May 6, 2016 CapitalPress.com 9 Spud growers join Boise schools’ Potato Celebration Week By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press BOISE — The Boise School District’s new Pota- to Celebration Week enabled Rod Lake of Heyburn-based Southwind Farms to get his company’s fingerling potatoes into a public schools market he’s been trying to reach for most of a year. For the farmers and staff of Potatoes USA and the Idaho Potato Commission, the dis- trict’s event provided an op- portunity to educate the next generation of consumers about the versatility and nutrition of their crop. And district officials say principals were elated for the chance to have students with limited knowledge on food production interacting with farmers. Peggy Bodnar, the dis- trict’s food and nutrition ser- vices supervisor, explained the schools’ celebration of the state’s most famous commod- ity stemmed from a phone call she received from T.K. Kuwa- hara of Potatoes USA. Kuwa- hara inquired about opportu- nities to team with the district on nutrition education, and Bodnar had recently learned of Every Kid Healthy Week, a healthy-living campaign spon- sored by Action for Healthy Kids. Bodnar decided to ob- serve the event district-wide throughout the final week of April, and to tie it with pota- toes. She hopes the celebration will become an annual event. “Regardless of how strange it may sound, a lot of kids never have the opportunity to know and understand where their fruits and vegetables and produce come from,” she said. Bodnar said 13 low-income elementary schools in the dis- trict qualify for a USDA grant, funding snacks to introduce students to new fruits and veg- etables. The district is required to prepare educational materi- al about the featured produce item. Though the district had ex- hausted its program funds for the year, Southwind Farms donated 1,000 pounds of fin- gerlings and Potatoes USA prepared educational handouts on spuds to provide a bonus snack on April 26 in conjunc- tion with the celebration. At Kuwahara’s sugges- tion fingerlings were cooked, chilled and served with ranch dressing. She said Potatoes USA plans to work with addi- tional schools to include spuds in the USDA snack program, and will provide educational materials as an incentive. Lake, who spoke to stu- dents at Horizon Elementa- ry School, said fingerlings, typically served unpeeled, cook quickly and require little preparation time. “We understand this is a longterm process,” Lake said of getting produce into schools. “We’re taking baby steps here and hope to get it expanded.” The April 28 lunch menu for all 32 district elementary schools included fresh pota- to wedges, and Idaho potato growers were scheduled to help the lunch staff serve them at several schools. IPC and Potatoes USA donated Spud- dy Buddy dolls and potato cookbooks for kids as prizes for a contest involving match- ing names of potato varieties with the correct pictures. “We hope to reinforce that Idaho potatoes should be an essential part of their healthy diet forever,” said IPC Pres- ident and CEO Frank Muir, one of the scheduled servers. Kuwahara also arranged for a display of several pota- to varieties to be featured at each school. Bodnar said the district would serve those specialty varieties in the lunch lines at its secondary schools. Washington demands coal exporter cut carbon footprint in half DOE suggests carpooling By DON JENKINS Capital Press Don Jenkins/Capital Press Millennium Bulk Terminals proposes to build a coal export facility at a former aluminum smelter site in Longview, Wash., along the lower Columbia River. The Washington Department of Ecology says the company must submit a plan to cut in half the estimated carbon output from the project. U.S. coal exports would drive down the price of coal in Asia, encouraging more consumption and increasing global carbon output, ac- cording to the report. If operating at full ca- pacity, the terminal would increase the world’s green- house gas emissions by the equivalent of 672,100 pas- senger cars, according to the study. DOE demanded Millen- nium submit a plan to cut the net increase by 50 per- cent. DOE called its 50 per- cent mandate “reasonable and appropriate” based on state laws regarding emis- sion standards for new pow- er plants and overall car- bon-reduction goals. Failing to present a sat- isfactory carbon-reduction plan won’t necessarily kill the project, but it will be significant, DOE spokes- woman Lisa Copeland said. Millennium needs 20 permits from eight differ- ent local, state and federal agencies, including six from DOE, which falls under In- slee’s authority. Inslee has made climate change his signature issue. As a start to slashing car- bon output, DOE suggest- ed the company enforce a “no-idling” policy for trains and ships, and school loco- motive engineers and heavy equipment operators in “fuel efficiency.” The company also could buy electric vehicles for its fleet, install charging sta- tions for employees with electric vehicles, and en- Wash. wolf managers present ideas for lethal-control policy By DON JENKINS Capital Press Washington wildlife man- agers Wednesday suggested ways to motivate ranchers to use state-approved tactics to prevent wolf depredations. Cooperative ranchers could be rewarded with high- er compensation for livestock losses. Also, the state could move sooner to shoot wolves in places where preventive ac- tions failed. WDFW staff members floated these and other ideas during a conference call with the department’s Wolf Advi- sory Group. The group, whose mem- bers represent conservation, producer and other interest groups, will meet May 10-11 in Ellensburg. The challenge there will be to agree on a new lethal-control policy for the upcoming grazing season. “It’s got to be done. The producers need to know what the rules of the road are,” said Jack Field, Washington Cat- tlemen’s Association execu- tive vice president. “I hope people can call the department on the 12th and get answers to their questions.” WDFW has twice resorted to shooting wolves, in 2012 and 2014, in the eastern one- third of Washington, where wolves are not federally pro- tected. Ranchers criticized WD- FW’s decision-making pro- cess as too subjective, too prolonged and too uncertain. Wolf advocates accused the department of being trig- ger-happy. WDFW staff members, including those who investi- gate depredations, are trying to come up with a clear policy to cover dozens of scenarios. “I think this will produce a protocol that is intuitive, easy to understand and will have broad support,” said Donny Martorello, WDFW policy coordinator. Currently, WDFW’s policy is to use lethal control when at least four depredations have occurred, preventive measures have been exhaust- ed and attacks are likely to continue. The Cattle Producers of Washington, whose mem- bers include northeastern Washington ranchers, with- drew from the Wolf Adviso- ry Group last fall, charging WDFW with using the group as a shield against taking meaningful action. The Cattle Producers’ vice president, Stevens County rancher Scott Nielsen, said Wednesday that ranchers al- ready are protecting their live- stock, without signing agree- ments with the state. “They call them range-rid- ers. We call them cowboys,” he said. “Whether it’s four depredations or whatever, no responsible livestock owner is going to leave their cows out there to eaten by predators.” Nielsen said WDFW-con- firmed depredations don’t provide an accurate count of lost livestock. “If you get to four depre- dations, you have a lot more than four dead cows,” he said. “If you get one confirmed depredation, you’ve probably lost 10.” voice support for Millen- nium, the organization’s CEO, John Stuhlmiller, said in a written statement. “Farmers and growers understand the more op- portunity Washington has to export, the greater the willingness there will be to invest in the infrastructure to support these exports,” he said. Utah-based Lighthouse Resources Inc. and Mis- souri-based Arch Coal own Millennium. The company’s website said Friday that it began mining for permits four years, two months and 17 days ago. DOE will take comments until June 13 on the study that came out Friday. The department is expected to issue a final environmental impact statement next year. DOE says it already has re- ceived 217,500 comments, many of them from people concerned about climate change. Business and labor groups have rallied behind Millennium, saying they’re frustrated by the lengthy re- view. DOE’s unprecedented demand for Millennium to mitigate carbon emis- sions that occur elsewhere in the world should terrify any manufacturer or ship- per looking to expand, said Kathryn Stenger, spokes- woman for the private trade organization Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Ex- ports. Experienced Moderator Needed The Capital Press is looking for an experienced moderator to help us conduct two focus groups in Idaho. The groups would be with readers and with Ag business leaders to get their feedback on how they think the Capital Press can improve its coverage. For more information, email Michael Keith, director of marketing: mkeith@eomediagroup.com 19-1/#13 19-4/#18 19-4/#7 The Washington Depart- ment of Ecology on Friday demanded a company pro- posing to export coal submit a plan to sharply shrink the project’s expected carbon footprint, raising questions about the plan’s chances of winning approval from Gov. Jay Inslee’s administration. Ecology released a long-awaited study on the environmental impacts of building a coal-export ter- minal in Longview along the Lower Columbia River. Millennium Bulk Termi- nals, a partnership of two coal companies, proposes to export up to 44 million met- ric tons a year to Asia. The Washington Farm Bureau has been among the project’s strongest advo- cates, arguing that expand- ing the state’s port and rail facilities will benefit agri- cultural exports. DOE’s study found BNSF Railway and Union Pacific will have to make investments to accommo- date 1.3-mile long trains hauling coal through Wash- ington from Montana, Wy- oming, Utah and Colorado. DOE found little reason to be concerned about coal dust or vessel traffic, but was alarmed about green- house gases. courage workers to carpool, according to DOE. Millennium did not re- spond to a request for com- ment on whether the com- pany could come up with a plan to halve greenhouse gases. The company issued a brief statement from CEO Bill Chapman. “This ma- jor milestone moves us one step closer to creating fam- ily-wage jobs in Longview, while meeting Washington’s strict environmental stan- dards,” he said. Todd Myers, environ- mental policy analyst for the conservative-leaning Washington Policy Center, questioned DOE’s basis for requiring Millennium to cut projected emissions by half. “A regulator is supposed to be clear and objective. In this case, the regulation is far from clear and far from being an objective standard and has become an arbitrary tool,” he said. Myers said DOE wrong- ly assumes Asia won’t buy coal from other countries if U.S. coal isn’t available. He said buying carbon credits would be a lot more cost-ef- fective than purchasing electric vehicles. “Ecology’s suggestions are probably the most ex- pensive things that you can do and do almost nothing for the environment,” he said. The Washington Farm Bureau will continue to