News From Your Friends

What’s on our Radar – Week of June 23rd, 2025

June 23, 2025 in General

Our Clark County Comprehensive Plan Workshop Comment Guide is here! Help us advocate for our vision for the future of sustainable agriculture and meaningful climate action in Clark County by getting yourself on the record:
https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/let-your-voice-be-heard-clark-countys-comp-plan-workshop-comment-period/

Did you miss our forum last Wednesday?! If you couldn’t make it, no worries—we’ve got everything you need, including the recording, right here on our website:
https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/watch-our-june-2025-forum-on-planning-for-our-collective-future-in-clark-county-the-final-stretch-of-the-comprehensive-plan-update/

    • At Council Time on Wednesday, the Clark County Council discussed the new Department of Natural Resources (DNR) legacy forest timber sale of Clark County trust land (Turnover, about 158 acres) located about 5 miles north of the Dabbler legacy forest timber sale near Yale Lake. The DNR issued a determination of non-significance (DNS) and the SEPA comment period passed without county knowledge, despite the Clark County Council’s direction to the DNR to preserve what is left of Clark County’s legacy forests for conservation. Notably, Turnover was NOT one of the last-minute sales approved by Hilary Franz’s DNR before leaving office. Despite what happened with Dabbler, the council made no plans to get on the record with the Turnover timber sale, instead proposing another closed-door meeting with the DNR, the timber industry, and a representative of the Cascade Forest Conservancy to discuss protection of legacy forest going forward. No councilor suggested inviting any Clark County residents to this meeting. Furthermore, they planned for tours of Clark County trust land with the DNR, but did not request the presence of members of the public or local media. Additionally, no councilor asked for a follow through on Public Lands Commissioner Upthegrove’s promised public work session. You can watch the full discussion (starting at about 19 min) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0zwLwxvWCs
      See FOCC’s new letter to the Clark County Council regarding this issue here:
      https://friendsofclarkcounty.org/read-foccs-letter-to-the-clark-county-council-re-turnover-timber-sale-and-dnr-managed-clark-county-trust-lands/
    • Councilor Yung volunteered and was chosen to sit on the Regional Parks Funding Task Team, with Councilor Little to serve as the alternate.
  • This week:
    • Tuesday, June 24th at 10am is a Clark County Council meeting. Items of note:
      • There is a public comment opportunity to testify for 3 minutes on any county issue!

    • Wednesday, June 25th at 8:30am is a Clark County Board of Health meeting, including a presentation on Clark County’s Heat Watch Campaign, followed by a 2025 Comp Plan Update Work Session on Multimodal Level of Service Standards (regarding multimodal transportation systems, meaning infrastructure that supports a wide variety of transportation modes such as cycling, walking, and transit).

    • Wednesday, June 25th at 1pm is Council Time. Items of note:

      • Item 4.2 under Old Business is “Comp Plan – Ag Study Update”. FOCC, members of the Clark County Climate Community Advisory Group (CAG), the Clark County Environmental Justice Coalition (EJC), and other local community-based organizations have raised the issue of food security amid climate breakdown, with loss of ag land being a key concern. Furthermore, Clark County Community Planner, Jenna Kay, noted recently that if you care about food security, now is the time to speak up to the council asking that it be prioritized in the ag study. Moreover, Councilor Wil Fuentes stressed his belief that providing spoken testimony to the council is more effective in getting their attention and influencing their decisions than written comment. For these reasons, folks might want to consider using this opportunity to comment on this agenda item. Alternatively, if folks cannot make 1pm on Wednesday, they could Open Public Comment to speak on Tuesday, June 24th at 10am.

      • Item 8.1 under Policy Updates is “Trust Lands Visit” regarding the DNR management of county forested trust lands (See above). If you care about this issue, you may want to use this opportunity to testify. FOCC has sent a letter to the Clark County Council this morning regarding this agenda item, with 4 key asks:

        • Get on the record with the proposed Turnover sale NOW and be proactive in watching the status of Dendrophobia;
        • Invite community advocates and local press to the planned DNR site tours of Clark County trust land;
        • Invite at least one community representative to the planned closed-door meeting with the DNR, timber industry, Cascade Forest Conservancy, and others; and
        • Follow through on the council’s promise to hold Upthegrove to the PUBLIC work session that he agreed to.

    • Deep dive into the week’s meeting agenda, including how to participate, here: https://clark.wa.gov/councilors/clark-county-council-meetings
  • Heads up on other advisory board and commission meetings:
  • Other happenings:

See you next week!
Karissa
FOCC Community Outreach

 

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