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August 28, 2015 CapitalPress.com 5 Water districts sue, blast feds over Trinity River releases By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press REDDING, Calif. — San Joaquin Valley water districts have sued to stop releases of Central Valley Project water down the Trinity River for fish, and farm advocates say a federal agency is sending mixed mes- sages about the drought. The U.S. Bureau of Recla- mation on Aug. 21 announced it would begin releasing as much as 88,000 acre-feet of water from Trinity Reservoir to pro- vide cooler and higher water in the Klamath River for returning chinook salmon. The Westlands Water District and San Luis and Delta-Mendo- ta Water Authority immediately sued in U.S. District Court to stop the releases, arguing that more than 200,000 acre-feet of water has already been flushed down the Lower Klamath River for fish in the last four years. “It has a water-supply im- pact to folks in our region,” said Dan Nelson, executive director of the 29-district San Luis and Delta-Mendota authority. “A lot of our water users this year got a zero allocation from the Central Valley Project, and the reason they got a zero allocation was there supposedly wasn’t enough water in storage to be able to dedicate for endangered spe- cies and still be able to make a delivery (to farmers) in this type of year. “On the other hand, all of the sudden this water becomes available for another use on the Klamath side,” he said. Nelson said federal officials had cited a need to keep enough water in the Sacramento River for endangered salmon as the reason no CVP water was allo- cated for agriculture south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. However, the water sent down the Trinity from the Lew- iston Dam wouldn’t have been available for the Sacramen- to system this year if it hadn’t been released, said Shane Hunt, a Reclamation spokesman in Sacramento, The Associated Press reported. “It is water that would have stayed in the Trini- ty for next year for temperature management and other project purposes,” Hunt said. “It could have been water we would have moved over next year depending on what happened this winter.” The releases were requested by the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes and Humboldt County to prevent an outbreak of a gill-rot- ting disease known as Ich — short for Ichthyophthirius mul- tifillis — which spreads in low and warm water conditions. Bureau officials said the measure was necessary to stave off a large-scale salmon die-off like one that occurred in the Klamath River in 2002, which environmentalists blamed on Reclamation’s decision to re- store irrigation water to farms in the Klamath Basin. The move comes as Uni- versity of California-Davis re- searchers say California’s now 4-year-old drought will cost the state’s agriculture $1.84 billion in 2015 and cause the fallowing of 542,000 acres — about one- fifth more land than was forced out of production last year. For the second straight year, the Bureau of Reclamation al- located no water this year for agricultural land without senior water rights either north or south of the Delta, leaving the bulk of the CVP’s nearly 2 million acres of irrigated farmland without surface water. “It’s frustrating to see water that, when others have a zero water allocation … may be a po- tential opportunity for additional water resources, and it’s literally flushed out to the ocean,” West- lands spokeswoman Gayle Hol- man said. Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, agrees. He said “even a small fraction” of the 55 million acre-feet flushed through the Delta for environ- mental purposes in the last four years would have “made a huge dent” in the drought for farmers. As it is, about 25 percent of the farmland in Fresno County — the nation’s top-producing agricultural county — is fal- lowed because of a lack of wa- ter, he said. “It’s a lack of leadership in Washington, D.C., to change some of these practices that are taking place,” Jacobsen said. The water districts have re- quested a temporary restraining order to stop the releases and had not received a decision as of the Capital Press deadline. Last year a federal judge denied the injunction sought by irrigators. The bureau’s Hunt declined to comment on the litigation. The districts assert the water planned for release is enough to farm 31,000 acres of food or serve more than 175,000 ur- ban families for a year. Nelson laments that the releases appear to be becoming an annual occur- rence even though the bureau characterizes them as emergen- cy measures. “The bottom line is that this is a very critical year,” Nelson said. “There are a lot of agricul- tural users who have absolutely no allocations this year and ur- ban folks are trucking in water.” By DAN WHEAT Oregon’s wine grape harvest begins, and looks promising Capital Press By ERIC MORTENSON Apple price recovery may take time, expert says Capital Press This year’s smaller U.S. ap- ple crop will help prices recov- er but it will still take time, says a longtime industry observer. “This will be a better year, but not what we’re accustom to. Not average prices of $22 per box,” said Desmond O’Ro- urke, a private consultant and retired Washington State Uni- versity agriculture economics professor. A 234.8-million-box fresh and processed U.S. apple crop was forecast at the U.S. Apple Association’s 120th annual con- ference at Chicago’s Ritz-Carl- ton Hotel on Aug. 20-21. More than 300 people attended the conference including 57 from 15 foreign countries. The forecast is down 14 percent from 2014 and down 1 percent from the five-year av- erage. Last year’s crop hit 272 million, 1994’s crop was 273 million, and the record was 277 million in 1998. The forecast is 7.4 million, 42-pound boxes less than the USDA’s Aug. 12 forecast due to weather-related factors in Washington state. The biggest volume drop from last year is in Washington, where heat, drought and hail have reduced the crop. It’s forecast, at 125.2 million fresh packed box- es and 143 million fresh and processed boxes, is down from 173.8 million last year. New York is down 15 per- cent at 26.2 million boxes and Michigan is down just 2 per- cent at 24 million. Washington apple prices tumbled to as low as $9 per Dan Wheat/Capital Press David Jimenez, foreman at Collins Orchard, Chelan, Wash., moves a bin of Gala apples to a loading area Aug. 17, just three days after the orchard was singed by a wildfire. The industry hopes a smaller national crop helps increase apple prices. box for Red Delicious in the past year, primarily due to the record crop. Slowdown of ex- ports through West Coast ports and closure of the Russian mar- ket also impacted prices. “It takes awhile to persuade retailers to move prices back up. It’s hard to get them back up in one year,” O’Rourke said, noting Washington’s crop is still forecast to be the third larg- est in history. Don Armock, president of Riveridge Produce in Sparta, Mich., said prices should be better with a smaller crop. He said heat is pressuring size and harvest timing of Washington apples. Michigan and New York marketers are concerned they’ll have a harder startup because of Washington’s early crop beating them into the market, Armock said. Washington’s early crop also is aided by a lighter crop in California, O’Rourke said. Cal- ifornia is forecast at 4.8 million boxes, down 16 percent from last year. Canada’s apple crop is pro- jected at 14.3 million boxes, Eola Hills Wine Cellars west of Salem began picking grapes Aug. 26, marking one of the earliest starts to the Willa- mette Valley harvest on record. The very early outlook: An- other big harvest in terms of yield, and quality appears good as well, vineyard Manager Jim Huggins. Crews picked Chardonnay grapes to make sparkling wine, and may pick Pinor Noir grapes for sparkling wine on Friday, Huggins said. Like multiple other Oregon crops, wine grapes are coming on about two weeks early due to an unusually warm, dry summer. If weather conditions hold, the wine made from this year’s crop may rival the 2014 vin- tage, which winery managers described as outstanding. “Typically when we get a lot of heat, the wines are big and bright,” Huggins said. “It really depends on how we end up the season. “If rain sets in, a fantastic crop can turn into an average crop in pretty short order.” In response to the long string of hot days, vineyard managers kept more fruit on the vine so the grapes wouldn’t ripen too quickly, Huggins said. The grapes are healthy, with very little disease pressure, he said. “We’re very optimistic it will be a real nice year,” he said. “Certainly a big year, be- cause there’s a lot of fruit hang- ing out there.” Farther north, at Stoller Family Estate vineyard in Yam- hill County’s famed Dundee Hills, vineyard manager Rob Schultz reported a similar out- look. Stoller also began picking Wednesday, harvesting Pinot Noir grapes for sparkling wine. “Things look good,” Schul- tz said. “We had no disease outbreak, no sunburn, no vine stress. “I’m surprised,” he said. “With all the heat I anticipated more stress. But the vines are really happy, they like it warm and dry.” Schultz agreed wine quality could be excellent, based on conditions now. “I think if you liked 2014, you’ll love 2015 – very similar season,” he said. down 26 percent from last year while Mexico is forecast at 24.2 million, up from 16.6 mil- lion last year and 26.2 percent above its five-year average, said Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association. USDA surveying farmers on management practices By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press The USDA is surveying growers about their manage- ment and conservation prac- tices. USDA’s National Agricul- tural Statistics Service will con- tact 2,100 winter wheat farmers Sept. 1 through Dec. 2, includ- ing 370 in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, for its Agricultural Resource Management Survey. NASS will contact 24,000 farmers through Oct. 1 for its Conservation Effects Assess- ment Project. NASS is also contacting farmers in 11 states, including Oregon and Washington, for its Fruit Chemical Use Survey, asking about pesticides and fer- tilizers used, acres treated and microbial food safety practices. NASS will schedule inter- views with growers, said Chris Mertz, Northwest regional di- rector in Olympia. The wheat survey is estimated to take 35 minutes, while the CEAP aver- ages 70 minutes. “We’re catching them at a busy time, so we try to sched- ule it to meet their schedule the best,” Mertz said. “We’ll work with the producer to make it as easy and quick as possible.” The most precise informa- tion possible is preferred, Mertz said. NASS will review infor- mation if it appears to be incor- rect or is an outlier with other reports, in order to explain why something might be different on a particular farm. NASS hopes to determine what nutrients, pesticides or fertilizer applications were made on specific winter wheat fields during the growing sea- son, Mertz said. Growers will answer whether they used best management practices, such as no-till or planted earlier or later to avoid weeds. “There’s always new things people are trying,” Mertz said. “I give credit to farm producers who research and look at new ways to make their crops better, more successful.” CEAP is funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Farmers will talk about their con- servation plans, practices they’ve adopted and crops they’ve grown in recent years. NASS will ask questions about pesticide, fertil- izer and manure applications and pest control measures. 35-1/#4X Joyce Capital, Inc. In agriculture, nothing is certain. 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