Northwest farmers tells Congress of bad science in salmon bi-op
Farm and Ranch May 5, 2011 The consultation process required under the Endangered Species Act between the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies is hopelessly broken and needs a congressional fix. That is what Oregon Farm Bureau President and American Farm Bureau Vice President Barry Bushue told a joint Congressional hearing this week. Bushue described what he learned at a meeting held by NOAA on how its biological opinion on pesticides and endangered salmon was determined. Bushue: “I was frankly stunned by the reluctance and even the refusal to utilize the actual use data available from departments of agriculture and other sources in the development of these bi-ops. Scenarios using maximum rates for the maximum number of applications for all crops listed on the label clearly do not reflect real world conditions or an accurate picture of use data for a study area.” Bushue says assumptions were incorporated about crops not even raised in the Pacific Northwest. Bushue: “Perhaps even more egregious was the use of a static pond model for drift and exposure data. A six inch deep static pond is as far cry from the moving stream that salmonids inhabit.” Bushue said the buffers the biological opinion would impose would place a large part of his farm off-limits to crop protection chemical application and all his land would be off-limits to aerial spraying. The joint hearing was held by the House Agriculture Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ?
