IATC Leaders Advocate for Land Conservation in Olympia
The revitalized and fully funded Trust Land Transfer program will provide resources for land conservation across the state of Washington, including 99 acres on West Tiger Mountain.
Kelly, Anne, and Doug at the state capital
On Thursday, January 26th, IATC President Anne Newcomb, IATC Vice President Kelly Jiang, and former Mountains to Sound Greenway President Doug McClelland headed down to Olympia to meet with legislators about an important statewide conservation program called Trust Land Transfer (TLT).
TLT has been critical to the conservation of special places throughout the state of Washington, including West Tiger NRCA (Natural Resource Conservation Area) and Mt. Si NRCA here in our backyard in the Issaquah Alps. Revitalizing the program will allow more of these special places to be protected.
The lobby day was organized by Jim Freeburg, a professional legislative advocate, who has been spearheading the campaign to revitalize the TLT program over the last two years. Citizens from several legislative districts around the state attended and met with their legislators to ask for their support on House bills (HB) 1423/1460 and Senate Bill (SB) 5372, which formalizes the TLT program, as well as for an allocation of $25 million in the capital budget to fund the TLT program.
What is Trust Land Transfer?
TLT advocates from around the state met with Senator Rolfes (center, 6th from L in green blazer) to thank her for her leadership on Trust Land Transfer. In addition to citizen advocates, several county commissioners attended to show their support.
But first - let’s take a step back. What is Trust Land Transfer anyway? As the name may suggest, it relates to transferring lands from DNR’s “trust,” which is operated to generate revenue, to other uses such as conservation. Currently, DNR oversees over 2 million acres of forested trust land, and is legally required to operate the trust land to generate revenue for junior taxing districts, such as school districts, hospital districts, library districts, and fire districts. Typically, for forested trust land, revenue is generated through logging, although there are some pilot projects to generate revenue through innovative methods such as forest carbon credits.
However, there are some parcels of trust land that are better suited to non-logging uses, such as recreation or conservation. For instance, the West Tiger NRCA (Natural Resources Conservation Area) and Mt. Si NRCA were formed several decades ago as a result of earlier TLT projects. In recent years, the funding for TLT has dwindled, even though there are still a number of land parcels around the state that are eligible for Trust Land Transfer.
Historically, the legislature allocated money to the DNR to do TLT projects, but there was no official program. The legislative bills HB 1423/1460 and SB 5372 would formalize the TLT program within DNR and establish a transparent public process for selection and prioritization of parcels for Trust Land Transfer. Once the land is transferred to a different agency, such as state parks or a county park system, DNR will go out and buy new forest land to replace the transferred land, to ensure that the trust is “made whole” and able to continue generating revenue for its trust recipients. To do so, it is imperative that the legislature allocates $25 million from its capital budget for the next biennium to fund the 10 highest-priority TLT projects that have been identified. A 99-acre parcel on West Tiger Mtn. is on that list. This patch of land on the north side of the mountain is visible from I-90 and has trees over 120 years old. Soderman Creek, a salmon-bearing stream, also flows through it.
Meeting with Legislators
From L to R: Rep. Lisa Callan, Doug McClelland, Kelly Jiang, Anne Newcomb, and Rep. Bill Ramos
Anne, Kelly, and Doug met with both of the state representatives from Washington’s 5th Legislative District, Lisa Callan and Bill Ramos. The 5th Legislative District includes Issaquah, Maple Valley, parts of Sammamish, and stretches south to Black Diamond and Enumclaw. Kelly presented some of the basics of the TLT revitalization, and Doug answered Lisa and Bill’s detailed follow-up questions about the specifics of the program.
The entire advocacy contingent also met with state Senator Christine Rolfes, who represents Bainbridge Island, to thank her for her sponsorship and championing of SB 5372 and the TLT program.
Finally, there was a committee hearing in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks in the afternoon, where Doug McClelland and many others testified in favor of SB 5273 to formalize the TLT program. Thanks to many of our supporters, including you, who supported the TLT bill, there were a grand total of 591 people who signed in “pro” to support TLT, compared to only 10 who signed “con” against the TLT bill. That shows quite overwhelming (98%!) public support for increasing public funding for land conservation!
What’s next?
Now, the House and Senate bills need to be passed out of their respective committees to be considered by the whole legislature. Jim Freeburg is tracking this closely for IATC and our partner organizations who are working on getting this important conservation program across the finish line. IATC will continue to monitor progress on TLT and keep our supporters in the loop about any opportunities to get involved in advocacy. Please feel free to reach out to Kelly Jiang, Chair of IATC’s Advocacy Committee, if you are interested in getting involved and learning more.