June 2, 2017
CapitalPress.com
11
Survey finds honeybee losses improve from horrible to bad
By SETH BORENSTEIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — There’s
a glimmer of hope for Ameri-
ca’s ailing honeybees as winter
losses were the lowest in more
than a decade, according to a
U.S. survey of beekeepers re-
leased on May 25.
Beekeepers lost 21 per-
cent of their colonies over
last winter, the annual Bee
Informed Partnership sur-
vey found. That’s the low-
est winter loss level since
the survey started in 2006
and an improvement from
nearly 27 percent the winter
before.
The U.S. government has
set a goal of keeping losses
under 15 percent in the win-
ter.
“It’s good news in that the
numbers are down, but it’s
certainly not a good picture,”
said survey director Dennis
vanEngelsdorp. “It’s gone
from horrible to bad.”
Reduction in varroa mites,
a lethal parasite, is likely the
main cause of the improve-
ment, said vanEnglesdorp, a
University of Maryland en-
tomologist. He credited the
reduction in the parasite to a
new product to fight the mite
and better weather for pesti-
cide use.
The 10-year average for
winter losses is 28.4 percent.
“We would of course all
love it if the trend continues,
but there are so many fac-
tors playing a role in colony
health,” said bee expert Elina
Lastro Nino at the Univer-
sity of Californ-Davis, who
wasn’t part of the survey.
“I am glad to see this, but
wouldn’t celebrate too much
yet.”
For more than a decade,
bees and other pollinators
have been rapidly declining
with scientists blaming a mix
of parasites, disease, pesti-
cides and poor nutrition.
While usually hive losses
are worst in the winter, they
occur year round. The sur-
vey found yearly losses also
down, but not quite to record
levels. About one-third of the
honeybee colonies that were
around in April 2016 were
dead a year later, the survey
found. That’s better than the
year before when the annual
loss rate was more than 40
percent.
The survey, originally
started by the U.S. govern-
ment and now run by a non-
profit, is based on information
from nearly 5,000 beekeep-
ers who manage more than
360,000 colonies. University
of Montana’s Jerry Bromen-
shenk said the study gives too
much weight to backyard bee-
keepers rather than commer-
cial beekeepers.
Field trip mixes fun with facts for first-graders
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
KIMBERLY, Idaho —
About 170 first-graders from
Kimberly Elementary School
had a ton of fun and learned
a little about agriculture at
their end-of-the-year field
trip to a farm equipment
dealer on May 26.
It’s the second year
Agri-Service has hosted the
event, and it’s a lot of fun,
said Jeri Ahrens, the compa-
ny’s business development
manager.
“It’s my favorite day of
the year,” she said.
Starting one interactive
session with the youngsters
on cows and dairy products,
Ahrens asked the children if
any of them have cows. One
energetic youngster threw up
his hand, wiggled in his seat
and shouted “We used to, but
we ate ’em!”
Wiggling, jumping, smil-
ing and laughing were the or-
der of the day — despite the
chilly, overcast weather.
Idaho Farm Bureau sent
over its Moving Agriculture
to the Classroom educational
trailer, along with Maggie the
cow, who read the “Big Book
of Dairy” and led the dancing
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
First-graders from Kimberly Elementary School participate in an
agricultural knowledge session with Jeri Ahrens, Agri-Service busi-
ness development manager, during their field trip on May 26.
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
First-graders from Kimberly Elementary School wait eagerly for their hay ride to begin.
youngsters in shaking small
containers of cream to make
butter.
Ag in the Classroom also
pitched in with fun and edu-
cational materials for the stu-
dents’ goodie bags.
But climbing in and out of
big farm equipment and be-
ing taken for hayrides were
the stars of the jam-packed
morning that kept kids hop-
ping from one activity to the
next.
Sitting in the cab of a big
tractor — where Agri-Ser-
vice Safety Coordinator
Cody Schnitzius was shar-
ing equipment-safety tips —
brought roller-coaster-sized
smiles. And the children
could hardly sit still waiting
for the hay ride to get rolling.
For some of the students,
it was their first time around
a tractor and first hayride, and
many think only milk comes
from cows, Ahrens said.
“Agriculture is an amaz-
ing industry and one of Ida-
ho’s biggest. We literally
can’t live without it. So our
goal today is to promote
excitement and awareness
around agriculture and show
the kids that ag is really
cool,” she said.
Agri-Service’s mission
statement is “Together we
drive agriculture forward,”
and “together” not only en-
compasses the Agri-Service
team, how it works and sup-
ports it customers, but also
how the team promotes ag in
schools, FFA, 4-H, ag-relat-
ed groups, tech programs and
local communities, she said.
“We love opening our fa-
cility up to the kids. They’re
our future and if we continue
to build excitement around
agriculture, together we will
drive agriculture forward,”
she said.
Weather for the event
could have been a little better,
but with all the butter-mak-
ing dancing and shaking and
climbing up and down on the
equipment, everyone stayed
warm, she said.
“The best part of the day
wasn’t just watching ev-
eryone laugh and have fun
together but also having
parents and teachers come
up to me and say, ‘Wow. …
I never knew that!’ when
sharing some fun ag facts,”
she said.
“All of us at Agri-Ser-
vice had as much fun if not
more than the kids. Today
was a great day to be in agri-
culture,” she said.
Cattle grazing plan for Idaho monument draws criticism
By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press
BOISE — Federal officials
on May 26 released a cattle
grazing plan for central Idaho’s
Craters of the Moon National
Monument and Preserve that
immediately came under fire
from an environmental group.
The U.S. Bureau of Land
Management’s Final Environ-
mental Impact Statement al-
lows cattle grazing on nearly all
of the roughly 275,000 acres it
administers in the monument.
The document stems from
a federal lawsuit filed by the
Western Watersheds Project cit-
ing concerns about sage grouse
and a subsequent court ruling
requiring the federal agency to
come up with a new plan.
Lisa Cresswell, the planning
and environmental coordinator
for the Twin Falls District of
the BLM, said the document
combined with the BLM’s
2015 Greater Sage Grouse Ap-
proved Resource Management
Plan Amendment protects sage
grouse habitat while allowing
grazing in Craters of the Moon.
“We were mostly trying to
direct livestock grazing toward
(seeded areas) and away from
native sagebrush,” she said.
Craters of the Moon con-
Tetona Dunlap/The Times-News via AP
In this 2012 file photo, people hike the North Crater Flow Trail
at Craters of the Moon National Monument. Federal officials
have released a cattle grazing plan for the central Idaho national
monument and preserve that immediately came under fire from an
environmental group. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Fi-
nal Environmental Impact Statement released May 26 allows cattle
grazing on nearly all of the roughly 275,000 acres it administers in
the monument.
tains ancient lava flows of
rough and jagged rocks, but
some areas not covered by the
flows are suitable for cattle
grazing.
The plan reduces by 300
acres the amount of cattle graz-
ing area compared with the
previous plan, and it reduces
the number of cattle by a small
amount.
That’s not enough of a
change, said Greta Anderson,
deputy director for Western
Watersheds Project. “Our con-
cerns that the BLM’s livestock
plans will continue to con-
tribute to sage grouse decline
within this National Monument
are unresolved,” she said in an
email to The Associated Press.
Anderson also said that the
sage grouse Resource Manage-
ment Plan Amendments that
the BLM cites as providing
sage grouse protections in the
Environmental Impact State-
ment are themselves being
challenged in court in a case
that hasn’t been resolved.
Anderson said BLM’s plan
will lead to declines of sage
grouse and their possible elim-
ination from Craters of the
Moon.
Sage
grouse
are
ground-dwelling,
chick-
en-sized birds found in 11
Western states, where as few
as 200,000 remain, down from
a peak population of about 16
million. The males are known
for their strutting courtship rit-
ual on breeding grounds called
leks, and they produce a bub-
ble-type sound from a pair of
inflated air sacks on their necks.
BLM’s publication of the
document opens a 30-day pro-
test period available to those
who previously took part in the
process.
Meanwhile, the Trump ad-
ministration earlier this month
listed all 738,000 acres of fed-
eral lands in the monument
dating from 1924 as up for pos-
sible revocation. Twenty-six
other U.S. monuments on the
list only go back to lands desig-
nated since 1996 in accordance
with an executive order signed
by Trump.
The U.S. Department of the
Interior in an email to the AP
on May 26 said it was check-
ing on the apparent discrepancy
but didn’t have an immediate
response.
John Freemuth, a Boise
State University environmen-
tal policy professor and public
lands expert, said the Interior
Department appeared to make a
mistake by including the entire
monument and preserve. He
also noted that 410,000 acres
was designated as a preserve
by Congress following efforts
by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson,
R-Idaho, in 2002. That moved
that land from the BLM to the
National Park Service. For it to
no longer be a preserve would
require another act by Con-
gress, Freemuth said.
“They can’t touch the part
that Simpson got in in 2002,”
he said.
About 53,000 acres were
designated a monument before
1996, most of that occurring in
1924.
The remaining federal
lands of the monument are the
275,000 acres administered by
the BLM and the subject of the
Environmental Impact State-
ment.
Ted Stout, Craters of
the Moon spokesman, said
monument officials have
sought clarification from the
Interior Department about
whether the entire monu-
ment is being reviewed by
the Trump administration,
but they haven’t yet received
a response.
Many local communities
have pushed to have the ini-
tial 53,000 acres designated a
national park in the hopes of
bringing more tourism dollars
to the area.
Earlier this year, the Ida-
ho Senate passed a resolu-
tion seeking that result, but
it stalled in the House amid
objections from agricultural
interests.
USDA recalls beef broth made in Washington
Product shipped
without inspection
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A young Bellingham,
Wash., company has had to
recall about 5,163 pounds of
organic beef broth products
that were sent to customers
without the benefit of federal
inspection, the USDA’s Food
Safety and Inspection Service
announced May 26.
Cauldron Broths, which
opened about six months ago,
sent the products to customers
in Washington, the company’s
general manager, Steven Cor-
son, said. Most of the product
was sent in January and Feb-
ruary, and no illnesses have
been reported, he said.
“Overall, we have little
concern,” he said. “But we’re
following through with the re-
call protocol.”
The USDA confirmed no
illnesses have been reported
by people who consumed the
company’s products.
The products were pack-
aged between Dec. 21 and
May 22, according to the
USDA.
Corson said the USDA
inspected part of the produc-
tion, but not all. At the time,
the company believed it was
in compliance with inspec-
tion requirements, he said.
The company is not ap-
pealing the recall, he said.
“We do not foresee any other
issues,” he said.
The following products
were subject to the recall:
• 24-once pouches con-
taining Vital Choice Grass-
Fed Beef Bone Broth with
best by dates Jan. 15, 2018;
Jan. 18, 2018; and March 28,
2018.
• 24-once pouches con-
taining Cauldron Broths
Beef Bone Broth with best by
dates Jan. 3, 2018, and Feb.
15, 2018.
• 24-once pouches contain-
ing Cauldron Broths Organic
Cauldron’s Cure with best by
dates Dec. 21, 2018.
• 1 gallon containers of
Cauldron Broths Glace De
Viande with best by date Jan.
30, 2018.
• 8-once containers of
Cauldron Broths Glace De Vi-
ande with best by date March
4, 2018.
The products subject to re-
call bear establishment num-
ber EST. 45953 inside the
USDA mark of inspection.
The items were shipped to
retail locations in Washington
and to a distributor who sells
to consumers nationwide over
the internet.
The USDA urged consum-
ers to not consume the prod-
ucts. The products should be
thrown away or returned to
the place of purchase, accord-
ing to USDA.
WE SPECIALIZE IN BULK BAGS!
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HAY PRESS SUPPORT:
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(ALL GAUGES)
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PACKAGING:
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LOCATIONS:
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Ellensburg, Washington
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Phone: 855-928-3856
Fax: 541-497-6262
info@westernpackaging.com
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IS OUR TOP PRIORITY!
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