Agricultural disaster strikes in three counties

WENATCHEE – Chelan County commissioners have declared an agricultural disaster after a hail storm damaged tree fruit.

Commissioners reached the decision Monday after hearing that the county’s tree fruit crop and warehouse losses from a hail storm last week could total $40 million. They also asked Gov. Chris Gregoire to seek federal disaster relief.

Two other north-central Washington counties also were hard hit by the storm. Douglas County commissioners, who attended the Chelan County Commission meeting, said they too would be issuing a disaster declaration. Losses in Okanogan County were estimated at $50 million.

The declarations are aimed at getting low-interest loans for farmers.

Okanogan County Commissioner Mary Lou Peterson, a cherry grower, and other growers in the room said more low-interest loans only add to growers’ existing debts and don’t solve the problem.

“Some ranches and orchards won’t make it. To just offer loans won’t work. We need emergency funding,” Peterson said.

Marty Brown, director of the state Office of Financial Management, told commissioners by telephone during the meeting that the governor would do all she can to help. But Brown said there are fiscal and legal constraints on the types of benefits the state can give growers.

Don McPherson, a Manson pear and apple grower who said he won’t be picking his crop this year, said that loans would only add to his debt and he’s not sure whether he will be farming next year.

“It will be years before a grower my size recovers, if I do,” he said.

Chelan County Commissioner Ron Walter empathized, saying he’s just now paid off debt from rebuilding his own Squilchuck cherry orchard, killed by a 1991 freeze.

Some warehouses, which make their profits on crop tonnage, estimated losses at $50 million in Oroville and $20 million in Manson and Chelan.