The Clark County Conservation District is calling on residents to show support for implementation of a fee on parcels that they believe will keep the agency afloat.
On Sept. 11 the Clark County Council will host a public hearing on a proposed $5 per parcel fee that would help to fund the conservation district. A slightly lesser fee of $2.96 per parcel would be leveled at designated forestland properties.
Increasing county population coupled with ever-decreasing funding sources are the district’s primary reasons for requesting the fees.
The district said grant funding has become unreliable in recent years. Due to funding decreases and changes in requirements, the State Department of Ecology grant money, which the district depended on for a primary funding source, disappeared this year.
The district offers a variety of voluntary services for landowners designed to protect and promote fish habitats, clean water and locally grown food through a number of avenues including installation and repair of infrastructure, farm equipment rentals, permit assistance and education opportunities.
The district has been looking to implement a fee since at least last year. That earlier proposal also included a 10 cents per acre annual charge on parcels — it was ultimately turned down by the county council in December.
Now, the district may fold as a county entity at the end of the year if another funding source such as the fee is not secured.
According to a county report, the district would only have a $40,000 fund balance at the end of 2018. If approved, the current proposal would generate $807,000. However, a charge on that fee from the Clark County Treasurer of $0.67 per parcel would reduce the actual net revenue to roughly $700,000, Clark County Conservation District Interim Manager Zorah Oppenheimer said in an email.
That extra annual revenue would be significantly more than the average $350,000 budget the district has maintained the past several years, though Oppenheimer says that money is needed and would be put to good use. There were some specific areas county council wanted addressed — farmland preservation, water quality, and fish passage — the third being particularly costly.
Oppenheimer said that the existing average budget had the district operating at a level below what the county needed, in part due to grants only being able to be used for specific projects and activities.
“The work districts that have rates and charges can accomplish in their area is incredible,” Oppenheimer said. Of the top-five Washington counties by population, Clark County was the only one to not have a “local mechanism” to meet the difference between grants and expenditures such as a per-parcel fee, according to district information.
“Stable, sustainable funding is truly a game changer when it comes to conserving natural resources,” Oppenheimer remarked.
Washington State Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, who runs Shangri-La Farm, is one of many local farmers who have offered a testimony of the district’s importance.
She noted the equipment rental had been particularly useful for her, utilizing tools for mobile poultry processing come Thanksgiving for her farm’s turkey selling.
The owners of April Joy Farm, Brad and April Thatcher, have also spoke in favor of the district.
“Unless we as a county are willing to declare that clean soil, water, air, and the local food and healthy communities that result from stewardship of these natural resources are not important, we can’t afford to lose the Clark Conservation District,” they said in a statement given to the county.
Support for the district also includes an online petition produced by environmental preservation group Friends of Clark County, which as of press deadline had more than 600 signatures of its 1,000-signature goal.
