Appeal filed against wetland mitigation bank
Source: Capital Press, by Cookson Beecher
April 16, 2008
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. -Three ag-preservation groups have joined forces against a highly controversial project that would convert 396 acres of prime farmland - part of a 776-acre dairy farm in the Nookachamps basin - into a wetland mitigation bank.
The groups - Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, the Skagit County Farm Bureau, and Friends of Skagit County - recently filed an appeal contesting the county's determination that the project would have no significant adverse impact on the environment.
Wetland mitigation banks are created to compensate for wetlands destroyed by development, roads, or other uses. Developers purchase credits in a wetland mitigation bank to offset the environmental harm done when they destroy wetlands to put in a project.
Proposed by Clear Valley Environmental Farm, the project has already met stiff opposition from the farming community and ag-preservation groups.
But a new twist in the plot has provoked even more controversy.
In what Allen Rozema of Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland refers to as "an 11th hour ploy," Clear Valley is now describing the wetlands project as also a native seed and plant nursery and therefore a legitimate agricultural use of the land.
But Roozema said Clear Valley never mentioned it would also be a native seed and plant nursery until November 2007 and February 2008. In June 2006, when the proponents put the project before the county for review, it was described solely as a wetland mitigation bank.
That has the groups filing the appeal up in arms.
"When the proponents say they are operating a seed and plant nursery, the wetland mitigation bank does not cease to exist," Rozema said in a March 20, 2008, letter to the county.
In an interview with Capital Press, Rozema said the crux of his group's argument is that while the project may be a farm, a farm is legally different from a wetland mitigation bank.
"These are separate activities and fall under different state and county requirements," he said. "The applicants are saying that because now it's a farm, there's no loss of farmland."
Rozema said the county fell for that line of thinking and required no mitigation for the loss of farmland.
He warns that if Skagit County allows this "loophole" to go through, it could set a dangerous precedent statewide.
"It's a danger to let it go unchallenged," he said. "If they can do it here, they could do in anywhere."
In an interview with the county's daily paper, Jake Hodge of Clear Valley said the native seed and plant nursery was included in the plan to appease the farming community's objections that the project would take farmland out of production.
Rozema said he doesn't doubt that was the intention, but calls in "disingenuous" nevertheless.
Larry Jensen, who farms a piece of land between the Clear Valley project and the river, said he has "a real problem" with taking prime soils out of production.
"They're saying it's not development, but for agriculture, it's the same as if they put a Wal-Mart or a housing development on the property, because it cuts into farmland's critical mass," he said. "Protecting our land base is key to agriculture's survival."
Jensen said that as he has watched 300 acres of "very good farmland" he has leased in the past get developed or go into conservation projects, he has come to realize how tenuous the situation is for agriculture.
"Which straw is it that breaks the camel's back?" he said.
On the legal front, Hodge said in an interview with the daily newspaper that he's confident that the appeal will be denied and that the project will be in operation within the year.
Rozema said if the county's hearing examiner denies the appeal, the group will take the issue up the legal ladder to the board of county commissioners. If it fails to get any traction there, an option would be to take it to Superior Court.
The hearing examiner has not yet set a date for considering the appeal.
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