Spring Has Definitely Sprung & Fire Season Begins

Spring Has Definitely Sprung & Fire Season Begins


Spring has definitely decided to make an entrance here in the Pacific Northwest. Daffodil growers are making a pretty show of things and are reporting good retail sales of blooms, and the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival has officially begun. After a rather wet end to March, precipitation numbers for much of the state are looking good and in some places even better than average, though this has left a lot of frustrated producers waiting to get into their fields. Even the bees are taking it slow due to the cool, wet conditions. On the flip side, the fruit tree bud set looked pretty good on cherries, apples, and pears, which generally means it will be a good production year. And potato growers have been in full out planting mode. As for the winter wheat, reports are it’s looking good. USDA Meteorologist, Brad Rippey gives the forecast for mountain runoff and water supplies this spring and summer.

RIPPEY: They’ve had a good season from Washington State eastward to the northern rockies, and there’s abundant snowpack, plus reservoirs are in good shape. There’s going to be no problem with the water supply across the northern 1/3 of the western U.S.

Even though it’s been fairly wet across most of the state lately, wildfire season officially begins April 15. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources would like people to be aware the risk of wildfires changes rapidly during the spring as warmer, dryer weather occurs on a more frequent basis. Thirteen forest fires on lands protected by the DNR were already reported as of March 29. For more information visit dnr.wa.gov.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. 

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