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
Coos Bay World
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.

KLCC FM Public Radio
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 ...

and more »

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.

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.

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.

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.

We apologize if you are a huge fan of green beans. We apologize if you are the sort of person who longs for the green beans at Thanksgiving. We think it's a little strange, but we still apologize.

Puzzled over which wine pairs well with brined turkey, candied yams, garlic mashed potatoes, challah stuffing, cranberry sauce and, possibly, tofu turkey? Why not take another bite at the appl…

MONMOUTH, Ore. – When Bob Lamb talks about the conservation program he implemented on his property, he does so with reverence. The work, he said — planting 25,000 trees, improving water quality in the Little Luckiamute River, seeing lamprey return to spawn, learning of the complicated relationship of plant and soil — was about more than himself and his time.

It wasn’t about the money, either, although he welcomed the $220 per acre paid him annually under the Oregon Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) administered by the state and the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.

That’s why it’s so demoralizing to learn, as Lamb renewed the CREP agreement for another 15 years, that he will be paid a lower rate per acre. The problem involves state and federal interpretation of the program contract and, as he described it, “A Catch 22 that said you cannot get there from here.”

He estimated the reduced payments will cost him about $100,000 over the life of the renewed agreement. He didn’t have much choice: “You either take what they give you or you get nothing,” he said.

Lamb wants to alert other landowners to the situation, and hopes the FSA will work to solve the problem. The local FSA conservation program specialist working with Lamb said she shares his frustration but isn’t sure there’s any recourse.

Lamb was among the first in the Willamette Valley to sign up when the program began 15 years ago as a joint venture of the state and feds. The program is intended to improve streamside areas in ag land, helping fish, wildlife and water quality. Landowners receive rental payments for carrying out conservation measures.

In his case, Lamb essentially was paid to lease FSA 48 acres of his land flanking the Little Luckiamute. He agreed not to cultivate within 180 feet of either bank. He agreed to plant thousands of Douglas fir, Western red cedar and Willamette Valley Ponderosa pine.

He also agreed not to exercise his full state water right, leaving in the stream the amount that would have been used to irrigate the land involved in the CREP agreement. In return, Lamb and his wife, Jane, were paid a higher CREP rate for giving up production on irrigated land. They had to show they’d irrigated in at least two of the past five years.

The Lambs considered the program carefully.

“We talked at length with the FSA people,” Bob Lamb said. “We said, all right, we believe this is a program in our best interests in terms of improving water quality and fish habitat, and it would not be an economic burden for us to do so.”

They fully embraced the work, planting trees in a precise 10-foot by 10-foot grid on both sides of the river and thrilling over the years to see wildlife return, including spawning lamprey.

“You notice this is a program that is kind of attached to you; it’s not something you lightly do or don’t do,” Bob Lamb said. “You have a serious interest in the resource that is there on the ground. I’m talking blood, sweat and tears.”

Then it came time to renew this fall. The national FSA office, reviewing Lamb’s original contract, noted the requirement that he had to show he’d irrigated in at least two of the previous five years in order to get the higher rate. But during the 15 years of the first contract, of course, he’d given up a portion of his state water right and hadn’t irrigated the land contained in the CREP. By definition, it was no longer irrigated land and didn’t warrant the higher rate, the national FSA office decided.

Under the renewed contract, Lamb will be paid $123 an acre. He said the rate paid for irrigated land was scheduled to increase to about $265 an acre. Over the 15-year contract, the difference amounts to about $100,000, he said.

He isn’t interested in a lawsuit to resolve the issue. “I don’t have enough energy in my soul,” he said.

Lamb was a federal man himself, working over the years as a meteorologist, fire weather forecaster and power planner with the National Weather Service, U.S. Forest Service and Bonneville Power Administration before retiring to raise registered cattle along the Luckiamute. He knows the inertia that stalls bureaucracies.

“In order to fix that, someone has to take some action,” he said.

Phil Ward, executive director of the Oregon FSA office, said his office is working on the problem.

“We are very much aware of Mr. Lambs’ concerns and are actively working with our National Office to reach a positive resolution to this situation,” he said.