Sierra Frogs Come Back When Fish Take A Hike

Sequoia & King Canyon National Parks - Scientists have been studying an overall decline among amphibians world-wide and have come to the conclusion that multiple factors including habitat loss, chemical contaminants, global warming and infectious diseases all play a part.

That includes a dramatic decline in the Sierra’s mountain yellow-legged frog population that may be as low as 10% of its historical population with fears in recent years the species could go extinct, says Sequoia ecologist Danny Boiano.

Looking to see if something could be done about this, scientists in recent years have suggested direct intervention to eliminate the most immediate threat to these high elevation frogs - the implanted fish that are eating the young tadpoles in many mountain lakes.

“We decided to do some site restoration in a few high elevation lakes” in 2001 close to existing populations of mountain yellow-legged frogs. The result after removing the trout, “the frogs moved back in huge numbers.” Boiano says the lake restorations were done in two separate and remote Sequoia and Kings Canyon basins.

The work has moved forward since on 6 lakes in Sequoia/Kings Canyon with the labor intensive work to remove the predatory fish - typically trout resulting in a boom in the population of the frogs.

“Our objective is some 10 lakes in Sequoia and Kings Canyon,” says Boiano, out of some 800 lakes in the parks. “We doubt anglers are going to have trouble finding a place to fish,” he notes.

About half of those lakes have been stocked for fish in the past year and most of those are self sustaining for fish. “We’re talking about ecosystem restoration - not just a benefit for frogs,” says Boiano, since removing the fish brings back not just frogs but snakes, insects and even birds that have declined along with frogs.

“We came to the conclusion that while we couldn’t do anything about the long term negative effects of pollution, global warming or even drought, we wanted to see what would happen if we just removed one threat to the frogs.” The young tadpoles live in that form from 2 to 4 years overwintering 9 months of the year under ice.

Not that there is a loud chorus coming from the happy frogs, says Boiano, who says these frogs vocalize underwater unlike some other frogs. Boiano says he has a CD of their underwater chugga-rums.

Trout Planting

While trout were planted in the High Sierra as far back as the late 1800s, a Berkeley researcher, Vance Vredenburg carried out the original study here suggested the introduction of young fingerlings in high elevation lakes by the California Department of Fish and Game planted by airplane in the 50s and 60s made the difference. The planes would fly low enough over the lake to dump the young trout in many lakes that had had no trout before. He carried out the experiment that Boiano is continuing recovering the trout from 5 lakes. Now three years later the frog populations are as high as lakes that never saw a fish, claims Vredenburg.

CDF&G has since rethought the fish plantings recently all over the Sierra. Some 17,000 lakes in the West are stocked for fish.

In a UC Berkeley press release this summer, Sequoia scientist Dave Graber summed the action up as a stopgap measure “the frogs have nearly disappeared from the High Sierra, so we’re (conducting) a panicked rear guard action.”

Scientists are also concerned about a fungus - amphibian chytrid fungus - that is having a severe effect around the world that could be related to a compromised immune system that allows the fungus to have a more devastating effect. Also to reduce the negative effect of pesticides blowing into the Sierra, farm advocates have been working with farmers to decrease this impact as well, largely by a change in the material they use.

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Visalia To Lose Frito Lay Plant

Visalia - Buried in an upbeat PepsiCo news release about a 35% increase in earnings, was a notice that Pepsi’s Frito Lay division would close 4 plants around the country including one in Visalia.

The plant layoff notice was shared with workers the last day of September, who were shocked to hear they would lose their jobs within 30 days. About 139 work at the chip making facility. The company said the products made in Visalia would be transferred to larger chip plants in Bakersfield or Modesto.

Visalia city manager Steve Salomon says he wasn’t surprised by the news since one third of the big plant remains unused and the company has chosen to produce only one line of products - the no fat Wow chips - a chip that has not taken off in sales despite years of marketing.

The facility employed more than 400 when it was operated by Eagle Snacks who sold the plant to Frito Lay in the early 1990s. Salomon says that the Visalia Frito Lay competed internally with other Frito Lay plants for production and despite urging by the city over the years, the company never found it in their interest to expand in Visalia.

Economic development officials here are eager to learn if the company will put the facility on the market in order to seek another food processing company to anchor the Visalia industrial park at Plaza and Goshen.

“Losing a name like Frito Lay is a big hit,” says one economic development official - a name the city uses when it recruits for other national companies will have to be removed rom the glossy recruitment brochures.

Losing a manufacturer with good wages is particularly hard for Visalia that has added jobs in recent years largely in the warehouse distribution category.

If cost were a concern to Frito Lay, one major cost may have been sewer expenses to treat the effluent from the plant that goes into the Visalia sewer system. Costs in the past have been as high as $400,000 a year paid to the city. The company must pay the city for just the one line it produces although the company has set up and runs a treatment facility of their own before they send off the wastewater. Expanding to 3 or 4 lines could have meant that sewer expense could rise by 3 to 4 times as well.

By contrast, Bakersfield’s Buttonwillow Frito Lay plant discharges to ag land, says former City of Visalia public works official Lew Nelson, who now heads up Tulare’s public works. “Discharge costs are a very big deal in the food processing business,” says Nelson.

Bakersfield was grandfathered in and at a fraction of the cost the company gets rid of their wastewater on farmland, he says. The Modesto plant discharges to the San Joaquin River. Tulare Lake basin food processing plants must capture their wastewater by order of the Water Quality Control Board and must dramatically reduce salts they discharge or face fines. The upshot - our facilities including the big cheese making plant here - are at a comparative disadvantage to other areas.

TEDC chief Paul Saldana notes the company has to pay the costs of a lightly used facility which may cost close to a busy plant.

Building contractor Basil Perch, is on a committee advising the city on an increase that businesses who locate in Visalia will have to pay as a result of the city deciding to raise transportation impact fees. He says he is particularly concerned about the proposed increase. “This will hurt getting new business in Visalia,” he fears. He says the proposed increase wold go from the current rate of $300,000 for a grocery store to $1.6 million and for an industrial building from the current rate of $40,000 to $455,000.

Despite the negative news, Salomon is upbeat about Visalia’s prospects. “We’ve had more inquiries by companies in Visalia in the past two months than we’ve had in the past two years.”

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Sequoia Shuttle Could Be Funded Through $10 Hike In Entrance Fee

Sequoia & King Canyon National Parks - The entrance fee to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks could be increased by $10 to help fund operation of a proposed shuttle service in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Currently $10 - the fee would rise to $20 per carload to help pay for a shuttle that could help clean the air, says Superintendent Dick Martin. “It’s just a proposal now,” says Martin.

The Park Service had planned to fund the park shuttle buses themselves through monies expected in the federal transportation bill. But failure by Congress to pass a transportation bill has thrown budget plans for a loop, says the NPS’s Bill Tweed.

The shuttle buses had been budgeted for a long time “but the money never came,” says Tweed.

Because of the lack of funding, plans to implement an “internal shuttle” within the park to connect popular locations, have been on hold. The park wanted to implement this bus service next spring. “It will be 2006,” says Martin.

Meanwhile the City of Visalia has partnered with the Park Service to run Visalia to Sequoia park shuttle service daily, but those plans are also on hold until the Park Service figures out how to pay for their part of the bargain. The two entities have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on a shuttle that could benefit both.

City transit chief Monty Cox says the city has been funded for a 3 year operation plan for the shuttle, but the Park Service was to pay for the buses. The city is continuing this fall with study of the shuttle idea to clarify just how many buses and the market potential a shuttle service would require.

Increasing the entrance fee appears to have a direct connection to the problem, some believe, since it’s the cars that are generating the pollution problems seen in the parks.

Sequoia was named one of the most polluted parks in the nation earlier this year. Taking the entrance fee to $20 would match the fee into Yosemite, Yellowstone and others.

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Largest Export Market
South Korea Playing Tough On Reopening Citrus Market

Tulare County - Plagued with their own, more serious citrus disease, South Korea appears to be in no mood to reopen their domestic market to US grown citrus, says Joel Nelsen of California Citrus Mutual. “USDA got a message this week that Korea won’t open their market to US citrus until we allow Korean citrus back into the United States,” says Nelsen. “We’re going to have to turn up the heat” on the Koreans, says Nelsen. “I’ve been on the phone this week to congressmen and USDA” but it doesn’t look like there will be a reopening announced right away.

The South Korean market is the largest export market for Tulare and Fresno county citrus. Last year they imported 123,000 tons - some 7 million cartons. “It’s about an $80 million market for us,” says Nelsen. South Korea closed their market to Tulare and Fresno county citrus last spring - after the navel season - because of a reported find of the disease septoria citrus - a fungus the Koreans never proved was on the skin of any Tulare County fruit.

“We have offered various post harvest inspections and other procedures to placate them,” says Nelsen, but they made it clear that the septoria allegation “is just an excuse.”

Shipment of late season navels were returned to Tulare County growers and the industry sources say no signs of the fungus were found. The fungus forms spots on the skin of citrus fruit.

The loss of the market for this year’s citrus harvest that starts in just weeks, would be a tough blow to local farmers who are counting on a larger crop this year than last.

Nelsen says Korea has not shown USDA they are doing anything about their own citrus canker problem that forced closure of the US market to their fruit in 2002.

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Monrovia Nursery To Grow Acreage/Jobs

Visalia - Azusa-based Monrovia Nursery, will relocate its 400 acre growing operations in southern California to other company locations but mostly to the big 1000 acre nursery east of Visalia.

Company spokesperson Katie Bloome confirms that the company finalized the sale of 300 acres to a developer for master planned community in Azusa with final city council action on the deal last month.

“We have until the end of 2005 to move everything out,” says Bloome. “We’re already transferring people and plants to the Visalia nursery.” Bloome says the move will mean employment at the Visalia nursery will grow from 500 currently to some 650 workers in coming months.

Monrovia is one of the world’s largest producers of container grown plants with some 300 varieties grown and sold through nurseries and home improvement stores. The company has five growing regions around the US, but Visalia will be the main west coast facility. Monrovia will retain about 100 acres in southern California where a handful of varieties will continue to be grown due to the milder winters. Monrovia will keep its corporate headquartered in Azusa.

The firm is family owned. Monrovia was founded in 1926 by Harry Rosedale. Among varieties it grows are camellias, citrus, conifers, ferns, perennials and rhododendrons. It also has some 30 types of soil mixtures.

The company purchased the 100 acre ranch near Venice Hill in 1991 and has been slowly growing in the acreage it uses there.

Bloome says the Visalia ranch won’t see any major buildings as a result of the move, although “lots of shade cloth” is being ordered to shade the plants from the area’s abundant sunshine. A new shipping building is planned sometime in the future, she says.

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Public Fleets Turning Green

By Aaron Collins

Visalia - With spacey design gimmicks out and more conventional styling in, Americans are beginning to accept highly efficient gas/electric vehicles, so-called “hybrids”.

A new hybrid SUV is on the market this fall, the Ford Escape, looking much like its thirstier gas-guzzling counterparts. Even Lexus has a new luxury hybrid model that uses the nickel-hydride/gas power source. And consumers like that no plug-in is required for recharging, like the first-generation cars did.

But compared to newfound marketplace acceptance, public fleets are well into the process of converting to cleaner burning fuels. Thanks to mandates from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) over the last ten years, carbon-belching public vehicles comprise a decreasing slice of the dirty air pie floating above Central California skies, to mix metaphors.

Both particulate matter and smog in the Valley have been linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The Environmental Protection Agency has designated air quality in the San Joaquin Valley as “severe” for both ground level ozone (smog) and particulate matter.

Fortunately, the results of the conversion to cleaner fuels are mostly positive, according to area transportation officials. In fact, most transit officials around Tulare and Kings Counties are surprisingly happy about complying with the CARB requirement to reduce transit fleet emissions.

Fresno Area Express –that city’s public transit system -- was the area’s pioneer in converting its 102-bus fleet to alternative fuels. Most recently, Fresno has been retrofitting older vehicles for cleaner burning ultra-low sulfur diesel.

Visalia Transit chief Monty Cox says his interest in hybrid technology is not only job-related – it’s personal. Cox liked the technology well enough that -- when he was in the market recently for a car -- he considered buying one of the hybrids like those used by the City of Visalia, such as the Toyota Prius.

Cox has also overseen the ongoing conversion of Visalia’s transit fleet, and his reports are mostly positive. Visalia’s Dial-A-Ride service is using five compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. He’s very pleased with their performance. “They’re working great,” Cox says.

The Visalia Towne Trolley was another matter, according to Cox.

The hellish Valley summer heat wreaks havoc not just on the very young and the elderly. It saps the life out of vehicle batteries, too -- the Trolleys’ electricity source.

So, Cox asked trolley manufacturer E-Bus of Downey, California, to come up with a solution.

To keep their customer happy, E-Bus engineers successfully devised a battery chiller (like a radiator). Cox says their new device seems to have solved the problem, and summer breakdowns due to battery performance have been minimized.

Ironically, Cox said that, while other city departments’ hybrids are performing well, the Transit Department’s Toyota Prius’s variable performance has been somewhat disappointing. “It has not performed up to the promised 50mpg. The readout in our car shows more like 30mpg,” he says.

Still, 30mpg is not bad for city driving (hang your heads, Hummer owners). And city driving is the strong suit of the hybrids, which actually perform better in town than on the highway.

The greatest difficulty about the conversion is more bureaucratic, according to Cox. Constant changes in paper work for state compliance and grants are a “nightmare,” he says. “Every year, Cal-Trans alters its requirements, which often wastes work that has already been completed.”

As for the mixed reviews for Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposal to collapse CARB into a broader bureaucratic group of agencies, Cox is more sanguine. “As long as staff levels don’t change, there shouldn’t be any problem.

Kings County public works official Harry Verheul is similarly enthusiastic about alternative fuel vehicles. “We’ve got a hybrid car and employees really like it.

Even though the CNG fueling station is a couple of miles away, employees seem to have the hang of it. Acceptance of both the CNG and hybrid vehicles is very good,” Verheul says.

Verheul says that early concerns about Kings County’s CNG public buses have been allayed. “CNG is pressurized at over 3000 pounds per square inch (psi), but the technology has been trouble-free,” he said. Verheul rates overall acceptance of the hybrid cars in the county motor pool as very high.

Perhaps the biggest downside to converting the public fleet is the cost.

For the City of Visalia’s garbage hauling fleet, smog compliance can cost as much as $45,000 per vehicle. Rate hikes to customers have not occurred in nine years, but that’s about to change, partly as a result of the conversion costs, says Jim Bean, head of Visalia’s waste management department. Bean says that newer trucks in the fleet are lower sulfur diesel burning, but that CNG is also part of the mix.

According to Bean, fleet managers tend to divide along lines of their preferred fuel sources. While some favor CNG, Bean considers it a stepping stone toward acceptance. Others like him are looking ahead to the hydrogen hybrid technology which promises an even cleaner fuel source. “That’s the way it’s got to go. We have to do something to clean up our air,” Bean said.

Liquid natural gas -- at it low storage temperature of -260F – gives off vapors that tend to pool, and freezing around the nozzle occurs during refilling, leaving Bean less enthused about that fuel source.

Like the old Ford vs. Chevy truck loyalists, fleet also managers have brand preferences, as well as fuel. Bean says the John Deere engines for CNG and liquid natural gas (LNG) are considered preferable to the Cummins engines which have given the City of Tulare fleet some serious headaches.

Despite the US Environmental Protection Agency’s recent “all-Fs” report card for the Central Valley, the region endured fewer spare-the-air days over the recent summer months, unusual for this time of year.

Without CARB mandates, the rate of conversion to alternative fuels would likely have been much slower, according to area transportation officials. As it stands, public agencies convert their fleets over time according to a schedule involving percentages and vehicle ages.

But public vehicles are only part of the problem. Given that auto emissions constitute 60% of the region’s pollutant sources, the Valley’s residential and commercial developers could someday be required by planning departments to build less auto-dependent and more pedestrian friendly mixed-use suburbs in the future.

One area group is seeking to build the area’s first small-scale pedestrian friendly village in Three Rivers. The envisioned design is expected to reduce reliance on autos and create a model “smart growth” community. The Three Rivers Village Square Foundation is a nonprofit group that has formed to prevent the kind of sprawl that has plagued foothills communities such as Oakhurst, near Fresno.

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If Toyota Considers Central Valley -
Tulare County Wants A Shot At It

Tulare County - News that the City of Fresno is pursuing a long-shot bid to attract a new Toyota manufacturing plant to the valley has Tulare County asking a simple question - why not here in Tulare County?

“We think we have many of the attributes the car makers are looking for in a site,” says Tulare County EDC president Paul Saldana. “To the best of my knowledge, Toyota has not pursued a site in California,” he notes. But Saldana says the EDC “has made contact with consultants and companies that would be involved in any competition that Toyota or any other car maker would be involved if they were looking for a west coast site. “We’ve got the land, labor force and access to the west coast ports,” says Saldana.

Toyota is reportedly looking to site a new Toyota Prius hybrid car plant - a car popular in California where long order lists mean a 6 month delay in getting one of the new fuel efficient vehicles. Getting Toyota “would be a win win” notes Saldana, since the hybrid technology both provide jobs in this high unemployment area and help clean the air in one of the smoggiest regions in the US.

US Senator Dianne Feinstein has been instrumental in trying to get Toyota to look at a California location despite all the knocks the state has against it when it comes to manufacturing costs.

“Don’t discount California,” says Saldana even though this state is not likely to write a $10 million check to Toyota like some states do.

A huge market exists nearby to buy the cars they will make led by the fleets of all the agencies in the Golden State.

On October 20th the annual EDC meeting will be held featuring consultants who helped Boeing find a site for new corporate headquarters offered advice to Tulare County on how to get on the radar screen for major firms looking for new locations.

“Fresno may open the door and now maybe we come in,” notes Saldana.

Saldana says he has toured the new Toyota pant in Baja California as well as a number of other Baja manufacturing plants recently noting their employee training efforts. Suppliers to the Baja and Oakland plant could help supply a central California plant only an overnight delivery drive from either location. Saldana says when he was in Kern County their EDC made an unsuccessful bid for a new Mercedes plant.

When it gets down to whether a company should select a Fresno or Tulare County site - Tulare County feels that based on its more rural character, quality of life, and location adjacent Sequoia park, it may be a place for a company who is “thinking green” to settle right in.

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Role Of NAS Lemoore Soaring

By Miles Shuper

Lemoore - Although it will be at least May of 2005 that the Defense Department's initial report on military base closures and realignments will be released, activity at NAS Lemoore indicates the prospects of the Kings County military installation surviving the cut are bright.

The amount of money that has been and is being spent at Lemoore Naval Air Station is an indication of the strategic importance of the vast facility.

While no one will put odds on the changes of NAS Lemoore surviving the base closure ax, which is swung with considerable political force, the Kings County base has a lot going for it. A part of that consideration is that since 1998 California has seen 30 percent of the total base closures. Twenty-nine military installations in the state were closed during that period. That is a part of the reason that Lemoore's importance has increased.

Currently work is nearing completion on security fencing around the administration and operations sectors of the base. Until now NAS Lemoore has never been fenced. In all about 13 miles of chain link fencing is being erected. Funding has also been allocated to upgrade it to what military official call a "Local Situational Awareness System," more commonly referred to as a "smart fence." It will feature a wide array of sensors and software to provide commanding officers a tactical picture of what is going on around the perimeter of the vital portions of the massive 30,000 acre base.

The only fencing at Lemoore until the construction of the new barrier was the CalTrans fencing separating Highway 198 where it parallels the edge of base property. The new fence is a foot or two higher than the CalTrans fence and less than a dozen feet inside the highway barrier. Another phase of the security upgrade is the relocating and upgrading of base's main gate just north of westbound Highway 198. In addition to becoming high tech, the move will eliminate the need for a second gate currently inside the base. The move will put the only entrance inside base property and reduce some manpower needs in addition to streamlining the flow of base traffic.

Dennis McGrath, the base's spokesman, said a realignment of the entry point and an exit from Highway 198 will greatly decrease traffic congestion during normal business hours and especially for special events such as air shows.

Jeff Stivers, retired former commanding officer at NAS Lemoore who now works for Oceans Systems Engineering Company (OSEC) in charge of the fence project, said although nothing is certain about the upcoming base reduction and realignment list due in 2005, the Kings County base has increased its importance to the military.

Capt Stivers (Retired) said "There has been a tremendous amount of money spend at Lemoore in the last seven to eight years." With the pending total retirement of the famed F-14 Tomcat, Lemoore and the shifting of some F-18 Hornet and Super Hornet squadrons, will become the only fighter-bomber base on the West Coast.

In late 2003, NAS Lemoore was home to 7,200 military personnel and 12,000 civilians in the workforce. In 1998 there were 4,500 military personnel. The number of squadrons has grown to 16 from 10.

Much has been made of the potential of Lemoore becoming the West Coast home of the navy's version of the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35. Earlier estimates has the potential of a $1 billion investment in NAS Lemoore if the new plane were headquartered there. Estimates also were for from 5,000 to 10,000 new jobs, although military and civilian sources say those figures probably are too high.

The new planes will be replacing current F-18s and the F-14 Tomcats which already are about 75 percent replaced. Stivers estimated that total F-14 retirement is about two to three years away. While landing the new all-purpose fighter would be a plus for Lemoore, the total number of new jobs and personnel will be less than some Kings County officials and other people expect, said one source, explaining that many of the jobs, both civilian and military, will be basically the same. There may be some additional personnel, but not a large percentage.

Lockheed is building more than 3,000 of the new jets to be delivered to all branches of the U.S. military and to various allies. The planes are scheduled for delivery starting in 2008 and expected to be at operational by 2010.

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Visalia - The City of Visalia is in escrow to purchase two parcels owned by the Toomey family east of Santa Fe on both sides of the Oak St. alignment. While the purchase won't close until the end of the year, city manager Steve Salomon says the city already controls the parcels needed for right-of-way to extend Oak St. east to Tipton.

A legal notice this week announced the transaction at 230 and 320 North Santa Fe, saying funds of the city's redevelopment agency will be used to make the purchase.

The two addresses are older wooden warehouse buildings that will be demolished to make room for parking lot and later to accommodate new development projects. The current tenants have until November to move out.

One parcel has been offered to the Visalia Chamber or Commerce as a possible location for their new chamber building. The board of the chamber is considering the offer.

City engineer David Jacobs confirmed the city already controls the right-of-way and now must come up with the cost to upgrade the tracks as they run down Oak St. the way they did in front of the new transit center across Santa Fe. The city must deal with the PUC over crossing at Tipton St. Because of the complications the road improvement may not go until summer of next year, says Jacobs.

Still a paved parking lot may help meet parking needs for an increased number of new buildings and companies that have opened up in this, the old railroad yard of Visalia. Next to one of the old warehouses the city is going to tear down is now the office of the architectural firm Canby and Associates who re-worked an older building on Santa Fe.

The large Toomey buildings must be demolished and lots cleared to make way an expected flow of new development to the east set in motion by the fact the new city hall will be built a country block away in coming years.

In a related matter, the city is closing in on purchase of the Union Pacific properties - the next large set of parcels east to Ben Maddox, some of which is next to the land the city is purchasing from the Toomey family.

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By Peyton Ellas

Springville - Not surprisingly, the apple orchards in the hills above Springville have been affected by this year's drought conditions, the fifth consecutive year of reduced water for a crop that is highly dependent on summer water.

Although apples are now being harvested, all three of the major active commercial growers in the area report at least some effect on this year's crop due to lack of water during the critical months. The taste of the fruit has not been affected, all three growers agree. Instead, both the quantity and especially the size of the fruit have been severely impacted by lack of summer water.

Hardest hit has been the Penwell Orchard, where Mary Ann and Donald Penwell, both in their 70's, have been growing pesticide-free Summerfield, Gala, and Fuji apples for eight years along the banks of Bear Creek.

"It's been a horrible year," Mary Ann Penwell reported. "I'm sure we lost 50 trees," all of them the early Fuji-Hybrid Summerfields. Even with water rights dating from the 1800's, the lack of water in Bear Creek forced the Penwells to use well water, which proved inadequate.

"We have very small apples," Penwell lamented, saying she will sell only about six boxes instead of the usual 40 to her long-time Porterville-area school customers, and leaving no apples available for public sale this year.

"Most of them we are feeding to the cows and horses," she said.

Also hard hit has been the next-door Rivendell Ranch, where Marjorie Phillips grows organic Fujis and Galas as well as Red Pears and other varieties of fruit. Phillips, who shares original water rights with the Penwell Ranch, also complained of lack of water in Bear Creek. She completed installation of a new well pump this summer, but the extra water came too late for this year's crop.

"The quality of the fruit is fantastic," she said. "What we have is really very good," although she too will pack only a fraction of her usual quantity.

Both Penwell and Rivendell, with their low elevation ranches, complain of illegal water usage by users at higher elevations, including the Bear Creek Orchard, owned by the Hunt and Cosart families. David Hunt, who has owned his apple orchard since 1968, denies any current illegal water usage.

"Everything we do with water is legal," he said. The Bear Creek Apples are harvested from two orchards along Bear Creek at about 4500 feet elevation and totaling 20 acres. David Hunt owns the upper orchard, and his daughter and son-in-law Jan and David Cosart own the lower, which became part of the Bear Creek operation during the 1990's.

"We were putting water in a pond that we had no idea it was illegal," Hunt said, adding that as soon as state authorities notified them, they severed the line to the pond, which was located on the lower orchard.

"We didn't build the pond. It was there, and the line was there," he said. Hunt and Jan Cosart estimated that the water supply to the pond was cut during the winter, although they did not recall the exact month.

Asked about his neighbors' claims of illegal water use, Hunt said that those claims are false, citing the lack of total water in Bear Creek in recent years as a problem for everyone along the waterway.

"I've asked them to come up anytime to see our water situation," he said.

Hunt said they although managed to bring in a better crop of their Red and Gold Delicious, Granny Smith, and Arkansas Black apples than last year's, they too felt the drought's effects.

"We got low on water the latter part of the season," he said. "Some size might have been affected." He also stated that despite this, the quality of the apples was unaffected.

"The sugar content is good," he said.

The Bear Creek Apples ranch stand is located just outside of Springville along Highway 190 and is open from 8 a.m.- 6 p.m. Monday-Sunday through harvest. Current prices range from $3.00 per bag to $8-12.00 per box, with reduced prices for "seconds." They also sell fresh apple cider.

Despite the limited quantities from Rivendell, Phillips said customers who are seeking locally grown organic fruit may call her at (559) 539-0239 for directions to her ranch.

Looking over his boxed and ready-for-sale crop, Hunt expressed the sentiments of all three growers and no doubt many other farmers, ranchers, and other users who depend on the local rivers for their irrigation water.

"If it's as dry next year as it was this year, I don't know what we're all going to do," he said.

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