Gypsy Moth Campaign & Wind Farms Shut Down

Gypsy Moth Campaign & Wind Farms Shut Down. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

May is National Moving Month and the USDA’s campaign to stop the spread of gypsy moth is in full swing. Greg Rosenthal with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service talks about the effect of a gypsy moth infestation on wildlife.

ROSENTHAL: What you’ll see with a gypsy moth infestation is that in the middle of summertime the forest basically has this barren wintery look because of the defoliation. And so really the forest animals who depend directly on the foliage and the trees for their habitat for their home and then animals who would prey on species that depend on the forest for their home, they’re affected by this reduction of their habitat.

Wind farms and fossil-fuel power plants in the Pacific Northwest were all but shut down for five hours last week as the Columbia River basin's hydroelectric generators ran at full capacity and river managers dealt with one of the largest volumes of spring runoff in years. The Bonneville Power Administration said such a shutdown was likely and would repeated. Wind farm operators have objected. The BPA says wind farms and coal and natural-gas plants reduced output to the minimum needed to protect their equipment and the grid. Customers were not affected. The agency says the water volume is so great that fish trying to get by the dams are in jeopardy from turbulence and nitrogen in the water.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange report.

(Grange)

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