September 2, 2016
CapitalPress.com
9
Oregon Idaho seeks growers’ input on pollinator plan
wild horse
roundup
canceled
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Capital Press
A planned roundup of wild
horses from the Three Fingers
herd in Malheur County, Ore.,
has been canceled due to a
rangeland ire in the area.
The U.S. Bureau of Land
Management decided to with-
draw its decision to gather 100
of the herd’s 200 horses near
Jordan Valley, Ore., in late Au-
gust, forestalling at least tempo-
rarily an animal rights group’s
lawsuit seeking to block the
action.
Of the gathered horses, the
BLM planned to remove half
for eventual adoption and re-
lease the remainder after treat-
ing females with a contracep-
tive to slow the herd’s growth.
Friends of Animals, a New
York-based nonproit, iled a
lawsuit against the agency, ar-
guing the roundup was ordered
without an environmental re-
view, as mandated by federal
law.
According to the complaint,
BLM relied on an outdated en-
vironmental analysis from 2011
that didn’t take into consider-
ation new information about
the negative impacts of the fer-
tility control drug Porcine Zona
Penucide, or PZP.
The planned August round-
up was also aimed at protecting
sage grouse habitat and ire
restoration projects, neither of
which were studied under the
2011 analysis, the complaint
said.
Since then, a study has
found that PZP can remain ef-
fective longer than expected,
causing foals to be born outside
the normal birthing season, and
is associated with ovulation
failure, according to Friends of
Animals.
The nonproit group asked
U.S. District Judge Michael
Simon to issue a temporary
restraining order blocking the
roundup, which BLM opposed
in court documents.
The BLM argued that it
was permitted to rely on the
2011 analysis in forming its
most recent decision to gath-
er horses and that Friends of
Animals hadn’t followed the
proper administrative process
to stop the roundup.
If the horses continue to
multiply, they will spread out
and damage areas that are only
now beginning to recover from
ires last year, the BLM said.
“That will lead to further
degradation of the range, ulti-
mately destroying the habitat
on which they and numerous
other wildlife rely,” the agency
said in a court document.
Before oral arguments in
the dispute could be held, how-
ever, BLM issued a notice that
the roundup won’t take place
because a wildire had burned
much of the area where it was
to occur.
The BLM apparently re-
ferred to the Cherry Road Fire
near Jordan Valley, which ig-
nited on Aug. 21 and burned
more than 35,000 acres before
ireighters contained it on
Aug. 28.
Friends of Animals has
withdrawn its motion for a
temporary restraining order,
though it’s not dismissing the
lawsuit while it weighs its op-
tions, the group said in a court
iling.
Associated Press ile
A hive of honeybees is displayed. Idaho is convening a group that will write a state pollinator plan.
Pollinator protection plans
have been adopted or are be-
ing drafted in 45 states, ac-
cording to Dudley Hoskins,
public policy counsel with
the National Association of
State Departments of Agri-
culture, a leading advocate of
state pollinator plans. Hoskins
explained ive states, includ-
ing California, implement-
ed the irst plans in response
to concerns about the rising
mortality of pollinators such
as bees and monarch butter-
lies.
In May 2015, a pollinator
task force convened by the
federal Environmental Pro-
tection Agency and USDA
issued a report, recommend-
ing that states draft pollinator
plans.
“These are not meant to
be a regulatory vehicle,”
Hoskins said, adding effec-
tive plans have prioritized
“sharing information about
each other’s practices and
challenges.”
Pistachio growers eye record crop after light last year
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
After a couple of seasons
of disappointing crops, pis-
tachio growers appear poised
to shatter a 4-year-old record
with production that could
weigh in at as much as 800
million pounds.
Trees are loaded with nuts
after achieving suficient chill
hours last winter for the irst
time in three years and win-
ter rains diminished drought
conditions in many California
orchards, said Richard Ma-
toian, executive director of
American Pistachio Growers
in Fresno.
As a result, growers and
processors expect to easily
surpass the record 2012 crop
of 555 million pounds, more
than 551 million of which
came from California, Ma-
toian said.
“The range will likely be
somewhere between … 650
and 800 million pounds” this
year, he said.
The projection comes as
the harvest has started for
the earliest varieties and is
expected to be in full swing
in September. Pistachios are
grown on more than 300,000
acres, according to APG.
The apparent bumper
crop follows a 2015 season
in which the drought and a
lack of winter chilling hours
caused growers to encoun-
ter an inordinate amount of
“blanks” — fully formed
shells in which a nut never
developed.
In a typical season, blanks
might make up 10 percent of
a crop, but in some orchards
last season the number was
closer to 70 percent.
With the short crop, grow-
ers expected to receive con-
siderably more for their nuts.
But the main overseas com-
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By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
BOISE — The Idaho State
Department of Agriculture is
forming a committee of ag-
ricultural organizations and
other stakeholders to help de-
vise a statewide plan protect-
ing the health of pollinating
insects.
The irst meeting is sched-
uled for Sept. 27, and 17
organizations have already
been invited, including the
Idaho Potato Commission,
the Idaho-Eastern Oregon
Seed Association, Treasure
Valley Beekeepers Club and
the Idaho Honey Industry As-
sociation.
ISDA will welcome any
other organizations interested
in participating in the discus-
sion, said George Robinson,
administrator of the agency’s
Division of Agricultural Re-
sources.
ISDA staffers have cre-
ated a “straw-man” draft,
drawing heavily from North
Dakota’s state pollinator
plan, to spur discussion, Rob-
inson said. He explained the
draft is a guidance document,
outlining best practices for
each interest group to bene-
it pollinator health, with an
emphasis on strong commu-
nication.
“(Plans) vary a lot from
state to state,” Robinson said.
“I think that is a relection
of those states going to their
stakeholders and asking them,
‘What’s best for our state?’”
Hoskins said the initial
states that implemented plans
have made great progress for
pollinators.
“These are clear returns
on investment we’ve seen in
a handful of states already,”
Hoskins said.
Oakley potato farmer Ran-
dy Hardy will represent the
IPC on Idaho’s committee.
Hardy said virtually all of
Idaho’s conventional potato
producers use the systemic in-
secticide imidacloprid to pro-
tect their crops from diseases
such as potato leafroll virus.
The chemical is in the neonic-
otinoid class, which has been
targeted for regulation due to
possible impacts on pollina-
tors. Hardy said spud growers
apply the chemical as a seed
treatment or in-furrow, having
no effect on bees.
“If (regulators) know
states are watching (pollina-
tor health) and monitoring
and coming up with their own
procedures, it will go a long
way,” Hardy said.
Scott Hamilton, a Nampa
beekeeper who is vice pres-
ident of the Idaho Honey In-
dustry Association, believes
pollinator declines have been
caused by several factors, in-
cluding harmful mites and
pesticides, but improving
communication and education
is the best approach to address
the problem.
“Farmers aren’t out to kill
pollinators,” Hamilton said.
“A lot of farmers use bees to
pollinate their seed crops.”
petitor, Iran, had two large
crops in a row, which enabled
the country to gain market
share in American export des-
tinations such as China, Ma-
toian said.
This year, growers have
been initially guaranteed be-
tween $1.70 and $1.80 per
pound, down from the rough-
ly $3.50 per pound growers
received for their 2014 crop,
he said.
However, the price could
end up increasing via a nego-
tiated “marketing bonus” that
growers usually receive at the
season’s end, Matoian said.
One factor that could push
prices up is a frost in Iran that
cut into that nation’s produc-
tion, which could enable the
U.S. to regain markets it had
lost, he said.
Last season’s light yields
were a blip of sorts amid a
winning streak for pistachios,
whose popularity has in-
creased in recent years while
acreage has ballooned from
105,000 acres in 2005, Ma-
toian has said.
Nearly all of the U.S. pis-
tachio production is in Cali-
fornia, and 97 percent of that
is in the San Joaquin Valley.
The acreage has continued
to boom despite the drought,
largely because pistachio
trees have a longer life span
than other nut trees and can
survive several years in a row
of water stress even if they
don’t produce nuts.
Growers believed that they
would produce a big crop
once enough chilling hours
mounted and rains fell in the
previous winter.
“As I talk with growers …
they’re still very positive and
very high about pistachios
in comparison with other
commodities,” Matoian said.
“We’re still doing pretty darn
well.”
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Roasted pistachios from Paramount Farms in Lost Hills, Calif. This year’s pistachio crop is progressing
well as orchards are being prepared for harvest.
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