Skagit County Commissioner Don Munks made it his mission during eight years in office to protect farmland. This pleased many supporters of agriculture in the county. As for those who were less pleased, he says he wasn’t in politics to make friends.

Munks, 62, decided to give up his seat on the board of county commissioners while he still loved the job.

“The day I walk away, I want to be as enthusiastic about being a commissioner as the day I got elected. I feel that’s where I’m at,” Munks said during an interview at his March Point home on Dec. 29.

Munks, 62, doesn’t come from a political family. His great-grandfather was a postmaster and a coroner, but that was when the Skagit Valley was hardly settled. Munks still has a phone book from his great-grandfather’s time. It has 13 names in it.

William Munks settled in March Point in 1857. He was hired by the federal government to keep the peace with the native tribes so that surveyors could map the border between Canada and the United States.

“He was the only white man allowed to live in what we now know as Skagit County,” Munks said.

William Munks brought the first draft horses to the Skagit Valley and the first cattle and grew vegetables on some of the considerable acres of land he came to own.

When Munks decided in 2000 to step outside his family’s farming and ranching tradition and run for county commissioner, it was to protect that way of life.

Munks had watched with concern as the commissioners before him established buffers on upriver farms.

Commissioner Bob Hart, Munks’ predecessor, said the commissioners believed state law gave them no choice but to establish the buffers. The commissioners did everything they could at the time to keep buffers off farms, Hart said.

“We thought we could live with a buffer on the upriver streams, especially in the forested areas. But we weren’t willing to do that (buffers) at all in the other areas,” Hart said.

Buffers are strips of land along streams or on the Skagit River that farmers aren’t permitted to use. They are intended to protect wildlife habitat, especially the river’s salmon and trout stocks.

“I saw it as an intrusion into agriculture that would cause farms to shut down,” Munks said.

Buffer issue in limbo

The buffer decision has since been reversed, and the legal status of buffers on farmland remains in limbo.

Swinomish Tribal Chairman Brian Cladoosby, who has clashed with Munks and other commissioners over protecting salmon habitat, only wanted to say good things about the outgoing county commissioner. He admitted, however, that relations with the commissioner have been strained.

“As far as salmon recovery is concerned, we have had struggles with the county over this issue for the eight years while Don was in office,” Cladoosby wrote in an e-mail. “I see no benefit to denigrate Don on his way out. We just want to thank him for his public service and wish him the best, end of story.”

Munks said his relationship with Cladoosby has been difficult, even though the two are either distant blood relatives or relatives by marriage, depending on which of them explains the family tie.

In 2007, Munks and the other commissioners created a salmon strategy that dictates how county departments must conduct and prioritize their work to benefit salmon.

“It’s just that one tribe doesn’t want to give us credit for what we’ve done,” Munks said.

Munks has tried to balance growth and the preservation of open spaces. But he also has his detractors when it comes to growth management.

Munks has been associated with a South Fidalgo planning group’s decision to consider 2.5-acre zoning on the island — a decision so unpopular it derailed the South Fidalgo planning process.

Despite the association — Munks appointed some members of that group — the commissioner said he wouldn’t have approved such a proposal.

“I would have never been in favor of a flat 2.5-acre density. I’m not in favor of any flat, one-size-fits-all (zoning),” Munks said. “What I envisioned was neighborhoods getting together and talking about what they did and didn’t like and what their neighborhoods could accommodate. … That never happened.”

Munks advocated the “smart growth” concept, which encourages self-contained communities that enable people to work, live and play in the same place. These communities are transit- and bicycle-friendly and are also endorsed by environmental groups.

Munks takes his environmental stance about as seriously as his commitment to agriculture.

“What I would most like to be remembered for is trying to bring a balance between what needs to be done for fish, the environment and agriculture,” he said.

Environmentalists

Munks and the environmentalists may seem odd bedfellows. Then again, the Republican doesn’t exactly identify with those who take on the environmentalist label. He sees them as city-slickers who don’t know what living on the land is about.

“They moved to Skagit County, they bought their 5 acres of paradise, but they never learned how to take care of that,” Munks said.

“They don’t understand what rural life is all about, how we grew up taking care of what we owned.”

Ellen Bynum, director of Friends of Skagit County, wouldn’t comment on Munks’ environmental record. The organization monitors county land-use decisions and has sued the county over some of those decisions.

The organization “doesn’t comment on individual commissioners, as a general rule,” Bynum wrote in an e-mail to the Skagit Valley Herald when asked about Munks.

Past President June Kite delivered a prepared statement instead.

“When (Friends) met with the county commissioners, they were always open to discussion. Open dialog is a part of their public duty as elected officials. The commissioners were always willing to listen whether they agreed with Friends’ position or not,” Kite wrote.

Munks was responsive to the concerns of the cities and towns of Skagit County when he voted a year ago to cede authority over the solid-waste system to a city-county governance board.

This was a step toward repairing the damage caused by one of his earlier votes.

Years before, Munks had cast the deciding vote in a controversial decision to allow more than one transfer station in the county. Munks voted with then-Commissioner Ted Anderson, whose friend, Ray Sizemore, stood to benefit because his company was proposing to build a second transfer station.

The cities overwhelmingly opposed a second transfer station because they were still paying off bonds for a failed incinerator at Ovenell Road.

Anacortes Mayor Dean Maxwell was one of those who believed the cities’ trust had been violated by the commissioners’ decision.

“I’m grateful that Don has been supportive of a governance board for solid waste. I didn’t agree with he and Ted when they decided to allow a second transfer station. I’m hopeful we’ve got a better system today than we had back then,” Maxwell said.

Munks said Anderson’s relationship with Sizemore was not relevant to his vote. Rather, Munks believed Sizemore’s company, Cimarron Transfer and Recycling, could improve recycling. Munks would like to see Skagit County eliminate the waste it sends to the landfill by recycling as much of it as possible and by converting the rest into energy.

A family decision

A proposal to spend $10 million to upgrade the county transfer station on Ovenell Road will be on the governance board’s agenda soon. To Munks, the proposal represents the status quo and a continuing lack of commitment to recycling.

“I think anybody who does vote for it is irresponsible,” Munks said.

Munks won’t be among those casting that vote. Starting this week, fellow Republican and farmer Ron Wesen will be in his seat.

The beginning of the end of Munks’ political career came when he suffered a heart attack in October 2007. Doctors had to insert stents into two arteries to restore proper function to his heart.

Although he’s in good health now, Munks isn’t looking back. His family helped him decide not to run for a third term over the holidays a year ago.

“Their priority was me, not anything else,” Munks said.

But Munks might not disappear from the public scene. He applied with the Governor’s Office to be director of the Department of Agriculture.

Munks is always associated with farming. At a public meeting held in his honor on Dec. 16, county Administrator Tim Holloran called Munks a “gentleman farmer” whose leadership skills included both the sincerity of the gentleman and the no-nonsense attitude of the farmer.

Munks was always interested in the well-being of the people who worked for him, Holloran said.

“That’s real leadership. It shows you really care about people,” the administrator said.

Munks was also unafraid to take an unpopular stance.

“You hold your ground. You believe in certain values, and I appreciate that,” Holloran said.

“I think that’s what people ask for in a commissioner.”

* Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .