Published: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Effort to save farmland could be contentious
EVERETT — There’s a shared vision for saving Snohomish County farmland.
Scenic valleys full of thriving farms. Local markets for fresh produce. The Evergreen State Fairgrounds transformed into a regional hub for promoting agriculture.
Yet such seemingly agreeable goals could become fertile ground for brinkmanship between the county council and County Executive Aaron Reardon. Each side is touting its own ideas for saving farmland.
At least one local farmer welcomed the benefits a little competition might bring.
“That’s a good thing, because the public is more aware of how important agriculture is,” said Mark Craven, a member of the county’s Agricultural Advisory Board.
Councilman Brian Sullivan has a plan he calls the Scenic Valley Initiative. He’s been shopping it around the county, including a stop at the Agricultural Advisory Board last week.
Pen scrawl outlining the multi-part initiative fills a white board in his office.
He would commit $1 million in taxpayer money from conservation futures for farm issues. He would restrict an estimated $400,000 generated yearly from a new admissions surcharge at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds to agriculture-related improvements. Another aim: keeping radio towers out of scenic valleys, to avoid the sort of controversy created by new towers in the upper Snohomish River Valley.
“It’s also my goal to bring together the tribes, the farmers and the environmental community so we can all be successful,” Sullivan said.
Last week, Sullivan received a memo about the ideas from Reardon.
Was he aware that Reardon’s office was going to roll out some big ideas for saving farmland? Or that Reardon had hosted the Focus on Farming conference for the past five years?
“He deserves a lot of credit for helping farmers,” Sullivan said of the executive. “I’m not sure we’re working on the same thing.”
The executive’s office says it wants to work together.
“It’s not a competition,” said Christopher Schwarzen, Reardon’s spokesman. “We’re excited to have a council member who’s interested in the issue.”
A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture census shows the number of Snohomish County farms on the rise. There were 76,837 acres supporting 1,670 farms here in 2007, up from 68,612 acres and 1,574 farms in 2002. Still, officials say much of the increase owes to small-scale farms and they worry more ground could be lost to development if the building industry recovers.
Reardon’s office expects to release an action plan later this month. A machine at the county’s Cathcart site, meanwhile, is gearing up to crush locally grown rapeseed to process into biodiesel — a farm-supporting alternative energy project that Reardon has backed.
Other ideas are coming from the county council.
Councilman Dave Somers is wading into the conflict between fish habitat and farmland, since protecting fish often involves re-flooding land that has been diked for agriculture. Somers has asked the agricultural board to support using existing maps to identify promising areas for each.
Councilman John Koster, a former dairy farmer, said he would like to see a public hearing or some other open process to let people know every time farmland is converted to other uses.
The issue, for him, goes way beyond land: “Unless there’s a farmer there, all you’re doing is preserving open space.”
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465 or nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
Scenic valleys full of thriving farms. Local markets for fresh produce. The Evergreen State Fairgrounds transformed into a regional hub for promoting agriculture.
Yet such seemingly agreeable goals could become fertile ground for brinkmanship between the county council and County Executive Aaron Reardon. Each side is touting its own ideas for saving farmland.
At least one local farmer welcomed the benefits a little competition might bring.
“That’s a good thing, because the public is more aware of how important agriculture is,” said Mark Craven, a member of the county’s Agricultural Advisory Board.
Councilman Brian Sullivan has a plan he calls the Scenic Valley Initiative. He’s been shopping it around the county, including a stop at the Agricultural Advisory Board last week.
Pen scrawl outlining the multi-part initiative fills a white board in his office.
He would commit $1 million in taxpayer money from conservation futures for farm issues. He would restrict an estimated $400,000 generated yearly from a new admissions surcharge at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds to agriculture-related improvements. Another aim: keeping radio towers out of scenic valleys, to avoid the sort of controversy created by new towers in the upper Snohomish River Valley.
“It’s also my goal to bring together the tribes, the farmers and the environmental community so we can all be successful,” Sullivan said.
Last week, Sullivan received a memo about the ideas from Reardon.
Was he aware that Reardon’s office was going to roll out some big ideas for saving farmland? Or that Reardon had hosted the Focus on Farming conference for the past five years?
“He deserves a lot of credit for helping farmers,” Sullivan said of the executive. “I’m not sure we’re working on the same thing.”
The executive’s office says it wants to work together.
“It’s not a competition,” said Christopher Schwarzen, Reardon’s spokesman. “We’re excited to have a council member who’s interested in the issue.”
A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture census shows the number of Snohomish County farms on the rise. There were 76,837 acres supporting 1,670 farms here in 2007, up from 68,612 acres and 1,574 farms in 2002. Still, officials say much of the increase owes to small-scale farms and they worry more ground could be lost to development if the building industry recovers.
Reardon’s office expects to release an action plan later this month. A machine at the county’s Cathcart site, meanwhile, is gearing up to crush locally grown rapeseed to process into biodiesel — a farm-supporting alternative energy project that Reardon has backed.
Other ideas are coming from the county council.
Councilman Dave Somers is wading into the conflict between fish habitat and farmland, since protecting fish often involves re-flooding land that has been diked for agriculture. Somers has asked the agricultural board to support using existing maps to identify promising areas for each.
Councilman John Koster, a former dairy farmer, said he would like to see a public hearing or some other open process to let people know every time farmland is converted to other uses.
The issue, for him, goes way beyond land: “Unless there’s a farmer there, all you’re doing is preserving open space.”
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465 or nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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