STANFIELD, Ore. — Standing on a stage at the first ever Ag Drone Rodeo, organizer Jeff Lorton compared the day’s events to those in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the site of the first manned flight.

The attendees of Thursday’s events were primarily concerned with unmanned flight, as dozens of people from across the state gathered at Ron Linn Airfield east of Stanfield for a series of drone demonstrations focused on agriculture.

Hosted by the Pendleton Unmanned Aerial Systems Range and Oregon Future Farm, drone manufacturers and vendors like RDO, Insitu and MicaSense flew their UAS. Each company talked about their drone’s crop imaging capabilities and ease of use while piloting it on a short mission.

Lorton said UAS would be a regular part of farming operations within 10 years and there was one working already on Hill Ranches near Pendleton.

“This drone thing you’ve heard so much about is a reality,” he said.

It’s certainly a reality for a group of students at Yamhill-Carlton High School, who are building a drone from scratch.

A Yamhill County farmer commissioned the drone so he could use the unmanned aerial vehicle on his blueberry fields and other crops, Yamhill-Carlton math teacher Jordan Slavish said.

The farmer agreed to pay for half of the cost to build it. A dedicated afterschool group of 6-7 students now gets a hands-on experience building their own drone.

Slavish was accompanied by Jeff Breazile and his son Zach, one of the students working on the drone.

Breazile, an engineer at Intel, said his employer is covering the expenses of the trip to Eastern Oregon, which the contingent is using as an opportunity to find the software they need to compile agricultural data.

Curt Thompson, the career technical education coordinator for the Pendleton School District, said he plans to incorporate some of the ideas from Yamhill-Carlton’s program into Pendleton High School’s UAS classes, which will start in December when the Pendleton Tech and Trade center opens.

Although many in the agricultural industry see drones as a part of the future of farming, some don’t know how quickly it will be integrated.

Todd Thorne, a member of the Pendleton Airport Commission and a former wheat farmer, said he could definitely see drones being used now to help growers of high-value crops like potatoes and tree fruits. But the current cost of investing in a UAS might be too cost prohibitive for a lower-value crop like dryland wheat.

While a quadcopter drone can now be bought for well under $100, the price tag for many of the professional-grade drones being demonstrated cost were in the thousands.

Don Wysocki, a soil scientist with the Umatilla County Oregon State University Extension Service, concurred with Thorne. He said he saw drone operators leasing out UAS services to farmers rather than growers buying drones of their own.

The Ag Drone Rodeo wasn’t the first series of demonstrations for farmers.

Phil Hamm, the station director of OSU’s Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, said his organization hosted some UAS demonstrations at the HAREC field days a few years ago.

Hamm said there’s a great deal of potential for farmers.

For instance, Hamm said UAS can better pinpoint the spots where pests are destroying a crop, allowing the farmer to target that spot rather than blanket a large area with expensive, unnecessary pesticide.

With many growers not having enough time to learn and operate drones themselves, Hamm also thought leasing drone services would probably be the most immediate way UAVs would be integrated into farming.

While he did note that farmers in the Columbia Basin are progressive in their ability to adapt to new technologies, Hamm said drone companies will have to appeal to growers’ business sense.

“You have to prove to them that they can save money,” he said.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Nine living marijuana plants will be displayed at the Oregon State Fair in a first of its kind event for the United States starting next Friday.

The exhibit of the non-flowering, immature plants brings pot cultivation more into the agricultural mainstream less than two years after Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana. The Oregon Cannabis Business Council, which organized the exhibit, says it’s the first time live cannabis will be shown at a state fair anywhere in the U.S.

The group last year had an informational booth about marijuana at the fair and there were no complaints — a key factor in allowing them to go one step further and offer live plants for viewing this year, said Dan Cox, spokesman for the Oregon State Fair.

The specimens were selected by judges at a competition last weekend who chose three winners each in the sativa, indica and hybrid categories.

The entire exhibit will be housed in a translucent tent and extra security will be on hand to check identification so only people 21 and over can enter, Cox said.

None of the plants are allowed have buds, which are more potent than the leaves.

That’s because the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which will regulate the recreational marijuana business, is still finalizing regulations for the nascent industry and it’s currently illegal to transport a flowering plant, said Donald Morse, director of the Oregon Cannabis Business Council.

Those regulations and a licensing process for recreational producers are expected by 2017. The industry hopes to have plants with buds at the fair next summer, Morse said.

The event has raised some eyebrows, but Cox said the Oregon State Fair has always played a role in displaying the latest and sometimes controversial fads in agriculture and state culture. Nearly 20 years ago, he said, the fair had an exhibit on tattoo body art that caused a similar sensation.

“It is a showcase for traditional things. And yet it’s always been a show place for the new, the different and the innovative,” he said.

Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana in a November 2014 ballot initiative after medical marijuana was legalized years earlier.

Recreational marijuana remains illegal in 46 states and under federal law. But in Oregon, the pot business has been booming.

Anticipated state revenue from recreational marijuana through June 2017 was recently quadrupled by Oregon’s Legislative Revenue Office, from $8.4 million to $35 million.

Cox said there aren’t plans to expand pot’s place at the fair beyond the small exhibit, which is in a space rented by industry proponents.

But for weed fans, just getting a place at the table is worth celebrating.

“It’s pretty awesome to be judging actual cannabis plants that are going to go into a state fair,” said Tom Lauerman, one of six judges and an organic marijuana grower who was once arrested in a law enforcement drug raid targeting pot. “It kind of gives me goose bumps even talking about it.”

The fair runs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 5 in Salem, Oregon.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Gov. Kate Brown has asked a judge to quash a subpoena that seeks her testimony at Oregon standoff defendant Ryan Bundy’s criminal trial in September.

Through her lawyer, Brown says she has no information pertinent to Bundy’s guilt or innocence in the case.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports she cites federal doctrine that protects high-ranking officials from “harassing and burdensome requests” for testimony.

Ryan Bundy, his brother Ammon Bundy and six co-defendants are scheduled for trial Sept. 7. They are charged with conspiring to impede federal employees at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge through intimidation, threats or force.

Ryan Bundy issued the subpoena Tuesday for Brown to appear at the trial and to produce any emails or memos between her and the FBI or other law enforcement agencies regarding the 41-day refuge occupation that weren’t already turned over to prosecutors.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s wildfire season is picking up just as much of the state prepares for triple-digit heat.

A fire west of Sunriver led officials to warn people in a subdivision they might have to evacuate. The same situation played out in the southern Oregon town of Paisley, where an 800-acre blaze was one of four that started Wednesday afternoon in Lake County.

In Eastern Oregon, crews set intentional blazes to rob the Rail fire of fuel as it burns about 10 miles southwest of Unity. The wildfire that has scorched 37 square miles produced a large column of smoke that could be seen from Baker City.

Firefighters won’t have comfortable conditions to battle the flames. The forecast for Thursday and Friday calls for temperatures near or above 100 in Western Oregon and it’ll be in the 90s east of the Cascades.

The fire near Sunriver was relatively small, less than a square mile, but its location near the resort community got attention.

Crews worked through the night and continued to focus on the southeast corner, the direction the fire had been moving and an area with homes, said Patrick Lair, spokesman for Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center. Crews got a line around the fire at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday and did back-burning through the night. About 250 people continued to fight the blaze.

The fire northwest of Paisley was moving toward private and Fremont-Winema National Forest lands. The evacuation notice means residents in town of about 250 people should monitor the news and be ready to potentially leave home.

The other fires in Lake County, which borders California and Nevada, were small and posed no threat.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — An environmental group is suing the U.S. Forest Service over its plan to thin trees in an Oregon forest.

The Bulletin reports that the nonprofit League of Wilderness Defenders filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday arguing the Forest Service illegally avoided an environmental review of its thinning plan.

The agency in December 2015 approved the Walton Lake Restoration Project, which calls for thinning, replanting and other work on about 176 acres near the lake in Ochoco National Forest.

According to the project, some of the conifer trees around the lake have a root disease that could call the tree to fall, even though it might look healthy. The agency says the process has environmental benefits but could pose a safety risk to people.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — More advocacy groups have filed lawsuits seeking injunctions to stop researchers from surgically sterilizing more than 200 wild mares in Central Oregon.

The Bulletin reports the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign and The Cloud Foundation jointly filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Bureau of Land Management arguing that the agency had violated the groups’ First Amendment rights by rejecting their request to record the procedures.

Bureau officials say they are still reviewing the latest lawsuits.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has said the research in Hines, Oregon, would help determine whether the three methods to be studied could be safely used to control the wild horse population.

Front Range Equine Rescue and Friends of Animals have also sued the agency over the proposed sterilization.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s wildfire season is picking up right as much of the state prepares for triple-digit heat.

A fire burning west of Sunriver led officials to warn people in a subdivision they might have to evacuate. The same situation is playing out in the southern Oregon town of Paisley, where an 800-acre blaze is one of four that started Wednesday afternoon in Lake County.

In Eastern Oregon, crews set intentional blazes to rob the Rail fire of fuel as it burns about 10 miles southwest of Unity. The wildfire that has scorched 37 square miles produced a large column of smoke that could be seen from Baker City.

Firefighters won’t have comfortable conditions to battle the flames. The forecast for Thursday and Friday calls for temperatures near or above 100 in Western Oregon and it’ll be in the 90s east of the Cascades.

The first picture I am sharing this week shows Second Street/Highway 101 torn up while installing the sewer in September of 1962. The Mobilgas station is now the former Gibson Graphics building on the corner of Fillmore and 101, across…

Thursday, Aug. 18

ALBANY, Ore. — Linn County shouldn’t be allowed to represent other counties in a lawsuit seeking $1.4 billion from Oregon over its forest management practices, according to the state’s attorneys.

It’s also impractical for the case to proceed as a class action due to the different forest circumstances in each county, the state’s attorneys claimed during oral arguments Aug. 17 in Albany, Ore.

The county filed a lawsuit against the State of Oregon earlier this year, arguing that insufficient logging had cost 15 counties more than $1.4 billion.

The complaint claims these counties turned over ownership of forestlands to Oregon in the early 20th Century with the expectation the state would maximize timber revenues, but since 1998, forest managers have instead prioritized wildlife habitat, water quality and recreation values.

More than 650,000 acres were donated to Oregon by Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Douglas, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, and Washington counties.

Linn County is seeking class action status for the lawsuit, permitting it to represent the other counties in the case.

Scott Kaplan, an attorney for Oregon, said the problems in managing the case as a class action would be “enormous.”

The counties donated 183 separate parcels of land to the state, each of which contains different slopes, tree types, waterways and federally- protected species, he said.

Determining how much timber could have been generated from each parcel would devolve into 183 mini-trials, he said.

“How can we decide if revenue has been maximized on a particular parcel unless you consider all of those issues?” Kaplan said.

Linn County is also an inadequate representative of the other counties for multiple reasons, he said.

The litigation costs are currently being paid for by timber groups and lumber companies — Oregon Forest & Industries Council, Sustainable Forests Fund, Stimson Lumber and Hampton Tree Farms.

Linn County is simply lending its name to a lawsuit that actually represents private interests, according to Oregon’s attorneys.

“It’s not a public interest case. It’s a case to benefit one particular group,” said Kaplan.

Unlike the counties, which appreciate tourism and other benefits from uses besides logging, the timber interests funding the lawsuit primarily want to change the state’s “greatest permanent value” rules for forest management to emphasize harvesting, he said.

Much of the alleged damages are for lost future timber revenues, which may force the state to change its logging policies, he said.

“That would directly challenge the interests of the other counties,” Kaplan said.

The case also doesn’t qualify as a class action because of the lack of “commonality” among the counties, which donated their land to Oregon during different times and under specific terms, he said.

The presence of threatened and endangered species, which constrain logging, varies widely by county and affects the damages calculation, he said.

“It’s a complicated issue involving federal agencies,” Kaplan said.

Chris McCracken, an attorney for Linn County, rejected the argument there’s a lack of commonality among the counties.

They all face the same issues, such as whether the state has violated its contract to maximize timber revenues, he said.

“We have common questions in droves,” McCracken said.

The Oregon Department of Forestry does not manage each parcel individually but instead treats them according to regional forest plans, he said.

Deciding the counties’ contractual rights collectively is more efficient than trying separate cases with potentially conflicting verdicts, he said.

McCracken also disputed that the lawsuit’s funding mechanism should disqualify it as a class action.

The Davis Wright Tremaine law firm would be entitled to 15 percent of any financial award in the case.

Contingency fees aren’t unusual in class action lawsuits, particularly since the counties are strapped for cash and could not afford such litigation on their own, McCracken said.

“There are no disabling conflicts between Linn County and the class members,” he said.

It’s irrelevant whether some counties prefer the forests to be managed for ecological or recreational benefits, McCracken said.

The lawsuit’s outcome won’t affect these priorities, he said.

“All that is sought here is money damages,” he said. “This lawsuit is not seeking to change the management of the forests.”

Linn County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Murphy said he would issue a ruling by Sept. 19 on the class certification issue as well as the state’s motions to dismiss.

CORNELIUS, Ore. (AP) — A small fire on an Oregon farmer’s field whipped up several firenados — tornados comprised of flames and smoke.

The smoky twisters cropped up in the field after a piece of farming equipment on Friday sparked the fire, which ultimately burned about 7 acres.

Cornelius Fire Department spokesman Matt Johnston said erratic winds contributed to the flaming phenomenon. He said the fire sucks in oxygen to fuel itself and the heat rises, causing the spinning column of flames and smoke.

Johnston filmed one in an adjacent field that swirled for about two minutes and shot up about 200 feet.

While Oregon has had a tame wildfire season so far, Johnston said three days of expected triple digit heat has crews worried.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The first defendant in the armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge early this year has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for his role.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that Corey Lequieu, 46, was sentenced Tuesday, the first person to be sent to prison in the federal conspiracy case.

U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown also sentenced Lequieu to three years of supervised release after prison and an amount of restitution to be determined later.

In May, Lequieu was the first of 26 standoff defendants charged with conspiracy to plead guilty. He admitted to impeding federal employees through threats, intimidation or force from working at the refuge outside Burns, Oregon.

The conspiracy charge carries a prison sentence of up to six years. But federal prosecutors recommended less time as part of a plea agreement, at least partly because Lequieu was the first in the case to take responsibility.

BANDON – Do you have a little prince or princess at home who dreams of wearing a crown on stage?

BANDON – Do you have a little prince or princess at home who dreams of wearing a crown on stage?

As a member of the Gold Coast Swim Team board of directors, we would like to thank our community for their continued support of our program. Thank you:

BURNS, Ore. — A recent decision by the federal government kept sage grouse off the Endangered Species List, but Harney County ranchers, displeased with the BLM’s range management plan amendment, are considering taking their complaint to court.

Louie Molt, chairman of the Harney County Soil and Water District, said the agency disregarded input from rural communities.

“When they were writing the Range Management Plan Amendment they asked counties and soil and water districts to come up with their own ideas about how to protect sage grouse and keep the rural community viable,” Molt said. “The BLM took our rural alternative and threw it in the trash.”

The county filed a protest, Molt said, and is now considering legal action. Out of a list of 10 or so complaints, Oregon Cattlemen’s Association Chairman John O’Keefe, a rancher in neighboring Lake County, said one of the biggest concerns is conflicting research over stubble height.

“It’s the implementation phase that is being challenged,” O’Keefe said. “There is research that has come out that the seven-inch minimum stubble height requirement has flaws in the science.”

O’Keefe said peer-reviewed research from the University of Nevada, Reno, raises questions about whether sampling bias might affect the estimates of cover needed for ground nesting birds. Daniel Gibson, Erik Blomberg and James Sedinger from the Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology analyzed the timing of nest survival surveys to determine required vegetative cover.

“One of the biggest concerns about the Resource Management Plan is they placed a lot of emphasis on habitat assessment including seven-inch stubble height,” O’Keefe said. “If we are going to manage for additional vegetation with additional wildfire, we are concerned where the BLM is going.”

The bias, according to the study, lies when stubble height is measured — at nest failure from predation or its height at predicted hatch date. Based on the study, the measurements taken at predicted hatch date more accurately predicted the influence of grass height on nest survival.

“Gibson showed if you remove the bias from sampling it shows grass height is not related to nest success,” O’Keefe said. “The BLM is over-emphasizing stubble height at the expense of wildfire, and that concerns us. We are worried they will cut permits on a non-existing nesting threat to the detriment of a fire threat and in a lot of these areas the grass matures at or below the seven-inch level,” O’Keefe said.

Fearing negotiations through the protest would fail; Harney County started raising money to launch a lawsuit. Molt said the district set a minimum goal of $50,000 before it would consider going to court; by Aug. 12 the soil and water district had raised $51,000.

“We are certainly willing to go back to the table with them, but we need to have the right people at the table, possibly (Interior) Secretary Jewell. “We’d like to try to collaborate one last time - we collaborated until we are blue in the face and we have nothing to show that works for us,” Molt said. “We will not proceed with filing suit until we give them one last opportunity to come back to the table to give us something we can live with.”

Jerome Rosa, executive director of Oregon Cattlemen’s Association said his organization supports Harney County’s actions and donated $5,000 to the fund.

“Oregon Cattlemen are still trying to negotiate with the BLM on the implementation and on this rule and if we were to sign on to this suit we give up our ability to negotiate on this, but we support our local cattlemen’s group in what they are doing here,” Rosa said.

Molt said now that the original goal has been met the second goal is to raise $100,000 and the far, outreaching goal is $250,000.

Molt said it comes down to protecting the livelihoods of ranchers dependent on public use permits.

“We will all be extremely affected if the permits are canceled. “Who am I going to sell my bulls or my hay?” Molt said. We have got to look out for our own country, if we don’t no one else will. Rural America is getting choked out. The people who live here, who would like to continue to live here, are the best stewards on the ground. People think we are destroying it. Are we that dumb that we would destroy our own livelihood?”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An ex-Marine who was part of the initial convoy that overtook a national wildlife refuge has pleaded guilty.

In federal court in Portland, Jon Ritzheimer admitted to a judge Monday that he conspired with Ammon Bundy and others to prevent Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said prosecutors will recommend 2 ½ years in prison when the Arizona man is sentenced in May.

Ritzheimer was one of the higher-profile occupiers, known for an emotional video in which he explains to his daughters why he can’t be home for the holidays. He said it was because “daddy swore an oath” to defend the Constitution.

Before coming to Oregon, he made news by organizing protests outside a Phoenix mosque and threatening to arrest a U.S. senator for supporting the Iran nuclear deal.

ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) — A 10-year-old Roseburg boy has honored the man killed during the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by naming his prize-winning steer after him.

A 1,030-pound black Maine-Anjou named LaVoy Finicum earned third-place at the Douglas County Fair, The News-Review reported. The steer is named after Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, the Arizona rancher killed by law enforcement during the occupation. In March officials declared the shooting justified.

The steer was named by Ryley Schneider, who spent his time at the fair talking to people about Finicum and handing out pocket-sized copies of the U.S. Constitution to police officers.

“LaVoy is a hero who stood up for all of our rights and I believe in him — we all believe in him,” Schneider said. “He stood up for our rights and was just a good man.”

Finicum and more than 20 other people took over the eastern Oregon refuge in January to protest perceived government overreach. The occupiers wanted the federal government to relinquish public lands and free two Oregon ranchers imprisoned for setting fires. Neither demand was met.

Finicum was the only fatality and has since become a sympathetic figure to those who feel the federal government has over-regulated industries.

“When I heard the news (that Finicum died) I didn’t feel happy,” Schneider said. “I felt sad and mad and I didn’t know why it had to happen. He was standing up for everyone’s rights and then he got shot and died. I just didn’t like that.”

Schneider said he hopes to donate some of his prize money to Finicum’s wife.

“She was there and saw her husband get shot,” Schneider said, “So I wanted to give her some money to help.”

What’s on TV …

New plant

We had a large crowd in Warrens to celebrate the opening of our new plant!  Thanks to everyone who joined us.  We look forward to the future!