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August 28, 2015 CapitalPress.com 11 Washington West Nile virus makes a comeback Get your horse vaccinated, state veterinarian urges By DON JENKINS Capital Press Don Jenkins/Capital Press A horse eyes a passerby while standing in a field Aug. 25 in southwest Washington. State Veterinarian Joe Baker is urging horse owners to vaccinate their animals against West Nile virus. This summer, 18 horses in the state have been infected, the most since 2009. Washington State Veter- inarian Joe Baker, a horse owner and self-described “re- tired horse doctor,” suspects one reason for this summer’s high number of equine West Nile virus cases is compla- cency. “I really, really wish peo- ple would think twice before skipping the vaccine,” Baker said Monday. “This is not a disease to be taken lightly.” West Nile virus cases are up this summer for both hu- mans and horses. Baker said he suspects that the drought has forced virus-carrying mosquitoes to scout for wa- ter and that they are finding it near animals, including hors- es. “Being survivalists, mos- quitoes will go to wherever the moisture is,” he said. But he also said he thinks some horse owners have let their guard down. Farmworker camp will likely remain open By DAN WHEAT Capital Press MONITOR, Wash. — A 380-bed migrant farmworker camp in this small town west of Wenatchee likely will be kept going by the state and Chelan County for another two years. County and state Depart- ment of Commerce officials say they are close to a deal for the state to pay less than it has in the past. The camp has been funded by the state and operated by the county in a county park in Mon- itor since 2001. In May, Janet Masella, managing director of the Housing Finance Unit of the Department of Commerce, said she informed the county a couple of years ago that 2015 would be the last year of state funding since the camp was never intended to be permanent and equipment replacement costs would be looming. Also in May, the Washing- ton Growers League in Yakima opened a new, 200-bed migrant farmworker housing facility, called Brender Creek, in the neighboring town of Cashmere. There was a question if both facilities would be needed. It now appears both facilities are needed during cherry sea- son, said Jesse Lane, Growers League housing program man- ager. Brender Creek was full By DON JENKINS Capital Press Dan Wheat/Capital Press Residents of the Monitor, Wash., migrant farmworker camp are seen at late afternoon, Aug. 19. They pick fruit at area orchards from sun up to early afternoon. most of June during cherry harvest, he said. The Monitor camp was full and turned peo- ple away, as it has in past years, said Keith Goehner, a Chelan County commissioner and a Dryden pear grower. The Monitor camp usually is about half full during pear and apple harvest, he said. Brender Creek is about half full now and probably will be 75 percent full during pears and apples, Lane said. The county doesn’t have the money to fund the Monitor camp alone but is committed to farmworker housing, balancing need and cost, Goehner has said. The Monitor camp cost $420,352 to operate in 2014 with $289,850 coming from the state, $99,915 from nightly per- bed fees paid by occupants or growers and $30,587 from other county sources, Masella said. The plan now is for the state to stop paying the coun- ty $60,000 for camp manage- ment and $108,000 to lease the grounds annually, said Cathy Mulhall, county administrator. The lease fee made up for the loss of county revenue because the portion of the park used by migrant workers was closed to public campers, she said. The plan is for the state to pay annual operating costs up to $200,000, minus bed-rental rev- enues, Mulhall said. The state offered to give the county tents, trailers and mobile kitchen and laundry facilities at the end of two years, Masella said. The county has turned that down so far because it doesn’t yet know if it will keep the camp open beyond two years, Mulhall said. If growers still want the camp after two years, the coun- ty would look to partner with a group of growers, the Growers League or a housing authority to keep the camp open, Goeh- ner said. WENATCHEE, Wash. — Washington State University has hired Jim McFerson as di- rector of the university’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee. McFerson begins the job Aug. 24 and a contract has been written to avoid conflicts of interest while he continues as manager of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commis- sion, also in Wenatchee, for 18 months, said Ron Mittelham- mer, WSU interim co-provost. McFerson, 64, has been hired for his tree fruit knowl- edge and because “WSU is one of the nation’s leaders in part- nering with industry and the agricultural sector of the econ- omy,” Mittelhammer said. “This is an exciting and unique opportunity to explore how we can make our pub- lic-private partnership more productive and even stronger for our industry and WSU,” McFer- son told Capital Press. Close collaboration between WSU scientists and the tree fruit industry is one reason WSU has been successful in obtaining ex- ternal funding in recent years, McFerson said. “I see this appointment as a manifestation of a commitment by both organizations. This isn’t a common model. We’re trying to build on what we’ve done,” he said. The center needs more staff and more office, lab and field work space, he said. The commission is a state agency but is governed by industry members. It collects about $4 million annually in assessments from grow- ers for tree fruit research and awards about $1.5 million to $2 million annually in research grants to WSU. The Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center operates with a $4 million annual bud- get. It has 50 full-time and 20 seasonal employees and more than 100 research and exten- sion projects involving many aspects of growing, harvest- ing, storing, grading and pack- ing tree fruit. By DON JENKINS Capital Press Washington will increase cougar hunting in wolf territory as a sympathetic gesture to com- munities concerned about the in- creasing presence of predators, the Fish and Wildlife Commis- sion confirmed Friday. The commission voted 7-1 to reject a petition submitted by the Humane Society of the United States and several conservation groups challenging the stepped- up cougar hunts in about 29 per- cent of the state. They argued that shooting cougars to shore up support for wolf recovery was a rash move by the commission. The groups asserted the policy was not sub- jected to public comment and likely to backfire by killing old- er cougars that keep juvenile males away from livestock and humans. Commissioner Jay Kehne, an Omak resident who works for one of the petitioning groups, Conservation Northwest, agreed on most points. He said it was a “far stretch” to link cougar hunt- ing with wolf recovery. The rest of the commission stuck with its decision in April to increase harvest limits in 14 game units that overlap with wolf packs. Commissioner Miranda Wecker, a Naselle resident, said Friday that the commis- sion should defend its right to “tweak” harvest levels. She said in an earlier interview that the change was an empathetic sig- nal to Eastern Washington res- idents unhappy with a growing wolf population. Wolves are a state-protected species and can’t be hunted. Kehne said the public never got a chance to comment on the policy. He said public outreach focused on extending the cougar hunting season by one month. “There was no discussion of in- creasing (harvest) numbers in all of that process,” he said. The move will change har- vest limits statewide by about 25 cougars. Washington De- partment of Fish and Wildlife officials say the state has ap- proximately 3,600 cougars and 163 were harvested in 2014. A southeast Washington irrigation district has been fined $73,530 — more than its entire annual budget — for reneging on a pledge to leave more of the Touchet River for steelhead in ex- change for state money for irrigation pipes, according to the Washington Department of Ecology. The Touchet Eastside Westside Irrigation District drew 90 acre-feet of water it wasn’t entitled to over 21 days in October 2014, said Keith Stoffel, water resourc- es manager for DOE’s East- ern Regional Office. District board member Mike Buckley said Thurs- day the penalty exceeds the district’s annual budget and that it will appeal the fine to the Pollution Control Hearings Board. The dis- trict’s annual budget is about $63,000. Technical problems with meters caused the district to struggle tracking water use, he said. “This district is very much pro saving of water for fish,” he said. “We absolutely want to be in compliance.” The district irrigates 1,972 acres of hay, alfalfa, onions, corn and other crops in Wal- la Walla County. The district has water rights dated 1882, and it gave up some water in 2010 in exchange for $2.56 million to replace open ca- nals with pipelines. The district retained full or nearly full rights for the spring and summer. But it agreed to reduce its with- drawal from the river in the fall by more than two-thirds. “We probably were a little too generous,” Buckley said. The district didn’t provide DOE with metering reports between 2010 and 2013, St- offel said. When the district in early 2015 submitted re- cords for 2014, DOE discov- ered the district withdrew too much water during a three- week period in October, sometimes up to 50 percent more, Stoffel said. DOE says the district failed to pay attention to the limits and that the fine shows the agency is serious about protecting fish and other wa- ter users. In setting the penalty, the agency calculated the public had spent $817 on pipelines for every acre-foot illegally diverted. Buckley said the water-ef- ficiency project has worked well for the district, but the struggle to accurately meter water has been frustrating. The district had hoped to make amends and settle with DOE by being warned in- stead of fined. “We told them, ‘Gosh, it’s going to break us,’” Buckley said. “We were asking for a good hand-slapping and maybe more help.” The irrigation district’s board chairman, Stephen Ames, said meter readings remain a problem and ac- knowledged that the district failed to track its water use. Nevertheless, the district hopes to show the hearings board it has been meeting its overall obligation to forgo about 3,100 acre-feet of wa- ter each year, he said. “We made a mistake, and we are correcting it.” Services & Supplies 2015 Special Section October 2nd, 2015 Doing Business with the Ag Community? On October 2nd, 2015, Capital Press Ag Weekly readers will find labor and money saving tips in the 2015 Winter Services & Supplies Special Section. Place an ad in this Special Section and reach Capital Press readers online and in the newspaper with YOUR services and supplies! Content will include: Online Agribusiness, Equipment, Maintenance, New Products, Consulting & Planning Services and much more! ROP-34-2-1/#7 Capital Press years,” Baker said. “I think that’s playing some role in what we’re seeing.” Baker, who spent a decade early in his career exclusive- ly treating horses, urged own- ers to vaccinate their horses yearly against the virus. A horse given its first shot this month will need a second dose in about four weeks to bolster the immunity, he said. Vaccinations given now will guard a horse through most of next year’s mosquito sea- son, Baker said. A dose of vaccine costs $25 to $30, he said. S.E. Washington irrigation district to fight state fine Fine worth more than annual budget of tiny district McFerson hired to run Commission sticks with linking WSU tree fruit center cougar hunts to wolf recovery By DAN WHEAT The state Department of Agriculture has confirmed 18 horses with West Nile virus so far this summer. WSDA confirmed only eight cases in the previous five years com- bined. Horse owners may have forgotten the 41 cases in 2008 and the 73 cases 2009, Baker said. None of the horses that contracted the virus this year were up to date with vaccina- tions against the disease, he said. “Animal owners tend to have amnesia after a few Contact us by Sept. 4th to advertise your product or service! (503) 364-4798 of (800) 882-6789 FAX (503) 364-2692 or (503) 370-4383 P.O. Box 2048 • Salem, OR 97308 www.CapitalPress.com ROP-32-4-4/#13