FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2016
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 53
$2.00
An uncertain
FUTURE
Water, workers, trade and Trump
among the many issues facing
agriculture in 2017
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
M
ore water but maybe
less regulation. Expand-
ing yields and shrinking labor
pools. Big Ag and Big Data taking
root amid the blossoming of small farms. A political cli-
mate in which some want to drain the swamp while others
clamor to conserve the watershed.
Got a crystal ball? Or, more in step with the times, a
prognosticating drone? The agricultural outlook for 2017
is cloudy.
“I think we’re going into a very uncertain period for
producers and the food system, because the new admin-
istration coming in will be a little less predictable, per-
haps,” said Rose Hayden-Smith, a former county exten-
sion agent who edits the University of California’s “Food
Observer” blog.
“I think we’re going into a very uncertain period for producers and the food system,
because the new administration coming in will be a little less predictable, perhaps.”
Rose Hayden-Smith
former county extension agent who now edits the University of California’s “Food Observer” blog
California snow
water equivalents
Trump and trade
Didn’t take long to get to President-elect Trump, did
it? But no matter how you voted, the incoming adminis-
tration poses a conundrum for some producers. Many of
them supported him — Trump took up to 80 percent of
the vote in many rural counties — but disagree with some
of his espoused policies.
For example, producers who ship wheat, blueber-
ries, Christmas trees and other goods to Asia favored the
Trans-Pacifi c Partnership, the trade agreement Trump
vowed to cancel.
And if Trump’s campaign bad-mouthing of major
trade partner China are an indication of what’s ahead,
“Holy cow,” said Hayden-Smith.
“We are not a food system in isolation,” she said. “If
we have poor relations with China and the World Trade
Organization, it could throw the global food system into
crisis.”
Turn to 2017, Page 12
Percent of the historic average snow water
equivalent for Dec. 22, measured in inches.
Northern Sierra/Trinity:
61% of normal
Redding
Central Sierra:
57% of normal
5
Sacramento
80
N
Southern
Sierra:
78% of
normal
San
Francisco
Fresno
50 miles
5
Statewide
average: 63%
15
Bakersfield
40
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Los Angeles
10
Source: California Dept.
of Water Resources
8
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Zippy Duvall, the new president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, speaks at
the organization’s annual convention in Orlando, Fla. He believes the Trump adminis-
tration will bring relief from over-regulation.
Above normal Owyhee snowpack raises irrigators’ hopes
Water managers stress that it’s still early
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Courtesy of Owyhee Irrigation District
Snowpack in the Owyhee basin, which feeds water
into the Owyhee Reservoir, is shown in this aerial
photo taken Feb. 26.
Snowpack in the Owyhee
River basin is well above normal
for this time of year, which is a
positive early sign for farmers in
Eastern Oregon who receive their
irrigation water from the Owyhee
Reservoir.
“It’s certainly a good start and
good news,” said Malheur Coun-
ty farmer Bruce Corn, a member
of the Owyhee Irrigation District
board of directors. “We’re still
quite early in the season ... but
we’re cautiously optimistic.”
The reservoir provides water
for 1,800 farms and 118,000 ir-
rigated acres in Eastern Oregon
and part of southwestern Idaho.
Those farms received their
full 4 acre-foot allotment of irri-
gation water in 2016 after receiv-
ing only a third of their allotment
in 2014 and 2015 because of
drought conditions.
There was 166,000 acre-feet
of carryover water in the reser-
voir at the end of the 2016 water
year, less than normal but much
more than what was left in 2015
and 2014.
The reservoir had 205,000
acre-feet of water as of Dec. 21.
Total snowpack in the Owyhee
basin was 144 percent of average
as of Dec. 22.
With the current abundant
snowpack, “We’re in a much
better position than where we’ve
been the past several years,” Corn
said. “We have a ways to go but
things are looking promising.”
Across the border in Idaho, to-
tal snowpack in the Boise River
basin is at 99 percent of normal.
Turn to SNOWPACK,
Page 12
ESPA study suggests water credit trading program
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — A study fi nds
implementing an irrigation
credit trading program could
lessen the fi nancial blow to
Eastern Snake Plain ground-
water users forced to curb
their pumping under a recent
water call settlement.
WestWater Research as-
signed an intern, Ryan Shep-
ler, to evaluate the most effec-
tive ways for Idaho Ground
Water Appropriators, Inc.,
groundwater districts to meet
a 240,000 acre-foot annual re-
duction in aquifer withdraw-
als mandated under the terms
of a 2015 settlement with the
Surface Water Coalition.
The reduction averages
12 percent per user, with the
amount varying based on prior-
ity dates of groundwater rights.
Shepler explained a credit
program would pay willing
growers scheduled to plant
low-value crops, such as
wheat, on marginal ground to
fallow those acres. Resulting
irrigation credits could then
be sold to others within the
groundwater district in need
of water to fi nish off high-val-
ue crops on more productive
land.
“With this credit trading
system, only the lowest val-
ue land is idled, and the rest
Turn to WATER, Page 12
53-2/#13
Income loses less with credits than with across the board water cuts