Conservation-by Tim Manns

Washington State Legislative Session

Washington’s alternate-year 60-day session ended on time March 12th. As happens every short session, many of the hundreds of bills introduced did not reach a final vote. The most pressing need was to pass the state’s supplemental budget, and this was accomplished. At the last moment, Senate Bill 6355, a priority for Audubon Washington and other conservation groups, also passed. This bill establishes a state transmission authority in the Department of Commerce. Alex Ramel, Representative for Legislative District 40 including much of Skagit County, played a key role in getting the bill to the finish line: (https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=6355&Year=2025). The new authority will help coordinate and finance long-distance electric lines across Washington, an important step towards meeting our state’s climate goal of greatly reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Concerning other priorities, Audubon Washington’s Director of Bird Conservation Dr. Trina Bayard, wrote, “Regrettably, several of our priority bills, including Lights Out and Wildlife Connectivity, did not advance this year, largely due to compressed timelines. Our state natural resource agency budgets also took a considerable hit, with cuts to wildlife, biodiversity, climate resilience programs and more.” For more detail go to 2026 Legislative Session Wrap-Up | Audubon. In the near future the Audubon Washington website will have additional information about the legislative session’s implications for Audubon’s goals and programs.

Skagit County Heronries

It’s well known among local birders that the Great Blue Heronry near March Point between Highway 20 and Padilla Bay is one of the largest in the western United States. Its approximately 600 nests make this heronry the largest around the Salish Sea. Most of the nests are on Skagit Land Trust property. The Trust’s website has information about the site and links to remotely controlled cameras in the heronry which volunteers use to gather information about Great Blue Heron behavior: March Point Heronry Property - Skagit Land Trust. Across South March Point Road from the heronry is the site of a former sawmill and solid waste dump which for years has been leaching toxins into Padilla Bay. Skagit Audubon participated in the public comment opportunities when the Department of Ecology was choosing an approach to cleaning up the site. Following years of planning, the department’s contractor will begin remediation this spring. Skagit Land Trust is in regular communication with the contractor to ensure measures are in place to minimize disruption of the herons’ breeding season.

Also of note concerning Great Blue Herons, there were 9 nests in the heronry between College Way and Nookachamps Creek on Skagit Land Trust’s Barney Lake Conservation Area when it was first noticed about ten years ago The count done late this winter found 47 heron nests. Skagit County’s bays, fields, and protected freshwater wetlands provide great habitat for this iconic species.

Roadless Rule

In the September and October 2025 issues of Skagit Audubon Conservation Notes there is discussion of this federal rule established 25 years ago (Sept25ConservationNotesUpdated083025.pdf and Oct25ConservationNotes.pdf). The Roadless Rule is a federal regulation protecting 58 million acres of roadless and unlogged U.S. Forest Service lands, including almost 2 million in Washington State, by preventing clearcutting and road building in these areas managed on behalf of us all. Now, after a quarter century of protection, the present federal Administration is in the process of rescinding this long-standing rule. The Environmental Impact Statement EIS) required to do this may be released for public comment in late April, assuming the administration allows public comment. Please watch for an announcement of this draft EIS begin released and lend your voice by commenting. These public lands belong to all of us and are vital habitat for a myriad of birds and other creatures as well as providing recreational experiences in nature for millions of people.

For more information about conservation issues Skagit Audubon is tracking, go to  Conservation notes & letters — Skagit Audubon Society. Audubon members can advocate for regional and national protection of birds and other wildlife and their habitat by responding to action alerts from Washington Audubon and National Audubon. Enroll in Audubon Washington’s Action Network at Join Our Action Network | Audubon Washington. The National Audubon website (Advocacy & Action | Audubon) has abundant information on Audubon’s numerous current conservation campaigns. Sign up there to receive national alerts (Join Our Action Network | Audubon).

Conservation-by Tim Manns

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:

• Lights Out & Bird-Friendly Buildings

SB 6272 (Senate Bill - Concerning the design and operation of buildings to protect birds) did not advance this session.

• Protecting Coastal and Marine Ecosystems  

HB 1652 / SB 5519 (House Bill / Senate Bill) (Reducing environmental impacts associated with the operation of certain ocean-going vessels) also did not advance.

• Climate and Clean Energy Infrastructure  

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.

• Sustaining Wildlife Conservation Through Stable Funding 

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.

Conservation-by Tim Manns

The Washington Legislature’s 60-day session now underway will end March 12th barring a special extension. National news tends to dominate our attention, but what happens at the local and state levels is also important to accomplishing Audubon’s goals. Three state legislative districts overlap the boundaries of Skagit County: the 10th, 39th, and 40th. Most Skagit Audubon members living outside Skagit County also live in one of these three. Each district has two elected representatives and one state senator. Most state elected officials really do want to hear from constituents, and there are multiple ways to communicate with them. Voting and advocacy are essential to the Audubon mission of protecting birds and other wildlife and their habitat.

The Washington Legislature’s website and the bill tracking provided by Audubon Washington and other organizations make it easier to be an active citizen and to communicate your stance on bills and budgets to your representatives in Olympia. It's worthwhile to take a look around the legislature’s website and become familiar with using it (Welcome to the Washington State Legislature). A place to start is a video on the website at Class: Navigating the legislative website. There are additional tutorials with more detail: Classes and tutorials. Skagit Audubon’s  website also describes how to use https://leg.wa.gov/ to tell your representatives and senator where you stand on a bill. It also explains how to indicate prior to a committee hearing whether you support or oppose proposed legislation: Advocacy — Skagit Audubon Society (this is under “Take Action,” then “Advocacy”).

Legislators have introduced over 500 bills in this current session. Only a fraction will complete the lengthy legislative process and reach the Governor’s desk. Audubon is particularly focused on preventing conservation agencies and related programs from being disproportionally cut to close the state’s budget shortfall. Washington’s natural resource agencies make up just 1.5% of the state’s general fund. Another focus for Audubon is opposing diversion of Climate Commitment Act revenue from addressing climate change and its impacts. Recent media reports have focused on the imperfections of this important act’s implementation while ignoring the larger story of its long-range horizon and important role in addressing the climate crisis.

Here are ways to focus your attention and act on the bills of concern to Audubon Washington:

 ·       Sign up for Audubon Washington’s Action Network. You will particularly be contacted when one of your elected representatives or your senator sits on a committee hearing a bill important for Audubon: Join Our Action Network | Audubon Washington

·       Audubon Washington has also set up a new and improved Bill Tracker website for the 2026 legislative session: Bill Tracker: 2026 Legislative Session | Audubon Washington. On this site there are succinct summaries of legislation and budget matters. As the legislative session gets underway, you will find links for taking action alongside the bill summaries.

·       Audubon Washington joins 26 other organizations in the Environmental Priorities Coalition - Washington Conservation Action to focus on a few common priorities. As related bills are introduced, you can track their progress by signing up at “Subscribe to updates” at the top of the Environmental Priorities Coalition website and also by scrolling to “Bills to Watch” and clicking on “Read our Hot Lists” and then on “Sign up for Hot Lists.” At most once a week you’ll receive an email with a short list of relevant bills in the House and another for the Senate with a suggested stance and a link to details.

Other environmental organizations, such as RE Sources, Bellingham-based but also Skagit-focused, have useful bill trackers. To receive RE Sources’ weekly updates, at Take Action - RE Sources scroll down to “Join our legislative action list.”

All of this is not to ignore the dire environmental happenings in Washington, D.C. If you haven’t already, please add your voice to boost the work of National Audubon’s staff. Sign up at  Action Center | Audubon.

Conservation-by Tim Manns

Flood plains flood - - and always will

At this mid-December writing, for the second time in a week Skagit County is under a flood watch even as water from record Skagit River levels a few days ago has not fully left flooded fields and neighborhoods. While flooding in the flood plain should never come as a surprise, water damage would be worse if there were not at least some undeveloped areas accessible to rising waters. A case in point is the Barney Lake area, where Skagit Land Trust’s conservation area protects almost 400 acres at the eastern edge of Mount Vernon, much of it wetland hosting wintering Trumpeter Swans and many other waterfowl. During floods, Barney Lake hugely expands. This natural area receives Skagit River floodwaters backing up Nookachamps Creek and reducing the river’s volume by spreading water over a large area. The past week’s high water hosted many thousands of Mallards, Northern Pintails, and American Wigeon on this enlarged lake. Skagit’s extensive and expensive system of dikes is imperfect. Despite increasing risks to floodplain development from climate related changes, regulations in Skagit County and its towns and cities still permit new development in areas known to flood. Witness Mount Vernon’s recently permitting construction of a large church and likely soon, an apartment building in a repeatedly flooded area next to Barney Lake Conservation Area.

Climate Impacts Advisory Committee

On a positive note, the Skagit County Commissioners responded to many requests and on December 15th established a Climate Impacts Advisory Committee. See Skagit Audubon Conservation Reports for background information: (https://www.skagitaudubon.org/conservation-notes-letters) 

Surprising given how vulnerable it is, Skagit County lags far behind other counties in addressing climate change. The advisory committee’s charter and composition are not exactly what conservation groups had hoped, but, depending on implementation, this committee may prove a step in the right direction.

2026 Legislative Session - Environmental Priorities Coalition Goals

The Washington State Legislature opens its 2026 legislative session on January 12th. This will be a short, 60-day session as the state’s two-year budget was passed last year during the alternate- year long session. Even though this is not a budget-writing year, with Washington’s revenue shortfall, there will be difficult budget discussions and a need for conservation advocates to safeguard important projects and programs.

As each year, Audubon Washington has joined more than 25 other conservation organizations in the Environmental Priorities Coalition (EPC) focusing on a few goals during the session:

• Protect Climate and Environmental Health Funding

The need to balance the state’s budget puts climate-related and other environmental programs at risk of further cuts or the diversion of dedicated funding sources to other than their intended purposes. For example, revenues from the Climate Commitment Act must go to measures addressing climate change and its impacts.

• Restore Wildfire Resilience Funding

In 2021, the Legislature passed House Bill 1168 committing $125 million each biennium to implement fire resilience measures, but the two-year budget passed in 2024 cut this funding in half. This reduced level of effort puts communities and natural landscapes at greater risk. 

• Address the Impacts of Data Centers on the Environment and Affordability

Proliferating data centers in Washington could blow up our state’s ambitious climate and clean energy goals while also making energy less affordable and reliable. The Legislature needs to pass, in the EPC’s words, “data center-focused policies that will protect and further our state’s climate and clean energy laws and goals; protect ratepayers from financial and reliability impacts; minimize impacts to communities and natural resources including air, water, and salmon; and maximize benefits to communities.”   

• Pass the Bottles and Cans Recycling Refund Act

Drink containers are a large part of our state’s waste and litter. In Washington, only 30% of beverage containers are currently recycled. The Recycling Refund Act would place a refundable 10-cent deposit on most beverage containers to incentivize recycling.

 For more detail about these priorities, go to Environmental Priorities Coalition - Washington Conservation Action.  As bills related to these priorities are introduced, you can track their progress by signing up at “Subscribe to updates” at the top of the EPC page and by scrolling on that page to “Bills to Watch” and clicking on “Sign up for Hot Lists.” Once bill numbers are assigned, you can read the bill text and reports and see where each stands in the legislative process using the legislature’s website: Bills, meetings, and session.

Audubon’s statewide network of 25 chapters and 45,000 members gives it a voice in every legislative district. Let’s use each of our individual and chapter voices to advance the cause of protecting birds and other wildlife and the habitat they need. Sign up for Audubon Washington action alerts at Join Our Action Network | Audubon Washington.

Skagit County Flood Map 12/18/25

Conservation-by Tim Manns

Lights Out Washington

At the Washington State Audubon Conservation Committee’s October meeting the chapters unanimously supported Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society’s submitted resolution titled “Lights Out Washington.” The resolution encourages Washington’s Audubon Chapters to participate in National Audubon’s Lights Out Program (Lights Out Program | Audubon). This involves urging individuals, businesses, cities, and counties to redesign and reduce nighttime lighting to limit interference with bird migration. Many birds migrate after dark, and lighting can disorient them, inducing collisions with buildings and other illuminated structures such as radio towers. The resolution also includes a determination to work to reduce bird collisions with windows whether or not the injured birds are migrating.

Birders share an awareness of and real astonishment at bird migration. That a Rufous Hummingbird 4 inches long weighing 0.12 ounces twice annually flies from Mexico to southeast Alaska staggers the imagination, and yet it is just one of many bird species accomplishing such a feat every year. We can make migration easier for these winged wonders by undoing things we have done that make their journey more perilous. At a time when I hope we are all looking for positive things we can do to conserve bird species, here are some things: redesign and reduce artificial lighting interfering with bird migration, and related, reduce opportunities for birds to collide with our windows.

There are actions to take at home right away without a county-wide Lights Out effort. For a short list of lighting considerations for your home, go to Lights Out! — Pilchuck Audubon Society where our friends at the Audubon chapter in Snohomish County have posted good ideas. To follow up on the October resolution we also need to take a bigger look at our community. At this point we don’t know to what degree light at night might be a problem for birds migrating over Skagit County. People don’t inform Skagit Audubon about birds they might observe appearing confused by lights around buildings, industrial areas, or communication towers then colliding with them or flying in circles until exhausted. If you know of particular problem areas of this sort, please write me (conservation@skagitaudubon.org). When we have a sense of whether there are such problem locations, we can convene a small committee of Skagit Audubon members interested in working on this issue and draft an action plan to address it. There are examples to emulate from other Audubon chapters as described at Lights Out Program | Audubon.

Bird collisions with windows

A U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service study estimates that a billion, not a million, a billion, birds each year die from collisions with structures. The problem of bird collisions with windows is familiar to many of us because we witness it at home. National Audubon has advice on what you can do at your residence:  Reducing collisions with glass | Audubon. The American Bird Conservancy’s website goes into greater depth about measures to reduce collisions: Glass Collisions - American Bird Conservancy. This is another area where Skagit Audubon has little or no data and no systematic information. We don’t know which buildings and other structures in our community may be posing collision hazards for birds. If there are non-residential buildings in Skagit County where you have seen dead birds beneath windows, please let me know (conservation@skagitaudubon.org). We need data to establish whether a Skagit Audubon effort is needed beyond providing remedies for home use.

Great bird migration websites

Our focus in this effort is particularly, but not only, on birds during spring and fall migration. When April rolls around, begin regularly checking Bird Cast (https://birdcast.info/), which uses weather radar to generate real-time maps of bird migration. It’s amazing. Also check out National Audubon’s Bird Migration Explorer for maps of migration by specific species based on eBird and MOTUS transmitter data.

Please contribute information

So, please send me your suggestions and what information you may have about buildings, other structures, street lighting, etc. with upward directed and perhaps excessive night-time lighting (conservation@skagitaudubon.org). Please also send information about buildings and other structures where you have seen birds likely killed in window collisions. At home and in our larger community we can make conditions safer for birds year-round and especially those engaged in the incredible feat of migration.

Photo credit: Rufous Hummingbird by Spencer Follett/Macaulay Library