Washington’s farms, forests, rivers, and working lands are part of what makes our state special. They also support thousands of jobs, produce food and timber, protect habitat and water quality, and sustain rural communities across our state.

As Assistant Ranking Member on the House Capital Budget Committee and one of the capital budget writers, I have the opportunity to help shape investments that strengthen communities throughout Washington. One of my priorities has been making sure rural Washington and our working lands are not overlooked.

The bipartisan 2025–27 Capital Budget included significant investments in farmland, working forests, waterways, fish habitat, and rural communities. The final $7.6 billion budget passed the House unanimously, 98–0.

Keeping Farms and Forests Working

The budget includes $120 million for the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program (WWRP), which supports habitat conservation, outdoor recreation, farmland preservation, and forestland preservation.

Among those investments are projects specifically aimed at keeping working farms and forests from being lost to development.

The WWRP project list includes approximately $10.4 million in farmland-preservation projects and nearly $1 million in forestland-preservation projects, including agricultural conservation easements and working-forest projects across Washington.

These programs can preserve land without taking it out of productive use. Farms can remain farms, forests can remain working forests, and families can continue producing food, timber, and economic opportunities for their communities.

$4 Million for Farmland Protection and Land Access

The Capital Budget also provides $4 million for Farmland Protection and Land Access through the Washington State Conservation Commission.

This investment helps Washington preserve agricultural land and improve opportunities to keep farmland in agricultural production.

Preserving farmland is about more than protecting open space. It is about protecting our food supply, supporting agricultural jobs, strengthening rural economies, and making it possible for another generation of Washington farmers to continue farming.

$7.9 Million for Family Forest Fish Passage

Washington’s small forest landowners play an important role in both our rural economy and environmental stewardship.

The budget provides approximately $7.9 million for the Family Forest Fish Passage Program, which assists small forest landowners with fish-passage barriers associated with forest roads.

This is the kind of partnership I believe works: improving fish habitat while helping private forest landowners meet their responsibilities and continue managing productive working forests.

Supporting Small Forest Landowners

Washington also operates the Forest Riparian Easement Program, designed to compensate eligible small forest landowners for qualifying timber they are required to leave standing along streams and other protected areas.

Programs like this recognize an important principle: environmental stewardship and private property rights do not have to be competing values.

When government asks private landowners to provide a public environmental benefit, we should recognize the economic impact and work collaboratively with those landowners.

Community Forests

The final Capital Budget includes approximately $6.25 million for the Community Forest Grant Program.

Community forests can preserve forestland while providing public benefits and maintaining connections between forests and the communities surrounding them.

This investment complements our broader effort to prevent important forestlands from being permanently converted to other uses.

Protecting Rivers and Salmon Habitat

Working lands and healthy waterways are closely connected.

The budget includes approximately $32.5 million for the Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board, $15.7 million for the Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program, and $20 million for Salmon Recovery Funding Board riparian grants.

These investments restore habitat, improve fish passage, and protect stream corridors throughout Washington.

$75 Million for the Chehalis Basin

One of the investments closest to home is approximately $75 million for the Chehalis Basin Strategy.

For generations, families, farms, businesses, and communities throughout the Chehalis Basin have dealt with devastating flooding.

The Chehalis Basin Strategy takes a comprehensive approach that includes flood-damage reduction and aquatic-species habitat protection and restoration.

That combination is important.

We can protect communities from flooding while improving habitat and working collaboratively with farmers, landowners, local governments, Tribes, and conservation partners.

Investing in Rural Washington

The Capital Budget is about more than buildings. It is one of the state’s most important tools for investing in the infrastructure and natural resources that allow rural communities to succeed.

Our bipartisan work also included investments in rural schools, drinking-water systems, flood protection, fish passage, parks, agricultural lands, forests, and community infrastructure.

For me, responsible conservation means working with—not against—the people who live on and care for the land.

It means keeping farms as farms and forests as forests.

It means respecting private property rights.

It means helping small forest landowners remain economically viable.

It means protecting clean water and fish habitat.

And it means making sure rural Washington has the infrastructure and opportunities it needs to prosper.

I am proud to help advance investments that recognize that strong farms, healthy forests, clean water, and thriving rural communities all go together.

We aren’t simply preserving land.

We are preserving Washington’s working lands and securing their future for the next generation.