OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee has vetoed a three-year experiment in which state and tribal wildlife managers would have collared elk in four Central Washington counties and alerted farmers when herds were nearing.

In his veto message Monday, Inslee encouraged the Department of Fish and Wildlife and Yakama Nation to enter into a cooperative agreement to collar, monitor and haze elk, rather than putting the study in a state law.

“The concern was what is appropriate for a government-to-government relationship, which is what this is,” governor’s spokesman Mike Faulk said in an email. Money to fund a study remains in the budget, he said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, called the veto “enormously unfortunate.” The Washington Farm Bureau developed the proposal to ensure farmers are involved, he said.

The study could have yielded lessons in preventing other conflicts between landowners and wildlife, including with wolves, said Van De Wege, chairman of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

“I think what the Farm Bureau worked out was spot on,” he said. “Now there’s no mandate that farmers be included.”

The study was in legislation reforming Fish and Wildlife’s program for compensating farmers whose crops are damaged by deer or elk. Inslee signed the compensation-related sections. The governor can partially veto bills.

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Staci Lehman said the department intends to enter into an agreement with the Yakama Nation, if the tribe is open to it.

The tribe did not have an immediate comment Tuesday. The budget calls for the tribe to receive $50,000 a year to fund its participation in the study.

Bill authorized data sharing

The focus would be on collaring elk nearest farmlands in Fish and Wildlife’s south-central management region, Lehman said. Benton, Franklin, Kittitas and Yakima counties make up the region. 

“The intent of the pilot project would be to help farmers through training and education to more effectively deploy hazing techniques in an effort to prevent crop, fence and property damage from elk,” Lehman said.

The vetoed section would have authorized Fish and Wildlife to share collar data to keep farmers informed of the whereabouts of elk.

“The veto was disappointing, to say the least,” Farm Bureau government affairs coordinator Caleb Gwerder said. “Without that data-sharing agreement, farmers are going to continue losing the battle with their crops.”

Compensation pot doubled

The compensation reforms, signed by Inslee, were requested by Fish and Wildlife. The department’s legislative director, Tom McBride, told lawmakers the program has been overwhelmed by claims for the past few years.

Any farmer putting in a claim now won’t be paid until 2027 at the earliest, he said.

The bill includes one-time funding of $184,000 to catch up on claims and doubles to $300,000 the amount Fish and Wildlife will have annually to compensate farmers.

For the first time, however, payouts for a single claim will be capped at $30,000.

In 2021, an administrative law judge awarded a Skagit County blueberry farm nearly $90,000 and another farm more than $36,000, leaving little money for other claimants.

Claims will be prioritized based on the scale of the loss. This will favor small farmers whose dollar losses are less than large operations, but whose losses represent a larger percentage of the farm’s income.