Don't Have A Cow, Man! Got Road Rage?
Tulare County - What do milk and potholes have in common? Tulare County officials are pressing the issue of road repair funds and the impact the fast growing dairy industry has on miles of pavement on rural county roads. The issue came up in the draft dairy EIR working its way to the Board of Supervisors next month. In the most recent political campaign the issue of roads was at the top of the agenda as well. Now the issue is front and center - and tied up with a potential legal tangle over the city of Tulare’s Redevelopment expansion plan along south K St. This week county officials showed up to protest a lack of environmental review of a major expansion of the Land O’Lakes company in the redevelopment project area and the effect that project could have on county roads.
The county has been seeking some sort of tax sharing or joint traffic fee to help pay for hundreds of mile of roads impacted by the big trucks that pick up milk daily at dairies to bring to the LOL plants in town.
But Tulare city officials say Land O’Lakes has filed no official plans with the city and therefore the city can’t assess the impact of the project. LOL, the city and the County have been doing a delicate dance over the $145million project because LOL seeks the tax advantages of building in a redevelopment district. Tulare wants to accommodate the town’s biggest employer and Tulare County - who stands to lose short term revenues by giving up tax increment monies - sees this as the only way it can squeeze monies from the dairy industry to pay for rural roads. Because of the potential to lose even more monies, Tulare complied earlier with County requests to pull two pieces of property out of the proposed 366 acre expansion removing the Tulare airport and a 13 acre piece at Levin and Blackstone purchased by Indian River Trucking some months ago. Removing them will mean the County gets that increase in value when those properties develop - not the redevelopment agency.
While all indications are that LOL is ready to break ground on both a new cheese plant and a separate whey manufacturing facility (with Japanese conglomerate Mitsui) at the former Kraft property on Paige and on 18 acres it bought a few years ago from SCE - it is possible the big co-op could build the plant outside Tulare County as has been suggested by LOL members. “We do have other options,” says board member Stan Gomes, “but I expect it will work itself out.” He says they would rather build in Tulare.
This week a city council/redevelopment agency board meeting held the first reading of the expansion plans for both a 24 acre downtown expansion and the larger K St. expansion. In the case of the downtown plan there was no protest. In the case of the K St. plan - the written protest by the County means the adoption of the plan is delayed until a written response is made. City redevelopment agency head Howard Edson say the next time the agency will meet will be March 21 at 6 p.m. to take the issue up again.
Filing an official protest in writing is considered a bad sign that litigation could follow delaying this project and some say threatening the dairy industry in Tulare County. The dairy industry already pays road tax monies, say critics. The County has warned that as many as 500 miles of roads in the County could revert to gravel if it finds no monies in the near future to maintain them. Road monies are apportioned by population instead of road miles. Tulare County has approximately 3100 miles of County maintained roads but proportionally it has a small population compared to big counties in the state.
Regarding the program EIR, County Planner George Finney says the Planning Commission has held two meetings on the plan to try to finalize some points. He expects the final meeting on the EIR to be March 22. Then it goes for adoption to the Board of Supervisors April 11.
Regarding the road fee issue, Finney says the Planning Commission is attempting to come up with a fair and equitable way to pay for road improvements required when a new dairy permit is approved. This would involve the applicant paying for road improvements that were needed to serve the dairy. But Finney says “a better way might be to set up a county wide road fee that all dairies would kick into - that way you spread it around.” A road fee is being sought as mitigation for a “real impact” says Finney deteriorating roads caused in part by heavy use by dairies but dairy farmer Stan Gomes says, “it kind of looks like they are singling us out.”
Regarding other issues with the EIR Finney says “right now there isn’t
plans to include any kind of cap on the number of cows in the County.”
Regarding another controversial issue - that of mitigation for air quality
impacts Finney says they can not mandate anymore mitigation on these although
technology is rapidly changing this.
In other counties the environmental group Center For Race and Poverty has
suggested the EIRs were lacking because they did not address the issue more
fully. Finney says some residents of Alpaugh have been attending the
meetings regularly complaining about issues related to dairy expansion around
Alpaugh.
Kaweah Delta's Really Big Decision
Visalia - Kaweah Delta Health Care District held a board study session this week to hear a draft report by LA consultant Craig Beam of Hammes Company laying out options to consider as they look to add bed capacity and ponder the effect of the state seismic law.
The presentation included members of the community, downtown merchants and city officials interested in the direction the district hospital will take when it decides to expand. Will it happen downtown or one of the district’s other properties - or some new site?
It may not take long to find out the health care district’s decision. Indications are an answer could come in next month.
Setting the stage for the discussion, administrator Tom Johnson says during the past 6 months there has been a 13% increase in the census at the hospital compared to the past year. The hospital board has to consider the need to act in the short term adding an estimated 87 beds in the next ten years, said the consultant while it weighs if it should add onto the existing hospital or select a new site.
Already the district has purchased more than 100 acres at Caldwell and Lovers Lane - “a kind of insurance policy” say board members - if they need to relocate the hospital. The uncertainty over the state rules on seismic upgrades is causing all hospitals to concentrate on long term planning says Beam even though most observers including Beam feel the rules will be relaxed - perhaps this year. There is tremendous political pressure for the legislature to change the laws agree local legislators. Estimates that the cost will go as high as $24 billion and the prospect many hospitals would go out of business argue that the law will be eased - particularly in areas like Visalia where the danger is minimal. At nearby Alta Hospital in Dinuba the board of this small community hospital is wrestling with the same dilemma. An amendment to the SB1856 law would give hospitals who do not have plans to remodel their facilities until 2013 instead of 2008 to file those plans.
The upgraded earthquake standards if enforced make it uneconomical to retrofit KDDH’s downtown hospital built (originally in 1969) by the deadline of 2030 the hospital’s engineers have agreed. Besides, says Beam, many services offered at the downtown hospital now may be “functionally obsolete” by then. He points out that rapid technological improvements is changing how health cared providers offer service - more outpatient procedures are possible now while the patient the hospital does see in their acute care beds are often sicker.
Beam says the backdrop for the board discussion is that many hospitals
in California are losing money - in part because reimbursement rates set
by the government or by insurance companies are lower now. He says
California hospitals lost $800 million last year. On top of that,
hospitals are finding it more difficult to fund projects by borrowing money.
In the meantime Johnson points out that hospitals who are pouring money
into new plants are often getting grants through federal emergency funds
(FEMA) due to the earthquake or on a gift basis.
Beam says KDDH has to weigh its plans with a view that the district is in
a position of being the “sole provider” in the region with little competition
here for many of the high tech and acute services people need. The
district is in a “strong financial position” unlike some hospitals in both
Bakersfield and Fresno, he says. Still there could be some competition
coming into the area driving some revenues from the district like a surgery
hospital. Johnson says the district faces private companies who want
to offer services now offered by KDDH like nuclear medicine and each time
that happens there is little more that comes out of KDDH’s bottom line.
The other side of the argument has been put forward by some private docs and clinics here that believe that the non profit district hospital is too aggressive in moving into some arenas where there is already a local service. The latest was the announcement that KDDH would move into providing more outpatient cancer service with a new cancer center with docs who until now had been in private practice with Visalia Medical Clinic.
Whatever the argument over competition, KDDH needs to add acute care hospital beds - about 34 - in the next few years to keep up with demand and some 87 by 2010. Johnson says some of these new critical care beds are needed because of the success of the new Heart program, Johnson says as in the past year KDDH docs have done 493 open heart surgeries - about as many as St. Agnes who has been busy at these procedures for many more years.
The Alternatives
Beam suggested four alternatives for the board to consider. (1) was to move incrementally and add a north wing expansion of some 34 beds and reassess the hospital’s long term plans in three years. The cost for this option - $8.5 million. This option would still leave the hospital without adequate room to expand its ER and maternity space. It would also leave the district without a plan to add the other 53 beds. Of course it also doesn’t address the long term problem either - the ultimate relocation of the hospital because of the seismic rule. (2) Incremental approach adding beds downtown with an aggressive growth plan to tackle the long term question. The new beds could be ready for use in 3 years. The cost $11.5 million. (3) A major expansion downtown costing $39.5 million adding 87 beds. The expansion downtown would cost some $3.5 million in “disruption costs” as the project is phased. (4) Relocation options would cost $47 to 73 million, says Beam, that would mean the district would have a new hospital site in about 5 years.
The problem with doing a retrofit downtown is the major cost of replacing
the original 1969 tower that isn’t up to the latest code and would take
the cost of retrofitting the downtown hospital likely out of the question.
But debate remains as to how the board will weigh its decision. Beam
notes that a private hospital could simply check the bottom line.
But a district hospital has a different approach as part of the community
and its own “mission” to serve. The hospital was built with a Hill
Burton federal grant originally and there is community obligations that
go with the money. The hospital has a charitable function as well.
Helping to push a decision is growing utilization of the hospital’s ER now at 45,000 visits a year instead of the anticipated 40,000 a year, says Tom Johnson. Closure of OB units around the area are bringing more moms to KDDH.
A number of former full service hospitals are now either closed, are skilled
nursing facilities or have limited their services in the past few years.
No wonder Kaweah Delta is busy.
Stay Downtown
Downtown Visalia board member Phil Laird stood from the audience at the end of the presentation and offered a view held by others in attendance that the growth issue was a strong one for many in Visalia. The site the district purchased is out of the city’s 2020 (the year 2020) growth line so would not be in keeping with the general plan said assistant city manager Dianne Guzman who attended the meeting. Laird pointed out that Kaweah Delta was a part of the downtown and that while he could understand how it was hard to spend the money to expand adding on the site at the current location, there was 25 to 40 acres for sale near downtown (south of the stockyard area) “with infrastructure” that would be cost effective.
If its going to happen near the existing hospital, board member Dr. Tom Felsted says he doesn’t know what the city is offering their two block city hall site for - at what price? “If we had that site it would make a difference in our thinking,” he says. The city last year agreed it would sell the old city hall site but no discussion beyond that has taken place.
Board member Margaret Foley says she expects a decision on which way to move next month. “We’ve got to move some people around,” says Foley as the hospital’s bed count climbs. The hospital does have the option of reopening the old Visalia Community hospital beds for acute care. But that might only be a short term solution.
“They really want to address the long range problem,” predicts city manager Steve Salomon. Foley says Salomon and administrator Tom Johnson will meet soon to “look at other properties around town,” since the 100 acre property is outside the current growth boundary. Foley says she believes the site needs to be accessible to the eastern part of Tulare County - one reason they chose that Lovers Lane and Caldwell site over a year ago.
Council member Bob Link says improvements to Ben Maddox and Santa Fe in the works will make properties along Ben Maddox easier to get to in the future than they are today. The city is working to widen Ben Maddox, put a bridge across Santa Fe at 198 and improve the freeway access at Noble and 198 widening Noble. There are also plans to widen the Ben Maddox bridge over 198. Link says the land south of the stockyards near downtown would be easily accessible by both out of town and locals. He says the city’s corporation yard could also be made available if KDDH wants the site. “When we partner with other agencies the community is the winner,” says Link who says the city has monies that Kaweah doesn’t have to help develop a site.
One of the most successful and fast growing projects at Kaweah is the heart surgery program and it could be that a new hospital site could be dedicated, at least in the early phases, to that procedure helping to promote that service and alleviating some of the pressure on the main downtown campus. Both Bakersfield and Fresno have new Heart Hospitals up and running or soon coming on line.
Reached at deadline Johnson said some services might be carved out of the existing hospital but meetings with medical staff need to happen first. “I wouldn’t speculate on a heart hospital.” He does expect some sort of board decision as early as April 4th.
Tom Johnson in a speech last week to local builders suggested the question is “how do we do it downtown?” We get it both ways - he advises “complaining that we are buying up downtown and at the same time being urged to stay in downtown.” Officials have chosen their words carefully saying there will always be “a presence downtown” - that could include skilled nursing. But the downtown doesn’t want to lose the regional medical center - the heart and brains of the operation - from downtown say supporters. Johnson’s reply - “show me the costs.”
Fun Park Planned
Visalia - The developers of the Hanford Adventure Park family fun center are planning a Visalia park almost double the size that could open next year. Mike Robinson, a partner in the Hanford complex says he is working with developer Craig Mangano at Mangano’s proposed commercial center at the southwest corner of Akers and 198. “We’ve been looking for a good site in Visalia for more than five years,” says Robinson and “now we’ve found it.” Robinson says the project is expected to cost some $4 million.
Mangano is in his due diligence period on a purchase of some 30 acres from the city of Visalia. The contract calls for Mangano’s company, Westland Development, to make a $100,000 deposit on the purchase toward the end of May. “We’re working on the layout of the property,” says Mangano, which is complicated by the fact a creek crosses the property and a new street, Cypress, will be punched through.
Mangano says the 8 acre fun park would be the centerpiece of the development - a project he believes “will be good for Visalia and its kids.” Surrounding the center which would be close on the north part of the center and close to Akers, would be perhaps two restaurants which might look out onto the center. “We look at the combination as a family magnet,” says Robinson who adds that since buying the Hanford fun center they’ve got some good experience running the center. “We run a squeaky clean operation,” says Robinson, with full security. “Families and even kids by themselves can feel completely safe here.”
Robinson says the new fun park would have two miniature golf courses, two mini car race tracks - one for smaller kids - a baseball batting cage, a bumper boat operation, a 20,000 sq ft arcade and snack bar and a large open space park area for family picnics. “It’s like the Hanford operation but a bigger, improved version,” says Mangano. “We’re making sure the landscaping and features of the park are pleasing,” says Mangano, “no pink dragons with their mouth open.” The baseball batting cage will have a gazebo overhead instead of a net.
Besides the fun park and restaurants, Mangano says he is working on a couple of retail tenants, one 60,000 sq ft and the other 25,000 sq ft to fill out the center. “We hope not to phase the center, that could net at 28 acres - we want to build it at one time.” Tenant interest has been good, says Mangano.
Robinson says his search for a site in Visalia ran into city opposition in the past when they were proposing a location at Plaza and 198. “We don’t want to do anything without the city council blessing,” he says. Indeed the council has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for the center with the idea to offer more things for kids and teens to do.
Once they commit to the new center, Westland hopes to be under construction
toward the end of 2000 - just after the opening of the 198 freeway expansion
that will draw visitors into Visalia. The fun park should take 8 to
10 months to be completed. The first thing they will look down upon
is the new center and fun park. “We’re very sensitive to the fact
this center will be a the entrance to Visalia,” says Mangano. He will
hire Canby and Associates to do the center’s architectural work. Canby
was the architect on the Mission Oaks office complex across the freeway.
Job Development Efforts Gear Up
Visalia - With double digit unemployment continuing in the new millennium (over 16% this month) but good prospect interest by companies looking to relocate here-local economic development officials are gearing up trying to come to conclusions on the direction to take.
“Right now there is 1 million square feet of new companies who are looking at Visalia,” says development specialist Harvey May of the Allen Group. May also sits on the Tulare County Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) board. “We need somebody at the helm” at the countywide agency whose primary function is to bring new industry to the county.
The agency has been without a leader since last summer.
Getting a new interim on board was the consensus this week at the TEDC board meeting, says chair Bill Maze who expects the countywide organization to pick an interim director in the next few weeks. “We’re down to just a couple of good candidates,” he says.
Visalia too is ramping up to carry a heavier load pushed by the privately funded Visalia Economic Development Corporation (VEDC). Board member Rita Hill says that group will hire a full time executive director for the first time in its history. Previously the city of Visalia has staffed the work of the organization with the assistance of a consultant.
Bulking up the net effect with private monies and effort has been the theme at the TEDC as well. Maze expects some sort of plan to match the publically funded organization - at the $300,000 level with private monies to be collected from local companies to build a bigger economic development war chest. “I think there is consensus for that,” says Maze although he awaits some decision that could come out of an important meeting this week headed by the Tulare County Partnership for Economic Development. The privately funded partnership headed by Agri-Center manager Gary Shultz, will discuss what direction it takes on plans to focus on key economic development issues in the County and how to raise private monies to address them. “I think we will narrow the scope” of the ideas brought out in the study done last October, he says.
The Partnership funded a study by the consultant firm NCDS that will be the basis of discussion. Not everybody agrees that the partnership should focus on broad problems in the County that others are already addressing, like job training. “Some of these ideas are wasteful and duplicative,” says Bank of the Sierra President Jim Holly who sits on the TEDC board. They also don’t agree we should pay an out of town group to solicit monies for economic development. How this effort jives with the efforts of the TEDC is also up in the air. But in the next few weeks the questions could be answered.
Working to maintain the support all the public members of the TEDC will be a top priority, says Supervisor Bill Maze who will visit the Visalia city council chamber Monday, March 20 to discuss a funding level proposal approved by the TEDC board this week. That proposal would cut city dues by 25% over the budgeted amount for the remaining part of this fiscal year.
Visalia had threatened to pull out of the organization last year.
Lindsay did pull out.
It should be interesting when Maze visits the Visalia chamber. During
the recent campaign 4 out of 5 city council members opposed Maze and the
knock against the existing Supervisor was that he never consulted with the
city officials. Maze has said he looks to mend fences.
There are more interesting developments this month. The Partnership group is encouraging the TEDC to look at bringing the CEDC - loan production office back under the same roof with the TEDC as it was before. The reason they separated before was that the board of each group was not broad enough to meet SBA guidelines. Now the TEDC board has been expanded to 17. The idea is also to bring in the BIZ - the Tulare County Business Incentive Zone - as well now under the Private Industry Council umbrella. Still an issue in these discussions are that the agencies are now split between Visalia and Tulare who already jealously watch each other.
Two more job development incentives are news worthy. Maze says Assembly member Sarah Reyes is promoting a new state tax zone VALUEE - that if supported by the legislature and the governor would offer significant new state tax breaks to counties like Tulare with persistent high unemployment and poverty guidelines. The TEDC has hired consultants DCI to market Tulare County nationally, says Maze.
Concrete Canal Heads To Court
Visalia - Tulare Irrigation District’s (TID) proposal to line their canal with concrete for some 10 miles from the Friant Kern west to Tulare will go to court March 25 being opposed by environmentalist and landowners but apparently no longer by the city of Visalia. Visalia has a settlement agreement with the TID that will be reviewed by the city council Monday, March 20th. The city joined with landowner Tom Mitts in the first round of this case where Judge Robbie found the environmental impact report on the project was inadequate.
That led TID to go back to do a revised EIR that will now be ruled on by
the judge in a few weeks.
Davis attorney Don Mooney who represents the landowners in the case says
the new EIR still doesn’t “address the range of alternatives” that would
allow the irrigation district to accomplish their goals without hurting
the environment. Critics have complained about the loss of some 200
mature oak trees and loss of natural seepage of Kaweah river water that
replenishes the groundwater. TID would carry Kaweah water and not
just federal Friant water the critics point out.
The irrigation district loses about 15,000 acre feet of water as it brings federal irrigation water over to the district’s farmers on the 10 mile stretch and want to either save that water with the concrete canal or be reimbursed by somebody. Prior to federal water price increases, they were reimbursed by Kaweah Water Conservation District.
This week three other environmental groups joined the fray saying they will try to file friends of the court briefs against TID’s proposal. Tulare County Audubon Society, the Mineral King chapter of the Sierra Club and the California Oak Foundation are joining up to file the brief.
Janet Coob, the California Oaks Foundation’s executive director says they believe TID cannot remove the oak trees without environmental review - especially the state Fish and Game regulations that say a riparian area can’t be damaged. The canal runs through the thick oak forest near Kaweah Oaks Preserve east of Visalia. Rich Garcia a local Sierra Club member says “this issue isn’t just farmer fighting farmer over water.” He says the environmental groups want to intervene “because we want to tell the judge what is at stake here.”
Bob Ludekens, who represents property owners is working on an alternative at the 11th hour even as he is collecting money to help pay attorney Don Mooney to fight on. Ludekens addressed the TID board this week suggesting there might be legislative support for a plan to pay TID through a cut in TID’s environmental fee they pay annually to federal government. Ludekens is advocating the establishment of a permanent environmental corridor along the earthen canal that could actually restore it to natural habitat - an idea that has been worked on before. The rub last time is that no one could guarantee TID that they would be paid each year to do this alternative. Now Ludekens says he will try to get some certainty on this. He has been working with Congressman Radanovich’s office.
Considering alternatives Jerry Hill, TID’s general manager, says they made an offer to the property owners to “build a new canal away from the big oaks” if the property owners would give them the right of way. That could mean only a handful of those trees would come down. He says the idea would be to move the canal at TID’s expense along a two mile stretch through the thickly wooded area near Kaweah Oaks. “We would gate the old canal, run water in it and the environment would be maintained. If this is about oaks and water - this would solve it.” He says that “we never heard back from them.
Mooney says the judge may rule on the 28th or even give a tentative decision a few days before. But Hill believes Judge Robbie’s pattern will be to hear oral arguments on the 28th and rule some time later. TID’s construction is to begin the lining this fall after irrigation season is over.
Meanwhile the litigants in this case are wondering why the city of Visalia “caved in” on this battle. City attorney Dan Dooley did not return calls to the Voice. “You wonder why they still call themselves Tree City USA?” says a critic. The fear the loss of naturally percolating water will hurt water levels downstream like in Visalia. The city has indicated if it agrees to a settlement TID would set up new recharge basins.
Forest Face-Off
Sequoia National Forest - Opposing interests will face off in two highly charged public hearings in Visalia and Fresno in the next few days over President Bill Clinton’s proposal to turn hundreds of thousands acres for local forest service land into a national monument. The monument is being sought to protect some 38 Sequoia groves outside of the two National Parks in the Sierra- now in the Sequoia National Forest.
The debate surrounds just how much land around the Big Tree needs to be set aside to protect the ecosystems around there. Estimates run as high as 450,000 acres while others suggest the trees already enjoy adequate protection or that the monument is 2 to 3 times too large.
Uncertainty as to what will be use restrictions there will be in the monument area along with the potential loss of timber jobs. Two saw mills in the county are at stake. The issue is heated in part because Clinton has asked for only a 60 day period to study the matter and that time will be up in weeks. This is the first time any public input on the issue has been allowed.
Keep A Sharp Eye For This Critter
Virus Spreading Insect Could Wipe Out Grape Industry
A new bug battle. Farmers in the rich Temecula Valley in southern California fear they may have only two years left to grow grapes. After that their vines will be dead - killed by Pierce’s disease - a virus that saps the strength out of the host plants. The virus is spread by a half-inch long insect called the glassy-winged sharpshooter who at alarming rate dishes out the disease faster than growers can plant new vines.
The story goes that in 1997 a grape grower pulled out 3 vines with Pierce’s disease. In 1998 the same grower found 100 vines with the disease and removed them. Last year - 1999 - he pulled 100,000 vines and is still pulling. This year no one is replanting anymore. As much as 3000 acres of winegrapes will be lost to the disease because there is no cure.
Around the state other counties have found the sharpshooter overwintering in a wide range of host plants including oranges. The state’s ag industry has geared up to fight the spread of the insect into other growing regions and to beat it back where they have found it. To date the sharpshooter has been found in eight counties including Kern.
Dennis Haynes, Tulare County Ag Commission biologist, says Tulare County and Kern officials have recently formed a sharpshooter task force to address the potentially devastating problem. Not only does Pierce’s disease kill off grapes, it overwinters in oranges and can lead to a disease in citrus that makes fruit small and hard, it scorches alfalfa, attacks peaches and can hurt almond production as well. It also is attracted to oleander and eucalyptus so it can migrate easily from host plants-spreading geographically, nibbling its way north. “Right now they are isolated in the Arvin Edison area separated by about 15 miles of oil fields from the citrus orange groves that runs continuously from north from south Kern into Tulare County. Likewise, grape plantings are heavy and continuous from northern Kern into Tulare County which is why Delano area grape growers are helping with the two-county task force, says Haynes.
California Farm Bureau President Bill Pauli recently testified to a House Ag subcommittee about the problems suggesting “The importance of this issue cannot be overstated. Pierce’s disease is one of the greatest threats ever to California’s viticulture industry. It has become our worst nightmare,” said Pauli. “While the focus and fear about the glassy winged sharpshooter and Pierce’s disease have been on the winegrape industry, we must not forget that other crops are threatened.”
To monitor the pests, 2000 traps have been set out in Tulare County. None have been found yet but Haynes fears “its just a matter of time” before the infestation spreads here. To slow the spread Tulare County has requested it be allowed to quarantine nursery stock and grapes that have been harvested in affected counties and other measures to inspect for the pests. Inspection of nursery stock will mean the Ag Commissioner’s office will have to gear up before you can buy that plant at WalMart or Home Depot if it came in from southern California. Classifying the pest as a Class B pest statewide gives the local commissioner more power to eradicate it - even assessing property owners to kill it off it necessary. Sticky yellow traps will be the first line of defense against the pest.
Haynes says the critical time for spread of disease is early spring with eggs hatching in April. “There wasn’t lots of frost this winter,” says Haynes, meaning the insect population may not have been reduced by the cold temps. A second generation hatches in August, he says. Haynes says the pest can be fought with some parasite releases, trapping programs and can be killed by many pesticide sprays. He says the insect isn’t attracted to malathion bait like other fruit fly pests. Farmers have been seeking special Section 18 approvals this month to use new pesticides to fight the spread including Admire on oranges to knock down the population. But Haynes says the insect may avoid trees treated with the ground drench since it tastes bad. If a major infestation happens in a city - hitchhiked by a traveler - the ag commissioner would be hard pressed to fight it with any kind of major spraying. If the find is isolated in a farm field or orchard an early infestation could be knocked down, he says. Research is going on to come up with other treatments if there is time. One possibility is that vineyards may need to be planted to a new bioengineered strain that resists Pierce’s disease. In Tulare County alone there are 83,000 acres of grapes.
Haynes says the many new pests in California may be a result of the globalization of our lifestyles and diverse ethnic makeup of the state today. “Many immigrants want to get fruit and vegetables sent from back home,” says Haynes. “California is a melting pot not just for people but for insects.” The sharpshooter was probably imported into the state on orange nursery stock from Florida in the early 90s believes Haynes. The California orange industry watching the citrus canker crisis in Florida this season with fear and trepidation. “A huge number of trees are being pulled and burned in Florida” a citrus belt this month to halt the spread of the disease.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
March 15, 2000
