Cherry inspector makes sure orchards are clean from fruit flies

By DAVID REESE

Bigfork Eagle

Chris Beason pulled up next to a long, narrow strip of cherry trees near Woods Bay and was pleasantly surprised.

A square yellow piece of sticky paper hung in a cherry tree, and had only a few black spots — Western fruit flies that had been trapped. Last year at this time the trap was covered with flies. “This looks good,” Beason said, jotting down notes on the number of flies stuck to the paper. “It looks like they’ve been spraying.”

This time of year Beason, who works for the Lake County extension office, starts looking for fruit flies, and the cherry orchards where they grow.

Beason, a field inspector for Lake County, helps protect the Flathead Lake cherry crop from pests like the Western Fruit Fly and Spotted Wing Drosophila. The pests are an ongoing problem that each year threatens the viability of Flathead Lake cherry growers’ crops.

After inspecting an orchard near Woods Bay, Beason drove to Bear Dance, on the west shore of Flathead Lake. Two years ago a large orchard failed to spray its trees and that led to the infestation of the neighbor’s orchard, whose fruit was refused by the Flathead Lake cherry growers’ cooperative. That probably cost the neighboring landowner about $40,000 in lost revenue, Beason said.

The owner of the orchard that did not spray its trees has now complied, and is taking better care of its trees, Beason explained.

A state law established in 2005 sets up pest management areas. On Flathead Lake, that area surrounds the lake two miles. The law was put into place to help Flathead Lake cherry growers control fruit flies and give them more opportunities to sell their fruit out of state.

“The big fruit buyers demanded it,” Beason said. “Without it, they just wouldn’t buy the fruit.”

Cherry growers who sell more than 200 pounds of fruit are assessed a fee by the Department of Agriculture. This money is used to help fund fruit fly management on Flathead Lake.

Lake County and Flathead County commissioners oversee the pest management area. Beason works out of the Lake County extension office. His office has the authority to spray crops for noncomplying farmers, and send them the bill. The last resort is to have trees removed, although has never happened, Beason said.

The extension office also will pay people $35 per tree if they want to have them removed and replanted with a species that won’t attract fruit flies.

Control of cherry fruit flies is an ongoing activity that begins in mid-June and continues through the end of August. Cherry fruit flies are still active and found into the month of September. “Whether you have one or 100 cherry trees, fruit fly control must begin soon and be maintained throughout the season,” Beason said.

He said there is a zero-tolerance of fruit flies or larvae found on commercial vehicles or in the facilities that process the cherries. “If they find one worm they’ll refuse your crop,” Beason said.

Much like the brucellosis threat to Montana’s beef industry, fruit flies are a threat to Flathead Lake cherry growers’ ability to sell their products out of state, Beason said. Once fruit flies are found in cherry trees, they need to be sprayed weekly from mid-June through August, Beason said.

Commercial growers are not the problem. They tend to take professional care of their orchards, Beason said. But it’s the backyard, part-time cherry growers who don’t pay attention to their trees that cause problems for the other orchards. “That’s where we have the issues,” Beason said.

On Sylvan Drive, south of Bigfork, Beason pointed to a 40-foot tall cherry tree that the owner had neglected. “That’s what I fight,” Beason said. “They want to keep the tree in the landscape, but he’s done a very poor job with it.”

Next to the big tree are 110 small cherry trees. That’s the number that allows a landowner to be taxed at the agricultural rate instead of lakefront residential. Those trees are showing signs of neglect also, and Beason has installed a few traps to monitor the landowner’s fruit fly control efforts.

Across the street from this small plantation is a well-cared for orchard, where the rows of trees are pruned to what Beason calls a “pickable height” of about eight feet. This is a preferred height for professional growers because it doesn’t require ladders for workers.

Beason said his work seems to never end. Driving along Montana 35 south of Bigfork, he pointed out several wild trees that towered over power lines in a public right of way.

He’ll get to them soon, and not with sticky paper to test for infestation. He’ll come back with a chainsaw. “I just keep chipping away at it,” he said. “We’re never going to get them all. They need to be controlled because the flies just won’t go away no matter what we do.”

Under state law Beason is allowed to enter private property and inspect cherry trees for pests. Some orchard owners respect the work he’s doing for the cherry industry on Flathead Lake. Other people don’t take a kindly view to outside intervention of their trees.

“There’s never a dull moment,” Beason said. “It can get interesting.”

Often the fruit fly problems can be traced to a change in ownership of property where cherry trees are located. A new owner may not be aware of the presence of fruit flies in their cherry trees, and they may not be aware of their obligation to rid their trees of the pests, Beason said. One grower had to receive several letters from Lake County officials before the grower finally complied and treated their trees, Beason said. Growers can use chemical applications or organic, molasses-based insecticides.

The cost is what may deter a smaller grower from taking care of their pests. A one- to two-acre orchard could spend up to $200 a week for several weeks to rid its trees of fruit flies, Beason said.

Beason reminds consumers that it’s important to wash fruit before eating. Some of the commercial insecticide applications can prohibit eating 28 days after being applied. Other applications, like organic methods, aren’t so harsh, and the fruit can be eaten after being sprayed. It’s still important to wash all cherries before eating, however, he said.

Beason has spent the last five years educating property owners and commercial orchards about the fruit fly threats. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement,” he said. “Overall we’ve reduced (flies) quite a bit.” But there are still areas where people won’t comply, either out of cost or out of stubbornness. “There’s a lot of neglect out there,” he said. Some orchards, like a tiny one near Woods Bay with only a few trees, “is still quite a problem for me.”

“We want to work with the back yard growers, but we have to protect the cherry industry,” Beason said. “Once I find something, I try to work with the landowner to find a solution.”

He said he has legal authority to place fly traps on private property to determine if an orchard is infested. The last option is to remove the trees. ”No one wants to go there,” Beason said. “But some people just don’t take it seriously. They neglect it, and it becomes a problem for the big commercial growers.”

One bright spot in Beason’s work as a fruit fly cop is the orchard in Woods Bay. It had been for sale for five years. The property sold, and Beason was pleasantly surprised when he went to inspect the trees this spring. “They had improved it so much since last fall, you could see they were putting their hearts and souls into it,” he said. “It’s such a pleasure to meet the people who are into it for the right reasons, not just a tax break.”

For information on cherry pest management contact Chris Beason at 214-5425, Tom Lawrence at 250-8213 or the Lake County Extension agent, Jack Stivers, at 676-4271.