Beginning as a 10-teacher, member based organization in 1956, Rogue Credit Union has grown to a financial co-operative with branches in Coos, Curry, Jackson, Josephine, Douglas and Klamath counties. Today, Rogue serves over 115,000 members with an asset base of…

Azure Farms, the organic operation that was at the center of a weed control argument in Sherman County this spring, is responding quickly to complaints and generally living up to its side of an agreement with county officials, Commissioner Tom McCoy said.

“So far, so good,” McCoy said in an email update. “I explained that I considered the weed agreement like a farm lease — not so important as a legal document, but important as a written statement of what each party should expect of the other.”

Neighboring wheat farmers, especially those who grow certified seed, have complained for years about weeds blowing onto their ground from Azure Farms, which as an organic operation would not use conventional chemical herbicides to deal with the problem. County officials said they would ask the Oregon Department of Agriculture to quarantine the farm’s production and warned they would spray herbicide and bill the 1,922-acre farm for the work if the weeds weren’t controlled.

Azure Farms and its parent company, Azure Standard, of Dufur, Ore., appealed to supporters on social media. County officials were flooded with anguished, angry telephone calls and nearly 60,000 emails from around the country and even internationally.

The issue came to a head at a county court meeting in May, held at the local high school gym because the crowd was so large. Brothers David and Nathan Stelzer, who head the farm and product distribution company, apologized for the social media response. They ultimately agreed to keep weeds in check using methods that won’t cause them to lose organic certification.

McCoy, the commissioner, said the county has received several complaints about noxious weeds flowering at Azure Farms and being close to producing seeds.

“When we contacted the Stelzers, they responded quickly — usually by mowing down the weeds,” McCoy said by email. “They have always seemed to accept their responsibility to keep noxious weed seeds from blowing into their neighbor’s fields.”

Friday’s Games

BOSTON (AP) — Here's a novel way to enjoy autumn in New England: While the trees are dropping their leaves, you can be shedding some pounds.

Portland’s downtown disappeared from view this week as thick smoke from wildfires settled in for an uncomfortable stay.

And that made it a problem, even though forest fires have been burning elsewhere in the West for several weeks.

All told, there were 65 active fires in nine Western states as of mid-day Sept. 6, including 19 in Oregon. The active fires have burned 1.4 million acres.

The biggest fire in Oregon, by far, is the Chetco Bar Fire in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness northeast of Brookings on the Southern Oregon coast. As of mid-day Sept. 6 if had burned nearly 177,000 acres, destroyed six homes, damaged another and threatened 8,523 more.

As multiple rural residents said in effect on social media: Welcome to our world, Portland.

Some Oregonians who work in or support the state’s stagnant timber industry had another response: We told you so.

What got Portland’s attention was the Eagle Creek Fire in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area east of the city, a spectacular 80-mile stretch of river, timber, basalt formations and waterfalls that attracts legions of climbers, hikers and scads of tourists. The chair of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners mourned the damage to what she called “our playground.”

The Eagle Creek Fire lit up the Gorge like a vision from hell. It began Sept. 2, jumped to 10,000 acres by mid-week and merged with the Indian Creek Fire to cover 20,000 acres.

It filled Portland with dense smoke that obliterated all scenic views. It dusted cars and porches with tiny bits of ash, forced evacuations, closed I-84 from Troutdale east to Hood River and threatened the 92-year-old lodge at Multnomah Falls, the state’s most popular natural site with 2.5 million annual visitors.

Oregon State Police said fireworks started the fire. They’ve interviewed a 15-year-old Vancouver, Wash., boy and described him as a “suspect.”

Pushed by hot, boisterous east winds, the Eagle Creek Fire hurled flaming debris up to three-quarters of a mile and even jumped the Columbia to start a fire on the Washington side. About 150 hikers on the Eagle Creek trail system had to retreat, stop in place overnight or hike out to Wahtum Lake, but were successfully evacuated.

Citing smoke and heat, Portland public schools sent students home two hours early Sept. 5 and canceled soccer games and sports practices. Many of the city’s hardcore bicycle commuters wore handkerchiefs to cover their noses and mouths. The sun and moon took turns glowing orange in the smoke filled sky. The Oregon Department of Agriculture expressed concern that farmworkers might be breathing smoke while working outside in orchards and vineyards.

If Portlanders were stunned by the wildfire’s leaping fury, many rural Oregonians and people who work in natural resource industries said the state, and much of the West, is paying the price of paralyzed forest management policy.

Critics say the state’s publicly-managed forests are primed for disastrous fires. They believe timberland agencies, especially the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, are shackled by decades of lawsuits and continued argument over endangered species, wildlife habitat, logging roads and water quality.

A stark statistic illustrates the state of affairs: Federal agencies manage 60 percent of Oregon’s forestland, nearly 18 million acres, but that land accounts for just 15 percent of the annual timber harvest, according to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute.

The institute was created by the Oregon Legislature to enhance collaboration and to provide information about responsible forest management. One of its more recent reports estimated more than 350 million individual trees are standing dead on national forestland, providing ready fuel for catastrophic fires.

Nick Smith, executive director of a group called Healthy Forests Healthy Communities, said many urban and suburban residents in Portland, Seattle and elsewhere “don’t understand the grave conditions on the ground in our federally-owned forests.” Much of the forested landscape is at risk to fire, disease and insects due to dense and overgrown conditions, he said.

“What we’re seeing right now is just how outdated and unresponsive our current federal management policies are to conditions on the ground,” Smith said.

His group and others believe federal forest agencies lack the funding and legal and policy tools to increase logging and thinning. In particular, they believe fire suppression costs should be treated as other forms of disaster relief, like hurricanes. The Forest Service spends half its budget on wildfire suppression, Smith said.

Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden agree, but haven’t been able to bring about change. In a statement issued Sept. 6, Merkley said the fires “reinforce how important it is to get a long-term fix that would fund fighting huge wildfires the way that we fund other natural disasters.”

“Many of us are frustrated with current forest management practices,” Merkley said. “I will continue working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers to find collaborative solutions and funding to return our forests to health.”

Meanwhile, Oregon State Police want to speak with anyone who heard fireworks in the Eagle Creek Trail or Punch Bowl Falls area between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 2. The state police phone number is 503-375-3555.

Environmental Protection Agency officials reacted to the wrath of federal lawmakers over What’s Upstream by going into “damage-control mode,” simultaneously saying they couldn’t have controlled the anti-agriculture campaign but nevertheless promising to fix it, according to newly released EPA records.

The records, mostly emails between EPA employees, show an agency caught between looking impotent or complicit in an advertising and lobbying campaign waged at taxpayer expense by a Puget Sound tribe to mandate 100-foot buffers between farm fields and waterways in Washington.

In response to criticism from a U.S. senator, Liz Purchia, then EPA’s head of communications, urged colleagues to “acknowledge” that “we are not associated with it.”

“Anytime EPA and ‘campaign’ is used together it is not helpful,” she wrote in an email April 5, 2016.

The email, made public Aug. 31, is among the final batch of records released by the EPA in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Save Family Farming, a group formed to counter What’s Upstream.

The group filed its FOIA request 16 months ago and has received more than 1,000 documents, detailing EPA’s part in funding and monitoring the half-million-dollar lobbying campaign.

Since the group asked for the records, the EPA’s inspector general, the Washington Public Disclosure Commission and state Attorney General Bob Ferguson have cleared the EPA, tribe and Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission of any illegal lobbying.

“Much has been accomplished by simply exposing this activity,” Save Family Farming Executive Director Gerald Baron said Tuesday. “It would have gone on. That’s the lesson. If farmers don’t stand up for themselves, they’ll get run over.”

Dennis McLerran, EPA Northwest’s administrator during the five years the agency funded What’s Upstream, said Tuesday that he tried to tone down the campaign, but didn’t have the authority to dictate its contents.

“I do recall the lawyers at the very top level of the EPA didn’t consider it lobbying and a violation of any federal requirement,” he said. “Like I said all along, this is an unfortunate situation. I tried to get the tribe to take down the billboards and change the content of the website, but it was not something under EPA control.”

Gov. Jay Inslee recently appointed McLerran to serve in an unpaid position on the Puget Sound Leadership Council, a state agency that coordinates environmental projects.

In response to criticism from U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, about the campaign, McLerran wrote a statement April 4, 2016, that for the first time said EPA funds should not have used for What’s Upstream. “We are in the process of correcting that,” he wrote.

Purchia suggested editing the statement to say the campaign “was not approved by the agency.” The statement was released saying the campaign didn’t reflect EPA’s views.

“Let’s add the word ‘outside’ before ‘campaign’ and get this out,” McLerran wrote April 5.

The statement didn’t disclose that the tribe and its hired lobbying firm, Strategies 360, had regularly submitted written updates and yearly work plans for EPA’s approval since 2011.

As criticism of the campaign increased, EPA adopted a policy of not answering questions.

McLerran, however, was sending emails to other public officials seeking to explain his side of the controversy. “We are clearly in damage-control mode,” he wrote to Washington State Conservation Commission officials.

Said McLerran: “From my perspective, I wanted for them to know facts, as I knew them.”

The newly released emails reinforce that the tribe’s environmental director, Larry Wasserman, was forthright about his goal to pass a state law and eager to get approval to spend EPA money on billboards and radio ads to rally grass-roots support during the 2016 legislative session, capping years of preparation and collaboration with environmental groups.

“I am concerned that additional delays will make our effort less effective because we have a short legislative session and we are hoping for some impact while the legislators are in Olympia,” Wasserman wrote Jan. 26, 2016, to a manager in the Puget Sound recovery program.

The records also affirm that mid-level EPA officials had misgivings about the campaign, but their concerns were rejected as having no legal grounding.

A few weeks before the agency disavowed the campaign under congressional criticism, EPA Puget Sound program specialist Gina Bonifacino wrote an email to a colleague referring to an EPA document prohibiting spending funds on political activities, including raising public support to introduce state-level legislation.

“Hi, I did not mean for you to have to spend more time on this and I know I am sticking my neck in where I don’t belong :) it just seemed so clear to me when I read this again that this website is lobbying,” Bonifacino wrote in an email Feb. 4, 2016.

The colleague, Lisa Chang, who expressed reservations about how the tribe was spending EPA money as earlier as 2012, cited EPA attorney Garth Wright in answering Bonifacino.

“I will have to go back and look at Garth’s most recent analysis, but my understanding is that since there is no specific piece of legislation — they are just asking for stronger protection of water quality — that the lobbying restrictions are not violated. That is my layperson’s understanding,” Chang wrote.

McLerran said Tuesday that he was unaware of Bonifacino’s concern. “This is the first time I have heard of that,” he said.

The EPA redacted emails from Wright, citing an attorney-client exemption. EPA’s legal advice was upheld in an audit by the inspector general.

Media reports about EPA’s funding of What’s Upstream in March 2016 provoked a strong reaction from some federal lawmakers, which brought the campaign to the attention of top-level EPA officials in Washington, D.C.

“Holy smokes this needs attention. Do we have someone on this?” EPA Deputy Chief of Staff John Reeder wrote in an email April 20, 2016, the day one-third of the U.S. House signed a letter demanding to know why the EPA funded an “anti-farmer campaign in Washington state.”

Matthew Fritz, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s chief of staff, replied: “We do. I have been talking to the (Northwest) Region about this. Long story.”

An Oregon judge has rejected claims by several Klamath Basin irrigators that state regulators wrongly shut down their groundwater wells based on faulty scientific analysis.

Marion County Circuit Court Judge Channing Bennett has ruled the Oregon Water Resources Department properly relied on “substantial evidence” to halt pumping from the four wells because they were interfering with surface water rights in the Sprague River.

Attorneys for the groundwater irrigators say the case is troubling because the OWRD’s reasoning — which was approved by the judge — effectively expands the agency’s jurisdiction over wells not only in the Klamath Basin but elsewhere in Oregon.

The dispute also pits groundwater irrigators against Klamath Basin farmers who use surface water and who support the actions of water regulators.

“We think this is the best result to protect senior water users,” said Richard Deitchman, attorney for the Tulelake Irrigation District, which intervened in the case.

The four groundwater wells in question are within less than one mile of the Sprague River, which opens them up to regulatory scrutiny for potentially affecting surface water.

After OWRD ordered pumping from the wells to stop in 2015 and 2016, a lawsuit against the agency was brought by their owners, Stanley and Dolores Stonier and Larry and Joan Sees, as well as Garrett and Cameron Duncan, who lease property from the Sees.

The plaintiffs argued their wells were drilled into a confined aquifer that’s separated from the Sprague river by layers of rock and clay, as well as a shallower alluvial aquifer.

Shutting down the wells isn’t allowed because OWRD only has jurisdiction over wells drilled into an aquifer “adjacent” to the surface water, the plaintiffs argued.

However, the judge said he couldn’t determine that those layers were of such low permeability as to hinder water flowing from the confined aquifer into the Sprague River.

Effectively, the decision accepts OWRD’s argument that it can regulate a broader “aquifer system,” even if a well isn’t drilled into an aquifer directly adjacent to a river, said Laura Schroeder, an attorney representing the groundwater irrigators.

“There’s nothing to stop Oregon Water Resources from regulating every aquifer in a basin (within a mile of surface waters) and calling it an aquifer system,” she said.

The groundwater irrigators fault OWRD for wrongly concluding that groundwater contributes to surface water flows along the portion of the Sprague River in question.

The agency improperly applied a scientific model by overestimating the ability of groundwater from the confined aquifer to eventually flow into the river, they claimed.

If used correctly, the model would have showed that water from the confined aquifer didn’t affect the surface water to a degree that would warrant regulation, according to the plaintiffs.

The judge’s decision is disappointing because he sided with OWRD without explaining how the trial evidence affected his rationale, said Sarah Liljefelt, an attorney for the groundwater irrigators.

“He really didn’t make any decision about the science,” she said. “You’re in a difficult position in which there’s a ruling against you without any real reason why.”

Richard Deitchman, attorney for the Tulelake Irrigation District, disagreed with this characterization of the ruling.

The judge must decide whether the OWRD’s actions were reasonable based on the evidence, rather than choose whose scientific theories were more convincing, he said.

“You have experts on both sides,” Deithcman said. “The judge’s role isn’t to play hydrogeologist himself. It’s to determine if there’s substantial evidence for the decision, which is what he determined here.”

The groundwater irrigators have until Sept. 25 to decide whether to appeal the judge’s opinion. They also have another case pending against OWRD related to its 2017 decision to shut down the wells.

A spokesperson for OWRD did not respond to requests for comment as of press time.

GLIDE, Ore. — The front acreage of the French Creek Ranch made a transition almost overnight on Aug. 9 and 10.

When lightning strikes started multiple fires in the Umpqua National Forest about 30 miles east of this small community, officials were quick to call ranch owner Phil Strader about turning his livestock pasture and hay ground into the Umpqua North Fire Complex Fire Camp.

Strader gave his permission. The cattle that had been grazing in the field were quickly moved to another pasture on the ranch and the next day personnel began to arrive to set up a camp that would provide for a management team, hundreds of front line firefighters, a helicopter base and its pilots, a support staff and supplies, vehicles and equipment for all.

The mission of the fire camp is to contain the complex of fires that had reached almost 32,000 acres as of Tuesday, Sept. 5.

There’s close to 100 acres in the two-level pasture camp that is the temporary home of about 1,000 people, most of them firefighters with the rest being management and support staff.

Setting up a fire camp on the ranch is nothing new. Strader said in the last 15 years, this is the eighth or ninth time a fire camp has been set up on the ranch that has been in his family for 95 years.

The ground is leased to the U.S. Forest Service so there is reimbursement for the ranch, but Strader said he also gives permission for the fire camp because it benefits many of his neighbors and their businesses in nearby Glide.

“If they were to set up the camp farther up into the forest, there would be no economic benefit for this small community,” Strader said. “They’re spending a good deal of money fighting these fires so I’d like to see a benefit for the community. It’s just a guess, but the local restaurants, stores, gas stations may do more like a month’s worth of business in just a week with the influx of personnel.”

On the camp’s lower level, there are large tents for sleeping and smaller tents, each with a different purpose, including operations, planning, logistics, human resources, air operations, finance, and medical and safety. There is also a kitchen that runs the inside length of a semi trailer, a large portable barbecue, a dining area, three or four trailers that offer wash basins and soap to clean up, a couple trailers that offer showers, a laundry service, port-a-potties and stacks of supplies such as bottled water, energy drinks, fire retardant pants and shirts, and numerous other items.

The upper level is a helicopter base.

Spread out under the oak trees on both levels are a couple hundred colorful popup tents that provide individual private resting places.

“It’s right alongside a road (Highway 138), it’s near a community, it’s close to a (Forest Service) district office,” Cheryl Caplan, a spokeswoman for the Umpqua National Forest, said of the benefits of the ranch as a fire camp. “The amenities are really great with electricity and the internet available. Having the two fields allows us to put a type 1 heli base next to a type 1 incident management team and the firefighters. It’s unusual to find all that packaged together so close to a national forest.”

Kyle Reed, a public information officer with the Douglas Forest Protective Association in Roseburg, said it is of great benefit to know in advance that a landowner will be cooperative and give permission to use his land when a fire camp needs to be established.

“Everything you would need is there or close by and it is easily accessible,” Reed said of the ranch.

Strader said fire management officials have expressed their appreciation of his cooperation. He said before any changes have been made to the camp that impacts the ground, officials have checked with him first.

He explained that with vehicles, heavy equipment and hundreds of people using the camp, the ground is impacted.

“Generally they are good about reimbursing the cost for rehabbing the fields,” Strader said of the disking and reseeding that must be done after the camp is taken down. Typically, it gets done and there is grass there the next spring.”

The ranch is home to 400 mother cows. The ranch’s latest crop of calves has been shipped.

While smoke from the fires is hanging low over the area, Strader said he hasn’t seen any negative effects on the ranch’s cows that are in early gestation of their pregnancies.

“This is probably going to continue until some season ending rain storms in late September or early October,” said Strader.

Until those rains, part of his ranch is a fire camp that has the look of a mini city.

Looking for something more exciting than pumpkin spice, Oktoberfests and leaf-peeping to shake up your plans this fall?

Current staff member Mallory Phelan has been appointed interim executive director of Oregon Aglink, the non-profit organization that attempts to help urban Oregonians better understand agriculture.

Phelan, who turns 30 in September, confirmed she has applied to replace Geoff Horning, who left to become CEO of Oregon Hazelnut Industries. Phelan, who has worked for Oregon Aglink four years, is vice president of operations.

The stated mission of Oregon Aglink is to bridge the gap between urban and rural Oregonians by helping people better understand where their food and fiber come from.

The organization’s activities include placing roadside crop identification signs, which it does in partnership with Oregon Women for Agriculture. Phelan said she is especially proud of Oregon Aglink’s “Adopt a Farmer” program, in which schools link up with producers for field trips and presentations. The program has grown from 18 schools and farms a few years ago to 50 this fall.

Phelan grew up working on her family’s grass seed farm between Albany and Lebanon in the mid-Willamette Valley. She earned a business administration degree at the University of Portland and at first had “no intention of working in agriculture,” as she put it. She taught English in Peru for eight months before returning to the U.S. and taking what initially was intended as a six-month position at Oregon Aglink.

“It was kind of like coming home,” she said. “I didn’t realize what I was missing.”

Phelan said she most enjoys working with producers and helping them tell their stories

Today in History

Bandon’s annual showcase football game has a new day and new format this year.

BANDON - On May 5, 1917, Leslie Martin Kranick bought 160 acres of land on the southern Oregon coast just south of Bandon, some of which was planted with cranberry bogs.

BANDON - On May 5, 1917, Leslie Martin Kranick bought 160 acres of land on the southern Oregon coast just south of Bandon, some of which was planted with cranberry bogs.

BANDON - On May 5, 1917, Leslie Martin Kranick bought 160 acres of land on the southern Oregon coast just south of Bandon, some of which was planted with cranberry bogs.

The first picture I am sharing this week was taken in 1976 when Gerry's Restaurant was just the ice cream shop and the dining room. It was not until later that the expansive lounge was built. Today this is the…

BOISE — Agricultural land values around the Northwest continue to increase, despite relatively low commodity prices.

“We would suspect that with commodity prices being low for the past two years, we would have seen some drop in (agricultural) land values, but that is not the case,” said John Chidester, an ag land assessor in East Idaho. “I’ve seen no indication that values are going down.”

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates the average value for all cropland in Idaho at $3,400 an acre in 2017, a 3 percent increase over $3,300 an acre in 2016. NASS estimates irrigated cropland value in Idaho at $5,150 an acre and non-irrigated cropland at $1,460 an acre. Both are up 3 percent from the previous year.

Around the nation, average cropland value is estimated at $4,090 an acre, unchanged from 2016 and below the $4,130 total in 2015 and $4,100 in 2014.

Bob Morrison, an independent ag land appraiser in Idaho Falls, said NASS Idaho estimates for 2017 appear solid.

“Ag land values have been steady to slightly increasing,” he said. “It’s surprising when you consider that commodity prices are down, but the values are still holding strong.”

Doug Robison, Northwest Farm Credit Services’ senior vice president for agriculture in Idaho, said ag land value trends have shown some gains on an annual basis with overall transaction counts declining.

“The combination of limited supply, investor appetite and low interest rates have provided strong support for land values,” he told Capital Press in an email. “Land values have been surprisingly resilient over the past few years. High-quality farm land remains in tight supply.”

NASS also projects that cropland values in Washington and Oregon are on the rise in 2017.

The agency estimates average cropland value in Oregon at $2,860 an acre, up 4.8 percent from last year, with irrigated cropland averaging $4,850 an acre and non-irrigated cropland at $2,120 an acre.

In Washington, average cropland value is estimated at $2,890 an acre, up 4.7 percent, with irrigated cropland at $8,700 an acre and non-irrigated cropland at $1,380 an acre.

According to a Northwest Farm Credit Services market report on 2017 ag land values, limited supply is anchoring land values in the Northwest “despite concerns surrounding weaker commodity prices. ... Both irrigated and dry cropland values continue to remain strong despite lower commodity prices for many crops.”

A large volume of the farm land sold in Idaho this year is purchased by investment groups that are keeping the land in farming, said Morrison.

“We’re seeing investment groups buying large blocks of farmland in southern Idaho,” he said. “These people are looking at farmland as an investment and ... it gives them an annual return.”

Most of the farmer-to-farmer land sales are in the neighborhood of 160 acres and purchased by producers from their neighbors, Morrison said.

The following streets will be closed during the 2017 Cranberry Festival:

Wild Roots has launched a Cranberry Vodka using some of the best cranberries in the country. The spirits company is teaming up with Bandon-based Johnson Creek Farms on its cranberry infused vodka. Wild Roots Cranberry Vodka uses almost 2.5 pounds…

Wild Roots has launched a Cranberry Vodka using some of the best cranberries in the country. The spirits company is teaming up with Bandon-based Johnson Creek Farms on its cranberry infused vodka. Wild Roots Cranberry Vodka uses almost 2.5 pounds…