PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Light snow began falling before the morning commute in the Portland metropolitan area, a preview of the heavier precipitation that’s expected during the drive home from work and into the evening.

The National Weather Service says a winter storm warning is in effect from the Portland metro area north into Southwest Washington, with potential snow accumulations of 3 to 8 inches.

Snow is also projected to fall in Salem, Corvallis and other parts of Oregon, with the weather service warning that the Interstate 5 passes between Roseburg and Grants Pass could be treacherous.

Those who must drive are advised to slow down, carry tire chains and wear warm clothes.

Portland Community College canceled classes Tuesday and some school districts did the same.

The Third Annual Mid-Valley Winter Ag Fest returns to the Polk County Fairgrounds and Event Center in Rickreall, Ore., this weekend.

The slate of family friendly events begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, when the fairgrounds and the Polk Heritage Museum open to the public, and continues through Sunday, Feb. 25, according to a press release from the organizers.

The weekend event will be preceded at 8 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, with a free CORE pesticide training for applicators presented by Oregon State University Extension and Polk County Farm Bureau in Building B. Breakfast is included.

A “Grower to Grazier Connections” workshop will be presented at 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, by the Polk County Soil and Water Conservation District. Livestock and horse owners will learn about the many grass, legume and other kinds of seed available for high quality forage production. RSVP to Claudia.Ingham@PolkSWCD.com or 503-623-9680 ext. 101 to reserve a light dinner.

At 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, a special screening of the “Food Evolution” movie will be presented by Polk County Women for Agriculture with refreshments provided.

Weekend workshops include:

2 p.m.: “Living with Your Well Water.” Main Building Seminar Area. Free of charge with a $5 adult admission to Ag Fest. Host: Polk SWCD. Bring a cup of your well or domestic drinking water for confidential nitrate sampling.

3-4 p.m.: “Streamside Restoration on Your Farm.” Main Building Seminar Area. Free of charge w/$5 adult admission to Ag Fest. Host: Polk and Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District. Tips for success and funding opportunities.

11 a.m.-1 p.m.: “Farm Succession Planning Workshop.” Main Building Seminar Area. Free of charge with a $5 adult admission to Ag Fest. Hosts: Rogue Farm Corps (Nellie McAdams), Schwabe Williamson (Joe Hobson), Greenbelt Land Trust (Claire Feigner) and two local farmers.

2 p.m.: “Living with Your Septic System.” Main Building Seminar Area. Free of charge with a $5 adult admission to Ag Fest. Host: Chrissy Lucas of OSU Extension. Bring a cup of your well or domestic drinking water for confidential nitrate sampling.

3-4 p.m.: Streamside Restoration on Your Farm. Main Building Seminar Area. Host: Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District, Marc Bell and Josh Togstad.

Family attractions at Winter Ag Fest include an expanded 4-H petting zoo, a new balloon installation by Joy Entertainers, a “G” train display and a working sawmill; demonstrations all weekend long by the 4-H horse club; roping demonstrations by the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association; Dutch oven cooking; and free face painting.

Local 4-H clubs will also offer fun contests in Building B during the weekend.

Early spring plants and advice will also be available from the OSU master gardeners.

For additional information go to mvwagfest.com.

Weekend hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25.

Adult admission is $5. Children 18 and under are free.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The invasive quagga and zebra mussels have a $100,000 bounty on their “heads.”

The U.S. government is offering the six-figure prize for the best suggestion on how to stop their relentless and destructive spread because scientists say they are stumped.

“We might as well give it a try,” said Sherri Pucherelli, a biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. “Open water. That’s really where the challenge is. Nothing has been developed right now that causes complete eradication in a large water body.”

The filter-feeders that syphon in water to pluck out microscopic organisms can throw food chains out of balance, and their sheer numbers in attaching to surfaces can clog pipes at reservoirs and damage boat motors. Giant water bodies turning aquamarine blue is a sign that the base of the food chain is being depleted, risking starvation for other species, including sport fish.

Quagga mussels approach an inch in length while zebra mussels can be about twice that size. The species are native to Russia and Ukraine, and are believed to have arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s aboard ships that released ballast water into the Great Lakes.

They attach to boats and trailers and travel long distances, and their microscopic larvae can survive in water inside a boat or even an angler’s wading boots. Also, the mussels can sense toxins and close their shells.

The Bureau of Reclamation first started dealing with the mussels after discovering them in 2007 in Lake Mead in southeastern Nevada and northwestern Arizona. They’ve multiplied so fast that scientists now estimate the entire volume of the lake is filtered by the mussels every five days.

Federal officials say the only area not yet invaded in the contiguous United States is the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest. The basin is heavily used for hydroelectric power, and officials estimate it will cost $500 million annually to prevent the mussels from clogging pipes and infrastructure.

The environmental damage to the food chain could further strain struggling runs of salmon and steelhead in the basin where more than a dozen species are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The mussels are getting close to the basin. Sampling last fall found larvae of quagga or zebra mussels at Tiber Reservoir in north-central Montana. It was the first positive test in the state.

Federal and state agencies have mostly tried to contain the spread of mussels, typically with boat inspections. The goal of the prize competition is eradicate mussels in large water bodies. The deadline for ideas is Feb. 28.

Specifically, federal scientists are seeking a solution that kills 100 percent of the mussels in large water bodies, is cost-effective and environmentally sound. That means native species must survive whatever kills the invasive mussels.

“We can kill mussels,” said David Raff, science adviser at the Bureau of Reclamation. “Chlorine is very effective. But you can’t dump chlorine into a reservoir.”

The bureau has been experimenting with ultraviolet light and substances that prevent the mussels from adhering to pipes and other infrastructure. Mussel infestations could increase costs that would have to be passed on to consumers. The agency has 53 hydroelectric projects supplying energy and delivers water to 31 million people each year. Also, with partners, it manages nearly 300 recreation sites.

The mussels “are a huge problem currently and it has the potential to be a much bigger problem,” Raff said.

That threat prompted the governors of 19 western states in November to send a letter urging Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to put in controls by spring to prevent the mussels, including mandatory inspections and decontamination of boats leaving infected water bodies.

Denise Hosler, a biologist with the Bureau of Reclamation who has been fighting the mussels since 2006, said boat inspections have had some success stemming the spread, even though it may only be temporary.

“But there is such a heroic effort being advanced at this point that, hopefully, we’ll have success,” she said.

ROSEBURG, Ore. — The mild winter in Western Oregon has produced plenty of green pasture forage for livestock, but some elk herds are also loving it.

The elk rest and relax during the day in nearby forested area and then dine on the green grass during the night.

Many of the ranchers who own those pastures and the livestock are not too pleased with the wildlife intrusion.

“They’re robbing feed that is intended for livestock,” said Veril Nelson of elk. Nelson is the owner of a red Angus operation east of Sutherlin, Ore. His pastures have had many nightly visits from a herd of 50 to 60 elk over the past couple of months.

“One of those mature elk weighs as much as a yearling cow, 600 to 700 pounds,” the rancher said. “They certainly eat as much as a yearling beef animal. They hide in the timber during the day to rest and ruminate, then they’re back out at night, eating enough for a 24-hour meal.”

Tim Miller of Siletz, Ore., runs cattle on five properties. He said he has elk issues at four of those locations.

“If I can’t keep the elk out, I’m a month later getting the cattle onto those pastures,” he said.

Miller is working to keep the elk out. He has built 6-foot electric New Zealand fence around two of the pastures and is in the process of fencing a third property. He has also obtained a hazing permit. Those permits allow ranchers to run or scare off wildlife with vehicles or shotgun blasts.

Craig Herman, a rancher in the Bandon, Ore., area, is chairman of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association’s Private Lands Committee. He said there has been “a lot of frustration” with elk herds on private property. He explained in addition to losing pasture forage, fence damage caused by elk is also a major issue and expense for ranchers.

“One woman in the Newport (Oregon) area is getting out of the cattle business because she can’t keep her fences up due to the elk,” Herman said. “When elk are spooked, they’ll go right through a fence, and then you have the problem of your own cattle getting out.”

Tod Lum, a big game wildlife biologist in the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife office in Roseburg, said complaints about elk this winter have been about the same as in the past. He understands the situation ranchers who are trying to turn a profit with their cattle face.

“It’s very attractive for an elk to look at a neon green field and be attracted to it, especially if they’re living in the timber. When they graze on a field all night, the rancher has a valid damage complaint.”

Lum said property owners with at least 40 acres can obtain landowner preference tags to take an antlerless elk and to hopefully discourage the rest of the herd from returning. Additional antlerless elk tags can be obtained by hunters who are approved by the landowner and the biologist.

“That’s a win-win for the hunter and the landowner,” Lum said.

The biologist added a hazing permit is also an option. It allows a landowner to lawfully harass the wildlife, but he said that process has to start early before visiting a field because too much of a habit for elk.

The ranchers and the biologists admit filling the LOP and hunter tags are not easy pasture shoots because after being harassed once or twice, the elk sense daylight and have a tendency to leave the pastures as darkness is fading.

Herman would like to see ranchers compensated for forage and fence damage by the state, but knows that reimbursement is probably not available.

“We have meetings with ODFW and they’re polite and listen,” Herman said. “I appreciate what ODFW is dealing with, but I don’t think those folks appreciate what landowners are dealing with. Forage loss and fence damage are major issues. ODFW needs to manage the wildlife populations better, maybe have longer hunting seasons.”

In eastern Oregon, the mild winter is resulting in less wildlife damage since fewer deer and elk are being driven by bad weather down to the valley pastures and hay barns. Eddie Miguez, who supervises wildlife feed sites in Baker, Union and Wallowa counties, said 10 Elkhorn Range sites managed by the state had about 1,100 animals in early January compared to 2,000 head a year ago during a severe winter.

The feed sites are along traditional migratory routes and are intended to intercept and stop the animals before they reach private ranches.

Justin Primus, assistant wildlife biologist in ODFW’s Baker City office, said his district has had “virtually no elk damage.

“But this has been our mildest winter since 2008,” he added.

Leonard Erickson, the district wildlife biologist for Union County, agreed that wildlife numbers in the valleys and any resulting damage are down this winter compared to a year ago.

Nelson said wildlife officials and forestry representatives need to work together to create more forage in the forest for wildlife. He said that would involve some logging, some prescribed burning and replanting.

“In the old growth forest, there is no forage, nothing to eat, so those animals come down to the pastures,” the rancher said. “We tend to manage for one species, whether threatened or endangered, and that results in managing against all other species.”

Nelson said about 1½ miles east of his ranch, another herd of 50 to 60 elk have been regular visitors to the pastures of another ranch.

“The bottom line is we have to have feed in the mountains,” he added. “Fifteen years ago there were no elk on my place and now we’ve got up to 60 because the forest is not being managed for multiple use.”

SALEM — Bills impacting hemp, wolves and carbon have won approval from a key Oregon legislative committee but may get a tougher reception from lawmakers who control spending.

The House Agriculture Committee voted in favor of three bills on Feb. 15:

• House Bill 4089, which fixes language in Oregon’s hemp laws to comply with federal requirements permitting research into the crop, which is otherwise considered a controlled substance.

• House Bill 4106, which ties Oregon’s wolf population to the amount of money available to ranchers for livestock depredation and prevention measures, such as range riders.

• House Bill 4109, which requires the Oregon Department of Forestry to study how to encourage the “sequestration” of carbon — for example, by managing forests to absorb and retain the element — as an alternative to penalties for carbon emissions.

Though the committee approved the proposals with a “do pass” recommendation, they must first clear the Joint Ways and Means Committee, which makes budget decisions, before a vote on the House floor.

Bills before the Ways and Means Committee have the advantage of avoiding legislative deadlines that are particularly rushed during this year’s short session.

However, many bills that are referred to the joint committee simply languish until they’re killed by the adjournment of the legislative session — a fate to which the hemp bill succumbed last year.

The carbon sequestration proposal, HB 4109, originally required both the state’s Department of Forestry and the Department of Environmental Quality to conduct the study.

The bill was amended to eliminate DEQ from the requirement, which will reduce the fiscal impact. Even so, that agency would still be able to offer suggestions on the research.

While the bill refers to sequestration as an alternative to capping carbon emissions, which lawmakers are also contemplating, “it should be all of the above,” said Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem.

In a national or global system for reducing carbon emissions, which are blamed for climate change, Oregon should be a “massive winner” because its forests act as “carbon sinks,” said Clem, the committee’s chair.

“We’re sinking carbon for the whole world here,” he said.

Bills to implement a carbon “cap-and-trade” system in Oregon, which is opposed by the agriculture and forestry industries, have also advanced recently.

On Feb. 14, two parallel proposals — House Bill 4001 and Senate Bill 1507 — were cleared by environment-related committees in the House and Senate. They must still pass muster in the Rules Committee of each chamber as well as the Joint Ways and Means Committee.

Under a cap-and-trade system, companies reduce carbon emissions to earn credits that can be sold to other firms that exceed an emissions limit.

While such a system could benefit farmers and foresters who use practices that sequester carbon, critics fear any gains would be more than offset by higher costs for fuel, fertilizer and energy.

ONTARIO, Ore. — A search committee is being formed to find a replacement for the retiring director of Oregon State University’s Malheur County agricultural experiment station.

Area farmers say it won’t be easy to replace Clint Shock, who has held the position since 1984 and helped the agricultural industry address some of its toughest issues over the decades.

“Clint, in my opinion, has done more for the agricultural community in Malheur County and adjoining areas than anybody has ever done in the past,” said Jerry Erstrom, a farmer and member of the local weed and watershed council boards. “I won’t say he can’t be replaced but it’s going to be tough. We’re going to really miss him.”

During his time as director of the research station, Shock has led research on onions, potatoes, sugar beets, alfalfa and poplars as well as water quality, erosion control, plant nutrition and the use of soil water sensors.

He helped pioneer the use of drip irrigation and developed improved methods to irrigate onions, conducted research that resolved local concerns about groundwater contamination from nitrates and herbicides, and developed methods to reduce the potato dark-end disease.

He also developed alternative crops for Treasure Valley farmers, which included new production methods for native wildflowers used in re-vegetation projects.

“Clint has been the cement of the industry at the experiment station for a long time,” said Malheur County Onion Growers President Paul Skeen. “Losing Clint is going to be a big deal.”

Skeen said one of Shock’s biggest accomplishments was research that addressed the agricultural water provisions in the Food and Drug Administration’s new produce safety rule. The research showed that the bulb onions grown in the area are not at risk of being contaminated by irrigation water containing even large amounts of bacteria.

That research led to FDA revamping the produce rule’s agricultural water standards in a way that benefits all produce growers in the nation affected by the rule, Skeen said.

Shock was honored by the region’s farming industry last week during the Idaho and Oregon onion associations’ annual joint meeting.

Shock told Capital Press that during his research career, he learned that rather than staying only within his area of expertise, it was more important to work on whatever issues the community needed to be addressed, even though that often meant getting far out of his comfort zone.

“Rather than stay within my training or what I’ve been prepared to do, I’ve tried to do what the community needed to do in agricultural science,” he said. “Every real problem with growers seems to be complex and laps off into different fields, so every one is an adventure.”

Shock also said he learned that any solution that has an economic benefit to it will get picked up by industry.

“That means that if you have some problem that you need to solve, if you can find some way that will provide an economic benefit to someone, then it will get adopted,” he said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will conduct routine annual inspections, preventive maintenance and repairs at all navigation locks on the Columbia and Snake rivers during March.

Walla Walla District dams with navigation locks include McNary Dam near Umatilla, Ore.; Ice Harbor Dam near Burbank, Wash.; Lower Monumental Dam near Kahlotus, Wash.; Little Goose Dam near Starbuck, Wash.; and Lower Granite Dam near Pomeroy, Wash.

The Portland District’s Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day navigation locks on the Columbia River.

All locks in the inland navigation system will close to recreational and commercial river traffic on at 6 a.m. March 3.

Lower Monumental, Ice Harbor, McNary and Bonneville locks are scheduled to reopen at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, March 18.

Lower Granite, Little Goose, John Day and The Dalles are scheduled to return to service at 11:59 p.m. on March 25. The additional days at those dams are necessary to perform non-routine work which will require more time to complete than the typical two-week routine maintenance outage.

The non-routine work includes gate structural repairs, navigation lock concrete repair and equipment repair or replacement.

In the Walla Walla District, work activities may require the temporary suspension of vehicle crossings at Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams on the lower Snake River in Washington to accommodate work activities during the navigation lock maintenance outage. The public will be notified about closures, if possible, in advance, but the crossing is still subject to closure at any time.

Travelers should call 1-888-DAM-INFO (1-888-326-4636) well in advance of arrival for the current dam-crossing information.

To meet a court-ordered deadline, environmental regulators are racing to update mercury pollution limits in Oregon’s Willamette River Basin that may affect agricultural erosion rules.

Mercury is a neurotoxin that’s naturally found in soils but is also emitted by fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes. In Oregon, mercury from coal-burning power plants thousands of miles away in China, deposited through rain and dust, is also a significant source.

Agricultural practices are implicated as a source of mercury pollution due to the erosion of soils containing the element.

Currently, there’s a “minimal” amount of awareness among Oregon farmers about the link between erosion and mercury pollution, said Eric Horning, a farmer near Corvallis.

“It’s not a common topic of conversation,” Horning said. “There’s going to have to be an education process.”

Mercury may soon become a more relevant subject for growers in the Willamette River Basin due to upcoming regulatory decisions.

Last year, a federal judge ordered the region’s water quality standard for mercury — known as a total maximum daily load, or TMDL — to be revised by April 2017 due to an environmental lawsuit that faulted how the limit was calculated.

Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality has now pulled together a committee, which includes representatives of the agriculture and timber industries, to advise on the revision process.

The state agency’s TMDL for mercury, which it’s updating with new data, is overseen the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act.

The Oregon Farm Bureau is troubled by the lack of input that DEQ is accepting about its estimates for the amount of mercury that’s deposited in the Willamette Valley and released into waterways.

Agriculture and other industries aren’t being given enough opportunity to review and weigh in on the agency’s assumptions about mercury sources, said Mary Anne Cooper, the organization’s public policy counsel and an advisory committee member.

Farmland is a major land use in the region, so it’s likely to be considered a “big player” in controlling mercury pollution, she said.

“I think this is probably going to be one of the most meaningful TMDLs for agriculture, certainly in recent memory or even ever,” Cooper said.

During a Feb. 15 meeting in Portland, DEQ officials told committee members their primary role was advising on how the TMDL will be implemented to reduce mercury levels.

The technical work of calculating the TMDL will mostly be decided by the DEQ and EPA due to time constraints, though the public will be able to comment on their findings, officials said.

However, assumptions about the sources of mercury are closely linked to the implementation of controls, since both involve crop types and farm practices, said Cooper.

Since sedimentation from farmland will likely be considered a significant source of mercury, the “fix” may involve a DEQ directive on managing soil erosion, she said.

Agricultural water quality regulations are overseen by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, but the concern is that DEQ may provide that agency with prescriptive instructions to reduce mercury pollution, Cooper said.

Such a directive could be burdensome for farmers and discourage innovation in erosion control, she said.

However, the ODA cannot realistically become much more drastic about controlling sediment, which is already a major focus of its agricultural water quality program, said Paul Measles, an agency hydrologist and committee member.

“The staff we have and the amount of places we can look at any one time isn’t going to change,” he said.

Erosion control in the region could be improved, but farmers are constrained by regulations in what they can do to reduce streamside sedimentation, said Horning, who is also a committee member.

Work to reduce bank erosion can be quickly performed with a front-end loader but generally requires cumbersome permitting from state and federal agencies, Horning said.

“It’s frowned upon and it shouldn’t be,” he said. “It should be embraced.”

JOSEPH, Ore. — A conditional use permitted on Wallowa County ranchland this winter would allow two cattle producers to offset their power costs with energy generated on their shared irrigation pipeline.

The Triple Creek Ranch sprawls across the upper Wallowa Valley north of Wallowa Lake, abutting the Schaafsma Ranch. Ditch water diverted from a nearby creek runs through a pipe and irrigates pasture on both ranches. If the project is built, excess pressure from the pipeline will generate energy sent to the power grid via power lines less than 20 feet from the generator.

Kyle Petrocine of Wallowa Resources, the local organization coordinating the project, said there are operational benefits to both ranches.

“The ranches will share the net metering credit generated and have lower operational costs due to lower power costs,” Petrocine said.

Ranch owner Lori Schaafsma said if the project goes through, power will only be generated during the irrigation season. She said the energy credits earned through power generation can only be used by the partnering ranches.

The cost saving could be considerable. While Schaafsma said their power bill runs about $3,000 a year, Scott Shear, manager of the Triple Creek Ranch, said his ranch spends roughly $20,000 on electricity annually.

The cost savings are high, but so is the initial outlay for permitting, siting and construction.

Schaafsma said she and her husband, Tom, have long been interested in harnessing power off of their irrigation pipeline, but need grant funding to pay for installation.

“We had always talked about it, but when we were told how much it would cost it was way more than we could afford,” Schaafsma said.

Funding for hydro projects, Petrocine said, is always a hold up

“Hydro is still fairly expensive, even for small-scale projects,” Petrocine said.

To help pay for the project Petrocine said he is applying for grants this spring and targeting fall of this year for installation.

The proposed power plant on the upper Wallowa Valley ranches will be the third hydro project Wallowa Resources has fostered; the first two were installed on a ranch in the mid-Wallowa River Valley between Lostine and Wallowa on the Spaur Ranch in 2010 and 2016. Now that Wallowa Resources has made hydro a priority, Petrocine said he anticipates overseeing two projects a year. From concept to installation, each project takes about two years. Permitting alone takes about six months, including the conditional use permit granted by Wallowa County Jan. 30.

“Now that we have our ducks in a row things will be accelerating,” Petrocine.

Energy Trust of Oregon has funded feasibility studies for these Wallowa County projects, including a few that didn’t pencil out.

A large chunk of funding for a $219,000 project at the head of Wallowa Lake was received through a Pacific Power’s Blue Sky Grant — a fund supported through ratepayers who dedicate a portion of their bill to renewable energy development. County Commissioner Susan Roberts said Pacific Power granted $60,000 for the installation of a power plant that will generate around 150 kilowatts a year, saving the project’s owner, the Wallowa Lake Service District, a municipal water and sewer entity managed by Wallowa County, about $15,000 a year in energy costs.

The log cabin style pump house will be in Wallowa Lake State Park’s campground, Petrocine said, and will have an interpretive sign explaining how a spring on the mountainside powers the turbine.

Construction on the hydroelectric plant at Wallowa Lake State Park will begin in October or November, after the tourist season, Petrocine said.

See here

Best wishes to Randy Papadellis!

Just an update from the CMC meeting just held in DC. No new action was taken on the volume regulations. The Committee and all of us really, are waiting on the USDA to act on the recommendations.

The 2017 regulation has been posted in the Federal Register and the comment period has closed. We are waiting on the Secretary to finalize and sign.

Sometime soon the 2018 order will be posted in the Federal Register for comments. And then the Secretary will finalize and sign.

I think that the CMC members and attendees made it clear to the USDA officials present that we need action quickly so that growers can make growing decisions to control costs. It was duly noted by Oregon growers that the growing season has already begun!

In other news, the 2017 crop was smaller than previously estimated in January, now that actual numbers have been reported. Mother Nature really helped us out on that front. In making the 2018 forecast, most all growing areas expect to be back up to their normal production.

July 5, 1952 - Dec. 11, 2017

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California officials are warning people not to eat the Mexican cactus known as nopales sold at certain stores over concerns they may be tainted with unapproved pesticides.

The Department of Public Health said Wednesday that routine samples last month found contaminated nopal cactus pads at six markets and distribution centers across the state.

Products packaged under the names Mexpogroup Fresh Produce, Aramburo or Los Tres Huastecos should be thrown away. Officials say most tainted nopales have been removed from store shelves and destroyed. But it is possible that some may have been sold to other retail locations in California, Nevada and Oregon.

No illnesses have been reported. Officials warn the pesticides can potentially cause poisoning, neurotoxicity and permanent nerve damage.

DENVER (AP) — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is pressing ahead with a massive overhaul of his department, despite growing opposition to his proposal to move hundreds of public employees out of Washington and create a new organizational map that largely ignores state boundaries.

Zinke wants to divide most of the department’s 70,000 employees and their responsibilities into 13 regions based on rivers and ecosystems, instead of the current map based mostly on state lines.

The proposal would relocate many of the Interior Department’s top decision-makers from Washington to still-undisclosed cities in the West. The headquarters of some of its major bureaus also would move to the West.

The concept — supported in principle by many Western politicians from both parties — is to get top officials closer to the natural resources and cultural sites they manage. The Interior Department oversees a vast expanse of public lands, mainly in the West, that are rich in wildlife, parks, archaeological and historic sites, oil and gas, coal and grazing ranges.

It also oversees huge dams and reservoirs that are vital to some of the West’s largest cities and most productive agricultural land.

Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources, suspects the plan is an attempt to undercut the department by pressuring senior employees to quit rather than relocating, leaving positions unfilled and creating confusion about who regulates what.

“I think it’s a very thinly disguised attempt to gut the Department of Interior and its bureaus,” he said.

Grijalva also questioned the value of moving more department employees West, saying more than 90 percent are already in field offices outside Washington.

Grijalva and Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin of Virginia, also a member of the Natural Resources Committee, on Wednesday accused Zinke of withholding key information from lawmakers and trying to implement the plan piecemeal while avoiding full scrutiny from Congress.

Congress has the final say over the proposal.

And a bipartisan group of Western governors complained to Zinke two weeks ago that he shut them out of the planning for the reorganization. The Republican-dominated Western Governors Association expressed concern that organizing the department around natural features instead of state lines would weaken their states’ influence on department decisions.

Zinke’s spokeswoman, Heather Swift, said Wednesday that moving more Interior Department employees to the West has received overwhelming backing from Congress and state governments, and that managing by ecosystems, instead of state borders, has “a lot of support.”

Six Republican members of the House Natural Resources Committee told Zinke last month they support the reorganization. They said it would improve agency efficiency and responsiveness.

The Interior Department has been unusually tight-lipped about the plan and has not said how many of its Washington-based employees would be moved, where in the West they would land, when they would go, or how much the overhaul would cost.

Swift said the department has briefed both Republican and Democratic congressional staffers and state officials on the proposal. She also said the department does not have a final plan.

But the agency has already compiled a tentative map of the new regions, provided to The Associated Press by the Western Governors Association. And budget documents released Monday show the department is already taking steps to implement it.

The department requested $17.5 million in 2019 to get the plan started and to move an undisclosed number of employees from their Washington headquarters to the West.

The budget documents included only a broad outline of the proposal and did not address in detail how it would affect the department’s basic responsibility — managing natural resources.

In an email to the AP on Wednesday, Swift said boundaries based on rivers and ecosystems would allow resource managers to do a better job and coordinate more closely because nature doesn’t follow political boundaries. She used a deer herd as an example.

“In just one season alone, the herd might pass through a national park, state land, a wildlife refuge and private land — and along its migration, it could wander through two or three different states,” she said.

Zinke has compared his proposed regional boundaries to the ideas of John Wesley Powell, a famed one-armed Civil War veteran and Grand Canyon explorer. Powell argued — unsuccessfully — that Western state boundaries should be drawn along river systems, not arbitrary survey lines, because of the importance of water in the largely arid region.

Donald Worster, an environmental historian and author of “A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell,” said Zinke’s plan bears only a faint resemblance to Powell’s.

“Powell had a very clear definition of the ‘problem’ his map was supposed to fix,” Worster said in an email to the AP. “Zinke is far less clear.”

Zinke’s tentative map lumps together some very different areas and divides others that have features in common, Worster said. Zinke also treats river systems and ecosystems as the same things, but they are not, he said.

“His patched-together and conceptually muddled maps do not encourage one to hope that real science will be given more visibility and authority in the (Interior Department),” Worster said.

Lynne Scarlett, who was deputy secretary of interior under President George W. Bush, said the reorganization could cut both ways.

Focusing on large, regional ecosystems could help the department pay more attention to the connections among land, water, wildlife and people, said Scarlett, now a policy executive for The Nature Conservancy. But the department’s bureaus have different and very specialized responsibilities, and it’s important to preserve their individual missions, she said.

“There’s no perfect management solution. Every solution that one thinks about involves trade-offs,” she said.

HAMILTON, N.J. (AP) — With giant inflatable whales, signs that read “Drilling Is Killing,” and chants of “Where’s our meeting?,” opponents of President Donald Trump’s plan to open most of the nation’s coastline to oil and natural gas drilling have held boisterous rallies before public meetings held by the federal government on the topic.

That’s because the public cannot speak to the assembled attendees at the meetings. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is meeting one-on-one with interested parties, and allows people to comment online, including typing comments on laptops the agency provides. People can also hand BOEM officials written comments to be included in the record.

What they can’t do is get up at a microphone and address the room. That has led drilling opponents on both coasts to hold their own meetings before the official ones begin. The latest will take place Wednesday in Hamilton, New Jersey, just outside the state capitol of Trenton.

“They’re dodging democracy,” said Cindy Zipf, executive director of New Jersey’s Clean Ocean Action environmental group, which will hold a “citizens’ hearing” before the BOEM one begins. “The government works for the people. I understand it’s uncomfortable to have a bad idea and be held accountable for it, but that’s what they’re proposing.”

Trump’s decision last month to open most of the nation’s coast to oil and gas drilling horrified environmentalists, and many elected officials from both parties oppose it. But energy groups and some business organizations support it as a way to become less dependent on foreign energy. An Interior Department official quoted on the BOEM home page announcing the drilling plan praised it as a way for the U.S. to achieve “energy dominance.”

Tracey Blythe Moriarty, a BOEM spokeswoman, said the “open house” format lets people speak directly with agency staff to learn about the drilling proposal, adding, “We find this approach to be more effective than formal oral testimony.”

Many attendees at past meetings disagree.

Environmentalists rallied on the steps of the California state capitol in Sacramento before a BOEM hearing there, citing damage from a 1969 oil rig spill in Santa Barbara and a broken oil pipe in Refugio Beach three years ago. People upset at not being able to speak publicly chanted “Where’s our hearing?”

The agency set up informational displays at its Feb. 8 meeting, including one titled “Why Oil Is Important.”

“Californians have adamantly exposed expansion of oil drilling,” because of its effects on wildlife, oceans and beaches, David Lewis, executive director of Save The Bay in San Francisco, told The Associated Press this week. “So the outcry here against the administration’s outrageous proposal is no surprise.”

Before a Feb. 8 meeting in Tallahassee, Florida, drilling foes invoked the Deepwater Horizon disaster that fouled the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, and said they want to ensure that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s promise to exempt Florida from the drilling plan — the only exception publicly announced — remains in place.

In Oregon, some meeting attendees said BOEM staff were unable to answer their questions about the drilling plan, and were frustrated at being directed to a row of laptops to type out comments.

The Trump administration wants to sell off publicly-owned utility transmission lines. The most recent budget proposal also suggests a move that could raise rates for Bonneville Power Administration customers.

The proposal isn’t sitting well with Northwest politicians, Bonneville Power Administration customers, or clean energy advocates.

A similar plan also faced strong opposition when the Trump administration proposed selling off the BPA’s transmission lines last May. This time around there’s an additional plan to generate revenue: changing how BPA sets its power rates.

That could mean customers will pay more, said Scott Corwin, the executive director of the Public Power Council, which represents many BPA customers.

“It looks like it’s a regional hit to businesses and residents here without any added benefit,” Corwin said.

The idea to privatize the BPA’s transmission assets has been considered off and on for decades.

The BPA operates about three-quarters of the high-voltage transmission systems in its territory, including Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Changing how the BPA sets its rates also isn’t a new idea. The George W. Bush administration wanted BPA to sell its power at market rates.

BPA charges for power and transmission at cost. The current budget proposal hopes to raise up to $200 million by changing those rates — possibly by requiring a market-based rate or increasing it to the rates other utilities charge.

Corwin said the administration’s actual plan to change the rates is vague.

“It is concerning that there’s a presumption that they would change the rates just to raise money on the backs of Northwest electricity consumers,” Corwin said.

Corwin said the proposal is likely illegal because current power contracts, which go through 2028, are explicitly at-cost rates.

Sean O’Leary, spokesman for NW Energy Coalition, said selling off the publicly-owned transmission lines would fragment the grid. He said it would also make it more difficult to integrate renewable energy.

“When you’re in a region that already has the cleanest power, just about the cheapest power, and its paying for itself, there’s really not a problem to solve,” O’Leary said.

The budget proposal includes the sale of assets from two other federal power marketing administrations and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The BPA system is funded by its users. It delivers power from 31 hydroelectric dams throughout the Columbia River Basin and the Columbia Generating Station, the region’s only nuclear power plant. It provides about 28 percent of the electric power used in the Northwest.

The proposal would actually require an act of Congress — but Northwest congressional delegates strongly oppose the idea.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called the proposal a “misguided scheme.”

“Oregonians raised hell last year when Trump tried to raise power bills for Pacific Northwesterners by selling off Bonneville Power, and yet his administration is back at it again. Our investment shouldn’t be put up for sale to free up money for runaway military spending or tax cuts for billionaires,” Wyden said in a statement.

A bipartisan group of Northwest house members sent a letter opposing the proposal, four days before the Trump administration released its plans.

“If market rates were imposed, Northwest public power utilities would see no value in continued BPA service. The consequence would be to leave the federal government holding non-economic assets, as well as a financial responsibility for fish mitigation costs that approach $1 billion per year,” the representatives wrote in the letter.

SALEM — Early organization has proved advantageous for supporters of a bill establishing minimum contract protections for all Oregon seed growers, which the House unanimously approved Feb. 13.

Under House Bill 4068, dealers must pay farmers market prices for seed by certain deadlines enforced by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Grass seed crops have received similar protections since 2011 under a statute aimed at preventing “slow pay, no pay” problems, but other types of seed were excluded from the legislation.

Before the idea of expanding the contract protections was brought to the Oregon lawmakers, the specifics were hashed out by farmers, seed dealers and trade groups.

By the time HB 4068 was introduced, all the details had been hammered out and the bill sailed through the House Agriculture Committee without any opposing testimony or even an amendment.

The lack of complication has served the bill well in 2018, when several other proposals have been killed off for being too grandiose or intricate to properly examine in a little more than a month.

Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, briefly explained the bill’s purpose on the House floor and praised it for adhering to the “spirit of the short session” — it’s “narrow in scope” and has been “thoroughly vetted” by the affected parties, he said.

Anna Scharf, whose family farm near Amity, Ore., was instrumental in advocating the bill, Post said.

The concept for expanding contract protections to clover, meadowfoam, radish, turnip, mustard and other seeds was initiated by Scharf in 2017.

Initially, she sought to simply add other seed types to the class of crops protected under the 2011 statute. However, the proposal “unraveled” because the payment terms for grass seed didn’t align with those of other seeds, Scharf said.

For a year, the Oregon Farm Bureau and farmers “worked out the kinks” with seed industry stakeholders and arrived at a proposal that lawmakers could embrace as “bipartisan” and “not political,” she said.

“It shows they’re willing to acknowledge that farmers growing proprietary crops have a necessity and a right to be paid in a timely manner,” Scharf said. “We aired out our differences and figured out a law we could live within.”

Because most specialty seeds are proprietary, they can’t be sold on the open market if the contracting seed dealer fails to pay, she said.

If HB 4068 is similarly successful in the Senate — which is likely — the playing field between growers and dealers will be more level, Scharf said. “It’s a game changer. I can’t tell you how excited I am about it.”

Scientists are cautioning wheat farmers in northeast Oregon about the early return of a pernicious, stunting disease that can reduce yields by as much as 41 percent.

Christina Hagerty, an Oregon State University assistant professor and plant pathologist at the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center, said soil-borne wheat mosaic virus has arrived four weeks earlier than last year at a disease resistance nursery near Milton-Freewater, Ore.

Already, Hagerty said she has met with five farmers about the virus and she expects more phone calls in the weeks to come.

“I think that we’re probably in for another mosaic virus year,” she said. “It’s not ideal.”

The virus, carried by a soil-borne organism, appears to be spreading around the region. Since it was discovered in the Walla Walla Valley in 2008, it has expanded from a five-mile radius to a 25-mile radius stretching into southeast Washington.

“This organism can spread any way you can think of soil spreading,” she said. “The good news is the breeders, private and public industry are working really hard to develop some good options for genetic resistance.”

Hagerty said the early arrival is likely due to warm weather in January. Symptoms are primarily seen in leaves and include yellow streaks, mosaic patterns, splotching and stunted growth.

Hagerty said farmers who recognize any of these symptoms should send a sample to either the OSU plant clinic in Hermiston, Ore., or Washington State University plant clinic in Pullman, Wash., for diagnostic testing.

“The window to diagnose is as short as eight weeks,” she said. “If they get a positive, there’s not a lot they can do this year, but they will know it is in the field and that will inform their variety selection for the following crop year.”

Soil-borne wheat mosaic virus does not respond to fumigation, and Hagerty said genetic resistance is the best tool for farmers dealing with the virus in their fields.

“We may be dealing with (the virus) on a more annual basis,” she said.

For questions or a list of genetically resistant wheat varieties, contact Hagerty at CBARC, 541-278-4186.

Oregon wheat farmer Darren Padget says the time was right for him to join the officer team of U.S. Wheat Associates.

His son is home on the farm and his wife supports him, Padget told the Capital Press.

“I’ve had the opportunity to host a few trade teams over the years, and I live in close proximity to Portland, two hours away,” he said. “So I’ve seen the work U.S. Wheat’s done firsthand, and had the opportunity to travel overseas with them on the Asian crop quality tour. I think it’s time well-spent.”

Padget will become U.S. Wheat secretary-treasurer at the organization’s June meeting in Seattle. U.S. Wheat is the overseas marketing arm of the industry.

Trade issues such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and North American Free Trade Agreement are top priorities, Padget said.

Padget said he is impressed with U.S. Wheat and its staff.

“There’s a lot of people that have been there for decades on behalf of the U.S. farmer,” he said. “It’s quite impressive.”

A fourth-generation farmer in Grass Valley, Ore., Padget keeps a dryland wheat and summer fallow rotation, producing registered and certified seed on 3,400 acres.

Padget previously held positions on the Oregon Wheat Growers League board of directors and executive committee for seven years, serving as president in 2010. He chaired the research and technology committee of the National Association of Wheat Growers and served on the Mid-Columbia Producers board of directors, and was an officer for 10 years.

Padget will go to South Korea with the Wheat Marketing Center in late March.

Also at the U.S. Wheat meeting in June, Doug Goyings of Paulding, Ohio, will become vice chairman, and Chris Kolstad of Ledger, Mont., will become chairman. Current chairman Mike Miller, of Ritzville, Wash., will become past chairman.

“It’s just a good organization that not a lot of members understand completely how it works,” Padget said. He added with a chuckle, “I’ve got a lot to learn.”

BANDON - Growing up in Eastern Oregon, Mackenzie "Kenzie" Basey, spent a lot of time with her grandfather, a local veterinarian in Burns. The family had horses and other ranch animals, which fostered a love for all animals in Basey.