Weather foils best efforts

Jim Lunders’ job hardly changes from year to year but his approval ratings, for want of a better term, fluctuate as widely as a scandal-prone politician’s.

This is because Lunders’ performance depends largely on the weather.

Lunders gets paid to kill mosquitoes.

This is never an easy task in the 200,000-acre district that Lunders manages. But some years his duty is considerably more daunting than in others.

The past two years illustrate this point perfectly.

Last year was dominated by a drought.

The first 10 months of 2007 were all drier than average. Irrigation water was comparatively scarce, so fewer acres in Lunders’ district were inundated for long periods.

This was a boon for Lunders because the flood irrigating techniques that many local farmers and ranchers employ can create ideal hatcheries for mosquito larvae.

It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but there’s more than a grain of truth in the phrase “less water means fewer mosquitoes.”

The 2007 mosquito season was relatively tranquil in Baker County. Lunders’ phone, not coincidentally, was relatively quiet.

Not so 2008.

Last winter’s abundant snowpack ensured water would be plentiful.

And so too have been the mosquitoes.

But here’s the thing: Lunders and his seasonal crew did basically the same things this year as they did last.

Actually they did more — Lunders spent this year’s entire budget and dipped into the district’s reserves to buy pesticide.

Yet mosquitoes kept hatching, and biting, and Lunders’ phone continued to ring as district residents called in to complain about the bloodsucking pests.

We don’t blame them.

Neither does Lunders.

In fact he encourages people to call when they notice swarms of mosquitoes; these firsthand accounts help him concentrate on the worst infestations so as to maximize the mosquito kill.

We’re not suggesting that Lunders is beyond reproach, or that he deserves sympathy.

But it’s a fact that weather — a force beyond his or anyone’s control — sometimes renders Lunders’ best efforts insufficient to satisfy all of his customers.

This isn’t perhaps the most apt analogy, but here goes: Do you blame the snowplow drivers when your windshield ices up during a blizzard?