February 6, 2015
CapitalPress.com
Bird fl u hits
another fl ock,
spreads to hawks
3
ODA approves rules for
Oregon hemp production
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
OKANOGAN
NAT’L
FOREST
97
97
20
Riverside
OKANOGAN
Omak
20
N
Okanogan
155
Approximate site of
bird flu outbreak in
5,000-bird game flock
5 miles
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
In the fi rst cases involving
raptors, the USDA has con-
fi rmed a Cooper’s hawk in
Whatcom County and a red-
tailed hawk in Skagit Coun-
ty tested positive for highly
pathogenic H5N2 bird fl u. The
virus is a mixed of Eurasian
and North American avian in-
fl uenza strains.
Tests are pending on at least
two other raptors collected in
Washington — a red-tailed
hawk from Benton County and
a peregrine falcon from Grays
Harbor County.
Washington State Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
veterinarian Kristin Mans-
fi eld said raptors don’t pose
the same threat as migratory
waterfowl as spreaders of the
virus. A raptor with bird fl u
doesn’t survive long, she said.
“It kills them pretty quick.”
The Department of Fish
and Game collected the Coo-
per’s hawk Dec. 29 and the
red-tailed hawk Jan. 9. The
USDA’s National Veterinary
Services Laboratories on Jan.
26 confi rmed that the hawks
had avian infl uenza.
The Cooper’s hawk was ac-
tually the victim of a predator,
though it surely would have
died soon from the virus, Man-
sfi eld said.
The falcon was electrocut-
ed and the hawk in Benton
County was killed by some-
thing that infl icted a blow, she
said.
Mansfi eld said there’s too
little evidence to draw conclu-
sions, but it’s possible the virus
affects their brains and makes
raptors vulnerable, hastening
their deaths. “It does raise the
question,” she said.
Mansfi eld anticipated avi-
an infl uenza striking raptors
since a captive gyrfalcon
in Whatcom County in De-
cember died after eating an
infected wild duck. The in-
cident showed the virus kills
raptors.
Lack of snow worsening
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
MOUNT VERNON, Wash.
— The prospect of a dry if
not drought summer contin-
ues to increase in Washington
with the latest measurement of
statewide snowpack at 39 per-
cent of normal.
That, as of Feb. 3, com-
pared with 54 percent a year
ago and is the lowest winter
read since 26 percent in the
drought year of 2005, said
Scott Pattee, water supply spe-
cialist of the Washington Snow
Survey Offi ce of the USDA
Natural Resources Conserva-
tion Service in Mount Vernon.
The Olympic Mountains,
Mount St. Helens area and
central Puget Sound includ-
ing the west slopes of the cen-
tral Cascades are setting re-
cord-low and near record-low
snowpack, Pattee said.
“It just hasn’t snowed and
temperatures have been sus-
tained at 10 to 20 degrees
above normal in the mountains
all of the whole past month,”
he said.
The freezing level has been
at 10,000 feet at times and the
weather forecast is for a warm
and wet fi rst half of February
and a warm and dry second
half, Pattee said.
Warm air from Hawaii like-
ly will prevent major snowfalls
in February and March that
have been the norm in recent
years, he said.
“It would take well above
200 percent normal snowfall
between now and the fi rst of
April to catch up,” he said.
The upper Columbia ba-
sin, mostly Okanogan County,
has the best snowpack at 85
percent of normal because it
received some early snow that
other parts of the state did not
get, he said.
The Oregon Department of
Agriculture is optimistic the
state’s fi rst industrial hemp
crops will be planted this
spring.
The department last week
adopted administrative rules
that will govern production
and handling, plus licensing
of growers. The process cul-
minated a long struggle by
hemp backers, who maintain
hemp can be used for cloth-
ing, food, cosmetics, oils and
other purposes.
State approval was hung
up for years by federal drug
laws, which classify industri-
al hemp the same as marijua-
na. Oregon voters approved
hemp production last No-
vember in the same measure
that legalized recreational
use, possession and cultiva-
tion of pot.
The rules defi ne produc-
tion and handling require-
ments while establishing a
permit and licensing process
for growers of industrial
hemp, which includes fees
associated with ODA’s pro-
gram. With the adoption of
the rules, ODA is expecting a
File photo/Associated Press
Industrial hemp is harvested in Colorado in this fi le photo. The Oregon Department of Agriculture is
optimistic the state’s fi rst industrial hemp crops will be planted this spring.
crop to be planted this spring
as permits will soon be is-
sued.
Under state law, licenses
to grow or handle industri-
al hemp fi ber and permits to
grow agricultural hemp cost
$1,500 and are valid for three
years. Hemp fi elds must be
at least 2.5 contiguous acres,
and the crop must contain
less than 0.3 percent tetrahy-
drocannabinol (THC) to dis-
tinguish it from marijuana,
which has much higher THC
levels.
Hemp production is still
illegal under federal law,
and the feds may still be a
roadblock to Oregon produc-
tion. Oregon ag department
spokesman Bruce Pokarney
said hemp seed for planting is
available only in Canada, and
bringing it to Oregon will re-
quire approval by the federal
Drug Enforcement Adminis-
tration.
“That’s the next hurdle we
need to clear,” Pokarney said.
Business still brisk for Calif. large-equipment vendors
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
COLUSA, Calif. — De-
spite the drought and a na-
tionwide slowdown in heavy
equipment sales, vendors at a
farm show here say their busi-
ness has remained brisk.
The continued success of
key California commodities
such as almonds and walnuts
has helped companies such as
the Yuba City-based Orchard
Machinery Corp. stay busy,
said Joseph Martinez, a mar-
keting representative for the
company.
“We have essentially been
running overtime for 12 years
straight,” Martinez said. “The
nut crops have been huge. The
almonds, walnuts and pista-
chios have just been going cra-
zy. When farmers do well, we
do well.”
Erick Nielsen, who sells
orchard pruning and harvest-
ing equipment in Orland, Ca-
lif., agrees. Business has been
good, although he and other
vendors worry about the im-
pact that a prolonged drought
will have on farmers’ ability to
afford new equipment.
“I think we’re OK, but
we’re all worried about the
water,” said Nielsen, owner of
Erick Nielsen Enterprises. “It’s
going to get us if it doesn’t
rain.”
Nielsen and the OMC
salespeople were among hun-
dreds of vendors of agricul-
tural goods large and small at
the 50th annual Colusa Farm
Show Feb. 3-5 at the fair-
grounds here.
The event was to include
workshops on crop pollina-
tion, almond cultivation and
new farm bill programs as
well as the annual breakfast
sponsored by California State
University-Chico’s College of
Agriculture and its supporters,
set for Feb. 4.
For Nielsen, who’s been
coming to the farm show since
1977, the event offers a cen-
tral place for his customers to
come and check out his latest
equipment or give him ideas
on products to offer, he said.
“We get a combination of
business” at the show, he said.
“We get some new customers
and make contact with old cus-
tomers. We get a little bit of
both. Some of them just come
and say ‘hi’ and say ‘thank
you.’”
The optimism among ven-
dors who cater to California’s
specialty crop farmers comes
as slumping sales of large farm
equipment in other parts of the
country are expected to cre-
ate bargain opportunities for
growers.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Passers-by look at a tree pruner displayed by Erick Nielsen
Enterprises of Orland, Calif., at the Colusa Farm Show on Feb. 3.
Despite a nationwide slowdown in heavy equipment sales, Califor-
nia companies are still reporting brisk business.
rop-6-26-5/#17
Highly pathogenic avian
infl uenza has swept through
another mixed-bird backyard
fl ock in Washington. Mean-
while, authorities have con-
fi rmed the virus is affl icting
native raptors.
The Washington State De-
partment of Agriculture on
Monday established a quar-
antine zone 6 miles around
where about 100 birds, raised
primarily as a youth project,
were infected in Okanogan
County near the Canada bor-
der.
The virus rapidly killed
about half of the birds be-
fore tests confi rmed Jan. 31
that they were avian fl u vic-
tims. The surviving birds will
be euthanized, according to
WSDA.
The fl ock was in Oroville,
about 40 miles from where
5,000 game birds were in-
fected last week in Riverside.
In that case, the virus killed
40 pheasants and 12 turkeys
before it was confi rmed. The
surviving game birds were eu-
thanized Feb. 3.
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture has yet to identify
the specifi c bird fl u strain in
either case, though offi cials
have determined the virus was
highly pathogenic.
State Veterinarian Joe Bak-
er said there was no known
connection between the game
bird farm and the backyard
fl ock.
“Right now, we have to
chalk it up to coincidence,”
he said.
Baker said no commercial
poultry farms are inside the
quarantine zone.
The Oroville fl ock is the
fourth non-commercial batch
of birds to be struck by avi-
an infl uenza in Washington
state since early January. Two
fl ocks were in Benton County
in south-central Washington,
while the other fl ock was in
Clallam County on the Olym-
pic Peninsula.
Single
non-commerical
fl ocks in Oregon and Idaho
also have been infected.
Baker said the Oroville
fl ock, like the others, was
likely infected by migratory
waterfowl, which carry avian
infl uenza but are immune to
the virus.
The virus has been found
in migrating ducks in six states
and at commercial poultry
farms in British Columbia,
Canada, and California.
Approximate
site of bird flu
outbreak in
100-bird non-
commercial
flock
r
Capital Press
Oroville
Palmer
Lake
Ri v e
By DON JENKINS
Area in
detail 3
British Columbia
Wash.
Okano n
ga
WSDA establishes
quarantine zone
near Canada border
6-5/#4N