Conservation Action / Thurston County Focus
Biodiversity Advocacy to Conserve Habitat—Black Hills Audubon Conservation Committee
BHAS’s Conservation Committee has been advocating for conservation of mature forest habitat, Wildlife Corridors, and more environmentally friendly development codes, as well as pushing for more aggressive work to protect quantity and quality of water – especially for wildlife habitat – in this region. Examples include:
DNR (Washington Dept. of Natural Resources): We have supported the Center for Responsible Forestry’s advocacy to log other holdings and halt logging of mature complex forests under state control, because these forests sequester carbon (fight climate change) and also provide the best kinds of habitat for birds and other wildlife (in comparison to tree farms).
WDFW (Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife): We have supported WDFW land acquisitions for conservation – 4 of them in Thurston County. These lands will conserve important wetland, forest, and prairie habitat for native species and ESA Threatened and Endangered species.
Thurston County: We are supporting changes to the Thurston County Comprehensive Plan, which guides land use here for the next 20 years. We have been giving public comment primarily to the Thurston County Planning Commission on their draft chapters as they’ve been presented for public comment. One of our favorite proposals is the creation of Wildlife Corridors.
What can you do? Thurston County Planning Commission meetings are open to the public to attend in person or on Zoom. (You can do same-day registration). The county usually posts meeting materials at least 1 week prior to the meeting for public review. They allow 3-minute public comment at the beginning of each of these meetings. We encourage you to drop by a meeting or Zoom in to comment or just to listen. Meetings are the first and third Wednesdays of every month at 6:30 PM. Links for more information are provided below.
Upcoming Meetings:
Dec 4: <tentative> Thurston 2045 Climate Change draft chapter, Housing draft chapter
Dec 18: <tentative> Special Presentation on Wildlife Corridors by Conservation Northwest and WDFW. This should be a great presentation. Please check the website for details on the agenda.
Links:
Thurston County Planning Commission meetings:
Thurston County Board of County Commissioners meetings and work sessions:
Thurston County YouTube channel (most meetings are recorded and can be streamed on demand): https://www.youtube.com/@ThurstonCountyWashington
Thurston County GIS: For those who like interactive maps, the Thurston County GIS site has several to choose from: (The staff is very helpful with specific questions too.) https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/geodata-center
Photo credit: Trees surround the Washington State Capitol Building at sunset, by Rachel Hudson.
