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January 5, 2018 CapitalPress.com 3 USDA supports forced cranberry cutbacks Agency proposes 15 percent reduction By DON JENKINS Capital Press Dan Wheat/Capital Press The Liberator chair lift operates at Mission Ridge Ski Area south of Wenatchee, Wash., on New Year’s Day. With a 29-inch snow base at the 6,820-foot summit, the resort needs more snow, as do the Cascade Mountains in general at 93 percent of normal. Washington snowpack, reservoirs in fair shape By DAN WHEAT Capital Press YAKIMA, Wash. — Wash- ington state’s overall snow- pack is 93 percent of normal and Yakima Basin reservoir storage is more solid at 133 percent of average. Those are Jan. 1 readings from the Natural Resourc- es Conservation Service and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. While the five mountain reservoirs serving 464,000 acres of farmland in the Ya- kima Basin are doing well at 56 percent of their 1 million- acre-foot capacity, 700,000 acre-feet more will be needed from the snowpack to meet farmland irrigation needs. Snowpack is a big deal and needs to be better, but Scott Pattee, the NRCS water sup- ply specialist for Washington, isn’t worried. “It’s early. During La Nina (warm, wet weather cycles) the season tends to start slow and then build and become closer to normal by the end of February,” Pattee said. The northern half of Wash- ington is best in snowpack and northern Idaho and Mon- tana are doing well, he said. But Oregon and California are more problematic, being below the jet stream and too warm for much snow, he said. “The latest CPC (Climat- ic Prediction Center) models puts most of Washington on equal chances for normal pre- cipitation and temperatures for January, and the three-month outlook is for below-normal temps and above-normal pre- cip, which means good snow- fall,” Pattee said. Snow water equivalent snowpack in the Spokane basin was 101 percent of normal on Jan. 2. The upper Columbia Basin (Okano- gan and Methow rivers) was 113 percent. The central Co- lumbia (Chelan, Entiat and Wenatchee) was 88 percent, the upper Yakima was 81 per- cent and the lower Yakima 90 percent. Walla Walla was 61 percent, the lower Snake Riv- er was 92 percent, the lower Columbia was 77 percent, south Puget Sound (from Cas- cade crest to lowlands) was 84 percent, central Puget Sound 86 percent, north Puget Sound 123 percent and the Olympics 105 percent. A storm right after Christ- mas dumped 20 inches of snow in the upper Chelan Ba- sin putting Lyman Lake, 6,000 feet, at 90 percent of normal and Harts Pass, 6,500 feet be- tween Methow and Skagit, at 126 percent. Stevens Pass, at 3,950 feet elevation at the SNOTEL (snow telemetry site), is 104 percent of normal and Blewett Pass, 4,200 feet, is 74 percent of normal. Chris Lynch, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation hydrologist in Yakima, said he’s grateful for increased precipitation in the last days of December. “We were kind of hurting before that. We’d been below 30 percent of average precip- itation most of the month,” he said. While snowpack has been hurting Yakima Basin reser- voirs have been doing well from rain, he said. Snowpack lagging statewide in Oregon Forecast calls for average temperatures, precipitation By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press Mother Nature has some catching up to do if Oregon expects to have adequate water supplies heading into summer. Snowpack is lagging sig- nificantly across the state heading into 2018, at just 42 percent of normal levels. That is a stark contrast to last year, when January snowpacks surged to 124 percent of nor- mal levels statewide. Despite another La Niña winter — which usually pre- dicts colder and wetter weath- er in the Pacific Northwest — temperatures are actually hovering above normal, espe- cially in Southern Oregon. The highest levels of snowpack are in northeast Oregon, where the Umatilla, Walla Walla and Willow basins are just 55 per- cent of normal, and the Grande Ronde, Powder, Burnt and Im- naha basins are 53 percent of normal. Scott Oviatt, snow survey supervisor for the Natural Re- sources Conservation Service, said it is still too early to tell what the water year will look like, but he would like to see more snow accumulating in the mountains. “The closer to normal con- ditions, the more assurances you have adequate water sup- plies closer to irrigation sea- son,” Oviatt said. “Obviously as time passes, we’ll have a better feel of what the trends and storm impacts look like.” Not only is snowpack be- low normal, but overall pre- cipitation is also down state- wide at 89 percent of normal, compared to 105 percent of normal three weeks ago. The difference between this year and last year’s “snowpoc- alypse” has left Oviatt and weather forecasters scratching their heads. “We’re really seeing this extreme variability in the last five to 10 years, where these trends don’t represent what we’ve seen historically,” Ovi- att said. Marilyn Lohmann, hydrol- ogist with the National Weath- er Service in Pendleton, Ore., said each La Niña has its own spin, and the odds of having two winters like 2017 back to back are usually pretty slim. Over the next three months, Lohmann said, the weather should shift back to normal temperatures and pre- cipitation. “Sometimes we do get the bulk of our snow in that February and March time frame in the mountains,” Lohmann said. “It does look like hopefully we will be able to regain some of what we’ve lost.” While statewide stream flows were less than 65 per- cent of normal at the end of December, the Oregon Water Resources Department says reservoir levels are above nor- mal for this time of year, which may mitigate some impacts of a drier-than-usual winter. According to OWRD, central Oregon reservoirs are between 44 and 88 percent of capacity, and eastern Oregon reservoirs continue to hover between 36 and 65 percent of capacity. Willamette and Rogue basin reservoirs also remain on track to fill. The USDA proposes to let the cranberry industry with- hold 15 percent of the 2017 crop to halt a slide in prices paid farmers and handlers. Cranberries, whole and in juice concentrate, would be diverted to charities, animal feed and other uses that won’t add to a supply that’s roughly twice the demand. “With the laws of econom- ics, it has to help. How much it helps is another question,” Bandon, Ore., cranberry grower Charlie Ruddell said. The proposal, published Tuesday in the Federal Reg- ister, is based on a recom- mendation by the Cranberry Marketing Committee, made up of growers and handlers. The order would apply to about 1,100 farmers and 65 Don Jenkins/Capital Press handlers, mostly in Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Blane Saunders harvests cranberries Sept. 19 on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula. The USDA pro- poses volume controls to reduce the supply of cranberries and increase prices for farmers and handlers. New Jersey and Wisconsin. The marketing committee also has asked the USDA to has doubled in the past five take doing something for on consumer demand for cranberries, according to the mandate a 25 percent re- years. Without volume con- next year’s crop, too.” duction in the 2018 crop. A trols, the 2017 crop would Even with the a 15 per- agency. USDA spokesman said the swell the inventory to 115 cent reduction in the 2017 The cranberry indus- agency is still considering the percent of the yearly demand crop, the surplus would re- try, which can’t easily wind of approximately 950 million main large. The volume re- down production in bogs to request. Since the 2017 crop has pounds, the committee esti- duction would not apply to fit the market, has turned to about 210 million pounds of volume controls before, most been harvested, handlers mated. Some farmers who were foreign-grown cranberries recently in 2001. The USDA would be charged with dis- posing of excess fruit. Han- receiving 30 cents a pound expected to be imported into rejected the marketing com- dlers would be able to meet in 2011 are now getting 10 the U.S. mittee’s recommendation up to half their obligation by cents a pound, while the cost Volume reduction is a to withhold a portion of the diverting fruit concentrate, a of production has risen to 35 short-term step to cut the 2014 crop. The agency said it byproduct of making sweet- cents a pound, according to surplus, said Tom Lochner, was concerned the committee ened, dried cranberries. the marketing committee, executive director of the Wis- was colluding with Canadian The marketing order Neither the committee consin Cranberry Growers producers. USDA-approved volume would not apply to organic nor the USDA projected how Association, whose state pro- cranberries, a small percent- a 15 percent cut in the 2017 duces roughly two-thirds of reductions are intended to age of the market. Handlers crop would impact prices. U.S. cranberries. stabilize prices for farmers. who receive fewer than 12.5 “The long-term solution Critics, such as the Heritage Long Beach, Wash., farm- million pounds of cranberries er Malcolm McPhail said the has to be increasing markets Foundation, contend volume or dispose of all their fruit reduction could boost prices to match the supply and de- controls interfere with the by $1 or $2 a barrel. A barrel mand,” he said. also would be exempt. marketplace and amount to The USDA said it does price fixing. Cranberry farmers have equals 100 pounds. The USDA will take pub- “I’m all for it. We’ve got not expect volume reduction been producing record crops, but demand has been fairly to do something to get things to reduce consumption. Re- lic comments on the proposal flat. The cranberry surplus under control,” he said. “It’ll tail prices have little effect until Feb. 1. Oregon governor ‘confident’ in wolf shooting investigation By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press Oregon Gov. Kate Brown will apparently not ask state agencies to reopen their in- vestigation into the killing of a female wolf Oct. 27 in Union County, despite con- cerns from several conserva- tion groups. Brian Scott, 38, of Clacka- mas, reported that he shot the wolf in self-defense while elk hunting in the Starkey Wild- life Management Unit west of La Grande. The wolf, he said, was charging at him. Wildlife advocates dispute his claim, pointing to the bullet’s trajec- tory and other discrepancies in the physical evidence. A coalition of groups — 18 in all — wrote to Gov. Brown asking her to reopen the state’s investigation, In her reply, dated Dec. 1, Brown said she has confi- dence in the outcome after consulting with the Oregon State Police, Oregon Depart- ment of Fish & Wildlife and Union County District Attor- ney’s Office. “While Oregon is working toward wolf recovery, any wolf mortality is a serious concern that deserves a full ODFW Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has told conservation groups that she is confident of the thoroughness of a state investigation into the shooting of a wolf near La Grande. and rigorous investigation,” Brown wrote. Scott told investigators he feared for his life when he shot the wolf at a distance of 27 yards. He described see- ing two animals flank behind him, while a third came run- ning directly toward him. The groups, however, argue that the bullet passed through the wolf’s shoulders, perhaps indicating it was standing broadside to Scott and not charging. Scott has said he cannot explain the trajectory, and does not know if the wolf veered sideways before he shot. The Union County District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges. Steve Pedery, conserva- tion director for Oregon Wild, said the group will continue to put pressure on the gov- ernor and agencies regarding wolf poaching investigations, and ensure those protections are taken seriously. “We now have, I think by anyone’s standards, an epidemic of wolf poaching around the state,” Pedery said. “That’s a situation that should be deeply concerning for anyone who cares about wildlife in this state.” In her letter, Gov. Brown reiterated that killing wolves is illegal everywhere in Or- egon, and remains a federal crime west of highways 395, 78 and 95. “Too many wolves have been found shot in Oregon where the shooters have not been identified,” she wrote. “Oregon State Police is ap- propriately investigating those cases, supporting their federal counterparts, identi- fying poachers and ready to assist in their prosecution.” ODFW is also in the pro- cess of revising its Wolf Con- servation and Management Plan, which Brown said will “keep wolves on the path to recovery across the entire state, focus on efforts to re- duce wolf-livestock conflict rather than merely respond- ing to it, and incorporate the best current science into its management practices.” Oregon had 112 confirmed wolves as of the end of 2016. An updated 2017 population report is expected in March. Weekly fieldwork report Ore. Item/description (Source: USDA, NASS; NOAA) • Days suitable for fieldwork (As of Nov. 26, 2017) 3.6 • Topsoil moisture, surplus 15% • Topsoil moisture, percent short 24% • Subsoil moisture, surplus 4% • Subsoil moisture, percent short 25% • Precipitation probability Normal/above (6-10 day outlook as of Jan. 2) normal Wash. Idaho Calif. 3.9 13% 12% 6% 13% Normal/above normal 4.1 7% 6% 4% 32% Above normal 6.7 NA 25% NA 35% Above normal