Month: February 2022

by Molly Bogeberg, Marine Conservation Manager

When you shuck an oyster, you likely enjoy the briny meat and toss the shell to the side. However, for the oyster industry and the native oyster restoration community, discarded Pacific oyster shells are highly valued. When shellfish farmers shuck Pacific oysters on a large scale, they hold on to and reuse the discarded shells. The shell piles build over time into giant mounds that bake in the sun until the shells are free of any live tissue. These “seasoned” shells are used to stabilize farm roads and to re-grow Pacific oysters back in the water. The shells are also prized by restoration groups looking to restore native Olympia oyster populations.

Olympia oysters are the only native oyster found in Puget Sound and along the Washington Coast. While they were once plentiful along shorelines, their populations have seen steep declines over the past 100 years due to overharvesting, competition with non-native shellfish, and water quality issues. Tribes, restoration groups, the shellfish industry, and state agencies have been working together to bring back the Olympia oyster. Finding and acquiring oyster shells is one big piece of the puzzle to help rebuild Olympia oyster reefs.

For Tribes and groups like The Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF), Olympia oyster restoration begins with collecting adult oysters from the Sound, allowing the adults to spawn in the hatchery, collecting and rearing oyster larvae, and then either allowing the larvae to settle on shells as they would in nature or raising the larvae into single oysters.

Oyster shells can also be spread out on mudflats where Olympia oyster reefs once existed, allowing oyster larvae floating with the tides to drop down and settle. Once the larvae settle on the shells, they grow into adult oysters that can spawn and eventually build into an oyster reef.

To support shellfish farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic and Olympia oyster restoration efforts, The Nature Conservancy and PEW Charitable Trusts initiated the Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration (SOAR) program. This National program focused on purchasing unsold native oysters from shellfish growers and matching oysters with existing restoration efforts. Since shells are critical to native oyster restoration in Washington, SOAR extended the purchase program to include Pacific oyster shells. Over the past two years, we’ve been working with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and PSRF to coordinate the purchase of over 800 cubic yards of Pacific oyster shells from Taylor Shellfish as well as Northern Oyster Company with help from Goose Point Oysters. Once seasoned, these shells will be used by PSRF to expand their Olympia oyster restoration efforts in the Puget Sound.

Watch the video below to see the oyster shell delivery in action!

Footage courtesy of Nick Gendron

Learn more about the SOAR program

Banner photo by Courtney Baxter/TNC

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Speak up for nature this session

Learn what it means to “Sign in Pro” — one of the quickest, easiest ways to show your support for a bill moving through the Legislature.

Washington’s state Legislature convened today for a 60-day session. In even-numbered years like 2022, lawmakers focus on relatively small budget requests, “fixes” and limited policy proposals. But there’s still a lot happening! Coming off the major successes for nature and people in 2021 – including groundbreaking laws for addressing climate change, working toward environmental justice and increasing wildfire and forest resilience – there’s important work to be done both to ensure these new policies are implemented successfully and to carry forward additional important efforts for an environmentally and socially resilient future for Washington. 

Protecting Natural and Working Lands

In the past two decades, more than a million acres of open space — forests, farmland, ranches and urban tree canopy — have been converted to other uses, damaging fish and wildlife habitat, diminishing our ability to address climate change and negatively impacting human health. Several of our priorities this year seek to stem the loss of irreplaceable natural and working lands and ensure our state is empowered to plan more thoughtfully for the years to come.

• The Keep Washington Evergreen proposal from the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) would establish targets and action plans to conserve 1 million acres of working forestland and reforest another million acres of urban tree canopy and recently burned areas by 2040, prioritizing adding trees and green space in overburdened communities. Healthy, resilient and accessible forests promote environmental and community well-being and are one key solution to climate change.

Learn more about Keep Washington Evergreen from DNR

• Washington’s Conservation Futures program has allowed counties to permanently protect open space, farmland and forests, and to build and maintain parks and trails. But land protection costs have increased significantly over the half-century the program has existed. A limit on annual levy growth means the voter-approved rate is effectively compressed, constraining the ability of Conservation Futures funds to meet local needs. A legislative fix would restore local control over the levy rate, allowing local jurisdictions like counties to better balance conservation and other priorities.

Learn more From THe Conservation Futures COalition

• A loophole undermining the state Growth Management Act allows counties to subvert the Growth Management Hearing Board appeals process and prematurely permit development that devours or damages farmland, forests and wildlife habitat. Closing the loophole is a top priority for all of us in the Environmental Priorities Coalition.

• With funding, the Farmland Protection and Land Access program can facilitate the creation of agricultural easements to help prevent conversion of farmland for other uses and assist new and beginning farmers, especially those from underrepresented groups, as they take on ownership and stewardship of agricultural land. We’re supporting a capital budget request from the State Conservation Commission to help this program work in concert with the Farmland Protection and Affordability (FarmPAI) revolving loan fund.

Environmental priorities coalition 2022

Each year, we get together with more than 20 other environmental groups to advocate for a slate of shared priorities. The Lorraine Loomis Act, closing the Growth Management Act sprawl loophole and passing Transportation for All are all on this year’s list.

Salmon Recovery

Despite the best efforts of many across our state, salmon species continue to be threatened and on the brink of extinction. We owe it to ourselves, our neighbors and to future generations — and we are obligated under the federal Endangered Species Act and through treaties with sovereign tribal nations — to recover salmon populations in Washington.

Advocate with the EPC

• The Lorraine Loomis Act will protect and restore riparian habitat — the trees and plants along riverbanks that help to improve water quality and regulate temperature. Developed through Centennial Accord efforts of treaty tribes and the Governor’s Office, the Lorraine Loomis Act establishes riparian zone standards for landowners in priority watersheds, along with incentives and cost-share provisions.

• Budget support for salmon recovery efforts is critical, but dedicated funding has been a missing piece of the strategy. We’re advocating for requests in all three supplemental budgets — operating, capital and transportation — to support riparian habitat restoration and protection and clean water, including investing in public-private partnerships to advance innovative green stormwater infrastructure solutions.

Implementing 2021’s big wins

In 2021, the Legislature enacted four important laws marking big progress for addressing climate change (the Climate Commitment Act and Clean Fuel Standard), working toward environmental justice (the HEAL Act) and resilient forest communities (the Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration and Community Resilience Act).

To ensure effective implementation of the Climate Commitment Act (CCA), in 2022 we’re advocating for:

• enhanced investments for air-quality monitoring in overburdened communities;

• a specific tribal consultation process for CCA expenditures;

• the establishment of an Office of Climate Commitment Accountability to govern implementation of the new law;

• clarification of emissions-reduction pathways for emissions-intensive, trade-exposed industries.

Community Policy and Budget Priorities

We’re working closely with diverse partners across the state to advocate for strategic investments and policies that make sense for Washington — and make a difference for nature and people. This year, we’re asking the Legislature to:

• Update the Growth Management Act to help local governments plan for climate change;

• Expand clean and fair energy infrastructure;

• Pass a transportation package that invests Climate Commitment Act revenue, federal infrastructure dollars and additional revenue in transportation decarbonization and climate resilience strategies;

• Prioritize recent federal funding toward safe and clean drinking water;

• Fund the Sustainable Farms and Fields grant program to help farmers tackle climate change.

Help make it all happen

Make sure you’re signed up for our advocacy emails to stay up to date on time-sensitive opportunities to speak up for these and other policy priorities throughout the session and beyond.

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Banner photo: Skykomish River near Index, WA by James Brooks.

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.