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Washington Lawmakers Consider 'Net Ecological Gain' Requirement by Don Jenkins Capital Press, February 17, 2022

"It's a big, dumb buffer."
-- Jay Gordon, Washington State Dairy Federation

OLYMPIA -- Washington lawmakers are considering delegating broad powers to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to write salmon-protection rules, requiring all publicly funded projects to have a "net ecological gain."

Farm groups warn the standard, yet to be defined, will discourage farmers and ranchers from signing up for conservation programs supported by public funds, especially if they have to please Fish and Wildlife.

"It will decimate partnership in conservation programs," Washington State Dairy Federation director Dan Wood told the Senate Local Government Committee on Wednesday.

"The department has been in favor of massive swaths of land being taken for riparian management zones," said Wood, testifying against House Bill 1117.

The bill would require cities and counties to make salmon recovery a goal. To achieve the goal, public projects would have to achieve net ecological gain, as judged by Fish and Wildlife.

If a city remodeled a library, it would have to show a net ecological gain, perhaps by putting solar panels on the roof to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, according to one scenario presented Wednesday by a supporter of the bill.

Fish and Wildlife legislative director Tom McBrie said the bill was necessary for salmon recovery.

"Will it make public projects more expensive? Of course, it will," he said.

The bill has some similarities to Gov. Jay Inslee's failed proposal to require riparian buffers on private farmland.

Fish and Wildlife also supported that bill, which left setting buffer sizes up to the department. A department report suggested buffers could be as wide as the potential height of a 200-year-tree at a particular site.

Rep. Debra Lekanoff, who introduced Inslee's buffer bill in the House, told senators that her net ecological gain bill would advance mandatory buffers through public projects.

"This bill and the rule-making provides a vehicle for requiring site-potential tree height for riparian areas," said Lekanoff, D-Bow.

The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House on a party-line vote in January. The bill must pass the Democratic-controlled Senate Local Government Committee by Feb. 24 to stay alive.

As with the buffer legislation, farm groups say they weren't asked to help develop the net ecological gain bill.

Adams County Farm Bureau President Bridget Coon told senators that both bills acknowledge farms are important to fish. Farmers support conservation, but legislative proposals that ignore their concerns are "self-defeating," she said.

"Farmers and ranchers know we deserve input on the front end," she said.

The bill could be amended, making clear that publicly funded conservation on private land would not need to help local governments achieve ecological gain.

Farm groups, however, are concerned that lawmakers will later require net ecological gain for private projects.

Farms groups also are concerned that Fish and Wildlife will have a free hand to define "net ecological gain." Wood said the bill gives the department "unrestrained power to fill in the blanks on major public policy."

Makah Tribal Council vice chairman Patrick DePoe also cited the idea of "net ecological gain" in opposing the bill.

The tribe, based in Neah Bay, has a fisheries-based economy and agrees with making salmon recovery a goal for local governments, but net ecological gain "lacks a clear and scientific-based definition," he said.

"Without a clear and measurable standard, we don't want to tie net ecological gain into salmon recovery," DePoe said.