Oregon

A group representing farmers in Washington State and Oregon is urging the Interior Department to convene the “God squad” — an interagency committee empowered to override the Endangered Species Act — over complaints that the act's protections on salmon are hurting growers and others.

Prosecutors in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge investigation in Oregon are calling on a judge to order blogger Gary Hunt to remove sensitive material about the trial’s informants from his website Outpost of Freedom.

Federal officials are crafting an agreement to divide the steelhead and salmon catch in the Columbia River watershed between tribal, sport and commercial fishermen, says The Seattle Times. The plan would cover fishing rights in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington State, probably for the next 10 years if the length of previous agreements is any indicator.

The constitutionality of Oregon's "right to farm" law is an issue in a lawsuit that seeks $4.2 million for damages that allegedly resulted from errant aerial application of pesticide on forest land in southwestern corner of the state. Landowner Joseph Kaufman and the applicator, Pacific Air Research, say they're immune from liability under the right to farm law, says Capitol Press.

A federal judge ruled that the U.S. government’s attempts to recover Northwest salmon populations, hurt by dams, have failed. “In his ruling, US District Judge Michael Simon in Portland, Ore., lambasted the federal government’s current plan to ameliorate the effects of the dams, saying it violates both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act,” says The Christian Science Monitor.

Native Olympia oysters in Oregon's Netarts and Coos bays are loaded with pharmaceuticals and chemicals, including pain relievers, antibiotics, mercury and pesticides, says a study by Portland State University researchers, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Geological Survey and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

A new federal rule bans fishermen from catching eight kinds of forage fish in a 200-mile zone off the coasts of Oregon, Washington State and California, reports The Seattle Times.

Out-of-state investors have the green light from regulators in Oregon and Washington state to invest in the legal marijuana industry in the Pacific Northwest, making possible the emergence of Big Marijuana, says the Los Angeles Times.

Lawmakers from at least five states tried to negotiate on behalf of rancher Ammon Bundy and his followers, when they took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon this January, says Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Oregon and California announced on Tuesday that they will remove four hydroelectric dams in the Klamath Basin that have been at the heart of a years-long fight between tribes, farmers and environmentalists.

Hatchery-raised fish show dramatic alterations in their DNA from wild fish in just one generation, says a new study published in Nature Communications by Oregon State University.

After more than three-weeks of national media attention, the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon took a violent turn Tuesday afternoon when federal officials stopped several of the militia members on a state highway outside of Burns, Oregon, reports the New York Times.

What do the renegade militia members in Oregon have in common with carp? They both have a habit of invading. Ever since the Bundy boys and their crew came into the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 2, well-armed and calling for the takedown of public lands, refuge staff have been forced to abandon a critical invasive carp removal program, reports High Country News.

Topsoil and subsoil moisture levels continue to decline in the Pacific Northwest, where streamflows have shriveled to record or near-record lows, says the weekly Drought Monitor.

Oregon state officials plan to warn the public of elevated levels of arsenic in softshell clams along the Pacific coast, and to suggest consumption limits, says the Salem (Ore) Statesman Journal.

"A massive toxic algae bloom has closed shellfish fisheries along the West Coast," says the Portland Oregonian. Beaches were closed to clamming and oyster harvesting along the Oregon and Washington State coastlines.

Harvest of soft white wheat is under way in northeastern Oregon and a grain merchandiser in Pendleton says yields are down 10 to 15 percent because of hot, dry weather, says Capital Press. “The overall quality of the crop is going to be fine, there’s just not going to be a lot of it,” Dan Steiner, senior grain merchandiser at Pendleton Grain Growers, told the newspaper.