4
CapitalPress.com
August 28, 2015
Farm seeks repayment for confiscated raisins
Volume control
effort was ruled
unconstitutional
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A California farm is de-
manding repayment for raisins
confiscated by the USDA as
part of a volume control pro-
gram that’s been declared un-
constitutional.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Su-
preme Court invalidated an agen-
cy marketing order program that
sought to stabilize prices in times
of overproduction.
Under the program, a per-
centage of a farmer’s raisins
was diverted into a “reserve
pool,” which was sold by
USDA in non-competing mar-
kets such as foreign countries.
Funds from these sales
paid for the administration of
the program, with any leftover
money returned to growers. In
some years, farmers did not
receive any payment for the re-
serve pool raisins.
Marvin Horne, a Califor-
nia raisin producer, refused to
participate in the program and
claimed it was unconstitutional
as a government taking without
just compensation.
In June, the nation’s
highest court agreed with
Horne and ruled that he did
not have to pay the USDA
about $200,000 in fines and
$480,000 for the raisins he
didn’t turn over.
Now, a major California
raisin producer, Lion Farms,
wants reimbursement for the
market value of raisins taken
by the government over several
years.
The company claims it had
to turn over 10-15 percent of
its 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009
crops, which were valued at
$1,210-$1,343 per ton.
Tonnage amounts aren’t
disclosed in the complaint, but
Lion Farms said it did not re-
ceive any money back for three
of the four crops.
Capital Press was unable to
reach the grower’s attorney or a
representative of USDA’s Ag-
ricultural Marketing Service,
which oversaw the program.
It appears Lion Farms’ case
will be complicated by the six-
year statute of limitations on
takings lawsuits against the fed-
eral government, said Jim Burl-
ing, an attorney with the Pacific
Legal Foundation, a property
rights group that has closely
followed the Horne case.
The government will likely
argue that the statute of limita-
tions has run out for most of the
crops in question, he said.
AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka, File
In this 2013 file photo taken near Fresno, Calif., farmworkers pick paper
trays of dried raisins off the ground and heap them onto a trailer in the
final step of raisin harvest. A farm is seeking repayment for the value of
the raisins the USDA confiscated under a volume control program.
Despite drought,
Fresno County crop
values set record
Legal action
threatened
over spotted
frog habitat
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
When Mike Britton answers
the phone at his North Unit Irri-
gation District office in Central
Oregon these days, the conver-
sations take a quick turn.
“The first three words are, ‘I
heard a rumor,...’” Britton said.
And so it goes. Environmen-
tal groups have warned they
intend to file suit over Oregon
spotted frog habitat, and patrons
of multiple Deschutes River Ba-
sin irrigation districts worry the
outcome will leave their land
with less water and more restric-
tions.
Britton, the North Unit man-
ager, scheduled a town hall meet-
ing Aug. 26 in Madras, Ore.
Here’s the background: The
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in
August 2014 listed the Oregon
spotted frog as “threatened”
under the federal Endangered
Species Act. The listing wasn’t
a surprise; the frog has disap-
peared from an estimated 78
percent of its historic range,
from Southwest British Colum-
bia to Northern California.
Loss of its favored marsh
habitat and introduction of pred-
ators such as bullfrogs are the
primary reason for the frog’s de-
cline. Fish & Wildlife proposed
22,600 acres in the Deschutes
River Basin as “critical habitat.”
The Upper Deschutes in
Central Oregon is one of the few
places where the frogs can still
be found, particularly in Crane
Prairie and Wickiup Reservoirs
and in the wetlands downstream
from them and from Crescent
Lake.
Irrigation districts, recogniz-
ing the potential impact of an
Endangered Species Act listing,
worked with Fish & Wildlife,
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
and other agencies and groups to
develop a Habitat Conservation
Plan for spotted frogs. Britton
heads a group, the Deschutes
Basin Board of Control, which
represents eight irrigation dis-
tricts in the process.
But this summer, the Cen-
ter for Biological Diversity and
WaterWatch of Oregon sep-
arately gave 60 days notice
they would file suit against the
Bureau of Reclamation, which
built the Crane Prairie, Wickiup
and Crescent Lake reservoirs,
and against the North Unit,
Central Oregon and Tumalo ir-
rigation districts, which operate
and manage the dams and res-
ervoirs.
The lawsuits allege the bu-
reau and districts have harmed
spotted frogs. In a news release,
WaterWatch said “managing
the Deschutes more like an ir-
rigation ditch than a river has
caused significant damage to
river health.”
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Central Oregon irrigation dis-
tricts worry they’ll be restricted
by lawsuits over the Oregon
spotted frog, which is listed as
threatened under the federal
Endangered Species Act.
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Workers with Pioneer Equipment in American Falls, Idaho, check to see how much quinoa is being missed
by the harvester in a 35-acre field at Koompin Farms. Growers say their quinoa fields look good this season.
Eastern Idaho reports
strong quinoa yields
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho —
Quinoa should pay dividends
this season for Idaho Falls
businessman Jeremiah Clark
and 14 Eastern Idaho growers
who gambled on raising the
high-protein, gluten-free crop.
Last season’s harvest
confirmed the risk of experi-
menting with a sensitive crop
that’s new to the area. Sprout
damage claimed most of
the 20-acre field Clark com-
missioned in Grace, though
he salvaged enough seed to
plant 400 acres in small fields
around the region this season.
Following the Aug. 25
harvest of the first of this sea-
son’s quinoa fields, Clark, a
seed-cleaning business owner,
believes he’s finally witnessed
quinoa’s potential.
Kamren Koompin, who
raised 35 acres of irrigated
quinoa for Clark, reported
yields of 800 to 1,000 pounds
per acre in American Falls.
Clark pays quinoa growers $1
per pound.
Clark said the weather was
ideal for quinoa this season.
High temperatures came in
June, and the weather cooled
to more ideal temperatures
when the crop reached its crit-
ical flowering stage.
“This year might be the
year we look back to for the
next 20 years as far as (qui-
noa) yield because of the
strong yield we’ve had,”
Clark said.
Eric Jellen, a Brigham
Young University agricultural
professor and a quinoa expert,
was encouraged upon evaluat-
ing some of Clark’s fields.
“The fields I saw near
Soda Springs look terrific,”
Jellen said. “Quinoa is no-
torious for having seed-set
problems when it is very hot
at flowering time. However, I
am cautiously optimistic.”
Clark has launched a fund-
raising campaign on Kick-
starter, selling quinoa directly
to customers to buy a new col-
or sorter. He’s also had plans
drawn to build a small facility
to sort and pack quinoa for his
own packaging or delivery
to other interested customers
such as ADM or Scoular, Co.
He hopes to build on this sea-
son’s success and use much of
the seed to expand to 2,000 to
3,000 acres of quinoa in East-
ern Idaho next season, sell-
ing the remainder of his bulk
commercially.
He obtained his seed by
sorting the white kernels
from a mix-colored public
variety from Colorado. He’s
also breeding his own white
quinoa variety, Kailey, which
produces dwarf-sized plants,
denser heads and larger ker-
nels.
Koompin planted his qui-
noa in 36-inch rows, running
a cultivator through the mid-
dle and sending in crews with
hoes to control weeds in the
absence of tested quinoa her-
bicides.
Koompin said quinoa re-
quired about half the water
of barley or wheat, and even
with the added labor, he con-
siders it worth planting again.
“If the market is there,
I think it would be a pretty
good longterm deal,” Koomp-
in said. “I don’t think it’s ever
going to be widespread. It
wouldn’t take much to flood
the market.”
University of Idaho Ex-
tension weed specialist Pam
Hutchinson started a quinoa
trial in Aberdeen this season
to evaluate herbicides. No ini-
tial scenarios were effective,
but she anticipates having bet-
ter results after adjusting ap-
plication rates, and evaluating
additional products formerly
used in conventional sugar
beet production.
Hutchinson assisted with
hand weeding of trial plots
planted by UI agronomist Xi
Liang to evaluate quinoa in
Eastern Idaho rotations.
Despite the crippling
drought, the value of Fresno
County’s agricultural produc-
tion set a record in 2014 at
more than $7.03 billion, the
county’s agricultural commis-
sioner reports.
The total was a more than
9 percent increase from 2013’s
$6.44 billion in receipts and
was up nearly 7 percent from
2012’s then-record $6.58 mil-
lion, noted the county’s annual
crop report.
“This report is a testament
to the resiliency and determi-
nation of the Fresno County
agricultural industry,” Agri-
cultural Commissioner/Sealer
of Weights and Measures Les
Wright told county supervisors
when he gave the report Aug.
25.
While officials credit Fres-
no County’s diversity of crops
— more than 400 are produced
there — county Farm Bureau
Executive Director Ryan Ja-
cobsen said favorable com-
modity prices are saving many
growers from taking losses, or
suffering deeper ones.
“Without a doubt we’re
having challenges and strug-
gles through this historic
drought, but we’ve been for-
tunate,” Jacobsen told the
Capital Press. “We have an in-
credibly strong desire for Cali-
fornia-grown products (among
consumers), and that has really
driven up the demand for what
we’re producing.”
The county’s $1.3 billion
almond industry was by far
the top-valued crop, increas-
ing from $1.1 billion in 2013
even though growers statewide
struggled last fall to meet the
2013 production total of 2 bil-
lion meat pounds.
Though an estimated
10,000 acres of almond trees
were bulldozed last year amid
the drought, statewide totals
were buoyed by a net gain of
20,000 acres to reach a historic
high of 860,000 acres of pro-
ductive almond trees, accord-
ing to the National Agricultur-
al Statistics Service.
Grapes, the No. 2 crop,
took a hit in Fresno County last
year, posting $905 million in
value after topping $1 billion
in 2013, Wright reported. But
poultry ($655 million), milk
($636.5 million) and cattle and
calves ($575 million) round-
ed out the top five by posting
gains, the report showed.
In all, Fresno County —
the nation’s top agricultural
county — exported 183 com-
modities in over 20,000 ship-
ments to 101 countries last
year, Wright told the board.
Field crops suffered mighti-
ly, declining by more than 36
percent as thousands of acres
on the Westside were fallowed
because of the lack of water.
Jacobsen cautions that the
crop report only reflects gross
values and doesn’t take into
account net income or losses
to producers. He said values
would have been even greater
if 25 percent of the county’s
farmland hadn’t been fal-
lowed.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Mendota, Calif., area grower Mark Turmon, right, talks with Roger
Isom, left, and Chris McGlothlin of the Western Agricultural Processors
Association about his almond crop in April. Fresno County’s $1.3 billion
almond crop helped the county set a record for crop value in 2014.
WDFW draws a line against Huckleberry wolf pack
After so many
attacks, why
another chance?
rancher asks
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
One more depredation by
a troublesome pack in north-
east Washington will lead to
the lethal removal of wolves,
a Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife official
said Friday.
Seriously injuring a sheep
dog this month in Stevens
County will count as a strike
against the Huckleberry
pack, which killed at least 26
sheep last summer belonging
to the dog’s owner, rancher
Dave Dashiell.
Donny Martorello, WD-
FW’s wolf policy coor-
dinator, said Dashiell has
tried everything possible —
lights, alarms, dogs, fences
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife wolf policy coordina-
tor Donny Martorello talks to the media Aug. 4 at the Teanaway
Community Forest in Central Washington about wolf management.
Martorello said Aug. 21 that WDFW will lethally remove wolves
in the Huckleberry pack in northeastern Washington if the pack’s
northern group is responsible for another depredation.
and more human presence
— to deter wolves.
“If we get a second depre-
dation there will be a recog-
nition that we have put those
things on the landscape and
that the depredations are
continuing,”
Martorello
said.
Martorello and other
WDFW officials outlined in
a conference call with the
department’s wolf advisory
group non-lethal efforts to
protect livestock from the
Huckleberry pack, which
has split into north and south
groups.
The red line drawn by
WDFW applies only to the
north group, which was
blamed for injuring the dog.
If the south group attacks
livestock or guard dogs, “I
think we would take a pause
and review everything we
know,” Martorello said in an
interview.
Stevens County Cattle-
men’s Association President
Justin Hedrick said WDFW
was being too lenient, con-
sidering the pack’s record.
Because of last summer’s
depredations, WDFW au-
thorized shooting up to four
wolves. One female wolf
was killed before WDFW
suspended the operation be-
cause the sheep were no lon-
ger in the pack’s territory.
“I don’t understand why
there’s a reset button,” Hed-
rick said during the confer-
ence call. “Why would you
wait for two (depredations)
when this pack has already
been eligible for lethal re-
moval?”
Martorello said WDFW
was trying to apply its pol-
icies in a case that pushed
the department into new ter-
ritory. WDFW generally will
consider lethal removal after
four depredations involving
a pack. The Huckleberry
pack has been involved in
more than four depredations,
but the incidents were sepa-
rated by months.
Shawn Cantrell, Defend-
ers of Wildlife’s Northwest
director, said lethal remov-
al may be the right move if
there’s another depredation,
but WDFW should have
waited to make that decision.
“I would like them to
allow for more flexibili-
ty. The circumstances are
hard to predict,” he said.
“I’m pleased the department
is continuing to invest in
non-lethal measures to pre-
vent a second depredation. I
think that’s what everybody
wants.”