Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2015)
May 15, 2015 CapitalPress.com 5 Vet calls for voluntary quarantine to contain equine herpes virus By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press The Oregon state veterinari- an said horses that competed in a high school equestrian meet in mid-April should be quar- antined for 28 days following an outbreak of equine herpes virus. At least four horses devel- oped neurological symptoms of the disease, and five others that were exposed to the disease have developed fevers, state vet Dr. Brad Leamaster said in a Department of Agriculture news release. Horses at eight farms were under quarantine as of May 7, six in Marion County and two in Polk County. The infected animals or other exposed horses from the quarantined facilities were at the Oregon High School Equestrian Team (OHSET) Willamette District meet at the Linn County Fairgrounds, Albany, on April 16-19; ro- deo events at Branton Arena, Jefferson, April 19-20; and at High Prairie Arena, Eugene, April 25-26. Leamaster said horses that were at the high school event in Albany should not be taken to other shows or meets for 28 days. “The responsible thing for OHSET Willamette District attendees to do at this time is to stay home and monitor their horse,” Leamaster said in a prepared statement. “Call your veterinarian if you sus- pect any signs of illness.” People who own stable mates of the exposed horses should consult their veterinar- ian to assess the risk of infec- tion, he said. Equine herpes virus, of EHV-1, is a common respi- ratory virus among horses. It usually lies dormant or caus- es respiratory problems, but stress or other factors can cause it to flare up and attack a horse’s nervous system, lead- ing to severe illness. Symptoms include fever, decreased coordination, na- sal discharge, dribbled urine, loss of tail tone, hind limb weakness and poor balance, according to an ODA news release. Sick horses may be unable to rise. The virus can cause preg- nant mares to abort. Severe cases can kill horses. It is con- tagious among horses, spread through human hands, or in- fected equipment or clothing. Candi Borthum, chair of Oregon High School Eques- trian Teams Inc., circulated an online survey to com- petitors and coaches, ask- ing their preference for re- scheduling the event in June. Borthum said the annual meet usually attracts 450 to 500 student athletes and 600 horses. It’s held in Red- mond, in Deschutes County. In an email to competitors, coaches and families, Bor- thum said keeping Willamette District horses out of the event did not provide sufficient mit- igation to avoid spreading the disease. The sick horses reported to date have been from Marion and Polk coun- ties, in the Willamette Valley, but horses from other districts may have been exposed. Bor- thum urged horse owners to practice good bio-security and do their best to keep their ani- mals at home for now. Shellfish farmers lick wounds, hire PR help WSU Extension hires new tree fruit specialist By DON JENKINS Capital Press OYSTERVILLE, Wash. — Third-generation shellfish farmer Brian Sheldon walked onto Willapa Bay at low tide Monday and showed where he had planned to spray in May and seed with coin-sized oysters in July. Because of negative public reaction, he and fellow grow- ers won’t spray for burrowing shrimp, an aptly named crea- ture that tosses mud to the sur- face while churning firm tide- lands into goo. Sheldon said that if he went ahead and put down tiny oys- ters on this shrimp-riddled 30- acre section, they’d be buried and dead by October. There goes, potentially, 25,000 gal- lons of oysters, at, say, $24 a gallon. “It’s hard to watch ground like this go to hell and not be able to do anything about it,” Sheldon said. Sheldon and other oyster and clam growers in Willa- pa Bay and Grays Harbor on Washington’s southwest coast are regrouping after abruptly withdrawing plans to spray up to 2,000 acres of tidelands with imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide. The Washington Depart- ment of Ecology issued the per- mit April 16 and public outrage followed. Shellfish growers know ap- plying pesticides in tidelands is controversial, but Sheldon said they underestimated the poten- tial for backlash. Getting DOE’s permission was tough, but the agency and growers were portrayed by crit- ics as partners in environmental crime. “I mean, Wow! That’s un- believable. I’m sure anybody in agriculture will know what I’m taking about,” Sheldon said. The plan unraveled. Puget Sound-based Taylor’s Shellfish Farms, the country’s largest pro- ducer of Manilla clams and geo- ducks, announced May 1 that it would not spray its Willapa Bay beds. The company defended the spraying and acknowledged By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Don Jenkins/Capital Press Willapa Bay shellfish farmer Brian Sheldon looks for clams May 11 on tidelands undermined by burrowing shrimp. Because of negative public reaction, growers have dropped a state-approved plan to spray tidelands with a pesticide to immobilze the shrimp, which cause oysters and clams to sink and suffocate in the soft mud. breaking ranks would affect oth- er growers, but stated it was re- specting consumer wishes. “Our priority is to maintain out longstanding relationship with these customers,” accord- ing to a company statement. Two days later, the Willa- pa-Grays Harbor Oyster Grow- ers Association told DOE it was giving up the permit. “We felt at the time, it was the best decision we could make. Things were just spiraling out of control,” Sheldon said. “We felt like we had to take a hit and step back.” Since then, the association has hired a public relations firm to help it respond to criticism. “What really got us was the social media,” said Willapa Bay shellfish grower Ken Wiegardt, a fifth-generation farmer. Sheldon said growers are “in a state of shock” over the events. He said he had actually hoped growers would be perceived as being responsive to environ- mental concerns by using imi- dacloprid. Imidacloprid was to replace carbaryl, an older insecticide that has faced lawsuits and in- creasing regulations and that the Willapa Bay and Grays Har- bor shellfish industry agreed to phase out more than a decade ago. Imidacloprid is widely used on land crops. The U.S. Envi- ronmental Protection Agency and Washington State Depart- ment of Agriculture approved using it specifically in the bay and harbor. Shellfish growers were to apply one-sixteenth as much imidacloprid per acre as they did carbaryl, which was used between 1963 and 2013. Imidacloprid wasn’t going to be as lethal to burrowing shrimp, but growers said they would be more precise about when and where they sprayed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- tion recommended DOE deny the permit, arguing that field trials in the bay had not yet conclusively determined that imidacloprid would not be det- rimental. Nevertheless, DOE conclud- ed there would be no significant unavoidable adverse impacts, including to bees that pollinate the Long Beach Peninsula’s cranberry bogs. As a condition to issuing the permit, DOE de- manded monitoring of the pesti- cide’s effects. With no current permit to spray for burrowing shrimp, it’s unclear what’s next for shellfish growers. Washington State University research scientist Kim Patten has spent more than a decade studying how to control bur- rowing shrimp and hasn’t found a practical alternative to pesti- cides. Going back to carbaryl isn’t an option. The EPA no longer registers it as an aquatic pesti- cide, and DOE has closed off any chance growers could re- vive their old permit to use it, DOE spokesman Chase Galla- gher said. WENATCHEE, Wash. — A Penn State Exten- sion educator has been hired to succeed Tim Smith as Washington State University Exten- sion tree fruit specialist in Wenatchee. Tianna Du- Pont accepted the position May 8 and will start Nov. 1, said Randy Baldree, di- DuPont rector of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Ex- tension Program Unit and assistant director of WSU Extension in Pullman. DuPont could not be reached for comment. DuPont has been a sus- tainable agriculture and vegetable and small fruit educator at Penn State in Nazareth, Pa., since 2008. She works with organics, soil health, cover crops, re- duced tillage, grazing and new farmers. She graduated with a bachelor of science de- gree in environmental studies from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., in 2001. She re- ceived her master’s degree in integrated pest manage- ment from the Universi- ty of California-Davis in 2008. From 2002 to 2004, she was an agricultural exten- sion specialist for the Peace Corps, teaching fruit and vegetable production and pest management in Boliv- ia. DuPont was one of three finalists for the WSU po- sition and was chosen for her training and experience and being the “best fit for this particular position,” Baldree said. The job is one of applied research and extension. DuPont will conduct field research with an immediate application to the tree fruit industry. She will translate and disseminate her own re- search and research of others to the industry and public. The position is entirely supported by WSU. Smith, 66, retired Aug. 1, 2014. He was in the po- sition 32 years and was in- strumental in helping the industry control fire blight, cherry fruit fly and replant disease. Dairies, environmentalists settle lawsuit By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Dan Wheat/Capital Press Liberty Dairy near Sunnyside, Wash., is one of the dairies involved in a May 11 settlement with citizen and environmental groups, ending long legal battles. Brendan Monahan, a Yaki- ma attorney representing the dairies. “This case was premised on an EPA study that was fun- damentally flawed and unreli- able,” Monahan said. None- theless, “a sensible balance” has been reached addressing all concerns and allowing the dairies to operate, he said. “We settled in order to get immediate help to the peo- ple directly in harm’s way,” said Helen Reddout, CARE co-founder and president. “People in the impacted zone will now have safe al- ternative water until ground- water poisons go away, which could be a long time,” she said. “This is an important prec- edent holding mega-dairy factories responsible for the environmental and human health impacts of their waste,” said Andrew Kimbrell, ex- ecutive director at Center for Food Safety. In 2012, the EPA conclud- ed the dairies likely were sig- nificant contributors to high nitrate levels in groundwater. In 2013, the dairies entered into an Agreed Order on Con- sent (AOC) with the EPA agreeing to install 20 ground- water monitoring wells, pro- vide reverse osmosis water filter systems to residences with contaminated water, line manure lagoons and im- plement stringent protocols ensuring manure application to fields is limited to nutrient needs. “In recent months, the dairies under the AOC agreed to double line their lagoons,” Monahan said. “The cost of transitioning to double-lined lagoons will be extraordi- nary.” 20-2/#6 SUNNYSIDE, Wash. — Three Lower Yakima Valley dairies have reached a set- tlement with environmental groups, ending a lengthy le- gal battle over groundwater contamination and going, the dairies say, above and be- yond federal and state stan- dards for environmental re- sponsibility. The Cow Palace owned by the Dolsen family, George DeRuyter & Son Dairy, and Henry Bosma Dairy and Lib- erty Dairy owned by the Bos- ma family reached individual consent decrees with Com- munity Association for Resto- ration of the Environment and the Washington, D.C.,-based Center for Food Safety. The decrees, announced May 11, precluded a trial scheduled to begin in U.S. District Court on May 12. In January, the court ruled on part of the case involving Cow Palace, saying its oper- ations contributed to ground- water contamination and violated the Resource Con- servation and Recovery Act. It was the first time a federal court held that manure from livestock facilities should be regulated as solid waste. “The vast majority of set- tlement requirements simply duplicate voluntary commit- ments made to the EPA,” said