June 5, 2015
CapitalPress.com
7
Idaho governor announces fi rst-ever AgriTech summit
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Gov. Butch Ot-
ter has announced a fi rst-ev-
er AgriTech summit, where
leaders of Idaho’s agricultural
and technology sectors will
explore ways to work togeth-
er to innovate and create jobs.
The Governor’s AgriTech
Summit will take place June
16 from 1-4 p.m. at the Boise
Center in downtown Boise.
The event is the initial step
in Idaho Department of Com-
merce Director Jeff Sayer’s
vision to make Idaho a Silicon
Valley of agricultural tech-
nology by bringing the two
leading sectors of the state’s
economy together.
Sayer said Idaho is already
a leader in the ag tech market-
place but he believes the state
has a chance to take that posi-
tion to the next level.
The venture capital market
is starting to pour billions of
dollars into agricultural tech-
nology and it’s important for
Idaho to position itself so it
can capitalize on that invest-
ment, he said.
“This summit is an oppor-
tunity for Idaho to initiate the
conversation around the state
on how we can solidify a lead-
ership position in the ag tech-
nology marketplace,” he said.
The summit will allow the
state’s technology sector to
learn what agriculture’s chal-
lenges are and for the technol-
ogy sector to educate agricul-
ture about its capabilities to
solve those challenges, Otter
said.
“By bringing the two sides
together, it’s going to answer
some questions the ag sector
has never thought of and it’s
going to raise some questions
the technology sector has nev-
er thought to ask the ag sec-
tor,” Otter said. “I think it’s a
huge opportunity.”
Chanel Tewalt, assistant to
the Idaho State Department
of Agriculture director, said
many summit attendees may
not even know what the other
side does or is capable of.
“We want to start the con-
versation and get them talking
to each other,” said Tewalt,
who is helping organize the
event. “We want to see if
there’s an opportunity for the
two sides to work together.”
ISDA Director Celia
Gould will moderate a panel
discussion on agriculture that
will address topics such as
unmanned aerial systems, ge-
netic engineering and on-farm
production technology.
A technology panel dis-
cussion will address data col-
lection and analysis, mobile
technology, sensors and stor-
age technology.
Donn Thill, associate dean
of research for University of
Idaho’s College of Agricul-
tural and Life Sciences, will
be part of a research panel
discussion about bio-sciences,
computer sciences and engi-
neering.
“This is the fi rst time I’ve
ever been involved in this kind
of endeavor and I’m pretty ex-
cited about it,” he said.
The cost to attend the sum-
mit is $30 before June 9 and
$35 after that date, including
on-site registration.
People can register online
at https://www.accessidaho.
org/ai/payport/online/ag/in-
dex.html
For more information
about the summit, contact
Tewalt at chanel.tewalt@agri.
idaho.gov or Kallen Hayes at
kallen.hayes@commerce.ida-
ho.gov
Grazing battle fl ares up in Oregon
New lawsuit
challenges cattle in
Fremont-Winema
National Forest
Area in
detail
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Capital Press
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Treasure Valley Seed Co. employees inspect black turtle beans in Homedale, Idaho, in April. Dry bean
industry representatives and researchers from Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming have agreed to work
together on a regional bean research program.
Effort to create multi-state dry
bean program picks up steam
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — People involved
in an effort to create a multi-
state bean research consor-
tium say the idea is starting to
come together quickly.
“It’s defi nitely going to
happen,” said Jerry Haynes,
secretary of the Colorado Dry
Bean Administrative Com-
mittee.
The land-grant universities
of Idaho, Colorado and Wy-
oming are in the fi nal stages
of signing a memorandum of
understanding outlining their
intentions to work jointly on
projects that benefi t all three
states’ dry bean industries, he
said.
A 15-member steering
committee that includes dry
bean industry members from
multiple states has been meet-
ing periodically since last
year. It includes representa-
tives of bean commissions,
land grant universities and the
bean processing industry.
When Capital Press spoke
with Haynes about the idea
in December, he thought it
was moving too slowly. But
industry representatives and
researchers from all three
states agreed to work together
during meetings in February
and April and Haynes is much
more optimistic about the ef-
fort now.
“It’s happening quicker
than I thought it would and
it’s stronger than I thought it
would be,” he said.
Colorado has pledged
$10,000 a year for three years
toward the effort, Idaho is ex-
pected to provide $30,000 a
year for three years and Wy-
oming, which recently created
a bean commission and will
start collecting assessments in
July, will contribute as well,
Haynes said.
“We’re looking at about
$50,000 a year in seed money
and then we can start going
after some grants,” he said.
Haynes said each state has
something to offer the others.
Colorado State University
has a bean breeding program,
something the University of
Idaho and University of Wy-
oming lack, while UI and UW
have plant pathologists and
CSU will lose its plant pathol-
ogist at the end of June.
Idaho has the largest bean
industry of the three states and
will be able to offer the most
fi nancial support.
Haynes said other states
are interested in the idea but
haven’t yet committed.
The benefi t of a regional
bean program is allowing the
three states to pool their re-
sources and avoid duplicating
efforts, said Donn Thill, asso-
ciate dean of research at UI’s
College of Agricultural and
Life Sciences.
Thill was involved in the
effort that created a tri-state
potato research consortium
between Idaho, Oregon and
Washington, and is advising
the bean industry in its region-
al effort.
“There’s an opportuni-
ty for those states that grow
beans but have limited re-
search dollars to pool some of
their funds and do something
that will contribute positively
to all three states without hav-
ing to duplicate things,” he
said. “I think it’s a great idea.”
The steering committee
will meet again July 16-17 in
Wyoming, said Idaho Bean
Commission Administrator
Andi Woolf, who said the ef-
fort can save grower dollars
by ensuring the states don’t
duplicate research efforts.
With university budgets
getting tighter, “If we can
each contribute a piece to that
puzzle and work together, it’s
a lot better way to leverage
our dollars,” Woolf said.
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New lawsuit
over grazing
rights on
public land
La Pine
58
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
The legal battle over graz-
ing on public lands has fl ared
up in southern Oregon with
a new lawsuit over the Fre-
mont-Winema National Forest.
Environmentalists are ac-
cusing the U.S. Forest Service
and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice of signing off on grazing in
the forest despite “incomplete
and inaccurate information”
about harms to the Sprague and
Sycan river basins.
The plaintiffs — Oregon
Wild, Friends of Living Oregon
Waters and the Western Water-
sheds Project — claim cattle
are trampling streambanks,
widening channels and raising
water temperatures to the detri-
ment of fi sh.
Negative impacts to the
threatened bull trout have re-
sulted in violations of the En-
dangered Species Act, while
the degradation in water qual-
ity contravenes the Clean Wa-
ter Act and National Forest
Management Act, the lawsuit
claims.
Damage to the “scenic val-
ue” of the area also breeches
the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act,
according to the plaintiffs.
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Lakeview
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395
Capital Press graphic
The complaint alleges re-
peated problems with over-
grazing, poor fence conditions
and unauthorized cattle in at
least 10 grazing allotments are
within the bull trout’s “critical
habitat.”
Some allotments also hav-
en’t been monitored for grass
stubble height and other param-
eters of rangeland health, the
complaint said.
The Forest Service’s own
data shows that water tempera-
tures in the streams exceeded
Clean Water Act standards in
“multiple years,” but despite
these issues the government
concluded “livestock grazing
was not likely to adversely af-
fect newly designated bull trout
critical habitat,” the plaintiffs
claim.
The environmental groups
have asked a federal judge to
declare the government’s graz-
ing authorizations to be un-
lawful and issue “temporary,
preliminary or permanent in-
junctive relief” as necessary.
The Forest Service had no
comment and a representative
of the Fish and Wildlife Service
said the agency doesn’t com-
ment on pending litigation.
Jerome Rosa, executive
director of the Oregon Cattle-
men’s Association, said he was
disappointed that ranchers in the
area will be subject to litigation
at a time they’re already con-
tending with water shortages.
The OCA will look into
the situation and seek to assist
ranchers in the area, said John
O’Keefe, the group’s presi-
dent-elect.
“We’re defi nitely con-
cerned,” he said.
The recent lawsuit comes
after a couple years of relative
calm in the controversy over
grazing on public land in Ore-
gon.
In 2012, several consolidat-
ed complaints over grazing in
the Malheur National Forest
came to an end after the fed-
eral government established
new conditions for ranchers to
follow.
In 2013, the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals refused to
block grazing in the U.S. Bu-
reau of Land Management’s
half-million-acre “Louse Can-
yon” area while the agency
re-evaluated grazing authori-
zations.
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