Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2015)
12 CapitalPress.com July 10, 2015 ‘Sentinel’ wells designated throughout aquifer water. During wet years, mitigation water will be injected into the aquifer, called recharge, or used for “soft conversions,” switching certain ground- water users to surface wa- ter. IGWA has also agreed to invest $1.1 million annually on soft conver- sions, when water is avail- able, and has purchased 13,000 acre feet for soft conversions this season. Furthermore the state has agreed to inject an average of 250,000 acre feet of water into the aquifer annually through an expanded recharge program. Lewiston Rive r Thus far, well users have avoided curtailment by providing sufficient mitigation water. They entered into nego- tiations when it appeared they would fall short this season — prior to an ex- tremely wet May. IGWA Executive Director Lynn Tominaga said his orga- nization has secured the required 110,000 acre feet to meet this season’s debt, despite competition for water from the Bureau of Reclamation, which need- ed it for flow augmenta- tion. In future years, IGWA will provide a flat 50,000 acre feet of mitigation ake water usage by 240,000 acre feet per year, about equal to the average annual de- cline in the aquifer. Ac- cording to new estimates, the average well user will have to curb water usage by 11 percent per year to meet the goal — slightly less than officials origi- nally calculated. Nineteen “sentinel” wells have been designat- ed throughout the aquifer to monitor groundwater response to the plan’s im- plementation. Budge is optimistic the agreement will be approved by most or all groundwater districts. Participants will be grant- ed safe harbor from cur- tailment or steep mitiga- tion obligations during future dry years. Twin Falls Canal Co. General Manager Bri- an Olmstead said it was a risk for his irrigators to consent to safe har- bor, but they’ve already ratified the agreement, understanding the impor- tance of protecting the aquifer. “The only solution is the longterm solution, and that’s why we’ve voted to take the risk,” Olmstead said. “Doing nothing has more risk than anything.” 95 Sn IDAHO from Page 1 Idaho irrigators seek long-term water deal 95 A monumental water agreement being negotiated by Idaho Ground Water Appropriators, Inc., and the Surface Water Coalition would Snake River address underlying causes watershed of aquifer depletion and aim East Snake Plain to avert future water calls. Aquifer Model 2.1 12 Surface Water Coalition 10% trim line 93 20 IDAHO 84 15 Ashton Boise 26 20 Mountain Home Sn a k e R i v er N 26 93 American Falls Res. 93 Source: Idaho Dept. of Water Resources Pocatello 15 Twin Falls 25 miles Idaho Falls Blackfoot 84 Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Western juniper is a water hog TREES from Page 1 “The object is to get the branches scattered so the sunlight will get to the ground and grass will grow,” Breese said. Grazing cattle — “1,300-pound stompers,” he calls them — will grind ju- niper needles into the ground and release stored nitrogen. “The whole point is to get this watershed functioning,” Breese said. Native grasses are already thriving amid the debris of downed juniper. That will pay off when cattle come through. “The direct benefi t is the grazing we get out of it,” Bre- ese said. “We can double and triple the animal unit months.” Western juniper is such a water hog — Lynne Breese calls juniper a “thief” — that removing it has a nearly in- stant impact on the amount of water available for other plants and for stream fl ow. In a part of the state that gets by on 10 to 15 inches of precipi- tation a year, that’s signifi cant. A 10-year study in the Camp Creek drainage 60 miles southeast of Prineville compared two watersheds. On one, all juniper trees older than 140 years were removed; the other was not treated. “We were able to show a response in a month,” said Tim DeBoodt, with Oregon State University Extension in Crook County. According to a published account, juniper removal increased the late season spring fl ow by 225 percent and increased the time in which monitors detected groundwater by an average of 41 days. DeBoodt said the needles of mature juniper trees cap- ture moisture. Snow or rain held in the needles either drib- bles down the tree for its own use or evaporates. For every 1 percent of the forest canopy that is juniper, the land loses 1 percent of moisture, DeBoodt said. “If 20 percent of the can- opy is juniper, 20 percent of the moisture never gets to the soil,” he said. “Nine to 35 trees per acre can use all the water deliv- ered to that site,” he said. “We have a lot of places where the (juniper) tree den- sity is 50 to 200 trees per acre.” Cutting juniper reduces soil loss to erosion tenfold, said DeBoodt, while forage production can increase six to 10 times per acre. Juniper trees crowd out sage and provide perches for hawks and other predators that make life tough for sage grouse. As few as four juni- per trees per acre can have a negative impact on sage grouse, DeBoodt said. The problem with re- moving juniper is figuring Courtesy of Valley Wide Cooperative A Valley Agronomics truck works in front of the Teton Range in Idaho in the summer of 2014. Valley Agronomics is a division of Valley Wide Cooperative, which will merge with Valley Cooperative on Sept. 1. Idaho coop members overwhelmingly support merger By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Tim DeBoodt of OSU Extension in Crook County says cutting juniper increases stream fl ow, provides better habitat for sage grouse and allows native grasses to recover. Video available To see a video about juniper removal, go to: https: //www.youtube.com/ watch?v=niUUc3Z_Wnw& feature=youtu.be Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Native grasses spring up around the stump of Western juniper tree. Junipers are such water hogs that removing them makes more water available for streams and other plants. out how to make the work pay for itself. Leaving the wood lay can add to the fuel load when wildfi re sweeps through. Selling juniper logs to mills or cutting it for fi re- wood can help offset the cost of clearing them, but that isn’t easy, either. While urban lumber yards say they can sell all the juni- per boards and posts they can get, the logging, milling and hauling infrastructure hasn’t kept up with demand. For now, government grants help landowners, in- cluding Breese, offset the cost. Two bills signed by Gov. Kate Brown during this legis- lative session will make Ore- gon Lottery money available to solidify the supply chain, aid rural mills and develop markets. “There’s not enough grant money in the world to do what has to be done,” Breese said. “Somehow it has got to pay its way.” It’s important to Breese on a personal basis. The extended family’s cattle and timber operation covers 8,000 acres and dates to 1888. John Breese was a high school science teach- er but returned to the family property after his father died in the late 1980s. The fi rst thing that struck him was the sad state of the watershed and its diminished creeks. Breese said he dis- cussed it with Lee Eddleman, a retired OSU range ecolo- gist. Instead of working along the creekbeds, Eddleman told him to start in the uplands, where the juniper grows. “Fix the uplands and you’re going to win in the creek,” Breese said. Removing juniper became his way of sustaining the fam- ily heritage. “We’re not screwing it up on our watch,” he said. JEROME, Idaho — Members of Valley Wide Co- operative and Valley Cooper- ative have overwhelmingly endorsed a merger that man- agers say will increase their buying power and help them expand product and service offerings. Valley Coop, which serves patrons from 10 Mag- ic Valley locations, including farm and convenience stores and a propane store, hosted a June 30 election and break- fast, garnering support for the merger from 82 percent of members. Valley Wide Cooperative, which serves patrons at 34 locations from Western Wyoming to East- ern Oregon, received support from 97 percent of members who mailed in ballots, which were tabulated on June 4. Senior staff members hosted their first meeting since the elections on July 6 and are now commencing with details of the merg- er, such as integrating their computer systems. The new entity, scheduled to start business on Sept. 1, will be based in Jerome and operate as Valley Wide Co- operative, with more than 700 employees serving more than 3,000 members. Richard Lloyd, general manager with Valley Wide’s agronomics division, said soon after the merger takes effect, the new cooperative intends to expand certain operations in Idaho’s Magic Valley and Treasure Valley. Lloyd said the cooperatives have partnered on agronom- ics, including farm chemi- cal and fertilizer sales, for several years and enjoyed a considerable savings due to their increased buying pow- er. Lloyd said farm chemical and fertilizer savings have been greater than a couple of percentage points due to the partnership and “we now ex- pect to see similar savings on farm retail, refi ned fuels and propane.” Lloyd said both compa- nies use the same software for their farm stores but are evaluating which of their op- erating systems would work best for their energy division. Lloyd doesn’t envision any reductions in staff. In the long run, he believes more staff will be needed to ac- commodate planned expan- sions. “I would say there will be a spot for everyone,” Lloyd said. “This merger isn’t about fewer people and cost sav- ings as far as reducing staff. This merger is about expand- ing the business.” Lloyd said the cooper- atives are in the process of fi nding “the right fi t for ev- eryone.” Cortney Beck, manager of Valley Wide’s Rexburg agronomy center, believes the merger will spread busi- ness over a broader geogra- phy in case one region ex- periences down times. He expects greater stability in the farm store market — an area in which he believes Valley Cooperative shines — and access to new products and suppliers. Valley Wide marketing manager Eric Holbrook said the cooperatives also provide growers with expert crop ad- visers, satellite imagery to monitor fi elds and livestock feed. Members must pay a small, one-time processing fee, maintain a minimum acreage and make a mini- mum in purchases from the cooperative. Both coopera- tives have roots in Idaho dat- ing back to the 1930s. Aaron Johnson an agri-business faculty mem- ber with University of Idaho who specializes in coopera- tives, said successful mergers require a great deal of face- to-face communication with members and staff. “I would revisit every operational procedure and every policy and make sure I have everything on the same page and all of my employees and managers on the same page,” Johnson said. Virus may have adapted and become more lethal to chickens FLU from Page 1 it. Equipment and humans traveled between infected barns in the country’s largest poultry producing states, the USDA reported. Also, strong and sustained winds may have spread virus particles between barns, ac- cording to the agency. Baker said he doesn’t see airborne spread as a threat in Washington because the state doesn’t have clusters of com- mercial poultry farms. More concerning is that the virus may have adapted and become more lethal to chickens, he said. For fi ve weeks in the Mid- west last spring, the virus struck only turkey farms, about 20. The virus fi nally in- fected a chicken farm in Wis- consin. After that, the disease broke out in chicken farms in several states. In Washington last win- ter, the virus spread among fl ocks with a variety of birds. In Benton County, backyard chickens remained healthy though separated by only a mesh fence from an infected fl ock of chickens, turkeys and ducks. A virus lethal to chickens may be spreading among wa- terfowl that spend the sum- mer in Alaska and Canada and migrate to Washington for the winter, Baker said.“It could cause us more prob- lems because there could be more spread (of the virus) neighbor to neighbor,” he said. It’s unclear how common bird fl u is among wild birds, which are not sickened by the virus. The USDA didn’t confi rm a case of the virus in a wild bird outside the West until early March. Since then, cases in several states have been confi rmed. In May, a dozen Canada geese tested positive in Michigan. Baker said it’s possible the disease is spreading more widely now among migratory birds. He said WSDA will try to impress upon farmworkers and backyard poultry enthu- siasts the importance of pre- ventive measures. “Biosecurity is really something you have to live everyday. You can’t just talk about it. You can’t just draft plans,” Baker said. WSDA has posted in- formation about protect- ing fl ocks from bird fl u at agr.wa.gov/FoodAnimal/ AvianHealth/