Snowpack Update & Keeping An Eye on the Fly

Snowpack Update & Keeping An Eye on the Fly. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Things are looking considerably brighter this year when it comes to moisture and snowpack. Scott Oviatt with NRCS gives an update on Oregon's snowpack and mountain precipitation so far this year.

OVIATT: This has been what we'd call a major El Nino in that we've had above normal precipitation and above normal snowpack in the mountains. We've had near record precipitation in December followed by very heavy precipitation in March as well with above normal throughout the rest of the period as well. So overall the total rainfall and snowfall combined has been very well in the mountains. We're above average to very much above average in most basins across the state. For stream flows our current forecast as of March 1 are indicating very near normal conditions.

Last summer some 32 apple maggot flies were capture in Washington State's Methow Valley and while that doesn't seem like a lot it is causing some consternation for producers in the area. Traps have been placed each year but up until 2011, no flies had been captured. Over the last several years more have been caught each year. Female flies lay their eggs in apples by puncturing the skin of the fruit. The eggs are laid in late summer and hatch within a week into larvae that burrow through the fruit making it brown, mushy and inedible. They are going to see what the 2016 survey results are before proceeding.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.