March 11, 2016
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Air law, expense clouds
Washington’s path to
controlled burns
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Lawmakers
appear willing to light more
controlled burns, though bud-
get and environmental con-
siderations stand in the way
of signiicantly increasing
the number of acres seared of
lame-feeding undergrowth.
“We’ve got a long ways to
go,” said Okanogan County
Rep. Joel Kretz, whose Eastern
Washington district has been
ravaged by wildires for two
straight summers.
“I think one of the biggest
things here is educating the
public that ‘no ire’ is not an
option. No smoke is not an op-
tion. It’s better to have a little
in the spring and fall, instead
of continual summer-long
smoke,” he said.
Washington’s million-acre
wildire season last summer
nearly tripled the acres burned
in 2014, which had been a re-
cord. Wildires were the sec-
ond-largest source of air pollu-
tion in the state in 2015, after
transportation. The ires cost
the state $164 million in un-
anticipated suppression costs.
In response, lawmakers likely
will pass one or more bills this
session related to suppressing
and preventing wildires.
Kretz has proposed reviving
controlled burns, a forest-thin-
ning practice that went into
decline after the Legislature
passed the Washington Clean
Air Act in 1991.
Kretz-sponsored legisla-
tion, House Bill 2928, has
passed both chambers unan-
imously, though in slightly
different versions that must be
reconciled.
The bill depends on an
$800,000 appropriation to
slightly increase controlled
burning by the state, perhaps
by 1,000 acres this year.
Kretz said he hopes con-
trolled burns in 2016 will
demonstrate to the 2017 Leg-
islature that they can be done
safely and with less smoke than
released by raging wildires.
“We’ve got to get a suc-
cessful track record,” he said.
7
Growers turn to owls for vole control
Washington Rep. Joel Kretz, far left, talks with, from left, Okanogan
County Commissioners Jim DeTro and Ray Campbell, and Carlos
Gutierrez, a prescribed burn manager from Florida, on March 3
in Olympia after a House committee work session on using ire to
reduce the risk of uncontrolled wildires. Kretz has introduced a bill
calling for more prescribed burns in Washington.
Legislature embraces
pilot project plan
CapitalPress.com
“We’ve got to igure out what
the roadblocks are.”
Oficials estimate 2.7 mil-
lion acres of forestland in
Eastern Washington should
be thinned to make trees less
vulnerable to pests, diseas-
es and catastrophic wildires.
Annually, only about 145,000
acres are thinned, mostly by
mechanical methods.
“145,000 acres a year
against a 2.7 million-acre prob-
lem. It’s going to take us a long
time to ix it, if we keep going
at that rate,” State Forester Aar-
on Everett told the House Agri-
culture and Natural Resources
Committee on Thursday. “If
this is a race with mother na-
ture, we’re getting lapped.”
DNR, which manages 5.6
million acres statewide, has
virtually stopped prescribed
burns.
“When the state Clean Air
Act was passed and the de-
partment was directed to ind a
way to reduce emissions, that’s
what we did. So there isn’t a lot
of burning that’s happening on
state trust lands,” Everett said.
“It’s almost entirely mechani-
cal work.”
According to DNR, the
state could double its pre-
scribed burns and not violate
an emissions limit set by the
Clean Air Act.
Even that wouldn’t be
enough controlled burning to
make a difference, Kretz said.
“We need to be doing more
than double what we’re doing,
like a hundred times (more), so
I’m thinking that’s probably
the barrier,” he said. “That’s
got to be dealt with.”
The Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife man-
ages 1 million acres. About
100,000 acres are “in over-
stocked, unnatural fuel condi-
tion,” WDFW Lands Division
Manager Clay Sprague said.
WDFW has burned about
1,200 acres annually since
2011. Increasing burning to
10,000 acres a year would cost
between $6 million and $7
million a year, the department
estimates.
Sprague said the expense
will be in equipment and train-
ing burn managers. Some mon-
ey could be recouped by log-
ging commercial timber before
setting the ire, he said.
CALDWELL, Idaho —
Brad McIntyre hit a stum-
bling block two years ago in
his efforts to improve farm
production by mimicking
nature — vole populations
spiked, and the rodents began
decimating his crops.
Practices such as remov-
ing tillage, leaving stand-
ing residue and planting
multi-species cover crops for
soil-health beneits may have
increased his soil organic
matter, but they also provid-
ed cover for an abundance of
voles, while leaving their tun-
nels relatively undisturbed.
Once again, McIntyre
turned to nature for the solu-
tion to his agronomic chal-
lenge, working with Canyon
County last April to erect an
owl house for every 40 acres
of his farmland.
McIntyre believes owls
have provided a cheap, effec-
tive and natural alternative to
using poison for vole control.
Other farmers in his region
have also sought rodent-con-
trol help from Canyon Coun-
ty, which offers to build and
erect discounted owl box-
es for landowners under its
long-standing gopher abate-
ment district.
Long ago, McIntyre said,
his family removed every
tree and fence to maximize its
farmable land. Now, he plans
to replant rows of trees, hop-
ing to provide additional plac-
Photo submitted
A screech owl emerges from his box. Oficials with Canyon
County Weed and Pest Control have a program in which they set
up owl boxes at a discounted cost to help control gophers, but
farmers have been ordering the boxes lately for vole control.
es for his winged predators to
perch.
“We’re trying to not only
in our soil mimic what na-
ture is doing, but we’re trying
to do that with predators, as
well,” McIntyre said, adding
short durations of high-den-
sity grazing of cover crops
have also helped to trample
vole tunnels.
Canyon County charges
$159 per owl box. Boxes are
mounted atop a 15-foot-tall
pole.
McIntyre admits owls
don’t provide a “one-year,
instant ix,” but he’s seen owl
droppings along his irrigation
lines, and he’s convinced his
vole pressure has dropped.
“I think it will easily pay
for itself,” he said.
Grower Ray Gross add-
ed owl boxes last winter and
may also erect them to control
pests on a Nampa golf course
of which he’s part owner.
“I’m not saying it’s a ix-
all, but I’ll bet it’s going to
help some of the problems,”
Gross said.
Richard Friddle, lead ap-
plicator with Canyon County
Weed & Pest Control, said
owls also control gophers,
which can damage irrigation
ditches and country roads.
Friddle said the county has
noticed a decline in payments
of the $1 bounty it pays on
gopher tails.
“This vole thing has been
a real unexpected bonus,”
Friddle said.
When Canyon County
started the owl box program
in the winter of 2011, Friddle
admits “everybody thought
it was a funny joke.” Now,
word has spread that a nest-
ing pair of barn owls eats an
average of 35 voles per night.
Friddle also erects boxes in
surrounding counties such as
Gem, Payette, Owyhee, Ada,
and even Malheur County,
Ore.
Owl house occupancy
rates have been above 50 per-
cent, despite owl deaths to
West Nile virus.
Friddle, who has installed
30 owl boxes this winter,
said the program is growing
increasingly popular among
farmers, and one grower who
put up eight boxes reported
having no vole issues, though
they wreaked havoc in neigh-
bors’ ields.
Marlon Winger, the state
agronomist for Idaho’s USDA
Natural Resources Conserva-
tion Service, has also taken
notice of Canyon County’s
owl box program.
“You’ve got to take a step
back and say, ‘What is Moth-
er Nature doing? Is she spray-
ing vole bait on the ground?’”
Winger asked.
Farm Bureau: TPP offers signiicant beneits
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
TPP effects, full implementation
(Annually, millions of dollars)
The American Farm Bu-
reau Federation is bringing
numbers to the table in sup-
port of congressional ratiica-
tion of the Trans-Paciic Part-
nership, a multi-lateral trade
agreement between the U.S.
and 11 other countries.
Farm Bureau’s econom-
ic analysis of TPP shows the
agreement has the potential to
increase U.S. exports by $5.3
billion annually and boost an-
nual net farm income by $4.4
billion when fully implement-
ed – expected in 2026.
The agreement, concluded
in October, would raise total
U.S. ag cash receipts nearly
$8.5 billion annually, accord-
ing to Farm Bureau’s analysis.
Livestock cash receipts
would increase $5.8 billion
annually, it says, and cash
receipts for the crop sector
— including fruits, vegetable
State
California
Washington
Idaho
Oregon
U.S.
Additional net
farm income
Additional
ag exports
Additional
jobs
$1,170
246.3
174.9
163.2
4,400
$924.8
179.8
112.8
105.5
5,300
7,000
1,350
850
800
40,100
Source: American Farm Bureau Federation
and nuts — would increase
$2.7 billion.
U.S. net trade is expect-
ed to increase for beef, pork,
poultry, butter, cheese, nonfat
dry milk, rice, cotton, soy-
beans and soybean products.
Net trade of corn and
wheat are expected to decline
slightly, but overall use and
cash receipts are expected to
increase as higher feed use
will be needed to feed live-
stock for increased exports of
beef and pork.
Capital Press graphic
The agreement would also
result in more than 40,000
new U.S. jobs, according to
the analysis.
Farm Bureau personnel
were not available for com-
ment this week, but Farm
Bureau President Zippy Du-
vall extolled the beneits of
TPP and warned of the conse-
quences of not approving the
agreement in a press release
accompanying the economic
analysis.
“Clearly, America’s farm-
ers and ranchers have much to
gain from approval of TPP….
American agriculture is a
growth industry and to contin-
ue that trend, we must expand
our market opportunities,” he
said.
The agreement would
reduce ag tariffs, adjust tar-
iff-rate quotas and reduce
non-tariff barriers to provide
better access to markets.
Legally, the agreement
only goes into full effect if
the U.S. ratiies it, but all the
other member countries are
already implementing bilater-
al provisions of the deal with-
out waiting for the U.S., Farm
Bureau reported.
“Every day we delay
means lost markets as other
TPP counties implement the
deal’s advantages with each
other. We are already arriving
at the party late because right
now expanded trade due to
TPP is going on across the Pa-
ciic Rim,” Duvall said.
Find the
Cream of the Crop...
Reps. Newhouse, Reichert
introduce Yakima Basin bill
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
A bill authorizing the irst
10-year phase of a 30-year
plan to improve the Yakima
Basin water supply has been
introduced in the U.S. House
by Reps. Dan Newhouse and
Dave Reichert, Washington
state Republicans.
HR 4686, introduced
March 3, is a companion bill
to S 1694, which passed the
Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee last
November and is awaiting full
Senate action.
“Implementing this plan
will give agricultural produc-
ers the conidence they need
to continue operating and
expanding in the area while
respecting concerns of con-
servationists and local resi-
dents,” Reichert said.
Newhouse said the Yakima
River Basin Integrated Water
Resource Management Plan is
becoming a national model in
collaborative water infrastruc-
ture planning.
The bills would begin the
irst 10 years of development
of the basin plan. The plan
seeks to better accommodate
water needs of farmers, con-
servationists and residents
through water conservation
and ecosystem restoration,
additional water storage and
construction of ish passages
at Cle Elum and Rimrock res-
ervoirs.
Lake Kachess water stor-
age would be improved and
decisions will be made on
expanding the capacity of
Bumping Lake and building
a new Wymer reservoir be-
tween Ellensburg and Selah,
said Urban Eberhart, an El-
lensburg farmer who is man-
ager of the Kittitas Reclama-
tion District and a member
of the plan’s implementation
committee.
Construction will start on
either Bumping or Wymer in
the second 10 years of devel-
opment and on the other one
in the third 10-year period, he
said.
The committee is pleased
with the legislative progress,
Eberhart said.
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