Right to Plow initiative gets sufficient signatures to go on ballot

News from the Washington State Farm Bureau

9/8/01 - THE SNOHOMISH COUNTY FARM BUREAU HAS SUBMITTED MORE THAN 30,000 signatures supporting its “Right to Plow” county initiative, virtually assuring a place on the November ballot. (Everett Herald, Sept. 8) Backers needed just 18,000 valid signatures. Even allowing for duplicates or signatures from people not registered to vote, county elections manager Scott Konopasek said the initiative would most likely meet the requirement. It would be the first county initiative to ever make it onto the ballot. Farm Bureau’s success in gathering signatures has prompted the County Council to begin discussing whether to offer an alternative measure, or possibly adopt an ordinance before the elections. Two Democrats on the council who oppose the initiative are up for election this year and would face Republicans who back the measure. 

Other News:

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION FRIDAY NAMED PORTLAND ATTORNEY D. ROBERT Lohn to head the Northwest regional office of the National Marine Fisheries Service. (Seattle Times, Sept. 8) Lohn, 53, is currently chief of the Fish & Wildlife Division for the Northwest Power Planning Council, and held a similar position for the Bonneville Power Administration. The top regional post at NMFS has been vacant since Will Stelle resigned a year ago. Lohn has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and earned his law degree at the University of Montana. In accepting the position, he said he supports President Bush’s efforts to return more decision-making to local officials. “I am very eager to use NMFS to establish the goals and then stand back and let local people make local decisions on how to meet those goals,” Lohn said.

  THE SAN FRANCISCO-BASED AMERICAN LANDS CONSERVANCY HAS AN OPTION TO buy an 8,000-acre ranch on the shores of Swan Lake in the Klamath Basin and envisions creating a reservoir that could hold 80,000 to 100,000 acre-feet of water. (Klamath Falls Herald & News, Sept. 7) Rancher Larry Jespersen, who put his land up for sale last year, said four or five other property owners around the lake are agreeable to selling. The conservation group also has options on about 28,000 acres in the Upper Klamath Basin that it would eventually like to place in trust with a local group for lease to farmers who now lease lands within Klamath Basin wildlife refuges. Lastly, the group is proposing to buy water rights to about 20,000 acres, which could still be used to grow crops, but could no longer be irrigated. American Lands Conservancy estimates its three-pronged proposal would cost about $300 million.

THE PEW INITIATIVE ON FOOD AND BIOTECHNOLOGY RELEASED A REPORT THIS week that outlined several new areas of biotech research, including spinach engineered to produce proteins that help suppress the HIV virus that causes AIDS. (Reuters/Planet Ark, Sept. 7) “Technology developers believe that edible vaccines offer advantages over conventional immunization programs by eliminating both the need for purification and the hazards associated with injection,” according to the report. Also under development: Plants that can clean up toxic-waste sites and a spider gene inserted into goats so a protein harvested from their milk can be used to make super-strong silk for surgery and making bulletproof vests.

THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES, WHICH SPONSORED THE ANTI-trapping Initiative 713, is threatening to sue the U.S. Department of Agriculture for not following the state law. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 6) Wildlife Services, an agency of the USDA, uses banned traps and poisons to control predators attacking livestock when non-lethal measures have failed. The state Attorney General’s office said last year that the initiative would not be binding on the agency. But the Humane Society has begun a letter-writing campaign in an effort to pressure USDA into adhering to the state law. 

Ó 2001 Washington Farm Bureau. NewsWatch is a daily update on news of interest to agriculture. Contact Dean Boyer, director of public relations, 1-800-331-3276 or dboyer@wsfb.com, to receive NewsWatch by fax or e-mail.

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