Oregon’s entire congressional delegation joined with Western colleagues in the House and Senate to urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture to secure more relief for farmers, ranchers, and other agriculture producers in the West affected by historic wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat.  In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack signed by Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Representatives Cliff Bentz, Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer, Kurt Schrader, and Suzanne Bonamici, the Western lawmakers seek to open USDA relief programs up to more producers that have lost crops and livestock to the ongoing droughts, extreme heat, and wildfires.  The legislators say Cherry growers in the west have so far lost an estimated 20 percent of their overall crop, and the full extent of losses for apple and pear growers may not be known until harvest in the fall, or later if damage manifests in storage.