Proposed state budget includes elimination of Division of Agriculture

State agriculture activities including the award-winning “Alaska Grown” marketing program are being eliminated or sharply curtailed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy as a part of major state budget reductions.

The state Division of Agriculture is also being eliminated, a spokesman for Dunleavy said. Its office in Palmer will be closed. The division’s plant materials center is also being reduced.

Alaska Grown helps farmers get products into major retail stores in the state, boosting sales, has won national agricultural marketing awards and is being copied in other states.

The plant materials center cultivates native plants and grasses needed for site restoration at mining, oil and gas and state transportation projects.

In an email, Dunleavy spokesman Matt Shuckerow said, “The Governor’s budget will consolidate the Division of Agriculture into the full Department of Natural Resources. Several of its programs, including a number of programs critical to the agriculture community, will be transferred and/or absorbed within the department. Based upon the recognition that the agriculture community is important to Alaska, the Governor’s budget maintains a number of high priority programs within the division while also finding efficiencies and cost savings in underutilized or severely underutilized programs.”

In a letter to Department of Natural Resources employees obtained by the Frontiersman, DNR Commissioner Corri Feige said the agricultural land sales program will be consolidated into the state Division of Mining, Land and Water, that state recorders’ offices in Palmer, Fairbanks, Kenai and Juneau will close with it functions consolidated in the Anchorage recorder’s office, and that the state agricultural loans will be merged with other state loan programs.

DNR will reduce its workforce by 22 current employees, Shuckerow said.

Sources familiar with the changes said remaining functions of the division will move to an office in the Atwood state office building in Anchorage.

In her letter, Feige said, “As we all know, the state continues to face budget challenges brought on by low oil prices and a lagging economy. It is critical that state expenditures equal revenue, and that we avoid taking hard-earned money from Alaskans,” through new taxes.

The commissioner said she and DNR leaders have worked with the state Office of Budget and Management over the last six weeks on a reduced budget.

“Our goal was to better align align DNR’s programs with our core services, and to identify opportunities for efficiencies so we can match our limited resources to our most critical missions,” through eliminating non-essential programs, Feige said.

Division of Agriculture programs to be absorbed into the full Department of Natural Resources will include:

• Phytosanitary Timber Inspections for timber export market opportunities

• Invasive Plants and Pest activities to identify, prioritize and treat terrestrial and freshwater invasives

• Seed Production, Cleaning and Testing of grass seed used for reclamation and revegetation projects, and seed potatoes to produce virus and disease-free stock that are the foundation of Alaska’s potato industry.

• Agricultural land sales that foster food security and economic development by selling state land to individuals and businesses engaged in agriculture