Country Life
Gardening • A8 Dairy • A10 FFA/4-H • A10
A7 • lyndentribune.com • Wednesday, September 13, 2017
A new pest in silage corn Upcoming harvest will show extent of Western corn rootworm By Calvin Bratt editor@lyndentribune.com
show people that you can have even just a little backyard garden and still encourage native things,” Harrington said. “You don’t have to completely destroy everything just to grow something.” She spends most of her time maintaining the natural landscapes of the diverse acreage that includes wetlands, open fields and
WHATCOM — A new bug is in the silage corn fields of some local dairy farmers. How great of a threat it poses remains to be seen. Farms are just now beginning this year’s silage corn harvest. Lance Honcoop, agronomist with the Elenbaas Company, said evidence of the Western corn rootworm showed up in some fields in the Sumas area last fall. “We knew we would have a little bit of a problem,” he said. What actually did appear in 2017 was more extensive than he expected, Honcoop said. Infestation is “everywhere” around the county and Honcoop definitely expects local corn silage tonnage to be down, but added, “I can’t put any numbers on it.” The Western corn
See Alpine on A8
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Goats and chickens thrive on land that has been cultivated organic for over 10 years. (Ashley Hiruko/Lynden Tribune)
Pacific Alpine organic farm at risk Botanist hopes to preserve Kelly Rd. native species land By Ashley Hiruko ashley@lyndentribune.com
WHATCOM — Hidden deep within central Whatcom County on Kelly Road sits an ancient organic heir-
loom farm. With a picturesque view of Mt. Baker, the 19-acre plot of land is home to various species of plants and has been cultivated with organic techniques for over 100 years. Now the Pacifc Alpine Gardens is being threatened by development, county resident and botanist Diane Harrington said. Harrington has worked in greenhouses since the time she was 6 and grew
up near the farm she now leases. She knew the previous owner, Mr. Jones, as a child and helped to care for the man as he grew older, she said. He had purchased the farm from the original homesteaders in 1943 and, with a background in the military, knew that he wanted to preserve the policy of no chemical treatment. “Mr. Jones had seen a lot of chemical stuff in the service and he decided
he didn’t want any of that stuff near his family,” Harrington said. His approach to farming, she said, was to gather things that were already on the property, making sure not to destroy anything, so that the same resources could be gathered again. When he passed away, Harrington was able to lease the property and keep it in tune with his practices. “I really do want to
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