When Seattle entrepreneur Roy Arms went looking for a place to grow recreational cannabis a few years ago, few spots looked as promising as the Wenatchee Valley. Straddling the banks of the Columbia River, three hours east of Seattle, the valley had everything Arms needed for his Seven Hills Farms greenhouse operation: abundant sunshine, ample irrigation water, and hydroelectric power sixty percent cheaper than Seattle’s. And Chelan County officials seemed to genuinely embrace legal weed. “Back then, they just said, ‘Look, it’s agriculture – just come in and farm,’” recalls Arms, taking a break from harvesting what he describes as a “monster crop” on his acreage a few miles from Wenatchee. “And I thought that was great.”
Arms wasn’t the only farmer feeling the love. When the state legalized cannabis four years ago, many county and city officials across north-central Washington embraced the new industry. The result was a gold rush of prospective cannabis farmers eager to tap the region’s ideal growing conditions. By early 2015, Chelan, Douglas, and Okanogan counties collectively boasted almost 100 grow operations responsible for more than a quarter of the state’s total recreational crop. With dozens of additional farming operations awaiting local approval, the future looked bright for a region some were already calling the “Napa Valley of outdoor grows”.
But it wasn’t all blue sky and sunshine. There had also been hints of trouble from the start. As cannabis farms began popping up on either side of the Columbia River, some residents began to complain. They disliked the ugly security fences, the glaring floodlights, and especially the strong skunkweed odor of flowering plants. At one county commission hearing, an elderly couple claimed they’d been unable to sell their home due to the smell from the farm next door. By late 2015, local sentiment had turned so sour that all three counties slapped moratoriums on new farms, effectively putting the brakes on all industry expansion. County officials began reconsidering their earlier embrace of the new industry. Today, the industry remains in the farming equivalent of a hiring freeze. Nobody’s getting shut down—yet—but no new cannabis farms are allowed in the three most fertile counties in Washington. “We’re not necessarily going to outlaw” cannabis farms, Douglas County Commissioner Steve Jenkins told a local newspaper earlier this year. “But our neighborhoods are going to be protected.”
And it would get worse. In January of this year, Chelan County announced that cannabis farms that had already been approved—and into which growers and investors had poured millions of dollars—might be forced to alter or even cease operations. “It hit me pretty hard,” says Arms, who joined other growers in a lawsuit against the county. “I’ve put so much into this and to think that someone could take it all away from me with just a stroke of a pen.”
