Can farms and fish co-exist, and even thrive, in Snohomish County’s riverways? As co-chairmen of the Snohomish Sustainable Lands Strategy, we believe the answer is yes — and that fish and farm advocates can make more progress by working together than by fighting each other as both sides lose ground. With the mission of reconciling and simultaneously advancing “farm and fish” values, we’d like to outline the Sustainable Lands Strategy’s approach, progress, and some challenges that come with the territory.
History of conflict: More than 80 percent of the designated farmland in Snohomish County is in the floodways and estuaries, where habitat restoration is needed to recover native salmon. Protection of farmland, reduced by rapid urban growth in the county, is a goal of the state’s Growth Management Act and has galvanized the farm community. On the other side, tribal treaty rights and the Endangered Species Act provide legal drivers for salmon recovery. These two imperatives — farmland protection and salmon recovery — within the riverways and estuaries, has generated a clash of interests, frequently leading to mistrust, anger, fear, regulatory friction, litigation — and gridlock — for farms and flood control districts, and for salmon habitat and water quality projects
The approach: The SLS, convened in 2010 by Snohomish County, Tulalip and Stillaguamish Tribes, state and federal agencies, and agricultural and environmental stakeholders, is a new approach to generate progress — a net gain — for fish and farm communities.
The Sustainable Lands Strategy has government participation but is not a formal advisory group, and has no regulatory or review authority. It offers a neutral forum where diverse participants can offer technical information, design support and other resources to implement projects.
Various actions, for fish, farms or both are packaged together at a workable scale (e.g. within a diking district or sections of riverway floodplain, called “reaches”), encouraging coordination of funding, permitting implementation and broad support. Participation in the SLS packages is voluntary; it’s an opportunity, not an obligation.
Trust and commitment to understanding each other’s essential needs is at the core of our work. We strive for consensus-based solutions and recommendations. The SLS meetings are transparent and accessible.
Progress: Farmers and fish advocates now have new allies — each other. It’s bringing real results:
- State funders are now requiring that floodplain projects provide multiple benefits, not just one; farmers, diking districts and fish advocates who work together get priority.
- Federal and state regulators can offer streamlined permitting for “net gain” projects.
- Farmers mark maps showing fish proponents where un-farmable areas would make good habitat sites, on their own land.
- The Stillaguamish Tribe funds the purchase of locally grown produce for lunches at Arlington schools.
- The county conducts river assessments that give fish, farm and flood control projects solid technical and design support in a user-friendly geographical information system.
- The state Department of Fish and Wildlife revives farming on its Ebey Island acreage not suitable for fish project and plans major fish project on its Leque Island ownership not suitable for farming.
- The Tulalip Tribes consider an Agriculture Enterprise Zone, where agricultural production and processing can be located together, creating sustainable cycling of nutrients and energy.
- The SLS brings together regulators and drainage districts to work through streamlined, 5-year permits for salmon-friendly maintenance practices.
Challenges: Reconciling competing interests with a history of conflict is not easy. Hard-liners in both communities still appear to believe conflict is the answer, that floodways and estuaries should only be for them. But neither fish nor farm communities can afford gridlock. Native salmon stocks are threatened with extinction and federally mandated recovery targets are still unmet.
Restoration gains in habitat function are often canceled out by development. Meanwhile, floodplain farmers must deal with more frequent and severe flooding. Flood events are compounded by subsiding ground, protected with less certainty by aging levees. Restrictions on outbuilding construction, and increased regulation of simple tasks like ditch maintenance, further hamper viable farming.
The Sustainable Lands Strategy is still a work-in-progress, and we will continue to learn and adapt. One thing we have learned is that it is uniquely valuable to have the SLS’s neutral table as a place where farm and fish interests have a seat at the table, and government agencies, landowners and stakeholder groups can come together and better understand and respect each others needs, build trust and forge common solutions.
Terry Williams is a Fisheries and Natural Resources commissioner for the Tulalip Tribes. Brian Bookey is a farmer and owner of National Food. The SLS Executive Committee also includes Kristin Kelly, Snohomish/Skagit Program Director for Futurewise and Smart Growth director for Pilchuck Audubon Society; Monte Marti, executive director for the Snohomish Conservation District; Dave Remlinger, owner of Lord Hill Farms; and Shawn Yanity, chairman of the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians.
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