January 27, 2017
CapitalPress.com
19
Wash. senator named special assistant to ag secretary
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Republican state sena-
tor from northeastern Wash-
ington has resigned from
the Legislature to become a
special assistant to the U.S.
agriculture secretary.
Brian Dansel, a resi-
dent of Republic in rural
Ferry County, announced
his resignation and new
job in a press release
Tuesday.
“It is no secret that I
think we could be moving
more timber off the forests,
while putting people back to
work and reducing our sus-
ceptibility to wildfires,” he
said in a written statement.
“I think we also need to re-
form regulations that have
prevented mining companies
from exploratory drilling,
rendering the mining indus-
try nearly obsolete when it
has been an iconic industry
in northeast Washington for
many decades.”
Dansel, 33, did not de-
tail his duties as special as-
sistant. Efforts to reach him
Tuesday afternoon were
not successful. He will
begin his duties in Wash-
ington, D.C., immediate-
ly, according to the press
release.
President Donald Trump
has nominated former Geor-
gia Gov. Sonny Perdue for
agriculture secretary.
Dansel was elected Fer-
ry County commissioner in
2010. He won a special elec-
tion in 2013 to represent the
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington state Sen. Brian Dansel, R-Republic, has resigned
from the Legislature to become special assistant to the U.S. agri-
culture secretary.
7th District, which has most
of the state’s wolves. Dansel
has been a vocal supporter
of taking wolves off the state
protected species list in the
eastern part of Washington.
“It has been the honor of
my life to serve as your sen-
ator, and this decision was
not an easy one for me,”
Dansel said.
Senate Majority Leader
Mark Schoesler congratulat-
ed Dansel.
“The 7th Legislative Dis-
trict, which Sen. Dansel rep-
resents, is heavily affected
by agriculture policies, so
we know it’s a policy area
that he cares deeply about.
It’s good to see Washing-
ton state getting a seat at
the table in the new admin-
istration,” said Schoesler,
R-Ritzville.
Republican precinct com-
mittee officers in the 7th
District will nominate three
candidates to replace Dan-
sel.
Commissioners
from
Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens,
Pend Oreille and Spokane
counties will pick from the
three.
Republicans will need to
have the seat filled to retain
a majority in the Senate.
Senate Republicans said
they hope the commissioners
will meet by Feb. 6 to select
the new senator, sooner if
possible.
Another
Republican
senator, Doug Ericksen of
Ferndale, is dividing time
between the Senate and a
temporary position with
the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency. Erickson
has been named the com-
munications director for
Trump’s regional transition
team.
Potato pathologist warns of future disease threats
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
National Potato Council Executive Vice President and CEO John
Keeling speaks about the ramifications of Donald Trump’s presi-
dency on the U.S. potato industry Jan. 18 during the 49th annual
Potato Conference in Pocatello.
National potato leader voices
optimism about Trump
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho — A
top national potato leader is
optimistic Donald Trump’s
presidency will be good news
for his industry.
National Potato Council
Executive Vice President and
CEO John Keeling spoke Jan.
18 on the Idaho State Univer-
sity campus during the 47th
annual Potato Conference.
On immigration, Keeling
said NPC supports a foreign
guestworker program “that
works,” as well as a change
in legal status that would en-
able agriculture to retain un-
documented foreign workers
who are “here doing the work
now.”
“It would shock me given
the understanding Trump has
of the hospitality industry
if we don’t do something,”
Keeling said. “He under-
stands who changes the beds
in his hotels and who buses
the tables in his restaurants.”
Keeling said 20 percent of
U.S. potatoes are exported,
and NPC will “push the con-
cept of trade and the value
of trade.” Despite comments
Trump has made about many
of the major U.S. trade agree-
ments not being in the coun-
try’s best interests, Keeling
predicts U.S. foreign exports
will continue to grow under
the new administration.
Keeling supports being
“tougher on trade partners,”
and he predicts rather than
starting from scratch with
trade agreements, Trump will
change them slightly.
“He is the king of re-brand-
ing,” Keeling said.
Keeling believes Trump’s
vision for the Environmental
Protection Agency should be
much more in line with potato
growers’ priorities than under
President Barack Obama.
“There’s not a single agen-
cy of all of them where the
turn-around in direction, phi-
losophy and everything else
will be bigger than with the
EPA,” Keeling said.
Keeling believes Trump’s
pick to head EPA, Oklahoma
Attorney General Scott Pruitt,
will place a higher premium
on states making environmen-
tal decisions. He said having
“an EPA that works” is vital
to ensuring agricultural chem-
icals are approved in a timely
manner. He believes Obama’s
EPA too often based decisions
on epidemiological data —
relying on patterns and appar-
ent correlations — even when
it was inconsistent with scien-
tific data.
Keeling argues there was
no scientific justification for
EPA’s controversial choice to
expand Clean Water Act reg-
ulation to “cover every drain-
age area that might be wet
once every two years,” and he
expects that policy will be re-
versed within Trump’s first 90
days in office.
Keeling was also critical
of shortened EPA public com-
ment periods.
Idaho Potato Commission
President and CEO Frank
Muir is encouraged by com-
ments Trump made about
the Idaho potato industry. In
a video shown at the Expo,
Muir included a clip of Trump
saying, “Obviously, I love
Idaho potatoes. Who doesn’t
love potatoes from Idaho?”
POCATELLO, Idaho —
A leading potato pathologist
warns restrictions on soil fu-
migants may lead to greater
problems with certain diseas-
es and a reemergence of some
pathogens that are now under
control.
North Dakota State Uni-
versity professor Neil Gud-
mestad also predicted during
the University of Idaho’s re-
cent 49th annual Potato Con-
ference soil-borne genotypes
of diseases that now need
living tissue to survive will
eventually move into the U.S.
Gudmestad said there are
about 150 diseases affecting
potatoes, 40 of which are
economically important. He
said the industry faces a new
pathogen about every 5.7
years. One of the most recent
threats is Dickeya dianthicola,
a bacterial disease that causes
poor plant emergence, discol-
ored internal stem tissue and
black stems extending from
rotting seed pieces. Though
dianthicola now has the in-
dustry’s attention, Gudmes-
tad warned a more aggressive
type of the disease that can
survive in soil, Dickeya sola-
ni, is found in Europe, and he
anticipates it will eventually
take hold in the U.S.
“When solani gets here,
trust me, we won’t even care
about dianthicola,” Gudmes-
tad said.
Gudmestad also has con-
John O’Connell/Capital Press
North Dakota State University potato pathologist Neil Gudmestad discusses potato diseases following
a presentation at the University of Idaho’s 49th annual Potato Conference in Pocatello on Jan. 18.
cerns about the future emer-
gence of soil-borne strains
of late blight, a devastating
fungal pathogen. Sexually re-
producing populations of late
blight producing oospores
that survive for up to seven
years in soil have already sur-
faced in the Netherlands.
“This could perhaps cause
an entire paradigm shift in late
blight management,” Gud-
mestad said.
In the U.S., sexually repro-
ducing late blight populations
have surfaced in New York,
Colorado, California and Tex-
as, but none of them have sur-
vived in soil.
Gudmestad is also con-
cerned the EPA is increas-
ingly targeting carbamate
nematicides, such as Vydate,
and a lack of good alterna-
tives could make nematodes
difficult to control. He fears
poor management of the root
lesion nematode will exacer-
bate challenges with verticil-
lium wilt, which causes plants
to die early.
Tobacco rattle virus, which
is now under control, is also
vectored by nematodes and
threatens to reappear if fumi-
gants are lost, he said.
Gudmestad warns potato
moptop virus could also re-
emerge as a disease threat, and
potato wart, found in a region
of Canada that sells a lot of
seed to the U.S., could enter
the country. He said pale cyst
nematode, now found only in
a small region of Idaho with-
in the U.S., could be detected
elsewhere in the country, and
potato spindle tuber may also
resurface, because the indus-
try has stopped testing for the
disease.
On the bright side, Gud-
mestad said drone technology,
improved breeding methods,
biotechnology, the growing
use of site-specific field treat-
ments and commercial accep-
tance of more disease-resis-
tant varieties bode well for the
industry.
Scottish expert describes challenges of PCN infestation
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
IDAHO FALLS — Many
farmers in Scotland plant
potatoes less often than they
once did and anticipate a 10
percent yield loss because
of the spread of potato cyst
nematodes, that nation’s chief
nematologist says.
Jon Pickup shared his
country’s PCN woes during a
public meeting to underscore
the importance of Idaho’s ef-
forts to eradicate the destruc-
tive microscopic worms from
a roughly 5-square-mile quar-
antine area of Bingham and
Bonneville counties.
“You don’t want the situ-
ation we’ve got in Europe,”
Pickup said. “Pale cyst nema-
tode is spreading and severely
limiting our ability to produce
potatoes in the United King-
dom, and it will continue to
do that until we have more
resistant (potato) varieties and
those resistant varieties are
accepted by the market.”
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Jon Pickup, chief nematologist
for Scotland, shares his coun-
try’s experience with potato
cyst nematodes during a Jan.
20 meeting about Idaho’s PCN
program in Idaho Falls.
Officials at the Jan. 20
meeting said they’re opti-
mistic about Idaho’s outlook
based on testing of new PCN
treatment methods to replace
methyl bromide, a chemical
the program abandoned two
years ago due to residual lev-
els found in subsequent crops.
Pickup, who participated
in an international science re-
view of the U.S. and Canadian
PCN management programs,
admits he was initially skepti-
cal the outbreak could be con-
tained when Idaho discovered
pale cyst nematode in 2007.
Pickup now describes Idaho’s
program as a “remarkable
success,” though he encour-
ages the spud industry to test
for PCN in its other major
potato production areas, espe-
cially in seed, to keep the pest
in check.
Pickup said that thanks to
good seed program controls,
PCN is limited to 30 percent
of Scotland’s production area,
but it’s spreading quickly, and
more resistant varieties are
needed.
PCN is the major pest of
concern in Scotland and has
forced seed growers to expand
to six-year potato rotations,
he said. Scottish growers who
raise spuds for supermarkets
that prohibit nematicide use
sometimes plant on eight- to
10-year rotations, he said. He
said a pale cyst nematode-re-
sistant spud called Innovator
has become the most popular
global variety.
Tina Gresham, director of
the PCN program for USDA’s
Animal and Plant Health In-
spection Service, has been
seeking to build grower sup-
port for expanding use of li-
tchi tomato as a trap crop — a
plant that stimulates cysts to
hatch but isn’t a viable host.
Gresham said the program
planted litchi tomato on a
commercial field with a low
PCN infestation during 2015
and 2016 and found no trac-
es of the pest following both
seasons.
“That’s the best news I’ve
heard about litchi tomato,”
said Shelley grower Steve
Christensen, who has a reg-
ulated field that now has no
detectable PCN and is eligi-
ble to be replanted to pota-
toes. “I see it more so now
as a possible, very effective
tool.”
Committee turns to state for help on groundwater nitrates
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
A volunteer committee
grappling with groundwater
contamination in the Lower
Umatilla Basin is reaching out
to the state for additional help.
The Lower Umatilla Ba-
sin Groundwater Manage-
ment Area, or LUBGWMA,
was declared in 1990 due to
elevated levels of nitrates in
groundwater. Nitrates come
from a variety of sources,
though the primary culprit is
fertilizer, according to the Or-
egon Department of Environ-
mental Quality.
The advisory committee
is charged with writing a new
action plan designed to curb
the level of groundwater ni-
trates in the area, which spans
550 square miles and encom-
passes six communities in
Umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties: Hermiston, Stanfield,
Echo, Umatilla, Boardman
and Irrigon.
The committee reached out
to Oregon Solutions in Octo-
ber, a program that serves at
the pleasure of the gover-
nor’s office to leverage state
resources for local projects.
On Monday, Oregon Solu-
tions staff met with the com-
mittee in Hermiston and said
they hoped to finish assessing
the group’s proposal by next
month.
Pete Dalke, senior project
manager for Oregon Solu-
tions, said they are trying to
get more specific feedback
from committee members,
such as major issues posed by
groundwater nitrates and the
urgency to address the situa-
tion immediately.
“It’s hard for us to engage
if there isn’t some driver, or
some timeline,” Dalke said.
“You’ve got to help us with
what we need to bring to you
to help you move forward.”
Tamra Mabbott, Umatilla
County planning director, said
the groundwater management
area is affecting economic
development by preventing
some businesses from build-
ing or expanding.
“There are businesses that
want to come in that can’t lo-
cate here, even if they have
enough water, because of lim-
itations of land application of
wastewater,” Mabbott said. “I
think there’s a whole host of
things that would warrant Or-
egon Solutions, if they could
help the group.”
Oregon’s
Groundwater
Protection Act requires DEQ
to declare a groundwater man-
agement area if contamination
exceeds certain levels. In the
case of nitrates, the trigger is
7 milligrams per liter, or 70
percent of the federal drinking
water standard.
The Lower Umatilla Ba-
sin came to exceed that mark
through a number of different
land uses, though DEQ says
an overwhelming majority of
those leached nitrates — 81.6
percent — come from the re-
gion’s vast irrigated farms.
Pastures make up 8.1 percent,
and food processors account
for 4.6 percent.
An action plan was devel-
oped in 1997 with voluntary
actions to reduce nitrates,
though after 20 years the re-
sults have been mixed. DEQ
data shows nitrates are still
increasing overall in the ba-
sin, though not as sharply as
in years past.
The LUBGWMA com-
mittee is now working on a
second action plan, which
chairman Clive Kaiser said is
nearly ready for peer review.
Kaiser, an extension horticul-
turist for Oregon State Uni-
versity in Milton-Freewater,
said he feels Oregon Solutions
could help them put their plan
into action.