News From Your Friends

What’s on our Radar – Week of August 18th, 2025

August 18, 2025 in General

Tickets for Friends of Clark County’s annual fundraising dinner on September 14th are available now! Read about how important this fundraiser is—especially this year—on the front page of our website here: https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/

  • Last week:
    • The Clark County Council discussed the Dendrophobia timber sale because it had been issued a Determination of Non-Significance (DNS) and was in its SEPA comment period. As the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) keeps communicating to county staff that Maturation II forests are paused and a new, great forest policy is underway, we see the DNR is not pausing on moving timber sales through the process—a clear indication that they are anticipating that auctions will be permitted at a future date. This is the 3rd timber sale since the Clark County Council heeded the calls of its residents and asked the DNR to stop selling off structurally complex forests on Clark County trust land and start managing them for conservation. While the DNR claims this is Maturation I forest, early conversations with advocates indicate that this sale might actually contain some amount of Maturation II.

      Importantly, FOCC advocated on this issue last week with spoken testimony provided by our own Mary Goody! We called on the county to submit comments for the record on Dendrophobia, and they heeded our call! The council is growing increasingly frustrated with their wishes going ignored by the DNR. Watch the full discussion here (about 30 minutes in, with Mary Goody’s comments at the very beginning): 08132025 Council Time
    • At Council Time, the Clark County Council discussed public concerns over abuse of public comment by some individuals, clarifying protocol and removing allowance of comment on the meeting minutes as a way to rehash old topics (discussion is only supposed to be about correcting the record).
  • This week:

    • TOMORROW, this Tuesday, August 19th at 6pm is a Clark County Council meeting. Items of note:
      • Camp Bonneville FBI contract: In March, FOCC published a newsletter article breaking down everything going on with Camp Bonneville, which can be viewed here:

        https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/camp-bonneville-breakdown/

        FOCC’s position was summarized as: “…Our position on Camp Bonneville remains the same: the County needs to move forward with its plans for conservation and public access by focusing on the cleanup, not managing a host of law enforcement activities for many more years. Camp Bonneville is a beautiful, wild place that has experienced much abuse in its history, and it was provided to the County with the intent of remediation and the purpose of natural resource conservation.

        We must not revert to the past. It is finally time for the County to take the decisive actions necessary to realize the future for Camp Bonneville, starting with the Council declining to move forward with new law enforcement agreements and creating an actionable plan to accommodate the Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s needs at a new, appropriate location…”

        Since then, it was reported that 12,000 rounds of the FBI’s unsecured ammunition being stored on the property was stolen by criminals back in January (unbeknownst to the public until now), reigniting old concerns from the community about liabilities to the county posed by the FBI’s use of its forested conservation property. The county promised it would negotiate a use agreement for the FBI back in February, given the FBI had occupied the property for over 2 years without one, but that never happened. Now, after reporting of the break-in, the county has come forward with a draft agreement for the council to consider approving tomorrow!

        If you support FOCC’s position on this issue, please share your thoughts and concerns about Camp Bonneville with the Clark County Council here PRIOR to the meeting at 6pm tomorrow:

        https://clark.wa.gov/councilors/write-councilor

        You can also call in or show up to testify for up to 3 minutes at the council meeting.

        You can view the full draft of the agreement here: https://clark.wa.gov/sites/default/files/media/document/2025-08/081925-pw_moa-with-fbi_firearms-range.pdf

      • Open Public Comment opportunity: testify on any topic for 3 minutes!
  • Other happenings:

    • COUNTY SEEKS VOLUNTEERS TO SERVE ON THE BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Clark County is seeking applicants to fill four positions on the nine-member Clark Communities Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. More information here: https://clark.wa.gov/community-planning/bpac-members
    • The Clark County Council is seeking volunteers to fill two openings on the county’s Planning Commission.
      One position is for six years and expires Dec. 31, 2031, and one position is for a four-year term that ends Dec. 31, 2029. Both positions begin Jan. 1, 2026.       The Planning Commission is a seven-member committee that makes recommendations to the council on land-use planning, zoning and development in unincorporated Clark County. The commission also makes recommendations on issues such as growth management, roads, public facilities, development regulations and applicable county ordinances. To apply, send a letter of interest and résumé to Jake Goodwin, Clark County Council Office, PO Box 5000, Vancouver, WA 98666-5000 or jake.goodwin@clark.wa.gov. Application deadline is 5 pm Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. Learn more about the Planning Commission on the county’s website at https://clark.wa.gov/community-planning/planning-commission.
    • Climate Planning development: At a recent work session, the Clark County Council was asked for guidance on setting the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target for a draft of climate policy recommendations that will be presented to the public for feedback. They were presented three options:
      • Option 1: Default statewide target (most conservative option), net zero by 2050. Staff recommended this as a placeholder for the draft.
      • Option 2: Net zero by 2045. More ambitious.
      • Option 3: Net zero by 2040 (matching the City of Vancouver. Very ambitious. Staff noted that Option 3 can create more of a sense of urgency and provide more near term benefits, such as better air quality sooner.

        Councilors Little, Yung, and Belkot (Fuentes not present) directed staff to use Option 1 for the draft (Chair Marshall wanted Option 2, while no one supported the most ambitious Option 3); however, their reasoning made it clear that they were in support of this being the ultimate GHG reduction target—not just the target to be used for the draft. If you want to see the council choose a more ambitious GHG reduction goal for Clark County, you’ll need to make sure they hear from you! Easy contact form available here: https://clark.wa.gov/councilors/write-councilor

        We’ll keep you posted on what’s next for public participation in the climate planning process.

 

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