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June 30, 2017 CapitalPress.com Subscribe to our weekly California email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters 11 California 4-H, FFA members gear up for state fair By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press SACRAMENTO — 4-H and FFA members throughout the Golden State are gearing up to face big-league competi- tion at the California State Fair on July 14-30. Entrants at the Sacramento County Fair over the Memori- al Day weekend were offered the added benefit of doing a dry run at the facility where the state fair is held — Cal Expo. FFA member Joshua Var- gas of Elk Grove, Calif., said he knew of a few students at the county event who planned to go on to the state fair. For them, the competitions at the smaller gathering were an op- portunity to know where to improve. “The judges will tell you what to work on and what they want to see more of,” he said. More than 4,000 animals are entered in youth and local divisions at the state fair each year. Exhibits in the fair’s live- stock building and adjacent shaded stalls are shown in Hanna Parker of Liberty Ranch FFA in Galt, Calif., walks with her pig at the Sacramento County Fair at the Cal Expo fairgrounds in late May. The fairgrounds will host the Califor- nia State Fair July 14-30. Photos by Tim Hearden/Capital Press FFA members Joshua Vargas, left, and Mariah McBride of Elk Grove, Calif., walk with a market goat at the Sacramento County Fair at the Cal Expo fairgrounds in late May. shifts, and the fair offers show- manship awards and prizes in different classes for youths. Agriculture will again take center stage at the 164th state fair, whose theme this year is “Come One, Come All!” One of the most popular Clean Water Act case set for trial Director who led water agency through dam crisis set to retire By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press SACRAMENTO — A California farmer is in set- tlement talks with officials of President Donald Trump’s administration as a lawsuit to enforce $2.8 million in fines against him is set to go to trial in August, his attorney said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers claims Modesto, Calif., nursery owner John Duarte illegally filled wet- lands while planting a wheat field in Tehama County, Calif. The agency ordered him to stop work in the field in 2013. In a pretrial hearing June 16, U.S. District Judge Kim- berly Mueller set a trial date of Aug. 15, denying Duarte’s motion to move it to next spring so that the judge could visit his wheat farm at the same time of year as it was inspected, said Tony Francois, senior attorney for Pacific Le- gal Foundation, which is rep- resenting Duarte. In the meantime, Duarte’s attorneys have had meetings with senior Justice Depart- ment officials to urge them to intervene, Francois said. “We’re still hoping to hear whether and to what extent they are willing to either ac- cept our view of the case or … agree that this $2.8 million penalty as well as mitigation is simply unjustifiable and instead agree to resolve the penalty for something much closer to nominal,” Francois told the Capital Press. Justice Department of- destinations for attendees is the 34-year-old farm, where a local chef will offer cooking demonstrations with locally grown produce. Other farm features will include a daily farmers’ market, an aquacul- ture exhibit, a hydroponic greenhouse and an insect pa- vilion. In addition, an exhibit called Farmyard Follies will feature goats, sheep, llamas and a spotted donkey from the Great American Petting Zoo, offering fairgoers a chance to learn about animals and see them up close. Fair-related festivities kicked off June 22 with the State Fair Gala at Cal Expo, which raises funds for the Friends of the California State Fair Student Scholarship Fund. Fair officials presented this year’s Agriculturalist of the Year award to Tom Nas- sif, chief executive officer of Western Growers, for high- lighting the need for immigra- tion reform and pushing for a new specialty-crop title in the Farm Bill. Among other ag-related honorees, Paul Draper of the Cupertino-based Ridge Vine- yards received the Wine Life- time Achievement Award and Dutton Ranch Vineyards in Sebastopol received the Vine- yard of the Year Award. That morning, fair chief ex- ecutive officer Rick Pickering and local dignitaries honored the Best of Show winners for the Commercial Wine, Cheese, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Commercial Beer competition in front of the state Capitol. Courtesy Pacific Legal Foundation Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Tony Francois, left, stands with John Duarte, president of Duarte Nursery. A federal lawsuit to enforce $2.8 million in fines imposed on Duarte for work he did in a wheat field in Tehama County, Calif., is set to go to trial in August. ficials did not immediately respond to Capital Press re- quests for comment. The talks come as Duarte has asked Mueller to recon- sider her ruling last year that he should have obtained a Clean Water Act permit to run shanks through wetlands at a depth of 4 to 6 inches, creat- ing furrows before planting wheat in a 450-acre pasture. Because the judge hasn’t yet determined a penalty for Duarte, the litigation isn’t fin- ished, so he couldn’t appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Ap- peals without her permission. Duarte maintains he hired a consultant in 2012 to iden- tify wetlands on the property off Paskenta Road south of Red Bluff and that no plowing took place in those areas. The PLF contends that ar- eas where plowing occurred do not meet tests the U.S. Su- preme Court has set for wet- lands subject to Clean Water Act oversight. Francois has argued the Corps relied on a wetlands map created in 1994, when the legal definition of a wetland was much more widely applied. As a result of the order to stop, Duarte Nursery lost the $50,000 it cost to plant the wheat and has lost the ability to farm the proper- ty, Francois said. The PLF filed suit on Duarte’s behalf in 2013, disputing the Corps’ allegations and arguing the government violated the busi- ness’ due-process right in not allowing it to answer the charge. The Corps responded with a counterclaim alleging the Clean Water Act violation. The PLF’s hopes for a res- olution were raised in Febru- ary, when Trump issued an executive order directing the EPA to review the “Waters of the United States” rule. The rule was withdrawn this week. As it now stands, in ad- dition to the $2.8 million in fines, the government wants Duarte to purchase up to 132 acres of wetland mitigation credits, which could cost tens of millions of dollars, he said. “One of the things the gov- ernment said … is the reason they want mitigation credits is that’s what the Corps of Engineers would require any farmer to get as part of a per- mit to plow their property,” the attorney said. “That’s just a complete misreading of the Clean Water Act. “We do think it would be a wise move for the administra- tion to look at the legal issues and the facts of this case.” SACRAMENTO — Bill Croyle, who as acting direc- tor shepherded the state De- partment of Water Resources through the near-failure of the Oroville Dam last winter, is retiring effective July 1, the agency announced. “I’m very proud of the work we have accomplished over the years bringing Cali- fornia through drought, flood and most recently, through the Oroville Spillway inci- dent,” Croyle, 59, said in a statement. “And now I’m looking forward to picking up my retirement plans where they left off six months ago.” A former chief of flood operations and drought emer- gency operations manager for the DWR, Croyle put off his retirement at Gov. Jerry Brown’s request to take the reins in January from retiring director Mark Cowin. In February, spillway rup- tures at the Oroville Dam led to the two-day evacuation of about 188,000 area residents and threatened a large portion of the Eastern Sacramento Valley’s $1.5 billion agricul- tural industry, including rice and tree crops and several processors along the High- way 99 corridor between Chico and Yuba City. As it was, some fruit and nut orchards planted inside levees were flooded as Feath- er River waters rose, and fluctuations in water levels as officials closed and reopened the Oroville Dam’s spillway caused erosion that led to the flooding of orchards outside the levees. In April, the DWR award- ed a $275.4 million contract to the Omaha, Neb.-based Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. for permanent repair work on the Oroville Dam’s spillways, which is expected to continue through the sum- mer. Amid the crisis, Croyle sometimes faced criticism, as when the agency initial- ly rebuffed the Sacramento Bee in its effort to gain ac- cess to records the newspa- per argued would show how Brown’s office handled the crisis. Croyle later said the state would release some re- cords. Farm groups, meanwhile, criticized the DWR for be- ing slow in increasing State Water Project allocations de- spite record precipitation in many areas last winter. Lake Oroville is the SWP’s chief reservoir. “California is extremely fortunate to have had Bill at the helm of DWR this year, especially during the Oro- ville emergency,” state Natu- ral Resources Agency secre- tary John Laird. Cindy Messer, the DWR’s chief deputy director, will serve as acting director until a new director is appointed. As competition grows, California prunes seek to fill high-end niche By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press SACRAMENTO — As the global prune market becomes more competitive, the Califor- nia Dried Plum Board plans to target higher-end consumers who are willing to pay more for better quality. The industry’s strategy will be to highlight prunes’ use as a value-added ingredient in culinary circles and pitch Cal- ifornia prunes as a more nu- tritious alternative in nations with stronger economies, said Donn Zea, the board’s execu- tive director. “It’s a great thing to be able to grow and process the world’s greatest prunes,” Zea said. “We’re in search of mar- kets that are consistently will- ing and able to pay for those.” One of those key markets is Japan, where the plum board is stepping up its promotional ef- forts in the run-up to the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo. The number of foreign visi- tors to Japan has been increas- ing at a rapid rate, reaching 24 million in 2016, and restau- rants are scrambling to meet their special dietary needs, Rachel Nelson, director of the U.S. Agricultural Trade Office in Tokyo, said in a recent re- port. California prunes are rec- ommended as an ingredient for special menus in a guide- book that Nelson presented to more than 250 Japanese food and hospitality professionals at a recent seminar. The board is also using sports dietitians to tout prunes’ nutritional val- ue to athletes training for the 2020 games. The efforts come as the global marketplace has been flooded with smaller, cheaper prunes from Chile and Argen- tina, which has put downward pressure on prices. Last year’s weather-affect- ed short crop further eroded California’s share of the mar- ket. Shipments of the 2016 crop to overseas destinations are down 26 percent from 2015, while domestic ship- ments have risen 4 percent, Zea said. The shortage prompted some handlers in the Golden State to obtain foreign prunes to send to trading customers to meet their orders, Zea said. While industry leaders won’t say they’re willing to cede markets to competitors, they note it’s difficult to com- pete head-to-head with the cheaper prunes. For instance, while the European Union remains Cal- ifornia prunes’ largest export market, valued at nearly $60 million in 2015-16, the fruit faces a nearly 10 percent tariff from which Chilean prunes are exempt as well as competitive challenges from a strong dol- lar, leaders say. 26-3/#18
