August 21, 2015
Medical records sought
in pesticide lawsuit
Citizens seek compensation for off-target spray incident
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The lead plaintiff in a law-
suit over off-site pesticide
spraying in Oregon’s Curry
County has allegedly ignored
requests to turn over his medi-
cal records.
In 2013, a helicopter com-
pany sprayed residential prop-
erties near Gold Beach with
herbicides intended for nearby
forestlands, resulting in the
Oregon Department of Agri-
culture suspending its applica-
tor license.
Seventeen residents filed a
complaint against the helicop-
ter company, Pacific Air Re-
search, as well as the logging
firms overseeing the operation
and the owners of the timber
properties that were treated.
They claim to be suffering
from serious health problems
from being sprayed with 2,4-
D and triclopyr and seek at
least $100,000 per plaintiff in
damages.
Two of the defendants,
Crook Timberlands LLC and
Barnes & Associates, recently
filed a motion to compel the
lead plaintiff, John Burns, to
turn over medical records and
other documents related to the
injuries he allegedly suffered
from the herbicide incident.
The motion claims that
Burns has failed to respond
to the request for information
since May, necessitating a
court order.
A hearing on the matter is
scheduled for Aug. 28 and a
trial in the overall case is set
for Jan. 11-27 in Gold Beach.
Capital Press was unable
to reach Burns’ attorney for
comment.
The legal dispute caught
the attention of Oregon’s ag-
ricultural industry because it
initially challenged the consti-
tutionality of the state’s “right
to farm” law, which prohib-
its lawsuits against common
farming and forestry practices.
The judge dismissed that
earlier version of the complaint
because the defendants hadn’t
raised the “right to farm” law
as a defense, so allowing the
plaintiffs to challenge the stat-
ute was premature.
The plaintiffs refiled their
complaint without raising the
“right to farm” issue, and it’s
currently unclear whether the
defendants will rely on the
statute.
Aside from spurring lit-
igation, the Curry County
spray incident also prompted
lawmakers to propose new
restrictions on pesticides in
Oregon.
A bill that increased fines
for violations, created no-
spray buffers and devoted
more resources to pesticide in-
vestigations was passed earlier
this year.
Latest hop
estimate
up more
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
MOXEE, Wash. — This
fall’s U.S. hop crop is forecast at
80 million pounds by the USDA
National Agricultural Statistics
Service.
That’s up 13 percent from
last year’s 71 million-pound
crop and up 7 percent from a
74.5-million-pound estimate
for this year given at the Inter-
national Hop Growers’ Con-
gress in Germany the week of
July 27.
The NASS estimate, re-
leased Aug. 12, is dated Aug. 1.
Ann George, administrator
of Hop Growers of America
and the Washington Hop Com-
mission, both in Moxee, said
74.5 million-pound estimate
that she gave at the Internation-
al Congress was based on a sur-
vey of growers taken when the
crop was just starting to bloom
and several weeks earlier than
the NASS survey.
She said the NASS number
may be more accurate but that
no one really knows until the
crop is baled.
“I think it will end up being
between the two estimates,” she
said. “The big message is we
don’t anticipate it being smaller
(than last year).”
Some national stories spec-
ulated about a hop shortage due
to heat and drought. In response
to that, George said she issued a
press release July 29 about the
74.5-million-pound estimate.
“We wanted to reassure our
customer base and the public
that we wouldn’t have a tremen-
dous hop shortage,” she said.
At the international meet-
ing, it was evident Europe’s
hop crop will be down, per-
haps significantly, because
of drought and wind, Doug
MacKinnon, a Yakima hop
broker, said at the time.
A shortage in Europe adds
market pressures since there’s
more U.S. craft brewer de-
mand for aroma hops than
there is supply.
Even though U.S. produc-
tion is up it remains short rel-
ative to craft brewer demand,
George said.
Some aroma varieties will be
short because demand is grow-
ing faster than the varieties can
be expanded, she said. It takes
about two years to get new hop
yards into production, she said.
One reason overall yields
are forecast to be down this
year is that there are a lot of
“baby” acres that are not yet
producing, George said.
The switch from alpha to
aroma varieties affects yields
because aroma yield less, she
said.
Heat and drought are addi-
tional factors reducing yield this
year, she said. The larger was
heat affecting more of the crop
in the Yakima Valley in June
when it was blooming, she said.
Some hops entered the heat a
little drought stressed, she said.
Lack of water has been an issue
only in portions of the valley
served by the Roza and Wapato
irrigation districts, not the entire
valley, she said.
NASS estimates 57,969,000
pounds
for
Washington,
11,571,900 for Oregon and
10,447,500 for Idaho. The three
states comprise the U.S. crop.
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Cranberries ripen in the sun on the Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington. An outstanding
crop will be a triumph for farming, but there’s already a price-deflating oversupply of cranberries.
USDA forecasts large
Northwest cranberry crop
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Oregon cranberry grow-
ers are expected to reap a re-
cord crop, while Washington
farmers will have their largest
harvest in a decade, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture pre-
dicted Thursday.
Across the U.S., cranberry
farmers in five states, already
sitting on a price-deflating sur-
plus, will harvest 8.41 million
barrels, a slight increase of
12,700 barrels over last year,
the USDA forecasts.
Strong recent harvests in the
U.S. and Canada have created
a cranberry surplus, which the
USDA has estimated will equal
roughly 90 percent of annu-
al sales a year from now. The
surplus has driven prices below
the cost of production for some
farmers, particularly indepen-
dent growers who don’t belong
to the Ocean Spray cooperative.
Although the harvest isn’t
expected to challenge the re-
cord-setting 2013 harvest of
8.95 million barrels, most cran-
berry-growing states will see
production rise over last year,
according to the USDA.
The USDA says Washing-
ton and Oregon growers have
enjoyed favorable weather.
Oregon cranberry farmers,
concentrated near the coast in
Coos and Curry counties, will
harvest an estimated 504,000
barrels, edging above last
year’s record 500,000-barrel
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harvest. Each barrel represents
100 pounds.
“Every week they (grow-
ers) seem more encouraged
by the crop,” said Don Kloft,
Ocean Spray receiving station
manager in Bandon, Ore.
Bandon cranberry grower
Charlie Ruddell said he doubts
Oregon’s harvest will set a
record. Independent growers
slightly outnumber coopera-
tive members, and low prices
have forced some to reduce
investments in bogs or give
up entirely, he said. “Some
farms have been abandoned,”
he said.
In Washington, where
Ocean Spray members out-
number independent growers,
the harvest is projected to
jump from last year’s 156,000
barrels to 186,000 barrels.
That would be the biggest crop
since 2005, when farmers pro-
duced 187,000 barrels. The
state record is 202,000 barrels
set in 1994. Recent harvests
have been much smaller.
Washington State Univer-
sity horticulturist Kim Patten,
who heads the cranberry re-
search center in Long Beach,
said he agrees with the US-
DA’s forecast. “It’s in the ball-
park; 180,000 to 200,000” bar-
rels, he said. “It’s going to be a
good crop.”
Growers who flood their
bogs for harvest could face
water shortages, however, he
said. The U.S. Drought Mon-
itor on Thursday categorized
the Long Beach Peninsula and
Grays Harbor County, where
cranberry growers are concen-
trated, as being in an “extreme
drought.”
CapitalPress.com
7
Divers prepare to yank
irrigation-clogging weed
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Divers equipped with
suction hoses will soon be-
gin removing flowering rush
from sites on the Columbia
River where the irrigation ca-
nal-clogging weed was discov-
ered last year.
The invasive species was
first found on the Oregon side
of the river near McNary Dam
in August 2014, but regulatory
hurdles prevented it from be-
ing dug out immediately.
Flowering rush is already a
problem in Washington, Idaho,
and Montana, where its thickly
growing leaves impede water
movement to the detriment of
irrigators and fish.
A team of divers from the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
is scheduled to spend the final
week of August yanking the
plants, which were previous-
ly covered with plastic bar-
rier mats to prevent the weed
patches from spreading.
“This is going to be an on-
going thing for a while and
there are no easy solutions,”
said Tim Butler, noxious weed
control program manager for
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture. “Unfortunately,
there are no silver bullets. It’s
a difficult plant to control, is
the bottom line.”
Before divers were allowed
to physically pull the weed, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
— which has jurisdiction over
the Columbia River — had to
clear the project under the Na-
tional Environmental Policy
Act, the Endangered Species
Act and the Archaeological
Resources Protection Act.
With that process complete,
further removals will not have
to be evaluated under NEPA or
ESA, though new sites will still
have to be reviewed for cultur-
al resources under ARPA, said
Damian Walter, wildlife biolo-
gist for the agency.
The upcoming diving
project is expected to cost
$50,000, which required the
agency to shift funds from
other invasive management
programs, he said.
Flowering rush remains
submerged during winter, so
the diving team also had to
wait until the plants were at
their most visible to begin re-
moval, Walter said.
The weed is a concern for
irrigators because it can stop
water from freely flowing in ca-
nals, hindering water delivery.
Its capacity to change ecosys-
tems is also a risk for threatened
and endangered native fish, as
the plant creates the ideal hab-
itat for invasive pike that prey
on them.
Treating the weed patches
with herbicides is troublesome
because of the plant’s aquatic
nature — chemicals are dif-
ficult to effectively apply in
flowing water, can damage
crops and face environmental
restrictions.
“The physical removal is
probably the best technique we
have at this point,” said Butler.
In the long term, research-
ers from Washington State
University hope to identify
natural predators in Central
Europe, where the weed origi-
nates, to help suppress it in the
Northwest.
At this point, two potential
candidates have been found:
the beetle species Bagous nod-
ulosus and Bagous validus,
which feed on the flowering
rush’s rhizomatous roots, said
Jennifer Andreas, director of
WSU’s Integrated Weed Con-
trol Project.
Attacking the rhizomes is
important, since fragments
break off and allow the weed
to infest new areas down-
stream, she said. “That’s the
part that’s causing the biggest
damage. That’s the part that
moves.”
Before the insects could be
released into the environment,
researchers must conduct ex-
tensive studies to show they
would not damage native plant
species, Andreas said.
Approval must come from
the USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service and
the process usually takes about
a decade, she said.
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