SEQUIM — Longtime Sequim-area farmer Nash Huber faces eviction from Delta Farm in Dungeness that he helped preserve and where he operates his grain and seed business.
The 83-year proprietor of Nash’s Organic Produce, at 1888 Towne Road, received a notice in mid-September that states he faces eviction today if he doesn’t sign a lease termination agreement with the property’s owner, Washington Farmland Trust, formerly PCC Farmland Trust, for allegedly violating easement agreements and local and state laws.
Huber previously agreed to a 30-year lease that goes through Dec. 31, 2032, to farm on the property.
Huber declined to comment, but his sister, Karen Huber, who has helped him manage the farm in recent years, said they’ve sought legal action to stop the eviction process.
“They have to come and say we haven’t done something they’ve asked,” Karen Huber said. “They have to prove that.”
Karen Huber said they have mediated all of Washington Farmland Trust’s concerns, ranging from derelict vehicles to issues with where pigs live.
In a Sept. 16 letter from the Land Trust’s lawyer, Dylan LeValley of Adams & Duncan, Inc. in Everett, LeValley said trust staff notified Nash Huber of identified defaults on his lease obligations on Jan. 3, 2023 and “many have persisted since.”
LeValley said in the letter that violations identified by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife breach the lease, along with local and state law.
The letter states Huber’s lease would be terminated on Oct. 31, but the Land Trust would work with him under a termination agreement that includes a managed schedule of departure from the property and payment of relocation assistance funds upon vacating the property.
If not signed, LeValley wrote that the Land Trust has the right to eviction action beginning today.
LeValley asked that Huber not resolve the violations himself as “this is a complicated process requiring careful communication with local and state officials … (and) violations are remediated in compliance with the conservation easement and state law.”
Delta Farm
Nash Huber helped organizers of the Puget Consumers Co-op (PCC) identify Delta Farm for preservation and purchase it in 1999.
For his efforts, Nash Huber was allowed to lease it through the end of 2032, his sister said.
According to Washington Farmland Trust’s website, “Delta Farm (97 acres) was the first farm to be protected by the first donors of our organization, known then as the PCC Farmland Fund.”
Nash Huber has farmed in the area for decades and is known, in part, for his preservation efforts, including suing Clallam County in 1997 for not following development regulations — which in turn led to the preservation of many acres of farmland through different groups.
His organic farming business also saw significant growth in the 2000s, farming hundreds of acres, and his sister said he’s trained more than 100 local farmers with many operating their own small farms now.
“He’s made a big difference in the Pacific Northwest and the organic movement,” she said. “It’s been the most important thing in his life to save farmland.”
Karen Huber said her brother’s first eviction notice came in January 2023, when Nash was out of the country receiving medical attention, so she mitigated the issues herself.
After a February 2023 inspection, Nash Huber was cleared of the issues, she said.
An anonymous complaint this past spring led to more alleged violations against the property’s easement, Karen Huber said, such as using pigs on the farm for grazing.
She said pigs root, not graze, and their lease agreement and a 2012 stewardship plan recognize that pigs are used on the farm and used for agricultural purposes.
However, she sold most of the pigs in recent weeks, and she plans to convert a barn into a space for the remaining pigs in the winter.
“For 20 months, every time they asked me to cut a weed down, I’ve sent them documentation,” she said.
Response
When asked about the violations, Department Fish and Wildlife representatives deferred comments to Washington Farmland Trust.
Melissa Campbell, executive director of the Washington Farmland Trust, said in an email that the organization has offered Nash Huber more time to vacate, but he’s been “largely unresponsive” to negotiate an agreed upon departure date.
Without an agreement, she said, Oct. 31 is the termination date of the lease, with an eviction process being the next step.
If not vacated, Campbell said they will file a formal eviction process in court.
Campbell said violations for Delta Farm date back to April 2021, and neighbor complaints and concerns allegedly go back for more than a decade.
“Historically we’ve stood behind the tenant and defended their land practices, trying to balance the complexities of farming with the water quality goals of the community,” Campbell wrote.
“When we received the violations from the Department of Ecology (DOE) in 2021, it became clear that the management practices on the property had changed significantly.”
She said the farm was given a notice of pre-violation in April 2021 for multiple water quality violations from the DOE relating to management of livestock and derelict vehicles being stored near the headwaters of Meadowbrook Creek.
Campbell said Nash Huber also did not pay rent for 2022, and did not make improvements to water quality, so in January 2023, they notified him of the default of his lease.
Karen Huber said she’s paid the lease through the year, resolved concerns with vehicles and livestock and contests that the creek does not go onto Delta Farm.
Campbell said they allowed Nash Huber the “opportunity to cure the default, although some progress has been made, the water quality violations have still not been fully resolved.”
She said Department of Fish and Wildlife staff, as the agency which holds the conservation easement on Delta Farm, cited Nash Huber this past May for multiple violations of the easement’s terms regarding management of the livestock on the property, derelict vehicles and large debris piles on the property.
Campbell reiterated statements from the letter to Nash Huber that the lease requires he follow local, state and federal laws and ordinances, and the conservation easement’s terms, conditions and restrictions.
“The Washington Farmland Trust has an obligation under the conservation easement to ensure compliance with the easement and to prevent harm to the farm and the surrounding environment,” she said.
The Farmland Trust’s board authorizes staff to proceed with lease termination and eviction processes, Campbell said, and Delta Farm “has been an ongoing conversation with our board and staff for the past three years and the board and staff are in alignment on this approach.”
Support
Karen Huber said she’s been encouraging supporters to write to the Washington Land Trust sharing what Nash Huber has done for them and the community, and that they need to honor his lease through 2032.
“Nash has given everything to this place,” she said. “He’s still full-time on a tractor, working on it, welding, making it an active farm.”
She said he has loans on equipment, and they’d likely have to sell and go bankrupt if he is evicted.
They’d also be unable to move operations to his other properties as they either sit on protected land or existing infrastructure isn’t large enough.
“He’s got millions of dollars of property here, and we sure as heck can’t move it in an RV somewhere,” she said. “We’d have to go and liquidate.”
Karen Huber said trumpeter geese ate about $150,000 in crops that significantly impacted the business in 2019, and in February 2020, Nash’s Farm Store in Dungeness closed, with operations shifting to a nearby packing shed.
In recent years, Delta Farm has focused on cleaning seeds and selling seeds, such as organic ground cover rye-vetch, wheat, peas and more.
If her brother is evicted, Karen Huber said, “What are we going to do with 2 million pounds of seeds?”
“Farmers will no longer have Nash doing cover crops for their needs,” she said.
Campbell said they’ve “heard the calls from some community members to reconsider our decision (but) at the same time we’ve heard from others in the local farming community who stand with and support” the decision.
“Given the legal constraints, damages to the property and the lack of communication from the tenant, we feel there are no other paths forward than to pursue lease termination and eviction,” Campbell said.
“While we have had cooperation from family members to address some of the earlier violations, we are now at a point where the tenant has not been willing to communicate, meet or discuss the terms of the lease violation.”
She said Nash Huber has not accepted their offer to “work off a timeline that works for them or accepted our offer of compensation for supporting the transition off of the property.”
“Given these conditions and the lack of communication from the tenant, we believe there is no path forward to remedy this situation,” Campbell said.
She said the nonprofit “has spent thousands of dollars in legal expenses and hundreds of hours of staff time navigating the various water quality and easement violations over the last few years.”
“The Trust has also, in some cases, provided financial support to the tenant to remedy the violations over the years as well,” Campbell said.
“Taken together, the financial impact and the significant staff time spent addressing these violations has taken a toll on our team, our capacity to deliver our mission and our budget.”
Campbell said they didn’t arrive at the decision lightly.
“It comes after many years of extending a hand to Nash as a partner and collaborator with little to no progress,” she said.
“But no matter how clear eyed we feel about the decision, we are deeply saddened by the outcome of this story given how long-held our relationship is with Nash and the vision we used to share for sustainable agriculture in the region.”
Karen Huber said she’ll do “whatever it takes to keep my brother here.”
“Since he has his lease through 2032, it’s unreasonable you’re going to move someone out in six weeks when they have a 50-year business sitting at that place, overnight,” she said.
“Nash should be allowed to live out his lease or thereabout.”
Information on Nash’s Organic Produce can be found at nashsorganicproduce.com.
For more information about Washington Farmland Trust, visit wafarmlandtrust.org.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com. Nash has no affiliation with Nash’s Organic Produce.
