SEQUIM — Dungeness farmer Nash Huber continues to farm and operate his grain and seed business while he faces eviction from Delta Farm for alleged violations of his lease agreement with Washington Farmland Trust, formerly PCC Farmland Trust.
Family and friends held a benefit for him featuring food, music, a silent auction and more on May 17 at the Sequim Prairie Grange to help him with medical expenses and legal fees.
Co-organizer Lynette Brown said Huber, 84, has been saving farmland all his life.
“He’s thinking for the future and he always has,” she said. “His health has changed, and we wanted to help him as a community. He has a lot to offer … and this has been his life’s work.”
Huber signed a 30-year-lease on Delta Farm, 1888 Towne Road, that goes through Dec. 31, 2032, to farm on the property.
Huber’s eviction went to Clallam County Civil Court on March 14 but was dismissed without prejudice by judge Simon Barnhart because the Farmland Trust wanted more time to clarify Huber’s attorney’s request to cure the lease violation.
On April 23, Huber was reissued a Notice to Cure, and he had 10 days to remedy the alleged violations.
Melissa Campbell, executive director of the Washington Farmland Trust, wrote via email that Huber doesn’t have an official eviction date, and they’ll file pleadings again with the court in the coming weeks.
Campbell said no violations have changed in the court documents.
“(Complaints) all still relate to the multiple conservation easement violations that the (Department of Wildlife) flagged last year, along with violations flagged by the Puget Sound Clean Air agency,” she said.
“After more than a decade of documented lease and conservation easement violations, agency citations, and unresolved community concerns, our decision to pursue lease termination and eviction was made as a last resort.
“Unfortunately, despite repeated efforts to collaborate on solutions — including offers of financial support and a phased transition — the tenant has remained unwilling to make necessary changes, leaving us with no viable path forward.”
Karen Huber, Nash’s sister, said they responded to the Trust’s attorney, and most alleged issues were resolved last summer, such as moving a fence back onto the property as it was a few feet off the property, removing pigs and burning a slash pile.
According to the trust’s website, complaints from neighbors and community members about Huber date back 10 years, but they weren’t formally documented until 2021 by the state Department of Ecology related to water quality violations pertaining to livestock and derelict vehicles.
Some progress has been made to resolve the violations, but water quality violations have not been resolved, the trust’s website said.
In May 2024, Department of Fish and Wildlife staff cited Huber for violating a conservation easement regarding livestock management, derelict vehicles and large debris on the property.
If Huber is evicted, Washington Farmland Trust staffers write on their website that they’d “keep the farm working as an agricultural property.”
In a previous interview, Campbell said via email that the Trust offered Nash Huber more time to vacate and they’ve offered financial assistance, but he’s been “largely unresponsive” to negotiate an agreed upon departure date.”
At the benefit dinner concert, Huber said the support from the community was very emotional.
“I’ve spent my whole life farming and community is important to me, and this is an expression of community,” he said.
Neighbor Derrick Eberle said he has known Huber his entire life and feels Huber has preserved a lot of farmland through leasing property.
“It gives owners a reason to keep farming,” he said.
Karen Huber said he’s “farmed all over Dungeness, and he’s saved more farmland than anybody.”
His organic farming business farmed hundreds of acres at its peak in the early 2000s, and he trained more than 100 local farmers.
However, he pivoted his business model in recent years to selling seeds after trumpeter geese ate about $150,000 in crops in 2019, and his farm store closed and moved in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the Trust’s website, staff write that there’s nothing Huber can do now to reverse the decision to seek his eviction.
“Given the legal constraints, damages to the property, and the lack of communication from the tenant, we feel there is no other path forward than to pursue lease termination and eviction,” staff write.
“While we have had cooperation from family members to address some of the earlier violations, we are now at a point where the tenant has not been willing to communicate, meet, or discuss the terms of the lease violation.
“To date, the tenant has not taken us up on our offer to mutually agree upon a timeline or accepted our offer of compensation for supporting the transition off of the property. Given these conditions and the lack of communication from the tenant, we believe there is no path forward to remedy this situation.”
Staff added that the decision wasn’t made lightly and comes “after many years of extending a hand to (Huber) as a partner and collaborator with little to no progress.”
Karen Huber reiterated in a phone interview that they will continue to fight the eviction.
“We have no choice,” she said. “It’s his home.”
Information on Nash’s Organic Produce can be found at nashsorganicproduce.com.
For more information about Washington Farmland Trust, visit wafarmlandtrust.org.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
