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November 11, 2016
Idaho
Water director orders ESPA groundwater management area
munity from calls.
“If you stabilize and reverse
the declining trends, delivery
calls will no longer be neces-
sary and will fall by the way-
side,” Weaver said.
Spackman has vowed the
management area’s rules will
not interfere with a recent wa-
ter call settlement between
the Surface Water Coalition
and groundwater irrigators.
Groundwater users agreed to
both reduce their water use and
provide mitigation to the coali-
tion, hoping to restore deplet-
ed spring fl ows into the Snake
River below Blackfoot.
The management area
excludes tributary basins,
surprising some water man-
agers who predicted Spack-
man would seek to force all
users who contribute to the
ESPA decline to help reverse
it. In addition to having bet-
ter models for the main basin,
Weaver explained most of the
tributaries already have wa-
ter-conservation plans in place
under their own groundwater
management areas or critical
groundwater areas.
Weaver explained the Big
Lost Basin, for example, was
excluded because of a pending
petition for a critical ground-
water designation — acknowl-
edging the water supply is
already insuffi cient to meet ex-
isting rights. The basin will be
added to the management area
if the critical designation fails.
Lynn Tominaga, executive
director of Idaho Ground Wa-
ter Appropriators Inc., said his
members are divided on the
management area.
He said some members ap-
prove of the concept because it
“includes folks who have not
contributed to the aquifer.”
Others fear it provides
Spackman with too much
power to impose conditions on
groundwater use.
Wheat commission seeks
grower contact information
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — The Idaho
Wheat Commission is nego-
tiating with wheat purchas-
ers over a proposed rule that
would allow the commission
to have access to the names
and contact information of all
wheat producers in the state.
Idaho statute gives the
IWC the authority to have the
information but the commis-
sion lacks the mechanism to
collect it.
All states with a wheat
commission have that ability
except for Idaho, said IWC
Executive Director Blaine Ja-
cobson.
“It puts us at a disad-
vantage in relation to oth-
er wheat-growing states,”
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Winter wheat grows in a southwestern Idaho fi eld June 2. The
Idaho Wheat Commission has proposed a rule that would allow it
to collect the names and contact information of all wheat producers
in the state. Some wheat elevators have asked the commission to
hold off a year so they can ask their customers if it’s OK to provide
that information to the IWC.
Jacobson said.
The rule would require the
fi rst purchaser of Idaho wheat
to submit the information to
the commission.
Having the information
would enable the commis-
sion to inform wheat produc-
ers of timely and important
information, such as disease
outbreaks or price premiums,
Jacobson said.
It would also allow the
commission to show growers
how their wheat checkoff dol-
lars are being spent, he said.
Estimates on the number
of wheat producers in Idaho
vary wildly, from 2,500 to
well over 3,000.
Jacobson said the commis-
sion’s statutory duty to edu-
cate growers and improve the
marketing of wheat in Idaho is
hindered by the lack of grow-
er information.
“Our intent is to keep the
wheat industry as healthy as
we can,” he said. “For the
long-term health of the wheat
industry in Idaho, it’s an im-
portant piece we need.”
About half of the wheat
elevators in Idaho provide the
IWC with grower names and
addresses, which are exempt
from disclosure under the
state’s public records law.
IWC Commissioner Bill
Flory, a North Idaho farmer,
said any grower information
the commission has is guard-
ed carefully and shared with
no one.
The IWC tried to pass the
rule during the 2016 legisla-
tive session but after it faced
opposition from some eleva-
tors, entered into a negotiat-
ed rule-making process that
allows stakeholders to try to
reach an agreement on the
proposal.
The commission plans to
reintroduce the rule during the
2017 Idaho Legislature but
some elevators have asked the
commission to give them time
to contact the producers they
purchase wheat from to see if
they’re OK with their names
and addresses being released
to the commission.
Idaho water regulators
grow management area
90
95
Lewiston
12
Rive
r
BOISE — Idaho Depart-
ment of Water Resources
Director Gary Spackman has
established a groundwater
management area for the East-
ern Snake Plain, expanding the
territory where irrigators will
be asked to help stabilize the
declining aquifer.
IDWR Deputy Director
Mat Weaver said the depart-
ment will soon create an advi-
sory committee that will work
during the next couple of years
to help draft a groundwater
management plan, govern-
ing the management area de-
scribed in Spackman’s Nov. 2
order.
The management area will
have no bearing on senior us-
ers’ water delivery calls, but
IDWR will retain the authority
to curtail any irrigators who
fail to live up to the terms es-
tablished under the groundwa-
ter management plan.
“It looks more broadly than
just whether or not existing
rights are being met,” said
John Simpson, an attorney
representing the Surface Water
Coalition. “It looks at whether
the water supply is sustainable
and whether it’s suffi cient to
meet all of the uses.”
Water calls within the
ESPA are confi ned to an area
of common groundwater sup-
ply established under Idaho’s
Conjunctive Rule 50, which
was based on the best science
available during the mid-1990s.
The groundwater management
area is broader than the Rule 50
boundary — roping in a small
area north of Howe and a strip
of the eastern edge of the aqui-
fer from American Falls to St.
Anthony, thereby enabling the
department to force irrigators
to balance their water use with
supply, regardless of their im-
ake
Capital Press
The Idaho Department of Water Resources
director has created a groundwater manage-
ment area for the Eastern Snake Plain,
granting IDWR the right to impose require-
ments on irrigators to help stabilize the
aquifer. The new area is not directly
related to water calls but is
somewhat broader than
the Rule 50 boundaries.
ESPA Ground Water
Management Area
Sn
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Rule 50 boundary
95
20
93
15
IDAHO
84
Ashton
Boise
26
20
Mountain Home
Sn a
k e R i v er
N
26
93
American
Falls Res.
93
Source: Idaho Dept. of Water Resources
Pocatello
15
Twin Falls
25 miles
Idaho Falls
Blackfoot
84
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Expert: Few zebra chip
problems despite record
Idaho psyllid population
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
JEROME, Idaho — A Uni-
versity of Idaho-led insect
monitoring program captured
a record number of potato
psyllids in 2016, but growers
have reported few problems
with zebra chip, the crop dis-
ease spread by the pests.
Caused by the Liberibacter
bacterium, zebra chip reduc-
es potato yields and quality,
forming patterns in tuber fl esh
that darken when fried. The
disease fi rst surfaced in the
Northwest in 2011.
UI Extension entomologist
Erik Wenninger said research-
ers and industry partners cap-
tured 6,585 potato psyllids
during the summer on sticky
traps set up around potato
fi elds — far more than during
the monitoring program’s pre-
vious four years combined.
In spite of the increased
number of traps, Wenninger
hasn’t heard many reports
of zebra chip infection in his
conversations with growers,
and when he dug tuber sam-
ples from 36 fi elds involved
in the monitoring program, he
said he found “almost no ze-
bra chip symptoms.”
The monitoring program,
started in 2012, has included
13 intensely scouted fi elds,
each surrounded by 10 sticky
traps and subjected to routine
leaf collections and vacuum-
ing for psyllids. Seventy-fi ve
to 94 other fi elds are lightly
monitored. Each is surround-
ed by four sticky traps that are
collected weekly.
UI Extension virologist
Alexander Karasev report-
ed his lab is about halfway
through testing 2016 psyllid
samples for the presence of
John O’Connell/Capital Press
University of Idaho Extension
entomologist Erik Wenninger
discusses a 2016 surge in
potato psyllid populations in
Idaho Nov. 3 during the Idaho
Association of Plant Protection
annual meeting in Jerome.
Liberibacter. Thus far, 2.7
percent have been infected.
The researchers expect the fi -
nal infection number will drop
below 2 percent, as testing of
late-season psyllids contin-
ues. Wenninger explained
infection runs highest early
in the season — possibly be-
cause Liberibacter inhibits a
psyllid’s ability to reproduce.
Karasev theorized the de-
cline in crop infection could
be due to the monitoring pro-
gram’s effectiveness.
“This year, when sudden-
ly we had a spike of psyllids
in June, (Wenninger) alerted
everyone, and people proba-
bly started spraying,” Karasev
said.
Wenninger has found few
psyllid eggs and nymphs
on leaf samples since 2012,
which was the last year in
which zebra chip caused
widespread grower losses.
That year, 23.3 percent of the
1,603 psyllids collected were
infected.
“(Growers) are probably
doing a good job of con-
trolling the psyllids because
we don’t fi nd much on the
leaves,” Wenninger said.
Much of Idaho’s dry bean crop still in the fi eld
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
46-4/#24
NAMPA, Idaho — A sig-
nifi cant portion of Idaho’s dry
bean crop is still in the fi eld
and some growers are scram-
bling to get their remaining
beans harvested.
Persistent rains and a cool
fall that delayed bean matu-
rity are the main reasons for
the late harvest, according to
growers.
Farmers in southwestern
and southcentral Idaho who
produce the state’s $70 mil-
lion dry bean crop say they
can’t remember the last time
this many beans were still in
the fi eld this late in the year.
“I don’t think I’ve ever
been into November before,”
said Paul, Idaho, farmer Dana
Rasmussen, who still has
about 90 acres of beans left
in the fi eld, about a third of
his total crop. The rains “have
just made it hard to get back in
the fi eld.”
About 30 percent of bean
fi elds in southcentral Idaho
and 10 percent in southwest-
ern Idaho have yet to be har-
vested, said Don Tolmie, pro-
duction manager for Treasure
Valley Seed Co. in Homedale.
Farmers who still have
beans left out “are obviously
concerned about it and are on
top of it,” he said. “As soon
as we get a window where
we can get a combine out in
the fi eld, we’ll be picking up
beans at a rather rapid rate.”
According to USDA’s Na-
tional Agricultural Statistics
Service, Idaho bean acres to-
taled 48,000 this year, down
from 50,000 in 2015.
Twin Falls has received
6.16 inches of rain since Sept.
1, which is 4.75 inches more
than normal.
“We have just had a ton of
rain here. It’s been incredibly
wet,” said Twin Falls farmer
Bill Bitzenburg.
Bitzenburg got the last of
his beans harvested the fi rst
part of October but that’s
because he didn’t have any
late-season varieties. Parma
farmer Mike Goodson has had
his beans in since September
but like Bitzenburg, he also
didn’t plant any late-season
varieties.
Farmers with late-season
varieties, however, are feeling
the pressure.
A cool fall meant late
season varieties didn’t get
the necessary heat units and
matured slower than normal,
said Lorell Skogsberg, large
seed production manager for
HM Clause’s garden seed
bean processing facility in
Nampa.
HM Clause has only one
17-acre fi eld in southcentral
Idaho yet to harvest and is in
pretty good shape, Skogsberg
said. But some of its compet-
itors are under the gun and
have asked for the company’s
help in drying their remaining
beans.
The quality of the beans
that have been harvested
looks good but yields weren’t
exceptional, farmers told
Capital Press.
“I’ve not heard anybody
bragging about their yields,”
Bitzenburg said.
Bean farmers said from a
price standpoint, the crop is
one of the few bright spots
this year when compared with
other crops grown in the area.
Tolmie said his company
is paying $28-32 per hundred-
weight for pintos right now,
compared with $18-24 last
year at this time.
“Beans are somewhat of a
glimmer of hope in this com-
modity market,” Goodson
said.