is common in the region partly due to the popularity of no-till farming, which involves seeding wheat directly into the earth without first plowing it.

While the system greatly reduces erosion, growers rely on glyphosate to suppress weeds that would otherwise compete with their crop.

Conventional farmers also use glyphosate to control weeds in their fields, said Gregg Goad, a retired farmer near Pendleton who attended the meeting.

“It’s the frequency that you use the compound that really raises the likelihood of resistance,” he said. “It was a good compound for an awful lot of things, so it got used frequently. But with that frequency, it became ubiquitous in the environment and that selected for glyphosate resistance.”

Barroso said she intially hoped that the tumbleweed infestations reported by farmers were not reacting to glyphosate because dust and drought had impeded the herbicide’s function.

While that may have been the case for other instances of tumbleweed surviving glyphosate sprays reported to OSU last year, the offspring from three locations in Morrow County clearly were resistant, she said.

Tumbleweed doesn’t tolerate competition and will be crowded out by a vigorous crop, but given the region’s arid climate, that kind of vigor generally isn’t realistic, said Barroso.

“It’s robust, and it’s hard to control,” said Goad.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Seven people are ready to stand trial in connection with the occupation of a national wildfire refuge in Oregon. Here’s a look at the defendants:

———

AMMON BUNDY

The occupation leader, 41, of Emmett, Idaho, speaks in measured cadences about the U.S. Constitution and how, in his belief, it limits the federal government’s ability to own public land. He has a wife and six children, owns a fleet-maintenance business and resides on a property that includes an orchard with 240 apple trees.

———

RYAN BUNDY

Ammon’s brother, 43, of Cedar City, Utah, whose facial injuries stemming from being hit by a car as a youth make him easily identifiable. Authorities say he planned an escape from jail and also got into a scuffle with a guard. He and his wife, Angie, have eight children. She maintains a blog that provides an unvarnished look at their family life.

———

DAVID FRY

Known as “The Last Holdout,” the 28-year-old from Blanchester, Ohio, surrendered Feb. 11 after a lengthy negotiation that was carried live on a YouTube feed. He talked of UFOs, requested pizza and marijuana, and threatened to kill himself. Defense attorney Per Olson has said a mental health expert will testify that Fry suffers from a personality disorder characterized by paranoia, and it intensifies under stress.

———

JEFF BANTA

The 47-year-old of Yerington, Nevada, was one of the final four occupiers. He arrived at the refuge Jan. 25, a day before the Bundys were arrested and Finicum was killed.

———

SHAWNA COX

The 60-year-old from Kanab, Utah, was in the truck with Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum before he was fatally shot by Oregon State Police. Cox sued the U.S government after her arrest, seeking damages “from the works of the devil in excess of $666,666,666,666.66.” A judge allowed Cox to act as her own lawyer but warned her not to question the authority of the court or take other “screwball positions.”

———

KENNETH MEDENBACH

The only Oregonian on trial, Medenbach, 63, has been fixated on whether U.S. District Judge Anna Brown took the appropriate oath of office when she was appointed in 1999. He’s repeatedly brought it up at pretrial hearings and filed a lawsuit on the issue that was quickly dismissed. He’s from the city Crescent.

———

NEIL WAMPLER

A former woodworker, the 69-year-old from Los Osos, California, was convicted in 1977 of second-degree murder in the death of his father. The Tribune of San Luis Obispo reported that he has previously written letters to the newspaper criticizing gun control measures.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — When a group of armed protesters occupied a remote bird sanctuary in Oregon’s high desert early this year, their weekslong standoff drew national attention to the decades-old fight between the federal government and Western states over land policy.

For weeks, the federal government allowed the occupation to continue, causing speculation as to why authorities would not move in and re-take the site. The occupation that started Jan. 2, ended after 41 days. On Tuesday, opening statements are set to begin in the federal trial of seven of the protesters.

The defendants, including brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, are charged with conspiring to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge through intimidation or threats. Five of them are also charged with possession of a firearm in a federal facility. The Bundys are part of a Nevada ranching family embroiled in a long-running dispute over land use.

The takeover began as a protest against the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires and quickly grew into demands for the U.S. government to turn public lands over to locals. The issue traces back to the 1970s and the Sagebrush Rebellion, a move by Western states like Nevada to increase oversight of the vast federal holdings in the region.

At the Malheur refuge near Burns, Oregon, protesters mostly came and went as they pleased. They changed the signs to “Harney County Resource Center” as they attempted to gain control of the land, which they said they would turn over to local officials to administer. The group held frequent news conferences and said they were doing maintenance and other work at the site as they moved heavy equipment around the area.

The occupation roiled the surrounding area, with some locals supporting the movement and others denouncing the occupiers as unwanted outsiders.

Counter protesters, including environmentalists, also traveled to Eastern Oregon and urged the federal government to administer public lands like the refuge for the widest possible uses for everyone from ranchers to bird watchers.

The nearby Burns Paiute Tribe also criticized the occupiers, noting that prehistoric archaeological sites were located at the refuge and that tribal members considered Malheur part of their ancestral land.

Oregon officials, including Gov. Kate Brown, grew frustrated at the amount of time it took for federal authorities to move against the Bundy group. At one point Brown sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey that urged them “to end the unlawful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as safely and as quickly as possible.”

The protest basically ended when the Bundys were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop that included the fatal shooting by police of occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum. Four holdouts stayed at the refuge for another 16 days.

Prosecutors say the conspiracy began a couple months before the takeover, when Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne, who pleaded guilty in July, visited the Harney County sheriff and warned of extreme civil unrest if he did not shield the ranchers from prison.

The defendants say they used their First Amendment rights to engage in a peaceful protest and repeatedly mention the only shots fired during the 41-day occupation were the rounds fired by police at Finicum.

The government will remind jurors that the protesters established armed patrols shortly after the takeover, an action that deterred federal employees from going to work.

A total of 26 people were charged with conspiracy. Eleven have pleaded guilty, including Payne and several others from Bundy’s inner circle. Charges were dropped against another man. Seven defendants sought and received a delay in their trial, now scheduled for February.

Ryan Bundy and Shawna Cox, the only woman among the seven defendants, are acting as their own lawyers and are expected to deliver their own opening statements.

The jury includes eight women and four men from throughout Oregon, and eight alternatives are available, if necessary. The trial is expected to last until November.

Oregon legislators will likely be asked for $4.25 million next year to pay for conservation easements that would protect farmland from development.

Plans are beginning to solidify for the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program, which would provide grants to farmers interested in easements and succession planning, said Meta Loftsgaarden, executive director of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

OWEB, which will oversee the program, plans to hold “listening sessions” this autumn based on concepts developed by agricultural and conservation groups before drafting proposed legislation for the 2017 legislative session, she said.

“We didn’t want to go out to farmers and ranchers with a blank slate. We really wanted to have something they could react to,” Loftsgaarden said during the Sept. 12 Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting in Pendleton, Ore.

Conservation easements are usually sold or donated by farmers who give up their development rights in exchange for tax benefits and lower property values, reducing inheritance taxes.

They haven’t been as commonly used in Oregon as in other states because of the statewide land-use planning system, but this system alone isn’t enough to prevent the fragmentation of working lands, Loftsgaarden said.

The $4.25 million wouldn’t be enough funding for everyone who wanted to sell an easement, but it would serve as a pilot program — particularly for lands inhabited by threatened or endangered species, or that are subject to “urban growth boundary” expansion, said Doug Krahmer, a blueberry farmer who sits on a work group advising the program.

The easements will have a conservation component and could be used to provide properties with regulatory protections, offering an additional incentive for farmers, Loftsgaarden said.

Currently, a similar approach is used for forestlands where owners want to grow trees older than 30 years but are afraid of creating habitat for the northern spotted owl, hindering future timber harvest, she said.

“They want bigger trees, we want bigger trees, so what we needed to provide was that protection,” Loftsgaarden said, noting that forestland owners submit management plans to the Oregon Board of Forestry and receive regulatory assurances from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

OWEB currently funds conservation easements, but these are focused on preserving native fish habitat and water quality, without emphasizing agriculture, she said.

For that reason, landowners in Oregon have had trouble getting matching state funds needed to obtain federal money available for buying conservation easements, Loftsgaarden said.

“We weren’t hitting for the same target,” she said.

OWEB is funded with lottery dollars especially slated for wildlife and water quality, but the agency may seek money from the general fund or from lottery-backed bonds that don’t have the same restrictions, Loftsgaarden said.

The fund would also be able to accept donations from organizations and individuals, said Krahmer.

Grant requests would be ranked based on the duration of the proposed easement — perpetual agreements will score higher than those which end after a certain number of years — as well as the management plan and the threat of development to the property, said Loftsgaarden.

The program would be overseen by a commission consisting of representatives from the agricultural industry, the conservation community, tribes and land use experts, with OWEB providing staff support, she said.

Agricultural groups have asked why the program wouldn’t be overseen by the Oregon Department of Agriculture while conservationists prefer the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Loftsgaarden said.

However, OWEB is already focused on grants and has representatives from both agricultural and conservation groups, she said. “OWEB sits sort of in the middle.”

Powers won its game in the annual 8-Man Classic on Saturday night at North Bend, beating Siletz Valley 52-6. Earlier, Camas Valley blanked Yoncalla 48-0 and North Douglas crushed Days Creek 52-8.

BANDON — The festivities surrounding the Cranberry Bowl make for a fun Saturday. The parade, car show and other Cranberry Festival activities in town lead up to the annual showcase game for Bandon's football team.

Bandon Cranberry Festival 2016

Stephanie Balin, an exercise specialist at Westinghouse’s Cranberry headquarters, takes a small break from fitness to get back on a healthy track.

Into the woods

Into the woods

SATURDAY, SEPT. 10

We can say a lot about John Decas…and This article says most of it.  What is doesn’t say is that John Decas is one heck of a story teller and jokester.  Come out to WI John! We missed you at the CMC. 

An Oregon nursery and its landlord have prevailed in a lawsuit that accused them of creating a hostile work environment.

Carlton Plants and Carlton Nursery of Dayton, Ore., were sued last year by former employee Criselda Romero-Manzano, who claimed the companies ineffectively responded to her sexual harassment complaint.

Romero-Manzano had complained to a supervisor in 2013 of unwanted advances by a crew leader, after which she was reassigned to another crew leader, according to court documents. She lost her job a year later after she exhausted her medical leave that was related to a work injury.

In her 2015 complaint, Romero-Manzano claimed she’d suffered economic loss due to lost wages and emotional distress because the companies “did not effectively respond to plaintiff’s report of sexual harassment” and subjected her to a hostile work environment.

Romero-Manzano accused the crew leader of “sexual comments, invitations of a sexual nature, and unwanted sexual touching.”

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown has agreed with Carlton Plants and Carlton Nursery that the lawsuit was time-barred and must be dismissed.

Romero-Manzano originally received permission from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries to file the lawsuit against only Carlton Nursery, not Carlton Plants.

However, Carlton Nursery did not employ Romero-Manzano as it’s a separate entity that leases acreage to Carlton Plants, Romero-Manzano’s actual employer, Brown said.

While she did eventually amend her lawsuit to include Carlton Plants as a defendant, the permission to sue from EEOC and BOLI had by then expired, the judge said.

Romero-Manzano also failed to establish that the two companies were so inter-related that they should legally be treated as one entity, Brown said.

Attorneys for the plaintiff weren’t allowed to comment or did not respond to Capital Press.

Jon Bartch, registered agent for Carlton Nursery and Carlton Plants, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Powers swept visiting Umpqua Valley Christian on Thursday to improve to 3-0 in Skyline League volleyball play.

A Growing Legacy