August 12, 2016
CapitalPress.com
9
County cancels meeting on bid to reclassify farmland
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Oregon’s
Clackamas
County canceled a meeting
this week on its bid to redes-
ignate farmland following
critical remarks from com-
munities, a conservation dis-
trict and a key state land-use
agency.
That doesn’t mean the idea
is dead, however. A majori-
ty of county commissioners
want to review the status of
1,625 acres now designated
“rural reserves.” The land,
three parcels south and south-
east of Portland, was desig-
nated to remain farmland for
50 years under a 2010 agree-
ment signed by Clackamas,
Washington and Multnomah
counties and Metro, the Port-
land area’s land-use planning
agency.
The Clackamas commis-
sioners now want to review
that decision. They believe
their county needs more “em-
ployment land” that can be
developed for industrial or
commercial use and jobs.
This summer, they announced
a plan to review the status of
800 acres south of Wilsonville,
400 acres adjacent to the urban
growth boundary of the city of
Canby; and 425 acres south
of the Clackamas River along
Springwater Road. County of-
icials believe the land should
revert to “undesignated” rather
than rural reserves.
The proposal caught the
attention of groups such of
Friends of French Prairie,
which opposes development
spilling over from the Portland
area into the northern Willa-
mette Valley.
The Clackamas Soil and
Water Conservation District,
which usually steers clear of
political arguments, took the
unusual step of expressing
its concern in a letter to the
commissioners. The district’s
board said the county’s plan
“may not adequately con-
sider the long-term value of
high-value farmland,” which it
called an “irreplaceable natu-
ral resource.”
Oficials in Wilsonville
and Canby, which might have
to provide services such as
water, sewer and police and
ire protection to new devel-
opment, said their cities have
already designated other areas
for development, and don’t
favor adding land that is out-
side their city limits and urban
growth boundaries.
Meanwhile, the state De-
partment of Land Conserva-
tion and Development said
the county’s intended review
goes beyond the narrow issues
detailed in a court-ordered re-
mand of the rural reserves is-
sue.
In a letter to the county, re-
gional representative Jennifer
Donnelly said DLCD “encour-
ages the county to maintain the
rural designations of the three
study areas and focus on com-
pleting the reserves process.”
Stinkbugs’ natural predator has
arrived in the Paciic Northwest
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Sugar beets grow in Blackfoot, Idaho. Growers are anticipating a
record beet yield with the potential for high sugar content.
Idaho growers expect record
beet yield, high-quality spuds
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Idaho growers anticipate
digging another record-yield-
ing sugar beet crop and po-
tatoes with excellent quality,
thanks to ideal weather during
the critical points of this
growing season.
Rupert grower Duane
Grant, chairman of the board
at Snake River Sugar Co., said
a “phenomenal” beet crop has
matured about 10 days ahead
of normal, and the company
expects a “third year in a row
of steadily increasing, record
yields.”
Grant said beets have be-
gun turning yellow, suggest-
ing plants have exhausted
nitrogen and are shifting from
vegetative growth to sug-
ar accumulation. Grant said
early beet harvest will begin
during the irst week of Sep-
tember — earlier than many
years — and new equipment
at the Mini-Cassia processing
plant will “help push the tons
through more eficiently.”
Idaho Sugarbeet Growers
Association Executive Direc-
tor Mark Dufin said growers
reported good emergence,
strong stands, virtually no
replants and plenty of heat
throughout the growing re-
gion — a formula for an ex-
cellent crop.
“I think the beet crop could
be very, very good yield-
wise,” said Hazelton grower
Randy Grant, adding now
through Oct. 1 is the critical
period for sugar formation.
Aberdeen grower Andy
Povey has noticed beets have
been using a lot of water, evi-
dencing rapid growth. Having
a thick stand also bodes well
for sugar, he explained. Thick
stands consume nitrogen
quickly, triggering sugar ac-
cumulation, and yield a large
number of small beets, which
tend to have a better sugar
percentage. Recent cooler
nights should also boost sugar
formation, Povey said.
Randy Grant, a Russet
Burbank grower for the pro-
cessed potato industry, said
spuds beneited from plen-
ty of warm weather without
extreme temperature luctu-
ations during key growth pe-
riods.
“The quality is there. We
don’t see the rough potatoes,
the growth cracks and that
type of stuff,” he said. “It was
ideal growing weather when
they started making their
shape.”
Only recently has he no-
ticed spud ields beginning to
“show their age,” following
a 10-day stretch of extreme
high temperatures to end July
and begin August. He said the
recent heat stress shouldn’t
affect quality, and bulking
should resume when tempera-
tures dip back to normal.
Duane Grant has also no-
ticed potato ields are now
“looking older,” but he be-
lieves the quality of the crop
was protected when foliage
grew to cover rows, providing
shade, before the onset of hot-
ter weather.
Aberdeen grower Dirk
Driscoll believes the recent
hot spell could affect yields.
“It may not size up as well
because of the aging of the
plants due to hotter weather,
but for the most part, we have
a good quality crop at this
point,” Driscoll said.
American Falls grower
Jim Tiede said a lack of sum-
mer showers has nulliied
concerns about potential late
blight pressure, thus far, and
growers in his region haven’t
been overwhelmed by large
numbers of potato psyllids,
which spread zebra chip dis-
ease in spuds.
In his test digs, Idaho Falls
grower Derek Reed has seen
“big spuds for this time of
year.”
“I’m expecting a little
bit better (potato) yield than
last year, but not a record
yield by any means,” Reed
said.
NOW SCHEDULING FOR
WATER WELL
DRILLING &
EXPLORATION
Specializing in 10” diameter and above water wells.
33-1/#14
• Deepening
• Reaming
• Commercial
• Irrigation
www.rjdrillcompany.com
509-981-6675 • ryan@rjdrillcompany.com
Licensed • Insured • Bonded • Odessa, WA
Discovering the Port-
land presence of a wasp that
kills the eggs of the dreaded
brown marmorated stinkbug
might be cause for more head
scratching than ist bumps,
but researchers will take good
breaks where they ind them.
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture announced that
one of its entomologists dis-
covered a cluster of stinkbug
eggs in Portland that had been
obliterated by a tiny, parasitic
wasp called Trissolcus japoni-
cus. The inding may speed up
control of brown marmorated
stinkbug.
Like the stinkbug, referred
to as BMSB, the wasp isn’t
native to Oregon. The female
wasp lays its eggs inside the
eggs of stinkbugs. The devel-
oping wasp larvae essentially
eat their way out as they grow,
destroying the host.
That trait caught the eye of
researchers at ODA, Oregon
State University and elsewhere,
because BMSB will eat nearly
anything and are considered
a major threat to fruit, berry,
vegetable and nut crops. Its dis-
covery in southeast Portland’s
venerable Ladd’s Addition
neighborhood in 2004 touched
off a program, funded by the
USDA’s Agricultural Research
Service, to ind a method of
biocontrol, as bug-on-bug pre-
dation is called.
The state ag department
leases space at OSU, which
cooperates in the research, to
raise the wasps in quarantine
and sic them on BMSB in the
laboratory.
One of the key questions is
whether the wasps might harm
beneicial native bugs as well.
Entomologists have been work-
ing on it since 2011; the idea is
to gather enough data to peti-
tion USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service for
permission to release the pred-
Courtesy of Oregon Department of Ag
A tiny parasitic wasp of the type recently discovered in Portland emerges from the egg of a brown
marmorated stinkbug, which can cause heavy crop damage.
Brown marmorated
stink bug
Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org
Binomial name:
Halyomorpha halys
Appearance: Shield shaped and
dark, mottled brown
Diet: Primarily tree fruits
Life cycle: One or two
generations in cooler climates;
up to five in
warmer ones
Origin: Asia
First
observed
in U.S.:
14-17 mm
(Actual size)
Mid-1990s
Sources: Penn State Extension;
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Capital Press graphic
ator wasps.
Researchers in New York,
Delaware, Florida, Michigan
and California are doing simi-
lar work.
In 2014, things began to go
sideways. The wasp was found
in a mid-Atlantic state, and
researchers immediately sus-
pected wasps had escaped from
quarantine. But DNA analysis
showed it wasn’t from any of
the colonies that researchers
around the country keep in
quarantine.
Last summer, the same
thing happened in Vancouver,
Wash. A wasp was recovered
by Washington State Universi-
ty, but it also wasn’t from any
of the quarantined populations.
What’s more, it wasn’t from
the same group as the wasp
caught in the mid-Atlantic
state.
This summer, entomolo-
gist Chris Hedstrom of ODA
was checking a private prop-
erty site near Oregon Health &
Science University in Portland
when he came across a cluster
of BMSB eggs by accident.
The eggs had been wiped
out, and it was clear wasp larvae
were to blame. Wasps rough-
ly chew their way out, while
stinkbugs emerge through a
neat hole, Hedstrom said.
“Oh, we have something
here,” Hedstrom described his
reaction.
Recognizing the potential
importance of the ind, Hed-
strom returned within 15 hours
and set what are called “senti-
nel” traps baited with BMSB
eggs collected in ODA’s labo-
ratory in Salem.
Two days later, he found
wasps had struck again. He
collected the eggs and adult
“guardian” wasps that protect
the cluster from other parasit-
oids after they’ve deposited
their young into the BMSB
eggs. A single female can par-
asitize an entire egg cluster,
Hedstrom said.
In July, the wasp larvae
emerged in captivity and have
since been identiied.
Additional study by the
Smithsonian’s Systematic En-
tomology Lab will determine
the lineage of the Portland
wasps. Hedstrom believes
they are part of the Vancou-
ver group, given the relative
proximity.
He said the wasps probably
arrived in the Paciic North-
west the same way BMSB
did — by hitching a ride into
the Port of Portland or Port of
Vancouver.
Hedstrom said the indings
may speed up the process of
gaining APHIS approval to
release wasps as a biocontrol
agent.
Hedstroms said the devel-
opment is encouraging after
years of telling growers it will
take more time before biocon-
trols gain approval.
“We still have to error on
the side of caution,” he said.