Skagit County faces manychallenges that need new leadership:
My priority is to protect our natural resources and related industries. We CAN have a healthy
environment alongside thriving agriculture, timberand maritime industries.

I am committed to protecting our quality of life by ensuring affordable, safeand attractive
communities with good jobs, good schools and a healthy environment that maintains our county’s
heritage, natural beauty and vitality.

I will use common sense to make sound investments in sensible infrastructure as well as services
to businesses and residents to keep our local taxes affordable. I believe in wise spending.

I am Ron Wesen, candidate for Skagit County Commissioner, District 1. You may have heard that I
voted in favor of supporting Initiative 933 in my role as President of the Skagit County Farm Bureau. I want you to know that I support the Growth Management Act (GMA) in its protection of natural
resource areas and rural lands. For instance, I oppose commercial wetland mitigation banks and other
similar projects on prime agricultural land. I believe that the state is ignoring its responsibility to protect
agricultural lands under the GMA.

For the last 2 decades, Skagit Valley farmers have been working hard to apply field-tested science to
determine the impact of farming on the waters of Puget Sound and its tributaries. However, it seems
that no matter what the issue, regulators look to farmland for the solution.

For a lot of farmers, particularly those upriver, the larger buffers mandated by the State would have
resulted in a farm that is no longer large enough to produce a profit. The US Constitution says that our
land cannot be taken without compensation, and farmers saw that situation as a taking. We thought
I-933 was a way to remedy this issue because the Legislature was not responsive and hadn’t been for
years. For this reason, the Farm Bureau pursued its right to participate in the initiative process.

The Skagit Farm Bureau and other local agricultural group went to the Washington Supreme Court to
appeal mandatory buffers, and finally won in 2007. The Supreme Court found that mandatory buffers
were not required on agricultural land. Would I vote for Initiative 933 again today?
No-the mandatory buffer issue was settled. For me, it was never about the Growth Management Act, it was
about achieving clarity in the rules and protecting the right for farmers to continue producing a safe, local
food supply.

Skagit agriculture and all of our natural resource industries must remain economically viable for a
healthy and vibrant Skagit County. I am proud to have their support in my candidacy for Skagit CountyCommissioner.

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