May 26, 2017
CapitalPress.com
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By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
AMERICAN
FALLS,
Idaho — Cereal crop ex-
perts have discovered stripe
rust infections in three areas
of southeast Idaho and warn
that cool, wet weather could
result in heavy disease pres-
sure this season.
“Last year was a moder-
ate year for stripe rust, but
the susceptible varieties
were hit hard,” said Uni-
versity of Idaho Extension
cereals pathologist Juliet
Marshall. “I suspect higher
disease pressure this year.”
Marshall said the poten-
tially devastating fungal dis-
ease, spread by orange and
yellow airborne spores, has
been widespread in Logan,
Utah, with infections con-
tinuing north into Preston,
Idaho.
Stripe rust has also been
reported in the Seagull Bay
area near American Falls
Reservoir and in Arbon Val-
ley.
“If it’s locally estab-
lished very early in the sea-
son, there’s a higher chance
of it exploding,” Marshall
said. “Our (recent) cool, wet
weather and cool nights are
really good for stripe rust to
continue to expand.”
In recent weeks, Marshall
said stripe rust has spread
into California, Oregon and
Washington, and heavier
spore loads could soon blow
into Idaho.
Marshall said no stripe
rust has been found yet in UI
cereal variety trials in Aber-
deen and Tetonia.
About a month ago, Chris
Merrigan, a crop consultant
with J.R. Simplot, Co., con-
firmed stripe rust in a field
in the Seagull Bay area near
American Falls Reservoir.
Merrigan said between 10
and 20 percent of the irrigat-
ed field, planted in a resistant
wheat variety, was infected.
However, Merrigan said
the field was planted to
wheat for consecutive sea-
sons, elevating the infection
risk, and he doesn’t believe
a fungicidal seed treatment
was used. Merrigan said
spring grain growers still
have time to mix fungi-
cides with their herbicide
sprays to prevent the spread
of stripe rust, and he urges
them to do so.
Lonnie Sparks, a crop
consultant with CHS Bing-
ham Cooperative, identified
stripe rust in downy brome
growing between two irri-
gated spring wheat fields
in Arbon Valley. Based on
the discovery, Sparks said
the grower mixed fungicide
with herbicide used on fall
wheat fields planted to a
susceptible variety, Brund-
age, and plans to spray fun-
gicides on his spring wheat
as well. Sparks also advised
the grower to kill the weeds
with a mixture of glyphosate
herbicide and fungicide.
Marshall said she’s be-
ginning to see cases of root
rot in fall wheat fields that
were heavily saturated with
moisture, as well as pythium
outbreaks in spring wheat.
Pythium is a water mold that
thrives when crops are plant-
ed in cool, wet soils, and can
cause heavy damage to new-
ly emerging crops with unde-
veloped root systems.
The good news, Mar-
shall said, is that barley
yellow dwarf virus doesn’t
appear to be widespread in
Idaho this year, as it has
been during the past few
seasons. Marshall said the
virus, which is spread by
aphids, has been confirmed
in a few fall barley fields in
the Murtaugh, Rupert and
Burley areas. She believes
growers have minimized the
spread by delaying planting
of fall crops until aphid mi-
grations have passed and
by using insecticidal seed
treatments.
Idaho
Change in Idaho’s fugitive dust law protects ag
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Since the Ida-
ho Legislature approved a
change to Idaho’s fugitive
dust law in 2015, no one has
been fined for creating dust
while engaged in agricul-
ture-related activities.
In the three years before
the rule change, six people
were fined by the Idaho De-
partment of Environmen-
tal Quality for creating dust
while working on farms or
ranches. Those fines ranged
from $1,200 to $4,300. The
law allows for penalties of up
to $10,000.
No enforcement actions
have been taken against peo-
ple for creating dust while
conducting agricultural activi-
ties since the new rule was ap-
proved in 2015, said Tiffany
Floyd, who manages DEQ’s
air quality division.
“The added clarification
under the ‘rules for control of
fugitive dust for agricultural
activities’ appears to have ad-
dressed the concerns of the ag
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
A dry bean field is harvested near Nampa, Idaho, last September.
No one has been fined for creating dust while engaged in agri-
cultural activities since the Idaho Legislature changed the state’s
fugitive dust law in 2015.
industry,” she said. “The clar-
ity has proven to be beneficial
to them and to DEQ.”
Idaho farm groups got in-
volved in the issue in 2013 af-
ter learning that a southwest-
ern Idaho farmer was fined for
creating dust on his property.
Before that, they weren’t
aware of the state’s 1972 fugi-
tive dust law, which requires
that all reasonable precautions
be taken to prevent particulate
matter from becoming air-
borne.
The law states that if a
farmer or rancher operates
in accordance with generally
recognized agricultural prac-
tices, that constitutes reason-
able control of fugitive dust.
But farm groups and DEQ
differed somewhat over what
generally accepted farm prac-
tices were.
For example, the south-
western Idaho farmer who
brought the issue to light was
fined for creating dust while
grinding grain at a feedlot, a
common practice.
DEQ and farm groups
agreed to define common ag-
ricultural practices. The defi-
nitions were largely taken
from Idaho’s Right to Farm
Act.
The list includes prepar-
ing land for agricultural pro-
duction, applying or handling
pesticides, herbicides or oth-
er chemicals, planting, irri-
gating, growing, fertilizing,
harvesting or producing ag-
ricultural, horticultural, flori-
cultural and viticultural crops.
It also includes breeding,
hatching, raising, producing,
feeding and keeping live-
stock, dairy animals, swine,
fur-bearing animals, poultry,
eggs, fish and other animals,
animal products and by-prod-
ucts, animal waste and com-
post and bees.
The rule allows the Idaho
State Department of Agricul-
ture, if there is uncertainty, to
determine whether an activity
is a generally recognized agri-
cultural practice.
Ag groups involved in the
negotiations that led to the
dust rule change told Capital
Press they haven’t heard of
any of their members being
fined or bothered for creating
dust since.
“I haven’t had anybody
from industry say they have
had any issues with DEQ,”
said Roger Batt, executive di-
rector of the Idaho Heartland
Coalition, which includes
several farming groups. “We
came to a real good agreement
on that. I think it’s resolved
the issue.”
Russ Hendricks, director
of governmental affairs for
Idaho Farm Bureau Feder-
ation, said his organization
isn’t aware of any of its mem-
bers being bothered for creat-
ing dust since 2015.
“It appears to be working
well and we are apprecia-
tive of DEQ for making the
necessary adjustments,” he
said.
Farmers seek referendum
on planned community
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Blake Isaacs, left, visits with Idaho State University microbiology professor Peter Sheridan at Sheri-
dan’s lab on May 12. Sheridan has obtained a state grant to test a machine Isaacs sells that removes
airborne pathogens from potato storage.
Grant funds research in potato
storage sensors, filtration system
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
An Idaho State University re-
searcher has obtained a grant
to evaluate a filter-less ma-
chine that removes airborne
pathogens from potato storage
while humidifying the air.
Blake Isaacs, CEO of
Blackfoot-based Isaacs Hy-
dropermutation Technologies,
said his father, Garry, invent-
ed the concept of humigation
in 1985, and the company’s
engineering staff has worked
during the past three years
to make the machines more
compact, affordable and ef-
fective.
ISU microbiology profes-
sor Peter Sheridan will start
testing humigators beginning
June 5, releasing yeast cells
into a sealed room and then
growing them out on cul-
tures to compare populations
before and after treatments.
They’ll also evaluate the ef-
ficacy of humigators in con-
junction with an ultraviolet
light, which now comes on
the machines to kill additional
pathogens.
Another grant will aid Boi-
se State University research-
ers who plan to collaborate
on the experiment to assess
the sensitivity of paper-thin
sensors they’ve developed to
detect the metabolic signa-
tures of pathogens in potato
storages.
BSU, working with Emer-
son Electronics, hopes its net-
work of sensors will precisely
identify locations of pathogen
“hot spots” in storage.
The Idaho Department
of Commerce’s Idaho Glob-
al Entrepreneurial Mission
grant — which awards funds
to state universities working
with industry partners to fur-
ther technologies — recently
approved about $414,000 for
the ISU and BSU projects,
with about $190,000 going to-
ward the humigation research.
Humigation relies on the
Venturi effect. Air is run
through a chamber with con-
strictions of varying sizes,
creating low-pressure zones.
In the absence of pressure,
water introduced into the
chamber atomizes into tiny
droplets, which absorb air-
borne particles that are cap-
tured in the dirty water tank.
The company’s testing has
confirmed the machines are
effective at ridding the air of
mold spores, protecting pota-
to storages from diseases such
as black dot and silver scurf.
“The testimonials are very
consistent,” Isaacs said. “Ev-
eryone who has used it for that
purpose has continued to use
it or expanded their (use).”
But he said Sheri-
dan’s study should provide
third-party data to satisfy po-
tential customers and share-
holders.
Furthermore,
Sheridan
plans to study how well the
machines remove smaller
particles, down to bacterial
and viral sizes. Sheridan said
humigators have reportedly
removed ammonia odor from
potato storages — evidence
that they’re capturing volatile
organic compounds from the
air that are even smaller than
viruses.
“We’re going to see how
much of a protective barrier
is this going to be to airborne
threats,” Sheridan said. “Let’s
get some hard numbers.”
Isaacs hopes the research
will help his company refine
its humigators for future use in
other crops, as well as hospital,
school, industrial and even res-
idential applications.
BOISE — Farmers and
other residents of the Dry
Creek Valley just north of
Boise are fighting a proposed
planned community that
would eliminate 1,400 acres
of prime farmland.
The $100 million develop-
ment has been approved by
Ada County commissioners
but opponents have turned
to a little-known section of
Idaho Code to try to overturn
that decision through a public
vote.
Idaho Code 31-717 pro-
vides a mechanism by which
people who gather a certain
number of signatures can put
a county decision to a vote of
the people. The section allows
for “people at an election to
approve or reject legislation
adopted by the board of coun-
ty commissioners.”
Stephanie Rael, a local
farm hand, submitted the ini-
tial 20 signatures necessary to
prompt a county review of the
petition for a special election.
If approved, she and others
who oppose the project will
have 180 days to collect the
estimated 40,000 signatures
it will take to prompt an elec-
tion.
Brian Ertz, an attorney
who lives in that area, is as-
sisting those opposed to the
development with free legal
advice.
Idaho Code “allows any
ordinance passed by a county,
which is legislative in nature,
to be subject to a referen-
dum,” Ertz said. “The mech-
anism ... really hasn’t been
used in Idaho.”
Dry Creek Ranch is a pro-
posed development about
5 miles north of Boise that
would include 1,800 homes
and 85,000 square feet of com-
mercial space on what farmers
in the area say is some of the
best soil in the county.
“I’ve never farmed on
land in my whole life that is
so nice,” said Justin Moore,
co-owner of Fiddler’s Green
Farm. “It seems kind of fool-
ish to take that away.”
He said he understands the
region is growing fast and peo-
ple have to live somewhere.
“But does it necessarily
have to be here?” he said. “It
would be nice to preserve this
unique soil and farming area
here. It’s really special agricul-
tural land.”
Since the original devel-
opment application was ap-
proved in 2010, the developer,
number of houses and square
footage of commercial space
have changed, according to
a website, savedrycreek.org,
that was created by opponents
of the plan.
The county this year ap-
proved an amendment to the
original plan but opponents
of the development believe
the developer, Boise Hunter
Homes, should have been re-
quired to submit a new plan.
Rael said the commis-
sion signed an ordinance that
changed certain conditions
in the original development
agreement.
“According to our under-
standing, that is a piece of leg-
islation and subject to the ref-
erendum process,” she said.
She said if the county
doesn’t approve opponents’
petition for a referendum,
they are prepared to challenge
that decision.
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