While Iowans are seeing the first ash trees cut down to slow the spread of the emerald ash borer, yet another invading insect is causing a stir as it could threaten our walnut trees. Robin Pruisner, an entomologist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture, says the pest called the walnut twig beetle is being found in nearby states, but it hasn’t been found in Iowa — yet. “Research is ongoing on how to protect walnut trees,” Pruisner says. “We just don’t have a lot of answers. This is even newer than the emerald ash borer at this point in time.” The walnut twig beetle carries what’s known as “thousand canker disease,” which is deadly to black walnut trees.

There’s been no way found to reverse the disease or to kill the beetle without also killing the trees.  “The geosmithia pathogen is actually very common in our environment and this is just kind of a new cousin of that,” Pruisner says. “The walnut twig beetle is native to the southwest United States and down into Mexico.” For many years, the beetle was only found in states like Arizona, California and New Mexico. Now, the rice grain-sized pest is being found well beyond the southwest, in states as far away as Virginia and Pennsylvania — and closer to home in Ohio, Colorado and Tennessee.

Pruisner suspects the insects are moving such great distances because people are enabling them to hitch long rides.  “Aunt Sally out in Colorado has a walnut tree that dies in her backyard but Cousin Ed here in Iowa would like to make a coffee table out of it,” Pruisner says. “This is the kind of thing that people throw in the back of their truck and they drive to Iowa and they could be inadvertently bringing along with it thousand canker of walnut.”

One way to stop the spread is to only use local firewood in campfires. Iowa ranks sixth in the nation for the production of black walnut, prized for its grain and color and it’s exported all over the world.

(Radio Iowa)

WASHINGTON (AP) – A study paid for by the federal government says biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants are worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term.  The research published in the journal Nature Climate Change challenges the Obama administration’s conclusions that biofuels are a much cleaner oil alternative and will help fight climate change.  The study is being criticized by the biofuels industry and Obama administration as flawed.

Corn residue is one of the most promising ways to make cellulosic biofuels. Biofuels have struggled to reach the volumes required by law. The administration and biofuel supporters claim biofuels are better for the environment than are gasoline and corn ethanol.  A 2007 law requires that they release 60 percent less carbon than gas to qualify as renewable fuel.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The University of Iowa Burn Treatment Center is reporting a higher-than-normal number of patients suffering from anhydrous ammonia burns. The center says it has treated five people in the last two weeks. The center’s medical personnel say they usually only see one or two cases each year. Official say the high number of patients in such a short amount of time is concerning.

Anhydrous ammonia is used legally by farmers as a crop fertilizer, but is often used, too, for the illegal manufacturing of methamphetamine. The colorless, pungent gas can burn the eyes, throat, skin and damage lung tissue at high exposures.

Many Iowans will celebrate Easter this weekend by dunking eggs in colored dye and hiding them for young ones to find and place in their baskets. Katie Coyle, spokeswoman for the Iowa Poultry Association, says it’s one the busiest weekends of the year for Iowa’s egg producers.  “We see an increase in egg sales during this time of year because people are decorating them as Easter eggs,” Coyle says. “When people are out purchasing their groceries, we always say grab an extra dozen.”

Coyle says Easter is also the kickoff leading into May which is National Egg Month. Iowa egg producers have some 60-million laying hens producing nearly 15-billion eggs each year. Iowa is the nation’s number-one egg producer, she says, by far.  “Just hands down, there isn’t really any competition,” Coyle says. “The number-two and -three states still don’t produce as many eggs as Iowa combined. It’s a great month for us to get out the message about eggs and the importance of them to the Iowa economy.”

Iowa’s egg industry contributes about two-billion dollars in total sales to the state’s economy and is responsible for nearly eight-thousand jobs. Coyle says eggs are very nutritious and are basically a multi-vitamin in a shell.

(Radio Iowa)

MILWAUKEE (AP) – The federal government is starting a new program to help monitor and possibly control the spread of a virus that has killed millions of pigs since showing up in the U.S. last year. The porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, believed to be from China, causes severe diarrhea in newborn piglets, who die from dehydration.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Friday it is stepping up efforts by requiring farmers to report infections and labs where farmers send tissue and fecal samples to report positive tests. Farms that suffer an outbreak also will have to participate in a program to help control the spread of the disease

Previously, the USDA and the nation’s pork industry tracked the disease with voluntary reports from the labs.

Montgomery County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Hamman reports the Burn Ban which has been in-place in his county since March 19th, will officially end Friday at 8-a.m. Conditions have improved to where it is safe for residents of the county to conduct controlled burns. Burn bans remain in effect for Page, Mills and Monona Counties in western Iowa, until further notice.

Some climate change activists blame at least part of the planet’s weather problems on methane gas emissions from livestock. The Obama administration is ordering the U-S-D-A and the E-P-A to create a bio-gas roadmap to find ways to reduce those emissions. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the roadmap is a questionable notion and he’s writing a letter to Gina McCarthy, the head of the E-P-A.  “The roadmap is intended to reduce dairy sector greenhouse gas emissions through voluntary strategies by 25% by 2020,” Grassley says. “My questions for Administrator McCarthy center on the impact the plan has on the average U.S. dairy farms.”

Grassley, a Republican, says much of our country’s midsection was populated by some 600-million buffalo when pioneers first began settling in the region and there wasn’t a greenhouse gas problem back then. “You’ve gotta’ have a historical approach,” Grassley says. “Are you going to put diapers on cows? I don’t think so. I don’t think you’re going to shut down cows from producing methane gas. That’s the way God made ’em.” The plan calls on livestock producers to make changes that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions voluntarily, but Grassley remains skeptical of the motives.

“It’s hard to forget only a couple of years ago, this administration was trying to push Cap & Trade through Congress,” Grassley says. “It seems only right to be suspicious of the administration’s intentions. All you’ve got to do is look at fugitive dust as another example.” Dust can be stirred up during routine farming and that so-called “fugitive dust” was labeled by some as air pollution responsible for a host of negative impacts on human health, eroding the soil, strangling plants and causing reduced visibility that leads to traffic accidents.

(Radio Iowa)

The City of Atlantic has received yet another Tree City USA award. It’s the 19^th consecutive year Atlantic has qualified for the award. A new flag, and a certificate designating the City as being tree friendly, was presented by Dolly Bergman and members of the local “Tree’s Forever” committee tasked with making sure the City qualifies for the award and does its part to keep Atlantic green.

She said one of the hardest requirements is keeping track of how much the City actually spends on its forestry, or tree-care budget, which must be at least $2 per capita. Parks and Rec Director Roger Herring helped with that. And, information provided by Trees Forever also helped the City meet the requirement. The City’s expenditures for trees and related services amounted to $14,822 in 2013.

The Tree City USA flag will be hung on the pole located in the Atlantic City Park, under a new American flag which replaces a storm-tattered American flag. Bergman says this year, the Tree’s Forever group will be working with Atlantic 4^th graders on Friday, April 25^th (The official Iowa “Arbor Day”), to plant a tree on the grounds of Schuler Elementary School. In addition, each of the 4^th graders will receive a tiny Norway Spruce tree they can take home, plant and watch grow.

w/ Denny Heflin

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced funding under the new Farm Bill to train and educate the next generation of farmers and ranchers. The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, or B-F-R-D-P, will help a new generation get into agriculture. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden says the USDA will help train and educate new farmers and ranchers with $100 million from the new Farm Bill.

“The average age of our farmers is 58 years old. So, we need the bench,” Harden says. “We need to get folks coming into agriculture who either grew up on a farm or are thinking about coming back, but also folks who don’t know much about agriculture, but who have that drive, that passion, who want to get into farming or ranching.” Part of BFRDP’s funding will help limited-resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers and ranchers and military veterans get started.

“We’re targeting these groups of folks to give them the very special tools they may need, the uniqueness of their questions or concerns that they may have and getting into agriculture, so it’s really a target of funds to these areas,” Harden says. Earlier this year, the USDA reported there were 88,631 farms in Iowa in 2012. That represented a 6.6 percent drop from 2007. Iowa still ranks third among the states in the total number of farms – behind only Texas and Missouri. The average age for an Iowa farmer is about 63.

(Radio Iowa)