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CapitalPress.com
June 19, 2015
Idaho
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Ag in Classroom teachers
tour Idaho farm country
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
A truck travels northbound on Interstate 15 near Idaho Falls.
Language included in the recently approved House version of the
Fiscal Year 2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
appropriations bill would allow Idaho to increase its current truck
weight limits, which would make shipping of agricultural commodi-
ties more efficient.
U.S. House passes
Idaho truck weight bill
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — Officials say
federal legislation giving
Idaho authority to set its
own interstate highway
truck weight limit is closer
than ever before to becom-
ing reality.
Idaho’s interstate truck
weight limit has remained
at 105,500 pounds since the
federal government enacted
a freeze on states’ weight
limits in 1991.
Late June 9, the U.S.
House of Representatives
narrowly approved the Fis-
cal Year 2016 Transporta-
tion, Housing and Urban De-
velopment appropriations
bill, which included lan-
guage specifically granting
Idaho the right to increase
its limit. Idaho state law-
makers, Gov. Butch Otter
and an 80-member coali-
tion with strong agricultural
representation have lobbied
for a 129,000-pound weight
limit, in line with surround-
ing states.
Rep. Mike Simpson,
R-Idaho, introduced the lan-
guage, identical to a rider he
added to last year’s trans-
portation funding bill. That
rider was defeated, due to
strong opposition, including
from the railroad industry.
Simpson
emphasizes
heavier trucks must have
more axles, distributing less
weight per axle than a stan-
dard truck and increasing
breaking power.
Simpson’s spokeswoman,
Nikki Wallace, is optimis-
tic about the legislation’s
chances this time.
“Each year, he’s been
able to move it further and
further ahead,” Wallace said.
Sens.
Jon
Tester,
D-Mont., and Steve Daines,
R-Mont., are expected to try
to introduce companion lan-
guage to the transportation
bill from a standalone truck
weight bill previously intro-
duced by sens. Mike Crapo
and Jim Risch, both R-Ida-
ho. The Senate is expected to
act on the transportation bill
before its upcoming recess.
“There are other concerns
with the bill — not neces-
sarily (truck weights),” said
Crapo’s spokesman, Lind-
say Nothern. “If we can get
it in the bill, I think it will
be OK.”
Following a 10-year
state pilot project with
129,000-pound weight lim-
its that found there was no
added wear on infrastruc-
ture or heightened safety
risk, Idaho implemented a
policy enabling businesses
to petition state and local
jurisdictions for routes with
higher weight limits. Idaho
Trucking Association Pres-
ident and CEO Julie Pipal
said the policy has worked
well at the state level, but
“anywhere we need a con-
nection on a local road, we
still have challenges.”
“We would rather have
our major facilities with
commercial vehicles on
them and leave the local
roads to local traffic,” Pipal
said.
Opponents of the truck
weight legislation with
Advocates for Highway &
Auto Safety, including the
International Brotherhood
of Teamsters, say fatalities
involving large truck crashes
have risen by 17 percent in
the past four years, and 76
percent of respondents to a
public opinion poll opposed
longer and heavier trucks.
Boise lobbyist Roy Eig-
uren, who represents agri-
cultural commodity groups,
grocers and other business
leaders with the Right Truck
for Idaho Coalition, said the
facts — including Idaho’s pi-
lot project results — support
increased truck weights.
Eiguren said the change
would mean multi-mil-
lion-dollar savings for his
members, including Amal-
gamated Sugar, as four
trucks with 129,000-pound
weight limits could haul
nearly the same capac-
ity as five trucks with
105,500-pound limits.
“This is the best op-
portunity we’ve had in a
decade to get the legisla-
tion through Congress, and
that’s due to the fabulous ef-
forts of Congressman Simp-
son,” Eiguren said.
NAMPA, Idaho — Teach-
ers who participated in a two-
day tour of farm country June
8-9 said one of the biggest
benefits of the event, hosted
by Idaho Ag in the Classroom,
was learning about the sheer
number of jobs available in ag-
riculture.
“The ‘aha’ moment I had
was the careers I could be
teaching my kids about,” said
Mountain Home Junior High
teacher Julia Corder, one of
29 educators on the tour. “I’m
finding it beneficial to see all
the job opportunities for kids.”
During the “On the Road
Workshop,” educators visited
farms, a dairy, a seed company
and other agribusinesses and
were briefed on the many job
opportunities available in agri-
culture.
While past workshops
have included a day in the
classroom, AITC officials de-
cided to spend back-to-back
days in farm country this year
so teachers could experience
as many different aspects of
the industry as possible, said
Idaho Ag in the Classroom
State Director Rick Waitley.
“We are really emphasiz-
ing the importance of careers
in agriculture,” he said. “To-
day and yesterday, they’ve
interacted with many, many
farmers, ranchers and agri-
business leaders. The re-
sponse has been good and
we’ll repeat this (format) in
July in Burley.”
Meridian farmer Drew
Eggers, who spoke with ed-
ucators about his operation,
said it’s important to get
AITC teachers “out on the
farm because they can actu-
ally see what’s going on and
... hear from producers about
Submitted photos
Idaho teachers visit Stewart Farms in Nampa on June 8 during a
two-day tour of farm country hosted by Idaho Ag in the Classroom.
Some teachers said they were surprised to learn how many career
opportunities there are in agriculture.
the challenges that agriculture
faces.”
AITC, which is affiliated
with the USDA and whose
members include commodity
commissions, educators and
farm organizations and busi-
nesses, provides instructional
materials to K-12 educators to
help them increase ag literacy
and awareness in their students.
Mountain Home High
School teacher Joe Anderson
said seeing the industry at work
will help him present the AITC
material to his students in a way
that’s relevant to them.
“It’s a huge benefit to ac-
tually get to see it in person,”
he said. “Agriculture has a big
impact on the state and my
kids need to know that.”
Corder said she was im-
pressed with how clean the
dairy was and will pass that
information on to her stu-
dents because some of them
may have only heard negative
things about that industry.
“I wish more people could
see that side of the (dairy) in-
dustry,” she said. “I think it’s
good to educate the kids about
that kind of stuff, too.”
Researchers hope to bring cod to Idaho raceways
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
TWIN FALLS, Idaho —
Research to conserve burbot
(Lota lota), a freshwater cod
found in Northern Idaho, has led
University of Idaho researchers
to explore the fish’s potential as
a commercial species.
The University of Idaho has
been involved in conservation
of the Kootenai River burbot
for about 12 years, collaborat-
ing with the Kootenai Tribe to
restore populations, which had
collapsed by the mid 1980s.
The tribe wanted to recover
the species, which holds cul-
tural importance and provides
winter fishery, Ken Cain, pro-
fessor and associate director of
University of Idaho Aquacul-
ture Research Institute, said.
“When we got involved,
they were functionally ex-
tinct,” he said.
The collaboration has re-
leased nearly 63,000 hatch-
ery-raised juveniles into wa-
ters in British Columbia and
Northern Idaho since 2009 —
waters that held only 50 of the
fish when the
project began,
he said
The
uni-
versity’s early
rearing technol-
ogy has been
transferred to
Cain
the Kootenai
Tribe’s new hatchery at Bon-
ners Ferry, and the researchers
are ready to expand the conser-
vation research to commercial
potential.
“I believe it (burbot) has
the potential to be reared
under conditions here in
the Magic Valley” (home to
two-thirds of U.S. trout pro-
duction), Cain said.
There are challenges, how-
ever. The fish spawn in very
cold water temperatures, typ-
ically under ice, and gender
is difficult to determine. Re-
searchers had to buy a chiller,
determine gender with ultra-
sound and didn’t even know if
the fish would spawn in captiv-
ity, he said.
The larvae are fragile,
hatching without a mouth and
first absorbing the egg sack
before starting to feed 10 days
later. The researchers had to
work with different incubator
types to handle fungal prob-
lems and with larval feeding
techniques and weaning juve-
niles to commercial feed, he
said.
Larvae are fed Artemia
(live brine shrimp) for one to
two months, weaned on a com-
bination of commercial micro
diets and Artemia for another
10 to 14 days then transitioned
to a commercial weaning diet.
Juveniles are reared on com-
mercial marine-based diets.
In the future, researchers
hope to reduce or eliminate the
live feed diet, he said.
“Challenges to commercial
production include optimizing
larval rearing and minimizing
cannibalism through grading
and feed rate adjustment. Bur-
bot show limited susceptibility
to most trout or salmon diseas-
es, but we need to determine
how they will perform under
varying water quality condi-
tions,” he said.
But the basic technology
is established for spawning,
incubation and weaning to
commercial feed, and the spe-
cies offers the potential to add
diversity to Idaho’s trout pro-
duction, Cain said.
NRCS seeks farmers along lower Boise River for water quality initiative
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Farmers in
Southwestern Idaho have a
second opportunity to sign up
for a voluntary program aimed
at improving water quality in
25-2/#4x
the lower Boise River.
A total of 2,088 acres have
already been enrolled in the
Natural Resources Conserva-
tion Service water quality ini-
tiative, which pays farmers to
implement conservation prac-
tices aimed at preventing sed-
iment, phosphorus, bacteria,
pesticides and other pollutants
from reaching the river.
The program helps farmers
implement water conservation
practices such as drip or sprin-
kler irrigation, cover crops,
stream bank protection mea-
sures and nutrient or irrigation
water management plans.
The three watersheds tar-
geted by the initiative — Dix-
ie Slough, Outlet Boise Riv-
er and Lower Sand Hollow
Creek — run from Lake Low-
ell just south of Nampa to the
25-2/#4
Idaho-Oregon border.
Those three sub-water-
sheds, which flow into the
Boise River, have been identi-
fied by the state as top priori-
ties for improving water qual-
ity, said James Eller, a NRCS
district conservationist.
“We’re trying to address as
many impairments and poten-
tial impairments to those wa-
tersheds as possible,” he said.
Intensive agricultural pro-
duction occurs in this area
and many high-value seed
and other crops are produced
by the roughly 1,200 farmers
near those watersheds.
NRCS officials said farm-
ers who have enrolled in the
program since 2012 have
made a big difference but
more work needs to be done.
“Through this initiative,
we are taking a focused ap-
proach in treating areas with
significant natural resource
challenges,” NRCS Idaho
State Conservationist Curtis
Elke said in a news release.
“We look forward to continu-
ing to work with producers in
these key watersheds to help
them have a positive impact
on streams with impaired wa-
ter quality.”
The deadline to submit
an application for the second
sign-up is June 19. Farmers
interested in the water quality
initiative only have to submit
a simple two-page application
before that date, Eller said.
A detailed conservation
plan would be developed lat-
er.
To submit an application or
to learn more about the initia-
tive, contact the NRCS field
office in Caldwell at (208)
454-8684 or 2208 E. Chicago
Blvd., Suite A.
A side benefit of the pro-
gram, which started in 2012,
has been the large water sav-
ings realized as a result of the
water conservation methods
adopted by program enroll-
ees, Eller said.
He estimates the water
savings at 2.3 gallons a year,
which equates to 7,000 acre-
feet of water, almost 1 percent
of the total storage capacity of
the Boise River system.
“I did not expect to come
up with that number,” Eller
said. “It’s a water quality ini-
tiative, but the water savings,
as it turns out, are huge.”