Letters Sept. 15

Elberton project

I am the owner of the property in Elberton where Eco Logical Research, Inc., will be installing the bio-engineered bank stabilization project on the Palouse River. I am also the President of the Whitman County Cattlemen’s Association. I would like to clarify erroneous statements in last week’s article regarding the project. Livestock will not be blocked from the river at the completion of this project. We have almost a quarter of a mile of shoreline and the project is a fraction of that length. The project area will be excluded from use with the exception of project maintenance, once it is installed.

We purposely waited for state conservation commission money to be available for funding this project because it does not impose unnecessary permanent livestock exclusionary fencing of the river. Other funding sources for producer projects carry much stricter land use restrictions such as the Department of Ecology grant money.

As stewards of our natural resources, we recognize the importance of clean water for everyone but know and understand riparian grazing is a better tool for the maintenance of our river corridors than exclusionary fencing.

Kim Weerts,

Garfield

(Last week’s Gazette article derived from a State Environmental Protection Act draft which incorrectly listed the project’s ban on animal access.)