October 2, 2015
CapitalPress.com
5
Drought
Ecology Early cranberry harvest shapes up as dry run
Drought could
vows
slow down reaping
speedy bumper crop
drought
response
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
LONG BEACH, Wash.
— Severe drought persists on
Washington’s coast, compli-
cating the region’s cranberry
harvest.
“I’ve never had a year
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
like this in 35 years,” grower
Malcolm McPhail said. “The
The Washington Depart- weather this year is a tough
ment of Ecology will begin deal.”
working with drought-stricken
For several months, the
irrigation districts as soon as weather had been mostly on
-DQXDU\WR¿QGZDWHUPRQWKV the side of the state’s cranberry
earlier than this year, the agen- growers, who are concentrated
cy’s director, Maia Bellon, along the southwest coast.
said.
The region’s hottest July on
“This historic drought is record, sandwiched between its
not over, and we’re already second-warmest June and Au-
planning for next year,” Bellon gust, challenged farmers to keep
told reporters in a conference vines from withering. McPhail’s
call. “We’re planning and pre- son, Steve McPhail, who also
paring to spend much more on grows cranberries, said that be-
leasing water this next year, fore this summer he had never
and very early.”
seen brown spots in bogs.
%HOORQDQGRWKHUVWDWHRI¿-
cials reported on the drought’s
impact and what agencies are
doing to be prepared for next
By JOHN O’CONNELL
year.
High on the list is getting Capital Press
a jump on facilitating tempo-
rary water leases, especially
BOISE — At the start of
in the Yakima Valley. DOE a new water year, oceanic
approves and subsidizes wa- conditions indicate North-
ter-right transfers. By the ern Idaho farmers will face
time the drought’s severity another dry winter, said Ron
became clear last spring, the Abramovich, water supply
region’s junior water-right specialist with USDA’s Nat-
holders were hard-pressed ural Resources Conservation
WR ¿QG ZDWHU HYHQ DW KLJK Service.
prices.
But the Southern Idaho
Roza Irrigation District outlook is much hazier, and
General Manager Scott Rev- history tells Abramovich not
ell told the Capital Press that to rule out an above-normal
starting the search in January snowpack for the region.
would be better.
The National Oceanic and
Some neighboring districts Atmospheric Administration
ÀDWO\ VDLG ³QR´ WR 5R]D KH projects all of the state will
said.
experience
above-normal
“We didn’t have the infor- temperatures and a likelihood
mation to make decisions un- of below-normal precipitation
til late April,” Revell said. “A this winter, with the odds of
lot of ground had already been dry weather progressively in-
planted.”
Bellon said the state will be
better positioned for a second
year of drought, which she said
is likely.
Unlike last year, DOE
will enter the year with a
drought-relief fund. This year,
DOE patched together a limited
response until the Legislature
allocated in late June $16 mil-
lion for drought relief over two
years.
Since then, DOE has com-
mitted $6.5 million and is
still considering requests for
drought-relief projects totaling
$1.8 million.
Western Washington had
what Bellon called “sweet re-
lief” from the drought in recent
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will be short-lived. Meanwhile,
Central and Eastern Washing-
ton have seen no improvement,
she said.
The drought has diminished
crops and lowered water sup-
plies heading into what clima-
tologists say will be another
warm winter, she said. “This
drought has gone in the wrong
direction, and we face water
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The Washington State De-
partment of Agriculture es-
timated in May that drought
losses could total $1.2 billion,
mostly in the Yakima Valley.
The number was only a rough
approximation that assumed
farmers would leave some
¿HOGVIDOORZ
Bellon said “agricultural
losses were worse than feared.”
Agriculture Director Derek
Sandison said he couldn’t say
whether losses will be higher
or lower than projected by his
department.
Analysts will have to take a
more nuanced approach to de-
termine actual losses, he said.
³,W¶VGLI¿FXOWWRGUDZEURDG
conclusions in this regard,”
Sandison said. “It would be
speculation on my part. We’re
several months away from hav-
ing hard numbers.”
Washington State Climatol-
ogist Nick Bond said it’s possi-
ble — he estimated there’s a 10
to 15 percent chance — that win-
ter will be just as warm as last
year.
“El Nino is rearing its head
LQ WKH 7URSLFDO 3DFL¿F´ KH
said. “All in all, the odds are
strongly tilted toward another
toasty winter.”
protection. In the past week,
nighttime temperatures started
dropping into the 30s, according
to Washington State Univer-
sity’s weather station in Long
Beach.
Besides ponds, Malcolm
McPhail, one of the state’s larg-
er cranberry producers, has wa-
ter rights to 35-acre Black Lake
on the Long Beach Peninsula.
To take advantage of a pre-
mium paid by the Ocean Spray
cooperative for berries picked
EHIRUH2FWREHU0F3KDLOÀRRG-
ed 4 acres with a foot of water
on Sept. 21 By Sept. 23, he was
revising his harvest plans be-
cause the lake was dropping too
fast.
“I’m slowing down because I
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Juan Hernandez rounds up cranberries Sept. 23 on the Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washing- don’t want to take any more wa-
ter out of Black Lake,” McPhail
ton. Cranberry growers receive a premium for harvesting before October, but the drought has led to a
VKRUWDJHRIZDWHUWRÀRRGERJVDQGHDUO\IDOOVKRZHUVKDYHEHHQOLJKW
said. “It’s serious. We’re waiting
for a big rainstorm.”
In October, the heart of
But berries grow better in the threatens to extend the harvest, SRQGVWRÀRRGERJVWKHQFKXUQ
sun than fog. The U.S. Depart- putting berries at risk of rot, the water to shake loose berries. the cranberry harvest, Long
ment of Agriculture projected frost and ripening into a dark
With ponds slow to recharge, Beach usually receives more
in August that this would be the color unsuited to consumer ex- farmers may have to move than 7 inches of rain. The U.S.
Climate Prediction Center
state’s best cranberry crop in pectations.
slower from bog to bog.
a decade. “This year has been
While some cranberry
Meanwhile, growers are be- forecasts that the month has
good,” Steve McPhail said.
growers dry pick their fruit, ginning to contend with colder equal chances of being wetter
The lack of rain, however, many draw from on-farm nights, using up water for frost or drier than normal.
Idaho moisture outlook better in south than north Abnormally
40-1/#4N
America along the equator —
and trade winds have held the
water in place.
Abramovich analyzed a
dozen strong El Nino years of
WKHSDVW¿QGLQJKDOIWKHWLPH
Southern Idaho experienced
above-normal snowpack.
Elsewhere in the state,
however, a strong El Nino
pattern translated to be-
low-average moisture 90
Courtesy of Natural Resources Conservation Service
percent of the time. He said
Phil Morrisey, a hydrologist with USDA’s Natural Resources Con-
the current pattern represents
servation Service trims vegetation surrounding the SNOTEL snow
the strongest El Nino since
measurement site at Bogus Basin in the foothills above Boise.
1983, which was an excep-
NRCS hydrology experts predict a dry winter in Northern Idaho but tional water year in Southern
optimistic Southern Idaho could still see ample moisture.
Idaho.
Under a strong El Nino,
creasing further north in the side than the drier side.”
Abramovich said, storms of-
state.
Abramovich explained a ten track from California and
“I’m a little more opti- strong El Nino pattern has enter Southern Idaho from the
mistic (for Southern Idaho),” developed — characterized Owyhee Basin, where grow-
Abramovich said. “I’m lean- by warm water stretching ers have faced extreme short-
ing more toward the wetter IURPWKHPLG3DFL¿FWR6RXWK ages in recent years.
warm, dry fall
in store for
Northwest,
expert say
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
3DFL¿F 1RUWKZHVW IDUPHUV
aren’t likely to see more pre-
cipitation this fall and winter,
a Washington State University
weather expert says.
Abnormally high tem-
peratures and dry conditions
are expected to linger, WSU
AgWeatherNet meteorologist
Nic Loyd said.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t
look good in terms of the ex-
pected snowpack situation
for the Cascades,” Loyd said.
“That will have an impact on
water supplies for 2016.”
Loyd blames a shift in the
global atmospheric circulation,
with a unusually warm ridge of
high pressure over the region,
coming from the equator in-
stead of the colder regions. The
Northwest has been isolated in
the weather anomaly from the
rest of the U.S., he said.
Colder periods during the
winter when snow falls in the
mountains are likely, he said,
but long-term weather fore-
casts and short-term climate
models suggest a strong and
strengthening El Nino, which
typically means a dry winter
and spring in the Northwest.
,W FRXOG EH DQRWKHU ³GLI¿-
cult” water year through next
summer, Loyd said.
“Hopefully not, I can’t
imagine it would be as unusu-
al as the last year or so, when
we had a record-low snowpack
followed by a record warm
summer, so you have a very
unfortunate combination of
very low supply followed by
very high demand,” he said.
Loyd expects a turnaround to
begin in mid-2016.
“Historically, after strong
El Nino events, that situation
tends to shift away towards
neutral or maybe even La Nina
conditions the following win-
ter,” he said. “It doesn’t always
happen, but history would
GH¿QLWHO\EHRQRXUVLGH´
WSU’s fall forecast was
met with a mixed response
from two of the state’s largest
commodity groups.
“We hope they’re wrong,”
said Glen Squires, CEO of the
Washington Grain Commission.
Higher temperatures in-
creased protein in wheat,
above levels desired by some
key overseas customers, and
reduced the wheat crop.
This was the second dry
year in a row, Squires said.
“Instead of spring rains, we
had triple-digit temperatures,”
he said. “We’re hoping maybe
this third year has a little more
moisture to offer.”
Todd Fryhover, president of
the Washington Apple Commis-
sion, said a warmer fall would
help apple farmers in the short-
term. It provides the opportunity
to harvest fruit thoroughly and
in an orderly manner, he said.