WACD Reading List

As public administrators, we are both aware of and resigned to the lack of diversity in our public meetings. Laudable creative strategies are punctually deployed to increase it, including taking meetings with key stakeholder groups, providing evening childcare, making some meetings more ‘fun’ and even doing away with the chambers altogether by hosting off-site meetings.

The [IDAHO] Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee voted 5-3 to send to the full Senate the bill requiring state officials to consider economic ramifications when imposing pollution regulations on farms and ranches producing manure to protect nearby communities and the environment from pollution.

The Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) released their latest economic review this week, finding positive trends in the context of ongoing economic uncertainty.

But a new paper from Hanson and others at the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center provides the first real look at what the whales eat the rest of the year, when they cruise the outer Pacific Coast — data that reaffirms the central importance of Chinook to the whales and the importance of recovering Chinook populations to save the beloved mammals.

The bottom line is—don’t fall victim to the misconception that federal government employment is the only opportunity for a veteran to work in public service after their time in the military. If you are a veteran and have a heart for service to others, local government may be the path for you. Don’t discount your local cities, counties or state agencies as a viable option to continue to serve in your community.

A bill to make it easier for Washington ranchers to get their meat directly to consumers unanimously passed the state Senate this week. The bill would create a state-run meat and poultry inspection program with requirements equal to those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Northwest snowpack is now well above normal and with the latest model runs, it is pretty much guaranteed to stay that way through April 1. And April 1 is the key date: the defined date for measuring the winter's snowy bounty before the spring melt season begins.

A good snowpack means more water for farmers who need irrigation this summer, as well as municipal water supplies. It can also help mitigate wildfire season.

The 2021 Spring Fly-In will be conducted virtually. Find more information on NACD's Virtual Advocacy Week, to be held the week of March 22.

We expect a 1.3% increase in Washington employment this year which is down from the 3.5% increase in the November forecast. We expect above average growth through the remainder of the forecast as the economy recovers from this deep recession. We expect employment growth to average 2.2% per year in 2022 through 2025 compared to the 1.7% average rate expected in November. Our forecast for nominal personal income growth this year is 3.9%, up from a 1.1% decline in the November forecast.

Federal funding, “and a very significant amount of it,” will be needed to bring broadband access to all of rural America, he said. “I’m skeptical the private sector by itself is ever going to do what it needs to make sure that every remote area of this country has access to high-speed internet” because of the cost of providing service. The government took a prominent role during the New Deal in electrifying rural America.

Here in the northwest, Washington loss 100 farms last year, while Oregon and Idaho showed no change. Meanwhile, Montana gained 100 farms in 2020.

Monday, Feb. 22, was the second legislative deadline, when all bills must have been voted out of their respective fiscal committees to remain “alive.” Since then, the Legislature has mostly ceased committee action and is focused on floor action for the time being, which entails the entire chamber (either the House of Representatives or the Senate) considering and voting on bills. Once a bill passes out of its original chamber, it moves to the other chamber, and the entire committee process repeats.

Producers could see three new revenue streams from climate mitigation, he said. They were income from carbon markets, from conversion of agricultural waste into products ranging from chemicals to fabrics, and capture of methane from manure for use as a renewable fuel.

Discrimination in the Workplace March 2, 4-5pm Please join us for an informational webinar that will cover what discrimination is, the various types of discrimination, and what to do if you believe you have been adversely affected by discrimination.

OLYMPIA — A bill to give counties and cities rather than an unelected state board the power to approve or reject solar panel arrays on farmland has failed.

The Senate unanimously passed 12th District Senator Brad Hawkins Senate Bill 5158, legislation to implement the Electric Utilities Wildland Fire Prevention Task Force recommendations for wildfire prevention.

Take things to the next level by designing your home landscape to be carbon-positive—meaning that it sequesters, or removes, more carbon dioxide than it generates.

Extolled as a defense against erosion and nutrient loss during fallow seasons, cover crops are being planted on a larger portion of U.S. cropland than before, said USDA economists.

From floods to wildfires, mapping programs in Cascadia are showing scientists which communities face higher risk.

U.S. agriculture faces a triple imperative — market, environment, and income — in responding to climate change, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday, his first day on the job. “We don’t have a day to waste on this,” he told reporters while indicating that the USDA will move at deliberate speed to identify and support successful mitigation practices.

To hear about what key players in Washington’s broad environmental coalition would like to see prioritized in budget proposals, I spoke to Adam Maxwell, Campaigns Manager for the Washington Audubon Society, a group focused on conserving natural ecosystems and building healthy communities.

The question of the legal rights of nature—or standing of inanimate objects to sue—was perhaps first raised in an article in 1972 by Christopher Stone, in the Southern California Law Review, titled Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights of Natural Objects. The article was subsequently referenced in a celebrated dissent by Justice William O. Douglas in the Supreme Court case Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972).

Saldana's assertion that denying farmworkers overtime pay was grounded in racism comes as lawmakers consider whether to intervene and shield agricultural employers from backpay lawsuits, suits that farm groups warn pose existential threats to some producers.

The fire impacted rabbits and sage grouse across their range, further complicating the recovery of each of these very at-risk species. Burned-bare soil across the landscape lies vulnerable to rapid colonization by quick-spreading invasive plants and grasses.

DuckDuckGo isn’t just a private alternative to Google and Bing’s web search. It has a built-in online mapping solution designed with privacy in mind. If you want to leave Google, you don’t have to stick around for Google Maps.

“On Zoom, behavior ordinarily reserved for close relationships — such as long stretches of direct eye gaze and faces seen close up — has suddenly become the way we interact with casual acquaintances, co-workers, and even strangers,” he writes.

LOOMIS - The United States Geological Survey recently reported that the area just east of Palmer Lake will likely experience drastic flooding this spring as the snow melts and rain falls. The flood risk and debris flow hazard is a result of burn scarring caused by the 13,000-acre Palmer Fire in mid-August of 2020.

Dan Newhouse says Tom Vilsack returning to head the USDA is a good thing for the farming community. The Chair of the Western Congressional Caucus, and a central Washington farmer himself, Newhouse said Vilsack can hit the ground running. Adding the Secretary understands many of the issues before Northwest producers.

The new era of climate mitigation on the farm would look like a beefed-up version of longstanding USDA conservation programs, augmented by a carbon bank that sets a floor price for carbon sequestration and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, said leaders of the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA) on Wednesday. “That’s what we’ve modeled it after,” said Chuck Connor, a founding member of the alliance and a former deputy agriculture secretary.