June 5, 2015
CapitalPress.com
9
Idaho
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Group calls for overhaul of federal quarantine
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Members of the
newly formed “Idaho PCN
Group” called for the over-
haul of a federal pale cyst
nematode eradication pro-
gram May 29 during a con-
ference call with Idaho Potato
Commission members.
They also asked for the res-
ignation or termination of an
IPC employee who they said
has worked behind the scenes
to ensure the program’s con-
tinuation.
Eighteen potato growers
and landowners in East Idaho
are affected by a federal PCN
quarantine, which is adminis-
tered by the USDA’s Animal
and Plant Health Inspection
Service and the Idaho State
Department of Agriculture.
Members of the PCN
Group, which represents
growers affected by the quar-
antine regulations, recently
filed a federal lawsuit that
seeks to overturn the quaran-
tine and eradication program.
The administrative lawsuit
claims the program has failed
to comply with the legal re-
quirements of several federal
laws and that state and federal
regulators have enforced the
regulations in an ad hoc man-
ner.
During the conference
call, Andrew Mickelsen told
commissioners that Idaho
PCN Group members are not
opposed to an eradication
program but that they “are op-
posed to the eradication pro-
gram in its current form.”
Members of the group told
Idaho lawmakers this year
that the regulations associat-
ed with the program are bur-
densome, largely unnecessary
and have cost growers mil-
lions of dollars.
PCN is considered a quar-
antine pest by more than 80
nations and federal and state
officials say the regulations
are necessary to protect the
state’s potato industry.
Mickelsen, whose farm is
affected by the program, said
a revamped program should
provide compensation to
growers impacted by the reg-
ulations.
“We want a program that
really makes it work for ev-
erybody,” he said.
During the call, PCN
Group members also asked
for the immediate resignation
or termination of Pat Kole, the
IPC’s vice president of legal
and government affairs.
The call happened during
the IPC’s regular monthly
meeting in Boise and that re-
quest caught commissioners
by surprise.
“This is brand new news
for me. I’d like to have some
time to think about it and di-
gest it before I formulate an
opinion,” acting IPC chair-
man Lynn Wilcox told mem-
bers of the PCN Group.
IPC is not named in the
lawsuit but group members
on the call said Kole asked
an industry group to write an
amicus brief in support of the
eradication program.
They said IPC represents
growers such as themselves
and shouldn’t be taking a po-
sition on the eradication pro-
gram when it comes to the
lawsuit.
About 15 minutes into the
conference call, after Idaho
PCN Group members pushed
for commissioners’ input on
the issue, Wilcox told them,
“We’re uncomfortable con-
tinuing this conversation
without some legal advice.”
After telling them he was
sympathetic to their concerns,
Wilcox said, “I think it’s best
we terminate the call,” before
hanging up.
Kole declined to comment
on the group’s claim follow-
ing the meeting.
“What you are reporting
right now is new news for
everybody in this room,” IPC
President and CEO Frank
Muir told people on the call.
He said that because the
issue related to the federal
lawsuit, it was best that IPC
members not comment with-
out a lawyer present.
Psyllids arrive early in some NW potato fields
Franklin County
irrigators limit boat
access over mussels
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
PRESTON, Idaho —
Franklin County irrigation
companies have implement-
ed new boating restrictions at
their reservoirs and are partic-
ipating in an Idaho State De-
partment of Agriculture pilot
program creating new inspec-
tion stations for invasive quag-
ga mussels.
The precautions are aimed
at keeping the fresh-water
mollusks, known to block irri-
gation pipelines and infrastruc-
ture, out of the state.
Utah officials announced
last season they suspect Deer
Creek Reservoir, located about
150 miles south of the Idaho
border, may be infested with
quagga mussels, which are also
known to inhabit Lake Pow-
ell along Utah’s border with
Arizona. The heightened risk
prompted Consolidated Irri-
gation Co., Twin Lakes Canal
Co. and St. Johns Irrigation Co.
to start a working group with
shareholders, members of the
public and governmental offi-
cials to identify safeguards.
“If we get infested with
quagga mussels, it would prob-
ably bankrupt our company,”
Brian Jensen, Consolidated’s
president said, adding irriga-
tors would go without water
for a year if the company were
forced to drain its reservoirs to
kill mussels.
Based on the companies’
concerns about out-of-state
boaters bringing invasive mus-
sels into Franklin County, ISDA
added new inspection stations
in Weston, Glendale Reser-
voir, Twin Lakes Reservoir
and Treasureton Reservoir, in
addition to existing stations in
Malad and Franklin. Additional
hot, pressure washing stations
were also opened to clean boats
of concern. The Franklin Soil
& Water Conservation District
contracts to staff the inspection
and cleaning stations.
Lloyd Knight, ISDA’s divi-
sion of plant industries admin-
istrator, said Idaho has moni-
tored for mussels since 2009,
investing $1.3 million to $1.5
million per year in monitoring,
cleaning, education and staffing
15 to 20 mussel stations, mostly
along major highways into Ida-
ho. Knight said the program,
authorized under the Idaho In-
vasive Species Act, is funded
through motorboat registra-
tions, and a special sticker for
out-of-state and non-motorized
boats.
Knight said Idaho, Oregon,
Washington, Montana and Wy-
oming are the only states with-
out invasive mussels.
In 2014, he said, ISDA sta-
tions inspected 48,000 boats,
finding a dozen watercraft in-
fested with mussels and four
harboring live mussels. This
season, ISDA has inspected
8,300 boats, finding seven wa-
tercraft fouled with dead mus-
sels. He said 800 inspections
were conducted in Franklin
County through Memorial Day
weekend, including 11 boats
that had previously been in wa-
ters known to harbor mussels.
Knight said the effective-
ness of the Franklin County
pilot program will be evaluated
at the end of the season to de-
termine if new stations at the
reservoirs were effective.
Quagga mussel
This non-
native
freshwater
mussel
poses a
0.8 inches
major
(Actual size)
threat to
U.S. waterways as an
invasive species. It’s similar
in appearance to its more
infamous cousin, the zebra
mussel.
Binomial name: Dreissena
rostriformis
Appearance: Shell is striped,
being more pale toward the end
of the hinge
Diet: Filter feeder
Life span: 3-5 years
Origin: Dnieper River drainage
of Ukraine
First observed: 1989 in Lake
Erie near Port Colborne, Ontario
Sources: USGS; www.wikipedia.org
Capital Press graphic
Twin Lakes President Clair
Bosen said his company has
restricted access to boats with
more than 10-horsepower en-
gines on some reservoirs and
generally banned access to
wake boats with ballast com-
partments, or bladders. Consol-
idated has also restricted wake
boats on all reservoirs and will
now allow only fishing boats
on Johnson and Lamont reser-
voirs.
Bosen said the pilot pro-
gram, coupled with one-time
funds from the Idaho Depart-
ment of Fish and Game, should
cover reservoir inspection sta-
tion expenses through July. He
said lakes will be closed entire-
ly to boating after the funding
expires, if no additional reve-
nue is found.
The
companies
also
backed a proposed Franklin
County ordinance that would
have required inspections of
all watercraft entering county
waterways, but failed to pass
the county commission.
Three potato psyllids cap-
tured on bittersweet nightshade
plants growing wild in Twin
Falls County, Idaho, have test-
ed positive for the Liberibacter
bacterium that causes zebra chip
disease in potatoes, according to
a University of Idaho emailed
alert.
In addition to eight adult
psyllids captured on traps near
nightshade, a single potato psyl-
lid was confirmed on a sticky
trap from a commercial spud
field in Twin Falls County.
“Given that this is the earli-
est we have ever found potato
psyllids in potatoes and the first
time we have ever found positive
psyllids from bittersweet night-
shade, we strongly urge growers
and crop consultants to have a
(pest management) program in
place and to begin local monitor-
ing of fields,” UI Extension ento-
mologist Erik Wenninger said in
the alert.
Several commercial growers
in Oregon have also reported po-
tato psyllids in their spud fields,
about a week and a half earlier
than normal, and psyllids have
been captured on wild host plants
in Washington.
Oregon State University Ex-
tension entomology specialist
Courtesy of Oregon State University
A potato psyllid is captured on a sticky trap. The first psyllids, which
spread zebra chip disease in potatoes, have arrived in the North-
west earlier than normal.
Silvia Rondon said overall num-
bers of the small, winged insects
remain low, and testing is ongo-
ing to determine if psyllid sam-
ples submitted by growers are
positive for Liberibacter.
Zebra chip, which causes
bands in tuber flesh that darken
when fried and reduces yields,
first arrived in the Pacific North-
west in 2011. Psyllid populations
and disease pressure have been
low during the past two seasons
— in 2014, just 0.1 percent of
Oregon psyllids tested posi-
tive for Liberibacter. However,
Rondon is uncertain how a mild
winter and a turn toward warmer
weather may affect psyllid popu-
lations this season.
Rondon said Oregon will
maintain its usual monitoring
program throughout the season,
surveying 70 fields in Umatilla,
Morrow, Baker and Union coun-
ties in Oregon and Walla Walla
County, Wash.
In Washington, monitoring
of the host plant matrimony
vine has confirmed populations
throughout the winter, which are
now expanding, said Joe Munya-
neza, a research entomologist
with USDA’s Agricultural Re-
search Service in Wapato, Wash.
Munyaneza said eggs, nymphs
and adult psyllids have also been
found on traps by bittersweet
nightshade.
Wenninger said Idaho has
started its scouting program
with light monitoring of 17 sites
and intensive monitoring of four
sites. The program will gradual-
ly expand to include light mon-
itoring of 75 sites and intensive
monitoring of 13 sites, similar to
last season.
In recent years, many Idaho
growers, such as Kevin Love-
land, of Fort Hall, have avoided
applying zebra chip insecticides,
pending confirmation of infected
psyllids in their regions through
the UI scouting program.
“Our agronomists pay atten-
tion to it big time, but I don’t
think it’s gotten too serious up
this way,” Loveland said of the
zebra chip threat.
Jeff Miller, who will check
psyllid traps on behalf of Rupert,
Idaho-based Miller Research,
said the monitoring program
should be especially important
to growers this season.
Idaho live animal exports soar during 2015 first quarter
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — More than $6
million worth of live cattle
were purchased from Ida-
ho producers during the first
quarter of 2015, a 651 percent
increase over the same period
in 2014.
The vast majority, $5.6
million, was purchased by
Sudan, a Northeastern Afri-
can nation with a per capita
income of $4,500.
The rest of the $492,000
in live animal purchases from
Idaho during the quarter went
to Canada.
While Canada purchases
live animals from Idaho regu-
larly — it purchased $442,000
worth during the first quarter
of 2014 — this is the first time
Sudan has bought from the
Gem State.
Those totals are based on
quarterly Census Bureau data
broken down for the Idaho
State Department of Agricul-
ture by Global Trade Informa-
tion Services.
The data doesn’t say
whether the animals were
beef or dairy cows, but Blair
Mickelson, an Idaho livestock
broker who was involved in
the sale of some of those live
animals to Sudan, said they
were all dairy cattle.
Russia went on a major
buying spree of live dairy and
beef cattle from Idaho and
other U.S. states in 2012 and
2013 after that country com-
mitted $10 billion to revitalize
its beef and dairy sectors.
But several dairymen and
ISDA officials said they don’t
know the reason for Sudan’s
purchase.
“I haven’t heard back from
them,” Mickelson said. “As
far as I know, it was a one-
time load.”
Peter Vitaliano, vice pres-
ident of economic policy and
market research for the Na-
tional Milk Producers Federa-
tion, said major purchases like
that happen from time to time
by nations or groups trying
to substantially upgrade their
dairy herd.
“That’s big, but not un-
precedented,” he said of Su-
dan’s purchase of live Idaho
animals.
Idaho live animal exports
soared for awhile during the
Russian buying spree but they
have come to a near halt due to
the recent troubles in Russia’s
economy, said Laura Johnson,
who manages ISDA’s market
development division.
Johnson said Russia is
expected to start buying live
cattle again once its economy
improves.
Mickelson didn’t talk
about specifics of the Sudan
purchase, but dairy and beef
cattle producers who have
sold live animals to Russia
and other countries say it’s
likely Idaho producers were
paid a good premium.
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