Warnick: Lawmakers Will Address DNR Lease Issue

After several eastern Washington farmers had their leases with the DNR terminated early, state lawmakers are looking to address the issue this upcoming session.  It’s common across Washington for farmers to lease DNR land to raise crops or tend livestock.  However, in late 2015, state Senator Judy Warnick says the DNR started to terminating leases with farmers across the eastside of the state, with little or no warning.

“DNR did buy out the leases, and we’re moving forward, but we also have a bill the requires DNR to give more of a notice than what they did.”

Warnick told the Washington Ag Network while there was compensation for many of the farmers, it did not compare to the potential profit from their crops.  The Moses Lake Republican said they will address legislation this session to prevent this from happening again

“Moving forward we’re hoping that’s not going to happen again because DNR property is a valuable piece of property to lease in a lot of cases, so we’re hoping that doesn’t happen to any farmer again.”

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