To say Heather Hansen is a golf lobbyist is the truth, but not the whole truth.
It might even be fair to ask if there’s really a such thing as a “golf lobbyist”?
Hansen is a contract lobbyist, a registered member of the so-called Third House that sets up shop in Olympia when the Washington State Legislature is in session. Right now, when lawmakers are in town, is when she earns her pay.
Her clients, most of them, are professional associations related to agriculture – Washington Friends of Farms and Forests, the Washington State Fairs Association, the Cattle Producers of Washington, to name a few.
The business of agriculture, to adapt a phrase, is business. The golf industry is no different.
“Golf courses are fundamentally small businesses,” Hansen said.
For many golf courses, revenues are way down, so issues such as taxes and the cost of unemployment insurance are as pressing as for any business.
Hansen, of Olympia, comes by her agriculture connections honestly. She grew up in 4-H and FFA, and went on to get a Bachelor of Science in animal science and a master’s in adult and continuing education, with an ag emphasis, from Washington State University. She worked as a county extension agent through Utah State University and the University of Arizona.
If the primary definition of agriculture is the growing of cash crops, golf is not agriculture.
But golf courses are about growing things, especially grass, so when the Legislature turns its eyes to lawns and turfgrass, Hansen goes on alert.
Last week, the state Senate’s environment, water and energy committee had a first hearing on Senate Bill 5194, which would protect the water quality of lakes by restricting the use of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus.
Proponents of the bill (including Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County, among its broad list of sponsors) are a coalition of environmental groups headed by the Washington Environmental Council.
The bill says lawn fertilizer contributes to excess phosphorus in surface waters, which can stimulate the growth of weeds and algae and have toxic environmental, health and aesthetic effects.
Hansen did a little coalition-building of her own. Her main golf client is the Western Washington Golf Course Superintendents Association, whose executive director, Paul Ramsdell, testified against the bill before the committee Friday.
Also represented in the hearing room – either live or through Hansen – were the Washington State Nursery and Landscape Association, the Sports Turf Managers Association and WSU Extension.
The United States Golf Association lent its weight, in the person of Larry Gilhuly, director of the USGA’s northwest region.
“Lobbying is all about education,” Hansen said, “about explaining things.”