(BPT) - It happens: You hit the snooze button once, twice, then three times, so when you’re finally showered, dressed and ready to tackle the day, you’re already behind schedule. Oftentimes that causes you to skip breakfast completely.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and Japan pressed U.S. President Donald Trump's trade envoy Saturday to exempt them, as longtime U.S. allies, from upcoming steel tariffs that have sparked fears of a new trade war.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. allies seeking to avoid the steel and aluminum tariffs approved by President Donald Trump might be asked to step up their financial commitments to NATO.

Shavon Haynes tromps into a small, quiet clearing in the woods on Mount Ashland.  He drops a black pack into the knee-deep snow. He pulls out a snow sampler, two lengths of worn metal pipe and screws them together.

“I’ve dubbed it Excalibur, because when it’s put together it looks like a large sword. And Excalibur is the only sword I really know the name of,” he says.

Haynes works as the Jackson County Watermaster. He plunges Excalibur into a fresh patch of snow, calling out a measurement to his colleague Ben Thorpe.

“So we got a depth of 29 and a half,” Haynes says.

And he and Thorpe weigh the snow core they pull out to figure out the density – or just how much water it contains, which is also called the “snow water equivalent.”

 “It’s definitely less than last year,” Haynes says of the snowpack they find at the four sites on Mount Ashland. “And less than normal.”

This late-season snow near the Oregon-California border will feed the Klamath Basin. It’s been welcome, but the snowpack is still less than half of what an average winter brings.  And that’s no good for the region.

Every year about this time the Pacific Northwest really starts paying attention to the amount of snow in the mountains. It lets us know how much water we’ll have this summer for fish, agriculture and people.

Most of Washington has had above average snow this winter, but the situation gets more dicey the farther south you travel.

About half of Oregon is experiencing moderate drought already, and it looks like the Klamath Basin is once again going to be a focal point of water conflict in the West.

“The writing, I think at this point, is on the wall. There are going to be shortages this year,”said Scott White, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association. “Even if it kept snowing and snowing and snowing, it’s going to stop and there’s not going to be enough water to go around.”

Drought is not new here in the Klamath Basin. There’s been a governor-declared drought 10 of the past 16 years.

But White says this year is different. The federal programs that subsidized farmers to idle land and pump groundwater in the past are gone. And a bill that would have given irrigation districts more flexibility to move water around didn’t get play this session in the Oregon Legislature.

“My message to the public was ‘hey, you guys really need to start thinking about what you’re going to be doing on farm,’” White said. “What are your operations going to look like this year? You need to be thinking about this on your own. Don’t plan on getting saved.”

At a meeting in late February, Klamath County commissioners did what they could. They voted to ask the state for yet another drought declaration estimating they’re facing a half billion dollars in losses.

“Hopefully we can help get some government assistance to keep our agricultural community alive in 2018,” said Commissioner Donnie Boyd at the meeting.

Commissioners said they expected to hear from the state in mid-March, which could open up some state relief programs.  After a state issues a drought declaration, then the federal government considers the request, potentially opening up even more aid for farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin.

Of course, in the Klamath Basin, agriculture is only part of the story. The other big piece is fish.

Klamath River salmon runs continue to struggle. Disease and high water temperatures linked to low flows are considered a factor.

A petition from the Karuk Tribe and the Salmon River Restoration Council has prompted federal mangers to consider whether to add the river’s spring chinook to the endangered species list. The Klamath River coho salmon are already listed.

Last year a 200-mile chunk of the West Coast off Oregon and California closed to commercial salmon fishing because of low counts.  This year’s ocean salmon forecast is better, but the fishery could still be limited. Catch allowances will be determined in early April.   

Higher up in the basin, the Klamath Tribes have given notice they intend to sue federal agencies for not adequately protecting two species of endangered sucker fish. They’re demanding more water be held in Upper Klamath Lake.    

 “The current trajectory for our fish, basically they’ll be going extinct in the next five, ten years unless something very serious takes place,” said Don Gentry, chairman of the Klamath Tribes.

This year will be the first bad water year since 2015, when a long-negotiated water-sharing compromise fell apart after Congress failed to authorize it.

Oregon politicians are pushing the federal government to step up. But in the meantime, without the common ground of a compromise deal on the table, Gentry says relationships between farmers, tribes and other water users have become strained. And this year’s drought promises to test the Klamath Basin in a way it hasn’t been tested in decades.

“It’s kind of pushed us in a corner,” he said. “And that’s one thing we have in common, we’re all pushed into a corner.”

Albany, Ore., straw farmer Shelly Boshart Davis long believed that one day she would serve her community in a public forum. She just didn’t think it would happen this fast.

Davis, 38, has announced she has filed to run for Oregon House District 15.

Her filing was precipitated by the announcement in late February that seven-term Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany, would not seek re-election. With Olson’s encouragement, Davis decided it was time to make the leap.

“I’ve been talking to Andy about this for a while, and when I was asked to consider representing our district in the Legislature, I knew it was time to step up to the plate,” Davis said.

“I knew that someday I would give back to the community in some form of public office, but I thought that would be further down the road,” she said.

Davis, who is running unopposed in the May primary, said that if elected, she believes she can juggle her legislative duties with her responsibilities with Boshart Trucking, which bales over 20,000 acres of straw each summer, and as vice president of Bossco Trading, which negotiates straw sales internationally.

“The timing is good,” Davis said. “The long (legislative) session (held on odd-numbered years) ends around the Fourth of July, which is typically when we start baling. And I am only twenty minutes from the Capitol.

“If I had lived in Malheur County, this wouldn’t be an option,” she said.

Also, she said: “The Legislature is not a full-time job, and Oregon is meant to have a ‘citizen Legislature’ made up of ordinary people. Most in the Legislature have other jobs and many still run businesses. It is all about priorities.”

House District 15 has a long history of supporting Republican candidates, but Republicans hold only a 2.5 percentage point advantage over Democrats in the largely blue-collar district, and winning the seat isn’t seen as a sure thing. Davis said she plans to run a full-scale campaign, with the big push coming in September and October, after harvest.

She added that while she has never run for office, she is no stranger to campaigns, having been involved in campaigns to defeat Measure 92, the GMO-labeling measure that voters rejected in 2014, and Measure 97, the gross-receipts tax measure that voters rejected in 2016.

Davis also is no stranger to the Capitol. “I have probably testified on anywhere from 20 to 25 different issues over the past few years, from diesel to emissions to labor, manufacturing, pesticides — all of these multiple issues that have hit us (in agriculture) over the past few years. And I am very involved in the Oregon Seed Council, Oregon Aglink, Oregon Women for Agriculture and Farm Bureau.”

She also has served on the Government Affairs Committee for the Albany Chamber of Commerce, on an advisory committee for the Agriculture Transportation Coalition and, since 2016, on the Linn County Budget Committee.

Davis, who is married and has three daughters, said she has received tremendous encouragement and more than $15,000 in campaign donations since she announced her plans.

“People have been calling, asking how they can support,” she said. “I think it is encouraging and humbling, and I hope it keeps going.”

The Oregon Wheat Growers League and Oregon Wheat Commission have joined a growing number of state and national grain industry groups calling on the U.S. to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP.

Eleven countries, including major U.S. trade partners Japan, Canada and Australia, signed on to a revised version of the trade agreement Thursday in Santiago, Chile. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the TPP shortly after taking office last year.

The news has ignited uncertainty among Oregon wheat farmers, which export 85-90 percent of their crop. Japan accounts for 21 percent of total export sales for soft white wheat, the dominant Northwest variety, used to make products such as sponge cakes and noodles.

Oregon wheat officials announced they have signed on to a letter, along with 33 other state and national groups, to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer asking the administration to immediately prioritize rejoining the TPP.

“Like President Trump, American farmers do not enjoy losing to their competitors,” the letter, dated March 7, states. “They want to make great deals and see their family businesses thrive. If the President brings us into TPP, U.S. farmers can start winning again among the world’s most important agricultural markets.”

The letter is also signed by the National Association of Wheat Growers and U.S. Wheat Associates, in addition to state grain organizations from neighboring Washington, Idaho and California.

Once the TPP is ratified, wheat exports to Japan will be at serious risk, farmers argue. Oregon wheat exports to Japan earn an estimated $60 million per year at current prices from Portland’s grain terminals.

Competitors in Australia and Canada will gradually gain an economic advantage as tariffs for their wheat are reduced by $65 per metric ton, or $1.75 per bushel, compared to U.S. wheat, according to the industry’s figures.

The cost difference will set up a “catastrophic loss” of sales over the next few years, the letter continues. Japanese flour mills estimated U.S. share would fall by more than half, from about 3 million metric tons to less than 1.4 million metric tons, equal to $500 million per year. And that lost market share is incredibly difficult to regain, the letter states.

“The President has promised to negotiate great new deals,” the groups continue. “American agriculture now counts on that promise and American wheat farmers — facing a calamity they would be hard-pressed to overcome — now depend on it.”

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is seeking clarity from Washington about whether the 28-nation bloc will be exempt from President Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, the EU's top trade official said Friday.

As the number of craft breweries skyrockets across the U.S., Oregon State University is continuing to grow its fermentation science program, offering students hands-on training in the art of making beer.

The latest equipment to arrive at Wiegand Hall on campus, a sparkling new brewhouse, is nearly commissioned and ready to start producing batches of experimental ale, pilsner, lager or any other beer style, for that matter.

Specially made by the German company Esau & Hueber, the OSU brewhouse combines rows of sleek metallic tanks with a computer interface that controls the flow of liquid from mashing to fermentation.

Tom Shellhammer, Nor’Wester professor of fermentation science at the university, said the high-tech system is not only what students can expect to find at modern breweries, but should allow greater efficiency and reproduction of beers for research.

“It is going to have a transformative effect on our program here,” Shellhammer said.

OSU purchased the brewhouse thanks to a $1 million donation from Carlos Alvarez, chairman and CEO of The Gambrinus Company in San Antonio, Texas, which owns several high-profile breweries across the country — including BridgePort Brewing Company in Portland.

The brewmaster at BridgePort, Jeff Edgerton, is an OSU alum, and the brewery maintains a close working relationship with the college, Shellhammer said. Edgerton occasionally lectures on brewing, and BridgePort has used the fermentation program’s facilities in the past to develop new products.

Edgerton said BridgePort has hired interns from the program, and the new brewhouse will allow students to enter the workforce already at the level of trained employees.

“That was something we were very excited to see,” Edgerton said. “They’ll have such good hands-on experience with the latest and greatest technology.”

The number of American breweries has increased from 1,460 in 2006 to 5,301 in 2016, according to figures from the Brewers Association. That’s a 263 percent increase over the last decade, driven mostly by smaller microbreweries and brewpubs.

Shellhammer said the industry growth is opening plenty of job opportunities, and OSU is one of just a handful of universities that offers studies in fermentation science. The program, which started in 1996, is now attracting students from across the country, he said.

“Craft brewing has been taking off,” Shellhammer said. “The whole thing has grown tremendously.”

From an industry perspective, Shellhammer said the new brewhouse will continue to set OSU apart from other fermentation science programs. The equipment was delivered from Germany in February, and could be commissioned within a matter of days.

Shellhammer explained how the process works, beginning with the combination of malted barley and water into each of two large mash cookers. Steam heats the containers, and enzymes in the barley get to work chewing up starch into simple sugars.

From there, the solution — known as wort — goes into a vessel that separates the barley husks from the liquid. It is then pumped into a boiling kettle which sterilizes the wort, while brewers add hops for flavor and bitterness.

The hops are filtered out in a whirlpool separator, and the wort is cooled and left to ferment in tanks with yeast. The brewhouse is computer-controlled and capable of making up to six kegs of beer per batch.

On Wednesday, the fermentation tanks contained four different beer varieties, including Triumph IPA (made with the university’s newest hop variety), two types of German-style Helles lager and a pilsner.

“I imagine next month we’ll be doing a lot of playing around with a lot of beer,” Shellhammer said.

The program does intend to keep its old brewhouse, which Shellhammer said is more evocative of smaller brewpubs. But the new technology means students will be that much more job-ready when they start work in a modern brewery, he said.

“I feel like we’re in front of the pack,” Shellhammer said.

CHIBA CITY, Japan — Bob’s Red Mill, a niche natural foods company in Milwaukie, Ore., started exporting to Japanese customers about six months ago.

The employee-owned company’s certified organic, non-GMO and gluten-free milled grain products can now be found in several prominent retail chains in this country including Costco Japan, National Azabu and Jimmy’s in Okinawa.

Bob’s Red Mill’s products are also sold at bakeries, and can be ordered on Amazon Japan, company export regional sales manager Sandi Funk said.

The company showcased its oats, baking flours, specialty flours, muesli and granola at the Foodex international food trade show, held this year March 6-9.

Foodex Japan is among the largest food expos in the world, attracting more than 3,000 exhibitors. Since 1976 it has brought together food exporters from around the world, and buyers from within and outside Japan.

Most exhibitors group themselves under their country’s pavilion, although some prefer to exhibit alongside companies producing similar products, with a small number exhibiting independently.

Bob’s Red Mill was in the USA pavilion.

“We’re here to meet some additional retailers,” Funk said.

“(Bluff Bakery in Yokohama) used our flour to make bread that we’re sampling,” she said.

Ryuhei Suzuki, representative director for Upperleft, a Tokyo company that imports Bob’s Red Mill products, said not many stores in Japan yet carry organic products — “but there are many (consumers) who are looking for better-quality products,” Suzuki said.

SALEM — EO Media Events, LLC , has announced the 2019 Northwest Ag Show will be Jan. 16-18, at the Oregon State Fair & Exhibition Center.

The 49th edition of the event will focus on the emerging trends in the ag industry such as small farming, technology and education. It will provide useful information to attendees regarding equipment, best practices, job training and state-sanctioned certifications as well as legal and financial issues facing large-scale and smaller-scale farming.

“We are pleased to offer vendors and attendees a new experience designed to celebrate the importance of agriculture and agriculture-related businesses in our region,” said Heidi Wright, chief operating officer of EO Media Group, owners of EO Media Events, LLC, and the Capital Press. “The all-new show will build upon the legacy of the event founded by Jim and Shirley Heater and continued by long-time managers Amy and Mike Patrick.”

In addition to a new location, the show will also be held in mid-January to coincide with the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce’s SAIF Agri-Business Banquet on Friday, Jan. 18. These two events will form the foundation of an Ag Week celebration for the Salem area.

The Capital Press and its sister EO Media Group publications will market the event throughout the year with a comprehensive campaign across Oregon and the Northwest through print, online, social media, database marketing and partnerships with other organizations.

More information about the show can be found at NWAgShow.com.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging California’s efforts to protect immigrants who are in the country illegally served as the latest warning shot at communities nationwide with so-called sanctuary policies.

As he excoriated California officials for their policies and actions, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned against “rewarding” people who enter the country illegally.

“It’s a rejection of law and it creates an open borders system,” he told California law enforcement officials in Sacramento on Wednesday, just a few blocks from the state Capitol. “Open borders is a radical, irrational idea that cannot be accepted.”

California Gov. Jerry Brown and state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, both Democrats, called Sessions’ visit and the lawsuit a political stunt and denied that they want to give immigrants free rein to enter the country illegally.

Criticism of the lawsuit also came from sanctuary states and cities around the country.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement that the administration “cannot bully or blackmail the City of Chicago into changing our values, nor can our values be bought.”

Democratic Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek called the Trump administration’s lawsuit against California an attempt to “bully states,” and promised to “make sure Oregon is a welcoming place for everyone, even in the face of these threats.”

Oregon became America’s first sanctuary state in 1987 with a law preventing law enforcement from detaining people who are in the United States illegally but have not broken other laws. Last year, Oregon’s Legislature doubled down on the policy with a bill to strengthen it.

California’s Brown and Becerra said the state is on firm legal ground with laws that limit police and employers’ cooperation with federal immigration agents and require state inspections of federal detention facilities.

What Brown called “an act of war” comes as President Donald Trump is set to visit California next week to see models of his proposed wall along the Mexican border. The visit will be his first to California since his election. Meanwhile, administration officials planned to meet Thursday with four Colorado state lawmakers who oppose so-called sanctuary policies. It was not immediately clear if representatives from other states would also attend.

The lawmakers will discuss with the White House Domestic Policy Council “how we can stop sanctuary cities, restore law and order, and prevent gangs like MS-13 from bringing violence and drugs across our borders,” Republican Rep. Dave Williams of Colorado Springs said in a statement.

Response to the Trump administration’s lawsuit was divided along political lines, with much of the criticism coming from places that have waged their own legal battles with the Trump administration.

“The Trump administration is now openly attacking jurisdictions that are protecting their residents from unjust and unfair treatment by federal agents,” said Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat and former federal prosecutor, in a tweet.

The Trump administration has clashed repeatedly with Democratic mayors and state officials over its immigration policies, which have faced numerous setbacks in court. A federal judge in November permanently blocked Trump’s executive order to cut funding from sanctuary cities in lawsuits brought by two California counties — San Francisco and Santa Clara.

A federal judge in Illinois in September in a lawsuit brought by the city of Chicago said the administration could not impose tough new immigration requirements on a key federal grant, including giving federal immigration officials access to jails.

California has also sued the administration over the grant conditions and filed a separate suit to protect some young immigrants from deportation. A federal judge in San Francisco in January blocked the Trump administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, saying young immigrants were likely to suffer serious harm without court action.

The new federal lawsuit challenges specific California laws in a state that also is resisting the president on issues from marijuana policy to climate change. But comments by Sessions and Brown took the standoff to a new level Wednesday, with Sessions calling out state and local officials for “obstruction of law enforcement” and Brown calling Sessions a liar who is pandering to Trump to save his job.

California passed sanctuary laws in response to Trump’s promises to sharply ramp up the deportation of people in the U.S. illegally. Sessions said several of them prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from making deportation arrests.

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who led the Obama administration’s successful lawsuit overturning Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration bill, said California and other jurisdictions are permitted to limit their cooperation with federal immigration agents.

“The Supreme Court has made really absolutely clear that states cannot be forced to divert resources to help the federal government enforce federal law,” said Holder, who now works for the California Senate on contract.

———

Associated Press writers Michael Tarm in Chicago, Tom James in Salem, Oregon, Lisa Baumann in Seattle, and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco contributed to this report.

In 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the lark as “threatened,” which would usually disallow “take” of the species by killing, harming or harassing the birds.

However, the agency enacted a special “4(d) rule” under the Endangered Species Act that exempted “normal farming and ranching activities” from the “take” prohibition in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Those activities include planting, mowing, spraying, tilling and harvesting.

Steaked horned larks were once common in the Pacific Northwest but have disappeared from 90 percent of their range and now inhabit the Willamette Valley, islands on the Columbia River and portions of the coast and Puget Sound in Washington.

Because the species prefers flat ground with little vegetation, activities such as plowing, mowing and burning fields can actually create habitat for the birds.

However, these practices can also kill or injure streaked horned larks during their nesting and breeding season, which lasts from April until August.

Farm operations in the Willamette Valley, where the majority of the birds live, were broadly exempted from the “take” prohibition because the federal government wanted to “allow landowners to continue those activities without additional regulation.”

For that reason, the Fish and Wildlife Service decided against modifying the 4(d) rule to require farmers to avoid disturbing streaked horned lark habitat during the sensitive nesting and breeding season.

“We believe that imposing a timing restriction would likely reduce the utility of the special rule for land managers, and could have the unintended side effect of causing landowners to discontinue their habitat creation activities,” the agency said.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit, the government failed to explain why the exemption would help conserve the species when its population had declined while these “routine” activities were occurring.

The complaint also alleges the Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t provide evidence that without the exemption, landowners would convert their property to be unsuitable habitat for the lark.

The agency “irrationally eliminated any incentive for agricultural and other interests to take the needs of the lark into consideration” in violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the lawsuit claims.

Aside from asking a federal judge to invalidate the 4(d) special rule, the environmental group has requested the species be upgraded to “endangered” status, under which such an exemption isn’t permissible.

Unless current farm practices are protected under the 4(d) rule, farmers may be more likely to switch to crops like hazelnuts or blueberries, which don’t provide habitat for the bird, said Mary Anne Cooper, public policy counsel for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Growers can’t be forced to actively create habitat by mowing or plowing, she said.

Environmental groups are generally opposed to exemptions for agriculture under the 4(d) rule, not only for the lark but also for other species, Cooper said.

“They don’t like the tool,” she said.

Nice Article on our neighbor to the north!

The Cranberries will release their last album with the late Dolores O'Riordan in 2019 after she unexpectedly passed away earlier this year at just 46-years-old.

I received an email early this am about Cranberries “making the list” but here is a story in the state wide paper Here.

Ugh.

SALEM — A “cap-and-trade” proposal to limit carbon emissions didn’t pass muster during Oregon’s 2018 legislative session, comforting critics who feared increased fuel, fertilizer and electricity costs.

Several other less-prominent bills related to agriculture also died in committee when the Legislature adjourned March 3, including a proposal to link depredation funding to the size of Oregon’s wolf population.

The bill was supported by ranchers, who said it made sense to increase compensation for livestock losses and preventive measures as the predators grew more common.

However, the proposal was criticized by environmental groups who claimed there’s opportunity for fraud and abuse in the disbursal of existing compensation funds.

A proposal to clarify that water transfers are allowable between storage reservoirs likewise died in committee, though lawmakers, irrigators and other interested parties will be negotiating the issue before the start of the 2019 legislative session.

Land use bills that would allow more commercial and industrial development on farmland in Eastern Oregon and the eventual urbanization of 1,700 acres of “rural reserve” in Washington County did not gain traction.

However, land use laws did receive a couple minor tweaks.

Lawmakers clarified that earlier legislation easing the construction of “accessory dwelling units,” commonly called “granny flats,” only applied within urban growth boundaries.

They also made clear that equine therapy activities are allowed within “exclusive farm use” zones.

Statutory language related to hemp production was brought in line with the 2014 Farm Bill, which is intended to allow Oregon State University Extension agents to help hemp farmers.

In addition, House Bill 4089 creates a certification program at OSU to verify different varieties of hemp seed in the same manner other seed crops grown in Oregon are verified.

Contractual protections for grass seed were extended to cover other types of proprietary seed, such as clover, radish and turnip, under House Bill 4068.

Legislation passed in 2011 initially excluded those types of seed from requirements for timely payment, but farmers and seed companies negotiated an expansion of the contract protections that was approved in 2018 without controversy.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union says it's ready to retaliate against the U.S. over President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum — with counter-measures against iconic U.S. products like Harley Davidson motorcycles, Levi's jeans and bourbon.

Calls to release an additional 1,000 acre-feet of stored irrigation water from Willow Creek Reservoir in Eastern Oregon will not significantly impact the local environment, according to a draft report issued March 2 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps operates Willow Creek Dam near Heppner, Ore., primarily for flood control, irrigation and recreation. Farmers currently receive 2,500 acre-feet of water from the reservoir during the irrigation season, from April 16 to Oct. 31, though the Willow Creek District Improvement Co. has requested an increase to 3,500 acre-feet, which would relieve stress on groundwater wells.

Willow Creek Reservoir already stores 3,500 acre-feet of water for irrigation, said Brian Thompson, district president. The change merely allows farmers and ranchers to access the full amount.

“Right now, the main reason we want to go back after this is groundwater,” Thompson said. “Our groundwater for our homes and cities is going the wrong way.”

Long-term irrigation water releases from the reservoir are established by an environmental assessment completed by the Corps in 2008. A recently completed supplemental analysis found releasing an additional 1,000 acre-feet would have no significant environmental impact — meaning the Corps would not need to conduct a full environmental impact study under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Public comment on the draft findings will continue through Monday, April 2. Lauren Bennett, a spokeswoman for the Corps Portland District, said the agency may update its recommendation based on the comments received.

Irrigation water from Willow Creek Reservoir serves roughly 11 landowners over 20 miles between the cities of Heppner and Ione in Morrow County. Thompson said the district does not intend to put any new acres in production, but rather supplement existing acres used to grow alfalfa, grain and high-value vegetables such as potatoes.

“It just gives us access to a renewable, calculated amount of water,” he said.

The district applied for the change in 2015 to the Bureau of Reclamation, which handles water storage contracts for the reservoir. Three years later, the Corps has determined there would “little to no incremental effect” on water quality, vegetation and wildlife.

The biggest short-term impact may be lower reservoir levels between May and January, the report states, which could potentially impact boating and fishing. For the last two years, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife has released several thousand extra large trophy trout into the reservoir, part of a statewide program to promote economic development in rural areas.

With additional water releases from the reservoir, the boat dock may not be usable for several weeks in the summer during drought years. However, Thompson added the reservoir historically experiences seasonal blue-green algae blooms during this period, when people are urged to stay away from the water for health and safety reasons.

“We have a blue-green algae bloom before we even start drawing (for irrigation), usually,” he said. “The water turns to pea soup.”

Bennett said the Corps has acknowledged that water quality may worsen at the reservoir with increased irrigation releases, leading to an increase in blue-green algae blooms. However, degraded water quality “would not rise to a significant level under NEPA.”

The agency also consulted with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, which discussed its intention to reintroduce steelhead into Willow Creek “at some future time,” though the Corps says potential reintroduction of the fish remains uncertain.

Thompson said increasing the amount of surface water available to farmers will actually have a net positive environmental impact, protecting increasingly vulnerable groundwater in an area that receives little annual precipitation.

“I have three wells myself, and I don’t intend to run them unless I have to,” he said. “That would be a huge environmental benefit.”

Comments on the Corps’ draft assessment can be sent to the Corps Portland District office, care of District Engineer Kathleen Wells, P.O. Box 2946, Portland, OR 97208-2946, or email willow-creek@usace.army.mil.

Federal loans to “concentrated animal feeding operations” may be vulnerable to lawsuits opposing the construction of “factory farms,” according to environmental attorneys.

Public policy — rather than the free market’s “invisible hand” — has spurred the proliferation of CAFOs in the U.S., said Tarah Heinzen, an attorney with the Food & Water Watch environmental group.

Filing lawsuits can affect which facilities are funded by USDA’s Farm Service Agency and how they’re constructed, Heinzen said.

“We want to cut out the root cause of this, which is the FSA lending in a way that’s not in the public interest,” she said.

The possibility of using federal statutes to influence USDA lending to CAFOs was discussed by attorneys during the recent Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, Ore.

The USDA’s environmental review of such loans can be challenged as cursory and insufficient under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The agency can also be faulted for failing to properly consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the effect of such loans on protected species, as required under the Endangered Species Act.

“We’re looking for more robust, substantive analysis,” said Kevin Cassidy, an attorney with Earthrise Law Center.

Cassidy said one serious problem is the USDA looks at CAFOs in a “piecemeal” fashion rather than examining the full impact of multiple operations.

“The biggest thing is the lack of a cumulative impacts analysis,” said Tom Buchele, an attorney with Earthrise Law Center.

Loans are becoming a target for environmental litigation because the federal government is supporting large-scale operations with more significant pollution hazards, said Heinzen.

The value of FSA ownership loans — which are used to buy or expand farm — was roughly $3.5 billion for beef operations, $2.25 billion for chicken operations, $2 billion for dairy operations and $550 million for hog operations, according to 2017 data obtained by Food & Water Watch.

“Advocates have become more aware of the scope of federal financing,” said Heinzen.

If public money is being used for lending to CAFOs, it’s reasonable to rely on federal statutes to increase public oversight of the process, said Amy van Saun, staff attorney for the Center for Food Safety.

“Another federal hook is a good thing,” she said.

In a lawsuit over federal loans to a hog farm in Arkansas, several environmental organizations prevailed in their claims under the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act.

The groups did not succeed, however, in winning a court order withdrawing government guarantees for the loans, which would have likely eliminated financing entirely, said Cassidy of Earthwise Law Center.

“It probably would have been the end of the farm and the judge wasn’t willing to go that far,” he said.

Even so, the lawsuit did result in the lining of manure lagoons and installation of methane gas controls, Cassidy said. “There were some real good environmental outcomes from the case.”

In another instance, the possibility of litigation forestalled loans to poultry operations in Arkansas even though no lawsuits were filed.

Environmental groups submitted a petition seeking a higher level “programmatic” study of the poultry houses being built and also made Freedom of Information Act requests about financing from USDA and the Small Business Administration.

The aggressive FOIA actions were able to “scare the bejesus” out of people seeking to build the CAFOs, and at this point, none have been funded, said Elisabeth Holmes, an attorney with Blue River Law.

“What is great is there have been no monies allocated,” she said. “We consider this a victory.”

I can still remember when the building now occupied by the Bandon Historical Society Museum was the Bandon City Hall. This picture was taken during the flood of 1961, and I can spot long-time city manager (called manager of utilities…