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CapitalPress.com
April 29, 2016
New AVA created for NW Idaho and E. Washington
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Wineries and
grape growers in Northwest-
ern Idaho and part of Eastern
Washington now have their
own American Viticultur-
al Area, which is a specific
grape-growing region that
is federally recognized as
unique.
The Alcohol and Tobac-
co Tax and Trade Bureau has
approved a petition to create a
Lewis-Clark Valley AVA.
“It’s great news for us,”
said Colter’s Creek Winery
owner Mike Pearson, who or-
ganized the petition. “Getting
our own AVA is pretty excit-
ing.”
An AVA is federally recog-
nized as having certain unique
growing conditions, boundar-
ies and history and provides
wineries and grape growers in
that area with their own, mar-
ketable identity.
This is Idaho’s third AVA
since 2007, and second since
November, and the Idaho
Wine Commission expects
the new designations to act
as a catalyst for development
as they spur more growers
to explore the region, IWC
Executive Director Moya
Shatz-Dolsby said in a news
release.
Idaho has already lured ex-
perienced wine makers from
other regions in recent years,
she said.
“Vintners are coming for
the opportunity to be pioneers
in wine making and to be part
of our rapidly growing indus-
try,” she said.
The new AVA designa-
tion is also good news for
Washington, which now has
14 AVAs, said Heather Brad-
shaw, communications direc-
tor for the Washington State
Wine Commission.
“We are really excited
about this shared AVA ... and
we think it will help our entire
(Northwest) wine region to
grow,” she said.
The Idaho and Washington
wine industries are teaming
up with local economic devel-
opment groups to heavily pro-
mote the new AVA to consum-
ers, media, tourism operators
and potential new markets.
The IWC received an
$88,000 specialty crop grant
to do that and the Clearwater
Economic Development As-
sociation received a $67,000
specialty crop grant.
The region includes 16
vineyards and close to 100
acres of wine grapes, includ-
ing 14 red and nine white va-
rieties. The AVA encompasses
479 square miles, with 72 per-
cent of the land on the Idaho
side.
The area was one of the
premiere wine grape growing
regions in the Northwest at
one time but mostly vanished
after Prohibition. However,
it’s making a comeback and
the AVA designation will help,
Pearson said.
He said the designation
was anticipated and about
40 acres of new wine grapes
will be planted in the next
few weeks, the largest single
planting of new vines in that
area in a long time.
“There is a lot of interest
right now,” Pearson said.
The petition for the Lew-
is-Clark Valley AVA was
submitted in 2009 but was
delayed because the boundar-
ies of Washington’s Columbia
Valley AVA had to be partially
redrawn to avoid overlap.
The Lewis-Clark AVA is
marked by steep river canyons
and plateaus and is centered
around a 40-mile strip of can-
yons surrounding the cities of
Lewiston and Clarkston. It in-
cludes parts of five counties in
Idaho and Washington.
Oregon farmers fighting bank to sell radish seed
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service
The Idaho State Department of Agriculture is making progress
against an outbreak of Japanese beetles discovered in Ada
County.
ISDA Japanese beetle
treatment area cut in half
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — An Idaho State
Department of Agriculture
Japanese beetle eradication
program has reduced the Ada
County population of the in-
vasive pest by nearly 90 per-
cent, and the agency plans to
cut its treatment area in half
this season, officials say.
For several years, ISDA
has monitored statewide for
the beetles, which are known
to eat more than 300 species
of plants and are a quaran-
tined pest in the West.
ISDA Section Manager
Jared Stuart said the agency
captured 3,000 beetles in Ada
County in 2013, prompting
the establishment of the eradi-
cation program, which is now
in its fourth year.
The beetles are well es-
tablished in the Eastern U.S.
Stuart said Idaho’s monitor-
ing efforts have been focused
on new subdivisions and other
areas where out-of-state nurs-
ery stock is transported.
The beetles’ larvae feed on
the root system of grasses and
turf, and they emerge as adults
to feed on other plants.
“Anyone trying to export
nursery stock outside of the
state, if (the beetles) were to
become an established pest
here, they would need exten-
sive certification and treat-
ment of plants to export to
other states and Canada,” Stu-
art said.
Stuart said ISDA has al-
ready obtained permission to
treat turf, using granular in-
secticide, from 60 percent of
affected households in Boi-
se’s Warm Springs area and
continues to contact home-
owners for permission.
The agency plans to make
its first treatment in mid-May,
followed by its second and fi-
nal treatment in mid-July.
In 2015, Stuart said just
365 beetles were captured in
monitoring traps. He said a
few areas in Warm Springs
and properties along State
Street will be removed from
the treatment program this
summer due to a lack of bee-
tle detections last summer.
Monitoring traps will remain
in place in those areas to
confirm the beetles are gone.
Stuart said eradication can be
declared once an area has had
zero confirmed catches for
two years.
“One of the things we tell
people is if we can get rid of
it now, it keeps people from
treating a lot later if it be-
comes an established pest,”
Stuart said.
Stuart said no insecticide
will be applied to vegetable
or flower gardens, bushes or
trees. The beetle is about a
half-inch long, with a me-
tallic-green body and cop-
per-colored wings.
Several warehouses are
caught in the middle of a le-
gal dispute over radish seeds
between Oregon farms and an
out-of-state bank.
Both the farms and the
bank claim to own the radish
seeds, which are currently
stored at five Oregon ware-
houses.
Whether those warehouses
are acting as “agents” of the
farms or the bank will be a
key legal question in a lawsuit
that’s scheduled to go to trial
on June 6.
“The core question is the
agency question,” U.S. Chief
District Judge Michael Mos-
man said during an April 20
court hearing in the case.
The lawsuit involves mul-
tiple Oregon farms that are
fighting for the right to sell off
radish seeds they grew in 2014
under contract for Cover Crop
Solutions, a Pennsylvania com-
pany that was unable to pay for
the crops due to weather-related
demand disruptions.
The Oregon farms filed
liens to ensure they’d be treated
as secured creditors with collat-
eral in the company’s assets if it
went bankrupt.
Meanwhile,
Northwest
Bank of Warren, Pa., also
claimed the radish seeds served
as collateral for a $7 million
loan taken out by Cover Crop
Solutions.
The dispute prompted the
bank to file a lawsuit against
numerous Oregon farms in fed-
eral court, seeking a declaration
that it had a priority security in-
terest in the seed.
As the June 7 trial date ap-
proaches, it now appears the
role of warehouses used to store
the seed will be pivotal in the
litigation.
Matuesz Perkowski/Capital Press
Oral arguments were held April 20 at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S.
Courthouse in Portland, Ore., in a legal dispute over radish seeds
between Oregon farmers and an out-of-state bank.
The farmers say they merely
turned over the seeds for clean-
ing and storage, meaning they
retained possession of the crop
at the warehouses.
Farmers don’t “wash their
hands” of responsibility for the
seed when it’s taken for clean-
ing and storage, so they contin-
ue to own it until it’s accepted
by the purchaser, which never
occurred in this case, said Paul
Conable, an attorney for the
growers.
“If the warehouse had
burned down or the seed had
been stolen, the risk of loss is
borne entirely by the grower
under the contract,” Conable
said.
The bank, on the other
hand, claims the warehouses
acted as agents of Cover Crop
Solutions, so the seeds were
part of the company’s inven-
tory and served as the bank’s
collateral.
Jonathan Radmacher, an
attorney for Northwest bank,
argued “there is nothing more
for the growers to do” once the
seed is accepted by the ware-
house, which performs cleaning,
packing and shipping based on
instructions from Cover Crop
Solutions.
“It’s not as if the seed is ever
going to the CCS office. It’s al-
ways going from the warehouse
to the buyer,” Radmacher said.
Several important legal
question hinge on who owns the
seed at the warehouse facilities.
For example, farms claim to
have “possessory liens” on the
crop, even if it was stored at a
warehouse, that are superior to
the bank’s security interest in the
crop.
Several growers who never
delivered their radish seed to a
warehouse have already won
this legal point.
In February, Mosman ruled
that Hawman Farms, one of the
defendants, had a valid priority
lien due to its continuous pos-
session of the crop. Since then,
other farms in a similar position
were also found to have valid
priority liens.
Northwest Bank says the re-
maining farmers don’t have pos-
sessory liens because the radish
seed became the inventory of
Cover Crop Solutions once it
arrived at the warehouses.
While those growers did file
grain producer liens to retain
a security interest in the crop,
their liens have all since ex-
pired, the bank claims.
Farmers counter that the
grain producers liens could not
have expired because they hav-
en’t yet “attached” to the crop,
which would only occur if it
were actually purchased.
The bank also claims grain
producers’ liens don’t apply in
this situation because the crop
was produced under contract,
with Cover Crop Solutions
supplying farmers with radish
seed.
The farmers were paid for
growing and harvesting the
seed, then returning it to Cover
Crop Solutions, so they didn’t
have actual ownership of the
crop, the bank claims.
Strong storms spoil California prune blossom
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
RED BLUFF, Calif. —
Prune producers’ worst fears
about El Nino have come true,
as strong storms spoiled the
March blossom and left many
growers with about half of
their normal crop — or less.
Low temperatures, high
winds and heavy rains dis-
rupted pollination, resulting in
a much heavier-than-normal
shed of the developing fruit in
the last two weeks, the Prune
Bargaining Association reports.
Tyler Christensen, who
grows plums, walnuts and al-
monds and operates the Mill
Race Dryer in Red Bluff, said
some in the industry believe
this year’s overall production
could be as low as between 20
and 30 percent of last year’s
estimated 100,000-ton crop.
“What’s in the tree seems
to look pretty good, but there’s
just not enough there,” Chris-
tensen said. He added that
growers will have to find ways
to cut costs because of the loss
of income.
“We’re going to do our best
to cut back on nitrogen inputs
to limit vegetation growth, and
we’ll probably err on the side
of less water than more water,”
he said. “That’s about all we
can really do as far as cultural
practices go.”
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The association was warn-
ing growers in the fall that a
warm and wet winter could
threaten the 2016 crop, al-
though industry insiders were
more concerned about disease
problems in trees. At the time,
El Nino was bringing ongoing
rain and cloudy skies in Chile
during the spring growing
season. California and Chile
together account for about 80
percent of the world’s dried
plum production.
Growers initially thought
this year’s bloom was strong
and would produce a good
crop, but then much of the de-
veloping fruit started to drop.
After a warm early spring
impacted last year’s crop,
growers were relieved in early
January that trees had already
received the 300 to 350 hours
of chilling they’d need for the
winter.
In March, however, some
orchards experienced up to 8
inches of rain and heavy winds
that blew petals and pollen off
the trees, according to an asso-
ciation news release. The cold
and wet weather also disrupted
bee flight.
In University of California
Cooperative Extension test
blocks near Yuba City, Calif.,
some trees show only 2 per-
cent to 12 percent of the blos-
soms growing into fruit in their
lower half.
“By the first of May, we
usually see that 20 to 40 per-
cent of the blossoms set,”
UCCE farm adviser Franz
Niederholzer said in the re-
lease. “This year even some
well-cared-for orchards have
only 25 to 30 percent of a nor-
mal crop.”