January 16, 2015
CapitalPress.com
Low snowpack a worry in Wash.
Oregon snow
water equivalent
By DAN WHEAT
(As of Jan. 9)
Capital Press
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho
Farm Bureau Federation of-
fi cials worry any proposal to
legislatively block state or
county labeling requirements
for genetically modifi ed or-
ganisms would needlessly
bring negative attention to
Idaho agriculture.
Idaho’s sugar industry has
started discussions about such
a bill and assigned its lob-
byist, Roy Eiguren, to draft
various proposals for industry
consideration.
“We’re not to the point of
really making a decision as to
how we’re going to approach
the labeling issues and GMOs
in general in the upcoming
Legislature,” said Vic Jaro,
president and CEO of Amal-
gamated Sugar Co. “In gen-
eral concepts, we as a com-
pany are opposed to labeling
biotech ingredients on food
packaging.”
Mark Duffi n, executive di-
rector of the Idaho Sugarbeet
Growers Association, said
several different drafts and
concepts have been discussed,
but nothing is “ready for pub-
lic consumption.”
“We’ve been kind of work-
ing with a group of agricultur-
al representatives to look at
the tactics one could take to
67
78
84
29
38
92
108
25
57
86
24
Source: USDA NRCS
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Peshastin Creek, which empties into the Wenatchee River, fl ows at a good pace Dec. 9. Snowpack
in that area is 69 percent of normal. The Wenatchee spring and summer streamfl ow is forecast at 84
percent of normal but that’s factoring in a normal snowfall.
Washington snow
water equivalent
(As of Jan. 9)
*Average annual SWE, 1981-2010
Percent of median*
25-50%
51-70
71-90
91-110
68
93
76
30
26
39
68
44
52
94
34
Source: USDA NRCS
Alan Kenaga/Capital
a/
Press
But mountain snows came in
February, March and April,
correcting the situation. Pat-
tee now is concerned there
may not be as much of that
this year because of an El
Nino weather pattern.
Tree fruit and row crop
growers in Central Wash-
ington depend on irrigation.
Some orchards were torn out
for lack of water in the Yaki-
ma Valley in 2005 and pears
forestall these local initiatives
like there’s been in Oregon
and Washington and Colora-
do,” Duffi n said. “We’re in
the process of discussions on
that.”
Idaho
Farm
Bureau
spokesman John Thompson
said his organization voiced
its concerns earlier this month
during a meeting of agricul-
tural representatives and lob-
byists with Food Producers
of Idaho, which hosts weekly
meetings during the legisla-
tive session to address issues
related to agriculture and nat-
ural resources.
Thompson said Farm Bu-
reau reasons there’s no risk
of a GMO labeling initiative
passing in conservative Ida-
ho anyway, and the timing is
bad, given that the state just
fi nished a high-profi le debate
during the last session about
its so-called ag gag law, which
prohibits secret recordings of
farming operations.
“It puts pressure on the
legislators. We don’t see any
reason for that now,” Thomp-
son said of proposing anti-la-
beling legislation. “If it were a
pressing issue, yes, we’d do it.
But there’s so much going on
this year, especially related to
transportation and new taxes
and education, we don’t see
good reasons to take the spot-
light away from those issues.”
had insuffi cient water in the
Wenatchee Valley. Water was
short in the Methow River in
the Okanogan.
As of Jan. 8, snowpack
in the Spokane basin was
76 percent of normal, Pattee
said. The upper Columbia
(Okanogan and Methow riv-
ers) was 93 percent. The cen-
tral Columbia (Chelan, Entiat
and Wenatchee) was 68 and
the upper Yakima was 44.
The lower Columbia was 34,
central Puget Sound 30 and
Olympics 26 percent. Para-
dise at Mount Rainier was 39.
April to September stream-
fl ow forecasts are: Okano-
gan 91 percent of normal;
Wenatchee, 84; upper Yaki-
ma at Cle Elum, 73; lower
Yakima near Parker, 84; the
Columbia at The Dalles, 100;
central Puget Sound at Cedar
River, 88; Skagit River, 97;
and Dungeness River, 101.
Those fi gures are the fi rst
streamfl ow forecasts of the
season and will change in
coming months, Pattee said.
The water availability
committee of the governor’s
drought task force will meet
in February, he said. There
probably would be no meet-
ing if overall state snowpack
was greater than 100 percent
of normal, he said. Last year,
the committee met for the fi rst
time since 2010.
The situation in Oregon is
similar at 46 percent of nor-
mal snowpack but Idaho is at
96 percent, Pattee said. Ida-
ho has received better snows
from storms so far than Wash-
ington, he said.
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Low W. Oregon snowpack
may impact summer irrigation
By MITCH LIES
For the Capital Press
With half of the season past,
snowpack levels in Western Or-
egon are dangerously low.
The good news is the levels
could rebound before the snow-
fall season ends, and in Eastern
Oregon, where farmer fortunes
are more closely tied to snow-
pack, the levels are fi ne.
Still, with the warm, wet
conditions of an El Nino per-
meating Western Oregon at
a time when the snowpack is
typically building, concerns are
mounting that Western Oregon
farmers could face water short-
ages come irrigation season.
“We’ve seen years where
snowpack levels rebounded,”
said Scott Oviatt, snow pro-
gram manager for the Natural
Resources Conservation Ser-
vice in Portland. “We’ve also
seen years where the tap just
shut off.”
Last year, Oviatt said,
snowpack levels were below
even this year’s in the January
survey. But heavy, late-season
snowfall created near normal
snowpack levels by May.
Oviatt said the NRCS attri-
butes the low snowfall levels
in Western Oregon this year to
“climate variability” and not
climate change.
“Climate variability is the
key here, and that is the case
every year,” he said.
The lowest levels in the fi rst
NRCS Oregon snow survey
of the year are in the Klamath
Basin, which is at 24 percent
of normal; the Rogue Umpqua
Basin, which is at 25 percent
of normal; and the Willamette,
which is at 29 percent of nor-
mal. Also dangerously low
are the Hood, Sandy, Lower
Deschutes Basin at 30 percent
of normal; and the Upper De-
schutes, Crooked Basin regis-
ters 38 percent of normal.
Snowpack conditions im-
prove dramatically to the
east, with Harney Basin at
108 percent of normal; Mal-
heur at 92 percent of normal;
and Owyhee at 86 percent of
normal. The Umatilla, Walla
Walla, Willow Basin is at 68
percent of normal; the Grande
Ronde, Powder, Burnt, Imnaha
Basin is at 78 percent of nor-
mal; while the Lake County,
Goose Lake Basin is at 57 per-
cent of normal.
BUYING 6” and UP
Alder, Maple, Cottonwood
Saw Logs, Standing Timber
www.cascadehardwood.com
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Capital Press
*Average annual SWE, 1981-2010
30
Idaho anti-GMO labeling
talk concerns Farm Bureau
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Percent of median*
25-50%
51-70
71-90
91-110
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MOUNT
VERNON,
Wash. — The mountain snow-
pack is 49 percent of normal
in Washington compared with
44 percent a year ago.
While that seems to be
an improvement it’s actual-
ly more worrisome because
the forecast for snow isn’t as
good, the state’s top water
supply expert says.
“The extended three-
month forecast from the Na-
tional Weather Service is for
above-normal temperatures
and below-normal precipita-
tion,” said Scott Pattee, water
supply specialist of the Wash-
ington Snow Survey Offi ce of
the USDA Natural Resourc-
es Conservation Service in
Mount Vernon.
“That’s not a good deal. We
want precipitation in the form
of snow in the mountains this
time of year,” he said.
During the fi rst full week
of January and month of De-
cember record high tempera-
tures were logged at 26 of the
agency’s 73 weather data col-
lection sites.
“Temperatures are in the
realm of 15 to 20 degrees
above normal. That’s warm.
That’s telling me the moun-
tains aren’t even freezing up
at night,” Pattee said.
He was referring to the
5,000- to 6,000-foot level. A
site at 5,800 feet above the
Skagit River had an overnight
low of 40 degrees on Jan. 8,
he said. Another at 5,200 feet
at Cayuse Pass was at 46 de-
grees at 10 a.m. that day and
had been as high as 52 in pre-
vious days.
“Our highest station at
Harts Pass, above the Methow
River, is just under 6,500 in
elevation and it was 35 de-
grees for the low,” he said.
A year ago, Pattee was
concerned about summer
drought for irrigators in 2014.
7
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