12/04/06 Hort convention; wetland banking

Washington Ag December 4, 2006 The 102nd Annual Meeting of the Washington State Horticultural Association gets underway today in Yakima at the Convention Center. It is the largest gathering of orchardists, shippers, suppliers and vendors in the nation. Hort Association Executive Director Jim Hazen says the annual Batjer address will be a presentation by the Institute for the Future. Hazen: "Part of this presentation, IFTF will unveil results from a huge consumer research study that they have been doing regarding consumer attitudes and opinions about a number of different subjects including agricultural products." The fruit industry's labor situation will also be a topic during the meeting that runs through Wednesday. The Department of Ecology is holding a half day workshop tomorrow at St. Martins College in Lacey on wetland banking. Under a pilot program authorized by the Legislature in 2004, several public and private wetland banking projects are proposed or underway around the state. A wetland bank is a pre-existing wetland restoration project, specially licensed in which real estate developments that must offset wetland losses have the option of purchasing credits in the same watershed rather than construct their own mitigation projects. Two banks have opened in Snohomish County, one each in Stevens, Lewis, Grant and King counties and others are under review in Skagit and Clark counties. I'm Bob Hoff.