Nate’s Notes – Farmland Trust helps flood victims, SARE works to protect oyster farms
Here are several items of note about agriculture in the Puget Sound region
Farmland Trust raises money to help flood victims
Washington Farmland Trust raised $120,00 to help farmers impacted by December’s historic floods. One hundred percent of the donations raised goes to flood recovery campaign and distributed back to farms that sustained damage from the floods. Washington Farmland Trust received 110 grant applications from farmers who are reeling from income loss due to crop and equipment damage and costs associated with cleanup.
The Northwest Agriculture Business Center is also raising $430,000 to help farmers recover from December’s floods. For more information, click here.
SARE helps oyster farmers battle burrowing shrimp
"Simply Sustainable – Advancing Innovation in Sustainable Agricultue – March 2026," has an article about efforts to use baking soda to protect Pacific oysters farmed in Willapa Bay from burrowing shrimp.
Willapa Bay grows around a quarter of the oysters produced in the United States.
Simply Sustainable is Western Sustainable Agriculture Research Education’s biannual magazine.
Click here to download the latest issue.
Farmland Trust seeks community input
The Washington Farmland Trust is offering a short survey to see how the organization is doing. It is open for farmers, ranchers and people who are interested in agriculture.
The anonymous survey takes around 15 minutes to complete and respondents will have a chance to win one of five $100 cash cards.
Click here for more information and to take the survey.
Washington Bee Atlas documents more species
After wrapping up its second full year, the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s (WSDA) Washington Bee Atlas (WABA) has collected and identified records of nearly 30 new or rare bee species in the state (Click here to see photos). Seventeen species were new state records — meaning they are the first known records of finding the bee in Washington, according to a press release from the Washington State Department of Agriculture. WABA also found 12 species which had not been recorded in the state for at least 50 years, one of which was most recently recorded in the state in 1882.
WABA volunteers collected the new and rare bee species from 2023 to 2025. Volunteers submit their bees to WSDA’s Pollinator Program for identification at the end of each season, but the identification process can take months to years, depending on how rare the bee is and how difficult it is to identify.
Understanding which native bee species are in Washington and how they are faring over time is important not only for scientific research and conservation, but also for the region’s food security.