What’s on our Radar – Week of February 2nd
Happy Monday! Welcome to Friends of Clark County’s Weekly Radar, where we break down what we are following in Clark County government for the week and highlight opportunities for you to engage. There are many important actions you can take this week regarding the FRDU railroad controversy, forest and stream protection, preserving agricultural land, and the Comp Plan Update. Plus, if you missed our amazing parks and trails forum, you’ll find the link to the recording in last week’s highlights.
URGENT CALLS TO ACTION
📣 Help protect Clark County resource lands from irresponsible railroad expansion
SB 5517 carved out a special exception that allowed industrial development on resource lands and critical areas near a short-line railroad in Clark County — something no other county is allowed to do. There is no valid reason for Clark County to be exempt from protecting farmland, forests, and mineral lands simply because they are “adjacent” to a railroad. SB 5820 repeals that exception and requires Clark County to follow the Growth Management Act, just like every other county in Washington. Please email, write, or call your legislators in support of SB 5820.
More information and resources are available in our full Call to Action on our website: URGENT: Help Protect Clark County Resource Lands from Irresponsible Railroad Expansion
📣 Urge legislators to protect legacy forests and generate revenue
From the Center for Responsible Forestry: “This legislative session, Washington lawmakers are considering a bill that would give the DNR the legal authority to expand revenue generation from natural climate solutions and ecosystem services—such as carbon storage and sequestration—rather than clearcut logging. Today, the DNR generates much of its revenue through logging. In many cases, this means cutting down some of the arest and oldest forests we have left to help fund a portion of school construction and essential rural services like libraries and fire districts. These services are important—but they should not depend on the destruction of irreplaceable forest.” Please email, write, or call or legislators in support of your legislators to support HB 2170 / SB 5999.
More information and resources are available in the CRF Call to Action: TAKE ACTION! to protect our Legacy Forest
📣 Oppose HB 2620 that seeks to overturn the Forest Practices Board’s vital stream protection rule and provide more giveaways to the timber industry
Forest advocates in Washington are urging us to take action by voting CON to HB 2620. The bill has a hearing TOMORROW, Feb. 3rd, so we need folks to take action right away (prior to 9:30am Feb. 3rd).
You can read the full bill text here and register CON on HB 2620 here. You can also sign up to testify (in person or on Zoom for up to 2 minutes) at the Feb 3rd 10:30am hearing using this form. Read about the importance of the vital stream protection rule from Washington Conservation Action here. Vital Stream Protection Rule
THIS WEEK’S RADAR
Our weekly radar is intended to highlight Clark County meetings and events relevant to Friends of Clark County priorities. This list is not exhaustive. For a full list of Clark County meetings, please visit Clark County Council and Clark County Community Planning on the Clark County website.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd
Clark County Council meeting at 10am: Meeting information
- Black History Month Proclamation
- Request for approval related to park enhancements to Salmon Creek Community Park/Klineline Pond
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4th
Clark County Council Work Sessions Starting at 9am: Meeting information
- Work Session: C-TRAN presentation re: Transit Subdistrict
- Work Session: Railroad Advisory Board Community
Presentation re: Chelatchie Prairie Railroad
– outline
– presentation (video) - Work Session: Clean Water Fee Reduction Program
for Clark County Schools
– presentation
Council Time at 1pm: Meeting information
- Draft Foundational Public Health Services (FPHS) Resolution
- Board and commission reports
- Legislative Updates
- Work Session Requests
- Submit a public comment (agenda items only)
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5th
Development and Engineering Advisory Board (DEAB) meeting at 2pm: Meeting information
LAST WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS
Camp Bonneville
At Council Time, there was a very large showing and public testimony regarding an effort backed by Vancouver Metro LULAC, SWWA LULAC, and Indivisible Greater Vancouver to ensure that the Clark County Council does not materially provide support for federal agencies who collaborate with ICE, and particularly to disallow the FBI continued use Camp Bonneville, our county-owned conservation area. The county is currently negotiating a new contract with the Portland Bureau of the FBI at Camp Bonneville. Additionally, the Clark County Council is drafting a statement on immigration that commenters wanted to include explicit language committing to barring federal use of county facilities and public lands. The draft statement is in the works and will come back to a future Wednesday Council Time agenda.
FOCC is on the record opposing the FBI’s use of Camp Bonneville (prior to the discovery of their collaboration with ICE) and is tracking environmental issues with the site. This Camp Bonneville Breakdown article, while not the most up-to-date, provides a good overview on the matter. Watch the Council Time recording here.
Agricultural Advisory Commission
There was an Agricultural Advisory Commission meeting that you can watch here. Of note, some commissioners expressed that they felt discussion of their recommendations for the joint hearing of the Planning Commission and the Clark County Council on the Preferred Alternative for the Comp Plan Update had been misconstrued, and crafted a clarifying comment for the continued Planning Commission hearing the following day.
Planning Commission hearing and decisions
The Planning Commission made their recommendations on the Preferred Alternative for the Comp Plan Update. FOCC is working on a breakdown for you. In the meantime, you can view the hearing recording here.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
The Columbian
Army Corps to look at $1.5B underwater Columbia River power line project, asks for public comment
The controversial project needs approval from the feds, WA and OR
Friends of Clark County’s Forum on Parks and Trails
We recently held an amazing forum on parks and trails! Thank you to FOCC’s own Mo McKenna, who facilitated the discussion, and to our wonderful panelists Ross Hoover (Clark County Parks and Nature), Glen Yung (Clark County Councilor), and David Perlick (City of Vancouver Parks). Watch our January 2026 Forum, Bridging the Gap: Funding Our Parks and Trails
Miss the invite? Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss the next one!
Friends of Clark County
Clark County Calendar of Land Use Activities
This great public resource compiled by FOCC’s own Jackie Lane tracks Clark County’s land use activities in a publicly available document. Make sure to bookmark it!
Friends of Clark County
Support Friends of Clark County
If you find Weekly Radar helpful, consider donating to support our work. As a small, grassroots organization every dollar has the potential to make a difference!
See you next week!
FOCC Community Outreach