October 6, 2017
CapitalPress.com
7
Washington eyes 6 more weeds for control
State board
to hold hearing
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
The Boise River flows through Garden City, Idaho, on Sept. 29. Near-record snow-
pack in the Boise River basin last winter provided southwestern Idaho irrigators
with a large supply of reservoir storage water that can be carried over to the 2018
growing season.
Treasure Valley irrigators wind
down one of best water years ever
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
NAMPA, Idaho — Farmers who
get their water from the largest irri-
gation district in Idaho’s Treasure
Valley will end the season with an
abundant supply of carryover water
for the 2018 growing season.
Near-record snowpack in the
Boise River basin provided an abun-
dant supply of water this year to irri-
gators who depend on the Nampa &
Meridian Irrigation District, which
supplies water to 69,000 acres of ir-
rigated land in southwestern Idaho.
“In my lifetime, it was the No.
1 water year,” said Clinton Pline,
a farmer and member of NMID’s
board of directors.
The snowpack provided the sec-
ond-highest amount of runoff in the
basin on record, according to U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation data.
Total runoff was 3.145 million
acre-feet this year, second only to
3.195 million acre-feet in 1943.
Because Boise River flows re-
mained high all season, that allowed
NMID to get the majority of its wa-
ter from natural flows in the river
and the district had to use very lit-
tle of the water it has stored in the
Boise River system’s three major
reservoirs.
“The (flow) of the river right now
is still up quite a bit from what it
normally is this time of year,” said
NMID Water Superintendent Greg
Curtis.
NMID, as well as other irrigation
districts that get their water from the
Boise River system, will have a large
supply of carryover water stored in
the reservoirs that they can use in
2018.
On Sept. 1, the reservoirs had a
combined total of 663,000 acre-feet
of storage water, according to the Bu-
reau. That’s well above the 30-year
average of 473,000 acre-feet on that
date for the reservoir system, which
has a total capacity of just under 1
million acre-feet.
The exact amount of carryover
water NMID will have hasn’t been
determined but “it’s substantial,”
Curtis said. “We should have very
good carryover going into next
year.”
Water was released from the reser-
voirs at a record rate this spring and
summer to prevent major flooding in
the valley and the Bureau and Army
Corps of Engineers did a great job of
balancing the need to release large
amounts of water while ensuring
the reservoirs still filled to capacity,
said Will Patterson, chairman of the
NMID board of directors.
“There are always a lot of folks
that want to second-guess them but
they did a nice job and they need to
be commended,” he said.
NMID will stop flows to its 500
miles of canals on Oct. 11.
After the canal system has dried,
the district will launch several large
construction projects, including the
lining of some canals with concrete.
A state board may add six plants
to Washington’s noxious-weed list,
including one that would be target-
ed for eradication before it creeps
over the landscape.
The small-flowered jewelweed,
native to parts of Asia but now
thriving throughout Eastern and
Western Europe, has been found
growing in two places in King
County. The Noxious Weed Con-
trol Board will consider designat-
ing it a Class A weed, meaning all
such plants must be destroyed.
“It just kind of showed up,” said
Alison Halpern, the weed board’s
executive secretary. “We have only
two patches, and if we can get it
eradicated, it won’t gain a foothold
and spread.”
The board annually adds — and
in rare cases subtracts — plants to
the state’s noxious weed list. The
list currently includes 148 plants,
including 36 Class A weeds. Coun-
ty weed boards maintain their own
lists, too.
The state board also will con-
sider adding two weeds to the
Class B list. Landowners are re-
quired to prevent Class B weeds
from propagating. Three more
weeds are candidates for the
Class C list. Property owners are
encouraged but not required to
control Class C weeds.
The USDA’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service
estimates the small-flowered
jewelweed could take root in 84
percent of the U.S., though not in
the driest parts of Central Wash-
ington.
Hundreds of the plants were
found growing in 2013 in a
wooded ravine in Portland. In
2016, more than 1,000 plants
were found growing along a rural
road in northeast King County,
according to a report by the state
weed control board. Previously, a
patch was found along a service
road near the Woodland Park Zoo
in Seattle.
The state surveyed about 400
Courtesy of the Noxious Weed Control Board
Washington’s Noxious Weed Control Board is considering adding six weeds,
including the small-flowered jewelweed, to its list of noxious weeds.
Washington nurseries, and none
reported selling small-flowered
jewelweed, Halpern said.
Other candidates for the nox-
ious-weed list are:
• European coltsfoot as a
Class B weed. The plant is a
problem for Scandinavian farm-
ers, according to the weed board.
Small infestations have been
found in King and Snohomish
counties, and in Mount Rainier
National Park. The order to con-
trol the weed wouldn’t apply to
Grant, Lincoln, Adams, Benton
and Franklin counties because
the chances the plant will take
hold in those places are slight.
• Malta starthistle as a Class
B weed. The plant was recent-
ly found on Cypress Island in
Skagit County. The listing would
match the restrictions put on the
yellow starthistle. Control would
be mandatory in the state, but
not in some Eastern Washing-
ton counties, where the yellow
starthistle is already widespread.
• Cheatgrass as a Class C
weed. The highly invasive annu-
al grass fuels wildfires. Halpern
said putting cheatgrass on the
state list should make private and
public landowners more aware of
the problem.
• Spotted jewelweed as a
Class C weed. The wetland spe-
cies is native to the Eastern U.S.,
but appears to be rapidly estab-
lishing itself in Western Wash-
ington, according to the weed
control board.
• Eurasian watermilfoil as a
Class C weed. The plant is a cross
between an invasive and a native
species. The result is an aggres-
sive plant resistant to herbicide.
The board also will consider
reclassifying several weeds, in-
cluding spurge flax. The plant is
a Class A weed, but it’s become
too widespread in Okanogan
County to make eradication a
reasonable requirement, accord-
ing to the weed board staff. The
board may reclassify the plant as
a Class B weed.
The board will take written
comments until Oct. 30. Com-
ments may be mailed to P.O. Box
42560, Olympia, WA 98504-
2560, or sent by email to nox-
iousweeds@agr.wa.gov.
The board will have a public
hearing 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct.
31, at the Wenatchee Convention
Center, 201 N. Wenatchee Ave.
The board is scheduled to meet
the next day at the convention
center to vote on the proposal.
House members
seek extension of
DACA renewal
deadline
Eight Pacific Northwest
members of Congress are
asking the Department of
Homeland Security to extend
a renewal deadline for DACA
recipients from Oct. 5 to Jan.
15.
Thousands of people
on the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrival program
could be in legal limbo if
they missed the Oct. 5 dead-
line, Rep. Dan Newhouse,
R-Wash., said.
The Sept. 26 letter to Act-
ing Secretary of Homeland
Security Elaine Duke was
signed by 85 Democratic
House members and seven
Republicans.
Beside Newhouse, those
from the Northwest were: fel-
low Washington Republican
Dave Reichert and Washing-
ton Democrats Pramila Jay-
apal, Derek Kilmer, Denny
Heck and Rick Larsen. Also
signing were Oregon Demo-
crats Peter DeFazio and Su-
zanne Bonamici.
Seventeen Democrats and
two Republicans from Cali-
fornia also signed the letter.
The Trump administration
has rescinded an executive
order authorizing DACA, be-
ginning in March. Members
of Congress are working on
congressional authorization of
the program that defers depor-
tation of people who came to
the U.S. illegally as children.
About 154,000 people
have DACA authorization
that expires between Sept. 5
and March 5. They had until
Oct. 5 to apply for renewal,
which is “unworkable and im-
practical,” the congressional
letter said.
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