HERMISTON DELIVERS WATERMELONS, GOODWILL Page 10
Capital
Press
The West s
Weekly
FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2015
VOLUME 88, NUMBER 32
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
$2.00
Researchers
use wild
potatoes
to develop
better
hybrids
Large cultivated
potatoes on the
left are compared
with smaller, wild
potatoes on
the right.
Researchers collect
native varieties to
broaden gene pool
for future hybrids
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
J
ohn Bamberg has explored
one of the nation’s most
important American Indi-
an archaeological sites, but
instead of seeking clues to a past
civilization,
he
was searching for
solutions to many
of the challenges
facing the potato in-
dustry.
Bamberg, a proj-
ect leader at the
USDA Potato Intro-
duction Station in
Sturgeon Bay, Wis., has
discovered that Mesa
Verde National Park in
southwest Colorado is
not only home to cliff-dwelling
Ancestral Pueblos, but also to the
nation’s most diverse population
of a wild potato species.
Bamberg’s facility maintains
seed and tissue cultures of wild
potato populations from around
the world. To the researchers and
breeders who request material
from him, wild spuds represent a
vast pool of genes that may allow
them to transfer desirable traits
such as disease and pest resistance
to new potato varieties they devel-
op.
Bamberg speculates potatoes
were a staple of the diet of Mesa
Verde’s ancient inhabitants. The
potatoes were likely obtained via a
trade route extending into Central
and South America, where they
originated.
“There’s an absolutely gigantic
population (of potatoes) there,”
Bamberg said. At Mesa Verde
INTO THE
WILD
Turn to WILD, Page 12
491
CANYONS OF
THE ANCIENTS
NAT’L MON.
Utah
Colorado
COLO.
McPhee
Res.
145
Area in detail
Dolores
Mesa
Verde
184 Park
National
SAN JUAN
NATIONAL
FOREST
Cortez
Mancos
550
160
Durango
162
N
10 miles
Ute Mountain Tribe
160
Ariz.
491
Colorado
New Mexico
160
Southern Ute
IndianTribe
550
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Photos courtesy of John Bamberg:
John Bamberg is the project leader at the
Potato Introduction Station in Sturgeon
Bay, Wis., which houses the U.S. collec-
tion of wild potato material from through-
out the world.
“There are species you can look at and
say, ‘Oh, that’s a potato.’ Others look very
strange, with leaves almost like marigolds
or African violets.”
John Bamberg, project leader at the USDA Potato
Introduction Station in Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
Army
Corps
memos
disparage
EPA over
WOTUS
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Internal memos from an Army
Corps of Engineers top offi cial
to the Environmental Protection
Agency contend the draft fi nal
rule defi ning waters of the Unit-
ed States is indefensible in court,
reduces the government’s jurisdic-
tion over certain waters now cov-
ered by the Clean Water Act, and
will require the Corps to conduct
an environmental impact state-
ment before it can be implement-
ed.
The memos, written before the
rule’s release by Maj. Gen. John
Peabody, deputy commanding
general for civil and emergency
operations, charge that the EPA
disregarded the Corps’ concerns.
The memos were put on the re-
cord by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.
of the House Oversight and Gov-
ernment Reform Committee.
Peabody’s April 27 memo to
Jo-Ellen Darby, assistant secretary
of the Army for civil works, states:
“As we have discussed throughout
the rulemaking process for WO-
TUS over the last several months,
the Corps of Engineers has serious
concerns about certain aspects of
the draft fi nal rule.”
The memo contends that a re-
view of the draft fi nal rule by the
Corps’ legal and regulatory staff
found the rule “continues to de-
part signifi cantly from the version
provided for public comment, and
that the Corps’ recommendations
related to our most serious con-
cerns have gone unaddressed.
“The rule’s contradictions with
legal principles generate multiple
legal and technical consequenc-
es that, in the view of the Corps,
would be fatal to the rule in its
current form.”
The Corps’ legal analysis
found that if “serious fl aws” were
not corrected, the rule would be
“legally vulnerable, diffi cult to
defend in court, diffi cult for the
Corps to explain or justify, and
challenging for the Corps to im-
plement.”
It further found the fi nal rule
abandoned “sound principles of
science” in the proposed draft and
“introduced indefensible provi-
sions into the rule.”
Turn to WOTUS, Page 12
Earlier drought planning needed, ag director says
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
EAST
WENATCHEE,
Wash. — State agencies, the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
and major irrigation districts
should start planning for
drought next year as soon as
this year’s irrigation season is
over, the new director of the
state Department of Agricul-
ture says.
Water will be a big issue
and the state needs to be better
prepared, Agriculture Director
Derek Sandison told about 100
members of the Chelan-Doug-
las Farm Bureau at their annu-
al barbecue on Aug. 4.
“In 2014, we came pretty
close to drought but we caught
up on snowpack late in the
Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Ecology
Offi ce of Columbia River Director Derek Sandison stands on Pinto
Dam in Grant County with Brook Lake in the background in this
photo from July 2014 provided by the Washington Department of
Ecology. Sandison, who has an extensive background in water
issues, has been appointed state agriculture director.
season. We dodged a bullet,”
Sandison said.
Last winter, everyone kept
thinking there would be an-
other “March Miracle,” but
there wasn’t, he said. The rain
didn’t turn into snow and “it
caught us fl at-footed in water
leasing,” said Sandison, who
was director of the state De-
partment of Ecology’s Offi ce
of the Columbia River at the
time.
Growers in the Roza Irri-
gation District of the Yakima
Valley had made planting deci-
sions before Ecology approved
leasing, he said. Then there
were delays in appropriations
of drought response funding,
he said.
With the high probability of
another warm, dry winter, ev-
eryone needs to be better pre-
pared, Sandison said. Agencies
need to work to improve water
storage and Ecology, Agricul-
ture, Reclamation and major
irrigation districts should start
talking about next year soon,
he said.
“The message for the long
run is we can’t take our eye off
the ball,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse,
R-Wash., also mentioned wa-
ter, forest management to pre-
vent forest fi res, food safety
and other issues in brief re-
marks. He said he’s still opti-
mistic about immigration re-
form and that he always seeks
advice from the Farm Bureau.
Newhouse, a Sunnyside
grower, is a former director of
the state Department of Agri-
culture and a former state leg-
islator. He and his father were
both county Farm Bureau
presidents.