4
CapitalPress.com
April 20, 2018
Trump’s farm aid
idea gets thumbs
down from senator,
pro-trade group
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press File
Irrigation water in a canal near Rupert, Idaho. Members of the Idaho Water Supply Committee say this year’s irrigation water supply
should be adequate.
Even the Owyhee
River Basin should
generate adequate
supply for users
Idaho snow water
equivalent (As of April 12)
129
Source: USDA NRCS
National Water and
Climate Center,
Portland, Oregon
128
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Idaho’s snowpack season
is ending on a positive note,
providing many irrigators
with adequately supplied river
and reservoir systems to draw
from as the growing season
kicks into high gear.
Most river basins are near
or above their annual average
for snowpack, experts said at
an April 12 Idaho Water Sup-
ply Committee meeting mark-
ing the traditional end of the
snow-accumulation season.
A notable exception is
the Owyhee River Basin that
drains a chunk of Nevada,
Oregon and Idaho. But even
that system — containing just
below one-third its average
snowpack — should generate
adequate supply for water us-
ers, thanks to ample amounts
carried over in storage within
Owyhee Reservoir from past
years.
Strong precipitation in
March boosted totals as of
April 1, said Troy Lindquist, a
National Weather Service se-
nior hydrologist in Boise.
“And since April 1, we’ve
had several storms move
through the state,” he said.
“That has brought some real-
ly good precipitation, which
138
Basin-wide percent
of median*
<50%
50-69
71-89
90-109
110-129
130-149
*Average annual
SWE, 1981-2010
Alan Kenaga/
Capital Press
112
73
90
106
125
121
103
87
99
91
133
89
31
61
84
68
has continued to add to our
high-elevation snowpack.” In
contrast, warm and dry weath-
er at this point in the season
would melt snowpack early
and ultimately reduce stream-
flows later in the summer.
Basin snowpacks range
from 31 percent of average
in the Owyhee River Basin to
well over 130 percent for the
Clearwater Basin in north cen-
67 100
tral Idaho, USDA Natural Re-
sources Conservation Service
Water Supply Specialist Ron
Abramovich said. Basins are
generally in good shape thanks
to snowpack near or above an-
nual averages, and good car-
ry-over storage in reservoirs.
Water users will have
adequate supply this year,
Abramovich said. “We are
not facing any shortages, and
we are able to put an ample
amount back into the aquifer,”
he said.
Irrigators can expect a full
season given this year’s pre-
cipitation and last year’s car-
ry-over storage, said Brian
Sauer, U.S. Bureau of Recla-
mation water operations man-
ager for the Snake River Area
Office in Boise.
While Owyhee Reservoir
won’t fill completely because
of this year’s low snowpack
— it was 81 percent full on
April 12 — it will have ade-
quate irrigation supplies for
this season, he said. Water us-
ers will hope for better supply
conditions next year, though
the large reservoir near Adri-
an, Ore., is designed to store
about twice as much water as
a single season requires.
“In general, the irrigators
are looking for an adequate
water-supply year to meet
their needs,” said Liz Cresto,
Idaho Department of Water
Resources Hydrology Section
supervisor and Idaho Water
Supply Committee chair.
An adequate or good water
year means less likelihood for
conflicts among users — par-
ticularly on the Upper Snake,
where above-average runoff
is predicted, Cresto said. That
runoff bodes well for water to
be carried over to next year in
reservoir storage, she said.
Reservoirs in the Boise
River Basin were expected to
fill to 100 percent of capac-
ity by mid-April as the Bu-
reau of Reclamation reduces
flood-control releases.
Brown marmorated stink bug reports increase
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE,
Wash.
— Brown marmorated stink
bugs are on the rise, mostly in
Western Washington, accord-
ing to Washington State Uni-
versity entomologists.
“In three weeks, we re-
ceived 300 emails and phone
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calls, mostly from the state’s
west side,” said Michael
Bush, WSU Extension and
entomologist in Yakima.
“We’ve never seen so
much activity related to this
bug and so quickly,” he said.
Most of the sightings are
in King, Pierce and Thurston
counties and have been oc-
curring since mid-March as
stink bugs emerge from over-
wintering in people’s homes,
Bush said.
The six-legged bugs emit
a smell of dirty socks when
crushed. Thin white bands
on their antennae distinguish
them from other stink bug
species.
The increase is worrisome
to researchers and farmers
because the bugs feed on
more than 300 host plants and
spreads by human movement.
“The more we learn about
this stink bug species, the
more amazed we are by its
USDA
Brown marmorated stink bugs
are appearing in large num-
bers in Western Washington,
entomologists say.
generalist feeding habits,”
said Elizabeth Beers, ento-
mologist at the WSU Tree
Fruit Research and Extension
Center in Wenatchee. She’s on
a national team of scientists
fighting it.
She urged people to keep
reporting them with their
name, address, date of dis-
covery, numbers and photo of
the bugs and email to: tfrec.
reportbmsb@wsu.edu.
“We would love to come
get your bugs for our research
if you have an infestation of
more than 50,” Beers said.
Called “The Beast of the
East,” brown marmorated
stink bugs were identified in
Pennsylvania in 1996 and
caused an estimated 30 per-
cent loss in apple and peach
crops in mid-Atlantic states in
2010. Growers there resorted
to broad-spectrum synthetic
pyrethroid pesticides to con-
trol the bugs at the expense
of their Integrated Pest Man-
agement programs, Beers has
said.
Brown marmorated stink
bugs were found in Portland,
Ore., in 2004 and later in the
Willamette Valley, Medford,
Hood River and Vancouver.
They were first trapped in Ya-
kima in 2012 and have been
found in Walla Walla and
Wenatchee.
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p.m., at the Cascade Grill Restaurant, 110 Opal St. NE, Albany,
Oregon, upon a proposed budget for operation of the Ryegrass
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grown Ryegrass seed has a right to be heard with respect to the
proposed budget, a copy of which is available for public
inspection, under reasonable circumstances, in the office of each
County Extension Agent in Oregon. For further information,
contact the Oregon Ryegrass Growers Seed Commission business
office, P.O. Box 3366, Salem, Oregon 97302, telephone 503-364-
2944. The meeting location is accessible to persons with
disabilities. Please make any request for an interpreter for the
hearing impaired or for other accommodations for persons with
disabilities at least 48 hours before the meeting by contacting
the Commission office at 503-364-2944.
16-3/999
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Some agriculture indus-
try representatives say Pres-
ident Donald Trump’s plan
for a farm aid package is no
substitute for a good trade
policy.
The Wall Street Journal
reported last week that the
Trump administration is de-
veloping a plan to mitigate
the negative impacts of high-
er tariffs on U.S. farm com-
modities.
The administration has
not yet released details of
who would receive govern-
ment assistance, how they
might qualify, when a pro-
gram would be put into place,
or how long it would last, ac-
cording to Farmers for Free
Trade, a pro-trade coalition
of agriculture groups.
“A mitigation program
can’t replace markets that
will be lost, and long-term
impacts will remain,” said
Farmers for Free Trade ex-
ecutive director Brian Kuehl
in a press release. “If farmers
must resort to an uncertain,
unsustainable government
program while our compet-
itors lock in long-term con-
tracts, the damage will be
significant and long-lasting.”
Kuehl said a govern-
ment-run mitigation pro-
gram would be “at best, an
ineffective Band-Aid on a
major self-inflicted wound.”
“If we want to reverse the
damage these tariffs are in-
flicting on farmers, the solu-
tion is simple: reverse the
tariffs themselves,” he said.
“We need to move imme-
diately to begin meaningful
negotiations with China to
end these tariff threats.”
Lower commodity fu-
tures prices and increasing
input costs are already taking
their toll on farmers, ranch-
ers and ag businesses, Kuehl
said.
“Waiting for government
bureaucrats to decide who
qualifies for aid and who
doesn’t, and then hoping
each year that the aid con-
tinues, isn’t the solution,” he
said. “We’re asking that the
administration take strong,
decisive action today to
de-escalate a trade war that
has already claimed farmers
as the first casualty.”
Steve Mercer, vice presi-
dent of communications for
U.S. Wheat Associates, de-
clined to comment.
“There is so much about
this that is speculative and
no specific plan has been
announced, let alone imple-
mented,” he said.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.,
called the administration’s
proposal “Saturday-morn-
ing-cartoon central plan-
ning.”
“We want more trade, not
less,” Sasse said in a state-
ment. “Farmers want to feed
the world and win with trade.
Now, some in Washington
instead want to pay them to
lose. That’s a bad idea and
not a real strategy to fight
Chinese cheating.”
House Ag Committee
introduces farm bill
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
While the next farm bill
is still a work in progress, the
House Agricultural Commit-
tee is sending its version for
mark-up next week, moving
it forward to a floor vote.
There are hard decisions
to make, and they won’t be
any easier and legislators
won’t be any smarter come
October, Committee Chair-
man Rep. Mike Conaway,
R-Texas, told reporters in a
telephone press conference
on Thursday.
“I’m driven to get it done
on time,” before the current
farm bill expires, he said.
“Rural America deserves
the certainty of knowing
what the next five-year pol-
icy will look like,” he said.
Aside from the Supple-
mental Nutrition Assistance
Program portion, the rest of
the titles were negotiated in
a bipartisan manner. Never-
theless, Democrats say they
won’t support the bill, he
said.
“I think there’s still a lot
of misinformation, either in-
tentional or unintentional,”
in the SNAP arena, he said.
No funding was tak-
en from the program, but
the bill requires work-able
adults between 18 and 59
to work at least 20 hours a
week or be in some sort of
state training program to
participate.
Three years of work
resulted in a “defendable
policy that helps break the
cycle of poverty for folks
who want to get out of it,”
he said.
That policy provides a
funded mandate to states
to set up case-management
and assessment programs,
as well as supervised job
search and apprenticeship
programs.
On the farm front, the
committee had no new mon-
ey to work with and had
to move money around to
address priorities and new
challenges, he said.
One of those new chal-
lenges is the risk of foot and
mouth disease, and the bill
provides $150 million in the
first year to get the vaccine
bank off the ground, he said.
“It’s the one big-ticket
new item that came out of all
of our discussions with not
only the livestock folks but
also the security issues sur-
rounding that piece as well,”
he said.
The livestock industry
was asking for $150 million
a year for five years. Once
the bank is established and
the mechanics are worked
out, it will be easier to get
additional resources if need-
ed, he said.
“We don’t provide as
much as the industry asks
for, but we’ve got a really
good step forward,” he said.
One of the biggest con-
cerns in farm country is crop
insurance. Some money was
moved around, but there are
no substantial changes to the
program, he said.
“It’s too important a pro-
gram to mess with, and we
believe it’s working,” he
said.
But there might be some
threats to the program on the
House floor, he said.
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16-4/100
Idaho water
outlook is good
for irrigation
Nebraska senator:
Plan would ‘pay
farmers to lose’