July 14, 2017
CapitalPress.com
7
Washington
State AG targets chemical ‘incredibly important’ to farmers
5 states, D.C.
challenge EPA
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington Attorney Gen-
eral Bob Ferguson has joined
the fi ght to ban the country’s
most widely used insecticide,
a chemical the USDA said
has successfully warded off
unpredictable pests for more
than 50 years and is “incred-
ibly important to U.S. agricul-
ture.”
Ferguson, a Democrat, and
attorneys general from four
other states on the East Coast
and the District of Columbia
moved July 5 to participate in
a lawsuit aimed at prohibiting
chlorpyrifos.
“Washington consumers,
farmworkers and farm oper-
ators deserve an administra-
tion that respects science and
cares about the risks to their
health,” Ferguson said in a
written statement.
The Environmental Pro-
tection Agency in March
rejected a petition filed in
2007 by the Pesticide Action
Network of North America
and Natural Resources De-
fense Council to declare any
residue of chlorpyrifos on
food unsafe, effectively out-
lawing its use on commer-
cial crops.
The EPA was reacting to
a deadline set by the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals to
rule on the petition by March
31. The EPA said that despite
several years of study, the
science was unresolved. Con-
gress has directed the EPA to
complete a review of chlorpy-
rifos by 2020.
Environ-
mental
and
labor groups,
represented by
Seattle-based
Earthjustice
lawyers, have
Bob
asked the 9th
Ferguson
Circuit to over-
rule the EPA.
The EPA said it was review-
ing the suit.
Washington, New York,
Massachusetts,
Maryland,
Vermont and D.C. fi led to
intervene in the suit as the
guardians of “millions of
citizens who are potentially
exposed to unsafe” levels of
chlorpyrifos on food or while
working on farms.
Ferguson accused the
Trump administration of “ig-
noring science.”
“President Trump’s EPA
is willfully ignoring scientif-
ic evidence that chlorpyrifos
is harmful to human health,”
Ferguson said.
Washington Friends of
Farms and Forests director
Heather Hansen said Friday
that the lawsuit seeks to pre-
empt the EPA’s scientifi c re-
view.
“We’re concerned about
this new lawsuit. We think it
misses the big scientifi c pic-
ture,” she said. “We agree
with the attorney general
about the importance of pro-
tecting Washington citizens,
but we think these allegations
are the wrong way to go.”
Measured by pounds of ac-
tive ingredient, chlorpyrifos is
the most widely used insecti-
cide in the country, according
to the EPA.
Banning
chlorpyrifos
could affect many of Wash-
ington’s most valuable crops,
including apples, grapes and
wheat, according to com-
ments the state Department of
Agriculture submitted to the
EPA.
WSDA said it consulted
with Washington State Uni-
versity and that crops most
at risk would include sweet
corn, onions and mint. WSDA
asked the EPA to allow
chlorpyrifos to continue to be
used on those crops.
Ferguson’s offi ce linked
his intervention in this case
to other actions he’s taken
against Trump policies, in-
cluding a travel ban on resi-
dents of some Muslim-major-
ity countries, emissions from
new oil and gas facilities, and
energy effi ciency rules for
ceiling fans.
The 9th Circuit Court or-
dered the Obama adminis-
tration in 2015 to rule on the
petition to ban chlorpyrifos.
The Obama administration’s
EPA subsequently concluded
it couldn’t determine whether
all existing uses of chlorpyri-
fos were safe and proposed a
ban.
At the time, the Obama
administration’s USDA com-
plained that the EPA had over-
estimated the public’s expo-
sure to chlorpyrifos and drew
a “mistaken conclusion” that
the insecticide was not safe.
The USDA stressed the
insecticide’s importance and
success since it was intro-
duced in 1965 by the Dow
Chemical Co.
The court pushed the EPA
to make a fi nal decision be-
fore the end of 2016, but the
Obama administration won
a three-month delay, leav-
ing the fi nal decision to the
Trump administration.
E. Washington family honored for 60 years of test plots
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Oregon State University
Farmers should scout their fi elds for the wheat head armyworm
larva, which can reduce wheat yields, researchers say.
Farmers warned to look
for wheat head armyworm
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Eastern Washington farm-
ers should keep an eye out for
wheat head armyworm larvae
or the pest’s adult moth as
they scout their fi elds.
Washington State Univer-
sity researchers haven’t re-
ceived any calls yet, but it’s
the time of year for the pest to
show up, said Diana Roberts,
regional specialist with WSU
Extension in Spokane.
Farmers should look in ar-
eas the insect has been a pest
before, such as Reardan and
Davenport, but it has also mi-
grated in recent years toward
Edwall and Sprague, Roberts
said.
Oregon State University,
the University of Idaho and
WSU recently released a pub-
lication about managing the
wheat head armyworm “com-
plex.” The true wheat head
armyworm is an invasive spe-
cies for the region. The false
wheat head army worm is a
native species and the promi-
nent pest in the region. Genet-
ic testing showed the two are
closely related. Both cause
damage.
“The puzzle is why it took
120 years of wheat cultivation
for it to become a problem,”
Roberts said. “It’s hard to
Online
http://bit.ly/2sILVKC
study because it comes and
goes.”
She suspects changing
climates and changes in crop-
ping systems have been fac-
tors.
The moths resurfaced
in the Pacifi c Northwest
from 2012 through 2014 but
weren’t found last year, likely
because populations haven’t
had a chance to rebuild, Rob-
erts said.
In isolated fi eld trials,
the wheat head armyworm
caused as much as 35 percent
yield loss, Roberts said.
“A lot of what they do is
cause grain dockage at har-
vest, because the kernels
come out looking broken,”
Roberts said.
Insecticides are available,
but Roberts recommends nat-
ural options such as parasitic
wasps to avoid harming ben-
efi cial insects. She emphasiz-
es scouting for larvae in the
fi eld.
“We don’t recommend
spraying at the fi rst sight of
it,” she said. “You’re never
going to eradicate an insect
by doing that — they’re too
crafty.”
LAMONT, Wash. — Gil
White and his family have al-
ways been keen on research.
They have assisted Washington
State University scientists for
the past six decades.
“It started with Grandpa,
down to my dad and then to
me,” the Lamont, Wash., farm-
er said.
WSU offi cials honored the
White family this week for 60
years of offering their land for
test plots. Gil White was pre-
sented with a plaque during a
lunch between crop tours in St.
John, Wash., and Lamont.
Gil White is a fourth-gener-
ation farmer and has been farm-
ing for 35 years. His grand-
father, Curtis “Frank” White,
started offering land for test
plots, and Gil’s father, Curtis,
continued the practice.
Curtis White died May 31,
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Washington State University Extension regional educator Steve
Van Vleet, left, honors Lamont, Wash., farmer Gil White and his
family for 60 years of offering their land for wheat variety fi eld trials
during a lunchtime celebration in St. John, Wash.
Gil White said.
Field trials in growers’
fi elds allow researchers to
examine the performance of
wheat varieties in different
areas. Whitman County alone
has fi ve climatic zones, said
Steve Van Vleet, WSU Exten-
sion regional educator.
The Whites’ participation
benefi ts other Lamont farmers
by helping breeders determine
the best varieties with the best
disease resistance for that par-
ticular growing zone, Van Vleet
said.
Offering land to the univer-
sity for free for six decades is
rare, Van Vleet said. The Mills
family of St. John, Wash., was
honored in 2016 for participat-
ing in 60 years of variety trials.
Other farms have done it for
20 to 30 years, Van Vleet said.
“The nice thing about it is
we can look at different vari-
eties and see what works and
what doesn’t work.” Gil White
said. “We kinda get a jump on
what’s going on.”
Retired farmer Randy Suess,
a former Washington Grain
Commission member, made
the commemorative plaque
for the Whites and the Millses
from maple and padauk, an Af-
rican redwood Suess likes for
its color.
“Having the test plots for
that long is extremely rare,”
Suess said. “Some people have
them for a couple years and
then they move on and do other
stuff.”
Washington irrigation innovator Ron Van Gundy dies
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Ron Van Gundy, who
managed one of Washing-
ton’s most important and most
drought-vulnerable irrigation
districts for 20 years, died July
6 after a long illness.
He was 73.
Van Gundy retired as man-
ager of the Roza Irrigation
District in the Yakima Basin in
2002 because of health prob-
lems, but continued to work
part-time for the district as
policy director. He marked 49
years with the district in April.
He had been in declining
health related to a respiratory
illness, said Tom Myrum, ex-
ecutive director of the Wash-
ington State Water Resources
Association.
Colleagues said that Van
Gundy was an innovator
who guided the Roza district
through many droughts. He
was a key fi gure
in developing
broad support
among farmers,
tribes, environ-
mental groups
and government
Ron
agencies for a
Van Gundy still-unfolding
plan to increase
water supplies for farms, fi sh
and cities in the Yakima Val-
ley.
The Roza district irrigates
some 72,000 acres in the state’s
most valuable farm region, but
its members are subject to cur-
tailments by the Bureau of Rec-
lamation in water-short years.
The district’s current man-
ager, Scott Revell, said Van
Gundy’s experience helped the
district get through the 2015
drought, one of the most severe
in state history.
“We sat down with him, and
he said, ‘Here’s the things that
work, and here’s the things that
don’t work, and we’re only go-
ing to do the things that work,’”
Revell said.
Van Gundy was “way, way
ahead of the curve” in invest-
ing in water conservation in
the 1980s and it paid off as the
district’s farmers received less
than half their normal water al-
lotment, Revell said.
“The reason we made it
through in 2015 with 44 per-
cent was because of everything
Ron did in the ’80s and ’90s,”
Revell said. “He was a titan in
water resources.”
Van Gundy was the long-
est-serving employee in district
history and also was the long-
est-serving manager, according
to Revell. He was hired by the
district in 1968 and promoted
to assistant manager in 1971.
He was named manager in
1982.
Van Gundy served on the
Water Resources Association
board of directors between
1982 and 2013. He represented
the association of irrigation dis-
tricts as well as his own district
in Olympia before the associ-
ation hired a lobbyist, Myrum
said.
“Ron was super smart,”
Myrum said. “That guy was a
repository of information that
was available on demand.
“The information he held in
his brain you can’t fi nd in an ar-
chive,” Myrum said.
The association awarded
Van Gundy its Distinguished
Service Award in December.
“We are saddened by the
passing of a man who stood tall
in the water resources commu-
nity for decades,” the associa-
tion’s president, Dave Solem,
said in a written statement.
“He will be remembered for
his drive toward effi cient water
use, developing new water stor-
age in the Yakima Basin and his
collaborative approach toward
achieving those goals.”
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