Conservation, by Tim Manns

Prevent repeal of the Climate Commitment Act: Vote No on Initiative-2117)

In addition to candidates for local, state, and federal offices, this November’s ballot will have several initiatives needing your informed consideration. Governor Inslee’s leadership has put Washington in the forefront of states taking legislative action to stem human-caused climate change and address its effects. Passing ballot initiative I-2117 would undo Washington’s significant progress. Use this Audubon Washington link to volunteer to help defeat I-2117: https://act.audubon.org/a/sign-page-campaign-defeat-i-2117.

  The Department of Ecology’s website explains, “In 2021, the Washington Legislature passed the Climate Commitment Act (CCA), which establishes a comprehensive, market-based program to reduce carbon pollution and achieve the greenhouse gas limits set in state law… The cap-and-invest program sets a limit, or cap, on overall carbon emissions in the state and requires businesses to obtain allowances equal to their covered greenhouse gas emissions. These allowances can be obtained through quarterly auctions hosted by Ecology, or bought and sold on a secondary market (just like stocks and bonds).” (Cap-and-Invest - Washington State Department of Ecology).

 Other legislation has committed Washington to reducing carbon emissions by 95% by 2050. The CCA, with its incentive for the largest carbon emitters to progressively reduce those emissions, is the major tool for achieving the mandated reduction. This market-based program generates the revenue that is funding projects across Washington to address the many impacts of climate change and further reduce emissions.

 Last year a wealthy California transplant to the Sammamish Valley spent six million dollars paying signature gatherers to collect enough names to bring six initiatives to the legislature. During this year’s session, the legislature passed three of those initiatives but decided not to act on the remaining three. Those three will subsequently appear on the ballot. One initiative deals with the state’s long-term care program, another would repeal the capital gains tax which applies only to approximately 4,000 wealthiest Washingtonians, and the third, Initiative 2117, would repeal the Climate Commitment Act (Initiative 2117.pdf (wa.gov)).

 The idea that the CCA has forced petroleum companies, already reaping record profits, to raise gasoline prices has been the subject of many news reports. Wherever the truth lies, the reality of human-caused climate change urgently requires action even if it means paying a bit more for fossil fuels while they are still in use. And there is no guarantee that repealing the CCA will lower gasoline prices, only that it will slow the transition away from fossil fuels and exacerbate climate change.

CCA-generated revenue funds projects across Washington to address climate change and its effects. For an overview of what repealing the CCA would mean, see https://no2117.com/the-costs-of-i-2117/. For a map of CCA-funded projects: Home – Risk of Repeal (cleanprosperousinstitute.org)  (Projects in Skagit County: Skagit County.pdf - Google Drive).

 Nearly 400 groups statewide, including Audubon Washington and many Audubon chapters, have joined the No on I-2117 campaign to prevent repeal of the Climate Commitment Act: Home | Vote NO on Initiative 2117 (no2117.com). Other environmental groups, small businesses, corporations, labor organizations, Tribes, and many more are part of this effort.

 The CCA’s cap-and-trade carbon tax system is the most significant element of Washington State’s efforts to slow and reverse human-caused climate change and all it portends for birds and us. Please join the effort to prevent passage of reality-denying I-2117. Follow this link https://act.audubon.org/a/sign-page-campaign-defeat-i-2117 to sign up to help.

 Updating City and County Comprehensive Plans

Under Washington’s Growth Management Act Skagit County and its towns must update their Comprehensive Plans every ten years. These plans are policy documents describing the community vision for population growth, housing, employment, transportation, capital facilities and utilities, parks, recreation and open space, rural areas, and protection of natural resource lands. Skagit County’s update is due next year. Recent legislation requires updates to address the causes and effects of climate change, something Skagit County has not already done. See 2025 Skagit County Comprehensive Plan Update, which includes instructions on how and when to comment and much other information on this important planning project. Skagit Audubon is tracking the progress of the update and will comment as needed to ensure that the needs of birds and other wildlife and their required habitat are addressed appropriately including in considering climate change and its effects. The full draft of the Comprehensive Plan update and related code amendments is to be released for public comment later this year or in early 2025.

 Keep in mind that Skagit County’s leaders chose not to address such looming climate change effects as sea level rise in the nearly completed update of the Shoreline Master Program. At a June 2024 open house for public information and comment on the Skagit County’s Comprehensive Plan update, I commented on:

• The need to increase the number and acreage of county parks, particularly ones protecting habitat and providing the public with opportunities to experience natural settings.

• That the long-accepted Comprehensive Plan goal of preserving Skagit County’s “rural character” must include protecting undeveloped habitat as well as agricultural lands.

• The importance of planning for undeveloped corridors to benefit wildlife movement.

• Opposing allowing so-called Fully Contained Communities, an issue on which Skagit Audubon has been allied with a broad spectrum of conservation and agricultural organizations over the last few years.

 For information on conservation issues Skagit Audubon is following, please go to the conservation notes on the chapter website at:  https://www.skagitaudubon.org/conservation-notes-letters

Migratory Birds of the Americas Conservation Enhancements Act

by Tim Manns

At least 390 bird species breed in North America and winter in Latin America or the Caribbean. Stemming decline in the populations of these migratory species requires protecting their habitat and addressing other problems they face at both ends of their annual journey and at stopover sites along their migratory paths. The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 2000 created a matching fund to spur projects to protect these migratory species with most of the funds to be spent south of the United States. Last June, with this act about to expire, our Second Congressional District Representative Rick Larsen joined colleagues on both sides of the aisle in a bipartisan bid to renew and improve this program. On April 9th of this year the Migratory Birds of the Americas Conservation Enhancements Act (H.R.4389) passed the House.  The bill then moved to the Senate where on April 17th it passed on a voice vote.  With the Senate very closely divided, passing on a voice vote implies ample support for the bill from both parties. This bill reauthorizes an annual appropriation of $6.5 million and increases the federal cost share for grants from 25 percent to 33.3 percent. As with the earlier bill, at least 75% of the funded projects must be in Latin America, the Caribbean, or Canada. Find the bill report at CRPT-118hrpt439.pdf (congress.gov).

Prevent repeal of the Carbon Commitment Act (I-2117)

By Tim Manns

At the state level, Audubon Washington in concert with other conservation organizations is organizing to prevent repeal of Washington State’s arguably most important climate legislation, the Climate Commitment Act of 2021 (CCA). This act created a carbon market in Washington setting up a financial incentive for the state’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases to progressively reduce their climate pollution. Revenues which the system generates are funding a host of projects and programs addressing the effects of climate change. All these will end if the CCA is repealed.

Last year a lone individual in the Seattle area spent millions for paid signature gatherers to collect the thousands of signatures needed to bring six initiatives to the legislature. During its session earlier this year, the legislature passed 3 of those initiatives but decided not to act on the remaining three. Those three will appear on this November’s ballot, and among them is I-2117 to repeal the CCA (Initiative 2117.pdf (wa.gov)). The idea that the carbon tax has led petroleum companies, already making record profits, to raise gasoline prices has been the stuff of many news reports. Wherever the truth lies, the reality of human-caused climate change urgently requires action even if it does mean paying a bit more for fossil fuels while they are still in use. The CCA’s cap-and-trade carbon tax system is the most significant element of Washington State’s efforts to slow and reverse human-caused climate change and all it portends for birds and us. Please join the effort to prevent the passage of this reality-denying initiative. Follow this link https://act.audubon.org/a/sign-page-campaign-defeat-i-2117.

For information on conservation issues Skagit Audubon is following, please go to the conservation notes on the chapter website at Skagit Audubon Society - Conservation Notes.

Survival by Degrees

by Tim Manns
At this writing in mid-March two Whooper Swans first noticed weeks ago in fields along Chuckanut Drive west of Burlington are still visiting Skagit County. Thanks to Jeff Osmundson’s good directions, I joined many other birders adding this species to the avian wonders we have seen so close to home. Whoopers nested on Attu Island in the Aleutians in 1996, but most of these near Trumpeter-sized swans inhabit northern Asia and Europe and only rarely visit North America. Of the world’s six swans in the genus Cygnus, there in my narrow scope view were three: a Whooper posed in front of a Tundra and, to the side, a juvenile and adult Trumpeter. It was a dramatic reminder of the avian diversity we can experience in the Skagit. When this Skagit Flyer issue reaches you, the swans will probably have left for their respective breeding grounds: Trumpeters to inland Alaskan or Canadian lakes, Tundras further north to, yes, tundra ponds along the Arctic coast of Alaska and Canada, and the Whoopers back to northern Asia or Europe where they came from, venturing all the way to Skagit’s pastures and potato fields. We know that the presence of swans, ducks, and geese can impose financial burdens on Skagit’s farmers, and we appreciate those who tolerate the waterfowl spectacle the Skagit hosts each winter. Skagit’s present capacity to support huge numbers of ducks and geese and more Trumpeter Swans than any other county in the Lower-48 depends on the bays, marshes, and remaining inland habitat and also on agriculture.

Whooper Swan

Photo credit:  Whooper Swan, Digital Nature Scotland/Shutterstock

National Audubon’s Survival by Degrees: 389 Species on the Brink (Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink | Audubon) is a powerful reminder that climate change has drastic implications for many birds as their ranges shift and, often, shrink. Will swans find the Skagit a good place to winter in the future? Will these far-northern breeders find their necessary conditions for reproduction so changed that nesting failure becomes common? Look at Audubon Washington’s and National Audubon’s legislative priorities and note the pervasive focus on bills and funding to address climate change. These human-caused changes are the foremost threat to birds just as they profoundly threaten people and all life as we know it.

Climate Commitment Act

In 2022 Washington State implemented the Climate Commitment Act (The Climate Commitment Act: Washington’s path to carbon-neutrality by 2050 - Washington State Department of Ecology). This established a cap and trade program as a financial incentive for the state’s largest greenhouse gas emitters to reduce their carbon pollution. The generated revenues fund projects to transition away from fossil fuels and build the climate resilience of Washington’s communities. The act’s effect on gasoline prices is the subject of heated debate. As a member of the Environmental Priorities Coalition, Audubon Washington supported SB 6052 requiring oil companies to reveal the factors behind gasoline prices and industry profits. The bill stalled in the Senate Ways and Means Committee and is dead for this session. Paid signature gatherers have accumulated enough names for an initiative repealing Washington’s most important climate-related law, the Climate Commitment Act, to appear on next fall’s ballot.

Another Audubon priority, HB 2049, would have required reduction in product packaging and revamped Washington’s recycling system. This bill did not meet the cut-off deadline for a vote on the House floor and will not receive further consideration this session. Companion bills to promote community solar projects (HB 2253 / SB 6113) did not make it out of committee.