Honeybees, Jackson County, and the Oregon Department of Revenue:  A Saga

Contributed by SOBA President John Jacob of Old Sol Bees

Honeybees are the backbone of our modern agricultural economy. Essential pollination services are provided to growers of key cash crops such as nuts, berries, tree fruits, and innumerable seed crops by Oregon’s commercial beekeepers. Together these crops keep farmers, pickers, packers, and retailers employed, as well as food on our tables. Honeybees are the key to making all of this happen. Unfortunately, honeybees are under attack on many fronts including pesticides, mites, diseases, and extreme habitat loss. Given the current state of affairs, one would wonder why Jackson County and the Oregon Department of Revenue would seek to disqualify honeybees as acceptable farm use.

This story really begins in 2000 when Jackson County sought to disqualify a 1,700 acre farm in Ashland that hosted 3 apiaries of 50 to 60 hives each (Young v Jackson County). The bees were used in pollination and substantial honey production, and the land was maintained with pollinator habitat in mind. After a brief trial, the landowners and beekeepers prevailed and a solid legal precedent was set for the County and State to uphold the letter of the law. Oregon state law defines honeybees as livestock and states that “…farm use is defined as employment of the land for the primary purpose of obtaining a profit in money by feeding, breeding, managing, or selling livestock, poultry, fur-bearing animals, or honey bees or the produce thereof.”

Subsequently in 2012, on a different piece of land in Rogue River, another Jackson county tax assessor again sought to remove 20 acres of a 40 acre farm from EFU special tax assessment because they were asserting that honeybees were  insufficient use to qualify as farm use based partly on soil type. Despite over triple the number of hives per acre than in the previous case in 2000, and the fact that the legal minimum annual farm income requirement was met consistently by the Whedes (Whede V Jackson County), the County only agreed to grant a mere one acre of farm use for the physical size of the apiary. At the trial, Jackson County argued that honeybees were not the “…highest and best use of the land” due in part to the soil type and water rights.

The “highest and best use” phrase is from the administrative rule book and not the letter of the law. There is not a “highest and best use” requirement in the letter of the law. Further, one could argue that a pollinator sanctuary where hives are raised for pollination and queens are reared to start hives for the beekeeping industry would be the best possible use for this dry land farm. Apiculture adequately serves the intent of the law and substantially furthers Oregon’s overall agricultural economy. Unfortunately, this time the County successfully argued that, due in part to soil type, the farm was not in proper use and the judge, citing out of state legal precedent, upheld the disqualification of the Whede’s property from EFU special assessment.

This dangerous ruling set precedent and removed incentive for landowners to give beekeepers access to their land for apiaries and infringed on the right of landowners to farm the livestock or the crop of one’s choice. The ruling was devastating and a big shock given the great public awareness about the current plight of honey bees and other pollinators and our favorable legal precedent in 2000. The stated intent of EFU zoning laws is to preserve farmland, and despite apiculture being the backbone of agriculture and very low impact on the land, we were going to be forced to farm something else or pay much higher taxes. The potential negative impacts of this ruling were so dire that the Whedes and Old Sol Apiaries vowed to keep fighting and filed an appeal to fight for our rights as landowners and beekeepers.

The appeal would not happen for almost another long year until August 26, 2013 (Whede v Jackson County & Oregon Department of Revenue). We were able to obtain excellent legal representation from “Oregonian’s in Action” attorney Lynn Stafford for this trial. John Jacob and Dewey Caron were the expert witnesses for the Whedes and the all day trial in Salem seemed to go extraordinarily well. We were able to demonstrate very significant downstream economic contributions to our agricultural economy though beekeeping and raising queens and the importance of clean forage. Jackson County’s witness had a very difficult time fielding the judge’s questions and seemed to anger the court at times. Despite this apparent success, it still took the about 14 months for the judge to make the ruling that struck down the disqualification of the Whede’s property and permitted an EFU special assessment.

Judge Breithaupt’s ruling will clearly be good for beekeepers, pollinators, landowners, and Oregon’s agricultural economy. Further, we now have at least two legal precedents in Oregon that demonstrate beekeeping is an acceptable farm use.

One may be tempted to savor the sweet nectar of victory and the rule of law in this case, however a somewhat bitter tinge is left behind regarding the waste of taxpayer’s dollars by the County and the Department of Revenue. The ORS statutes are very clear and most laypersons would recognize the letter and the intent of the law and that the law explicitly states honeybees are livestock and acceptable as farm use. One can only hope that Jackson County assessors and the Oregon Department of Revenue can do the same and in the future make better use of our tax dollars.

Related article: What does Jackson County and the Oregon Department of Revenue Have Against Bees?