Many views were expressed on the fate of farmland at Island Crossing (“Flood Plain Debate Rages,” March 8).
The farmland preservation advocates failed to employ the most powerful tool at their disposal. I refer to what history has already defined as the most unsordid act of government in the history of Western agriculture. Seven decades ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture formed its Soil Conservation Service and charged it with surveying the soils of every area of every county of every state of the union.
This huge effort by USDA-SCS aroused public awareness and squarely addressed environmental resources conservation a good 40 years before modern EPA emerged with its biased views and distorted agendas.
The USDA Soil Survey for Snohomish County Area places the soils at Island Crossing in two series having superfine qualities. These are the Puget Silty Clay Loam and the Puyallup Fine Sandy Loam series. They are very superior soils and both are listed in the USDA Prime Farmlands All group. A pity that Snohomish County has so little of them, yet a reason to cherish and protect them. Developers could degrade them to carlands. But the county already has soils better suited for cars elsewhere.
So, what will history say of the floodplain controversy at Island Crossing? It will not say that Stillaguamish farmers bought a segment of historic Arlington and converted it to farmland.
And what will history say of our county government’s handling of USDA prime farmland? Here is an opportunity to mitigate past mistakes in its lowlands-use policy. That is, it can cease ignoring the past (pioneer accomplishments), segregating the present (developers and salmon over farmers), and disenfranchising the future (taking lands away from unborn generations who will need them to farm in their own times).
ALEX G. ALEXANDER, PhD
Everett
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