Washington State Legislative Session
The last few conservation reports in the Skagit Flyer newsletter (SAS Blog — Skagit Audubon Society) and conservation notes on the website (Conservation notes & letters — Skagit Audubon Society) describe Audubon’s goals during the current legislative session. The session is scheduled to finish April 27th. Of the several thousand bills introduced, a fraction will be passed. Audubon is also focused on how the biennial budget to be written during this session will affect its conservation goals.
Audubon Washington’s Bill Tracker website lays out a well-organized path to supporting Audubon’s efforts in the state legislature. Follow the steps outlined on this website: Bill Tracker: 2025 Legislative Session | Audubon Washington
To help follow through on the Bill Tracker information, here is information on how to use the legislature’s website (Welcome to the Washington State Legislature) to comment on bills prior to a committee hearing or directly to your legislators:
1. You can go to the website for each legislator and phone or email them or send a letter. Legislators are most attentive to communications from their own constituents. Go to: How to send a message to a legislator. To find your legislative district, go to Washington State Legislature.
2. You can go to the page for the particular bill (Click on Bills, meetings, and session and enter the bill number). On the particular bill’s page, find “Send a comment on this bill to your legislators” in a dark green rectangle. Communicating your opinion is particularly important when your elected official is on the committee considering the particular bill. When you find your district (Washington State Legislature), your legislators’ names will appear. Click on each name to get information about them including the names of committees on which they serve.
3. Until shortly before a committee hearing, you can register “Pro” or “Con” on a bill without testifying or you can send written comments or register to testify remotely. (Note: You cannot indicate your position preceding an executive session of the committee.) At the webpage for the particular bill, if there is a committee hearing scheduled, you will see a dark green box with the words “Sign up to Testify/Submit Written Testimony.” Click there to go to a page titled “Senate (or House) Committee Sign In.” Indicate the bill on which you wish to comment. Then “Select Type of Testimony.” Clicking on “I would like my position noted for the legislative record” will take you to a page where you can indicate you are “Pro” or “Con” on the bill but do not wish to testify. You can also choose to submit written or live testimony.
Our legislators want to hear from us, and it’s easy to contact them.
All of this is not to neglect national legislative matters during this tumultuous time in Washington, D.C. Sign up for National Audubon Take Action notices on this website: https://www.audubon.org/takeaction.
Skagit County Comprehensive Plan Update
Washington’s Growth Management Act of 1990 (GMA) requires the fastest-growing cities and counties to complete Comprehensive Plans and development regulations to guide future growth. These Comp Plans look ahead twenty years. The required ten-year update for Skagit County and, separately, for Skagit’s incorporated towns is happening now with a deadline late this year. These Comprehensive Plans address a list of required elements (e.g. land use, housing, capital facilities.). By new state law, this update must address the causes and effects of climate change and ways to make communities resilient in the face of climate change. Several Comp Plan elements are relevant to Skagit Audubon’s mission of preserving and restoring wildlife and its habitat. Our chapter commented during the public input opportunities provided so far. More are scheduled. The entire draft is now out for public review through March 13th. To review the draft and contribute comments, go to www.skagitcounty.net/2025CPA. Skagit Audubon’s focus is on the Comp Plan of its namesake county, but it should be noted that the adjacent counties plus Skagit’s towns and cities are on the same timeline to complete 10-year updates of their own Comp Plans with each having public comment opportunities.
Other Issues
For information on other conservation issues Skagit Audubon is following, please go to the Conservation Notes on the chapter website at https://www.skagitaudubon.org/conservation-notes-letters.
Brant; photo courtesy Audubon Alaska