Well, maybe you didn’t wonder, but here is the answer anyway…

http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/02/why-only-one-u-s-candy-cane-maker-is-left/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=759b49d177-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-759b49d177-83768749

WALTERVILLE, Ore. (AP) — Oregon State Police Trooper Anthony Mathews shot the cow dead.

And then he had to do it again and again and again.

“It’s heart-wrenching,” Mathews said at the scene along Highway 126 west of Walterville, where a truck pulling a trailer with 68 cattle overturned Tuesday afternoon. “They’re more or less like pets, and it’s hard, but you have to do what’s right for them and not let them suffer.”

Mathews, a wildlife division trooper with the state police, was assigned to kill a total of 12 injured cows trapped inside the trailer.

Mathews said he’d had to kill animals before, mostly wildlife.

As the shots from Mathews’ handgun rang out, bystanders and emergency crew members winced and plugged their ears. Mathews was equipped with ear protection to cancel out the sharp sounds.

Mathews said there were “many more” animals already dead in the trailer.

Once confirmed dead, the cows were dragged from the trailer with a long metal cable and placed into another trailer. A co-owner of the truck and trailer, Ron Langley of Monroe, said the carcasses would likely be taken to a designated dump, as they could not be used for meat.

“A lot of them have broken legs and bones,” Langley said of the animals. “There’s no way for us to get them up or use them, so we have to shoot them.”

Langley works for Apache Transport, a Junction City company that hauls livestock and construction materials.

The owner of the cows was also on the scene and helped troopers decipher which animals could be salvaged.

The truck driver had minor injuries and was not taken to a hospital, law enforcement officials said.

The truck sheared a tree and also struck a power pole, which downed lines and cut power to several nearby homes and businesses.

Following the crash, several cows escaped to a nearby field through a hole in the top of trailer, according to state police trooper Sgt. Vonn Schleicher, who said he was unsure how many cows were alive, dead or injured. The trailer likely was ripped open on impact, Schleicher said.

The cows that remained trapped inside the trailer could be heard mooing and kicking the metal trailer, prompting officials to decide to shoot the severely injured animals, Schleicher said.

The area where the truck overturned has been the scene of multiple crashes over the years, according to several neighbors.

A driver who crashed his state-owned tanker truck on Dec. 30, 2014, spilled a load of 11,000 juvenile salmon in the same spot. The driver, who struck a power pole, was later determined to have a blood alcohol level of 0.29 percent, state police said at the time.

The scene at Tuesday’s crash was eerily familiar, according to 38-year-old Penny Burns, who said crashes in the area are “a constant problem.”

“That’s the exact same spot the fish truck crashed,” Burns said. “There are so many crashes here. ... I mean look at my fence, it’s had to be replaced because of it.”

Burns said she was the first to call 911.

“As soon as I heard it, I came out and saw one (cow) take off,” Burns said. “They were all mooing and kicking very loudly.”

Burns said the driver got out of the truck quickly.

“The guy was hurt a little, he was bleeding from the head and looked like he may have broken his nose, but he was walking and talking just fine,” Burns said.

Marlin Lay, 56, said he was arriving home just up the street when the crash happened.

“Speeding is what got him,” Lay said. “He hit that tree so hard, he bounced back into the highway.”

Lay, who has lived off Cedar Flat Road for more than 20 years, said the area is prone to crashes because of its curves.

“You’re going 55 (mph), then all of the sudden it’s 45 and the road is curving,” Lay said. “There’s a sign right there that says 45 and they don’t pay attention.”

Police said Wednesday that speed was a reason the truck failed to negotiate the turn. The driver was cited for failing to drive within his lane.

A river health “report card” compiled by representatives from 20 entities gives Oregon’s Willamette River a “B” grade in its upper and middle sections and a C+ as it passes through Portland on its way to the Columbia.

The report made public Wednesday grades the river on five factors: Water quality, fish and wildlife presence, habitat such as streambank vegetation, flow and the impact of people.

Scientists measured the river’s health as determined by multiple indicators. Among them were fecal bacteria levels, the presence of native fish and bald eagles, water temperature, channel structure and levels of toxics.

Overall, it was a surprisingly good show for a river that is the nation’s 19th largest by volume, courses 187 miles through Oregon’s largest cities and highly productive farmland, and is often written off as polluted.

“The river is clean enough to swim in,” said Allison Hensey, deputy director of the Willamette River Initiative, an effort funded by the non-profit Meyer Memorial Trust.

Fecal bacteria counts are low throughout the river’s reach, toxics are relatively low except in the Portland harbor “superfund” contamination cleanup site, and there were no harmful algal blooms in the upper and middle reaches. Algal blooms are rare enough in the lower Portland stretch that the river earned an A+ from the study group.

Water quality in the Willamette is very good from Eugene to Albany, good from Albany to Newberg, and acceptable from Newberg to Portland, the group reported. Native fish and bald eagles, two of the indicators considered, are found in good numbers through most of the river.

But problems remain, Hensey said. The river is too warm, channel complexity is diminished, the flow volume is well below ideal level and native resident fish such as bass and carp — as opposed to ocean migrating salmon and steelhead — aren’t safe to eat in large quantities. Flood plain vegetation, the trees and bushes that hold, filter and cool the river, has been disrupted.

For some emerging concerns — such as traces of pharmaceuticals or personal care products found in the river — the study group had no standards by which to grade the Willamette’s health, Hensey said.

The river has multiple uses, ranging from irrigation to recreation, and five cities now draw drinking water from the Willamette, with more likely to join them, she said.

“This is a river we all rely on,” she said.

Willamette Valley farmers are in good position to help solve some of the river’s problems because their land borders it, said Cheryl Hummon, riparian specialist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s water quality management program.

Farmers and other rural landowners should maintain existing forested areas along the Willamette and its tributary streams, Hummon said. Such work doesn’t take land out of production, doesn’t require a permit and doesn’t need financial or technical assistance. “It is far more effective and efficient to protect what we have than to restore what we’ve lost,” Hummon said in an email.

Hummon was one of the study group members that spent the past year-and-a-half researching the river’s health. Others were from Oregon State and the University of Oregon, ODFW, Oregon DEQ, several cities, utilities and tribal and watershed groups. The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science helped coordinate the work.

SHERWOOD, Ore. — Richard Hostetter wasn’t a farmer, but he knew the international investment game. He knew the big boys were increasingly favoring agriculture over the long haul. People have to eat, after all.

Arriving in Oregon in 2013 after 17 years in Tokyo, where he’d worked for big banks and investment houses, he searched for an opportunity. He figured he was too late to make money in Oregon blueberries or hazelnuts, and the wine industry likewise seemed over-populated.

When someone mentioned cider apples, his response was, “What the heck is that?”

“Initially, I wasn’t interested,” he said. “I didn’t think it had any legs.”

Research and due diligence convinced him otherwise. It quickly became apparent that hard cider was an industry on the rise. Cideries and cider pubs were popping up everywhere, especially in Portland, mimicking the rise of the craft beer industry. Membership in the Northwest Cider Association grew from 17 to 70 in the past three years.

And just like wine grapes, the apples that make the best hard cider are different than the ones people like to eat. The rush is on to provide the bittersweet varieties, including old English and French apples, that make the best hard cider.

There is, Hostetter discovered, “A mismatch between rapidly growing demand and slow growing supply.”

Which is how he came to plant 15,000 cider apple trees on three leased acres outside Sherwood, 20 miles south of Portland.

“I do believe there’s a big opportunity in cider apples,” he said. “I’ve rolled the dice fairly aggressively on this.”

In that sense, Hostetter, 47, represents a couple of truisms in Oregon agriculture. First, the emerging generation of farmers includes people new to the field but with other skills, experience or money. Second, Oregon’s agricultural diversity — the state grows 220 crops — opens doors to unexpected economic development.

Hostetter is engaged in a crash course on grafting, planting and growing fruit trees, all of which is complicated and costly. “Even the wood for grafting is worth a lot of money right now,” he said.

The biggest difficulty has been finding farmland to buy, with water rights. suitable soil and within striking distance of Portland. He has about two dozen varieties growing in close-packed nursery style on the leased land while he searches for property on which to transplant his orchard.

He believes the industry will achieve a high-qualty niche once cider makers have a supply of proper apples.

Ten years from now, he hopes to be known as the owner of a sizable commercial cider apple business.

Richard Hostetter

Age: 47

Family: Wife, Naoko, sons Ryan and Alan, and Reggie the chocolate lab, who has free rein of the cider orchard. Wife is from Japan and family (except Reggie, Hostetter jokes) is bi-lingual.

Background: Grew up on Lookout Mountain, Tenn., a suburb of Chattanooga. Not from an agricultural family, but loved farms and dreamed of owning one.

Education: Bachelor of arts degree from Wheaton College in Illinois; master’s degree in business administration from University of South Carolina.

Professional life: Worked 13 years as an economist in the Japanese foreign exchange and stock markets, four years as a management consultant in Tokyo.

Why farming, why now: International institutional investors are increasingly looking at agriculture as a solid place to put their money. Getting into farming combines two interests.

Why cider apples: The increasing sophistication of American consumers. The demand for fine wine and craft beer is spreading to other beverages and food. With cider apples, there’s a complete mismatch between “rapidly growing demand and slow growing supply.”

PENDLETON, Ore. — The Columbia Basin’s 2015 salmon season is the second-strongest year since the federal dams were built nearly 80 years ago.

A record number of fall chinook salmon returned up the Columbia River past McNary Dam in 2015, continuing on to spawning grounds at Hanford Reach, the Snake River and Yakima Basin.

More than 456,000 of the fish were counted at McNary Dam, breaking the facility’s previous record of 454,991 set in 2013. An estimated 200,000 fall chinook made it back to Hanford Reach, the most since hydroelectric dams were first built on the Columbia nearly 80 years ago.

Both federal and tribal leaders hailed the impressive run as a positive sign of their efforts to improve both fish habitat and passage at the dams. The Bonneville Power Administration is especially pleased with recent projects at McNary Dam, re-routing its juvenile fish bypass channel to provide better protection from predators. Crews also installed weirs at two of the dam’s spillway gates, which lets certain species of fish pass through closer to the surface.

Overall, 2.3 million adult salmon passed through Bonneville Dam near Portland, making it the second-strongest year on record for the entire Columbia Basin.

“When you look at how well salmon did overall is this year, it’s clear the approach of restoring critical fish habitat and improving dam passage is working,” said Lorri Bodi, vice president of environment, fish and wildlife at BPA.

There were 3,485 chinook counted at Three Mile Falls Dam on the Umatilla River near Hermiston. That’s slightly more than the 3,259 in 2014, and less than the 4,117 fish in 2013.

Coho counts fell back to Earth after a monster year in 2014 — 3,076 in 2015, compared to more than 14,000 a year ago at Three Mile Falls Dam. Steelhead were much lower, with just 558 fish versus 1,480 in 2014.

Kat Brigham, who has served on the Board of Trustees for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation as well as the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said such anomalies used to be purely attributed to ocean survival — something that’s no doubt important, but was a convenient way of dismissing environmental damage and flaws in the dams’ passage systems.

“Ocean survival is an important piece, but nobody can really determine what good ocean survival is,” Brigham said. “We still have to look at what needs to be done to protect our fish as both adults and juveniles.”

Brigham said she is excited about this year’s fall returns, which is the result of hard work between the four CRITFC tribes, Northwest states and federal government.

But there are still challenges to reestablishing sustainable populations, she said. The basin still has 13 fish runs listed on the Endangered Species Act, and a changing climate won’t make things any easier.

The CTUIR and Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife began trucking spring salmon up past Three Mile Falls Dam in May this year, much earlier than normal as low flows and warm water put additional stress on the fish.

Coming up with a plan for endangered fish require a holistic approach, Brigham said. No part of the restoration effort is more important than the other.

“If it was a real simple answer, I hope we would have found it and got it done,” Brigham said. “It’s not just the drought. You have to look at everything.”

Brigham said she understands the BPA has to consider costs, and irrigation will always be a part of the basin. They are striving to come up with a balance that will ultimately allow everyone to survive. She said the CTUIR’s Umatilla River Vision is potentially a model for other interests to consider.

“It’s an ongoing project to try and protect the habitat and fish going over dams,” she said. “We are protecting our culture, our way of life and treaty rights.”

Not all Northwest fish runs fared well in 2015. Unseasonably warm temperatures heated river water enough to all but decimate endangered Snake River sockeye, though biologists did release 600 hatchery sockeye into Idaho’s Redfish and Pettit Lakes to spawn naturally. Research shows the offspring of sockeye spawned naturally in lakes return at higher rates than those simply released from the hatchery.

Paul Lumley, CRITFC executive director, said the successes in 2015 highlight what they are capable of accomplishing as a region when everyone works together.

“Yes, there is more work to be done to address things like climate change, water quality and water temperatures, but this success provides the confidence to achieve full salmon recovery,” Lumley said.

BANDON — Twenty roasted turkeys, nine baked hams, pounds of hot mashed potatoes, trays of savory stuffing, steaming candied yams, green beans with onions, rolls, cranberry sauce, cole slaw, beverages and an array of desserts awaited those who came to…

BANDON -- Twenty roasted turkeys, nine baked hams, pounds of hot mashed potatoes, trays of savory stuffing, steaming candied yams, green beans with onions, rolls, cranberry sauce, cole slaw, b…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama kept up his holiday tradition of supporting small businesses.

Oregon, which removed gray wolves from the state endangered species list Nov. 9, most likely will eventually allow hunting or trapping of wolves in order to manage their recovery, a Minnesota expert said.

David Mech, a University of Minnesota researcher who studies wolves and their prey, said wolf recovery and management tends to play out the same in every region, and probably will in Oregon as well.

Wolves are prolific and quickly disperse “far and wide” to new territory, he said.

“When the states get their (management) jurisdiction back, most states conclude they need to control the population in some way,” Mech said.

In Minnesota, the government authorizes hunters and trappers to kill 100 to 200 wolves annually to control depredation on livestock and pets, he said. Wolves in Minnesota are listed as “threatened” under the federal ESA rather than endangered.

Mech, pronounced “Meech,” was among 26 scientists who recently signed a letter asking U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to take gray wolves off the federal endangered species list in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The states have a combined population of more than 3,700 wolves and their numbers are “robust, stable and self-sustaining,” the scientists said in the letter.

“The integrity and effectiveness of the ESA is undercut if delisting does not happen once science-based recovery has been achieved,” the scientists continued. Failure to do so creates public resentment toward the species and the Endangered Species Act, they said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has four times moved to delist gray wolves in the western Great Lakes states but has been “foiled or reversed by litigation typically based on legal technicalities rather than biology,” the scientists said.

“It is ironic and discouraging that wolf delisting has not occurred in the portions of the Midwest where biological success has been achieved as a consequence of four decades of dedicated science-based work by wildlife management professionals,” they said in the letter.

Mech said he’s familiar with Pacific Northwest wolf issues, including Oregon’s action to take wolves off the state endangered species list.

He said Oregon’s wolf management plan — drawn up and approved by a group that included cattle ranchers and wildlife activists — clearly called for taking wolves off the state ESA when the population hit a certain level.

“They agreed to those delisting criteria,” Mech said. “When it was met it was sort of automatic; that’s really all that happened.”

To oppose state delisting now is “changing the rules in the middle of the game,” Mech said.

Gray wolves in the eastern third of Oregon and Washington were removed from federal ESA listing some time ago, but remain on the federal list in the western two-thirds of the states. Washington retains a state ESA listing statewide, as Oregon did before Nov. 9.

Idaho wolves were federally delisted in 2011, and the state allows hunters and trappers to kill them in season. In 2014-15, hunters and trappers killed 250 wolves in Idaho. They’ve killed 102 so far in 2015-16.

Mech agreed healthy deer and elk populations are a buffer between wolves and increased attacks on livestock. In the letter to Jewell asking for federal delisting in the Great Lakes states, he and the other scientists said an uncontrolled wolf population could upset the balance.

“There are few, if any, areas in these or surrounding states where wolves could live on natural prey without exceeding socially tolerable levels of depredation on livestock and pets,” the scientists said.

“There’s no reason to think wolves in Wisconsin, Michigan or Minnesota, or in those states combined, are threatened or in danger of extinction,” Mech said.

Why skip the turkey on Thanksgiving?

Why skip the turkey on Thanksgiving?

Taking a ride in a helicopter was on my bucket list, but the opportunity came a little unexpectedly.

Taking a ride in a helicopter was on my bucket list, but the opportunity came a little unexpectedly.

ATLANTA (AP) — Grammy-nominated rapper Jeezy went from handing out meals to performing in front of a sold-out crowd in Atlanta.

For all intents and purposes, the fall sports season officially ended on the South Coast when North Bend lost to Scappoose on Saturday.

For all intents and purposes, the fall sports season officially ended on the South Coast when North Bend lost to Scappoose on Saturday.

JAMIESON, Ore. (AP) — For the first time in two decades, beef is Oregon’s No. 1 agricultural commodity.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture announced this summer that cattle and calves claimed the top spot in 2014, unseating greenhouse and nursery products. It was good news for ranchers who have been bolstered by strong demand and stronger prices for the last couple of years.

In 2014, the industry brought in about $922 million statewide — up 38 percent from 2013. Malheur County, in Eastern Oregon, was responsible for nearly $250 million.

“There have been some very strong cattle prices the last couple of years, and that is reflected in the value of production for cattle and calves,” said Kathryn Walker, special assistant to the director of the state agriculture department.

There are three primary components of the industry — feedlots, cow-calf operations and slaughterhouses, said Doug Maag, whose family has been ranching in the Jamieson area since the 1930s.

Six months ago, slaughterhouses were down and feedlots were losing a bit as the cost to grain cattle for slaughter was high.

“The cow-calf guy has been the strongest for the last four years,” said Maag, who has focused on the two family feedlots while other relatives have raised cattle. “Very seldom are all three (components of the industry) making money at the same time.”

Ranchers running cow-calf pairs have done well recently because there have been fewer animals on the market, Malheur County Cattlemen’s Association President Chris Christensen said.

Many ranchers reduced their herds in Texas after entering the third year of drought, he said.

“They liquidated whole herds and a lot of cows went to slaughter,” Christensen said.

When the product became more scarce, the demand increased, which was good news for cattle producers.

“These buyers were scrambling for the limited number of animals out there,” Christensen said. “There were all-time record high beef prices.”

In 2014, a calf right off a cow could bring in about $1,500, he said. This year, there are more calves on the market, so the price likely won’t be as good for sellers.

“It’s reduced this year. Next year, it will be lower again,” Christensen said.

So much is out of ranchers’ control, from the weather to the White House. Deanne Vallad, who with her husband Jason has about 150 head of cattle outside Ontario, said producers have to learn to take advantage of the good times.

“When you have high highs, you’d better be getting your house in order so you can weather the low lows,” she said.

Maag agreed.

“When you’re making money, you pay your debts, pay ahead a little bit. You plan ahead,” he said. “These cycles come and go. It’s just the way it operates.”

Vallad sees water as a lingering challenge for local ranchers.

“In the first 100 years of this valley, when people were homesteading, you saw water usage. Now, in the next 100 years, you’re going to see a big trend toward water conservation,” she said. “I tend to think it’s going to change the scope of ag in Malheur County until such time as water is more abundant.”

Christensen said the federal government is another wild card in the cattle business’s future. The county “ducked a bullet” when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to list greater sage grouse as an endangered species, but there are lingering land-use questions regarding the birds.

Maag said the ranchers need to have a bigger say in what happens to federal rangeland.

“Nobody knows better how to handle that range than the ranchers themselves,” he said. “If they cheat on it, it’s going to cheat on them.”

Christensen said ranchers also are concerned about the effect a wilderness or national monument listing in the Owyhee Canyonlands might have on the local industry.

Proponents of the protection efforts point out that grazing is allowed in wilderness and monument areas under federal law, but local producers worry such a designation might create a new baseline that would allow for grazing restrictions in the future.

“We’re squarely against that. That’s just unacceptable to tie up that much land in a park project,” Christensen said of the 2.5 million-acre Owyhee Canyonlands proposal, a combination of national conservation area, wilderness, and wild and scenic river designations.

“That will devastate the southern part of county. That’s a lot of acres,” he added. “That ground down in there, there’s a lot of big ranches, cattle and grazing down in there. There are huge implications in that.”

Coos Bay World
South Coast growers find niche in fresh fruit market
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BANDON — With the season's harvest expected to be complete by next week, it looks like South Coast cranberry growers had a higher yield this year overall. But the price for those berries remains lower than it costs to produce them for independent growers.

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Oregon Cranberry Producers Seek to Grow Market
KLCC FM Public Radio
Thanksgiving's the one day of the year that cranberries get a guaranteed spot at most tables across the U.S. But Oregon's south coast farmers are hoping to change that. Cranberry harvest on Oregon's south coast. Credit Wikipedia ...

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BANDON — With the season's harvest expected to be complete by next week, it looks like South Coast cranberry growers had a higher yield this year overall.