Washington State Legislative Session - Update
The Washington Legislature’s fast and furious 60-day regular session ends March 12th barring a special extension. Finishing the many-step process for passing legislation is particularly difficult during an alternate year short session such as this one and doubly so as the state faces a significant budget shortfall.
You can learn about Audubon Washington’s priorities for this session at https://wa.audubon.org/news/audubon-washington%E2%80%99s-2026-legislative-priorities to As of this writing on February 18th, here is the status of Audubon’s priorities:
SB 6272 (Senate Bill - Concerning the design and operation of buildings to protect birds) did not advance this session.
HB 1652 / SB 5519 (House Bill / Senate Bill) (Reducing environmental impacts associated with the operation of certain ocean-going vessels) also did not advance.
HB 1673 / SB 5466 (Improving reliability and capacity of the electric transmission system in Washington state). During last year’s session this bill made good progress in both House and Senate, and it is still alive at this writing on February 18th.
Audubon is focused on helping find short- and long-term funding solutions for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and avoiding disproportionate cuts to the agency’s operating budget. At this writing, the outcome of these efforts is unknown as the legislature works to balance the state budget.
Here are ways to support Audubon Washington’s state legislative work:
· Sign up for Audubon Washington’s Action Network: Join Our Action Network | Audubon Washington
· Use Audubon Washington’s Bill Tracker website: Bill Tracker: 2026 Legislative Session | Audubon Washington. There are succinct summaries of legislation and budget matters with links to take action.
You can find suggestions for engaging with the legislature in the conservation report of the February Skagit Flyer (Feb26Flyer.pdf) and at Advocacy — Skagit Audubon Society. If you haven’t already, please also add your voice to boost the work of National Audubon on national issues by signing up at Action Center | Audubon.
Boosting the Audubon Mission
For over twenty years, Skagit Audubon’s annual budget has included an item titled “Conservation Donations.” As stated on our chapter’s website homepage and in every issue of the Skagit Flyer newsletter, “Our mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.” To accomplish this ambitious purpose we lead field trips, organize monthly presentations, give school programs, produce an informative newsletter and website, engage with social media, and act on local and state conservation issues. But there are limitations to what an all-volunteer group with a small number of engaged volunteers can do. Years ago, our predecessors on the Skagit Audubon Board recognized this when they started the practice of making modest donations to organizations whose missions overlap
Skagit Audubon’s and by encouraging our fellow members to do the same. Through their work these other organizations help accomplish Audubon’s purpose. Year after year, recipients have included Padilla Bay Foundation’s environmental education programming, Skagit Land Trust’ habitat acquisition and protection (over 11,500 acres since 1992), Washington Conservation Action’s advocacy on environmental issues, and others.
The generosity of Skagit Audubon’s members has made it possible to make additional targeted donations this year. Two recipient organizations are local: the Salish Sea School’s after-school program in partnership with Children of the Valley introducing marine biology (including birds) to children, and North Cascades Institute’s Youth Leadership Adventures program connecting high school youth with intensive, transformative experiences in the natural environment of North Cascades National Park and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
This year’s other additional donations carry out the Board’s decision to support bird-related programs in Central and South America. While most of Skagit Audubon’s conservation work is focused at the local and state level, the wonder of bird migration makes us more aware than most people of the fact that conservation issues affecting birds here are only part of the story. The much-reported decline of birds in North America results in part from what is happening where many of them winter. Migratory birds connect our home and theirs to many places in Latin America on which our summering species depend as much as on their breeding habitat here. The Yellow Warbler you might photograph at Wylie Slough in June would not be there but for its wintering habitat in Central America. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology reports that, “13% of the global population (of Yellow Warblers) overwinter in Nicaragua, where they’re often found in shade-coffee farms and other agroforestry operations.” (Where Do Migrants Go in Winter? New Models Provide Exquisite Detail | Living Bird | All About Birds ) The Black-headed Grosbeak at your feeder in July wintered in sunny Mexico as do the Western Tanagers we spot in Washington’s Douglas-fir forests every summer.
Skagit Audubon’s ad-hoc committee for choosing these donation recipients tapped Jim Chu’s long experience with the U.S. Forest Service supporting bird protection and education organizations in Latin America. Accordingly, donations have gone to Fundacion Lideres de Ansenuza in Argentina, Tierra de Aves in Mexico, and two organizations in Nicaragua and El Salvador working with support from Massachusetts-based Manomet Conservation Sciences.
The committee also communicated with American Bird Conservancy (ABC) about its extensive program to protect bird habitat in Latin America through land purchase and other means. Skagit Audubon donated to ABC’s Bird Habitat Protection Fund for a high priority project to protect essential bird habitat in Peru. The specific project aims to create a Dry Forest Conservation Corridor in the Marañón Valley, a biodiversity hotspot with one of the highest concentrations of plant and animal species endemism in Peru which also hosts wintering birds that breed in North America. Spotted Sandpipers along the Skagit River in June may have just arrived from foraging all winter along the Marañón River, mainstem source of the Amazon.
Thank you to Skagit Audubon supporters who have made it possible for your chapter to broaden its reach in accomplishing the Audubon mission. We can supply contact information for Skagit Audubon members who would like to add to these donations (write to conservation@skagitaudubon.org). For more information about conservation issues Skagit Audubon is tracking or acting on, go to Conservation notes & letters — Skagit Audubon Society.
