News from the Home Front Reports Are Our Best by RICHARD J
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Applegate Valley Community Newspaper, Inc. Applegater SpringU.S. 2014 Postage 1 P.O. Box 14 Paid Non-Profit Jacksonville, OR 97530 Permit No. 50 Grants Pass, OR 97526 Photo by Liz Butler Log on to our website: www.applegater.org SPRING 2014 Applegate Valley Community Newspaper Postal Patron Volume 7, No. 1 Serving Jackson and Josephine Counties — Circulation: 9,400 orchardists and the growing wine industry, economic impact comes from Extension and partnerships with local organizations program participants who invest in tools, Voters to decide fate such as ACCESS are all a part of what supplies and workers to improve and Extension contributes to Jackson County’s maintain their properties, plus thousands of Southern Oregon Research quality of life. Professors with expertise in of volunteer hours. entomology, viticulture, crops, irrigation, The service district measure and Extension Center pasture management and more bring asks voters to approve a maximum university-level agricultural education to tax rate of five cents per thousand dollars BY jack duggan the local landscape. of assessed value. If the maximum rate The Jackson County Board of pests and disease, to test new crops and Extension services are provided by the were assessed, the owner of a $160,000 Commissioners signed an order on January to maintain the rural character of Jackson land grant colleges in each state, established property would pay $6 per year to support 29, 2014, to put before the voters a measure County. Those programs continue today, by the federal government and requiring Extension’s programs and bring additional to form a service district to support the along with 4-H projects in civics and each local community to provide basic economic activity to Jackson County. The Southern Oregon Research and Extension leadership, science, technology, animal support. That support, which is about ten actual assessed rate, however is currently Center (SOREC), commonly known as husbandry, natural science, horticulture, percent of SOREC’s budget, has come estimated at close to three cents per “Extension.” marketing and expressive arts. Our local from the Jackson County general fund. thousand. Actual assessment won’t be Extension has been delivering Extension hosts the largest Master Gardener Declining timber revenues and increased determined until after the election and will scientific-based research and program in Oregon, providing assistance demands on the general fund, however, be decided by the Jackson County Board of information to Jackson County residents to urban and rural residents in raising require a new source of dedicated funds Commissioners, who will be the governing for 100 years. In the early 1900s Extension healthy gardens for food, aesthetics and the if Extension is to survive in Jackson board of the new district. helped local residents grow crops to environment. Programs for small farms, County. For each local dollar invested More important, though, than the improve the agricultural economy of livestock production, small woodlands, Jackson County receives $8.48 in direct facts and numbers, particularly to a vibrant southern Oregon, to improve methods of land stewards, food preservation, wellness dollars from state and federal sources as community like the Applegate, is the food preservation and storage, to combat and healthy living, continuing assistance to well as grants, fees and contracts. Indirect See SOREC, page 6 Notes from a Rogue entomologist to know if you have spotted BMSB in order to determine Invasion of the stink bug: the current local distribution of this pest. Firsthand News from the home front reports are our best BY RICHARD J. HILTON resource. Besides relying This is the second and last installment about you may well be familiar with this species. on the eyes of the the dreaded stink bug. It is about as long as BMSB, a little over public, we are Now that a large breeding population a half inch, but not nearly as wide. It is a working on devising Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) aggregation of brown marmorated stink bugs (BMSB) specialist, living on squash and pumpkin a better BMSB trap in Sacramento in 2013. has been found in downtown Ashland plants. The squash bug has become more as a monitoring tool and some individual stink bugs have been numerous in the last few years and will and possibly an aid in control. Stink bug myriad host plants for BMSB, we always found in most every town in Jackson even crawl into your house in the fall like traps currently sold in garden supply stores concentrate our search on plants with the County, where do we go from here? BMSB. However, BMSB is a generalist and are not very good. The primary method we highest seed or fruit load, as that is where The first thing is to be able to identify can be found on a wide array of plants and use for monitoring BMSB is a beating tray, bugs prefer to feed. this exotic and invasive insect pest. While it crops, from tree fruits to tomatoes. where we beat on foliage and catch what A good trap would make is fairly large and distinctive, there are a few If you find an insect that you falls out on a cloth sheet. While it is not things easier. Researchers have isolated look-alikes that can cause confusion. We suspect might be BMSB, please check the high-tech, it does work, especially if you pheromones to attract BMSB but it have two native stink bugs, one of which is bmsb.hort.oregonstate.edu website for know where to look. BMSB’s favorite hosts has been difficult to find the right mix. a predatory species, and some other larger information, or contact the local Extension in urban settings have been the invasive Stink bugs are interested in sex early in bugs that have been mistaken for BMSB. office on Hanley Road. Our volunteers at and misnamed tree-of-heaven, English the summer, but at the end of the season One common insect that has caused the plant clinic are trained in identifying holly, catalpa and maples, especially bigleaf they are looking for places to aggregate a lot of confusion is the squash bug. If you BMSB and love having the opportunity to maple, where the stink bugs get into and are attracted to different compounds grow squash or live near a pumpkin patch, put their skills to the test. We would like the seed clusters. In fact, for any of the See STINK BUG, page 11 CONGRATULATIONS The Gater turns 20! to our local wineries Celebrate the Applegater’s 20th year (can you believe it?) at a who won medals at the celebrity-filled (okay, maybe only one or two) special event at Red Lily Vineyards in June. 2014 San Francisco Chronicle Entertainment • Gourmet Dinner Wine Competition, Red Lily Fine Wine • Blind Auction widely acclaimed as the largest competition and more! of American wines in the world. Look for announcements on See list of winners on page 17. our Facebook page and Jo’s List. INSIDE THE GATER Kurt and Toree Wilkening, visionaries.....................page 12 Peter Thiemann: Image hunter....................................page 13 Porscha Schiller and the Rising Star program......page 12 Wait a minute! Wildfires in January?..........................page 14 2 Spring 2014 Applegater Sara Orangetip The butterflies of spring The Sara Orangetip BY linda KAPPEN is another charming butterfly that ushers in Silvery Blue one and a quarter inches. When their wings spring. It is unmistakable, The Silvery Blue butterfly comes not are open, they display an iridescent blue. bright and beautiful as it long after the Spring Azure heralding early Males have a brilliant blue coloring while flies through forest edges spring days. Silvery Blues are on the wing females are diffused with gray to brown. and slopes. Both have a black border Sara Orangetip with white fringe. On closed (Anthocaris sara) is in wing, they display an arc the butterfly family of black spots ringed in Pieridae and can be seen white. The Silvery Blue is in our valleys, foothills, the closest living relative to canyons and low to the extinct Xerces Blue. higher mountain areas. Sara Orangetips were spotted in abundance along the An interesting fact They have bright orange- Enchanted Forest Trail. Photos: Linda Kappen. about the caterpillars of the tipped wings edged in Silvery Blue is that they have black. Closed wings display a greenish- Enchanted Forest Trail where the top a structure called the “honey brown marbling with white. roads intersect. As we drew closer to the gland,” which secretes a The host plants or the larval food top of the mountain we began to see a sweet substance that attracts plant for the Sara Orangetip are flower flight of many Sara Orangetips. The place ants that feed on it. The parts of many crucifers and several rock was teeming with this delicate beauty. I ant tends the caterpillar, cresses (Arabis spp.). They fly about, counted at least 75 Sara Orangetips that This pair of Silvery Blue butterflies mating was spotted protecting it from predators. briefly stopping to nectar on fiddlenecks, at the base of the Table Rocks in the spring of 2013. day and, as spring went on, saw more This is known as a symbiotic mustards, monkeyflowers, rock cress and at different locations from here to the relationship in which both many other flowers. Klamath/Siskiyou regions. It was exciting, by March, gracing our woodland openings, species benefit from one another. The spring of 2013 brought many like the forest truly was enchanted. meadows, grasslands, watercourses and The host plants for the Silvery Blue Sara Orangetips to our area. It is the Linda Kappen similar habitats. are some species of lupine, vetch and lotus.