WSTFA on Buffer Bill Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. The battle is on over HB 1838 and whether or not the ‘Buffer Bill’ is the right track to protect salmon or is actually a farm killer.
Over 3-thousand people testified last week, and Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association,
says that gave ag interests a voice …
DeVANEY … “So, I think those kinds of comments came out very clearly in the hearing. There were a lot of producers from around the state raising these concerns. I think that message has been delivered that this bill has a lot of problems.”
To begin with, DeVaney says agricultural interests could have been consulted …
DeVANEY … “This was probably not the right way to go about it and certainly it needed a lot more stakeholder input before they tried to move forward with it.”
One question, DeVaney says is if this is an ag problem …
DeVANEY … “I think a lot of folks would say that the problem is less likely to be really coming from the less-developed agricultural and rural properties than it is from those more urban runoff environments.”
But, DeVaney says there’s always hope …
DeVANEY … “I don’t think it’s going to just slide through without comment and I think that the feedback that his has not been vetted through the stakeholders adequately was resonating with legislators and I’ve some indications that they’ve tapped the brakes a little bit and have slowed this process down.”
DeVaney urges everyone to contact their lawmakers and let them know what you think about HB 1838.
