May 29, 2015
CapitalPress.com
9
White House bee
report resembles
state findings
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Fourth-graders from Jackson Street School in Yreka, Calif., pour water on a model of a city street to
learn about water runoff. The exercise took place during the annual agricultural education day May 21
at the fairgrounds in Yreka.
Hands-on activities teach
hydrology, math at ag ed day
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
YREKA, Calif. — A misty
rain served as a perfect back-
drop as ranchers Ryan and
Jennifer Walker told groups of
fourth-graders about the ben-
efits of farmland in capturing
runoff.
The couple had the chil-
dren pour cups of water over
models of a city street and a
farm field to show them the
difference in how quickly the
water drained into a basin.
Farm fields, they said, cap-
ture and cleanse water from
pollutants that would other-
wise make it into drinking
water, they said.
“It’s the same sort of
thing that we’ve been talking
to a lot of the agencies
about,” Ryan Walker said in
an interview. “We’re trying
to point out the environmen-
tal benefits of having a lot of
farmland.”
The hands-on project at
the Walkers’ Siskiyou Coun-
ty Farm Bureau-sponsored
booth was one of many that
youngsters took part in during
the 22nd annual agricultural
awareness day May 21 at the
fairgrounds in Yreka.
About
350
area
fourth-graders attended the
event, which is sponsored
each year by the Siskiyou
County CattleWomen and
other local farm groups.
The hands-on activities
are a hit each year with chil-
dren and made a good im-
pression on Renee McKay, a
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Tim Smith, center, of Fawaz Farming in Scott Valley, Calif., encour-
ages fourth-graders to use math to figure out how much hay can
be brought in from a field. His presentation was during the annual
agricultural education day May 21 at the fairgrounds in Yreka, Calif.
fourth-grade teacher at Jack-
son Street Elementary School
in Yreka.
“I think it’s great for (the
students) to have hands-on
education and see how things
really are instead of just read-
ing about them in a book,”
McKay said.
This year, many of the
booths focused on mathe-
matics, reinforcing to stu-
dents that the numbers prob-
lems they’re solving in class
play a big role in running a
farm. At one booth, students
were handed a worksheet to
try to calculate how many
logs could be loaded onto
a truck to keep it within a
maximum weight of 26,000
pounds.
At another, Tim Smith of
Fawaz Farming in Scott Val-
ley, Calif., asked the students
if they could figure out how
much hay could be hauled
away by the Harobed truck he
was demonstrating.
“It does over 600 bales an
hour,” said Cohlton Richard-
son, a fourth-grader from Gre-
nada, Calif.
Richardson said he learned
from the Walkers’ runoff
booth that “water can wipe
out a lot of things.” He also
tried his hand at roping a
mock calf.
“I didn’t get a single one,”
he said.
Parents said the ag day
provides valuable lessons for
kids about the area’s leading
industry.
“I think it’s a great learn-
ing tool for the kids, espe-
cially in this community,”
said Stephanie Richardson,
Cohlton’s mom.
A new Obama adminis-
tration strategy to strengthen
honeybees resembles rec-
ommendations last year by a
Washington state study group.
The White House report,
like the state study, calls on
government to take a lead-
ing role in creating pollina-
tor-friendly landscapes.
Dayton beekeeper Paul Ho-
sticka, who served on the state
group, said he hoped the feder-
al plan will prod state officials
into action.
“Our state report, I hate to
say, fell on deaf ears, legisla-
tively,” he said.
The White House’s task
force set a goal of reducing
wintertime honeybee losses to
15 percent in 10 years. Current
losses are estimated at around
30 percent.
The task force, co-chaired
by Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsak and Environmental Pro-
tection Agency Administrator
Gina McCarthy, cited forage
loss and parasitic Varroa mites
as among the main reasons
for beehive losses. The state
report, released in December,
came to the same conclusion.
The federal and state re-
ports both reserved judgment
on neonicotinoid pesticides.
The European Union restrict-
ed neonicotinoids in 2013 for
their purported ill effects on
honeybees. The state group
concluded the evidence was
insufficient. The federal report
proposes more research over
the next three to five years by
the EPA.
Washington State Bee-
keepers Association President
Mark Emrich, a small-scale
beekeeper in Thurston Coun-
ty, said he wished the White
House had shown more urgen-
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Honeybees on display March
5 on the Capitol Campus in
Olympia. A new White House
report proposes increasing bee
forage by 7 million acres within
five years.
cy in determining whether ne-
onicotinoids are harming bees.
“I hope to hell we can hang
on that long,” he said.
Bee researcher Tim Law-
rence, Washington State Uni-
versity’s Island County direc-
tor, said Varroa mites and lack
of bee forage are “by far the
two biggest things.”
“Neonicotinoids are an un-
necessary distraction, in my
opinion,” said Lawrence, who
also served on the state study
group.
The White House proposes
increasing federal spending
to help pollinators, especially
honeybees and monarch but-
terflies, from $34 million this
year to $82 million next year.
Much of the money would
be spent toward meeting the
goal of restoring or enhancing
7 million acres for pollinators
over the next five years. Half
of the land would be federally
owned, while the rest would be
private lands or owned by state
and local governments. Feder-
al agencies would be instruct-
ed to plant bee forage on their
property whenever possible.
Washington
beekeepers
lobbied state legislators this
year to make state agencies
more pollinator conscious.
They also wanted the State
Noxious Weed Control Board
to test planting pollen-rich
plants where weeds had been
eradicated. Many weeds tar-
geted by the board nourish
bees. Legislation failed as
lawmakers from agricultural
districts questioned whether
the tests might inadvertently
introduce new problem plants.
The Obama administration
also proposes to expedite re-
view of chemicals to control
Varroa mites. The blood-suck-
ing parasites appeared in 1987
and have bedeviled U.S. bee-
keepers ever since. The EPA
recently approved using oxalic
acid, an organic compound, to
control the pests.
Ephrata commercial bee-
keeper Tim Hiatt said the in-
dustry has “limped along” with
organic treatments, but has had
to resort to harsher chemicals
at times. “We’re using pretty
much everything we can find,”
he said.
Hiatt said he routinely los-
es one-third of his hives each
winter. Losses were once 5
percent, he said.
Hiatt’s bees spend crucial
summer months in North Da-
kota, making honey and gird-
ing themselves for the winter
by feeding on ample forage.
In addition to the Varroa
mite, chemicals in the environ-
ment may be robbing bees of
their vitality, he said.
Hiatt called the goal of cut-
ting hive loses in half “noble,”
but said it will hard to attain.
“I’d say it’s a great goal, and
that’s all that it is,” he said.
Numerous federal agencies
are crafting pollinator protec-
tion programs. The Washing-
ton State Department of Ag-
riculture is working on a plan
to promote bee health, but no
details have been set, agency
spokesman Hector Castro said.
Moisture needed for Washington
wheat crop, grain commission says
Prices stay within 50-cent range due to large world supply
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE — Moisture
will be critical for Washing-
ton’s wheat crop in the weeks
leading up to harvest, say
members of the Washington
Grain Commission.
Commissioners spoke of
varying crop conditions across
the state’s wheat fields during
their crop reports May 20 at
the board meeting in Spokane.
They painted a picture of a
spring and winter wheat crop
that’s showing signs of stress
due to dry conditions.
An inch or so of rain the
week of May 11 in the Tri-Cit-
ies and Eastern Oregon area
was “a real game changer,”
said industry representative
Damon Filan, manager and
merchandiser of Tri-Cities
Grain in Pasco, Wash.
“Recent rains helped a lot,
but we need to continue to
see timely rains at the end of
May and early June in order
to salvage what yield poten-
tial there is,” said Ty Jessup,
industry representative and
marketing manager of Central
Washington Grain Growers in
Waterville, Wash.
Regions needed to replant
spring wheat to replace winter
wheat in varying degrees —
some, “quite a bit,” he said,
and others had good looking
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Washington Grain Commission industry representative Ty Jessup
presents his market outlook May 20 during the commission board
meeting in Spokane.
stands coming out of winter.
Soft white wheat traded on
the Portland market at $5.85
to $6.20 per bushel for Au-
gust and September delivery
for ordinary protein, accord-
ing to the USDA Agricultural
Marketing Service. Soft white
wheat with a guaranteed max-
imum of 10.5 percent protein
traded at $6.22 to $6.53 per
bushel. Most exporters are not
issuing bids for nearby deliv-
ery, according to the service.
Prices will likely stick
within a 50-cent range, Filan
said, noting prices rallied 50
to 60 cents over the last week
and a half.
“There seems to be plenty
of wheat around the world,
the corn crop looks good and
the soybeans are in,” he said.
“The world will have am-
ple amounts of grain unless
there’s some type of disaster
we don’t see right now.”
Filan
recommended
farmers keep selling during
30-cent and 40-cent price
rallies, marketing 10 to 15
percent of their crop each
time, especially if prices are
break-even or above the cost
of production.
The new crop is roughly
10 percent sold, down from
recent years, when it would
be as high as 30 to 35 per-
cent sold at this time of year
because prices were so good,
Filan said.
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