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CapitalPress.com
August 26, 2016
Southwestern Idaho
farmers raise pay
to keep workers
Tight labor market
pushing up wages
at all skill levels
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
CALDWELL, Idaho —
The southwestern Idaho
labor market has tightened
to the point agricultural pro-
ducers are paying signii-
cantly more to ind and keep
farm workers.
“It’s gotten really bad;
it’s a tough labor market,”
said Meridian farmer Rich-
ard Durant. “There just ar-
en’t very many workers out
there.”
Durant has paid common
farm laborers such as pipe
movers $10 to $11 an hour
in the past but has had to pay
them $12 to $14 an hour this
year.
He’s not alone.
Other producers, such
as Ron Bitner, who owns
a vineyard and winery in
Caldwell, is paying his
workers about $1.50 an
hour more this year, which
costs him about $800 more
a month in labor.
He’s also had to keep
people employed even when
there’s no signiicant work
for them to do just to ensure
he has an adequate labor
force when he really needs it
at harvest time.
If he doesn’t keep them
employed, “They could
easily go out and ind some-
thing else,” he said. “I just
go ahead and hire them and
give them other things to do
... so I have a crew available
when I need them.”
Durant is doing the same
thing.
“You have to ind some-
thing to keep them going all
year round or they’re going
to disappear and you won’t
get them back,” he said.
Bitner, Durant and oth-
er farmers say the region’s
booming economy, partic-
ularly the construction sec-
tor, is the major factor in the
tightened labor force.
The unemployment rate
for the Boise metropolitan
area, which includes most
of southwestern Idaho, is
3.7 percent and the building
sector is booming.
“Anybody who can
swing a hammer can get $20
an hour on the construction
side,” Durant said.
The region’s labor-inten-
sive fruit industry has been
particularly hard hit by the
scarcity of workers.
Michael
Williamson,
owner of Williamson Or-
chards and Vineyards in
Caldwell, one of Idaho’s
three largest fruit orchards,
had to raise his labor rates
$1 an hour in June to attract
workers and is still having
dificulty inding them.
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Farmworkers pick Chardonnay wine grapes Aug. 19 in a south-
western Idaho vineyard. Farmers in the region say they are
having to pay much more this year to attract and keep workers
because of a signiicantly tighter labor market.
Mormon
crickets
seen,
but few
damage
reports
Courtesy of Port of Seattle
A ship docks at the Louis Dreyfus Co. grain terminal at the Port of Seattle. The company has settled a
citizen lawsuit iled by Puget Soundkeeper Alliance that alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.
Seattle grain exporter to pay
$699,000 to settle lawsuit
Judge rules
company spilled
grain into bay
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Dutch corporation that
exports grain from the Port
of Seattle has agreed to pay
$699,000 to settle allega-
tions by an environmental
group that the company vi-
olated the Clean Water Act
by spilling grain into Elliott
Bay.
The Louis Dreyfus Co.
also will modify its pier
and conveyance system to
prevent spills while un-
loading rail cars and load-
ing vessels, according to a
consent decree that must be
approved by a federal judge.
The settlement would be
the second-largest ever won
by Puget Soundkeeper Alli-
ance, which filed the citizen
lawsuit in 2014.
Chris Wilke, the group’s
executive director, said the
amount of grain spilled
can’t be measured, but
maintained it was enough to
cause damage.
“It was not a trace by
any means,” he said. “We
believe the environmental
impact is quite significant.”
‘It was not a trace by any means. We believe
the environmental impact is quite signiicant.’
Chris Wilke, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance’s executive director
The company declined
to comment.
Puget Soundkeeper al-
leged the company’s lack
of record-keeping de-
prived the environmental
group’s members of hav-
ing enough information to
advance their mission of
protecting and improving
water quality.
After the suit was filed,
an attorney for Puget
Soundkeeper
obtained
from the company surveil-
lance video of the grain
terminal. In a key pre-trial
ruling in June, U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Richard Jones
found that the evidence
showed grain had been
spilled into the bay nine
times since 2014.
The company also
failed to regularly vacu-
um paved surfaces at the
terminal, a violation of
its state pollution-control
permit, the judge ruled.
Shortly after the rul-
ing, Dreyfus and Puget
Soundkeeper agreed to
the out-of-court settle-
ment. Dreyfus denies any
wrongdoing.
“The summary judg-
ment was quite substan-
tial and definitely enough
to get the attention of the
defendants,” Wilke said.
“The Clean Water Act is
clear — foreign substanc-
es are generally consid-
ered pollutants.”
Dreyfus also agreed to
pay Puget Soundkeeper
$403,000 in legal fees and
other litigation expenses.
If approved by the
judge, the $699,000 will
go into a privately man-
aged fund for Puget Sound
environmental projects.
The fund was started with
a $1.5 million settlement
in 2011 between Puget
Soundkeeper and BNSF
Railway. A grant-making
charity, the Rose Foun-
dation in Oakland, Calif.,
oversees the fund.
Puget Soundkeeper has
filed citizen lawsuits and
settled with several oth-
er companies, including
Trident Foods in Tacoma,
and Total Terminals Inter-
national and SSA Termi-
nals, both at the Port of
Seattle.
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ROP-35-2-1/#14
Large insects
crawl, cannibalize;
‘kind of creepy’
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Mormon crickets have been
spotted in Central Washington
this summer, but there are few
reports of damage, Washing-
ton State University research-
ers say.
Mormon crickets, so-called
for their early runs-in with
Mormon settlers and because
the males chirp, are actually
a katydid, said Dale Whaley,
extension specialist in Water-
ville, Wash.
“They’re voracious eaters,
they have large mandibles —
they can get into crops and
just devour plants,” Whaley
said.
The crickets impact for-
age crops, small grains and
orchards, climbing trees and
feeding on the fruit.
The insects have been
found in Okanaogan County,
down by Malott, Wash., and
near Nespelem, Wash., on the
Colville Indian Reservation.
“They were crossing the
road there earlier this year, lit-
erally by the hundreds,” Wha-
ley said. “They’re so large,
driving at 60 mph, they almost
look like small mice running
down the road, even though
they’re not.”
The crickets cannot ly,
even though they have wings,
so they crawl, Whaley said.
“The reason they move the
way they do, these guys are
known to cannibalize each oth-
er,” Whaley said. “That’s why
the guys in the front, if they’re
leading the pack, are con-
stantly moving. If they stop,
the guys behind them could
come up and start chomping
on them.”
Cannibalism is evident
when crickets are hit by cars,
Whaley said. Living crickets
will feed on the dead ones.
“It’s kind of creepy,” Wha-
ley said.
Mormon crickets are a
secondary pest not seen every
year. Favorable conditions in-
clude a mild winter where eggs
survive, and low thresholds for
predators such as small birds
and small raptors.
The crickets are probably
always present in small num-
bers, but if they start to become
plentiful, then farmers begin to
notice and ask questions of ex-
tension personnel.
“If you’re seeing one, two,
three, it’s not going to be a
problem,” he said. “But if
you’re seeing hundreds upon
thousands, that’s when you’re
going to have an issue.”
Elizabeth Beers, entomolo-
gist with the WSU Tree Fruit
Research and Extension Cen-
ter in Wenatchee, said Mor-
mon crickets have been seen
near or entering orchards, but
she’s heard no reports of seri-
ous damage.
Orchards surrounded by
rangeland or forested areas are
more likely to see them.
“It has been an intermittent
pest for some time, and will
probably continue to be one in
the future,” Beers said.
USDA Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service is
working to monitor the crick-
ets and determine when and
how they move. Whaley said.
The crickets can move up to
1.5 miles per day, and up to 50
miles per season.
Insecticides and bait traps
can be used to control popula-
tions. The best time to control
the crickets is at the nymphal
stage in spring.
The Mormon crickets
could still be a problem on
a case-by-case basis, Beers
said.
“These are very large an-
imals,” she said. “If they’re
coming into your orchard,
you’re going to notice them.”