A Successful Session for the Birds

Nina Carter took over as executive director of Audubon Washington, the state field office of National Audubon, in January 2005. She continues her role as policy director—a position she’s held since November 2001—in which she works directly with Washington state’s 25 affiliated Audubon societies to craft public policy that protects our natural environment.

Despite major challenges, and a few disappointments, this has been a good legislative session. Let’s evaluate what happened to birds, wildlife and habitat conservation by evaluating policy bills and the 2005-2007 biennial budget.

The Governor, House and Senate ensured a timely adjournment, an impressive feat given the challenge of addressing a $1.7 billion shortfall. Some $480 million in revenues will be raised to address the budget shortfall, including a reinstatement of the estate tax on non-agricultural estates valued at $1.5 million and a cigarette tax increase. These funds are dedicated to supporting teachers and public schools. Other revenue increases will come from liquor fees and transferring monies from one account to another. The remainder of the shortfall is addressed through cuts. Unfortunately, natural resource agencies like the Department of Fish and Wildlife take some big cuts. Some of these could be avoided if the Legislature were to raise more revenues.

Audubon and its 26 independent chapters support raising revenues (i.e. taxes)—our dues for the infrastructure necessary to maintain the Evergreen State quality of life and civil society.

Throughout the budget negotiations we advocated successfully to fund Washington Wildlife and Recreation acquisitions like Reardon’s Audubon Lake; Seward Park Audubon Center; beach driving safety, enforcement and education; lead shot poisoning studies; 2010 Olympics; watchable wildlife promotion; Oil Spill Advisory Council; Ocean Policy Review Commission; and an environmental education curriculum coordinator for our public schools.

Working with the legislators from the 11th, 37th and 41st districts, we secured a significant state investment in southeast Seattle’s premier environmental learning center. The Seward Park Audubon Center, an existing building in Seward Park on Lake Washington, will receive $400,000 in state funds for capital improvements. This funding will match the city’s parks bond funding and spur our congressional delegation to find some federal funds for the center. The center is a nature-based community learning center where families and students can connect with nature.

We also helped ensure that reductions to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Wildlife Fund did not impact the Common Species Program—a monitoring program to ensure we keep common species common. We are, however, concerned about the loss of a field biologist and the lack of funding to administer the new wildlife license plates, which are projected to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the agency and would only cost $30,000 to administer. This is a major oversight, as we struggle to find new ways to fund habitat conservation.

In the policy arena, Audubon chapters and staff advocated for green building standards for state buildings, the first such legislation in the nation. We helped to adopt the California clean car standards which contributes to states’ driven national-policy-debate not being addressed by the President or Congress. We helped ensure the creation of the Oil Spill Advisory Council, increased prevention and better response to oil spills in Washington’s Waters. We worked hard on a bill that would create an invasive species council that did not pass. We hope to ensure their passage next year.

To wrap up the session and think about the future, we should consider the following. Governor Gregoire noted at her budget proposal press conference that Washington’s revenue system has significant structural problems. Her policy staff recently quantified and categorized legislation introduced this legislative session. This revealed that over 30 percent of all policy bills had something to do with natural resources—a majority of which affects clean air, water and healthy habitats for people and wildlife.

Meanwhile a mere 1.3 percent of the total operating budget is dedicated to natural resource agencies and programs designed to protect our environment.

This incongruity tells us that environmental conservation is a priority for Washington’s citizens and policy makers alike. Unfortunately, it also tells us that this priority is not reflected in our revenue systems or our state’s appropriations to protect the Evergreen State’s way of life.

As we look to the future, Audubon Washington, our 26 chapters and 22,000 plus members look forward to working with the state’s decision makers to address the structural problems with our revenue system. We must invest in environmental protections at levels that match the energy expended in the legislature debating these issues. On June 11, at a conservation committee meeting in Walla Walla, we began planning our 2006 legislative agenda. §