EDITOR'S NOTE - This is part of a series of stories of how Western farmers feel about salmon legislation and expected Endangered Species listings in their area. This segment focuses on Western Washington.
By: COOKSON BEECHER The Capital Press , 2/20/99
SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. With Washington Gov. Gary Locke's sweeping salmon recovery bill wending its way through the Legislature - and at the same time, the Puget Sound chinook salmon expected to be listed early, next month - farmers in Western Washington are watching the regulatory horizon with a wary eye.
Some believe the governor's salmon plan is a disguised water bill that would allow the state to trample on long-held assumptions about agricultural water use. Others have a deep-seated mistrust of government in general.
David Moore, owner of 'The Feed Barn here, said if the goal of the legislation really is to save salmon, that's one thing, but he pointed out that typically when
ever the government gets involved in issues like this, the result is higher fees, more regulations and a bigger bureaucracy.
"Anyone associated with agriculture knows that," he said.
He thinks the industry has been doing a good job at adopting agricultural practices that would help protect salmon.
'Like any industry, there are some bad apples," he said, 'but you don't label the entire barrel based on a few bad apples. I think most farmers are more responsible about protecting the environment than people not related to agriculture." Though he has no numbers to back up widespread claims that overfishing is a major culprit in declining salmon runs, he knows that regulating what goes on farmland is a lot easier than regulating what goes on out in the ocean.
"It's easier to make someone stick a fence 150 feet from a than it is to establish controls in the ocean," he said. "The government will always go after what it can regulate.' Describing what he believes to be overly restrictive regulations on agriculture as "typical government baloney," he explained why he feels that way.
"There's no easy fix," he said. "Salmon recovery is a very complicated issue." G.D. Mapes, a retired farmer who leases his land out, has grown peas, cucumbers, seed crops, carrots and grain on his property.. When asked what he thinks about the state's salmon recovery legislation, he responded by chuckling ruefully and saying "You don't want to hear what I've got to say." But when pressed a bit, he opened up and took aim at the state's bloated bureaucracy.
"We've got 400 biologists," he said. "Get rid, of them - or put them to work on the streams and putting gravel beds in for the fish. need people out in the field, not sitting around in offices." He puts a lot of the blame for salmon problems on overfishing.
"There are too many boats out there for the number of fish," he said.
Logging and development don't help either.
But he conceded he has seen farming practices that he doesn't approve of, citing a nearby case where a stream was rerouted and cattle put on the land.
"They should keep cattle out of that creek," he said. 'There are some issues that should have been tackled long ago." As for how the legislation might affect the industry and him personally, he said: "I do worry about the farmers. And maybe no one will want to rent my land."
His overall assessment of the governor's bill: 'It will be a boondoggle. They'll create a monster." Former dairy farmer Tom Holtcamp, who raises heifers while taking courses in computer technology and business at the local community college, said the government always dumps on agriculture because it knows that farmers lack the political clout or economic resources of big companies such as Texaco or the environmental groups.
"They look at agriculture and say, 'There's nothing there anyway. Besides, you've got all that land.'" He said part of the reason he had to get out of dairying was the financial impact of complying with increased environmental regulations.
"There are no resources to compensate the farmer for the effect of those regulations on his operation," he said.
Like many in the industry, he pointed to overfishing as a problem that needs to be tackled.
"Even an ol' farmer knows you can't take more than what's there," he said.
As for being part of the solution, he said he's had plenty of "handson" experience working with USDA, serving on various committees either as an elected or appointed member. He's also done his share of going to Olympia to talk with agency employees.
"What I concluded out of all that," he said, "is that the No. 1 priority of the people who work in those agencies is their job security. The way they do that is finding problems.
" I'm not saying there are no pollution problems, but I see the salmon problem as yet another tool to validate the bureaucracy. I have to ask myself if their real concern is recovery of salmon or sustaining their salaries and getting a bigger budget and a bigger bureaucracy.'
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