A group of petitioners, led by a Cuarteles farmer, is trying to block a lease that would allow a company to grow genetically modified poplar trees at the Prince and Carter Ranch in Española. But according to City Attorney Frank Coppler, it’s too little, too late to petition an ordinance that was passed by the City Council at a Nov. 21, 2013 meeting.
Camino de Paz Farm Director Greg Nussbaum submitted a petition to the city Feb. 24 protesting the lease between the city and Ealasid, Inc., which intends to grow poplar trees genetically modified to produce rose oil.
Above each first page of signatures, the petition states in large font, “WE FEEL THIS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED MATERIAL THREATENS OUR ECOSYSTEM AND OUR ABILITY TO MAKE A LIVING AS FARMERS AND RANCHERS.”
The petition goes on to state that the trees will threaten the native poplar population, which includes cottonwood, willow and aspen.
Despite previous assurances from Ealasid officials that the genetically modified poplar trees would be cut before the tree can spread their seeds and affect their non-native species, Nussbaum said it was impossible.
“Once they put it in the ground, the damage is done,” he said.
Despite the strong language, Coppler said the petition is invalid in more ways than one.
He said state statute allows people to submit a petition 60 days after an ordinance has passed. Since the ordinance approving the lease was passed Nov. 21, 2013, Nussbaum and the rest of the petitioners had until Jan. 20, 2014 to protest the decision.
The petition was dated Feb. 24.
Additionally, Coppler said the petition needed to have signatures from 15 percent of Española’s 5,964 voters. Out of the 81 signatures obtained for the petition, only three people list their address as being in Española, while another person lists an Española area code without an address, well short of the approximately 895 signatures needed.
The rest of the signatures are comprised of people who live in other cities and areas or farmers who did not list the address of their farms.
Coppler said a successful petition would have put the issue up to vote during the March elections.
“We could have put it in the municipal election if they had been timely,” he said. “People, under the law, could have voted on it.”
With the petition window closed, Coppler said there isn’t any more legal action Nussbaum or the petitioners can take.
Even with no legal avenue left for the petitioners, Nussbaum said he will continue to collect signatures on a petition that continues to grow as it’s distributed among various farmers markets.
“We’re going to continue to collect signatures forever,” he said.
Eric Vasquez, who is facilitating the project between the city and Ealasid as a manager with the Regional Development Corporation, said he met with some of the petitioners when the city held a series of public meetings prior to the passage of the ordinance.
Vasquez said genetically modified organisms suffer from a poor reputation because previous companies didn’t have proper regulations in place.
“There is really no way this could go bad, in my opinion,” he said.
Vasquez said Ealasid owners Keith Jones and Norman Lewis currently operate a similar poplar field in Washington that is successfully regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Vasquez said that once the poplars are planted in Española, they will be regularly monitored by the Department at Ealasid’s expense.
If petitioners can’t block the lease between the city and Ealasid, then they could be dealing with genetically modified poplars for up to three decades.
A previous report states that unless Ealasid fails to pay rent to the city, Jones and Lewis can continue to renew the contract every 10 years up until 2044. If the Ealasid lease is a problem for locals, North Prince Drive residents haven’t expressed that sentiment publicly. The Nov. 21, 2013 public hearing featured multiple North Prince residents verbalizing support for the project.