05:59 PM PST on Friday, November 11, 2005

By GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News

FIR ISLAND, Wash. - Paying farmers to stay put is the idea behind an effort under way in Skagit County. It's part of an overall strategy to keep one of the region's last rural strongholds from being rolled over rapid development.

Paying farmers to stay put is the idea behind an effort underway in Skagit County. It's part of an overall strategy to keep one of the region's last rural strongholds from being rolled over rapid development.

Fir island is one of the few places where Western Washington is clinging to the way it used to be.

"Many people refer to this as the magic Skagit and I think they do so for very good reasons,” said Bob Carey of The Nature Conservancy. “It's incredibly productive farmlands and so rich in fish and wildlife species here."

"Ninety percent of the shorebirds and 70 percent of waterfowl in Puget Sound are in this Delta in the winter time. It’s a remarkably abundant area."

KING

The Skagit Valley is rich in productive farmlands and fish and wildlife species.

But now, under incredible pressure from soaring development in the region, residents like Dave Hedlin, a third-generation farmer, are selling out but not to developers.

The farmers are teaming up with conservation groups and the federal government to fight off a common enemy: Western Washington's rapid rural development. And the feds are offering money to keep the farmers farming.

"Absolutely encouraging them, because they are an important part of the landscape both in conservation and cultural terms and something we want to hold on to here in Puget Sound," said Michael Rylko of the Environmental Protection Agency.

"As a farmer, once the development rights are sold or extinguished, you don't have to worry about development, you can go on to other things," he said.

Like farming, the EPA is convinced farming and natural habitat can co-exist as they have for years in this land etched out of the Skagit delta with a network of sloughs and canals. That's if they make a few improvements.

One way to do that would be to widen the sloughs like Fisher Slough here by moving back the dikes that hold them in place. That would give it more room to absorb and store the annual flood waters.

It won't be easy to do. But for the first time, the farmers, conservation groups and government who watch over this land are working together to protect it.

The Skagit River Project is one of just 12 areas nationwide to receive federal grants this year for watershed protection.