Washington’s Department of Ecology (DOE) has made it crystal clear whose side they’re on—and it’s not the farmers and ranchers who actually feed this state, or the consumers that rely on them for food and fiber. The DOE isn’t dealing with isolated violations. The number of producers the DOE is targeting shows every sign of being a deliberate, coordinated attack on agriculture. On October 16, the Northeast Washington Counties Farm Bureau hosted a public meeting in Colville specifically to discuss Ecology’s “Straight to Implementation” process and “potential to pollute” enforcement letters—letters sent without site-specific water quality data, based on the idea that agriculture, logging, and rural living itself are the top pollution threats. Local lawmakers were there. Landowners were there. Ecology was invited. They committed, then backed out. Their excuse? A “lack of security provided for them.” Why would an organization that is supposed to serve the public need security at a public meeting? Could it be because the DOE has been witnessed and documented lying to senators and threatening ranch and farm owners? If your job is to regulate private landowners based on “potential” rather than proof, the least you can do is show up and defend it. Instead, Ecology would rather hide behind supposed security concerns and wage cowardly lawfare against those who work to feed our nation. The DOE has gone after multi-generational operations with massive fines, liens, and multi-million-dollar “restoration” orders for the crime of maintaining stock ponds, irrigating with their own water rights, or simply existing on rural land. Wade and Teresa King face a $267,000+ penalty and a projected $3.7 million restoration bill over stock ponds Ecology decided were protected wetlands—largely from satellite photos. Ron Fode has been hit with hundreds of thousands in penalties over water use while claiming Ecology never provided the technical assistance the law requires. 85-year-old Bob Greiff has a lien on his farm and over $100,000 in fines for putting water on the “wrong” field. And the Diamond M Ranch is facing a poorly disguised land grab, as the DOE threatens to fence off a river on Diamond M’s private property with arbitrarily wide margins that would essentially remove 500 acres of the ranch’s own land from production. If you’re in Washington state and experiencing these kinds of issues, we want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] If you are experiencing these kinds of issues, we also encourage you to submit a claim through the USDA’s Lawfare Portal. @johnrich @USDA @POTUS @BrookeLRollins @DuquetteDave1 @yearlins @LonesomeLands usda.gov/lawfare #agriculture #washington #ranching #departmentofecology #farming