We believe:

• Expediting a comprehensive plan for recovery of threatened or endangered Columbia and Snake River salmon and steelhead and Southern Resident orcas by
  • Proactively replacing the services the dams now provide with investments in alternatives for clean energy, and in agricultural irrigation, and improved shortline rail transportation; 
  • Providing other transitional support for regional industry; 
  • Breaching the Lower Snake River dams after benefits have been replaced;”
• Public lands must be preserved, protected and managed as a public trust for the health of current and future generations of people, plants, and wildlife, including habitat for each species and must consider climate change mitigation and adaptation;
• State and National policies must protect and restore biodiversity, ecosystems and watersheds with specific protections for wild salmon and resident orca populations.
• Sustainable farming, ranching, fishing, logging, and land management are critical to the health of the climate and environment;
• Strong growth management policy and law reduces sprawl while protecting agriculture, critical areas, forest, and water;
• Responsible and sustainable exercise of land management – including farming, ranching, fishing, and logging practices – are critical to restoring and maintaining the health of our climate and ecosystems.

• It is important to strengthen and uphold environmental laws including, but not limited to such as the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) aka Superfund;, the Endangered Species Act, and to fund and support the work of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
• All public water holdings and diversion of agricultural water for commercial use should not be privatized
• We support bills and laws that protect whistleblowers in the agriculture industry
• Tariffs that negatively impact local agriculture should be opposed.
• Public Lands must remain public, and not be evaluated for worth without considering their full ecosystem services and intrinsic values.
• The use of lead, which bioaccumulates in species, should be eliminated and replaced with non-hazardous material in fishing and hunting gear
• Practices in agriculture that encourage food security, support family farm incomes, encourage organic and restorative farming practices, eliminate monopolistic practices, and minimize methane emissions and other hazardous and environmentally damaging wastes by reducing factory-farming should be encouraged.

• Urban areas should have increased assistance for development of urban forest management plans and urban forest ordinances that increase protection for trees and support increasing urban tree canopy;
• Local farmer’s markets, community supported agriculture (CSA boxes), and cooperative markets, should be created and supported.
• Our critical environmental areas should be protected, including wilderness areas, older “legacy” (pre-1945) and old growth forests, wildlife habitat areas
• Our critical environmental areas should be protected, including wilderness areas, old growth and legacy forests, wildlife habitat areas and corridors, wetlands, lakes, rivers, streams, riparian areas, Washington waters, aquifers, coastlines, continental shelf, oceans, and other bodies of water through vigilant monitoring and planned growth management;
• Restorative soils program should be implemented to incentivize healthy agriculture and forestry management practices which would concurrently enhance soil productivity and microbial biodiversity, reduce local waterways pollution, and improve soil CO2 sequestration
• In incentivizing restorative soil programs which that enhance profitability and soil productivity, reduce pollution of nearby waterways, and improve soil CO2 sequestration, and may include grazing animals;
• We must improve fisheries by expanding funding and restoration efforts, including: to improve fisheries including: replacement of culverts; riparian and cold water connections restoration; to better facilitate fish passage, habitat restoration, pollution-reduction programs goals;, with detection of pollution sources and enforcement of violations; riparian areas; cold water connections; alternative fishing gear; supporting wild fish runs and hatchery “wild stock” production, and daylighting streams and creeks. where possible;
• Building and providing resiliency within farm and fishing communities to deal with economic effects of climate change, especially as new renewable solar and offshore wind energy projects are developed to address concerns of loss of jobs and livelihood.
• Fisheries and forests should be managed for climate resiliency taking into account rapidly changing ecological conditions and year-to-year variability, rather than pursuing maximum sustainable yields.
• In incentivizing and providing grants to assist property owners in transitioning their landscaping to native, diverse, drought-tolerant plants;
• Use of native plant species in landscape management should be promoted.
  •  Projects on public lands should prioritize the use of species native to the project site, where doing so would contribute to the overall ecosystem health of the site.
•  Private property owners should be encouraged, through incentive and grant programs, to restore ecosystem health to their property through the use of native species.In continuing to remove barriers put in place by private organizations that make it more difficult for property owners to use native, diverse, and drought-tolerant landscaping;
• The use of native, diverse, drought-tolerant plants should be required on public lands, except where park uses require a different form of groundcover;
• In investing in stewardship of our forest and our forest communities affected by climate change and resulting in hotter and drier seasons causing massive and catastrophic wildfires, and increased susceptibility to pest infestation that threaten this state’s forests and streams and timber-related jobs;
• In investing in a just transition for timber workers displaced due to environmental considerations including retraining for new living-wage jobs both within and outside forestry, such as; strengthen our forests and communities for wildfire, to more sustainably manage forests and their products,  and to realize the full potential of carbon capture and other ecosystem services our forests provide.
• Increasing jobs in our rural timber communities to strengthen our forests against wildfire, to use sustainable forest biomass from forestry thinning to make renewable products, through the manufacture and use of advanced engineered wood products, and in the best forest management practices to realize the full potential of carbon capture.
• In rapid after fire response to address potential sediment runoff and soil erosion;
• Antibiotic resistant pathogens pose a threat to human, animal and environmental health. Producers should be required to minimize or discontinue their indiscriminate use of antibiotics in aquaculture, poultry and livestock production in order to protect food security.
• In reviewing and updating all farm programs; rapidly phasing-out federal farm subsidies for large-scale and publicly traded corporate farms; and vigorously enforcing antitrust laws that apply to agribusiness;
• In fixing and updating critical infrastructure, in particular, fully funding the Public Works Trust Fund, Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and Clean Water State Revolving Fund to ensure all have access to safe, clean water;
• In prioritizing funding of research and extension for climate mitigation and adaptation methods for agriculture, aquaculture, fishery and forestry at Washington state universities;
• In enhanced protection of riverine and marine ecosystems must be protected from tanker, and cargo-vessel, collisions and derelict vessel,s and cruise ship’ unlawful discharges and spills, particularly spills of. of petroleum-based products, and bilge water pumping operations containing invasive aquatic species, requiring that all fossil-fuel tankers be double-hulled and enforcing penalties for violations.
• In protecting wild salmon and all other native marine life, and mitigating both flood damage and low water fish impacts by restoring instream and riparian habitats in accordance with the NW Treaty Tribes Tribal Habitat Strategy and the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative;
• We should expand state laws and enforcing current regulations to eliminate pollution, and protect the health of Washington state waters at the source, including point source and nonpoint source discharges.;
• Food should be clearly labeled in support of consumer choice, including date packaged, full and complete disclosure of nation of origin, genetically modified organism status, irradiation, and organic certification;
• In third party independent environmental reviews of study findings, reports, and policy recommendations produced in universities within Washington state forestry programs funded by the timber industry and its assigns;
• Agricultural practices that are inhumane should be banned.Farming animals for fur should not be permitted.
• To encourage land practices that improve and restore ecosystem health, we support increased funding of Conservation Districts.
• Native flora and fauna species are important to maintain the delicate balance of ecosystems, that preserving endangered species is of the utmost importance, and that endangered species should be studied, monitored, managed, and protected to safeguard biodiversity for future generations.         
• Implementing regulations to ensure humane treatment of animals in farming practices, including standards for housing, transportation and slaughter.
• Preventing over-harvesting of marine wildlife through monitoring strict limits and harvest closure where necessary