WASHINGTON CONSERVATION ACTION
Salmon link animals and plants, oceans and mountains, economies and culture
Learning from the Colville Tribes’ ecological knowledge
INTRODUCING OUR NEW BRAND!
Building relationships in Yakima
2023 SUMMER ISSUE
Washington Conservation Action
Ilays Aden, Co-founder of Nour Village/Eat With Muslims
Christina Billingsley, Senior Program Manager, Environmental Engagement
Justin Camarata, Civic Leader and Startup Manager
Sharon Chen, Citizen Activist and Engineer
Julie Colehour, Partner, C+C
Maggie Coon, Conservationist
Josh Friedmann, Lawyer, Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson, P.S.
Peter Goldman, Treasurer, Founder, Washington Forest Law Center
Dr. Vernon Damani Johnson, Former Faculty, Department of Political Science, Western Washington University
Ken Lederman, Board Chair, McCullough Hill Leary
Jessa Lewis, Founder of Blue Collar Fund, Activist
Joel Moffett, Director of Environmental & Special Projects, Native Americans in Philanthropy
Paulo Palugod, Vice Chair, Senior Associate Attorney, Northwest Office, EarthJustice
Preeti Shridhar, Deputy Public Affairs Administrator, City of Renton
Oskar Zambrano Méndez, Founder, Somos Más
Washington Conservation Action Education Fund
Christina Billingsley, Vice Chair, Senior Program Manager, Environmental Engagement
Julie Colehour, Partner, C+C
Mona Das, Executive Producer and Creator, BAWDKAS.com; Former Senator
Josh Friedmann, Lawyer, Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson, P.S.
Peter Goldman, Treasurer, Founder, Washington Forest Law Center
Eliseo (EJ) Juarez, Director of Equity and Environmental Justice, Washington State Department of Natural Resources
Ken Lederman, Board Chair, McCullough Hill Leary
Jaime Martin, Executive Director of Governmental Affairs & Special Projects, Snoqualmie Tribe
Jameson Morrell, Director of Sustainability, PACCAR
Justin Parker, Executive Director, NW Indian Fisheries Commission
Katie Ross, Director, Carbon Reduction Strategy & Market Development, Microsoft
Melissa Schutten, Equity and Environmental Justice Manager, Puget Sound Partnership
Amy Scott, Associate Director, Planned Giving at University of Washington
April Sims, President, Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Caroline Traube, Engineering Director, Decarbonization, McKinstry
Oskar Zambrano Méndez, Founder, Somos Más Community Strategies
2 We have a new brand! 3 Historic funding for new forestry ideas 6 Carbon pricing supports wide-ranging goals and communities 8 Salmon link animals and plants, oceans and mountains, economies and culture 18 Building relationships in Yakima 21 Low-carbon fuels: widen your understanding 24 Learning from the Colville Tribes’ ecological knowledge 28 Collaborating with Latino Community Fund 29 Orca Action Month: salmon safe beer 30 2023 legislative session updates 32 Organizational updates
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Writing & Editing Visual Design Coordination & Overview Heather Millar Mallori Pryse Zachary Pullin
cover photography by Cord Pryse
It’ukdi wigwa! Qngi mait’a? (Good day. How are you?)
Having clean air and water, healthy forests, and a thriving democracy shouldn’t depend on where you live. Sadly, across the country, where you live can determine your health and your future.
That’s why we worked hard during the 2023 legislative session to address this through the Climate Commitment Act — that we helped pass in 2021 — by investing the law’s more than $2 billion dollars collected from polluters to reduce pollution, improve our public health, and invest in vulnerable communities and Tribal Nations. This work reflects more than a decade of work and we are thrilled to start seeing the results.
It’s imperative we level the playing field for all of our neighbors across Washington.
Since our last issue, we launched our new brand, Washington Conservation Action — unifying WEC and WCV’s work more fully, we came out of the 2023 legislative session feeling motivated because the vast majority of our environmental priorities succeeded, and held our annual fundraiser at the Burke Museum in Seattle. It’s been an exciting time for us.
All of this new energy around us has gotten us invited to be in new and exciting places.
Recently, I was honored to speak at the GreenBiz Circularity conference, a convening of professionals building the circular economy, which was held in Seattle this year. GreenBiz believes that to build a just, resilient world that operates within planetary boundaries, we must transform our systems, structures and strategies from extractive to regenerative.
I opened the conference by speaking about the lands we occupy and our divine connection to each other and our connection to nature.
Our bodies are made of up to 65% water; we breathe the oxygen that forests and other plant life cleanse and create; we grow food and raise animals on the land; we fish, we hunt and we gather... and we feed our spirit by being outdoors in one with nature.
Without any of these, we would not be able to survive. Our connection to nature also connects us to one another and as such, we cannot harm one another or the environment without harming ourselves.
We are inextricably linked to each other, to the lands and the waters, to the animals and the plants. That’s what this Summer 2023 issue of Convene is all about — connection.
Nature models the behaviors we need to thrive. The root systems show us that we need to reach out to one another and connect. Where we are intertwined is where we can share resources. And when we are connected, we can stand strong together when the winds blow.
Nature shows us that all living things have a role and responsibility and that diversity is a necessary and beautiful thing. Water shows us beauty when we interact with gratitude and kindness. There is magic in nature and power in nature. We just need to slow down enough to feel it.
When you read through this issue, you’ll learn about how salmon connects us all, how Eastern Washington’s Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indians connect to their culture by mitigating wildfires through forest management, how Washington Conservation Action staffers connected with friends and colleagues in Central Washington, and so much more about connection. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Alqalma ayamglglaya, (see you later)
Alyssa Macy (she/her) CEO, Washington Conservation Action
Image by Alyssa Macy
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On January 4, 2023, Washington Environmental Council and Washington Conservation Voters unified under one brand: Washington Conservation Action. Aligning the policy expertise of WEC with the political organizing savvy of WCV creates a unified approach to our biggest environmental challenges. Under this new brand, we can fight for solutions based on scientific data, cultural knowledge, and political expertise. The process began with a shared lobbyist more than a decade ago. Then, both organizations moved to being led by a single CEO. Our last two strategic plans highlighted the goal of bringing our organizations together under one brand. Last year, the timing was ideal to do the work to make this goal a reality.
Our names are changing, but our priority remains the same: We work to protect people and nature as one.
We still advance environmental policy issues and push for actions that equitably address climate pollution, restore Puget Sound, sustain our state’s forests, and protect our democracy. For this to happen, we cannot rely solely on policy advocacy. We also need environmental champions in elected office. We remain steadfastly committed to supporting Native candidates, candidates of color, and long-time allies—keys to maintaining Washington’s role as a national leader on environmental issues.
Washington Conservation Action and Washington Conservation Action Education Fund share a vision for a Washington state where nature and people live in balance for the flourishing of all. We will still operate with a 501(c)3, 501(c)4, and a Political Action Committee (PAC).
As we are unified as Washington Conservation Action, we continue to insist that human concerns and those of nature are not separate.
“Protecting People and Nature as One,” our new tagline, remains central to our work. That means recognizing that the problems in our society are directly linked to the problems that we see in natural systems. To heal the planet, we must heal ourselves.
What does this mean in
practice?
It means engaging in advocacy that is not transactional, but instead commits to the long-term. It means political organizing in small communities and in Olympia. It means engaging with scientists and stakeholders to craft solutions that serve both people and the environment.
Our team is more energized and invigorated than ever before. Join us!
Read more about our new brand and the meaning behind our logo at waconservationaction.org or scan the QR code here.
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$83 million to preserve old stands for climate benefits
This spring, state legislators in Olympia allocated a landmark $83 million to support forest conservation and ecological forest management practices that will boost carbon sequestration on state lands.
It is often difficult to get support for new approaches to forest management. Thus, this funding is a landmark, the first time the state government will set aside timber acreage strictly for its value in storing carbon. This will be done by designating these preserved forests as a high impact, “natural climate solution” worthy of funding under the Climate Commitment Act’s Natural Climate Solutions Account.
Throughout the legislative session, Washington Conservation Action’s forest, government affairs and political teams worked fiercely toward this outcome. Washington’s older public forests form a key part of the identity of rural Washingtonians. They rank among the best forests in the world at sequestering and storing carbon. Preserving older forests and buying additional forest land to replace the lost timber maintains a vital cultural and economic engine in small communities across Washington. It also avoids significant carbon emissions and ensures
that our state’s most cost-effective carbon sinks continue to clean our air.
“State legislators sent a decisive message by allocating $83 million to conserve ecologically significant older forests on state lands,” says Rachel Baker, Washington Conservation Action’s forest program director. “This historic funding affirms that forests are central to Washington’s response to climate change, and ushers in a new era of managing state lands for both public benefit and rural livelihoods—consistent with last year’s State Supreme Court’s CNW v. Franz decision.”
Image by John Westrock
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Image by Cord Pryse
That July 2022 decision, in response to a suit brought by Washington Conservation Action, Conservation Northwest, Olympic Forest Coalition, and others, denied our challenges to the specific plans, but unanimously affirm ed our understanding of the state constitution, recognizing that the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) must integrate the diverse public benefits of forests into the management of state forestlands.
That means the DNR must look beyond maximizing revenue from timber harvest. With this new ruling, DNR must also consider local concerns about safety and water quality, the cultural and ecological value of forests, and many other issues. This allocation of significant funds for preservation and carbon storage falls in line with this new way of looking at, and of managing, state forests.
This new funding will permanently conserve 2,000 acres of older, carbon dense, structurally complex state forests across Western Washington and buy younger replacement forests to provide revenue to rural communities.
Some of the replacement timberlands acquired by the funds will also replace “encumbered” lands that were previously removed from the timber sale schedule due to endangered species requirements. This package also funds silvicultural practices on state lands that will improve forest health and increase carbon sequestration.
More than 30,000 comments were submitted to legislators during the 2023 session, supporting this new opportunity to protect older forests for their remarkably high carbon value.
“We are excited that local communities want to protect these unique forests, creating a win-win solution for all the people of Washington,” Baker says.
Image by John Westrock 4
A LEAF
REDISCOVER THE WORLD’S WONDER
As we rush about in our busy lives, it’s very easy to ignore all the beauty around us. We don’t connect with it. Distracted by family, work, deadlines, bills, it’s all too easy to become numb.
When he was in college, Jer Clifton, now a senior research scientist at the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, felt himself losing interest in things, getting bored. In response, he set out to actively cultivate his connection to the natural world. One of the things he did was what he calls the “leaf exercise,” described in a 2019 study and in various magazine articles and radio interviews:
Here’s Prof. Clifton’s exercise to reconnect with the wonder of the world:
Find a tree. Pick up a leaf.
Look carefully at the leaf, the speckles and pigments of the front, the veins on the back. Really soak up the beauty of that one leaf.
Now pick up a second leaf from that tree. Notice how the story of that leaf relates to the first one yet is not identical.
Take a step back. Breathe deeply. Look at the whole tree. The average oak tree has 250,000 leaves. Each one is unique, beautiful.
Now take a huge step back in your mind. Imagine the forests of southeast Alaska and of the Amazon, of Siberia and the Congo.
Take yet another mental step back and think about all those leaves in all those forests, each one a miracle, and how they produce the air that you breathe, how they shade and cool the streams where salmon spawn, how they fertilize soil, protect young plants and so much more. Think about all the trees that have lived before, and all the trees that will come. We just live in this slice of time, with the leaves that are here now. But so many, many leaves will follow.
Then pile up the leaves on the ground. If they were rare, they would be mounted in frames and hanging in an art museum. It’s only because they’re everywhere that we don’t notice when they fall. We walk on them, and groan about raking them in the autumn.
Think about these few moments of slowing down, of noticing. See the mind-blowing wondrousness of the world. How does this change your thinking? What connections do you see?
Image by Simon Migaj
Image by Cultura Creative
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Washington Conservation Action worked fiercely to mobilize the broad coalition that made the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) a reality in 2021, and an active, operating law beginning this year. This effort built on years of relationship-building and learning work to bring in, and center, voices from Tribal Nations and frontline and community-led organizations, to make sure that those most affected had a role in crafting climate solutions.
It’s easy to forget what a watershed moment this is: The CCA is only the nation’s second economy-wide carbon pricing law. The first CCA auction of carbon credits took place in February and generated nearly $300 million.
In the coming decades, it’s expected to produce resources once unimaginable—an estimated $2 billion in the next two years alone—to fund bold action to slow down the planet’s warming and to deal with the already daunting impacts of carbon pollution. Never has this state had such an opportunity to protect people and nature as one. In the first comprehensive allocation of these CCA funds, the state legislature passed a budget that funded many critical programs to reduce pollution, to increase climate resilience, and to support communities across Washington.
These programs include:
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for state lands and forests carbon sequestration that ushers in a new way of managing forests and protecting older stands from harvest. [See related story on page 3 for why this is such a big deal.]
Funds for cleaner cars and trucks: for a medium and heavyduty vehicle charging program.
for a zero-emission drayage trucking pilot program at the NW Seaport Alliance.
Large-scale programs to reduce pollution and to increase climate action in Tribal Nations and in communities that already bear the brunt of climate chaos, including:
to improve air quality in overburdened communities through stricter pollution regulations and community-driven grants.
for grants to Tribes to help adapt to the existing problems created by climate change, such as the flooding of seaside villages.
for communitydirected grants to help overburdened communities cope with problems created by carbon pollution.
for the implementation of the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act, the state law that requires seven agencies to draft plans that take environmental justice into account.
for charging stations along priority transportation corridors.
New resources to make the buildings where we live and work safer, healthier, and more climate friendly:
to fund a heat pump program that prioritizes low- and moderate-income households and small businesses.
to help families weatherize their homes and make improvements to conserve energy and protect health. for bill assistance, energy assessments, and heating and cooling system replacements for lowincome households in communities with high environmental health disparities.
Image by John Westrock
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On a warm spring day in May, hundreds pour out the Swinomish Youth Center after an overflowing banquet of salmon just caught in the Skagit River, of Dungeness crab, shrimp, clams and abundant sides and dessert. To the beat of ceremonial drums and songs sung for millennia, people proceed slowly through the reservation toward the harbor for the Blessing of the Fleet and the First Salmon Ceremony: young people in ceremonial red and black blankets carrying offerings for the sea, Tribal leaders in traditional cedar hats, visitors from other Tribes, local religious leaders, fishermen, neighbors, Tribal members of all ages, from babies and toddlers to white-haired elders in their 80s.
They pass the field left open out of respect because it is the site of the Tribe’s original longhouses, burned down in the 19th century when smallpox killed most of the population. They pass the newly constructed dental center and the fitness center, testaments to rebuilding and resilience. They walk toward a grassy field just above the docks where a dozen or so small fishing rigs are anchored in the
Swinomish Channel, just across from the trendy boutiques and restaurants of La Conner. There the Swinomish gather to offer up prayers and hope for the future, for safety of their sons and daughters, for their sisters and brothers, for their husbands and wives who in the coming season will fish for salmon from the boats below.
Elders and priests give blessings and make supplications. Visitors bear witness.
“We appreciate the cooks. We appreciate the younger generation being involved. We appreciate the fishermen, taking care of business,” says Justin Parker, one of the invited witnesses, a Washington Conservation Action Education Fund board member and executive director of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “I hope everyone has a good season!”
Children give thank you presents. Drums thrum and the high notes of old songs hang in the air above the water. Then four high school seniors take platters of salmon and berries on cedar boughs down to the boats where they will be
Our future depends on restoring the connections we have cut.
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Image by karamysh
taken in all four directions as gifts to the ocean. “Fishing. This is who we are as a people,” says Swinomish citizen Craig Bill, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs. “It is our way of life. It is our identity.”
Salmon People
We are Salmon People. You cannot live in the Pacific Northwest without hearing this assertion from Indigenous Nations around the Salish Sea and inland as far as Idaho and Montana, as well as north into British Columbia and Alaska and south into Oregon and northern California. But you may not fully grasp that we ALL are Salmon People. We are Salmon People no matter our heritage, no matter whether our families have lived here for millennia, or for generations, or for just a few years. We are Salmon People no matter whether we see salmon as a sport fishing quarry, a livelihood, as a special occasion treat or as daily sustenance. We are Salmon People if we love birdwatching, or hiking through forests, or kayaking—salmon affect all those things. That’s how profoundly this endangered animal affects the culture, the ecology, and the economy of our beautiful part of the world.
No doubt you’ve heard this in a speech or a dozen, or in hundreds of online comments and articles and books. Yet how much do any of us truly reflect upon this profound truth?
We are connected to salmon, and salmon not only connect to us, they stitch the whole region together: Orca, another regional icon, and more than 150 other birds, fish, insects, mammals and invertebrates depend upon salmon: sea lions and seals, tuna and halibut, wolves, eagles, bear and more. The salmon life cycle links ocean and river and stream and forest, salt water and fresh, coast and mountain and prairie. It is not hyperbole to say that nearly every Pacific Northwest stream that drains to the sea once had a native salmon population finely evolved to the specific conditions of that one place.
Salmon Woes
Nor is it hyperbole to say that salmon continue to be in deep trouble. Predictions of their widespread extinction began decades ago. They
continue today. Despite wide public support for projects that help this amazing animal—hundreds of millions for riparian habitat restoration, widened culverts, dam removals, fish ladders, hatcheries and so on—their numbers continue to decline. Runs of spawning salmon now average a mere 10 percent of what they were 150 years ago. Chinook the size of golden retrievers, 80 to 120 pounds, used to be a common thing. Now, most max out at 20 pounds, maybe 30.
Where once Indigenous peoples could rely upon salmon as a reliably healthy staple, now, because of pollution, the state warns Tribes not to consume more than one weekly meal of Duwamish Chinook. It’s clear that as much as we have tried to do, we need to do much more.
Some Gains, Huge Unmet Needs
In the most recent legislative session, we made some hopeful progress: Lawmakers negotiated a 2023 operating and capital budget package that includes roughly 10 to 20 percent increased funding for salmon recovery, including:
• More than $410 million on habitat protection and restoration programs including the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration, Brian Abbott Fish Passage Barrier Removal, and the Stormwater Financial Assistance Program.
• $50 million for riparian grant programs through the Recreation and Conservation Office and State Conservation Commission to focus on science-based restoration of areas adjacent to streams and rivers that must maintain cool and clean water for salmon to survive.
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Image by Mark A. McCaffrey
Still, the vast majority of salmon projects remain unfunded. If you were to gauge by the way we embrace salmon as symbol, you would think we’d be able to find the political will and the money. The amount of new salmon money allocated this year for habitat protection and restoration is about as much as it will cost to redo one interchange of Highway 520 in Seattle’s Montlake district.
Salmon as Cultural Touchstone
You can’t go far in Washington without seeing stylized, Native formline representations of this fish, looking like ripples on water. You can see them in galleries, in parks, and on signs for tribal government buildings. The plaza overlooking the lower Spokane falls features a “Salmon Chief” monument of a Native leader astride a horse holding up a huge Chinook salmon with both arms. The symbol for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife features salmon. They adorn the walls at places like Ivar’s Salmon House, the restaurant on the north shore of Seattle’s Lake Union.
At Pike Place Market in Seattle, of course, the spectacle of guys in rubber waders tossing a salmon back and forth has become a tourist draw. Yes, it’s a bit silly, but hold your giggles:
State figures credit salmon with annually pulling in more than 1.5 billion tourist dollars. The salmon fishery directly employs 23,000 and generates more than $14 million for working families. Every year, the state issues about half a million fishing licenses with “catch record cards,” required when fishing for salmon, steelhead (a salmon relative), sturgeon and halibut.
There are so many local events celebrating salmon that it’s impossible to name them all: Kiwanis salmon barbecues around the state, the September Salmon Homecoming sponsored in central Seattle by the Coast Salish Tribes, First Salmon ceremonies held by many Tribes such as the Swinomish, Issaquah Salmon Days Festival, Wenatchee River Salmon Festival, Skagit River Salmon Festival, Allyn Days Salmon Bake, Gig Harbor Chum Festival, Walla Walla Return to the River Salmon Festival, Return of the Salmon to Spokane and Beyond, the list goes on and on.
In 2021, Kalama High School chose a salmon mascot: Now their teams play as the Chinooks. Piroshky Piroshky, a Russian bakery in Seattle, touts “Phinn the Salmon Piroshky” as its mascot. Sekiu, a town on the Olympic peninsula, features “Rosie the Salmon” as its symbol.
“This is who we are as a people...It is our way of life. It is our identity.”
- Swinomish citizen Craig Bill, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs
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Image by Washington Conservation Action
We are surrounded by salmon, the prosperity created by it, the stories and culture inspired by it, the oceans, streams, and forests enriched by it. As Seattle journalist Tim Egan put it in his book, The Good Rain (1990), “The Pacific Northwest is simply this: wherever the salmon can get to.”
Indigenous Connections
While the dominant culture—capitalist, white, distracted, and harried, tech-entranced, transactional—does not center this truth, Indigenous Nations have always cultivated a deep connection to salmon.
Tribal Nations from across our region have many stories and origin legends about salmon and its relation to indigenous cultural identities and lifeways. When Washington Conservation Action CEO Alyssa Macy was growing up as a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon, she learned this creation story:
The Creator put all living things on the planet, the 4-legged, those that fly in the air above, and those that live under water. Plants and trees were created. Land masses were created. The cosmos was created. The last to be created were man and woman. We were pitiful, unable to take care of ourselves.
The Creator gathered all living things and asked that someone come forward to help man and woman to survive. The first to come forward was “Wy-Kan-Ush” or the salmon. and they gave themselves to our people so that we could survive and thrive along the banks of the Big River. In exchange, our people made a commitment to ensure that “Wy-Kan-Ush” would be taken care of for all time—a sacred obligation we keep to this day. Wy-kan-ush is more than just a fish, they are our relatives.
Native people revere salmon for its generosity and sacrifice, considering it a relation with a soul. This reverence continues to this day. More than a dozen longhouses and spiritual houses on reservations, and in ceded areas, use salmon in their religious services. For the first peoples of this region, the salmon and the rivers define the contours of identity, of a sense of place, of continuity, of prosperity. Traditionally, when the Spokane people met someone who did not speak
their language, they made a hand sign of a fish tail undulating, and then rubbed their bellies to explain who they were.
Indigenous people have known the patterns and the lifeways of the salmon on each watershed for millennia. For instance, Native fishers knew that pink salmon tend to prefer the lower reaches of bigger rivers like the Lower Columbia River. Chinook salmon will use the main stem of a river like the Puyallup and its larger tributaries like South Prairie Creek. Coho prefer smaller tributaries.
More recent archaeological analysis of salmon bone middens on the Columbia, Snake, Spokane, Skagit, Snohomish, Okanogan, and other rivers shows that they date back at least 9,000 years. Huge trading centers based upon salmon developed at major confluences of rivers such as Kettle Falls in northeast Washington or Celilo Falls on the Columbia River near The Dalles—giant cataracts once larger than Niagara Falls but now both submerged by dams. Thousands gathered at these places each year to fish, trade, socialize, and marry. Through trading networks, the wealth of the Pacific coast, in the form of dried salmon, might travel as much as 1,000 miles inland.
Salmon Connect Ecosystems, Landscapes
Few, if any, other animals have both the geographic and biological reach of salmon. In large part, this is because of their unusual life cycle. You no doubt know the basic contours of this [See page 16 for more details.]: Salmon hatch in the gravels of inland freshwater streams, spend variable amounts of time in these creeks and rivers, then migrate toward the ocean, spend some time in nearshore marshes and estuaries changing their biochemistry to adapt to salt water. They then spend years in the ocean before returning to their natal streams to lay the eggs for the next generation and to die. Then the cycle begins again. All the salmon native to the Northwest— chinook or king, chum or dog, sockeye or red, coho or silver, pink or humpy—follow this basic life pattern, called “anadromous.”
Within these broad contours, there also exists dizzying and miraculous variation: Some
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subpopulations spend just a few months in freshwater, others might spend a year or more. Some migrate seaward in a hurry; others take their time. Once out in the ocean, some spend most of their lives within a few miles of shore, others strike out thousands of miles into deep waters. Some salmon even venture up to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, and then further west to mix with stocks from Russia and Japan before returning to the Pacific Northwest to spawn. Likewise, the timing of the return to the place of origin varies widely, from early spring to late autumn. Before modern development, salmon were almost always spawning somewhere in their range from northern California all the way to Alaska. Only in winter were the salmon runs silent. In those months, a related species, steelhead trout, would spawn. Anadromous fish of the Northwest were—quite literally—connected to everything, everywhere, all the time.
Salmon as Lifeblood
Just 150 years ago, the impact of salmon reached inland hundreds and hundreds of miles to places like Idaho and Montana. All the great rivers of this region supported salmon runs: the Columbia, the Snake, the Yakima, the Skagit, the Fraser, the Spokane and many more. If you consider all the little streams and creeks that are tributaries to all these rivers, salmon habitat could be considered a giant circulatory system for the Northwest. In the Columbia River watershed alone, it added up to 13,000 miles of salmon waters.
And salmon, akin to blood in the human body, distributed nutrients all the way from the ocean deeps to the high mountain west. At sea, salmon are prey for tuna, halibut, sea lions and seals. And of course, in Puget Sound, salmon make up the bulk of the diet of the critically endangered southern resident orca. As they made their way upstream in their tens of millions, the salmon provided food for dozens upon dozens of other animals, from tiny insects to lumbering bears. And when they laid their eggs and died, the salmon carcasses added nutrients to both the streambeds and to the forests that bordered them. The first Europeans to arrive in the Pacific Northwest laughed when Native peoples told them there were “salmon in the trees.” It turns out to be very true.
In this limited space, it would be impossible to list all the biological relationships between salmon and these other animals and diverse ecosystems. Consider just a few connections, known by Indigenous peoples for millennia, and more recently documented by academic scholars:
• Bears drag as much as 80 percent of the salmon they catch into the forest, and they don’t eat it all. The decomposing salmon scraps then provide nutrients for the plants, delivering as much as 50 percent of the nitrogen necessary for healthy growth. Due to erosion, forests constantly lose nutrients, but Sitka spruce, Western hemlock and berry bushes grow faster and bigger near salmon streams. Nitrogen isotopes unique to salmon have been found in trees hundreds of years old and hundreds of miles from the Pacific Ocean.
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Salmon, akin to blood in the human body, distribute nutrients all the way from the ocean deeps to the high mountain west.
• The number of salmon in a stream is an indicator of the density and diversity of birds in the surrounding forest. For instance, decaying salmon give rise to maggots that feed warblers and flycatchers migrating north in the spring.
• Salmon regulates the mineral composition of both forest soils and streambeds.
• Some wolf populations get 50 percent of their diet from salmon. Wolves, eagles, ravens, bears, and other animals will travel hundreds of miles to feed along productive salmon streams.
• After dying, spawning salmon provide food for insects. As young fry, they feed on insects and keep their populations manageable. Some estimate that insect numbers around salmon streams would double without the fish.
Turning from the broad to the specific, consider this one example: Blowfly maggots feed on a salmon carcass. Once they mature, the blowflies flutter through forest, pollinating flowers, providing food for spiders and birds. Envision a little spider in a web at the top of Sitka spruce on a mountain slope by a stream in eastern Washington: When the web snares the blowfly, It’s entirely possible that this spider will have a bit of nitrogen inside it that originated in the Salish Sea, hundreds of miles away, and is only there because of a spawning fish. Eventually, that tree will die, perhaps fall into the stream. That, in turn, will give salmon fry a place to hide from predators and to feed and grow. When that fry eventually goes to sea and returns to spawn, it will again reach into the forest. And its descendants will again strive toward the sea.
Connections Broken
While we may not all agree on the solutions, few would dispute that Northwest salmon populations are in crisis. More than 100 distinct salmon subpopulations have gone extinct; more than 200 more listed as threatened or endangered. Once there were about 1,400 subpopulations; now less than 900 survive. Historical records document that 16 to 20 million salmon used to swim up the Columbia River each year, now only 1 to 2 million do. In Washington, the status of salmon continues to decline, according to a 2022 report from the Office of Salmon Recovery. Declines are similar up and down the West Coast.
Beginning in the mid-19th century, development cut many of the ties that salmon created. The list of things that now pose barriers to salmon is depressingly long:
• Overfishing in the late 19th century was so extreme that fishing with dynamite was legal and canneries routinely gave away huge amounts of fish that they didn’t have the capacity to can before it spoiled. More recent commercial fishing limits have failed to boost populations.
• Hundreds of dams block spawning fish from their origins, drastically reducing the space available to the fish for spawning.
• Logging silts up streams. And if buffers of trees aren’t left to shade the water, the water gets too warm. Both silt and heat kill fish. Buffers also provide woody debris that falls into the water, creating habitat for young fish.
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Image by John Westrock
• Pollution threatens salmon everywhere: Nearly 150 billion gallons of untreated sewage pours into the Sound each year. A deadly chemical in vehicle tires, 6PPD-quinone, travels to watersheds in storm runoff, killing returning fish. Agricultural and mining runoff kills both newly hatched and returning fish.
• Tens of thousands of road culverts are too small to allow spawning fish to pass.
• About one-third of the Washington coastline has been armored against erosion, with sea walls and riprap and other measures. Nearly 80 percent of the Sound’s estuaries and marshes have been filled in. This leaves few safe havens for young salmon to forage and complete their transition to a saltwater world.
• Hatchery fish necessary to meet Tribal Treaty Rights and provide harvestable fish while natural runs rebuild boost populations in the short term. However, they are easy prey for predators as they are released in one big wave. They also compete with wild salmon for food. Clearly, what we’re doing now is not enough. What on earth do we do?
Support Must Translate into Action
Polls in both Oregon and Washington have consistently shown broad public support for increasing spending to help this iconic species.
“People across our state value salmon and the habitats that support them. Legislators dedicated more money than ever toward salmon habitat protection and recovery. That means more onthe-ground work by local experts in every salmon region in the state that will help address the backlog of critical projects,” says Mindy Roberts, Puget Sound & salmon program director, Washington Conservation Action.
And yet, despite hundreds of millions, even billions, spent over the years, salmon continue to decline. Part of the problem is that even though those numbers sound big, much, much more is needed to restore the connections necessary for this animal that connects us all.
In California and much of Oregon this year, the number of salmon returning was so small that officials shut down the commercial, and most of the recreational, fisheries there. In Alaska, a May court ruling raised the possibility of closing the Chinook trawling fishery for 10 months of the year. In Washington, Tribes are already shutting down salmon fisheries due to low runs. Do we risk the wider shutdowns of our neighbors to the north and south?
If we are all Salmon People, we must begin to consider how we might live up to that. The networks that we humans construct so often clash with the flows of nature: For instance, streams in this region tend to flow from east to west; major interstate highways run north to south. We take for granted products and systems that churn out pollution that harms many animals, not just salmon: Agricultural and garden fertilizers flow into streams and nearshore waters. Shoreline refineries, shipping depots and industrial facilities make our lives convenient but create a toxic brew of pollutants in waters that are home to salmon and otter, seals and orca, eelgrass and shellfish and more. Salmon tissue commonly has traces of human drugs like Viagra and Prozac, pulsed into oceans and streams with sewage.
Reconnecting Requires Money
Until this year, just 10 percent of salmon restoration projects already vetted and approved by local and regional authorities had been funded by the state legislature. In 2011, the Salmon Recovery Office estimated that $4.7 billion would be needed for salmon restoration in the next decade. Legislators focused on other things and provided just $1.6 billion.
We need to fiercely fight for the appropriate funding before it’s too late.
In the last legislative session, Washington Conservation Action and its partners in the Environmental Priorities Coalition organized
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Image by Mark A. McCaffrey
activists to visit legislators, write letters, register their support of various budget items that would “right-size” funding for salmon projects.
And we made progress this year. As noted above, the current budget provides hundreds of millions to restore salmon habitat and to preserve the forests that border spawning streams and keep them cool, a necessary condition for healthy fish. It also allocates $10 million to address 6PPD, a tire chemical toxic to salmon that can find its way into highway runoff. Lawmakers also started to reframe how we consider this challenge: setting goals for “net ecological gain” for salmon habitat, beyond simply slowing the decline through “no net loss.” The state is also investigating how the services of the lower Snake River dams might be replaced. Removing those dams would be a huge win for salmon, which cannot be replaced.
In late 2022, another significant milestone was achieved: The state Forest Practices Board voted to begin rulemaking on updated forested buffers on non-fish bearing, perennial streams in the forested landscape. Maintaining forested buffers alongside these headwater streams is critical to ensuring cool, clean water that salmon and other fish need to survive downstream.
In 2004, work began on a scientific study demonstrating that current buffers result in heating steams beyond water quality standards for as long as 10 years after logging. Nearly two decades later, the buffers proposed in rulemaking will be wider and provide more protection for streams and fish. However, this progress is being actively contested by timber industry representatives. This progress, this budget allocations and policy shifts, are worth celebrating. But consider: Even this 10 to 20 percent increase in funding amounts to roughly a quarter of what’s needed, maybe a third. We need to think bigger, because when the salmon thrive, we all thrive.
“Many key projects remain unfunded, ranging from Point No Point Estuary Restoration design to Hoko Ozette culvert replacements to acquisitions from willing landowners around Samish Bay and throughout the state,” explains Roberts, Washington Conservation Action’s Puget Sound and salmon program director. “Our heart is in this
work until every salmon has a fighting chance to survive.”
Think of salmon recovery as a set of blocks needed to form an archway over a stream. The foundational blocks are critically important, and each block builds from the others. But until that keystone block holds it together, the work is incomplete. We need to center our connections— and those keystone activities—to restore the connections that have been broken.
Healthy Salmon, Healthy People
Indigenous leaders sometimes say, “When the salmon are healthy, we all are healthy.” Salmon depend on clean water. They depend upon healthy trees that keep spawning streams cool. They depend upon safe passage through waterways, all water: creeks, stream, rivers, lakes, estuaries, nearshore shallows and deepwater ocean. If we changed things so that these clean conditions are the norm, rather than the exception, we’d all be better off.
Last year, an Oregon Public Radio investigation found so many toxics in Columbia River salmon that they were judged dangerous in the quantities eaten by Indigenous peoples who depend upon salmon as a staple. Salmon people should not have to worry about being poisoned. We should work to create a world in which that is not an issue.
We all are Salmon People. We all are connected to these fish, in symbol, in history, in practice, in economy, in biology. So why aren’t we doing more to save this amazing fish?
Making things right sounds daunting. But perhaps we can find the commitment and resources when we remember this: When we mend the connections that have been broken, when we restore streams and estuaries, when we get rid of the hard armoring of shorelines, when we protect the forests along streams, when we reduce the pollution that harms the climate and contaminates our water, when we provide adequate funding, when we remove dams that destroy ecosystems, we are not just saving the salmon. We are saving salmon people.
And we are salmon people. All of us.
Image by Washington Conservation Action
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We all know the broad outlines of the salmon life cycle, which connects many ecosystems, plants and animals. Alas, this wide reach also means that they face threats at every stage: Salmon hatch, grow to become “alevins,” then “fry.”
During winter, eggs remain in the gravel nests or, “redds,” where they were laid and embryos develop. In the spring, they hatch, small fish with a yolk sac attached. In this stage, the fish don’t move around much. After a few months, with the yolk sac absorbed, the alevin will swim to the surface, fill their swim bladders and start feeding as “fry.”
The fry spend their time eating and hiding from predators: using fallen logs and water plants as safe havens. Pink and chum head straight for the sea. Sockeye migrate to a lake and hang out there for as long as a year. Coho spend about a year in freshwater; Chinook usually no more than five months.
All the while, the fry “imprint” on the chemicals unique to their natal stream. This is why sediment
and pollution can be such problems for salmon, it messes up this chemical signature that they need to recognize to return for spawning. Fry that come to life in hatcheries often will return to the hatchery, rather than to an ancestral stream.
During this time, the bodies of fry contain more salts than the surrounding stream. To maintain the correct metabolic balance of water and salt, fry drink almost nothing, except what they might take in while feeding.
Fry get bigger, developing into smolts, head downstream.
As they grow larger and become less easy prey, fry develop into smolts and start toward the sea. It’s now thought that increasing daylight in the spring motivates them. All the way, they are taking note of the stream’s chemical characteristics. Recent studies have shown that even mild stress during this stage can interfere with this learning process, making it more difficult to imprint accurately. Pollution, fish ladders, sediment—all these things can impede the learning process.
As the smolts make it to estuaries, where salt and
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fresh water comingle, they begin physiological changes: Changes in the brain spur the production of special hormones in the gills that help the fish to maintain the correct balance of water and salts. The fish must spend several days or weeks in brackish water to fully make this change, which is why the armoring of coastlines and the loss of wetlands poses such a problem for them. As they move into saltwater, they begin to drink more, several liters every day to maintain their body volume. But in order not to overdose on salt, the salmon must pump salt out of its blood and into the surrounding water.
Smolts become adults, head out to sea.
Salmon adapt to the much richer marine ecosystem, feeding on squid and smaller fish. The length of this sea sojourn varies. Pink salmon spend 18 months in the ocean, while Chinook may stay as long as 8 years.
Salmon return to their natal stream to spawn.
How salmon find their way to the correct stretch of coastline is not completely understood. It’s thought to be a combination of day length, the
angle of the sun, the salt concentration in the water and temperature. A recent study suggests that the fish may also use microscopic crystals of magnetite, a highly magnetic mineral commonly called lodestone. Magnetite in their tissues enables them to use the earth’s magnetic field like a compass.
Once the salmon reach the mouth of the correct stream, they must spend time back-engineering their bodies to adjust to freshwater again. Then, they navigate largely by smell to return to the place where they began. Males develop hooked noses to fight for the right to fertilize female eggs. Then both die, returning nutrients to the stream and the surrounding forest.
Image by Melissa Doroquez
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Image by Brian Walsh
Political and field teams build connections in Central Washington
On a blustery day in late March, Joy Stanford, Washington Conservation Action’s political and civic engagement director, and Kat Holmes, Washington Conservation Action’s field director, set off from the south Sound toward Yakima and apple country. Their 3-day road trip marked the beginning of what will be a permanent effort to show up more robustly for the people and the environmental issues of central Washington.
Just a year prior, in March 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the state’s redistricting commission, claiming that the redrawn 15th legislative district in Yakima kept Latino voters from voting for their candidates of choice. The ACLU was successful in December 2022, leading to new districts that are more equitable for the city’s Latino citizens, about half the population.
As Joy’s car “Weezy” zoomed down I-90, both organizers felt a sense of excitement and opportunity.
“Local leaders tell us that prior to the recent redistricting, it didn’t matter how many Latinos turned out to vote. It just didn’t make a difference,” Kat explains. “Now the landscape has changed. Part of the system in Yakima elections now really has shifted.
“With the ACLU decision, people have a chance
to get more equitable and representative results. People in Yakima have been organizing for decades, but they were up against unjust structural barriers, especially in the political realm. Now they can begin to change how money is spent. They can address the issues that really affect working people in Yakima. We want to support that work.”
“Historically, entrenched power brokers stacked the cards against the Latino community in Yakima, even though they represent a slight majority of residents,” Joy says. “That lawsuit creates an opportunity for local Latino leaders to take seats at the table. If there are ways that we can help in these locally-led efforts, we want to do that.”
Similar efforts in other parts of the state have worked for Washington Conservation Action in the past:
For instance, when Washington Conservation Action first began working in Whatcom County there were few allies in the effort to block fossil fuel companies that were trying to expand the existing oil refineries at Cherry Point. After the
“Part of the system in Yakima elections now really has shifted.”
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historic 2016 win by the Lummi Nation, stopping a massive coal export terminal, the county put a temporary ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure. That ban was made permanent in 2021.
In Vancouver, on the Oregon border, Washington Conservation Action in 2014 worked with local partners to start and support the Stand Up to Oil (SUTO) coalition there. In 2018, Vancouver activists succeeded in blocking the Tesoro Savage project there, which would have been the nation’s largest depot for polluting fossil fuels. Last year, the Vancouver City Council passed a climate action plan, with a goal of making the city carbon neutral by 2040. Washington Conservation Action’s work continues there, and includes the recent hiring of a local Vancouver organizer.
It takes years to build toward big wins like that. But Yakima suffers from pervasive environmental problems: pollution, health disparities, injustice. People in less prosperous neighborhoods labor under the burden of air and water pollution. During wildfire season, Yakima’s poorest citizens suffer the most. They are likely to live in homes without good ventilation or air conditioning that makes it possible to stay comfortable with closed windows on smoky days. They may also be employed outdoors, in sectors like agriculture and construction.
Kat and Joy are starting by listening. After dropping their luggage in a 2-bedroom hotel suite— decorated with apple art of course—they set out
for a round of appointments to hear from local leaders and activists. They met with candidates and with representatives from organizations such as the Latino Community Fund, OneAmerica, League of Women Voters and Washington Community Alliance.
“People were really honest, and candid about their concerns,” Joy says. “They’re upset about corruption and nepotism, the disenfranchisement of voters, and prejudice against immigrants.”
Washington Conservation Action is in the process of hiring a local Yakima person to staff an office in town. We’re also raising money to fund an effort to get community organizers on the streets of Yakima, asking people to share their thoughts, and hopefully, to inspire some to get involved. Only 49 percent of Yakima voters cast ballots in a typical election, the lowest percentage in the state.
The idea is that a lot of door knocks and conversations will change voter turnout, and inspire civic involvement. The Washington Conservation Action field team hopes to collaborate with local organizations, and to staff tables at local events. The political team hopes to support new candidates running for office.
“A lot of education and collaboration needs to happen,” Kat says. “It’s not that people don’t care, but they’re often busy, often in survival mode. If you say, ‘Did you know that your water is polluted?’ they might respond, ‘I know, but I’m so busy, and what can I do about it?’
“But if you explain that there IS something that they can do, that the politics is changing, that gives people hope. And when you relate it to people’s day-to-day concerns, they get it. We hope that maybe connecting these dots will inspire some voters to get involved in these collaborations.”
More road trips are planned in the coming months, especially to introduce Washington Conservation Action’s Tribal Nations Program and our Native Vote Washington program.
“It’s a new day in Yakima and we’re here just as the sun is coming up,” Kat says.
“People were really honest...They’re upset about corruption and nepotism, the disenfranchisement of voters, and prejudice against immigrants.”
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Image by Washington Conservation Action
KAT & JOY’S PICKS FOR ROAD TRIP EATS IN YAKIMA
Main Stop on the Ave for breakfast
Downtown
Joy: Bacon and eggs and one pancake
Kat: Chilaquiles
North Town Coffee House
Great place to have a meeting, in the old train station.
Seems like a spot where locals go to meet and greet.
Cowiche Canyon Kitchen for dinner
Downtown
Latin American fusion and American faves in a modern setting
KAT & JOY’S YAKIMA ROAD TRIP PLAYLIST
Soy Yo - Bomba Estéreo
Think - Aretha Franklin
Fight Song - Rachel Platten
Brave - Sara Bareilles
Rise Up - Andra Day
Love Theory - Kirk Franklin
On the Road Again - Willie Nelson
Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes
The Cup of Life - Ricky Martin
Girl On Fire - Alicia Keys
scan the QR code to listen along!
EYakimaAve S 1st St
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Image by Washington Conservation Action
In the last two years, historic legislation has passed that will provide unprecedented resources to address the problems of climate change. The federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed last summer, the state Clean Fuel Standard and Climate Commitment Act (CCA) passed in 2021. These two state laws began implementation this year. The federal funds are already flowing. All this adds up to billions of dollars to reduce climate pollution. It creates an opportunity to build a new type of economy, one with the potential to be more equitable, more inclusive, and more resilient.
We know we need to decarbonize our economy across every sector. This will result in cleaner air, more efficient and healthy homes and businesses, and less damage to wild places.
It also means recognizing the mistakes of the past and transitioning to a carbon-free future in a way that is environmentally just. That means prioritizing communities that bear the brunt of climate change: communities of color and Tribal nations.
One step in this transition is increasing our “low carbon fuels” (LCF) supply, in tandem with other types of energy like solar and wind projects. In many ways, LCF is more complex. Some of these fuels can prolong the use of fossil fuels, be similarly polluting, and dangerous. Others can reduce our fossil fuel consumption and target those areas that are harder to electrify, such as shipping and aviation.
As our region faces a variety of low carbon fuel projects you may start to hear a lot about LCF. As you try to follow these debates, here’s a quick primer of things to consider:
Over the course of their lifecycle, low carbon fuels have lower greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel gasoline and diesel. They include:
Electricity
Liquid biofuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, and renewable diesel
Biomethane
Hydrogen
continued on next page
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Image by Port of Vancouver
LOW-CARBON FUELS: KEY CONSIDERATIONS Use
Safety
What are the protections needed to keep communities safe as we develop these fuels? For example, liquid hydrogen, ammonia, and other lower carbon fuels are highly flammable. In February of this year, an Australian tanker set off for Japan with its first load of liquid hydrogen, only to have a fire erupt shortly after loading.
Health
What type of pollutants are associated with these fuels and how do we protect public health? For example, ammonia is highly toxic. A train carrying ammonia derailed in Serbia last December, hospitalizing dozens and forcing everyone in a nearby town to shelter indoors to keep safe from the poisonous fumes. Burning hydrogen produces nitrogen oxide which contributes to smog and has been linked to lung conditions like asthma.
Contamination
What happens if these fuels are spilled or leaked? How would this affect water and soil? In the case of an accident, what protections do we need? As the recent Palestine, Ohio train derailment shows, mishaps are not a matter of “if,” but of “when.”
In addition, the production of some of these fuels like biofuels can cause more problems like fertilizer runoff causing algal blooms and more mono-cropping. All these issues need to be considered.
We need to deploy these fuels where their use makes the most sense. For example, it is easier to electrify compact vehicles and building heat and cooling systems. In contrast, some industrial processes require large amounts of energy and may be a better use for green hydrogen or even a more closed loop, renewable natural gas system.
Energy
Generating low carbon fuels can take a lot of energy. It is important to look for the most direct and least energy-intensive way to generate energy. That is why solar and wind are such great options. In contrast, take the example of hydrogen: While hydrogen is everywhere, it is seldom alone, and almost always chemically linked to another element. It must be peeled off from other compounds like water (H2O) or methane (CH4). There are several ways to do this. Almost all hydrogen produced today comes from methane or natural gas, in a process that takes a lot of energy and produces lots of CO2.
It is possible to use another process, electrolysis, to strip the hydrogen from water. Unfortunately, electrolysis is expensive, and also takes a lot of energy. If that power does not come from a green source like solar or wind, then the climate benefits are lessened.
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Location
We have a lot of experience here in the Pacific Northwest with large scale facilities being proposed in areas that pose unacceptable impacts to already overburdened communities. Puget Sound Energy’s Tacoma liquid natural gas facility stands on the ancestral territory of the Puyallup Indian Nation historic land, an already polluted and vulnerable area. The proposed Tesoro-Savage terminal in Vancouver would have been sited next to the low income and already impacted Fruit Valley Neighborhood and was stopped only after a multi-year effort through the Stand Up To Oil coalition. As we try to live more lightly on the land, we must seek out, and listen to, the voices of those most affected.
Accountability
It is likely that many of these low carbon fuel facilities will be proposed in existing refineries and fuel storage terminals. We need to ask hard questions to make sure that these lower carbon fuels aren’t being used as a technique to keep using fossil fuels.
Key questions include:
How will air quality and water discharge permits be updated to reflect pollution changes? For instance, if the proposal asserts there will be less air pollution, then the allowed pollution amounts should be lowered. How will changes in vessel, train and truck traffic be affected by low carbon fuels? How will we track emissions? It’s key that emissions are lower with these fuels, and not just a way to prolong fossil fuel use.
Washington Conservation Action wants to know more about you: What’s important to you as we seek to engage, collaborate, and take action with you to protect people and nature as one?
Please fill out our short anonymized survey at the QR code by July 31.
Participants are entered into a drawing to win one of three NW gift bundles.
SCAN HERE!
Image by John Westrock
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These days, you cannot live in the American west without thinking about wildfire. In 2022, Washington had a relatively mild fire season, yet still more than 84,000 acres burned. In 2021, an early season drought resulted in exceptionally dry forests, and a record-breaking heat wave led to the third-largest fire season on record, when nearly 680,000 acres went up in smoke.
In May of this year, more than 100 wildfires, dozens of them out of control, pushed the Canadian province of Alberta into a climate fire emergency, burning more than 1,800 square miles—ten times the normal burn area for that time of year. Smoke from those fires spread north and east for thousands of miles, as far east as Hudson Bay and south to Chicago, even west into northern Washington. In June, more than 100 fires in eastern Canada blanketed the American East Coast with choking smoke. For a few days, New York City labored under orange skies, with the worst air quality in the world.
Like many of our environmental challenges, deviation like severe wildfire signals a system out of
balance. Consider how many plants and animals rely upon fire as part of their lifecycle: Morel mushrooms have super blooms following fires. Some cones of the lodgepole pine do not open unless extreme heat melts the pitch that seals them. Black backed woodpeckers prefer to nest in the dead trees left after a burn. On the prairies, many grasses, such as big bluestem, rely upon the nutrients in fire ash, and often wait to sprout until after a fire gives them space and food. Grassland birds flock to post-burn areas, attracted by the short vegetation and open spaces. Many Northwest animals evolved to thrive in a patchwork of habitats created by periodic fires: The lynx, for instance, rears its kittens in dense lodgepole forests but prefers to hunt in spaces burned two or three decades ago.
Native peoples throughout the Americas know these relationships and for millennia have considered fire a sacred tool, a partner. In the Southeast, Indigenous peoples regularly set fires, which resulted in park-like, open forests of longleaf pine, and habitat for grazing animals that could
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Image source Associated Press, David Goldman
be hunted. Fires were set so often on Midwestern prairies that they likely enlarged this ecosystem, creating a vast pasture for bison. In the Pacific Northwest, Native peoples set fires in forests to encourage huckleberry patches and to preserve prairies and meadows that produced foods such as stinging nettle and camas or fireweed for weaving blankets.
These are still relatively tiny areas compared to the vastness of the continent. And both politicians and policy makers regularly hedge on prescribed burns, citing the usual worries of air quality and losing control.
Yet all these programs have their roots in the “cultural burning” of Indigenous peoples over millennia. Finally recognizing the knowledge and experience Tribes bring to fire, several federal policies—including the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and the Federal Land Assistance Management and Enhancement (FLaME) Act—have sought Native engagement in Forest Service land management.
When Europeans moved from east to west across the continent, they shunned these fire cycles, these intermittent, small burns. The newcomers saw fire as a threat to private property and safety, a “savage” folly. For most of the last century, the dominant idea has been to suppress fires at all costs. In the 1930s, the USDA Forest Service’s stated goal was to put out a fire by 10 a.m. the day after it started. In the 1940s, Smoky Bear made that idea a cultural touchstone.
Alas, this has allowed forests to become increasingly dense, with closely crowded trees and underbrush that have grown unchecked for decades. Now, when fires start, this high concentration of fuels means that small fires have a much higher likelihood of becoming mega-wildfire disasters. Instead of merely charring mature trees, these superhot fires often kill everything in their path, including the seeds necessary to rejuvenate a burned forest, making recovery difficult.
So now, various agencies are “rediscovering” the idea of setting fires intentionally. The Washington Department of Natural Resources has started a small program of prescribed burns in 2022, after two decades of suppression. DNR plans to burn 2,100 acres this spring to prevent wildfires when things heat up later in the year. California has a similar program, intentionally burning 125,000 acres of wildlands each year. After noticing that no new giant sequoias had grown in the era of fire suppression, the USDA Forest Service in 1978 started prescribed burns and now oversees more than 2 million acres of prescribed burns each year.
In Washington, the largest and most intense wildfires generally occur in the Northeast of the state, the homeland of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. The Colville Tribes manage mountainous working forests of predominantly Ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir, as well as western larch, Englemann spruce, grand fir, subalpine fir, western redcedar, and whitebark pine that cover 1.4 million acres, about the size of the state of Delaware. The approximately 9,267 citizens belong to 12 Indigenous Tribes whose unceded territories spread across the Pacific Northwest and western Canada.
“Managed wildfire has the potential to consume built-up fuels and increase the health and resilience of forests.”
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Image by Xaver Klaussner
half the area of the reservation, have burned. In the last two decades, the Colville have used cultural burning and other methods to restore nearly 200,000 acres of their land to a healthier condition.
Rebecca Hunt, the Natural Resources Director for the Colville Confederated Tribes, agreed to answer some questions about their approach to forest management:
Could you describe what your land was like before the era of fire suppression?
There is early 1900s photographic evidence to suggest that the forests were more open. There was very little brush, and the landscape was dominated with large diameter trees.
What is known about the historic fire regimes in your area?
The Bitterroot report suggests that there were frequent, low intensity fires on the reservation at fairly frequent intervals. These fires definitely were partially the result of natural causes (lightning), but are speculated to also be the result of intentional ignitions set by the Indigenous peoples…There are several written records speaking to the fact that large scale fires occurred on the reservation and in the region. David Douglas is famous for documenting examples of this. I believe several of these large fires were the result of Indigenous cultural burning.
all cultural burning on the reservation, but I have heard that many of the fires were used to promote big game habitat, culturally relevant plant species and the general reduction of forest fuels.
Describe “managed wildfire.” What goes into the decision to fight a fire, or to let it burn?
Managed wildfire is the practice of taking advantage of natural fire ignitions under the right circumstances. It requires extensive, advanced land management planning that takes into account the risk of damage or loss from wildfire. Things like location, available resources, predicted weather, topography, air quality, and predicted fire behavior are all factors that contribute to fire management decisions within the land management planning process. There are other risks to consider, especially the potential for fire escape and the damage to resources. Managed wildfire has the potential to consume built-up fuels and increase the health and resilience of forests. Reducing fuels make the landscape less susceptible to a larger and potentially more severe wildfire later.
What other methods do you use besides cultural burning?
Pre-commercial Thinning: Cuttings made in a stand between regeneration and final harvest to reduce stand density for the purpose of stimulating the growth of the remaining trees to increase the yield of desired products, enhance forest health or recover potential mortality. Its primary focus
Image by Nelson Shannon 26
is on growth redistribution. The goal of this treatment is similar to a commercial thinning, except it is done when the stand is much younger (10 to 20 years old) so no merchantable timber is removed.
Pruning: Artificial forest pruning is a silvicultural operation performed to improve wood quality or to remove dead or diseased limbs. It is labor intensive, costly, and requires a certain degree of judgment and skill. Pruning on the Reservation is only occasionally used, mostly to remove disease infected branches or for fuel reduction treatments to reduce the likelihood of a wildfire getting into the crown. It can also be used to increase wood quality, but is rarely done because of the very high expense.
Prescribed Burning: Burning can be used as a tool to reach many objectives. While it is often used as a site preparation technique, it can also be used to thin out the forest, fuel reduction, manipulate vegetation, and treat diseases such as dwarf mistletoe.
Girdling: This is a common practice to eliminate dwarf mistletoe in infected stands, reducing or eliminating the spread of the disease. Infected trees, in areas where it is not economically feasible to have them harvested and removed, can be girdled to kill them. A ring of bark is removed around the tree, killing it. This also has the added benefit of producing wildlife trees for species that need snags.
Weeding: A release treatment in stands not past the sapling stage that eliminates or suppresses
undesirable vegetation regardless of crown position. This may include removing competing brush or diseased trees (similar to sanitation).
You have had a program of planting fire resistant trees, and trying to create a mosaic of ages and species. Why is it important to have this variety?
From a historical perspective, the reservation’s landscape would have been dominated by fire resistant species due to the high fire return intervals. As stated earlier, our reservation lands looked much different over a hundred years ago. Our management objectives have been to return to these characteristics which are more resilient and resistant to catastrophic fire impacts. By focusing on fire resistant trees, we can buffer ourselves from the devastating impacts of wildfire, while allowing the natural depletion of excess fuel loadings. Creating a mosaic of ages and species also benefits wildlife habitat opportunities, allowing our lands to be diverse in all species. What do you think these practices will look like in the future?
Being we are a working forest, we have to mitigate impacts. We are looking at our highest productivity areas and trying to focus our replanting efforts there first and we are trying to plant species that, while natural to the area, have the fire resistant and resilient characteristics needed to survive high fire return rates. We are also hoping to delve into seed migration practices that will help us weather the impacts of climate change.
Image source Washington Conservation Action 27
We all dread those days when forest fire smoke turns the sky hazy and the air thick. It damages our bodies, irritating our lungs and eyes. It makes it hard to see. It forces many of us indoors, and even there, air quality suffers. But imagine that you couldn’t escape from the worst of the smoke. What if you were someone whose job is outside: a farmworker, a construction worker, a landscaper, or someone who works in forestry? Then wildfire days would be more than annoying; they would harm your health.
That’s why Washington Conservation Action partnered with the Latino Community Fund (LCF) to put on a Spanish-language webinar with local leaders to connect with people who work outside. The webinar gave background and shared that the state was considering making it a permanent rule that outdoor workers be provided with respirators and other protection during wildfire events. The road toward environmental justice has many offshoots: increasing the diversity of political representation, making sure that leaders in communities that face the worst effects of pollution and climate change have a voice in creating the solutions, insisting on accountability for the companies and institutions that created climate chaos.
It also means empowering people who may not often be involved in the political process: hardworking families and neighbors focused on the everyday challenges of building a good life, people who may be less familiar with exactly how government rules and regulations might affect them, or those who may not always feel that their voices are important.
Washington Conservation Action works fiercely to lift up voices that have long been unheard. The more people included in the public discussions
and benefits, the better it is for all of us. It means that a wider range of questions and points of view will be considered as we face the challenges of our day.
The webinar engaged approximately 25 leaders and representatives of non-profit organizations who were participating in LCF’s statewide community wildfire resilience work. They signed on from around central and eastern Washington: from Yakima, Moses Lake, Omak, Okanogan, Prescott, Tri-Cities and Wenatchee.
In the webinar, Washington Conservation Action staff explained that wildfire is a new area of work for our organization, and we hope to do more work in this area in the future. They pointed out that Washington Conservation Action has partnered with LCF on projects in other policy topics before. Washington Conservation Action and LCF developed materials to provide context and to support and inspire people to make public comments on the rulemaking. The points included:
Context
• Because of climate change and historical fire suppression policies, wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent and severe throughout the western United States.
• Smoke from fires in Washington and nearby states can impact air quality hundreds of miles away.
• Wildfire smoke contains harmful chemicals, particles, and other pollutants that can have a range of negative respiratory and cardiovascular effects.
• People who work outdoors are more exposed to smoke and pollutants, and it is important to have rules in place to make sure people Image by Barn Images
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have the protective equipment they need. These would include properly fitted respirators designed to keep out pollutants, as well as other resources such as access to spaces with air filters, more frequent breaks, and reduced work intensity.
What is at Stake Now?
• The Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) is developing a permanent rule to protect outdoor workers’ health and safety when wildfire smoke occurs.
• Emergency rules have been in place for each of the past two wildfire seasons.
What Can You Do?
• Any experiences you have had are useful for L&I to hear. This could include: When or how you’ve experienced wildfire smoke while working. How has wildfire impacted your
health and working environment. Whether employers have taken steps to reduce your exposure and risk.
Washington Conservation Action and LCF staff shared that stakeholder meetings would be coming up soon. Community members could attend in person in Spokane, Tukwila and Yakima; they could also participate online.
The emergency rule is now on its way to becoming a permanent rule. The final rule language was proposed in May, and additional stakeholder meetings are scheduled in July at locations throughout the state.
This wildfire season and in the future, outdoor workers should have a right to respirators, protective gear and other measures to keep them safe. It would be a small, but no less important victory, for people, the environment, and environmental justice.
FOR JOINING US AT THANK YOU
On May 5, more than 250 people gathered at the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus to celebrate and support Washington Conservation Action’s work. Partygoers sampled delicious hors d’oeuvres catered by Off the Rez and wandered the galleries of the state’s oldest museum, taking in the world class natural history and Indigenous art collections. Featured speaker Frank Brown, a member of the Hieltsuk nation in Bella Bella, Canada, gave a rousing presentation. Brown described Native stewardship of nature and communities in Canada, where he has been instrumental in both cultural efforts like reviving traditional canoe journeys and economic initiatives such as carbon pricing. Washington Conservation Action CEO Alyssa Macy spoke about our recent rebranding and how, going forward, we will work
left: Bloom 2023 featured speaker, Frank Brown. Frank is a member of the Heiltsuk Nation of Bella Bella in Canada. Frank’s Hereditary Chiefs-Yíḿ ás name is λáλíyá sila (glagliyasila) meaning “preparing for the largest potlatch.”
opposite, clockwise from top:
Kady Titus, WCA’s Native Vote WA Senior Organizer
Alyssa Macy, CEO of Washington Conservation Action
Heather Millar, WCA’s Content Manager and daughter Erin
(l to r) Halleli Zacher, WCA’s Events & Outreach Associate; Tina Montgomery, WCA’s Business Relations & Events Manager
Jody Olney, WCA’s Tribal Government Liaison pictured with her family
Caitlin Krenn, WCA’s Climate & Clean Energy Campaign Manager pictured with WCA supporter
(l to r) Christina Billingsley, WCA Board Member; Sean Pender, WCA’s Vice President of Administration; and Ilays Aden, WCA Board Member
below (l to r): Caroline Traube, WCA Education Fund Board Member; Josh Friedmann WCA Board Member; spouse of Joan Crooks; former CEO Joan Crooks; and, Zachary Pullin, WCA’s Communications Director
photography by Michael Montoya
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Katie Byrnes (she/her) Toxics and Stormwater Policy Manager
Katie’s work centers on advancing equitable environmental policies that reduce toxics and stormwater impacts on water, wildlife, and people. Her previous work as a Sea Grant Fellow at the Port of Seattle focused on development and implementation of nearshore habitat restoration and enhancement programs in the Duwamish River and Elliott Bay. She holds a master’s degree in Marine and Environmental Affairs and a Graduate Certificate in Climate Science from the University of Washington as well as a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Western Washington University. Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, she feels lucky to work at the intersection of science and environmental justice to build strong policy in Washington. In her free time, she enjoys skiing, yoga, traveling, and spending time with her nieces and nephews.
Heidi Cody (she/her)
SW Washington Community Organizer
ACE Coalition Manager
Heidi has been a climate activist since 2016 and working with Alliance for Community Engagement Southwest Washington (ACE) in Vancouver since 2018. ACE is a coalition of 14 climate and social justice organizations that advocates for strong, equitable climate policy in SWWA. In 2022 the ACE coalition got Vancouver City Council to unanimously pass an ordinance against new and expanded bulk fossil fuel infrastructure, and to unanimously adopt an ambitious Climate Action Framework aiming for city-wide carbon-neutrality by 2040. Heidi is also an art activist and is the founder of Climate Toothpaste. She lives with her 10 year old daughter and enjoys hip-hop dance, reading science fiction and spending time with friends.
Image by Alyssa Macy
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Mikayla Flores (she/her)
Native Vote Washington Digital Field Organizer
Mikayla is an enrolled member of the Puyallup Tribe and of Mexican descent. She attended the University of Washington-Tacoma, where she studied Communications. She has worked at the Puyallup Tribal Court as a Court Clerk. As well as at the Puyallup Tribe of Indians Communications Department as a Communications Coordinator. Mikayla is also the Communications Coordinator for Seattle-based nonprofit, Native Action Network. In her spare time, she is a volunteer cheer coach with the Puyallup Jr. Vikings Football & Cheer program and the assistant high school cheer coach at Chief Leschi Schools. She is the mother of three children and one bonus child.
Robinson Low (he/him)
Habitat Policy Manager
Prior to joining Washington Conservation Action, Robinson worked as an ecological restoration technician helping to protect and restore greenspaces in the greater King County region. Robinson holds a Bachelor of Science from Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University and a Master of Marine and Environmental Affairs from the University of Washington. His graduate research focused on expert perspectives on stormwater solutions for the Puget Sound region. He believes urban water solutions that involve nature and the services they provide are important to emphasize for the benefit of salmon, human wellbeing, and overall water quality. Outside the office, Robinson enjoys camping and reading in the park with his partner, golfing, snowboarding, and playing board games with friends.
Ellie Morgan (she/her) Washington Conservation Action Education Fund Administrative Associate
Ellie has always been passionate about the environment and connecting people to nature. She believes it is of the utmost importance to understand environmental justice and to create equitable solutions for our communities. Ellie graduated from the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments with a B.A. in Community, Environment and Planning as well as a Minor in Environmental Science and Resource Management. Her experience involves but is not limited to project coordination, full-cycle recruitment, HR operations, conservation management, and non-profit leadership. She plans to build a career within sustainability that is rooted in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ellie spends her free time camping, reading, gardening, hiking, cooking, and playing soccer with her friends.
Mariah Morr (she/her) Salesforce Admin & Data Manager
Mariah has always felt at home in nature. Growing up in Washington, Mariah has been surrounded by lush green forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes that she cares for deeply. Mariah’s curiosity about culture and the natural world led her to complete her BA in Anthropology from Washington State University. After graduating, Mariah felt inspired to pursue mission-driven nonprofit work and worked in Communications and Development. She’s excited to be joining Washington Conservation Action and looks forward to using technology to help better serve the organization’s mission.
When away from Zoom, Mariah loves being outside as much as possible. She can be found gardening in her wildlife habitat-friendly garden with her cat, trail running, hiking with her two dogs, climbing, camping, and exploring the Northwest with her husband.
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Bryan Pelach (he/him) State Forestlands Program Manager
“Environmental problems are social problems” this often-trivialized concept has been the lodestar of Bryan’s work in restoration and conservation. Beginning his career in fisheries enforcement, Bryan has worked on restoration projects and policy planning in coastal, riparian, and upland areas throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Prior to joining Washington Conservation Action, Bryan was a researcher with the Olympic Natural Resources Center engaging stakeholders and co-managers in collaborative forest planning to improve critical ecosystem services and access to culturally significant species. Bryan completed his masters and PhD work in Environmental Policy from the University of Washington’s College of the Environment. In his free time Bryan enjoys hiking in the Olympics, playing with his dogs at the beach, and working in his yard.
Mallori Pryse (she/her) Visual Communications Manager
Mallori is a graphic designer with an eclectic background in community organizing, advocacy, program management, and communications. Having received her Master of Social Work from the University of Washington with a focus on community-centered practice, Mallori is dedicated to building a better future for all. She is passionate about harnessing the power of visual storytelling to amplify the lived experiences of those most impacted by injustice.
Born and raised in Washington, Mallori feels a deep connection to our state’s environment and commitment to protecting all who call this land home. When she’s not learning a new hobby or caring for her many houseplants, you can find Mallori backpacking around the state with her husband and two dogs.
Rico Vinh (he/him)
Forest and Fish Project Manager
Rico is an environmental lawyer. Growing up in Seattle, Rico was inspired by the surrounding lush forests, clean waterways, and rugged mountains. While pursuing a law degree from Lewis & Clark, Rico focused on environmental conservation and justice, with a particular emphasis on addressing the region’s ecological challenges. Rico has collaborated with local nonprofits such as Columbia Riverkeeper and Hanford Challenge. In their spare time, Rico enjoys hiking, cooking up a storm, and playing the banjo.
STAFF
Aida Amirul, Digital Communications Associate
Rein Attemann, Puget Sound Campaigns Manager
Rachel Baker, Forest Program Director
Paul Balle, Donor Relations Director
Lennon Bronsema, Vice President of Campaigns
Katie Byrnes, Toxics & Stormwater Policy Manager
Heidi Cody, Southwest Washington Community Organizer
Tanya Eison, Executive Assistant & Board Liaison
Katie Fields, Forests & Communities Program Manager
Mikayla Flores, Native Vote WA Digital Field Organizer
Julie Gonzales-Corbin, Human Resources Director
David Gorton, Vice President of Development
Adri Hennessey, HR & Administrative Manager
Sonia Hitchcock, Digital Field Organizer
Kat Holmes, Field Director
Tony Ivey, Political & Civic Engagement Manager
Caitlin Krenn, Climate & Clean Energy Campaign Manager
Robinson Low, Habitat Policy Manager
Alyssa Macy, Chief Executive Officer
Heather Millar, Content Manager
Tina Montgomery, Business Relations & Events Manager
Ellie Morgan, Administrative Associate
Mariah Morr, Salesforce Admin & Data Manager
Darcy Nonemacher, Government Affairs Director
Jody Olney, Tribal Government Liaison
Bryan Pelach, State Forestlands Program Manager
Sean Pender, Vice President of Admin
Rebecca Ponzio, Climate & Fossil Fuel Program Director
Mallori Pryse, Visual Communications Manager
Zachary Pullin, Communications Director
Mindy Roberts, Puget Sound Program Director
Griffin Smith, Development Director
Joy Stanford, Political & Civic Engagement Director
Lauren Tamboer, Foundations Manager
Kady Titus, Native Vote WA Senior Organizer
Rico Vinh, Forest & Fish Project Manager
Halleli Zacher, Events & Outreach Associate
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Many of us have some of our investments in a traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or perhaps even in a 401K account.
Whether you’re still working or you’re over 70 years old, there are a few simple ways you can support the work of Washington Conservation Action Education Fund utilizing these retirement assets.
1. Still working? Name Washington Conservation Action Education Fund as a designated beneficiary of your retirement account.
2. Over 70? Make a tax-free charitable distribution from your IRA.
If you’re still working and have an IRA or 401K (or similar retirement account such as a Roth IRA or a 403B), you can designate the Washington Conservation Action Education Fund (our 501c3) today as a beneficiary of the account on your passing.
Amy Scott, Washington Conservation Action Board Member and Director, Planned Giving at University of Washington told us:
“A key reason I chose to make a planned gift from my retirement account is because it took only a few minutes (and cost nothing!) to update my beneficiary designation form online with the financial firm that holds my account. Before I went to their website, I confirmed the correct organization name and federal tax ID number with Washington Conservation Action staff.”
(We’ve even got that information here, to make it easier for you!)
Starting at age 73, the Internal Revenue Service requires that you begin taking distributions from your IRA each year, and that you pay taxes on those distributions.
The good news: you can reduce your tax liability that comes with making such a withdrawal, by making a charitable contribution to Washington Conservation Action Education Fund directly from your IRA.
You can even start making donations from your IRA a year and a half before distributions are required by law. Amy Scott tells us: “As a planned giving professional, I remind donors that they can start making qualified charitable distributions from their IRAs at age 70.5! This has been a popular option for donors who no longer itemize their charitable deductions.”
By making a donation from your IRA, you can preserve more of your nest egg. The gift is called a qualified charitable distribution (QCD), and you don’t have to pay taxes on it! It’s a win-win, as you also get the satisfaction of knowing you helped support Washington Conservation Action Education Fund’s work to protect Washington’s environment for future generations.
Be sure to consult your financial advisor before making distribution decisions.
If you’re ready to fill out a designation form or initiate the transfer from your IRA, remember that the organization name to include is Washington Conservation Action Education Fund, and our Tax ID number is 91-0839385.
If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Paul Balle, Donor Relations Director at paul@waconservationaction.org or at 206.631.2621.
You can also scan the QR code here or check out our web page on planned giving, located here: waconservationaction.org/ planned-gifts
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Image by George Wesley
Washington Conservation Action, in partnership with Washington Conservation Action Education Fund, is committed to environmental justice by advancing bold progress for people and the environment for more than 50 years. We celebrate the policy and political success we have accomplished together with people like you.
Washington Conservation Action 1402 Third Ave, Suite 1400 Seattle, WA 98101
The Carbon Conference is virtual this year!
Stay tuned and sign up for updates at: bit.ly/carbon-friendly-forestry
a West Coast Forest Carbon Conference
Coming November 2023
Bringing together diverse thinkers and stakeholders to learn about and discuss innovative strategies and opportunities for sustainable forest management that can create a stronger economy and healthier communities in a changing climate
