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January 1, 2016 CapitalPress.com 5 Irrigators anxious over spotted frog lawsuit voirs in a harmful manner before it completes a required consultation about the effects on the frog. Binomial name: Rana pretiosa An adverse ruling in the Appearance: Medium-size frog ranging from 1.75 to 4 inches long. Body case could have a huge im- color varies with age. Adults appear brown to reddish brown with black pact on nearly 1,000 farmers spots with ragged edges. in the North Unit Irrigation Courtesy of U.S. Fish Range: British Columbia, Washington, District, which in dry years and Wildlife Service Oregon and California By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI relies on the Wickiup Reser- Habitat: Found in or near Capital Press voir for nearly 100 percent of perennial bodies of water that A lawsuit over the effect of include zones of shallow its water. water reservoirs on the threat- water and vegetation. Even in years with healthy ened Oregon spotted frog Status: Threatened snowpack and precipitation could result in irrigation dis- Reasons for decline: levels, the district gets rough- ruptions for more than 4,600 Habitat loss, competition ly half of its water from the from non-native species, farmers. reservoir. predation Growers in two Central “To return it to a natural Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Oregon irrigation districts are Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service K\GURORJLF ÀRZ LV GLI¿FXOW nervously watching the case, at best, without harming local which pits the Center for Bi- form such an order may take. irrigation, other egg masses farmers and ranchers,” said ological Diversity environ- “We’re just sort of waiting along their margins are dried Mike Britton, the district’s mental group against the U.S. to see what their next move up, the complaint alleges. general manager. “How that Bureau of Reclamation, the is,” said Shon Rae, communi- 5LYHUÀRZVDUHUHGXFHGDV would be accomplished, we agency operating the Crane cations manager for the Cen- water accumulates in the res- really don’t know.” Prairie and Wickiup reser- tral Oregon Irrigation District, ervoirs, stranding adult and The Central Oregon Irri- voirs. which depends on water from juvenile frogs on dry land and gation District’s 3,650 grow- The lawsuit alleges the the Wickiup Reservoir. isolating their populations, ers use water from the Crane reservoirs have altered natural According to the Center resulting in in-breeding, the Prairie Reservoir to supple- ZDWHU ÀRZV LQ WKH 'HVFKXWHV for Biological Diversity, the group claims. ment their irrigation needs River to the point of interfer- IURJ¶VHJJPDVVHVDUHÀXVKHG The Center for Biological during the early and late parts ing with the frog’s life cycle. out when the water levels in Diversity contends that the of the season, depending on While the complaint asks a the reservoirs rise rapidly. federal government has vio- ULYHUÀRZV federal judge for injunctive When water is later re- lated the Endangered Species Oregon spotted frogs have relief, it doesn’t specify what leased from the reservoirs for Act by operating the reser- survived in the area even Reservoir operations blamed for lifecycle disruptions At a glance Oregon spotted frog though the reservoirs were created nearly 100 years ago, Rae said. They’ve also de- veloped a large population surrounding the Crane Prairie Reservoir. “Essentially, we’ve created habitat for them,” she said. Noah Greenwald, endan- gered species director for the environmental group, ac- knowledged that the frog lives on the margins of both reser- YRLUV DQG EHQH¿WV IURP WKH stored water. However, the reservoirs have to be managed with few- HU PDMRU ÀXFWXDWLRQV VLQFH quick buildups and releases of water are chaotic for the frogs, he said. “They can still deliver wa- ter to the irrigators, they just need to do it in a more careful way,” Greenwald said. “They have to do things more grad- ually and at different times of the year.” Such changes in manage- ment would inevitably hurt irri- gators, said Mike Britton of the North Unit Irrigation District. More water would be stored in the reservoir during irrigation season, reducing the amount diverted for agricul- ture, and more water would be allowed to pass through dams during the winter, decreasing storage levels, he said. “It’s quite a conundrum,” he said, noting that lower riv- er levels in summer would KXUW WKUHDWHQHG ¿VK ³7KHUH are other species to be consid- ered, not just the frog.” Irrigators want to help the frog by replacing irrigation ditches with pipes, which saves water and makes them less dependent on the reser- YRLUVVDLG5DH0RUHHI¿FLHQW irrigation practices will also help in this respect. Although the irrigation districts aren’t named as de- fendants in this lawsuit, the Waterwatch of Oregon en- vironmental group has said they’ll be named as defen- dants in another spotted frog case that will also include the Tumalo Irrigation District. Such litigation threatens to distract irrigators’ focus and sap resources from such improvements, she said. “It would be great if they wouldn’t sue us so we could just complete the process.” Raw milk’s growth expands WSDA’s workload By DON JENKINS Capital Press TUMWATER, Wash. — Raw milk dairies have weath- ered recalls, illnesses and warning labels to enjoy “tre- mendous growth” in Wash- ington, creating a large gap between licensing fees the dairies pay and the money the state spends on testing unpas- teurized products, according to the state Department of Ag- riculture. Federal authorities ban interstate raw milk sales and brand unpasteurized dairy products as unsafe and with- out nutritional advantages. Washington, however, has largely supported raw milk dairies, adopting laws to spur the industry’s growth and as- sessing dairies a fraction of the costs for inspections, tests and emergency responses. Don Jenkins/Capital Press Washington State Department of Agriculture microbiologist Fonda Olsen holds up a raw milk sample at the department’s microbiology lab in Tumwater. Despite sicknesses, recalls and warnings, raw milk dairies have thrived in Washington. WSDA has asked the Legislature for money to hire another microbiologist to keep up with the workload. At WSDA’s request, Gov. Jay Inslee’s budget propos- al to the 2016 Legislature includes $125,500 from the general fund to hire anoth- er microbiologist to test raw milk. WSDA had asked for twice that amount to hire two mi- crobiologists. WSDA’s only other fund- ing requests were to control Asian gypsy moths, a threat to Christmas trees and nurseries, and apple maggots, a menace to the state’s most valuable farm product. WSDA’s request for more microbiologists to test raw milk came after it studied how much the department’s food-safety programs spend monitoring raw milk. Although raw milk makes up only 10 percent of the sam- ples sent to WSDA’s microbi- ology laboratory, it accounts for one-third of all tests run at the lab. Besides the tests conduct- ed on pasteurized milk, raw milk undergoes additional VFUHHQLQJDQGSRWHQWLDOO\¿YH more tests for illness-causing pathogens, the laboratory’s director, Yong Lui, said. WSDA estimates it spends $460,000 a year licensing, in- specting, and collecting and testing samples from 40 raw milk dairies. The department also says LWUHVSRQGVWRRQHWR¿YHFDV es of contaminated raw milk each year, spending $4,666 per incident. Raw milk producers pay the standard $250 dairy plant license fee, raising about $10,000 a year. The study concluded that the assessment for raw milk dairies would have to be more than $12,000 to cover the de- partment’s expenses. “Since many raw milk pro- GXFHUV DUH YHU\ VPDOO ¿UPV with only a few cows, an an- nual assessment of that mag- nitude would be extremely challenging for most raw milk licensees to absorb,” accord- ing to the study’s conclusion. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Cen- ters for Disease Control and Prevention warn against con- suming raw milk or unpas- teurized dairy products. Washington is one of 12 states, which also include Idaho and California, that allow raw milk to be sold in retail stores, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some 19 other states, including Oregon, al- low raw milk to be sold di- rectly to consumers, such as at dairies or farmers’ markets. WSDA has issued 15 raw milk recalls in the past eight years. Nevertheless, the num- ber of licensed dairies has in- creased to 39 from seven in 2007. 5HWLUHG$PDOJDPDWHGRI¿FLDOVXJDUPDQRI\HDU Capital Press staff Vic Jaro, the retired president and CEO of Ida- ho-based Amalgamated Sugar, has been named the sugar industry’s man of the year for 2015. Jaro received the inter- national Sugar Club’s Dyer Memorial Award on Dec. 9 during a dinner in New York City. Jaro joined Amalgam- ated, the nation’s second largest processor of sugar beets, in 1973 as a mechan- ical engineer with the com- pany’s Twin Falls plant, ac- cording to a press release. Amalgamated process- es beet sugar from Idaho, Washington and Oregon. By 2002, he was vice president of agriculture, and he was president in 2006, until he retired ear- lier in 2015, following a 42-year career with Amal- gamated. Jaro also served on the board of trustees of the U.S. Beet Sugar Associa- tion and as chairman of the Sugar Association. Jaro graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, serving as an of- ficer in the Merchant Ma- rine and Naval Reserve pri- or to joining Amalgamated. The press release credits Jaro with playing a major role in introducing geneti- cally modified beets engi- neered to resist Roundup herbicide, and with es- tablishing National Sugar Marketing, which is a joint venture with Sucden Amer- icas to market Amalgamat- ed’s sugar. He also led efforts to modernize beet pile man- agement, helping the com- pany reduce sugar losses, helped implement practices that boosted yields and im- plemented an improvement plan that increased profit- ability at three Amalgam- ated factories, according to the press release. 1-4/#5 49-2/#8