December 9, 2016
CapitalPress.com
11
California
Group accuses water allocators of depriving farm-dependent species
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By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — A
group of property-rights law-
yers believes federal water
officials are favoring salmon
and Delta smelt at the expense
of nearly a dozen other imper-
iled species that use farmland
as habitat.
The Pacific Legal Founda-
tion says sharp curtailments
in federal water south of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Riv-
er Delta are starving protected
species such as the California
condor, the Southwestern wil-
low fly catcher
and the San Joa-
quin kit fox.
The species
are often attract-
ed to farms en-
rolled in federal
Tony
conservation
Francois
programs. Those
tracts and other
critical habitat have suffered
because of a lack of Central
Valley Project water, said Ash-
ley Indrieri, the PLF’s commu-
nity outreach coordinator.
The group is embarking on
a public awareness campaign
with the hope of finding land-
owners with the legal standing
to challenge the federal water
delivery policies in court, she
said.
“Farmers may be affected
by this if they manage part of
their farm for wildlife conser-
vation,” said Tony Francois, a
PLF senior staff attorney.
“These water cutbacks af-
fect their food resources,” he
said of the species. “There’s
a wide variety of people with
different types of interests
we’d be happy to hear from.”
U.S. Bureau of Reclama-
tion spokesman Todd Plain
countered that the drought,
Statewide strawberry production
poised for record despite slow start
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
WATSONVILLE, Calif.
— After starting way behind
because of last winter’s rains,
California strawberry produc-
tion in 2016 is poised to set its
first record in volume in three
years.
As of Nov. 26, the state’s
strawberry pickers had filled
just over 194 million flats,
surpassing the full-year to-
tals in 2015 (190 million) and
2014 (192 million), according
to the California Strawberry
Commission.
Production is now likely
to vault over the nearly 194.8
million flats produced in 2013,
when growers enjoyed their
seventh record-breaking sea-
son in the previous eight years.
“Basically, the production
numbers are determined by
the weather, the acreage plant-
ed, and the increase in acreage
planted in higher volume-pro-
ducing varieties,” commis-
sion spokeswoman Carolyn
O’Donnell said.
Winter rains early in 2016
put production well behind
the previous two years, when
a lack of rainfall led to fast
starts. As of April 4, strawber-
ry fields in California had pro-
duced just 2.6 million flats,
well below last year’s total to
date of nearly 45.4 million.
Each flat weighs about 12
pounds.
But this year’s production
had caught up by early Octo-
ber and kept booming, even
as many areas of coastal Cali-
now in its fifth year, has made
it more difficult to weigh
competing priorities.
“Very difficult decisions
have been and continue to be
made,” Plain told the Capital
Press in an email. “We will
continue to work with other
agencies, our water users and
interested stakeholders to try
to make the best use of our
resources.”
This isn’t the first time
growers’ advocates have used
an environmental argument
to get more water for their
farms. Rice industry leaders
in Northern California have
reminded allocators that their
fields contribute to valuable
wetlands for Pacific Flyway
waterfowl and shorebirds.
About 57 percent of wet-
lands in the Sacramento Val-
ley rely on rice drain water
and about 60 percent of the
food for wintering waterfowl
comes from rice fields, the
California Rice Commission
has said.
Among the other species
the PLF is citing are the Buena
Vista Lake shrew, the Califor-
nia red-legged frog, the Cali-
fornia tiger salamander, vernal
pool tadpole shrimp and two
species of fairy shrimp.
Francois and Indrieri said
they don’t know how many
growers enduring water cut-
backs south of the Delta have
habitat for these species on
their farms, but they’re try-
ing to learn that through their
public outreach campaign.
The PLF’s attorneys plan
to appear as guests on TV
and radio shows, write opin-
ion pieces, make speeches at
forums and educational pro-
grams and widely distribute
literature that details the en-
vironmental consequences of
the water cutbacks.
Navel orange harvest yields
good fruit size and flavor
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Juan Godinez, left, of Watsonville, Calif.-based V&M Farms sells
strawberries to a customer at a farmers’ market this summer in
Elk Grove, Calif. After a slow start this year, California strawberry
production has surpassed that of the past two years.
fornia received above-average
rainfall. Since Oct. 1, Salinas
has recorded 2.56 inches of
rain, above its average 1.98
inches, and Santa Maria has
seen 2.58 inches this water
year compared to its normal
1.93 inches, according to the
National Weather Service.
Partly driving the late
surge has been an increase in
summer plantings for fall pro-
duction, from 3,719 acres in
2012 to 6,721 acres this year,
the commission reported.
Big consumer demand late
in the year prompted more
growers to plant in the sum-
mer, O’Donnell said of the
acreage increase.
And while overall acreage
has dropped to 36,039 this
year from 40,816 in 2013,
new higher-yielding varieties
have enabled growers to keep
pace, she said. Among those
new varieties is the Universi-
ty of California-Davis created
Monterey, whose acreage has
ballooned from 1,110 to 7,761
in the last five years, accord-
ing to the commission.
Whether — and by how
much — production sets a re-
cord will depend on Decem-
ber growing conditions.
The Oxnard area, where
much of the winter produc-
tion occurs, is expecting tem-
peratures in the 60s and only a
couple days of rain in Decem-
ber, according to AccuWeath-
er’s long-range forecast.
Strawberries are a year-
round fruit in California as
harvests essentially follow the
sun, beginning in Southern
California and moving north
as the year progresses.
The peak season is in the
spring and early summer,
when all three of California’s
most prominent growing re-
gions — around Watsonville,
Santa Maria and Oxnard —
are shipping berries.
Navel orange growers in
California’s San Joaquin Val-
ley are about six weeks into
their harvest of a lighter crop
than last year but are reporting
good size and flavor.
Nighttime temperatures
have been low enough to
bring out color in the fruit,
but cloud cover and occasion-
al rain have kept the nights
warm enough to avoid threats
of frost, said Alyssa Houtby,
public affairs director for the
Exeter-based California Citrus
Mutual.
“By all accounts, the har-
vest is proceeding well,” Hout-
by said. “They’re starting to
see a little bit of a smaller crop,
but the fruit quality is better
than last year and the size is a
little bit bigger.
“I think the industry overall
is excited to see a better-eating
piece of fruit this early in the
season,” she said.
Growers are expecting an
81 million-carton navel crop,
down from the 88 million car-
tons weighing 1.76 million
tons that came out of groves
in a weather-bolstered 2015-
2016 season, according to the
National Agricultural Statistics
Service office in Sacramento.
The fact that this year’s
crop is significantly smaller
isn’t a surprise considering the
abundance of last season’s pro-
duction, industry insiders say.
Consumer demand for na-
vels usually picks up around
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Navel oranges grown in Parlier, Calif., are featured at a farmers’
market Nov. 27 in Elk Grove, Calif. Navel orange growers are in
the midst of their harvest of a lighter crop this season.
Christmas, although people
have shown more of a willing-
ness to try early-season navels
now that the industry can guar-
antee a certain level of sweet-
ness, Houtby said.
Growers use the state De-
partment of Food and Agricul-
ture’s Standard Scale, which
was established several years
ago and measures a navel or-
ange’s readiness based largely
on brix, a measure of sugar
content. The previous standard
was based on a sugar-to-acid
ratio.
The industry is upbeat over
a wetter-than-average start to
the rainy season in the valley.
As of Nov. 29, Fresno had
received more than 2 inches
of rain since Oct. 1 and 11.14
inches for the calendar year,
above its averages of 1.62
inches and 9.65 inches, respec-
tively, according to the Nation-
al Weather Service.
Ample rainfall helps navel
oranges develop size.
“Nobody is packing the
smaller fruit right now,” Hout-
by said. “That’s a good sign.”
The navel harvest typi-
cally runs from mid-autumn
until the following summer.
At this time of year, pickers
usually focus on blocks with
larger fruit and leave smaller
oranges on trees to continue
to grow, as smaller fruit often
must be discounted to move it
out.
As such, utilization — the
percentage of fruit that can be
sold as fresh and not diverted
to juice — is usually high in
the early months and tends to
drop as the season progresses.
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