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At Saturday’s Meet the Mayor session at the La Conner Swinomish Library, Mayor Marna Hanneman ended the hour upbeat, telling the seven assembled they were awesome and that she was encouraged. “I keep saying it takes a village,” she said, suggesting, “let’s take it on the road,” to Shelter Bay and other communities, in a collaborative effort to tackle greater La Conner’s problems. And while she noted, “It’s all of us, farmers, merchants, the Tribe, Shelter Bay,” everyone at the table had faithfully attended most of these near monthly meetin...
Skagit County’s Farmland Legacy Program finalized a conservation easement on an 80-acre farmland property to permanently protect the land for agricultural use in July. The property sits along the state’s only designated Agricultural Scenic Corridor at the Chuckanut Drive and I-5 interchange. Landowner Mark Houser, part of the Houser family co-ownership of siblings and their children, expressed his family’s commitment to safeguarding agriculture in Skagit County. Houser notes he received calls weekly about developing the 80-acre property. “I wan...
The 125th Skagit County Fair opens Thursday and runs through Sunday at the county fairgrounds in Mount Vernon. The place will be chock full of activities, starting with the agricultural exhibits and programs in the arena and barn that include 4-H youth and Future Farmers of America. There is entertainment all around, literally on the grounds while you are walking around. There are daily themed events and main stage family entertainment that aims to amaze and delight you. Check out the community...
La Conner’s town government – elected officials and staff – created a long task list for the second year of implementing the five-year strategic plan they adopted last September. Credit them for being ambitious: 31 tasks came out of their June retreat, with over half of them placed on Mayor Marna Hanneman and Administrator Scott Thomas’ shoulders. The fire department, with five tasks, has made progress, getting a $150,000 commitment from the town council to buy a fire boat. Public works and finance staff are assigned these tasks: improving inte...
A small Notice of Development Application sign in a field on Calhoun Road could signal big changes. Cloudbreak Energy Washington LLC, the Washington state arm of a privately held, national developer of distributed and utility-scale solar and storage projects, enquired with Skagit County about the potential for developing a 15.75-acre solar energy generation facility on land owned by Water & Wastewater Services, LLC owner Kelly Wynn. This is not a use permitted on lands designated...
Preservation is close to the heart of Jeanne Youngquist – preserving agriculture, open space, secure elections and county history. The greater La Conner resident, of Mike and Jean's Berry Farm, was honored at last week's Our Valley Our Future awards breakfast hosted by Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland. She received the Community Legacy in Agriculture award. Daniel Waltner earned the Achievement in Agriculture Award, which comes with a $5,000 scholarship. The Mount Vernon resident graduated f...
Washington State University alumni will tell you that their classmates have fascinating careers and are doing wonderful things in every part of the state. As if to prove how varied these callings and careers are, in 2023 WSU Press published the "Evergreen Collection," essays detailing accomplishments of graduates and faculty first printed in Washington State Magazine over the last 20 years. The Skagit Valley is represented by the Roozen family and their Washington Bulb Co. The succeeding generation of ownership, after founder William, are all W...
Don McMoran’s recent promotion to full professor with Washington State University is built on a lifetime love for Skagit County and its farmers. Born on the driveway of his parents’ home on the dividing line between the Mount Vernon and La Conner school districts, he joined the WSU Skagit County Extension in 2006 as Agriculture & Natural Resources extension educator. He earned tenure a few years later and became the county Extension director in 2012. His two-year quest to become full professor was backed by community members who wrote let...
Almost 50 years ago I extracted myself from a life and livelihood in our nearest metropolis to follow a dream, a soul mandate, to live in Skagit Valley. A decade earlier, when I was 16 years old, I’d seen it for the first time and its beauty kept calling: those flat vistas, miles of mist and farmland. As the greening of this place happens once again and we celebrate this season, let me, please, rain a bit on your parade by mentioning something your sense of beauty, indeed none of your senses, will be good at detecting: Glyphosate. While Mons...
A bumper crop of Northwest potatoes in 2023 is driving the price of potatoes down, but John Thulen of Pioneer Potatoes is not worried – yet. Many of the challenges cited in a March 31 Market Snapshot from AgWest Farm Credit (the new name of the former Northwest Farm Credit in Burlington) concern russet potatoes grown in Eastern Washington. Thulen agrees that overproduction in 2023 has “plugged up” processors like McCain Food USA, whose enormous processing plant in Othello produces 15% of all the frozen French fries, hash browns and tater tots p...
When you’re facing issues with your garden, from troubled roses to fungus on your fruit trees or even perplexing plant identification, you need not rely on uncertain advice from neighbors or online forums. Visit a WSU Extension Master Gardener Plant Clinic in Anacortes or Burlington for reliable answers and assistance. The free Master Gardner Clinics offer extensive on-site resources, including a comprehensive library, print materials, access to online resources and microscopes for plant identification and disease diagnosis. The plant clinic v...
Celebrate the farm-raised flavor of the Skagit Valley from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, with the release party of “Genuine Skagit Cooking.” Break bread in tribute to the farmers, food producers, and residents who have opened their recipe boxes saluting Skagit’s agricultural way of life. While enjoying bites of small plates featured in the cookbook, guests will also be first in line to take the cookbook home. “Genuine Skagit Cooking,” from the organization Genuine Skagit Valley, features over 45 recipes from food producers, small business owners an...
After almost a century of hosting potlucks, weddings and receptions, rummage sales, art shows, dances, memorial services, service projects, polling sites and parties, the Rexville Grange #815 on Summers Drive is showing its age. Water seeps into the below-grade kitchen whenever it rains on Strawberry Hill. "That has caused a lot of rot in the lower cabinets, and damaged the water heater," says Cathy Savage, Grange president. With a kitchen unsuitable for cooking or catering, hosting indoor...
With the snowpack at 69% of normal and spring precipitation uncertain, local farmers have one piece of good news: if a drought develops, they can count on water from the Skagit Public Utility District. On April 9 the PUD approved a one-year interlocal, seasonal transfer for surplus water rights from the PUD to Skagit County Drainage and Irrigation Improvement Districts 15, which supplies water for 8,500 acres on the flats east of Best Road and Consolidated Diking Improvement District 22, which...
La Conner School District Director of Finance David Cram offered a realistic assessment last summer when presenting student enrollment numbers and the year’s budget to the school board and Superintendent Will Nelson. The head count in the elementary, middle and high schools had dropped below 500, to 490 full-time students. He projected a student population of 448 in 2026-2027. Cram’s forecast is turning into reality. His mid-March estimate for September, the 2024-2025 school year, is for 30 fewer students. His larger concern is that the new...
Daffodils have bloomed and tulips aren't far behind. Soon, thousands of people will descend upon the La Conner flats to enjoy vividly colored fields here. It's hard to imagine, any among the throngs of visitors appreciating the striking spring landscape more than Joyce Johnson, long a bright and engaging fixture with the La Conner Civic Garden Club and related organizations at the local, district and state levels. Johnson recently died at age 105. "Joyce was most certainly a treasure to all who...
Harvest time on the La Conner flats is months away, but the time is ripe now to cultivate goodwill. That was the prevailing theme at the annual La Conner Rotary Club Farmers and Merchants Night dinner and program Monday at Maple Hall. The event, which underscores the club's ongoing mission of public service and education support, was attended by more than 100 people representing the local agricultural and commercial sectors plus government leadership. "We're a hands-on service club," La Conner...
Last summer's drought lingered all the way to January before Skagit County officially finally emerged out of it. But that does not mean this year's water situation is secure. Snowpack in the Cascade Mountains remained well below normal based on Feb. 4 data. The most recent data of snow water equivalent from the Natural Resource Conservation Service shows the North Puget Sound Basin at 50% of the average, based on the period 1991-2020. By contrast, a year ago, the snowpack registered 78%. Nick Bo...
At the eighth annual Skagit Ag Summit, on Friday, Feb. 9, about 75 people working or interested in agriculture spent the day learning and sharing critical developments in local agriculture topics at the event hosted by WSU Skagit County Extension. During a panel discussion about economic viability, farmer Jason VanderKooy, co-owner of Harmony Dairy, answered a question about succession planning. It is one of the most difficult things in family farming, said VanderKooy. He recommended hiring...
Skagit County’s Farmland Legacy Program permanently protected another 425 acres of prime agricultural soil, with five farmland preservation projects in 2023. Protected farmland in Skagit County now totals 14,750 acres. The largest commitment is Alex Ball’s 300 acres near La Conner. Richard H. Ball pioneered the land after serving in the Civil War; the acreage reaches back five generations. The land is actively farmed by Jerry Nelson of Double N Potatoes. The decision to sell specific property rights so the land remains farmland no matter who...
Just as regular as the harvest, the time has arrived for the annual Skagit Ag Summit. It will convene Friday, Feb. 9, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Washington State University’s Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center. The meeting is an excellent place to learn more about the agricultural community in Skagit County and the issues affecting it, said Don McMoran, director of WSU Skagit County Extension. It also is a place to meet professionals from the field. Scheduled speakers include government employees and officials, academic and s...
Did you know that in Skagit County only 2% of the farms in the valley are over a thousand acres? Did you also know that 41% of farms in Skagit County are noted as residential or lifestyle farms, aka hobby farms? The face of farming has changed: There are fewer farms that are operating at a commercial level, or what would be considered financially self-sufficient operations. There are fewer new farmers entering the industry, as there are greater barriers to entry – more so then ever before. It takes years to see a rate of return when you are s...
The article from Nov. 15 about the Skagit County water outlook (“Skagit County water outlook complicated”) pointed out that the challenges related to low water flows on the Skagit River are becoming more complex. This is a big deal for both irrigation and energy production. With droughts and extreme weather events becoming more common, the Skagit River is under increasing pressure to meet the demands for irrigation, electricity, and instream-flows. One solution to ease this pressure is to support local solar power. It’s a quick and easy alterna...
In late autumn on the cusp of cool winter days, snow comes early to Washington when thousands of aloft avians, snow geese, land here in a flurry of white feathers. "We call it a snow storm, they just will move as one," said birder Julie Hagen. "It's just this chaotic whirlwind of birds, they move like a cloud and then they just lift up in the air." In late October, as the snow geese began landing in the Skagit Valley, Hagen went out to enjoy the sight that many Western Washington birders look fo...
Although these days some area fields are muddy with standing water in furrows, Skagit County remains in drought conditions. Future water supply is a critical question. Nick Bond, the state climatologist, visited Skagit County last Wednesday to speak on “Water Supplies in NW Washington State in Future Decades.” Compared with many places, Skagit’s outlook is not dire, yet emerging trends demand attention and adaptive measures. Bond’s key points included likely wetter winters and drier summers, issues stemming from timing for supplying water to ag...
