September 11, 2015
CapitalPress.com
15
Rain, snow dampen N. Washington fires
Big backburn
avoided; Interior
secretary visits
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
OKANOGAN, Wash. —
Rain and snow dampened the
371,960-acre Tunk Block and
North Star wildfires northeast
of Okanogan over the Labor
Day weekend.
Ranchers say they talked
fire managers, led by the U.S.
Forest Service, out of burning
22,000 acres of grazing allot-
ments between the two fires
before the rain and snow fell.
Ranchers also voiced their
concerns about government
forest management to U.S. In-
terior Secretary Sally Jewell,
who visited the fires on Labor
Day.
Large portions of the fires
are in mop up and patrol
mode, fire lines continue to
Courtesy of Katlenia Vejraska
Part of Moses Meadows, about a foot deep in ash, is shown on the
southwestern edge of the North Star Fire on Sept. 6. Katlenia and
Todd Vejraska fixed some fence and spent five hours looking for
cows that day. They found some orphan-looking calves and saw
five bears, deer and some moose tracks.
be built and burnouts to se-
cure uncontained areas are
expected by the weekend,
said Shannon O’Brien, a For-
est Service fire spokeswom-
an.
On Sept. 4, ranchers were
alarmed by plans for a large
burnout to protect several
hundred residents in the Ae-
neas Valley north of the fires.
“They say 22,000 acres is
an overstatement and that it
was a contingency plan, but
my (USFS) rangecon told me
about it and to start moving
cows and it seemed more
likely to happen than not,”
said Todd Vejraska, one of
three ranchers directly im-
pacted.
“It was the last piece of
our allotments that hadn’t
burned yet,” he said.
Much of the Vejraskas’
own 4,500 acres of graz-
ing land burned in the Tunk
Block fire along with about
one-third of their agency
grazing allotments. Their
permits total about 100,000
acres with the Colville Con-
federated Tribes and 28,000
with the Forest Service.
The Vejraskas run 600 to
700 pair of cattle and have
not found any dead. Many,
they believe, are in meadows
in the unburned stretch be-
tween the fires.
Vejraska called state Rep.
Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, and
Okanogan County Commis-
sioner Sheilah Kennedy, who
spoke with fire managers.
Collectively, Kennedy, Kretz
and ranchers talked fire man-
agers out of the backburn,
Vejraska said.
“They said it was always
a contingency plan, but it
seemed likely to happen,” he
said.
O’Brien said the area in
question was about 3,600
acres and that it wasn’t close
to being backburned but that
ranchers were being notified
in case it was.
About 170 firefighters
built seven or eight miles of
fire line on the northeast edge
of the Tunk Block fire, she
said. Backburning may still
be needed to protect Aeneas
Valley and will be done to
protect the town of Republic
from the North Star fire, she
said.
Moisture dampened fires
but was not enough to finish
them off, Vejraska said.
Jon Wyss, government
affairs director of Gebbers
Farms and Gamble Land &
Timber in Brewster, issued
a public statement following
the meeting with Jewell say-
ing locals emphasized forest
management could reduce
fuel loads and wildfire inten-
sity. Massive fires are chal-
lenging the ability of riparian
areas to hold water for fish,
he said.
Proactive forest man-
agement is “squashed” by
threats, lawsuits and appeals
by certain groups, Wyss said.
Agencies and their for-
esters know how to manage,
but the environmental com-
munity won’t let them do it,
Vejraska said.
“A happy medium of al-
lowing some activity to thin
and manage riparian buffer
zones in a responsible man-
ner has to start in conjunction
with regular timber sales,”
Wyss said. “This string of
wildfire, destructive events
could and should be the cat-
alyst to find the proper bal-
ance again in our Western
forests.”
Farm Bureau sponsors live milking at fair
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Cool nights after a record warm summer can improve wine quality
this year, as it did for these Oregon Pinot Noir grapes in 2014.
Arrival of cool
nights should
help wine quality
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Unusually warm weath-
er made for an early start
to the wine grape harvest
in the Pacific Northwest
and Northern California,
and continued cool nights
should assure quality is top
notch, a research climatolo-
gist said.
Gregory Jones, a pro-
fessor at Southern Oregon
University who tracks the
industry and specializes
in how climate variabili-
ty affects vine growth and
wine production, said many
growers are reporting the
earliest harvest since 1992,
or the earliest harvest ever
at their vineyards.
Early ripening and spar-
kling wine varieties were
the first picked, Jones said
in an email newsletter he
circulates to about 3,000
subscribers in the West.
“All other varieties are
lining up for harvest but the
recent shift to cool nights
will allow for some time-
ly queuing for flavors to
develop,” Jones said in his
Sept. 5 newsletter.
The unusually hot sum-
mer, of course, is the reason
for an early harvest.
Average temperatures for
August were one to four de-
grees above normal in Cali-
fornia, Oregon, Washington
and Idaho, Jones reported.
The increase in de-
gree-day accumulation —
the combination of heat and
time required to complete a
plant’s growth — was even
more striking, especially in
Oregon and Washington,
Jones said.
Degree-day
accumu-
lation in both states as of
Sept. 1 was 10 to 15 per-
cent above 2014, another
hot summer, and 30 to 35
percent higher than 1981 to
2010 averages, he said.
The arrival of cooler
nights, if the pattern holds,
can put a good finish on
what appears to be another
good grape crop.
“There are two things
that help plants to start
ripening, especially wine
grapes,” Jones said. “Short-
er days, and cool nights.
That is an environmental
cue to tell the plant, ‘We
have to ripen this fall.’ ”
The same thing happens
with tomatoes, which take
on a deep red color as sum-
mer ebbs, he said.
“Those cooler nights
tell them to do this soon or
you’re not going to ripen,”
Jones said.
Jones said vineyard man-
agers face day to day har-
vest decisions in such con-
ditions. “How long do they
leave fruit out there to get
the different flavors they
want?” he said.
Jones agreed Oregon
growers are optimistic at
harvest time no matter the
conditions.
“It’s kind of like in Bor-
deau, in France,” he said
with a laugh. “It’s always
the vintage of the century.”
BLACKFOOT, Idaho —
Children who lined up for the
main attraction of the Idaho
Farm Bureau Federation-spon-
sored Meet the Animals booth
at the Eastern Idaho State Fair
each got to produce a couple of
squirts of milk from a live cow.
The experience was short
lived.
But Connie Boger, co-own-
er of the traveling educational
animal exhibit Animal Spe-
cialties, believes the experi-
ence serves a vital purpose and
makes a lasting impression on
participants, who take advan-
tage of an opportunity that’s
becoming increasingly hard to
find.
“It’s not just for kids. It’s for
adults, as well, because there’s
a lot of women that come up
and say, ‘This has been on my
bucket list for years,’” Boger
said.
Prior to a scheduled milk-
ing time at the fair, hosted from
Sept. 5-12, Boger explained to
her audience that Holsteins pro-
duce a greater volume of milk
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Connie Boger helps a girl milk a cow at the Idaho Farm Bureau
Federation-sponsored Meet the Animals Display during the Eastern
Idaho State Fair on Sept. 7.
than the Jersey she brought.
She also explained cows don’t
produce milk until after they
have a calf.
She said the most com-
mon question from children is,
“Why does the milk come out
warm?”
She feeds the milk to her
calves and pigs, which are also
part of the display.
Boger, of Lowell, Ark.,
travels 18,000 miles per year
trucking her display to fairs and
events throughout 12 states.
She’s been doing it for 20 years,
ever since she discovered as a
former elementary school ad-
ministrator, librarian and substi-
tute teacher that children have
become disconnected from food
production.
“Kids were so uneducated
about farm-related things,” Bo-
ger said. “I thought it was time
somebody go out and try to
teach them.”
For Kenzie Bingham, whose
family has a dairy in Weston,
Idaho, milking a cow at the fair
was nothing new. But Boger,
who was raised milking cows on
a South Dakota ranch, said large
dairies won’t allow public milk-
ing due to the liability, and most
children no longer have access
to family farms and dairies.
“Milking a cow is almost
gone,” Boger said. “It’s a part of
Americana that we have got to
keep alive.”
Children who missed live
cow milking times could still
enjoy a virtual experience with
Farm Bureau’s replica cow,
Maggie. Children who attempt-
ed “milking” the artificial cow,
on display at the fair, were each
given a carton of milk.
Bingham County Farm Bu-
reau President Gary Judge ex-
plained the state organization
has three Moving Agriculture
to the Classroom trailers, which
visit about 100 Idaho schools
each year. In addition to Maggie,
Judge said the trailers have ag-
ricultural lessons, and students
using the trailer get to make
pancakes from hand-milled
grain, and their own butter from
a small container of cream.
IPC to cover costs of using heart health checkmark
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
SUN VALLEY, Idaho —
The Idaho Potato Commission
plans to cover licensing fees for
any member shipper using the
American Heart Association’s
heart health checkmark on
packaging, thanks to savings
achieved in a recently renego-
tiated contract.
IPC announced the change
to the AHA program Sept. 3
during the Idaho Grower Ship-
pers Association’s annual meet-
ing. AHA officials say they now
plan to offer the same discount-
ed rates for all other qualifying
commodities.
After completing nutrition
assessments, IPC obtained
AHA Heart-Check certification
for four potato categories in the
spring of 2011. The recognition
came at a cost, however.
Under the original contract,
IPC paid $20,000 per year to
license Russets, fingerlings,
reds and yellows. Shippers had
to pay $1,000 per year for each
category eligible for the check-
mark.
The new contract reduces
IPC’s base rate to $12,000 per
year. Discounts for shipper
licenses will be tied to partici-
pation. For example, IPC Presi-
dent and CEO Frank Muir said
the cost of 50 shipper licenses
would drop from $50,000 per
Bill Schaefer/For the Capital Press
Linda Rupp, of the American
Heart Association’s Heart-
Check Certification Program,
presents details of a renego-
tiated contract with the Idaho
Potato Commission on Sept.
3, during the annual Idaho
Grower Shippers Association
meeting in Sun Valley.
year to $15,000. Muir said only
five of 30 Idaho shippers took
advantage of the checkmark
under the old contract, and
he asked top AHA executives
whether they considered it more
important to generate revenue
through their program or edu-
cate consumers about healthy
food choices.
“I felt like we could get much
more participation if we were
able to restructure our program
with our shippers,” Muir said.
Alex Barbieri, director of
the AHA program, said the or-
ganization will meet with oth-
er commodities about the new
contract options. The 20-year-
old program licenses 700 prod-
ucts, and research shows it in-
fluences more than 60 percent
of consumers. Barbieri said
the program is revenue-neutral,
with funds reinvested in staff-
ing and promotion.
“Not enough Americans are
eating healthy foods, especially
fruits and vegetables,” Barbieri
said. “There’s a lot of work we
need to do to get that message
out.”
Another change in the new
contract allows shippers to
obtain approval for new pack-
aging using the checkmark
through IPC rather than AHA,
which often requires several
months to process requests.
Randy Hardy, an IPC board
member from Oakley and
chairman of the board with Sun
Valley Potatoes, said his com-
pany hasn’t participated in the
checkmark program but likely
will soon, due to the changes.
“I think having that expense
waived, you’ll see guys pick it
up more,” Hardy said.
Hardy said shippers must
still bear the cost of updat-
ing printing plates to use the
checkmark, but he likes that
the new logo uses just two col-
ors, which is far cheaper than
the previous four-color logo.
Muir said the timing for a
third-party potato health mes-
sage is ideal, with new federal
nutrition guidelines expected
to come out soon, listing po-
tassium — a nutrient found in
abundance in spuds — as a key
concern.
Also during the meeting:
• Muir announced an in-
dependent research company,
Joyce, Julius & Associates,
commissioned by ESPN con-
cluded the annual advertising
value of the IPC-sponsored Fa-
mous Idaho Potato Bowl is $2.8
million. Under its new contract,
IPC pays $450,000 per year
to sponsor the college football
game, which will be played at
1:30 p.m. Dec. 22.
• IPC’s new Great Big Ida-
ho Potato Truck commercial
was scheduled to debut during
the Boise State University
football game against Uni-
versity of Washington, which
airs starting at 8:15 p.m. Sept.
4. The commercial features
grower Mark Coombs and his
dog and ESPN sideline report-
er Heather Cox. The next po-
tato truck tour will begin next
spring with “a big helping” as
the theme.
• IPC has launched a re-
designed website intended to
work better with hand-held
devices. The website receives
about 1 million hits per year.
Taiwan flour millers pledge $544 million to U.S. wheat exports over two years
Delegates touring
Idaho industry
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Taiwan flour millers will
pledge $544 million to ex-
port U.S. wheat over the
next two years.
The Taiwan Flour Mill-
ers Association will sign an
agreement supporting U.S.
wheat exports during a sign-
ing ceremony Sept. 12 in
Lewiston, Idaho. The agree-
ment is part of a delegation
visit Sept. 10-13.
The deal means the as-
sociation will import more
than 70,000 metric tons,
or 2.5 million bushels of
wheat, every month to be
distributed among all the
millers, according to a press
release from Idaho Gov.
Butch Otter’s office.
The association signs a
letter of intent every other
year, said Blaine Jacobson,
executive director of the
Idaho Wheat Commission.
In the months following,
the association puts through
purchase orders for wheat
tenders that total up to at
least that amount.
“There’s never been a
time that they haven’t ac-
tually exceeded what they
committed to purchase,”
Jacobson said. “$544 mil-
lion is what they’re com-
fortable committing to,
but we expect them to
actually buy more than
that.”
The total has gradually
increased, with $544 mil-
lion the largest total yet, Ja-
cobson said.
The agreement shows the
depth of Taiwan’s commit-
ment to buying wheat from
the United States, particu-
larly soft white wheat from
the Pacific Northwest, Ja-
cobson said.
The delegation will vis-
it a grain terminal, wheat
farm and grain elevator in
the Lewiston area, and will
be the wheat commission’s
guests of honor at the Lew-
iston Roundup Rodeo Sept.
12.
“They’re coming in to
take a look at this year’s
crop, which is very good
again,” Jacobson said.
“They’ll assess the quality
of it. They always like to
connect ... with the coun-
try elevators and the var-
ious pieces of the supply
chain.”
Taiwan is one of Idaho’s
five largest export custom-
ers, coming in fourth-larg-
est last year. Idaho imported
more than $470 million to
Taiwan last year, according
to the press release.