Senator Barbara Boxer on Wednesday introduced the Farmland Protection Act into the US Senate, following an uninspiring hearing of the bill before a House of Representatives subcommittee last week.

"By introducing the Point Reyes National Seashore Farmland Protection Act in the Senate today, Senator Boxer is moving us a giant step forward in our effort to protect agriculture in West Marin and Sonoma counties," said Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey in a press release.

Democrat Woolsey, who introduced the bill in the House last March, last Thursday presented it before the House parks subcommittee. Members there were "mostly unsupportive" of the legislation, claimed Steve Hansen, a press aide to House Resources Committee Chairman Don Young, a Republican.

Hansen said Young, whose committee oversees the parks subcommittee, ordered the lower group to hear the bill. "He gave his word to Congresswoman Woolsey that there would be a hearing on the bill, but he's not supportive of it."

Senator Boxer may have better luck with the bill, Hansen conceded, because a Senate bill creates "a different ballgame." If passed by the Senate, the bill will return to a full House for approval - not just a subcommittee. Hansen claimed that many of the House's 435 members are "puppets for environmental organizations."

At any rate, Dan Smith, legislative aide to Congressman Jim Hansen, the Republican chairman of the House parks subcommittee, agreed with Steve Hansen that the bill isn't exactly sailing through the parks subcommittee.

Smith said no plans have been made to "mark up" the bill - that is, to amend it to make it more palatable to some members - which is typically the next step in bill's progress.

(Smith, however, had previously told The Light that the subcommittee wouldn't hear the bill at all, although it ultimately did).

Smith added that subcommittee Chairman Hansen objected mainly to Woolsey's "piggy-backing onto the Park Service budget to pass an agricultural bill," and that "she glossed over questions as to whether landowners' participation was truly voluntary."

Letters opposing the bill had been sent to Chairman Hansen's office before the hearing.

"Woolsey told Congress she had support of the majority of the landowners, and that's a lie," said Young's press aide Hansen. "She sealed her fate with that."

When called Monday to comment on the hearing, Woolsey said curtly that Senator Boxer might be introducing the legislation later in the week.

First introduced in 1993, the Farmland Protection Act would provide the US Interior Department with $30 million to buy conservation easements from willing ranchers within a 38,000-acre boundary on the east shore of Tomales Bay.

Supporters contend the bill would help protect agriculture by letting ranchers to cash in on some of the value of their land, allowing them to improve operations, buy out absentee family members, or buy more land.

However, at last week's hearing (which The Light viewed on videotape), one Congressman wondered why ranchers needed federal protection from development, since the land was already zoned for agriculture.

And Chairman Hansen asked why the Department of the Interior should funnel more money to the area, since Marin County is one of the richest counties in the nation.

Don Neubacher, Superintendent of the Point Reyes National Seashore, testified to the agreeable relations the Park Service has with ranchers on Point Reyes. He said too that Tomales Bay needs protecting because it's a nationally significant estuarine habitat for more than 50,000 shorebirds and for endangered steelhead and coho salmon.

Bob Berner, executive director of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, testified that because Point Reyes National Seashore is a "national asset and its protection and preservation a Federal responsibility, we think it is reasonable and justifiable for the federal government to share the cost of protecting the farmland which is so important to the character, quality, and environment of this enormously popular park."

If the bill does pass, MALT and Sonoma land-trust agencies would negotiate the easement deals with the ranchers.

Besides Neubacher and Berner, County Supervisor Steve Kinsey and Point Reyes Station dairywoman Sharon Doughty testified in favor of the bill.

One of the bill's main benefits is that it would provide money to help keep family farms afloat, testified Doughty, whose 773-acre dairy falls within the bill's greenbelt.

"We have four adult children who are very interested in continuing as agriculture operators. Upon my death, these funds would also help to supplement my life insurance and pay my heirs' estate taxes, so that my children would not be forced to sell the land," she told Congressmembers.

However, five landowners within the Farmland Protection Act's proposed boundary testified against the bill: Tomales ranchers Martin and Sally Pozzi, Marshall sheeprancher Donna Furlong, Marshall landowner Judy Borello, and Mary Coletti, who owns land north of Tomales.

Chairman Hansen was especially moved by the Pozzis' testimony, noted his legislative aide.

Sally Pozzi said this week, "We testified that we're for conservation easements - we already have one with MALT - but we're against becoming part of the park...

"The landowners want true ag easements through the Department of Agriculture, rather than through the Department of the Interior."

But Woolsey's bill wouldn't give the park ownership of the land, Berner explained, adding that land within the federal boundary would be managed the same way that MALT manages its easements on 38 farms around the county.

Lawful hunting, predator control, and pesticide use would still be permitted, Woolsey testified.

Marin Agricultural Commissioner Stacy Carlsen noted this week that ranchers within the Farmland belt would still have access to "a whole assortment of chemicals," including pesticides such as 2, 4-D (phenoxy herbicide) and Round-up (glysophate), as well as poison 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) for sheep collars that kill coyote.

"Our goal is to make sure that ranchers within the [Farm bill's] boundary would have the same tools as ranchers outside of it," Carlsen said.

Retired West Marin Supervisor Gary Giacomini, who launched the whole proposal in 1992, said Wednesday that Woolsey's motives are well-intentioned and that she is earnest in her desire to protect agriculture.

"The bill is the last best salvation for the ranchers. It's like a gold mine for them," Giacomini said. "I find their opposition stunning - they're shooting their own feet off."

He scoffed at the House's apparent lack of interest. "So what if there were glitches at the hearing? It's good to have bills perking, and hanging around so that you can seize the moment to pass them."

Legislation like the farm bill takes at least a decade to pass, Giacomini said, adding that "bills have a phoenix-like quality to them. They come back, and come back, and come back. As long as they're breathing, they're okay."