Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 2015)
8 CapitalPress.com January 2, 2015 Reward upped in Washington wolf shooting Conservation groups offer up to $20,000 for tips By DON JENKINS Capital Press Conservation groups have increased to $20,000 a reward for information leading to a conviction in the shooting death of a wolf in October in the Okanogan-Wenatchee Na- tional Forest. The breeding female in the Teanaway pack in Kitti- tas County was found dead Oct. 28. She was wearing a telemetry collar, and state and federal wildlife officials went searching for her when the signal stopped moving. The groups posted a $15,000 reward and upped it by $5,000 with a contribution from a Conservation North- west member. “This new donation to help bring the Teanaway wolf poacher to justice shows how passionate Washingtonians are about protecting our rare and recovering wildlife,” Conservation Northwest spokeswoman Jasmine Min- bashian said in a press release. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice spokesman Brent Law- rence said the investigation continues and there have been no arrests. The federal agency is lead- ing the investigation because the shooting occurred in the western two-thirds of Wash- ington, where wolves are federally protected. Harming a federal endangered spe- cies is punishable by up to a $100,000 fine and a year in jail. Anyone with information about the killing of the Te- anaway female wolf or who saw anything suspicious in the Salmon La Sac area in October can contact feder- al law enforcement agents at 206-512-9329 or 509-727- 8358. State law enforcement may be contacted at 1-877- 933-9847. Other organizations con- tributing to the reward are Center for Biological Diver- sity, Defenders of Wildlife, The Humane Society of the United States, The Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust and Woodland Park Zoo. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife This Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife file photo shows a member of the Teanaway pack. A female pack member was found shot to death in October in Kittitas County. Conservation groups are offering a $20,000 award for information leading to the shooter’s conviction. Idaho grower sees tough competition from Argentina Growers assess freeze damage By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press Capital Press PICABO, Idaho — Based on what he’s seen, Idaho Barley Commissioner Pat Purdy be- lieves Argentina could become a much more formidable trade competitor with U.S. agricul- ture. The only thing standing in Argentina’s way is its own gov- ernment, said Purdy, of Picabo. Purdy toured Argentina’s agricultural sector from Nov. 30 through Dec. 6 as part of a Grain Export Mission spon- sored by the U.S. Grains Coun- Photo submitted cil, a nonprofit organization Idaho Barley Commissioner Pat that develops export markets in Purdy, of Picabo, inspects root mass and soil moisture of barley 50 countries. According to the Idaho Bar- in a field in Argentina. Purdy re- ley Commission, Argentina is cently returned from a trip to the already a notable competitor South American nation, where for U.S. corn, malt barley and he learned about the country’s sorghum and has the capacity agricultural production practices. to double its corn production The growers have little on- and significantly increase its sorghum output. Argentina farm storage, so they keep their produces about double Idaho’s grain in silo bags along field total barley production, Purdy borders until there’s demand for it. said. Though Purdy witnessed Operators minimize large, an agricultur- long-term in- al sector with On the web: vestments in modern tech- More about U.S. Grains Council their farms by nology, fertile GEM trade teams is available by renting land on soil and strong clicking the social media link at one-year leases yield potential, www.grains.org/. and hiring cus- he said farmers tom contractors in the South to perform vir- American nation have been tually every step in the produc- hamstrung by their govern- tion process, rather than buying ment’s policies. expensive equipment. The government collects a Argentina, which has most- 30 percent tax on its agricultur- ly dryland farms, has also con- al exports. Furthermore, Purdy verted the vast majority of its said, the government imposes acres to no-till, seeking to re- arbitrary and unpredictable duce fuel costs, conserve water quotas on commodity exports. and protect soil from erosion. “The producers don’t know Seeing all of the country’s no- if there’s going to be a market till farming reassured Purdy for many of the commodities that he’s on the right path by they produce,” Purdy said. implementing no-till practices Purdy was impressed by the on his farm. strategies the growers have im- “I admired their persever- plemented to cope with the un- ance,” Purdy said. “They’ve certainty created by their gov- proven if you’re nimble and ernment, which he said “puts creative, you can come up with the screws on them just hard solutions to most challenges,” enough” to leave them with Purdy said. a little bit of money. He said When Purdy arrived in they’ve learned to change both Argentina, growers were just crop rotations and marketing starting their wheat and barley strategies quickly. harvests. By DAN WHEAT A mid-November freeze damaged vineyards in Walla Walla, high-elevation win- ter wheat around Waterville, Wash., and fruit trees in The Dalles and Hood River, Ore. The extent of the damage in those and other parts on the eastern sides of both states will be more fully known in the spring, when damage is more evident. But growers have made early assessments. It appears cherry and pear trees may be the hardest hit in The Dalles and Hood Riv- er, according to Jay Pscheidt and Lynn Long, Oregon State University Extension special- ists. Trees damaged by cold are more vulnerable to disease and pests. Pscheidt and Long advised growers that copper-based pesticides could be used to prevent bacterial canker if an orchard and those around it do not have a history of copper use or resistance. Removing damaged and diseased wood by winter pruning may help trees recov- er and slow or stop the spread of disease, they wrote in an advisory to growers. Summer pruning in diseased blocks should be considered, they said. Dan Wheat/Capital Press A young Honeycrisp apple orchard is shown with a wind machine for spring frost protection near East Wenatchee, Wash., on Dec. 25. Honeycrisp is known for winter hardiness but other varieties, particu- larly when young, are more susceptible to freeze damage. Temperatures dropped to single digits in many parts of the region on Nov. 10-17. The impact was accentuated by it being a sudden drop from much higher temperatures, so plants did not have time to build much winter hardiness, said Tim Smith, Washington State University Extension tree fruit specialist emeritus in Wenatchee. “It’s worrisome. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some dam- age,” Smith said. Everyone looks for bud damage and that’s what oc- curs in spring frosts, he said. But fall and winter freezes damage tree trunks and lower limbs, he said. Trees flower in the spring and then collapse from trunk damage, he said. Younger trees have more vigor and are slower to go dormant so they are more susceptible, and cherries and peaches are among the most vulnerable, Smith said. “We had a little more cool- ing and winter hardiness lead- ing into it in the north, but fieldmen are concerned about some cherry damage,” said Dan McCarthy, Okanogan County Pest Control agent. Andy Gale, manager of Stemilt AgServices in Wenatchee, said Sweetheart cherry buds show some browning. “My hunch is it did a little damage, some thinning and that will be a good thing overall for the market,” he said. So far sampling hasn’t shown any damage to root- stock and one-year trees at Willow Drive Nursery, said Neal Manly, sales manager at the nursery south of Ephrata. He said he doubts there’s any damage at neighboring fruit tree nurseries in the north- ern Columbia Basin. Tem- peratures were lower farther south, he said. Kretz: Fire management concerns growing By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press A Washington state legislator hopes to hear from farmers and other landowners affected by large forest fires in 2014 at an upcoming meeting. Rep. Brian Blake, D-Ab- erdeen, and Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, host a meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 5 in the Brewster High School Library, 503 S. Seventh St., in Brewster, Wash. Kretz said the meeting is in response to concerns after huge forest fires in Okanogan Coun- ty in 2014, including the Carl- ton Complex wildfire, which burned 250,000 acres. “I want to hear from the people that lost the most in this fire, the most affected,” he said. “You have to look at the past to improve things in the future. How do we do a better job in the future?” Kretz foresees long-term agricultural impacts from the fires. Land for grazing is in short supply, as burned pastures will take several years to regrow, and hundreds of miles of fenc- ing are down, he said. Kretz also cited hay losses, orchard and infrastructure, generators used to supply power and deaths of rop-1-2-7/#14 livestock including “some really valuable genetics.” Areas that typically aren’t burned as badly were those that were managed and thinned, Kretz said. “It was defensible,” he said. “We’ve got to do something with the fuel situations in the forest.” In August, Kretz expressed concern over the way the Carl- ton Complex fire was handled. “I would say (my concerns) have probably grown,” he said in December. “It seems like everybody you talk to that was anywhere near it has another story of something that didn’t go well.” Kretz said he is concerned about an apparent shift in ap- proach in dealing with the fires. “It’s gone from any talk of strategic attacking the fire to managing it, which means let it go and go sit in town, which we saw quite a bit of,” he said. Kretz said the command structure doesn’t appear to make decisions in real time, which is necessary when dealing with a fire. Fire managers hire cheap- er equipment from out of state when equipment is nearby, he said. A business in Republic, Wash., had five pieces of ma- chinery ready to go to help a forest fire in Keller, Wash., 30 minutes away, he said. “One got called out, he got down there, the fire’s going, they’re screaming for more and one of the supervisors said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got four coming up from Ore- gon — they’ll be here in six or seven hours,’” Kretz said. “We’ve got to look at the deci- sion-making process and make it real. You don’t save money, because the fire gets away.” 1-5/#6