Day: February 14, 2022

Among our top legislative priorities this year is the Keep Washington Evergreen proposal from the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The bill establishes a target of conserving by 2040 a million acres of working forests and reforesting another million acres, especially in burn-scarred areas and urban communities with disproportionately low tree cover.   

Between 2007 and 2019, Washington lost 400,000 acres of forestland to development, and the loss is on track to top a million acres by 2040. On top of that, more than 4.5 million acres have burned in wildfires since 2010. As we lose these forested landscapes, we lose the benefits they’ve provided to us for generations: water cooling and cleaning, fish and wildlife habitat, cleaner air, carbon sequestration, recreation opportunities, health benefits and more. For every acre of forestland lost, it gets that much harder to maintain rural livelihoods, fight climate change, save salmon, preserve our water supply and ensure widespread access to nature. 

A natural next step

With DNR’s 20-year Forest Health Strategic Plan setting a 1.25-million-acre restoration goal and the Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration and Community Resilience account established through HB 1168 providing the funding to achieve it, the Keep Washington Evergreen proposal builds on a successful model of putting targets into statute, committing to a plan for meeting those goals, and identifying the new and existing tools to help make them a reality.  

Sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Christine Rolfes and Shelly Short (SB 5633), and in the House by Reps. Kirsten Harris-Talley and Jacquelin Maycumber (HB 1895), Keep Washington Evergreen aims to stem the alarming loss of forests here in the Evergreen State. Building off a model used for wildfire resilience and forest restoration, which culminated last year in the unanimous passage of House Bill 1168, this bipartisan proposal directs DNR to create a plan for the conservation and reforestation of Washington’s highest-priority landscapes. 

Nature for Climate

We have a lot to do to restore Washington’s forests to healthier, more resilient conditions, including incentivizing forest management approaches that best contribute to Natural Climate Solutions (NCS). Keep Washington Evergreen cannot and should not address all forestland priorities, but it’s a key piece of the puzzle. And we know our state has the ability to tackle multiple challenges at the same time. That’s why it’s so important for the Legislature to lay out a framework to retain the values of maintaining forests as forests, rather than turning the land over to other uses — and to do so without delay.  

A recent TNC and University of Washington study found that, along with extending timber harvest rotations and better managing agricultural croplands, avoided conversion of forests is a key pathway to fighting climate change in Washington. Together, these three NCS pathways could account for 4% to 9% of Washington’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.   

URBAN TREES Where they’re Needed most

Increasing urban tree canopy, especially in places disproportionately impacted by pollution and climate change, is also a major priority. The physical, mental and social health benefits of trees are many and varied, but they’re also unequally distributed. Trees help cool down urban areas by providing shade and cleanse the air of particulate pollution. Increasing equity in urban tree cover by adding trees in neighborhoods that need them most will help improve public health in overburdened communities and help move Washington toward environmental justice. 

Your voice makes a difference

Click the button below to craft a message to send to your legislators in support of Washington’s forests and urban trees — it’s quick and easy, and you’re helping create a brighter future for people and nature!

Speak Up to help Keep Washington Evergreen

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Banner photo: At work at TNC’s Ellsworth Creek Preserve. Photo by Chris Crisman.

Current Sign-In Opportunities

Check back soon!

When the Legislature went virtual for last year’s 2021 session, lawmakers and advocates alike had to make adjustments. Some were difficult (nobody likes to sit on Zoom all day every day!), but others were great moves for access and transparency. One of the best things to come out of an all-online session was how easy it is for everyday Washingtonians like you to speak up in support or opposition of a bill.  

This year you have the same level of access to the legislative process: it’s all available online if you know where to look. 

One of the key moments for a bill moving through the legislative process is its public hearing in a legislative committee. That’s when lawmakers on that committee get to hear from folks across the state about their opinions on that bill.  

We ask you to “Sign in Pro” to signal your support of a bill we think you, as a friend of The Nature Conservancy, are likely to support.  

Hearings happen nearly all day, nearly every day during the legislative session, but we’ll only ask you to sign in for our top priority bills – ones we think have the potential to really make a positive difference for nature and people in our state. 

Signing in pro tells the members of that committee that you support a bill. It doesn’t require you to prepare a speech or write a letter – you just enter your name, address and “pro” position on an online form, and that’s it! The committee chairperson will see your name on a list of supporters, which is a key way for them to understand how voters feel about a given proposal.  

There are strict deadlines for signing in on a bill. You must be sure your position is recorded before the committee meeting begins. And your sign-in is only good for that one committee meeting. If the bill is successful and moves to another committee, we may ask you to sign in pro again to help keep it moving through the legislative process!  

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Current Sign-In Opportunities and deadlines

Learn more about each of the bills below and our other 2022 legislative priorites.

Keep Washington Evergreen: Senate Natural Resources, 1/20

We wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important: Your voice makes a difference. Thank you for speaking up for nature this session!

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Banner photo: Signing the Yellow Island Visitor Log by Heather van Steenburgh.

It’s hard to imagine a Washington without salmon.  

We owe it to ourselves, our neighbors and to future generations to recover salmon populations in Washington. We’re also obligated under the federal Endangered Species Act and through treaties with sovereign tribal nations, not only to make salmon recovery a priority, but to succeed in these efforts.  

Governor Inslee has proposed a salmon recovery package that could make a big difference as we work together to ensure salmon have a fighting chance. With a policy proposal for improving habitat and cooling off Washington’s salmon-bearing rivers and streams, a grant program to support habitat restoration and a framework for accountability and adaptive management, the Lorraine Loomis Act (SB 5727/HB 1838) is the linchpin of the Governor’s proposal. 

An environmental community priority

The Lorraine Loomis Act is one of four priority bills for the statewide Environmental Priorities Coalition (EPC), a group of more than 20 organizations advocating for a healthier Washington for all.

Learn more about EPC

Named for the late chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, and developed through Centennial Accord efforts of treaty tribes and the Governor’s Office, the Lorraine Loomis Act will protect and restore riparian habitat — the trees and plants along riverbanks that are critical to healthy water quality, river shape and temperature for salmon. The bill would require that rivers in priority watersheds are bordered by a band of trees and vegetation wide enough to effectively cool and clean the water. It includes incentives and cost-share provisions to assist landowners, particularly Washington’s farmers, in making needed changes. A $100 million riparian grant program established in the bill is meant to help farmers and other landowners ensure the waterways on the properties they own and manage have the healthy vegetation and cooling shade salmon need to survive. Additional future funding, from state, local, and federal sources, will also be essential to support these stewards of working lands.

Speak Up for Salmon: send your reps a note

Riparian reforestation reflections

Read a guest essay from a University of Washington graduate student on what she learned about adding trees to riparian areas through a TNC research partnership last summer. 

Budget support for innovative water solutions

Another major source of salmon-killing pollution is the stormwater running off our highways, bridges and other paved surfaces. We’re advocating for requests in all three supplemental budgets — operating, capital and transportation — to support innovative, scalable solutions for water.

For instance, the Governor’s salmon recovery proposal supports the launch of a new Community-Based Public-Private Stormwater Partnership Program, which would support collaborations like the one at the foot of Seattle’s Aurora Bridge. The Aurora Bridge Bioswale, completed in 2021, now filters two million gallons of stormwater annually, cleaning out toxicants before they reach Lake Union – and it serves as a model for additional projects across the state. Check out our new video about the project to see why we’re urging the Legislature to create and fund this partnership program.

An innovative public-private partnership is making major progress to clean up polluted stormwater along a busy transportation corridor — and this is just the beginning.

Zeroing in on stormwater pollution hotspots

There’s no denying the connection between the fate of salmon and the sustainability of our transportation system. The Nature Conservancy’s new stormwater heatmap tool illustrates this link and drives home the need for more creative efforts and public investment – while showing us where we can get the most bang for our buck.  

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“We didn’t set out to map highways. But when you map pollutants, it turns into a highways map.”

Cleaning up polluted stormwater is clearly an urgent imperative – both for recovering salmon populations and for continuing to provide clean drinking water for people in our growing region. As the Legislature considers funding a transportation package for Washington, investments in stormwater retrofits must be included.  

putting Federal Funds to work

The Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act that passed late last year included major funding to help salmon recovery efforts, thanks to the efforts of Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Derek Kilmer. The National Culvert Removal, Replacement and Restoration Grant Program – and a billion dollars in funding for it – will help transportation agencies fix fish passage barriers that impact salmon. Governor Inslee’s proposed state funding would help leverage these federal dollars to do more, faster.

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Use your voice to speak up for salmon

With an all-virtual legislative session this year, it couldn’t be easier to share your support for salmon recovery with lawmakers. Use the button below to send your senator and representatives a message in support of salmon recovery.

Send your legislators a note

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Banner photo: Coho salmon in the Sol Duc River by Adam Baus.

Sign in Pro to support Conservation Futures

The Conservation Futures bill (HB 1672) is in the House Finance Committee. Let those committee members know you support it by adding your name at the Committee Sign in page before the hearing on January 18.
(Not sure how this works? Here’s what “sign in pro” means.)

We all know — especially after the past couple of years — that access to the outdoors is crucial public health infrastructure. Everyone needs a place to get outside, take a deep breath, exercise, play.

Washington’s Conservation Futures program has helped counties across the state ensure and expand access to parks and open space for residents for more than 50 years. But as our population grows and property values climb, a conflict in the law authorizing Conservation Futures threatens to erode the utility of the program for counties.

Small fix, big difference

House Bill 1672 clarifies an ambiguity in existing state law to restore local control for the conservation of parks, farmland and forests, allowing local jurisdictions like counties to use the property taxes they already collect however it works best for their communities — including for conservation.

Working together

Washington’s Conservation Futures program is an important source of matching funds for federal dollars from programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is responsible for protecting some of our state’s most precious outdoor places. Take a quick photo tour of just a few of the stunning spots LWCF protects in our state.

Speak up for local conservation capacity

Your voice makes a difference. Help ensure communities across Washington continue to have access to parks and open spaces by signing in “pro” before the House Finance Committee hearing on January 18.

Learn more from the Conservation Futures Coalition

Sign in Pro before 1/18 House Finance Committee Hearing

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Banner photo by Breanna Oakley.

A newly completed bioswale at the foot of Seattle’s Aurora Bridge now removes pollutants from stormwater running into Lake Union. Myriad partners from public agencies, private businesses and nonprofits collaborated to make the Aurora Bridge Bioswale a reality, with major pollution-cleanup benefits – this piece of green stormwater infrastructure filters two million gallons of runoff each year. Projects building off this model could make an even bigger impact – including a proposed bioswale under Seattle’s I-5 bridge that could filter more than 900 million gallons of stormwater annually.  These types of projects are an important part of tackling pollution.  

Wherever vehicles drive over impervious surfaces, tiny particles of tire dust wind up in the water running off roadways when it rains, entering our waterways along with other toxic pollutants. Recently, scientists from Washington State University, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of Washington Tacoma discovered that one chemical present in all types of tires – 6PPD – is particularly harmful to salmon. While there is no known replacement for 6PPD, we do know that green stormwater infrastructure – like bioswales and rain gardens –is effective at removing this and other harmful substances from runoff. 

Watch the video below to learn more about the innovative approaches TNC and partners are taking to combat stormwater here in Washington. 

Thank you to the partners that made this possible: 

• Boeing 

• Clean Lake Union 

• Department of Commerce  

• Hess Callahan Grey Development 

• KPFF 

• Salmon Safe 

• Stephen C. Grey and Associates 

• The Nature Conservancy in Washington 

• Weber Thompson 

• Site Story

• Adobe 

• City of Seattle 

• Fremont Dock Company 

• Groundspeak/Geocaching 

• Hal Real Estate 

• Hess Callahan Partners 

• Parametrix  

• Rushing 

• Spear Street Capital 

• Tableau/Salesforce  

• Turner Construction Company 

• Washington State Legislature 

• Washington State Department of Transportation

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