Audubon Washington Report: 2003 Legislature Worked Overtime

Nina Carter is the policy director for Audubon Washington in Olympia. Prior to Audubon, she worked for several state agencies: ecology, parks, fish and wildlife and Office of Marine Safety. From 1990-94, she served on the Olympia City Council.

We knew our legislators would be working overtime this year because of the budget shortfall, but we did not plan on two special sessions! At first, the Legislature finished their regular session on April 27 and went into a two-week break. Then they came back for a “rolling special session” which meant that only some legislators were in Olympia; the remainder were on call for specific votes.

The second special session started in early June and focused on a $2.8 billion budget shortfall and how to cut state programs. The programs and citizens hit hardest were home health care workers, those in need of publicly-subsidized health insurance, and teachers. Keeping Boeing in Washington was the main topic of discussion during the last week of session.

Unfortunately, during the last hours of the special session, three water resources bills were passed. The environmental community, including Audubon, opposed all three bills. The bills do not support our environmental values of keeping water in streams for healthy riparian habitats for fish, birds and wildlife.

HB 1466: Natural Science, Wildlife and Environmental Education. Education Partnership Fund Act creates a grant fund for nonprofit organizations to promote environmental education. Audubon would use these funds to create partnerships between our chapters and centers with local schools and teachers. But, the next step is to find new funding to put into the account. Audubon has already started working with environmental educators and schools to research available funding.

HB I095:Assisting Small Forest Landowners create new standards to maintain and repair forestland that will be logged by small forest owners. Audubon worked closely with forest owners to make sure roads, culverts and re-planting standards would protect habitat for birds. The Department of Natural Resources has already drafted administrative codes that will be available for public review this summer. If you are interested in these regulations, please contact Audubon Washington’s Olympia office at 360-786-8020 or DNR at 360-902-1000.

Several bills on Wildlife and Nature Tourism were signed by the governor. They were of high interest to both the Senate and House economic development committees. Audubon supported bills to promote nature tourism and coordinate between wildlife and tourism state agencies and nonprofit organizations. Legislators were very impressed with our Birding Trail Program and want to support future trails.

Many Growth Management bills came primarily from the Senate to reduce standards for growth management. Audubon worked as a team with other environmental organizations to defeat all detrimental GMA bills. The last remaining problem is a provision in the Operating Budget allowing Ferry County to “opt out” of planning under the Growth Management Act. As of today, the governor has not signed the bill to implement the Operating Budget, so he still has time to veto that provision in the budget. We’ve sent emails and letters urging him to do so.

Regulatory Reform bills were proposed to eliminate Washington state environmental standards in favor of federal standards and delayed rule-making authority for state agencies. As with growth management, Audubon worked as a team with others to defeat these bills.

Prohibition of Lead Shot was a hot issue for several weeks because Rep. Ruth Kagi was appalled at the high number of trumpeter swan deaths in Skagit County. She introduced a bill to outlaw lead shot, but the bill didn’t make it out of the House. The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife countered that they already have the authority to outlaw lead shot.

They’ve done so on 20,000 of their 800,000 acres and are studying other areas to determine where old lead shot has accumulated. Audubon will work through WDFW to keep up the pressure to study appropriate areas and then outlaw lead shot.

SHB 1698: Use of Gas Tax Funds for Off-Road Vehicle and Non-Highway Recreational Uses. This bill created a task force to re-examine how a portion of our gas taxes should be spent on trails on our public lands. Right now, a majority of the earmarked gas tax funds go toward roads and trails for off-road vehicles. However, a recent study by Washington state demonstrated that more people are driving to our natural areas for passive recreation or watchable wildlife or birding, not for off-road vehicle use.

With this new information, the state has an opportunity to re-direct some of the gas taxes toward passive recreation uses. The task force will form early this summer to start talking about what is a fair and equitable split in the existing gas tax earmarked for trail projects.

SSB 5179: Body Gripping Traps was a controversial bill that was opposed by the Humane Society and several Audubon chapters. The governor vetoed this bill.

Although each agency will make “administrative cuts,” the final budget does contain funding for many of Audubon’s priority projects:

•$402,000 for two years for shorebird monitoring studies;

•$180,000 for one year for lead shot and bird mortality studies in Skagit County;

•Over $1 million appropriated to three agency budgets for Spartina control;

•$900,000 in authority to spend Duck Stamp revenues for habitat restoration on WDFW lands;

•$850,000 to maintain good habitat and control invasive weeds on WDFW’s wildlife area;

•$2 million for local governments to update their Shoreline Management Act regulations;

•Funding restored to the Growth Management Hearings Boards and program staff;

•$3 million appropriated to the Conservation Commission for the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program;

•An oil spill rescue tug finally funded after a 10-year fight to protect our Olympic Coast and Strait of San Juan de Fuca;

•The Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program has a total of $45 million appropriated (not $30 million as originally thought) and out of that amount, Audubon will work with a local landowner near our Dungeness River Audubon Center to buy a large parcel of land across from the center.

Josh Baldi from the Washington Environmental Council summarized problems with the water bills. He did a great job of getting to the heart of the matter (see article below). Over the summer, Audubon and others in the environmental community will discuss strategies for the next legislative session to address these bad water bills. Stay tuned! §