Burn Ban & Immigration Visas

Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands, Peter Goldmark, says the drying conditions of the east part of the state are now drying out the west and that means more chances for fires. Yesterday the commissioner issued a statewide burn ban to run through September 30th. While the eastern portion of the state was already under a burn ban this now adds the western half. The ban applies to state forests, state parks and forestlands that are under fire protection of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. The ban does not include recreational fires in approved fire pits at designated state, county, municipal and other campgrounds nor federally owned lands such as national forests, national parks, and national wildlife refuges.

The visa crisis which stranded thousands of farm workers at the border is still in the process of being resolved through the issuance of EMERGENCY VISA WAIVERS. Roxana Macias, Program Manager, WAFLA was in San Diego yesterday at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and says they were informed they needed some travel letters from the the Department of stat and that this hasn't played out they way they hoped.

MACIAS: No, unfortunately that's not the case. On the ground it didn't play out the way we wished it did in our head. But what the Department of State official told me was that a travel letter doesn't indicate that they will be granted into the U.S. and the Port of Entry is the one that makes that determination so that is where we are heading now.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.