Northwest Water Levels & Seeking a Reversal

Northwest Water Levels & Seeking a Reversal plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Early season melt of some of the initial Northwest snowpack raised concerns about water levels going into the spring but meteorologist Brad Rippey says it looks pretty good.

RIPPEY:  We do have snow packs that are mostly at to above normal across the Pacific Northwest and the northern Rockies. We saw a bit of a warm spell through December in the Pacific Northwest where we actually saw some of the early season snow melting off so snow packs are not quite as robust as the precipitation values might indicate because of the melt off that occurred during that warm spell in December.

A federal judge has ruled in favor of an environmental group seeking to reverse the Bureau of Land Management's decision to renew four grazing permits involving 48,000 acres in the Pahsimeroi River Watershed in central Idaho. The decision, issued Wednesday, agreed with Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project that the BLM had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to fully analyze potential consequences. The judge wrote that the BLM's disregarding of the law undermined the agency's credibility and gave the BLM one year to revise its analysis, consider public comments, and reissue decisions.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

If you thought iPhone applications were just for playing games, playing music, or playing the field, guess again. Mother Earth News has recently made available the new Pickin’ Chicken app that describes seventy-five chicken breeds, and one hundred varieties, with an amazing 250 plus photo array. And that’s just the tip of the app so to speak. Once you’ve decided on the breed of chickens you want, with just a touch of the screen you can easily find information on caring for them, whether you want them to be egg or meat producers, or both, and if you happen to be new to the world of raising chickens there is also a glossary of poultry terminology and links to other helpful resources. I have to be honest and say that when it comes to technology such as the iPhone I pretty much let my hubby have that arena all to himself, but if there are going to be such practical, helpful, and truly useful applications like this to choose from he may just have to get used to sharing his precious two inch by four and a half inch portable communications device. Either that, or spring for one for me. Gee, I wonder if I can get that in turquoise?

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.