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Four other counties will also get $100,000 each — Harney, Malheur, Klamath and Lake.

The emergency rule also allocated $425,000 that could be distributed among any of Oregon’s 36 counties that have significant infestations of either grasshoppers or Mormon crickets this year.

Individual counties will decide how to allocate the grant money, said Sunny Summers, senior policy adviser for the agriculture department.

The state didn’t offer financial aid to farmers and ranchers dealing with infestations last year, and with the potential for a repeat in 2024, officials decided to award grants this spring, said Casey Prentiss, Eastern Oregon program director for the agriculture department.

The 2023 infestation

Farmers and ranchers in Baker and southern Union counties said last summer that grasshopper numbers were higher than they had seen in several decades.

“They are horrid — the worst I’ve seen,� John Wirth, a cattle rancher northeast of Baker City, said in July 2023.

The infestation led farmers and state officials to fear another, potentially more severe, outbreak in 2024 as the eggs laid by grasshoppers the previous year hatch.

Although adult grasshoppers can’t survive cold weather, their eggs are considerably more hardy, said Todd Adams of the state agriculture department. The eggs hatch in spring, and depending on weather, infestations can become worse in subsequent years, Adams said.