Farm groups were unrepresented until recently on a panel formed to advise the Washington Department of Ecology on how farmers and timberland owners can profit from the state’s low-carbon fuel standard.

The panel has met twice with conservation groups, government agencies, the timber industry, out-of-state companies, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility represented.

Pacific Northwest Canola Association Executive Director Karen Sowers was added this week as the panel’s 17th member and the first from a farm group.

“I would feel bad if I were the only one,” Sowers said Aug. 9. “I think it would behoove the panel to have more representation from ag landowners.”

Lawmakers directed Ecology to convene a panel of “stakeholders” to advise the state on rewarding farmers and timberland owners who sequester carbon.

By capturing carbon, landowners could earn credits to sell to fuel suppliers that must offset carbon emissions from gasoline and diesel.

Lawmakers didn’t tell Ecology who would be on the panel, only that it must include representatives of forestland and agricultural landowners. Weyerhaeuser and Inland Empire Paper Co. executives and a small forestland owner are on the panel.

Ecology spokeswoman Susan Woodward said the department is confident agricultural landowners are well represented.

Besides Sowers, Woodward cited panel members from Columbia Land Trust, the Lands Council, Pacific Ag Biofuel and Indigo Agriculture as representatives of agricultural landowners.

Based in Vancouver, Wash., Columbia Land Trust is a nonprofit that acquires land. The trust’s holdings include cattle grazing and farming, spokesman Dan Roix said.

The Lands Council, a Spokane-based nonprofit, works to preserve forests, water and wildlife, according to its website. The Lands Council and two other groups are currently suing the U.S. Forest Service, alleging the agency allows too much cattle grazing in the Colville National Forest. Efforts to reach the council’s panel representative were unsuccessful.

Based in Hermiston, Ore., Pacific Ag describes itself as North America’s largest crop residue harvest and supply company.

Indigo Agriculture, based in Boston, develops biological and digital technologies that improve farmers’ profitability, according to its website.

Efforts to contact representatives from those companies were unsuccessful.

Woodward said Ecology is open to adding more agricultural landowner representatives to the panel. No agricultural landowner representative has declined an invitation to join, she said.

“One of the things we’re looking at is making sure the people and organizations we invite are connected to the transportation fuel supply chain. For example, that they work with a crop that is used as a feedstock for biofuel,” she said in an email.

Washington State Conservation Commission policy director Ron Shultz said he was not aware of Ecology’s Agriculture and Forestry Carbon Capture and Sequestration Advisory Panel.

“I think it would be very beneficial to have both the commission and conservation districts involved,” he said. “We would be very interested in engaging.”

Washington State Dairy Federation policy director Jay Gordon said he too was unaware of the panel. Dairies are capable of producing renewable transportation fuels.

Gordon said he didn’t agree with the panel’s makeup, but that Washington is in the early stages of figuring out how to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

“I don’t begrudge Ecology for what they’re doing at all,” he said. “They’re a little short on ag representation — ag representatives should be in the mix — but they’re learning.”