June 19, 2015
CapitalPress.com
7
Researchers target glyphosate-resistant kochia weeds
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Researchers are now cer-
tain that kochia weeds found
growing in two sugar beet
fields in Eastern Oregon and
Southwestern Idaho last year
were resistant to glyphosate,
the active ingredient in the
popular weed killer Roundup.
The kochia weed is wide-
spread in the region. Re-
searchers are determining
how widespread the resistant
weeds are and developing
ways to help sugar beet grow-
ers in the region deal with
them.
That includes field trials
designed to show growers
the benefit of using multi-
ple herbicides, in addition to
Roundup, to prevent or con-
trol the development of gly-
phosate-resistant weeds.
Virtually all of the 180,000
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
People look at a field trial designed to show sugar beet growers in
Idaho and Oregon the best treatment methods to control glypho-
sate-resistant kochia weeds, during a June 11 weed tour at Oregon
State University’s Ontario research station.
acres of sugar beets grown in
Eastern Oregon and Idaho are
genetically modified by Mon-
santo Co. to resist glyphosate.
A field trial at Oregon State
University’s Ontario research
station set up to determine
the best treatment method to
control resistant kochia weeds
is being coordinated by OSU
weed scientist Joel Felix and
University of Idaho weed sci-
entist Don Morishita.
It was Morishita and Fe-
lix who first alerted sugar
beet growers last year they
had found kochia weeds that
could be resistant to glypho-
sate. Lab tests have since con-
firmed that they are.
Both said weeds don’t mu-
tate to develop resistance to a
herbicide such as glyphosate.
Rather, the product allows a
very small population of the
weeds that are naturally resis-
tant to thrive because it kills
off their competition.
That’s why it’s important
for growers to use other herbi-
cides, in addition to Roundup,
Felix said.
Roundup might not control
a very small number of resis-
tant weeds, he said, but the
use of multiple chemistries
will. Crop rotation is an im-
portant part of that approach
because it allows farmers to
use different chemistries, he
added.
“People who are using
(Roundup Ready crops) need
to manage that technology
by rotating their chemis-
tries,” said Greg Dean, man-
ager of agricultural services
for Amalgamated Sugar Co.,
which purchases the sugar
beets grown by farmers in the
region
Some farmers in the area
are still relying on glyphosate
alone to control weeds, Mor-
ishita said.
“Any farmer who is just
relying on glyphosate is really
setting themselves and their
neighbors up for some prob-
lems in the future,” he said.
The decision on what her-
bicides to use is an economic
WSU website helps farmers monitor insects
Researchers
scout fields for
armyworm,
wheat midge
Ranch worker
rescued after
two days
pinned under
ATV
By GEORGE PLAVEN
By MATTHEW WEAVER
EO Media Group
Capital Press
REARDAN, Wash. --
Washington State Universi-
ty researchers recommend
Northwest dryland grain
farmers check the university’s
small grains website to see if
insect pests are causing prob-
lems in their area.
The website offers week-
ly updates on populations
of wheat head armyworm,
wheat midge, aphids, cereal
leaf beetle, grasshoppers and
Hessian fly, said Diana Rob-
erts, regional extension spe-
cialist for WSU Extension in
Spokane County.
“If (farmers are) in an
area where we’re reporting
a potentially worrisome lev-
el, then they should be out
scouting their fields,” Rob-
erts said.
The researchers combined
efforts to look for the insects
at 20 sites throughout Eastern
Washington. Their monitor-
ing efforts began in late May,
and will continue throughout
the season, depending on the
insect and the species.
The combined effort will
help researchers look more
efficiently, Roberts said.
Reardan, Davenport and
Edwall areas in Washington
remain the hot spot for army-
worm activity, Roberts said,
although numbers appear to
have peaked. That’s about
the right time for growers to
sweep their fields for larvae,
since eggs hatch about 10
days after they’re laid.
Several insects could be
the armyworm, a non-native
and a native species, Roberts
said. Researchers can’t iden-
tify the species in the field
by looking at the larvae,
they need to look at the adult
moth. But having the moth
in the trap doesn’t prove
it’s the one causing damage.
The researchers need to col-
lect the larvae in the field
and raise them into adults.
Efforts to do so so far have
one and it comes down to the
grower’s call, Felix said.
But, he added, “We are
stressing ... both crop rotation
and the use of chemistries
other than just glyphosate. As
you rotate, you use different
modes of action and you con-
trol weeds in all crops. By the
time you get into sugar beets,
you may be free of kochia if
you do a good job.”
Felix and Morishita are
collecting weeds from differ-
ent areas and will spray them
with Roundup to try to deter-
mine how widespread glypho-
sate-resistant kochia weeds
are in the region.
“It’s really important for
... sugar beet growers to
know if they have glypho-
sate-resistant weeds on their
farm,” Morishita said. “I
think we’ll have a better idea
of the level of resistance lat-
er this year.”
Photos by Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Diana Roberts, Washington State University regional extension specialist in Spokane County, inspects the floor of a pheromone trap for
wheat midge June 12 along Janett Road in between Reardan and Davenport, Wash. Roberts and other researchers are checking fields in
Eastern Washington once a week for wheat midge and other insects that could cause a problem for wheat farmers.
Diana Roberts, Washington State University regional extension
specialist in Spokane County, looks for signs of insect activity June 12.
failed, Roberts said.
“Which species is primar-
ily the problem is probably
not important to the farmer,
but it is important to scien-
tists trying to unravel why
it’s taken a hundred years
for it to become a nuisance,”
Roberts said.
Wheat fields are suscepti-
ble to wheat midge once the
wheat heads emerge until an-
thers begin sticking out, Rob-
erts said.
Just a few wheat midge
adults in the trap don’t require
further action, but at least 30
would be cause for concern.
Diana Roberts, Washington State University regional extension
specialist in Spokane County, uses a net to sweep a field looking
for wheat head armyworm larvae June 12.
Online
http: //smallgrains.wsu.edu/
wheat-and-barley-insect-pest-
surveys/
The Peone Prairie area
near Spokane has shown
the most wheat midge ac-
tivity so far this year, she
said.
“Understandably people
get nervous when they see a
new insect,” she said.
So far the armyworm has
shown the most activity, but
that could quickly change,
Roberts said.
“It’s going to be an inter-
esting year, with the winter
we had,” she said. “Every-
thing’s earlier.”
CONDON, Ore. — Wheel-
er County authorities and vol-
unteers rescued a local ranch
worker June 14 who spent near-
ly two days pinned underneath
an overturned ATV in the Lost
Valley area north of Kinzua.
Bill Williams, 52, was taken
aboard Life Flight and flown to
Legacy Emanuel Medical Cen-
ter in Portland.
Sheriff Chris Humphreys
said Williams was found at the
bottom of a sharp canyon with
just his legs sticking out from
under the vehicle. He was con-
scious and able to communi-
cate, though clearly injured,
dehydrated and suffering from
exposure.
Recent temperatures in the
area had fluctuated between
daytime highs of 80 degrees
and nighttime lows of 50 de-
grees.
“For the type of accident
in the area he was in, and
how long he was out there
in only work clothes, he was
in surprisingly good shape,”
Humphreys said. “We’re very
thankful for that.”
Crews began searching Sat-
urday, June 13, for Williams,
who had last been seen the
prior morning, according to
a police report. They worked
through the night before a
sheriff’s deputy and landown-
er found him early Sunday
morning.
It took several hours to
extricate Williams due to the
difficult terrain, and move him
into an area where the Life
Flight helicopter could land.
“The rescue itself was
amazing,” Humphreys said.
“On this particular situation,
the helicopter landed and Life
Flight medics had to work a
long time to get him stabilized
before transport.”
Search and rescue was
able to drive Williams up a
side hill using a utility vehicle
confiscated by police in the
high-profile poaching case.
EPA must decide fate of common insecticide chlorpyrifos by June 30
Capital Press
A federal appeals court
has ordered the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency to
decide by June 30 whether to
prohibit chlorpyrifos, an in-
secticide that environmental-
ists say harms children.
Eight years ago, the agen-
cy received a petition to can-
cel the chemical’s registra-
tion and allowable residues
on food, which would end its
legal use, from the Pesticide
Action Network North Amer-
ica and Natural Resources
Defense Council.
The groups allege that
EPA has taken unreasonably
long to respond to its request
while chlorpyrifos continues
to cause short-term and long-
term health problems in rural
children.
Concerns about exposure
to the chemical convinced
the EPA to phase out its home
and garden uses in 2000 but
the agency has “inexplicably”
failed to prevent harms from
agricultural spray drift and
volatilization, which affect
the children of farm work-
ers, the environmental groups
said.
“Exposure to chlorpyri-
fos, a pervasive pesticide, is
impossible to avoid. Chlorpy-
rifos is found in food and
drinking water, in the air near
agricultural communities, and
in breast milk,” the environ-
mentalists said. “The risk of
exposure is not limited to peo-
ple who choose to buy or use
products containing the pesti-
cide; it can travel windborne
from where it is sprayed, and
it can be tracked inside the
home on the shoes and clothes
of people who come into con-
tact with its residues.”
Aside from causing poi-
soning symptoms like diz-
ziness, seizures, confusion,
vomiting, muscle spasms and
even death, exposure to the
chemical is associated with
low birth weights, hyperac-
tivity and “reduced newborn
head circumference,” which
is linked to reduced cognitive
ability, the petition claimed.
Despite EPA’s assuranc-
es and a previous lawsuit, the
agency has missed deadlines
for answering the petition in
2012 and 2014, the environ-
mental groups alleged.
“EPA, of course, will al-
ways have competing duties,
but it has yet to pinpoint any
pesticide-related work that
must take higher priority than
evaluating the seven-year-old
petition,” the petition said.
“EPA’s continuing delay cannot
be justified by any other prior-
ities.”
For its part, the EPA argued
that PANNA and NRDC did
not prove they’re entitled to
the “extraordinary remedy of a
writ of mandamus,” in which a
court orders the government to
perform its duty.
The environmental groups
raised 10 “complex scientific
issues” in their petition, and the
EPA has responded to all but
three of them, the agency said
in a court brief.
The EPA proposed taking
final action on those questions,
which would allow the envi-
ronmental groups to challenge
those decisions, but they re-
fused the offer, the agency said.
As to the remaining three
questions, the EPA has been
performing “complex assess-
ments” of the chemical’s health
impacts while being hampered
by budget shortcomings and a
government shutdown, the doc-
ument said.
“Thus, EPA has not unrea-
sonably delayed action, and the
Court should not take the dras-
tic step of granting mandamus
relief establishing deadlines for
EPA,” the agency said. “Rather,
EPA should be allowed to com-
plete its review in a time frame
dictated by sound science and
in recognition of other compet-
ing priorities.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals has now sided with
the environmental groups, or-
dering the EPA to notify the
court of its decision by June 30.
If the agency plans to deny
the petition, it must issue a
final decision by Sept. 15. If
the EPA plans to cancel the
registration and tolerance for
chlorpyrifos, it must provide
the 9th Circuit with a deadline
for doing so.
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