Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 2016)
CapitalPress.com September 30, 2016 Idaho Subscribe to our weekly Idaho email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press POCATELLO, Idaho — The Idaho Water Resource Board has allocated $322,000 to study six potential sites within the Eastern Snake Plain for conducting man- aged aquifer recharge, includ- ing ive in the upper valley that would use lood-control releases. In support of a water call settlement junior groundwa- ter users reached with Sur- face Water Coalition irriga- tors in July 2015, the state has vowed to build its infra- structure to eventually aver- age up to 250,000 acre-feet of annual recharge. Recharge involves injecting surface water into the groundwater table through unlined canals, sink holes or injection wells to bolster declining aquifer levels. Idaho Department of Water Resources recharge coordina- tor Wes Hipke said the studies assessing the viability of pro- posed recharge sites could be completed by next spring. The lone lower valley study approved at the Sept. 16 meeting is the Richield site — a basin covering 62 state- owned acres on a lava ield. The state can recharge for about 120 days in the lower valley during the winter. Hipke explained the state is required to maintain a min- imum low of 500 cubic feet per second in the reach below Minidoka dam to beneit a protected snail, but Idaho law allows lows to be reduced to zero farther downstream, past Milner Dam. In addition to studying expanded capacity in the Egin Bench near St. Antho- ny, the board approved four other upper valley studies near Idaho Falls — including the Woodville, New Swe- den, Butte-Market Lake and South Fork sites. Hipke said the Butte-Market Lake study included three sites, and the South Fork study will evalu- ate up to nine potential sites. “The lower valley, that’s our workhorse,” Hipke said. “For our longterm goal, we also need to develop (upper valley) sites for when water is available — when there is a big year and (spring) lood-control releases.” The state is in its third year of conducting winter-long recharge, having recharged 75,000 acre-feet in the pilot year and 67,000 acre-feet last season. Hipke’s goal for this winter is to recharge between 100,000 and 112,000 acre- feet, though he acknowledges the effort will be complicated by scheduled work on several canals. By next winter, Hipke said the state’s infrastructure should support up to 600 cfs of recharge, roughly double the volume recharged last winter. By 2020, Hipke hopes the state will have the capac- ity to conduct 250,000 acre- feet of annual recharge, ahead of the state Legislature’s time- line. Also during the Pocatello meeting, the board approved a loan to Northside Canal Co. and extended repayment of a loan to Idaho Ground Wa- ter Appropriators. Northside manager Alan Hansten said the 20-year, $5.2 million loan will inance rebuilding and re-lining of a nearly 1-mile stretch of the main canal over porous rock. Work is sched- uled to start this fall and be inished by the spring of 2019. It will be done in three phases. “What we’re concerned about is if it continues to de- grade and has a catastrophic failure, we could lose the full canal,” Hansten said. The $6.9 million loan to IGWA, which the board ex- tended by a year, covered the purchase of a ish hatchery and construction of a pipeline to deliver water to the Rangen Inc. hatchery, satisfying a wa- ter call. IGWA still owes $5.1 million in principal. Bull trout lawsuit targets Payette National Forest roads By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press BOISE — An environmen- tal group has iled a lawsuit contending two federal agen- cies are violating the Endan- gered Species Act by failing to analyze how roads and mo- torized trails could be harm- ing threatened bull trout in the Payette National Forest in west-central Idaho. The federal lawsuit iled by WildEarth Guardians in Idaho on Sept. 21 seeks to force the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to complete an analysis that could result in restrictions on roads and motorized trails. Speciically, the group con- tends the 2007 travel manage- ment plan for the Payette Na- tional Forest needs updating following Fish and Wildlife’s 2010 designation of critical bull trout habitat within the forest. The group is asking a feder- al judge to order the two agen- cies to do necessary work to update the travel plan. Pocatello school plans potato semester By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press POCATELLO, Idaho — For a full semester, every subject taught to irst- and second-graders at the Pocatel- lo Community Charter School will feature potatoes, with strong industry support for the unique curriculum. Teacher Kelly Bolander explained that during math class students will weigh or measure spuds. Spelling words may include “tuber” or “photosynthesis.” Students will diagram the potato life cycle in art class and raise po- tato plants to observe for sci- ence class. Even the classes’ annual community service project is centered on spuds — stu- dents will donate thousands of pounds of produce gleaned from recently harvested ields to the local food bank. The charter school launched the unit on Sept. 23 with a baked potato feast and a visit by the Idaho Potato Commission’s Great Big Ida- ho Potato Truck. The school’s educational model, called expeditionary learning, gives students an in- depth look — spanning every course — at a designated sub- ject for each semester. Because the learning mod- el also emphasizes irst-hand experiences, the irst- and sec- ond-grade “expedition,” titled the Magical Potato, includes ield trips to the Wada Farms fresh packing facility in Pin- gree, the Idaho Potato Muse- um in Blackfoot, the Lamb John O’Connell/Capital Press Larry Bathe, driver of the Great Big Idaho Potato Truck, eats a baked potato with students Miles Mar- shall, left, and Brianna Sander from the Pocatello Community Charter School on Sept. 23. The truck visited the school to help irst- and second-graders start a semester-long unit on potatoes. Weston potato processing plant in American Falls and to area farm ields to witness the spud harvest. “When we started this years ago, it was because we were looking for a compel- ling issue around the area,” Bolander said. “And we can have access to farmers and their ields and have a service component that makes it a more worthy expedition.” Teacher Whitney Griggs said a favorite activity for stu- dents visiting potato cellars is to “climb to the top and slide down the potato mountain.” Lance Funk Farms in American Falls and Miles Brothers Farms in Grace are regular participants in the unit, welcoming students for gleaning and harvest visits. Seed grower Everett Miles admits to dumping extra pota- toes in the chosen ield before the students come to glean, ensuring they have a suficient volume for the food bank. He also sends each child home with a bag of spuds. “It’s a fun day for the kids,” Miles said. “They love coming.” Teaching assistant Lisa Barthlome said the Miles brothers are her husband’s un- cles. Her daughter, Sydnee, a seventh-grader at the school, is well-versed in the farm- ing operations and leads the tours. “It’s really educational for kids in Idaho to learn what goes on in their own back- yard,” Barthlome said. At the semester’s end, the school will host an expedition night, during which irst- and second-graders will display their potato-related work and the plants they raised. IPC adds international bloggers to industry tour By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press BLACKFOOT, Idaho — Having visited Eastern Idaho potato processing facilities and personally dug spuds at an Idaho farm, food writer and blogger Mara Coraeo vows she’ll share a newfound appreciation of the vegetable with her audience in Guate- mala. For the irst time, the Idaho Potato Commission included international food bloggers on its annual publicity tour, host- ed Sept. 19-21 to introduce bloggers to the state’s potato industry. In addition to a dozen U.S. bloggers, IPC hosted six blog- gers from Central America, including Coraeo. Coraeo founded Nu Chef magazine in 2005. In addition to the publication’s 25,000 subscribers, she reaches fol- lowers on social media and about 1,000 people per month who attend her regular cook- ing classes. “The amount of work that goes into a single french fry, that’s pretty amazing,” Co- raeo said. “When you think about fries — the ones that are John O’Connell/Capital Press Food bloggers pose by the entrance of the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot on Sept. 20. They were part of an annual tour showing the Idaho potato industry to food bloggers, including the tour’s irst international participants. left over in a McDonald’s bag — I will feel guilty to leave them there because it takes so much work.” The tour, in its ifth year, included stops at IPC Com- missioner James Hoff’s farm in Shelley, a ield of colored potatoes, the Wada Farms fresh packing facility in Pin- gree, the Lamb Weston frozen processing factory in Ameri- can Falls and Idahoan Foods in Lewisville. The group also went to the recently renovat- ed Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, located in an old train depot, where upgrades include a new potato cinema and a small restaurant that opened Memorial Day in the former baggage claim area, featuring a basic menu of sta- ple potato foods. Traci Lofthus, IPC’s inter- national marketing director, called a chef her organization works with in Guatemala and Central American buyers to ind good blogging candidates to invite. “The last three or four years we’ve wanted to do some type of media tour, and we just have not done that,” Lofthus said. “We’ve been busy on distribution and buy- ers.” This year, IPC also added a new requirement establish- ing minimum expectations of each participant to promote Idaho potatoes — the blog- gers must post about Idaho spuds at least four times, us- ing at least two different so- cial media channels. Following past tours, IPC marketing manager Jamie Bowen explained some blog- gers have been more active than others in posting about the experience and IPC “de- cided to make the requirement this year so we got as much out of it as they did.” Bowen said tour partici- pants were surprised to learn how much real potato is used in processed products, and by the sheer volume of potatoes produced in Idaho. Bowen said IPC invited bloggers from diverse back- grounds. For example, Kita Roberts, who blogs as Girl Carnivore, made friends with Susan Pridmore, known by her followers as the Wimpy Vegetarian. Pridmore, of San Francis- co, admits she didn’t realize farmers propagate spuds by planting small, cut tuber piec- es. She also learned refrigerat- ing potatoes can elevate sug- ars, causing darker fries. “I’m going to be adding a lot more information about potatoes, because I think if it’s a surprise to me, it’s going to be a surprise to other people,” Pridmore said. Roberts, of Newark, Del., is eager to share her personal connections with the farmers who raise Idaho spuds with her readers, believing it will lend her followers a greater trust and value for the prod- uct. NOW SCHEDULING FOR WATER WELL DRILLING & EXPLORATION Specializing in 10” diameter and above water wells. • Deepening • Reaming • Commercial • Irrigation 40-1/#14 Water Board approves ESPA recharge studies www.rjdrillcompany.com 509-981-6675 • ryan@rjdrillcompany.com 40-1/#7 8 Licensed • Insured • Bonded • Odessa, WA
