10/26/06 Columbia county declared disaster area

Washington Ag October 26, 2006 Columbia county Washington has been declared a primary natural disaster area by the U.S. Department of Agriculture due to losses caused by wildfires started by lightening in August of this year. The designation means all qualified farm operators in the county, as well as contiguous counties in both Washington and Oregon, are eligible for low interest emergency loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency. As Tanya Dostal, a Farm Loan Specialist with the Washington State FSA office told us in a recent interview, applicants for emergency loans must be unable to obtain credit elsewhere at reasonable rates and terms. Dostal: "We are not out there to compete with private lending institutions and so we do offer loans to those producers who are unable to meet regular current bank lending criteria. So if they can go to the bank and solve their needs by working with their local banker then we are not going to be able to be involved in it." Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. Interested producer may contact their local USDA Service Center for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures. I'm Bob Hoff.