Farmers and Conservationists Form a Rare Alliance

By JESSICA KOWAL
Published: December 27, 2006

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — The standoff here between farmers and environmentalists was familiar in the modern West.

With salmon and wildlife dwindling in the Skagit River Delta, some environmentalists had argued since the 1980s that local farms should be turned back into wetlands. Farmers here feared that preachy outsiders would strip them of their land and heritage.

This year, though, the standoff ended — at least for three longtime farmers in this fertile valley, who began collaborating with their former enemies to preserve wildlife and their livelihoods.

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