02/19/07 $ for Riparian areas: protecting seed

Washington Ag February 19, 2007 The Department of Ecology has awarded almost a million dollars to conservation districts in Adams, Lincoln and Whitman counties, to continue work keeping livestock out of streams and rivers and revegetating streambanks. The money comes from a federal grant. Hundreds of miles of stream sides have been restored to health, and experts say significant water-quality improvements have been made already. Legislation has cleared agriculture committees in both the Senate and House in Olympia that would allow brassica seed producers to petition the state Department of Agriculture to create brassica seed production districts. The WSDA would then regulate brassica crop production within the districts. Given the attention on biofuels and canola as a feedstock for biodiesel, seed producers fear cross pollination of their crops from canola production. Washington Canola Commission Chairman Steven Benning told a legislative hearing last week the Commission supports the legislation because it didn't want the job of protecting other crops. Benning: "So we thought the best thing to do is transfer this authority to the Washington State Department of Agriculture and let them do the protecting." It's expected two districts would be created, one in the Columbia Basin, one in the Skagit Valley. I'm Bob Hoff.