11/08/06 PCN update; milfoil analysis

The Idaho State Department of Agriculture is calling in some independent experts to review the agency's new Eurasian water milfoil program. That panel will assess the ISDA milfoil eradication effort next week by talking with scientists, state and local agencies, residents and environmental groups. Last winter the legislature appropriated four million dollars to eradicate the noxious weed that quickly roots in lakes and rivers and now has infested more than four thousand acres of Idaho waterways. Federal and state officials say the Potato Cyst Nematode has been found in two more fields near Shelley, one in Bingham County, one in Bonneville County. All seven of the fields that have been infested by the potato cyst nematode are all within one mile of a central point in the regulated area that covers about ten thousand acres. To date more than 29 thousand samples have been collected and tested from 648 fields and facilities. 83 USDA and 18 state employees are actively involved in this case which dates back to April 19th when the potato cyst nematode was first detected during a routine survey of tare soil at an ISDA grader facility in eastern Idaho. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott