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FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2016
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 23
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BEEKEEPERS
STRUGGLE TO KEEP AG BUZZING
Continued honeybee die-offs are caused
by a combination of factors, researchers say
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
G
OODING, Idaho — On a cool Idaho morning in late May, the bees are
more active than Jed McGuire had expected. The fourth-generation bee-
keeper doesn’t usually wear much in the way of protective gear to work
his bees, but today he dons a hat and veil — and gloves, to protect an
angry rash of poison ivy on his wrists.
He and his right-hand man in the family business, neph-
ew Tyler Magnelli, are starting their annual ritual of placing
bee boxes in one of the 30 bee
yards McGuire rents around
the Magic Valley in exchange
for honey.
They’ve spent the last four
weeks remaking their dead
hives after winter losses, add-
ing a new queen to each colony
they’ve rebuilt with a lean supply of
existing brood and bees. The brood
includes eggs, larvae and pupae.
With smoke cans at the ready, they
calmly open each box and meticulously
inspect every tray to determine the health of
the colony and the viability of the queen. The
bees they are placing in a fi eld outside Good-
ing will be used to pollinate onions grown for
seed in Minidoka County.
The bees will be treated for pests and parasites if
needed, given a pollen supplement and left to forage
fl owering plants nearby to nourish the hive. Corn syrup
will also be provided in an open-feeding system to en-
sure the bees are getting the sustenance they need.
But not all of the colonies will be up to the task of polli-
nating onions about a month from now.
“We have to make sure they’re big enough, have enough
bees to go to the onions. We’ll leave the smaller ones behind and
nurse them up for winter,” McGuire said.
Beekeeping these days demands a lot of “nursing up.” McGuire
and about 2,000 other commercial beekeepers in the U.S. have been
fi ghting an ongoing battle to keep their colonies thriving for at least the
last decade. A commercial beekeeper is classifi ed as one with 300 or
more colonies.
Turn to BEES, Page 12
U.S. managed honey bee colony loss
Annual loss
Winter loss
Acceptable loss
50
(By percent loss)
44.1%
*Preliminary
40
30
28.1
20
16.9
10
0
2010-11
Photos by Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Commercial beekeeper Jed McGuire, right, talks with his nephew, Tyler Magnelli,
during a break from inspecting their hives in a fi eld near Gooding, Idaho, on May 24.
TOP PHOTO: McGuire inspects a frame in one of his beehives.
’11-12
’12-13
’13-14
’14-15
2015-16*
NOTE: Based on annual survey data collected from beekeepers representing approximately
20 percent of the industry. In 2015, there were more than 2.6 million U.S. colonies.
Source: Bee Informed Partnership
Carol Ryan Dumas and Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
14 stock dogs poisoned with strychnine
Gopher pellets mixed
with raw ground meat
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — Four-
teen stock and guard dogs have been
poisoned with strychnine in this part of
southwestern Idaho since early April and
12 have died.
The poisoning of the dogs, which are
used to guard and shepherd sheep and
goats, has occurred over several weeks.
“We lost another dog today. The poi-
soning is still going on,” the dogs’ own-
er, Casey Echevarria, told Capital Press
May 30.
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
The dogs were intentionally poisoned
An
Anatolian
shepherding
dog, guard sheep
with strychnine, said Dr. Brent Varriale,
a Fruitland veterinarian who examined in Southwestern Idaho May 16. Someone
has poisoned 14 stock and guard dogs with
Turn to DOGS, Page 12 strychnine in this area since early April.
Courtesy USDA
The U.S. Supreme Court
Monday ruled unanimously
that landowners can challenge
a federal government deter-
mination that their property
is subject to Clean Water Act
restrictions.
Clean Water
Act ruling
improves
government
accountability,
experts say
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Landowners can challenge
a federal government deter-
mination that their property
is subject to Clean Water Act
restrictions, the U.S. Supreme
Court unanimously ruled May
31.
With federal offi cials fac-
ing a new source of lawsuits,
they must now do a better job
justifying their conclusions,
legal experts say.
“The cavalier attitude to-
ward asserting authority un-
der the Clean Water Act we
hope will change,” said Reed
Hopper, an attorney with the
Pacifi c Legal Foundation, a
public interest legal organi-
zation.
The nation’s highest court
rejected arguments by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers that its “jurisdictional
determinations” can’t be
challenged in court because
they’re merely advisory opin-
ions that property is subject to
the Clean Water Act.
The ruling is a victory for
farmers and other landowners
who would rather sue to prove
their property doesn’t fall un-
der the agency’s jurisdiction
than seek costly Clean Water
Act permits or abandon their
projects.
The federal government
argued that landowners are
free to ignore a jurisdictional
determination and then fi ght
the U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency when defend-
ing against an enforcement
action.
Chief Justice John Rob-
erts, in his opinion for the
court, dismissed the claim
that landowners must expose
themselves to sanctions to
question the government’s
conclusions.
“Respondents need not as-
sume such risks while waiting
for EPA to ‘drop the hammer’
in order to have their day in
court,” Roberts said.
The practical effect is that
federal agencies will need a
solid scientifi c basis that pri-
vate property has a “signifi -
cant nexus” with waterways
protected by the Clean Water
Act, said Hopper, who argued
the Supreme Court case on be-
half of the Hawkes Co., which
was blocked from extracting
peat moss from its wetlands.
“The Corps is going to
have to get its ducks in a row.
It’s going to have to provide
data to support its decision
that this is a water of the
U.S.,” he said.
In the Hawkes case, the
government required the
company to obtain a Clean
Water Act permit because the
Turn to WATER, Page 12