Ecology’s Water “Solutions Showcase” Highlights Keys to Success in Yakima Basin

Countering Ecology’s focus on adjudication in Whatcom, leaders in the Yakima Integrated Water Plan explain cooperation and trust are essential to resolving water issues and show how litigation “stymied” progress on solving Yakima Basin issues for decades (LYNDEN, Wash.) The State Department of Ecology sponsored a “Solutions Showcase” on ...

Nooksack River water management solutions must address twin problems

Whatcom County routinely experiences widespread flooding in the winter months. But this past late fall and winter was one of the worst on record and caused an estimated $1 billion in damages in nearby Abbotsford, BC and about $100 million in damages and one death in Whatcom County. Loss ...

Farming community calls for comprehensive fixes to Whatcom flood, water management problems

PRESS RELEASE - January 5, 2021 Contact: Dillon Honcoop - dhoncoop@savefamilyfarming.org Whatcom Family Farmers president: “A comprehensive effort to pursue all possible solutions… must begin immediately” (LYNDEN, Wash.) As wide swaths of north Whatcom County continue to clean up and rebuild after November’s devastating flooding disaster, the local farming community ...

New salmon habitat project shows Whatcom farmers are serious about collaborating to restore fish

News of a newly-completed salmon habitat restoration project in the midst of farmland near Lynden is underscoring farmers’ commitment to the long-term collaborative restoration work needed to help critically-endangered salmon populations in the Nooksack River Basin. Farmers in Whatcom County have been saying they want to bring together the local ...

As drought worsens, Whatcom farmers call for immediate action to protect fish, farming

Farmers urge all parties to come to the table and begin collaborative work to safeguard both endangered salmon and local farming, as drought underscores risks of inaction As drought conditions worsen and stream flows plummet in the wake of an historic heatwave, Whatcom County farmers are calling for all parties ...

“We’re saying, let’s start working together … right now.”

“This has to be a process of the community coming together. ... Hearing everyone’s concerns and working together to make real, long lasting solutions, rather than hashing it out in a courtroom where everyone is pitted against each other.” Governor Inslee recently signed his $59 million budget, which ...

Whatcom Family Farmers to represent South Fork farmers in water negotiations

(ACME, Wash.) Local farming advocacy organization Whatcom Family Farmers will represent farmers in the Nooksack River’s South Fork Basin in anticipated water settlement and drainage management talks. While six Watershed Improvement Districts (WIDs) united under the Ag Water Board of Whatcom County represent farmers in the main stem of the ...

2021-05-10T20:27:15-07:00Clean Water, Press Releases|

Alternatives to Adjudication Provide a Better Path Forward for Our Community

In response to the state Department of Ecology's ongoing request to the state legislature for funding to begin the process of an adjudication in the Nooksack Basin, Whatcom Family Farmers has sent a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the budget committees in both state legislative chambers. An ...

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