Farm Bureau Meets with Legislators to Discuss DNR Issue

By Dan Fazio, Director of Employer Services

On Monday, June 22, I briefed legislators from the 35th legislative district regarding a DNR issue that has members perplexed. 

Farm Bureau members were the successful bidders for DNR contracts to harvest secondary forest products like salaal and huckleberry, but the Agency inserted language forcing the company to purchase workers' comp coverage for anyone who enters the property. This language goes well beyond our state workers' comp law, which of course requires companies to purchase the industrial insurance only for employees. 

It is extremely frustrating for the Farm Bureau member businesses who spent eight years fighting the Department of Labor and Industries on this exact issue, and L&I lost every court challenge and ultimately abandoned its position. The businesses have offered to insert language which requires them to follow all state and federal laws and regulations, but the agency apparently wants more. 

The secondary forest product harvest season is just beginning. The businesses are offering to pay for the leases, and monitor the harvest to make sure it is done correctly. 

Unless legislators can convince DNR to modify the contracts, the ultimate losers will be the state:  there will be no revenue, and unregistered harvesters will enter the lands in question and cause severe damage to the sensitive forest environment.

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