Conservation Committee – Thurston County
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
Call for An End to Log Shipping
Concerned Citizens Call for An End to Log Shipping at the Port of Olympia By Carla Wulfsberg Concerned community members have launched a petition to end log shipping as soon as possible at the Port of Olympia’s Marine Terminal. The goal is to ensure that Port resources and land on the Port peninsula be used to benefit the public while protecting the health and the environment for future generations of people and wildlife. If you are a Thurston County resident, please sign the Petition to end log shipping at the Port of Olympia. The Weyerhaeuser Company leases 24.5 acres on the Port peninsula to ship raw logs from Northwest forests to Japan, China and Korea and has been in operation at the Port of Olympia since 2005. Next year, in 2025, Weyerhaeuser’s lease at the Port is up for renewal with another 5-year option. As the project moves forward to remove
Comprehensive Plan Update
Thurston County Comprehensive Plan – Update from the BHAS Conservation Committee ** See below for public comment info ** By Betsy Norton Thurston County Comp Plan: The Thurston County Comprehensive Plan 2045 update is well underway. Initial outlines by county staff and discussions of draft chapters are proceeding with the TC Planning Commission through September. The Planning commission is listening, reading staff content and public comment, and discussing what will be included in their full plan proposal in the October/November timeframe. Comp Plan Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): Thurston county has initiated a programmatic Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the comp plan itself – an assessment of the plan’s likely impact to the natural and built environment, along with recommendations on updates to the proposed Comp plan to avoid negative impacts. Right now, they are “scoping” the EIS – to determine what all it should cover – and
Comprehensive Plan
The Thurston County Comprehensive Plan 2045 update is being compiled now: initial drafts of chapters are available for public comment here: https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/departments/community-planning-and-economic-development-cped/community-planning/thurston-2045 Watch for an update from the Conservation Committee with our specific recommendations in the August issue. photo by Mick Thompson