Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
With a resolution by county commissioners Monday, a new entity moved closer to getting started in the cause of creating voluntary plans to protect interests of both agriculture and the environment in Whitman County.
The Voluntary Stewardship Program is a state-funded effort which grew out of a state legislature referral to a think tank to find a way to conserve land and waterways without over-regulating farming.
“The purpose is to find a way to protect ag activity in Whitman County and to preserve the critical areas,” said County Planner Alan Thomson, referring to wetlands, floodplains, critical habitat, aquifer recharge and geologically hazardous areas.
“A lot of regulatory programs are one size fits all,” said County Commissioner Art Swannack, one of 13 members who will serve on the program’s committee. “But that doesn’t always apply. For example, does a regulation have to be all the way down a stream to still protect the resource?”
Once the county group engages, they will work to create a plan which will go to the state Conservation Commission for approval. When in place, the plan will be reviewed at certain points over decades to come.
Whitman County signed on to participate in the program two years ago. Funding of $270,000 will come from the state Conservation Commission in two parts.
The Voluntary Stewardship Program formed after the 2006 failure of Initiative 933, a property rights matter calling for exemptions for landowners of critical areas ordinances.
Afterward, the state legislature referred the matter to the Ruckelshaus Center, to find a solution for counties trying to manage environmental and agricultural concerns.
“You had counties saying ‘get us out of the middle’,” said Ron Shultz, Policy Director for the Washington State Conservation Commission.
Beginning in 2007, a Ruckelshaus facilitator worked with representatives from environmental groups, farm organizations and counties to create the Voluntary Stewardship Program (VSP) which is the first of its kind nationwide.
“It’s the first that relies on incentive-based programs to address the concerns,” Shultz said. “So that farmers and growers can protect their resource while still making an income.”
Incentives come in the form of cost-sharing by the state Conservation Commission and the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS).
“A landowner can design a project to work for them,” Schultz said. “And get up to 75 percent of the cost of doing it.”
The VSP will begin for Whitman County after a contract is signed with the state Conservation Commission. At the same time, a request-for-proposals has been sent out and four consultant firms have applied to be the facilitators. Interviews are set for Dec. 15-17, to be conducted by Thomson, County Commissioner Dean Kinzer and Public Works Director Mark Storey. The four candidates are Palouse Conservation District, Anchor QEA of Kennewick, The Watershed Company of Kirkland and Berk of Seattle.
A total of 28 counties chose to participate in the VSP.
Leaders of counties which declined tend to represent more urban areas (King County, Pierce County, Clark County and more) and decided to stay with the existing regulatory approach.
The term “critical areas” came into prominence among county ordinances in 1995, as part of a strengthening of Washington’s 1990 Growth Management Act.
A new chapter on land stewardship and agriculture could now take shape with the VSP.
“It’s two goals that have to be balanced for the program to work,” said John Stuhlmiller, Chief Executive Officer for Washington Farm Bureau. “It’s a grand experiment, truly.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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