White Bluffs Bladderpod ESA Designation & CRP Signup

White Bluffs Bladderpod ESA Designation & CRP Signup

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

More than 100 farmers and individual land owners attended a Franklin County Commissioners meeting last week to protest the possible designation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of over 2,500 acres of land in Franklin County as critical habitat for the White Bluffs bladderpod, a plant species that is a member of the cabbage family. Franklin County is requesting that Fish and Wildlife reopen a 60-to-90 day comment period on the endangered species designation. Congressman Doc Hastings has written Fish and Wildlife expressing his concern over the listing of the White Bluffs Bladderpod under the Endangered Species Act.

HASTINGS: The biggest problem is we really don’t know the scientific data that suggests that it only exists in Franklin County. Is it reasonable to say that this plant only exists on the east side of the Columbia river and not on the west side? There may be data supporting that but we haven’t seen that data - now this is being listed, and now it’s going to have a potential impact on private property rights.

Franklin County landowners express concern that farming could be restricted by a 1,000 yard “buffer zone” around area designated as critical habitat for the White Bluffs bladderpod. The endangered species designation is set to go into effect May 23.

Signup for the Conservation Reserve Program begins today and concludes June 14th.  CRP is a competitive process awarding contracts to those offers producing the highest environmental benefits per tax payer dollar being spent.  Offers made under CRP are evaluated based on multiple environmental benefit factors.  Producers with environmentally sensitive lands or expiring CRP contracts should contact their local FSA office.

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