The Chilliwack
Progress Thursday
News
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Taste of Summer
Fair
Mamma Mia
Dog Days of Summer are the time for corn.
Getting ready for the Chilliwack Fair.
Bringing the music of ABBA to life
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Offering hope to hazelnut growers Chamber Katie Bartel
drills into pipeline issue
The Progress A wind-born disease is wreaking havoc on Chilliwack’s hazelnut orchards. When the eastern filbert blight (EFB) first appeared on a farm in Yarrow in 2008, the BC Hazelnut Growers Association hoped they could slow down the spread. But just four years later most orchards in the Chilliwack, Yarrow, Rosedale and Agassiz areas have been infected. “Our whole industry is on the verge of being eliminated,” said Peter Andres, president of the BC Hazelnut Growers Association. In Chilliwack, that accounts for more than 35 growers, 800 acres of hazelnut trees, two manufacturing plants, and countless livelihoods. But there’s hope. The BC Hazelnut Growers Association is hosting a field day on Aug. 23 to discuss EFB and the new trial trees it believes could save the industry. The association has partnered with Oregon State University, which developed the trial varieties, to grow in Fraser Valley soils. In Oregon, the trees are 99 per cent resistant to EFB. “As an association, we’re trying them in our soils to make sure they’re as successful here as they are there,” said Andres. EFB is not a new disease. It devastated the hazelnut industry in Oregon in the 1980s, and as a result the borders were closed to hazelnut trees in an effort to confine the blight to the south. But because EFB spores are spread by wind, it was only a matter of time before it would make its way to the Canadian side. In 2002, an orchard in Abbotsford was found with EFB. In 2005, orchards in Langley were heavily infected. And in 2008, the Yarrow orchard had been hit. “We’re right in the wind path of Oregon,” said Helmet Hooge, who first spotted the infection on his six-acre farm three years ago. Continued: BLIGHT/ p12
Robert Freeman The Progress
Hazelnut farmers Helmut Hooge (left) of Chilliwack and Peter Andres of Agassiz have been fighting eastern filbert blight on trees in the Fraser Valley. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
$1.25 1-12T CS17
Chilliwack business leaders are going to hear both sides of the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion at Chamber of Commerce luncheons in the next two weeks. Pipe Up Network members Michael Hale and Sheila Muxlow will talk about the risks the group sees in expanding the 60-year-old pipeline at a chamber luncheon Aug. 16. Kinder Morgan president Ian Anderson will talk about the benefits of the pipeline to the community at a luncheon the following week on Aug. 23. Both luncheons at the Best Western Rainbow Country Inn are open to the public, at a cost of $35, and pre-registration is required. Patti MacAhonic, chamber executive director, said it’s part of the chamber’s mandate to keep its members informed about issues that impact the community, and the proposed expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline “will have impacts to business and the community as a whole.” “I’m a firm believer that the better information we have, the better decisions are made for all of us,” she said. “We’re not really in a decision-making position, any of us,” she added, “but we need to know from the horse’s mouth what exactly this pipeline means, either way.” Kinder Morgan is committed to public consultations with communities along the pipeline’s route from the oil sands of Alberta to waiting oil tankers in Vancouver and Burnaby. But consultations with First Nations is also required, and aboriginal people to date have not looked kindly on pipelines. Sto:lo tribal organizations have not taken a formal position regarding the Kinder Morgan pipeline, but Skwah elder Eddie Gardner said his personal view is aboriginal people will not approve the project because of their “spiritual connection to the land.” He noted that existing pipeline right-of-ways through First Nation lands were granted “at a time when First Nations were run by Indian Affairs agents” and Sto:lo people are now in control of decision-making. “I think First Nations could put a halt to the pipeline, but what would be really needed is for people in general to stand up against it,” he said. Continued: PIPE/ p10