Legislative Update & Nursery Grower Reminder

Legislative Update & Nursery Grower Reminder

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Water reform bills haven’t faired well this year, however Yakima river basin enhancement legislation HB 1414 and SB 5367 survived cutoff dates. These bills provide a broad based package to enhance the firm supply of water to approximately 70%, up from the present level of 30-35%.

Several wolf related bills remain under consideration. Senate Bill 5187, sponsored by Senator John Smith, allows landowners to shoot a wolf caught in the act of attacking either their livestock or domestic animals, and would apply to both private and public lands. And Senate Bill 5193, also sponsored by Smith, authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife to spend up to $50,000 per fiscal year from the State Wildlife Account to pay claims and assessment costs for injuries and losses to commercial livestock from wolves, and removes the statutory cap on compensation on livestock depredation, basing compensation on the animal's market value.

Risk Management Specialist Jo Lynne Seufer with the USDA RMA Spokane Regional Office, has this reminder for Nursery Growers.

SEUFER: We want to remind them that May 1 is the sales closing date for 2014 Nursery Multi-Peril Crop Insurance coverage. We also want to share with producers that our MPCI Nursery provides protection for wholesale nurseries producing and marketing nursery plants grown in standard nursery containers or in the field, and our policy is based on a plant inventory value report, which declares the value of insurable plants.

Also, Seufer would like producers to know that they can get a new insurance policy for nurseries just about anytime throughout the year, but there will be a thirty day waiting period before coverage begins.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.