News
First drought, now grasshoppers
Town Crier “Briefs from the Region” (1) – 7/30/21
The West is currently experiencing the second-worst outbreak of grasshoppers in 35 years, plaguing farmers already challenged by the drought. One of the hardest-hit areas in the region so far has been Phillips County, Montana, where officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service measured “15 grasshoppers per square yard in areas across 34.8 million acres of land in the West,” reported KBZK. Luckily, thanks to the Plant Protection Act, APHIS is able to use funding to treat farm crops and try to mitigate the issue. Since July 19, APHIS has treated over 800,000 acres of rangeland for grasshoppers.
