Greeners, Spotted Owls, Farmland and Mudflats

Well, the Greeners are as schizoid as can be. Want to preserve that farmland, yuppers.

So, 15 years ago, when I moved back to be a Snoho (oops, can't say that or I will be booted from the Snohomish School District), the county of my youth, there were 10-15 dairy farms from Lowell to Larimer, along the Lowell-Larimer Road. Now there are two.

Uh, now, if we invested in the barn, the land, the herd, and all, why would we shut it down, unless we weren't making a buck or two? Well, because we weren't making that buck. But should that stop the Greeners from insisting that we cannot use our land for a higher economic purpose? No, it appears not.

The Island Crossing area along I-5--Arlington - Silvana exit, for you townies, has not been farmed for some time, so ol' Dwayne Lane ("I'll take care of you") wants to move his Chevy dealership out of the pit of a facility in Arlington, to the freeway. But wait, the Greens say, that is farmland, so you cannot build there. Even though it hasn't been farmed for some time, is on the exit, has other freeway services nearby and the like.

Now, these are the same folks, who, six miles south, encouraged the abandonment of farmland just south of Marysville to build a, yup, mudflat!!!! The same ones who brokered the sale of the Beringer Berry farm to the east of the freeway, to the developers. Of course, it is for a higher purpose, they will tell you. Seems that folks who want to develop in the built up areas, can buy this swampland and use it for a mosquito breeding operation, instead of having the same on their property. And, as a generous parting gift, they can pay full commercial rates for it, even though it is useless except for farming or flooding.

So, on the one hand, if they can hold up the bad capitalists and sell them lowland farms for full price, it is ok, but on the other, the Island Crossing site should be preserved. Low lying land is low lying land.

Weller's restaurant property is for sale at the same exit and right next door to some land owned by "Fast" Eddie Goodridge, the young buck chair of the Stilly Tribe with the fast car, who is trying to get his illegal billboard site turned into trust lands. Are they gonna be politically incorrect, and fight the tribe when they want to turn farmland on the north side of SR 530 into a casino?

You heard it here first, folks. It will happen. So remember, natives good, unless you are a white native, like Dwayne Lane. Heck, all he did was take a sleepy Dodge dealership in downtown Everett, and build it into a large family owned business, employing hundreds, and contributing to every charity in town. So why should we cut him any slack? Wrong kind of native, methinks.

Oh, the Northern Spotted Owl.

Almost forgot about that rascal.

I was thinking of my friend in Forks, a fellow politician in recovery. He used to read (and disconnect) electric meters for the PUD. Spotted Owls put the formerly vibrant town of Forks on the ropes. Er, should I say NORTHERN spotted owls, the posterchild of the greeners.

Did you know there is a flourishing and growing species of Southern Spotted Owls? Nope, the mainstream press neglected to tell you about those. Genetically identical to the Northern owl, but living in the south. No shortage of owls, no threat of extinction.

Just a plethora of cockeyed science, clueless judges, bought off scientists, and disingenuous greeners who will purport to tell you to the square yard how much forest each of these mouse eaters needs.

Yaknow, if these guys were around in prehistoric times, we would still have dinosaurs, and would be dodging them while driving down I-5.