May 19, 2017
CapitalPress.com
11
Idaho
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Water managers cope with too much
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
New Butte County
Extension educator popular
with local forage growers
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
ARCO, Idaho — In his
previous job, Brad Gamett
created another market for
local hay and forage growers
and quashed their problems
with several noxious weeds.
Gamett served as the coun-
ty’s weed superintendent from
2003 through this January,
when he became Butte Coun-
ty’s new University of Idaho
Extension educator.
In his initial year as weed
superintendent, Gamett cre-
ated a weed-free certification
program for local hay and
straw. Ranchers who use pub-
lic land in Idaho are required
to supplement feeding only
with certified weed-free hay.
Furthermore, many straw
buyers seek to avoid import-
ing weed seeds in bales used
for horse bedding.
“We got about $20 more a
ton out of our straw by selling
it weed-free,” said local grow-
er Mark Telford.
Telford said Gamett also
controlled noxious weeds
along the Lost River through
his farm, helping to keep
weed seeds from spreading
into his crops, and he credits
Gamett with being outstand-
ing at finding grant revenue to
support his projects.
Last year, Gamett said
2,000 acres of Butte County
crop land were certified as
weed-free through his pro-
gram. Gamett, who remains
active in the Lost River Co-
operative Weed Management
Area, has relied on biological
control to get a handle on his
county’s noxious weeds prob-
lem.
“At present, by and large,
most species of noxious
weeds here are on the decline
because of management,”
Gamett said.
When he first became
weed superintendent, Gamett
said leafy spurge and spotted
knapweed were widespread in
the area. The noxious weeds
out-compete native forage
plants on range and are toxic
to livestock. Minimizing the
weed seed supply is important
to hay and straw producers.
From
local
sources,
Gamett began collecting pop-
ulations of predatory insects
that evolved along with the
weeds in Europe or Asia to
release for weed control. He
explained that he uses only in-
sects that have been tested by
federal agencies and shown
to pose no problems of their
own.
“We don’t have the weeds
any more to warrant massive
bug releases because the in-
sects have been so effective,”
Gamett said.
With pinto prices up,
dry bean acres in Idaho
expected to increase
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
WILDER, Idaho — Dry
bean acreage in Idaho is expect-
ed to increase in 2017, a devel-
opment that seemed unlikely
earlier this year.
Prices for pintos, the engine
that pulls the bean price train,
are averaging $25-27 per hun-
dredweight right now but had
dipped into the teens in Decem-
ber, said Don Tolmie, produc-
tion manager for Treasure Val-
ley Seed. Co. in southwestern
Idaho.
“If you had asked me (ear-
lier in the year), I would have
predicted dry bean acreage
would be down substantially
in the Treasure Valley area,” he
said. “But now I think acreage
is going to be close to what it
was last year or a bit above.”
Recent sales increases in dry
bean seed are a combination of
the uptick in bean prices as well
as low prices for other crops
grown in the region, Tolmie
said.
“Pinto prices are greatly im-
proved over last year,” he said.
“As prices started picking up,
people started changing their
minds about dry bean seed.
We’re seeing sales similar to
what we had last year in this
valley.”
The USDA National Agri-
cultural Statistics Service es-
timates that dry bean acreage
in Idaho, not including chick-
peas, will total 55,000 in 2017,
up from 48,000 last year and
50,000 in 2015.
Idaho’s dry bean acreage is
split between the Treasure Val-
ley area of southwestern Idaho
and the Magic Valley area of
southcentral Idaho.
Dry bean planting is getting
ready to kick into high gear in
both areas.
Magic Valley grower Bill
Bitzenburg expects dry bean
acres to be up significantly this
year, largely because of low
prices for other crops planted in
the region.
“Overall, beans are going to
be up a lot in Idaho this year,”
he said. “Guys are looking for
different options for things to
plant.”
Mike Goodson, a Treasure
Valley farmer, is planting about
10 percent more beans than
normal this year. That’s partly
because of normal rotational
fluctuations but also because
prices for wheat and many oth-
er crops are sub-par, he said.
“I think (beans) have
more potential on the market
right now versus (some other
crops),” he said.
Idaho is the nation’s leader
in dry bean seed and about 70
percent of the state’s bean acres
are grown for seed.
John O’Connell/Capital Press File
The Portneuf River, more than a foot above flood stage, overflows its banks April 26 in Sacajawea
Park in Pocatello, Idaho. Other rivers across the state are running high as a record snowpack contin-
ues to melt and water managers deal with high volumes.
drained Palisades too far.
IGWA directed its attorneys
to write the agency a letter
encouraging judiciousness in
future releases.
Lately, Steve Howser,
general manager of Aber-
deen-Springfield Canal Co.,
has heard similar concerns
daily about over-drafting
from his shareholders. But he
recalls the 1997 season, when
the Upper Snake had a simi-
lar snowpack and Palisades
was left half full. That season,
flood waters severely dam-
aged his diversions. Howser
is confident the system will
still end this season filled to
near capacity based on the
extremely high river volumes
and the remaining snowpack.
12 month waiver
3 years at 1.9%
For example, the Snake
River at the Shelley gage was
at 22,221 cfs on May 11, com-
pared with more typical flows
for the date of just over 5,000
cfs.
The Snake River at Flagg
Ranch above Jackson Hole,
Wyo., was flowing at 5,000
cfs. — five times the normal
volume for mid-May, he said.
5 years at 2.9%
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ROP-40-42-4/#17
Courtesy of Brad Gamett
Brad Gamett is the new University of Idaho Extension educator for
Butte County.
BOISE — Following an
early May warm spell, water
officials are concerned that
river levels throughout the
state are already orders of
magnitude above usual peak
flows, with most of an ex-
traordinarily deep snowpack
still remaining at high eleva-
tions.
On May 11, federal water
managers said flood-control
releases from Lucky Peak
Dam hadn’t kept pace with
increasing runoff into the Boi-
se River, and they’d have to
step up releases to levels that
could damage downstream
property. The Boise River
Reservoir system was more
than 81 percent full, with 149
percent of its normal moun-
tain snowpack for the date
still remaining, according to
the USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service.
Mary Mellema, senior
hydrologist at the Bureau of
Reclamation, said the agency
would increase flows through
Boise by 300 cubic feet per
second per day this week to
reach 9,500 cfs. Anything
more than 7,000 cfs is consid-
ered flood stage. Mellema ex-
plained prolonged wet weath-
er has prevented BOR from
making the volume of releases
prescribed by an Army Corps
of Engineers formula, called a
rule curve.
At 9,500 cfs, the agency
expects much of the Boise
Greenbelt to be under water,
exacerbated erosion of banks,
flooding of Eagle Island, Gar-
den City, Star and Caldwell,
water flowing into 45th and
47th streets in the warehouse
district of Garden City, some
residential property affected
and flooding of Warm Springs
Golf Course and Municipal
Park in east Boise.
Ada County emergency
management officials said
they’re reinforcing river
banks and will have person-
nel on the lookout for debris
that could accumulate at
bridges and quickly raise wa-
ter levels.
“There’s been a lot of con-
struction near the river since
the last time we’ve had these
kinds of flows,” said Brian
Sauer, bureau water opera-
tions manager for the Middle
Snake Field Office. “It’s a
path we’ve never really been
down.”
Complicating matters, the
extended forecast for South-
ern Idaho calls for heavy
rainfall, though the arrival
of lower temperatures should
slow the snow melt, accord-
ing to the National Weather
Service.
Though the Boise system
is “several hundred thousand
acre-feet behind the rule
curve,” Mat Weaver, Idaho
Department of Water Re-
sources deputy director, said
levels in the Upper Snake
River system are right on tar-
get.
The Upper Snake Reser-
voir system was 65 percent
full as of May 11. Palisades
Reservoir was drained to
just 12 percent of capacity in
anticipation of peak runoff,
with 162 percent of the sys-
tem’s average snowpack for
the date still remaining.
Lynn Tominaga, executive
director of Idaho Ground Wa-
ter Appropriators Inc., said
his irrigators worry BOR
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Oregon, Washington,
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