The Washington State Legislature is nearing the end of a legislative session defined by budget deficits and deep uncertainty. With House and Senate budget proposals now on the table, legislators are at a critical decision point for how they will guide our state into the coming years.
Read on to learn the latest on The Nature Conservancy’s top three priorities, highlights from this year’s Trustee Lobby Day, and what we’re tracking in the House and Senate budget proposals.
Checking in on TNC’s Priorities this Session
1. Establishing a Prescribed Fire Claims Fund (HB 1563)
This bill is well on its way to becoming law this session. HB 1563 was voted off the state House floor last month with a bipartisan vote of 96-1. We are gearing up for a final vote in the state Senate before the bill goes to the governor’s desk for signature.
This policy would address one of the biggest barriers to expanding the use of prescribed fire to restore Washington forests—liability risk. Having a state-funded claims fund not only gives private landowners and Tribal Nations a safety net in the rare case of an escaped fire, but it helps to incentivize more insurers to join the market. Our TNC partners in California and Oregon worked to create similar programs in their own states last year, with great success so far.
The House included $2 million in their proposed budget as an initial pool for the claims fund. Considering the tough budget year we are facing, we are pleased to see this funding allocated and hope the final budget will reflect this once the bill passes.
2. Budget Funding for Forest Health & Wildfire Resilience
In 2021, the Legislature committed to investing $500 million over four biennia to address the state’s crises of forest health and extreme wildfires. These funds focus on three core areas: Preventing extreme wildfires, restoring forest health, and helping communities prepare and be resilient in the face of wildfires. Thanks to these preventative investments, Washington has been able to keep 95% of fires under 10 acres over the last 10 years, restore hundreds of thousands of acres of forests with tree thinning and prescribed burns, and bring resources to local efforts to save lives and protect communities.
Both the state House and Senate budget proposals have fallen short of the commitment of $125 million for this work. The Senate proposal includes $84 million, and the House budget includes $40 million. Shortchanging this state funding at a moment when we are facing federal cuts to wildfire will have compounding effects and put communities at serious risk.
At a lower funding level, we are concerned there will be far too few resources available to prevent the forest conditions that create extreme fires and to protect communities from risk. With the community resilience grants in particular, a little goes a long way to keep Washingtonians safe. Visit our Instagram to see examples of home protection projects, bilingual public wildfire preparedness classes and many more critical projects that could be at risk.
Even in a tough budget year, these investments are fiscally responsible. As Rep. Tom Dent shared for The Seattle Times, “You have to recognize there are times when you spend money to save money. This is one of those times.”
3. Accelerating Clean Energy & Transmission Siting
To meet Washington’s climate goals, we need to rapidly expand the amount of renewable energy infrastructure in our state—and do so in a way that protects ecosystems, communities and Tribal sovereignty. There are a few pieces of state legislation moving forward this session to make this possible.
We are especially interested in SB 5466, which would help build a critical piece of the clean energy puzzle—transmission! (Wondering what the heck transmission is? Learn more here.) SB 5466 would create a Washington Electric Transmission Authority, which would streamline planning and investment in transmission lines, ensuring the clean energy grid is reliable, efficient and environmentally responsible. This bill is currently waiting for a final vote on the state House floor before going to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
We are also pleased to see the state House and Senate budgets allocate funding for a Tribal Collaborative to create an energy-siting toolkit. This would help to accelerate the buildout of clean-energy projects by proactively avoiding areas of conflict with Tribal rights and interests. This project is led by the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and we are encouraged to see it fully funded in both budgets.
This is without a doubt the toughest budget year our Legislature has had to face in recent history. Washington state is currently facing a $15 billion budget shortfall, at a time when there is increasing uncertainty about federal funding. New revenue proposals are on the negotiation table, and there will be a lot of work needed to come to consensus before the April 27 deadline.
The Nature Conservancy is a longtime advocate for many of the foundational programs that fund big ecosystem-scale restoration projects, maintain the recreation spaces we love to enjoy and protect communities from disaster risks. Here are the foundational natural-resource programs we are tracking; this includes information on where they stand in the current budget proposals:
| Program | Advocate Request | House Budget | Senate Budget | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community Forests (Recreation and Conservation Office) | $26m | $9.39m | $3.12m | ||
| Floodplains by Design (Department of Ecology) | $84m | $59.6m | $75.7m | ||
| Trust Land Transfer (Department of Natural Resources) | $30m | $17.05m | $13m | ||
| WA Coastal Restoration & Resiliency Initiative (Recreation and Conservation Office) | $9.65m | $5.8m | $9.6m | ||
| WA Wildlife & Recreation Program (Recreation & Conservation Office) | $120m | $120m | $120m | ||
| Yakima Basin Integrated Plan (Department of Ecology) | $59m | $49m | $53m |
Trustee Lobby Day: A Day of Action for Nature and Climate
With so many challenging dynamics and shifting landscapes on the horizon, it was energizing to spend a day with five of our dedicated TNC trustees in Olympia last month. We met with eight legislators from both sides of the aisle, key budget writers and the newly elected governor, Bob Ferguson. The conversations ranged from sobering to inspiring as we discussed our priorities and vision for building climate resilience within the context of deep budget challenges.
With difficult funding decisions ahead, the voices of our trustees helped reinforce the importance of staying the course on these critical environmental investments. We are grateful for the energy and passion they brought, and for the chance to share the amazing work our colleagues and partners are doing across the state.
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