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10 CapitalPress.com March 13, 2015 Washington Mathisons continue quest for more cherry ground By DAN WHEAT Capital Press WENATCHEE, Wash. — It may take years, but the Mathi- son family is pursuing its desire to acquire or lease a section of state land high in the Stemilt Basin south of Wenatchee for future cherry orchard. West Mathison, president of Stemilt Growers Inc. of Wenatchee, talked about more conservation easements with the Stemilt Partnership on March 4 as a means of moving the proj- ect forward. The partnership, a coalition of people and interest groups wanting to preserve Stemilt Ba- sin, indicated a willingness to learn more but wants a transfer of the land between state agen- cies to occur first, said Mike Kaputa, Chelan County Natural Resources director. That may take five years, he said. The partnership endorsed an agreement between the state de- partments of Natural Resources and Fish and Wildlife to transfer Sections 16 and 22 from DNR to WDFW within five years, Kaputa said. “It may take several state funding cycles and land avail- ability to come up with the right deal,” he said. The agencies agree over do- ing it, but are just trying to figure out the best way in keeping with their different missions, he said. Mathison said he has no defined timeline and will con- tinue to engage the partnership. “Some areas are best for elk and some could be suited for cherry orchards with proper mitiga- tion,” he told Capital Press. “We will continue to devel- op our private land into cherry orchards with assistance from wildlife biologists to properly mitigate impacts to the land,” Mathison said. A year ago, the Mathison family wanted to create 450 acres of cherry orchard on Sec- tions 16 and 22. Last October, the family revised its plans to trade 218 acres of prime elk hab- itat on Section 21 for 218 acres of flatter, more open terrain on Section 16 to develop 134.5 acres of cherry orchard there. Orchard on part of Section 16 would fit with orchard the family is planning on portions of adjoining Section 9 that it bought from a private owner. Section 21 is better elk habi- tat than Section 16 and would consolidate land uses to create larger areas of habitat, Mathison said. Dan Wheat/Capital Press West Mathison, president of Stemilt Growers Inc., is shown at the Stemilt Partnership meeting on Oct. 20, 2014. Beekeepers lobby for lower taxes, more forage Spokane conference Bills stem from study commissioned by Legislature By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — Full-time beekeepers and hobbyist api- arists were on the Capitol Campus Thursday to draw attention to the plight of the honeybee. The good news, according to Central Washington bee- keeper Tim Hiatt, is that only alarmists think honeybees will go extinct and humankind will follow. The bad news, he said, is that bees in Washington lack forage, which has economic consequences for pollinators and their customers. Hiatt said he’s spending more than ever nourishing his bees, $205 a year on each hive. He has 12,000 hives. If the Washington bee in- dustry falters, it will show up in the cost of pollinating ser- vices, he said. Right now, his bees are pollinating almonds in California, where the de- mand is high and hives will fetch $160 to $170 for the season, he said. Soon, the hives will come north to Washington to polli- nate fruit trees. Hiatt, a Ephra- ta resident, said he expects to get $40 to $50 per hive. “We would like a steady supply of beekeepers for pol- linators in Washington,” he said. Toward that end, beekeep- ers, who set up displays out- side the Legislative Building for “Honeybee Awareness Day,” are lobbying for two bills. Senate Bill 5017 would permanently give beekeepers the same favorable tax treat- ment enjoyed by agricultural producers. For tax purposes, beekeepers and their services and products are not defined as part of the state’s agricul- tural industry. The bill would cut taxes on income from pollinating services and bee products, such as honey. Other tax ben- efits would include being able to buy and repair equipment without paying sales taxes. The bill, sponsored by Ya- kima Valley Republican Jim Honeyford, passed the Senate Agriculture, Water and Ru- ral Economic Development Committee, but has not won approval from the Senate bud- get committee. The tax exemptions would cost state coffers $85,000 and local governments $27,000 a year in lost revenue, according to an estimate by the Office of Financial Management. promotes social media ‘agvocacy’ AgChat leader: Reach out to counter different viewpoints By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Don Jenkins/Capital Press Honeybees are displayed March 5 on the Capitol Campus in Olympia. An argument for the bill is that out-of-state beekeepers pollinate and leave without paying business taxes, putting in-state beekeepers at a finan- cial disadvantage. “If everybody paid the tax, I wouldn’t care,” Hiatt said. House Bill 1654, spon- sored by Edmonds Democrat Strom Peterson, would re- quire the state Noxious Weed Control Board to evaluate the advantages of replacing pol- len- and nectar-rich noxious weeds with plants with sim- ilar benefits for honeybees. The bill passed the House on Friday on a 67-31 vote. Yaki- ma Valley Republican David Taylor warned that planting forage could unwittingly in- troduced new noxious weeds. Dayton beekeeper Paul 11-4/#14 Hosticka, who has about 100 hives in the southeast corner of the state, has been produc- ing honey for 40 years. He said his bees have been los- ing forage to grass and that he needs a lot more forage than small-scale planting can provide. “We’re talking about square miles, not square feet,” he said. Hiatt was on a 12-member group set up by the Legisla- ture to make policy recom- mendations to help the bee. The tax and forage bills grew out of the report. The study group did not cite as a major problem ne- onicotinoids, a class of pes- ticides banned in a handful of cities because of their pur- ported harm to honeybees. The study group concluded the scientific evidence did not warrant banning neonic- otinoids. Registration is open for the AgChat Foundation’s region- al meeting April 27-28 at the Northern Quest Casino in Air- way Heights, Wash. Marie Bowers-Stagg, vice president of the AgChat Foun- dation, said the organization helps farmers tell their story on social media such as Face- book, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. “We have tons of legislation that could potentially majorly impact my farm,” said Bow- ers-Stagg, a grass seed, wheat and meadowfoam farmer in Harrisburg, Ore. “If we tell the people who are on social me- dia a little bit about why we’re (farming) — we’re actually feeding people and doing good for the environment — that oftentimes changes a lot of minds.” Bowers-Stagg said that through conversations, peo- ple with a different viewpoint eventually come around to be- ing more open-minded toward Online http: //agchat.org/PNW farming and ranching, she said. “It’s gained awareness,” she said. “The other day, there was a hearing and I was tweeting about my position and inter- acting with people I probably wouldn’t have interacted with on a normal basis.” She’s also been able to con- nect with other farmers who have questions about issues. Bowers-Stagg hopes the public will seek out farmers and ranchers for more informa- tion about things they see in the media. Producers also need to reach out to consumers as well, she said. “It makes the world small- er,” Bowers-Stagg said. “I know I’m not going to reach the mommy bloggers, but I may be able to reach out to a career woman who wants to be successful in the business world, just like I do.” This will be the second re- gional conference for the foun- dation in the Pacific Northwest, following a meeting in Port- land last year. The Spokane area was selected in hopes of drawing farmers from Eastern Washington, Idaho and Mon- tana. 11-7/#5