News From Your Friends

What’s on our Radar – Week of September 1st, 2025

September 1, 2025 in General

Happy Labor Day! Today, we honor the labor of farmers who work to put food and the other agricultural products we all enjoy on our tables, and who need our support more than ever to ensure their efforts remain viable here in Clark County.

Tickets for Friends of Clark County’s annual fundraising dinner on September 14th (just 13 days away!) 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 second Clark County Agricultural Advisory Commission meeting took place. Congratulations to Friends of Clark County Board Members Mo McKenna and Joe Zimmerman for being elected Co-Chairs of the commission, and to FOCC Board Member Justin Burger for election to Vice Chair! We also got an introduction to EcoNorthwest, the consultant who is carrying out the agricultural lands study ordered by the Clark County Council at the request of Ridgefield and La Center (as well as landowners and developers), who want to expand their urban growth areas into farmland. This was a great overview of the purpose of the agricultural lands study and the process, as laid out by the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA). We also got to hear about some of the challenges faced by farmers and how they have witnessed the domino effect of ag land de-designations over time.

      You can watch the full meeting here: Clark County Agricultural Advisory Commission Meeting, Aug. 27, 2025

      You can view meeting materials here: https://clark.wa.gov/community-planning/agricultural-advisory-commission-meetings
    • Camp Bonneville law enforcement use agreements: 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.

      Recently, the council voted down the FBI’s continued misuse of Camp Bonneville. We thanked the council for that vote, and hoped that they would continue in the right direction by voting down agreements for use of Camp Bonneville with the ATF, SWAT, and Portland Bomb Squad last week. However, this item was removed from the agenda last minute with a note that work on the agreements had been put on pause, but with no clarification as to why the council was not permitted to give direction, nor clarification as to whether or not those agencies would continue to use the property without agreements in place in the interim.
    • While many recently celebrated a big announcement regarding forest preservation from Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove, experts/advocates have come out to call it a betrayal. According to the Washington Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, Upthegrove’s new forest policy “green lights logging of 29,000 acres of legacy forests.” You can read their statement here: https://wlfdc.org/so/52PZp7nmO?languageTag=en&cid=7e759528-86c1-4fb8-931f-3443127032c9

      We at FOCC have confirmed that Upthegrove’s current plan will ensure the death of Turnover, Dendrophobia, and potentially more of Clark County’s remaining legacy forest areas, despite clear, abundant opposition by our community and our own Clark County Council. We are following these developments and will keep you updated.
    • At the Clark County Council Time meeting, the council discussed the agenda for the upcoming joint work session with the cities regarding the Comp Plan Update as well as possibilities around a future commission or task force focused on forestry or natural resources. You can watch the meeting here: https://youtu.be/_A-ScrAR65w?si=XCDrzybqWL99alD9
  • This week:
  • Commission/advisory board meetings this week:
  • Other happenings:
    • 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. The 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.


See you next week!
FOCC Community Outreach

 

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