Friday, January 14, 2022
CapitalPress.com 3
Lawmakers fi le Inslee’s mandatory buff er bill
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Legisla-
tion advanced by Gov. Jay
Inslee and Washington tribes
calls for mandatory ripar-
ian buff ers, with $10,000-
a-day fi nes for landowners
who don’t plant trees along
creeks and rivers crossing
their property.
Senate Bill 5727 directs
the state Department of
Fish and Wildlife to set
and enforce “riparian man-
agement zones.” The spon-
sor, Sen. Christine Rolfes,
D-Kitsap County, called
the legislation a “Marshall
Plan” to save salmon.
“This is kind of our
moment. I hope people will
engage constructively,” she
said Friday. “It’s a critical
issue for the entire state to
talk about what we need to
do for salmon.”
Farm groups said the buf-
fers could take a lot of farm-
land out of production.
“It’s pretty strident,”
Washington Farm Bureau
director of government rela-
tions Tom Davis said. “This
can and will likely put some
farmers out of business.”
Inslee and tribal offi cials
broadly outlined the pro-
posal at a media event in
December. At the request
of the governor, Rolfes fi led
the bill this week detailing
what the governor and tribes
agreed upon.
Rep. Debra Lekanoff ,
D-Skagit County, has intro-
duced the legislation in the
House.
“The bill works to pro-
tect what’s left and restore
what we can to ensure we
help salmon recover and
be more resilient to climate
change and warming stream
temperatures,” a governor’s
spokeswoman said in an
email.
Washington State Capitol
The top-ranking Republi-
can on the Senate and Nat-
ural Resources, Judy War-
nick of Moses Lake, said she
learned about the bill after it
was introduced.
“Apparently,
nobody
knew it was coming,” she
said. “A bill this big needs all
the stakeholders involved.
There will be lot of concern
about the taking of private
lands.”
Titled
the
Lorraine
Loomis Act, after the late
chairwoman of the North-
west Indian Fisheries Com-
mission, the bill calls for
buff ers as wide as the height
of old-growth trees.
Old-growth conifer can-
opies range from 100 feet
to 240 feet in Washing-
ton, according to a Fish and
Wildlife report, which the
bill designates as “the best
available science.”
Fish and Wildlife habi-
tat program director Mar-
gen Carlson said the buf-
fer could be smaller in some
areas where trees grow 75
to 80 feet. The department
has not estimated how much
land would be converted
into riparian zones, she said.
The bill would not apply
to parks or land with build-
ings, roads or trails. If a buf-
fer would take up more than
half the land, the parcel
would be exempt.
Fish and Wildlife would
give landowners who don’t
plant buff ers a list of “cor-
rective actions.” A land-
owner couldn’t remove or
degrade a riparian manage-
ment zone.
In addition to fi nes by Fish
and Wildlife, the Depart-
ment of Ecology could levy
another penalty to landown-
ers for water-quality viola-
tions, according to the bill.
Farmers who lost pro-
ductive land would be eligi-
ble for compensation at least
equal to USDA’s conserva-
tion easement program for
up to 10 years, according to
the bill.
The land would have to
be taken out of farm produc-
tion forever.
“They give you 10 years
to get out of Washington,”
Washington State Dairy
Federation policy director
Jay Gordon said.
“This will appeal to
absentee landowners, but not
people who have to make a
living or who have employ-
ees who have to make a liv-
ing from the land,” he said.
Planting buff ers would
cost landowners, though
the state would pay at least
70% of the cost for mulch,
fertilizer, seeds, labor, trees,
fences and other expenses,
the bill states.
The state would help pay
maintenance costs, but for
only fi ve years.
The state Growth Man-
agement Act currently
requires cities and counties
to protect fi sh habitat. As an
option to strict GMA rules,
many counties embrace
the Voluntary Stewardship
Program.
Farm groups also sup-
port VSP, which helps fi sh
though conservation proj-
ects by willing landown-
ers. Mandatory buff ers will
“blow up” VSP, farm groups
warn.
Rolfes said she supports
VSP. “That’s an import-
ant program that works.
The intent of the bill is not
to undermine that,” she
said.
Easterday sentencing pushed back to June
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
An Eastern Washington
federal judge has postponed
sentencing Cody Easter-
day until June 13, giving
the ex-cattleman six more
months of freedom to settle
his contentious bankruptcy
case.
U.S. District Judge Stan-
ley Bastian described the
ongoing dispute between
Easterday, his creditors and
his fraud victim, Tyson Fresh
Meats, as a “mess.”
“I can’t fi nd a better
word,” he said on Jan. 6.
Easterday, 50, pleaded
guilty March 31 to defraud-
ing Tyson out of $233 mil-
lion. Easterday supplied
Tyson with cattle from his
feedlot near Pasco. Over sev-
eral years, he billed Tyson for
about 200,000 head of cattle
that didn’t exist.
Easterday faces up to
20 years in prison for wire
fraud and must make res-
titution. His sentencing
already had been postponed
twice to give him time to
sell farms and equipment
through bankruptcy court.
Over the objection of the
Justice Department, Bastian
granted the motion by East-
erday’s attorney, Carl Ore-
skovich, for a third delay,
pushing sentencing back
from Jan. 24.
Bastian cited ongoing lit-
igation in bankruptcy court.
A trial to allocate more than
$200 million from the liqui- Cody Easterday
dation of Easterday Farms
and Easterday Ranches will erday and his late father,
begin April 18.
Gale.
Tyson and other credi-
Only Cody Easterday has
tors are seeking the entire the knowledge to help fam-
pot. Easterday and his wife, ily attorneys prepare, Ore-
Debby, and mother, Karen, skovich argued. “It’s a mon-
claim they are entitled to a umental amount of work
share.
that is necessary,” he said.
The trial will sort out
Bastian agreed to delay
ownership of more than 80 sentencing until after the
parcels of land acquired over trial. “Mr. Easterday is
three decades by Cody East-
George Plaven/Capital Press File
doing what he promised to
do when he pled guilty in
this courtroom to try to help
clean this mess up,” the
judge said.
Bastian said he also
wanted to sentence Easter-
day in person, not by video
conference, and it’s unlikely
that courtroom hearings will
resume this month because
of COVID restrictions.
He also noted that if
Easterday had insisted on
a trial, the trial would not
have started yet because of
normal delays. The case is
still ahead of most criminal
cases, he said.
“And that’s because Mr.
Easterday pled guilty and
has taken the initial steps to
accept responsibility for the
mess that he created,” Bas-
tian said.
Along with the Justice
Department, Tyson opposed
postponing sentencing.
In a court fi ling, Tyson
said Cody Easterday wanted
to stay free to steer “tens of
millions of dollars in dis-
puted sale proceeds to his
mother and wife rather than
to creditors.”
In a written response,
Oreskovich disputed Tyson’s
description of the bankruptcy
case.
The Easterdays cooper-
ated to sell their companies
to raise money for creditors,
including Tyson, Oreskov-
ich said. The Easterdays face
paying $25 million in capital
gains taxes, he said.
Tyson and other creditors
are trying to stick the Easter-
days with the tax bill and no
money to pay it, Oreskovich
claimed.
USDA approves
Oregon hemp plan
hemp program in partner-
ship with the Oregon State
Police.
SALEM — The USDA
Summers said ODA is
has signed off on Oregon’s still developing the pro-
plan to regulate hemp pro- cess for applicants to sub-
duction statewide, includ- mit their fingerprints and
ing licensing and
complete the back-
testing
require-
ground
check.
ments for growers
Background checks
and processors.
are required for
The revised plan
hemp growers, but
was required to
not handlers.
comply with new
The cutoff date
federal guidelines
for license appli-
Sunny
for hemp after the
cations is May 31.
Summers
crop was legalized
Growers must also
in the 2018 Farm
register with their
Bill.
local USDA Farm Service
Hemp licensing will Agency offi ce and report
still be done by the Ore- the location and acreage of
gon Department of Agri- hemp planted.
culture, albeit with sev-
Another
signifi cant
eral changes for 2022. change is a 30-day win-
The biggest difference is dow for pre-harvest test-
mandatory
background ing to ensure the crop does
checks for key partici- not exceed the threshold for
pants, said Sunny Sum- THC, or tetrahydrocannab-
mers, ODA cannabis pol- inol. THC is the main psy-
icy coordinator.
choactive ingredient in mar-
Under the USDA rule, ijuana that gets users high.
anyone convicted of a
Hemp cannot contain
felony cannot partici- more than 0.3% total THC.
pate in growing hemp
As of Jan. 10, Sum-
for 10 years. House Bill mers said ODA had not
3000, signed by Gov. Kate approved
any
hemp
Brown last year to crack licenses for 2022. Oregon
down on illegal marijuana, had 752 registered grow-
allows ODA to conduct ers and 7,175 acres of hemp
background checks for the last fall.
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
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