14 CapitalPress.com
November 20, 2015
Ecology asks Wash. court to reassess water ruling
Decision restricts
DOE’s power to
rearrange rights
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The Wash-
ington Department of Ecology
has asked the state Supreme
Court to reconsider a ruling
that rebuked the agency for
rearranging water rights based
on what it considered to be an
overriding public interest.
DOE argues the 6-3 deci-
sion last month undermines its
ability to allocate scarce water
to benefit the public. In this
case, DOE authorized the city
of Yelm in Western Washing-
ton to draw more groundwater
to accommodate population
growth.
The court scotched the plan
because it would have put sur-
rounding rivers and creeks at
risk of occasionally falling be-
low state-mandated minimum
flows, a water right senior to
Yelm’s new right.
The Supreme Court has not
decided whether to reconsider,
a court official said Nov. 10.
A lawyer for Thurston
County landowner Sara Fos-
ter, who sued to stop the water
redistribution, said the court
has not asked him to respond
to DOE’s written argument for
reconsideration. “I think the
decision was well reasoned
and legally sound,” attorney
Patrick Williams said.
Although the decision did
not directly involve an agri-
cultural water right, the case
sets an important precedent
for farmers with senior water
rights, said Toni Meacham, ex-
ecutive director of the Wash-
ington State Agricultural Legal
Foundation.
DOE overreached and im-
paired a senior water right,
said Meacham, who is not
representing any party in the
case. “They went ahead and
rationalized it with that con-
cept of ‘overriding consider-
ations of public interest,’ ” she
said.
DOE’s appeal for recon-
sideration hinges on whether
DOE can permanently redis-
tribute water withdrawals in
the public interest at the ex-
pense of stream flows. Mini-
mum stream flows are meant
to protect fish, wildlife, recre-
ation, scenery, navigation and
livestock watering.
The court’s majority ruled
that such withdrawals could
only be temporary, an interpre-
tation that dissenting judges
called “novel and unprece-
dented.”
The suit did not challenge
DOE’s authority to temporar-
ily transfer water rights in a
drought emergency.
The court rejected DOE’s
contention that potential dam-
age caused by low flows could
be more than made up for with
riverbank projects.
DOE and Yelm main-
tain that depriving the city of
more water will encourage
the proliferation of residential
groundwater wells, spurring
urban sprawl and sucking
more water from streams.
Foster received support
from the Center for Environ-
mental Law & Policy, which
praised the ruling as an affir-
mation of DOE’s obligation to
protect in-stream flows.
Some Washington farm-
ers last summer faced rare
drought-driven irrigation wa-
ter cutbacks because of mini-
mum-flow rules.
In the Foster case, Mea-
cham said DOE acted alone
to reorder water rights. “That,
to me, is a huge red flag,”
she said. “If agriculture needs
more water, then ask for a
change of law.”
Soil professor
addresses tilth
conference
Reganold calls for
‘transformative’
changes to ag
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Kristin Meira, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, outlines opponents’ arguments for dam removal on the Snake
River system to members of the Idaho, Oregon and Washington grain commissions during a tri-state commission meeting Nov. 11 in Spokane.
Grain commissions plan to
combat dam ‘misinformation’
Opponents claim
breaching would
benefit orcas
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE — The Pacific
Northwest agencies represent-
ing grain farmers will unite
to take a proactive approach
against what they say is mis-
information about the value
of dams.
The Idaho Wheat Com-
mission, Oregon Wheat
Commission and Washington
Grain Commission made the
decision Nov. 11 in Spokane
during a tri-state commission
Online
http://www.snakeriverdams.com/
meeting.
Kristin Meira, executive
director of the Pacific North-
west Waterways Association,
outlined recent efforts by
groups to revive arguments
in favor of removing dams on
the Snake River.
The outdoor clothing de-
sign company Patagonia is the
reason the argument recently
resurfaced, Meira said. The
company’s founder and CEO
is in favor of dam breaching
and produced a documentary,
“Dam Nation,” that’s “filled
with inaccuracies,” Meira
said. Protest flotillas in Seat-
tle, Portland and the Lower
Granite Dam near Lewiston,
Idaho were assisted by fund-
ing from Patagonia, Meira
said.
The groups’ arguments in-
clude the claim that removal
of the dams will help save or-
cas in the Puget Sound, Meira
said. Orcas eat large Chinook
salmon from the Colum-
bia-Snake river system.
“Then they make the leap
to, ‘If we just breach the four
Snake River dams, they’ll
have a lot more Chinook to
eat,” Meira said. “The prob-
lem with that argument is, the
reason the orca populations
were decimated 40 to 50 years
ago is because until the mid-
1970s, people were out there
rounding up the orcas in nets
and hauling them away to Sea
Worlds around the country.”
Orca populations have
been slowly increasing since
the 1970s.
There are also more fish in
the river system than before
Bonneville Dam was con-
structed in the 1930s, Meira
said, citing information from
the Bonneville Power Admin-
istration and U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers. The Snake Riv-
er system averages a juvenile
fish survival rate of 97 per-
cent as they move through the
dam.
SPOKANE — Farmers
need to balance four basic
goals to advance sustainable
agriculture, which can be a tall
order, says a Washington State
University soil scientist.
Longtime WSU soil sci-
ence professor John Reganold
was the keynote speaker Nov.
14 during the Tilth Producers
of Washington annual confer-
ence in Spokane.
As a member of a National
Academy of Sciences com-
mittee from 2007 to 2010, Re-
ganold helped author a report
in Science magazine making
recommendations for sustain-
able agriculture.
“Now we need to increase
crop production and at the
same time, improve the en-
vironment, financial perfor-
mance and social well-being,”
he said.
He called for farming that
would use a combination of
methods and technologies to
balance all four goals.
“The thing about conven-
tional ag, it does a great job
with yield, but at the expense
of the other three,” Reganold
said.
Reganold wants to see
“transformative”
practices
and systems, which would go
beyond incremental approach-
es. That would include mixed
crop and livestock production,
grass-fed livestock, organic
agriculture, conservation ag-
riculture and perennial grains.
Annual grains provide 70
percent of calories globally
and make up roughly 70 per-
cent of the world’s cropland,
Reganold said. He said annual
plants have smaller root sys-
tems and are less beneficial
to soil than roots of perennial
crops.
Perennial wheat is in the
development stage, but cur-
rently has lower yield than
conventional wheat, he said.
A commercial perennial wheat
is still roughly 10 years away,
Reganold said.
Agriculture is slowly
changing, but the biggest fac-
tors keeping farmers from
making the changes are mar-
kets, policy and uneven dis-
tribution of scientific informa-
tion, Reganold said.
“The farmer is sitting in the
middle, and this is what is af-
fecting the farmer’s decision
— it’s overwhelming,” he said.
Reganold acknowledged
that the concept sounds “uto-
pian,” noting the difficulty of
being profitable, giving em-
ployees a good financial plan,
have a good yield, take care
of the soil and be good for the
environment. It would likely
be harder with livestock com-
pared to plants, he said.
“We’re moving in that di-
rection with crops and we
should be moving in that di-
rection with animals,” he said.
Reganold ended his presen-
tation showing a picture com-
paring two different types of
soil, one handful from conven-
tional farming that he said was
light, without much structure,
and a handful from perennial
wheatgrass with deep roots
and high organic matter.
Reganold wants agricultur-
al systems to be like the sec-
ond soil.
“Those innovative systems,
the common theme is, they all
build the soil,” he said.
Organic 101
Group touts strawberries for lowering
workshop set for risk of diabetes and Alzheimer’s
Twin Falls Dec. 3
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Farmers interested in organ-
ic production can find helpful
information about getting into
the business at an Organic 101
workshop planned Dec. 3 in
Twin Falls, Idaho.
The workshop will feature
organic market opportunities,
certification training, organic
nutrient sources, and a farm-
er panel discussion on tips for
organic transition and certifica-
tion.
“We are seeing renewed in-
terest in the state, especially after
the opening of Amy’s Kitchen
and Clif Bar (under construc-
tion) in Southern Idaho,” said
Jennifer Miller, healthy food
and farms program director with
the Northwest Center for Alter-
natives to Pesticides.
The workshop is presented
by NCAP in partnership with
the Idaho State Department of
Agriculture and University of
Idaho to help farmers meet the
demand of the growing organic
sector of agriculture.
Johanna Phillips, organ-
ic program manager with the
ISDA, which now certifies 166
Idaho farms, said there’s been a
steady increase in the number
of farmers wanting information
on the certification process and
those completing certification
for the first time.
The workshop sessions in-
clude:
• Organic certification re-
quirements by ISDA.
• Organic nutrient sourc-
es and composting by Amber
Moore and Mario de Ha-
ro-Marti at the University of
Idaho.
• Organic market opportuni-
ties panel with representatives
from Seneca Foods and Kelley
Bean Co. moderated by ISDA.
• Assessing barriers and op-
portunities in organic farming
by Carlo Moreno at the Univer-
sity of Idaho.
• Crop insurance options
for organic producers by Heber
Loughmiller of Leavitt Group
Crop Insurance.
The workshop will provide
valuable training for beginning
organic farmers and anyone
considering transition. Plus, the
refresher can be of value to all
certified farmers, Miller said.
WATSONVILLE,
Ca-
lif. — As strawberries are set
to adorn many a dessert this
holiday season, a commodity
group is touting their healthful
qualities.
The California Strawber-
ry Commission is highlight-
ing separate studies linking
strawberry consumption to a
lower risk of developing dia-
betes and Alzheimer’s disease
during November, which is the
awareness month for both ail-
ments.
In one of the studies, the
USDA’s Human Nutrition
Research Center on Aging at
Tufts University near Boston
found that supplementing old-
er adults’ diets with about two
cups per day can improve cog-
nition.
In the other, Harvard Uni-
versity researchers found that
women who ate strawberries at
least once a month had a low-
er risk for developing diabetes
than those who didn’t.
Unveiled this year, the stud-
ies were funded by the straw-
berry commission as part of
its ongoing nutrition research
program, spokeswoman Caro-
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Strawberries from Watsonville,
Calif.-based Driscoll’s Straw-
berry Associates are ready
to be enjoyed. The California
Strawberry Commission is
touting a pair of studies linking
strawberries to prevention
of diabetes and Alzheimer’s
disease.
lyn O’Donnell said.
Such studies have an im-
pact on consumers’ attitudes,
asserts Chris Christian, the
commission’s senior vice pres-
ident.
“I think it certainly could
increase demand” for straw-
berries as people understand
their health benefits, Christian
said. “We’re working to pro-
mote the results so consumers
and health professionals will
be better educated about the
benefits of strawberries in their
daily diet.”
The group’s promotional
efforts include special recipes
on its website, messages on
social media and work with a
couple of registered dieticians,
Christian said.
The commission’s research
grants typically range from
$75,000 to $100,000 per year,
with priority given to projects
that involve cost-sharing with
other agencies or third par-
ties. The panel plans to fund
as many as three new nutri-
tion projects in 2016, and the
awards will be announced in
January.
Nutrition research is a
key part of many commodi-
ty groups’ mission, and many
groups swear by its ability to
affect consumer choices. For
instance, tree nut groups tout
perceived health benefits as a
big reason for increased prod-
uct demand in foreign markets
such as China and India as
well as domestically.
Indeed, in a 2011 U.S. mar-
ket study, the California Wal-
nut Commission found that 86
percent of consumers believed
walnuts are healthful and 61
percent said they were buying
more than they were five years
earlier.
About 29 million Ameri-
cans are diabetic and about 5.3
million in the United States
have Alzheimer’s, according
to federal statistics.
The Tufts study compared
mobility and cognitive test re-
sults of groups of people ages
60-75 who ate or abstained
from strawberries and found
that the strawberry-eating
group showed improvement
in spatial memory and word
recognition, although they did
not show measurable improve-
ments in mobility, according to
the commission.
The Harvard study tracked
37,000 nondiabetic mid-
dle-aged women over a 14-
year period and found that
women who ate more straw-
berries were less likely to
develop higher levels of he-
moglobin A1c, a marker for
diabetes.
“We found that eating even
a modest amount of strawber-
ries on a weekly basis was as-
sociated with a decreased risk
of developing diabetes,” Har-
vard researcher Howard Sesso
said when he presented the re-
sults to the American Diabetes
Association earlier this year.