Urbanization and Forest Change
This indicator describes changes in land use that include loss of forest land, as well as increase in urbanization and accompanying impervious surface cover. Patterns of land use and land cover are one of the driving forces behind overall ecosystem health.

What are we doing about it?

Public Sector Responses to Forest Protection

In Washington, the State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, manage forest lands throughout the state. Private companies own 39 percent of forestlands with the remaining percentage owned by public entities or the tribes. When Washington became the 42nd state in 1889, it was given three million acres of trust lands that provide income to build public schools, universities, community colleges, prisons, hospitals and other related public facilities.

Forest practices are governed by the Washington State Forest Practices Act²¹ and were recently amended through the Forest and Fish Agreement. The Act is intended to balance income/timber production from forestry with ecological functions and compliance with the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act.

The Forest Practices Act is administered by the Washington Forest Practices Board, an independent regulatory agency.

Updated Forest Practices Rules

The updated forest practices rules are designed to:

• Facilitate salmon migration
  
• Protect fish habitat
  
• Reduce sedimentation of freshwater streams and estuaries
  
• Establish a scientifically based adaptive management and monitoring process for evaluating the impact of forest practices on aquatic resources
  
• Provide a more predictable and consistent regulatory environment more likely to keep landowners from converting forestland to other uses that would be less desirable for salmon recovery

On January 20, 2000, the Forest Practices Board passed emergency forest practices rules, which included measures protecting riparian areas for fish habitat and non-fish habitat streams, unstable slopes, pesticide application, wetlands, and new requirements for road maintenance and construction. The emergency forest practices rules went into effect on March 20, 2000.²²

On a local scale, the King County Forestry program provides education, technical assistance and economic incentives to retain forest resources. In 2004, the Northwest Environmental Forum conducted a workshop on saving Washington's working forest land base.²³

Non-Profit Recommendations

The World Wildlife Fund believes the best opportunities for conservation in the Puget Sound Georgia Basin region include the following:

• Establish one or more forest connections between the Cascade and Coast Range forests south of Olympia (the Skookimchuck River valley is a prime candidate that if restored could act as a connection between populations of northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) on the Olympic Peninsula and those in the Cascade Mountains)
  
• Establish riparian habitat corridors along streams draining into Puget Sound from the Cascades (e.g., Nisqually, Skykomish, Nooksack rivers)
  
• Protect Burn's Bog, British Columbia
• Maintain the remaining prairie-oak woodlands on the Ft. Lewis base through the use of prescribed fire management
  

Other techniques include green corridor acquisitions (see the Mountains to Sound Greenway), development value buy-outs, preferential zoning and conservation acquisitions.

Public Sector Responses to Urbanization

Smart Growth Tools: Why Plan and Manage Growth Sensibly?

Lack of planning has negative multiplier effects. Think what would occur if your business did not engage in strategic planning or measure progress during your fiscal year. Poor planning for growth can lead to:

• Destruction of forests, farms and open spaces that provide scenic vistas, tourism revenue and protect us from flooding and poor water quality
• Polluted air from having to travel too far from home to work. This increases the incidence of asthma and other health related problems
• Increased transportation distances that devours more of your free time and increases the number of vehicle accidents and acts of road rage
• Increased cost for schools, retail, stormwater systems (pipes, culverts, drainages systems), water delivery and roads when development is scattered over a wide swath of land
• Less time spent walking and getting exercise, which leads, in part, to current epidemic levels of obesity
• Greater isolation from our neighbors, communities that lack a sense of place and increased rates of depression.

We also have to manage growth because our region's population is expected to reach nine million by 2025 and there are limited lands for balancing economic, community and natural resources. Simply put, we do not have unlimited space and resources within which to grow, so we have to find smart ways to develop.

Demographic shifts in North America indicate that traditional two parent households with children represent less than 25 percent of the population and continues to decrease. As a result, housing preferences and needs are changing to favor higher-density, mixed-use settings.⁸

In Washington: The Growth Management Act adopted by the Washington State Legislature in 1990 requires state and local governments to manage Washington’s growth by identifying and protecting critical areas and natural resource lands, designating urban growth areas, preparing comprehensive plans and implementing them through capital investments and development regulations. This approach to growth management is unique among states.²⁴

The Washington State legislature, in its preamble to the GMA, states that:

"...uncoordinated and unplanned growth, together with lack of common goals expressing the public's interest in the conservation and the wise use of our lands, pose a threat to the environment, sustainable economic development and the health, safety and high quality of life enjoyed by residents of the state."

In King County: In King County, the Comprehensive Plan was revised in 2000 to encourage Smart Growth. In 2003 King County launched a Low Impact Development/Built Green ordinance to facilitate Smart Growth's objectives.

In BC: The Growth Management Amendment Act 1995 (now Part 25 of the Local Government Act), responded to rapid growth by providing a framework for municipalities and regional districts to prepare a regional growth strategy as equal partners. "A regional growth strategy is a regional vision that commits affected municipalities and regional districts to meet common social, economic and environmental objectives". In Greater Vancouver, the regional growth strategy is the Livable Region Plan.

In the Greater Vancouver Regional District: In the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD), the 1996 Livable Region Plan is Greater Vancouver's regional growth strategy. A review of the livable Region Plan is underway, within the framework of the Sustainable Region Initiative. One of the goals of the Livable Region Plan is to achieve a compact metropolitan region. To do this, the GVRD has entered a Smart Growth Partnership with Smart Growth BC, the District of Maple Ridge, Real Estate Institute of BC, the University of BC, Environment Canada the Province of BC, BC Hydro and Translink.¹¹

Impacts of Stormwater in an Urbanized Landscape

Stormwater affects physical, chemical and biological conditions of streams.

Use Agricultural Protection Districts and other Tools to Keep Farms in Farming

BC has done a good job of protecting the lush Fraser Basin, which produces up to 50 percent of BC's agricultural products. BC agriculture generates $2.2 billion in farm gate sales and provides jobs for over 50,000 British Columbians. The 1974 Agricultural Land Reserve , or ALR, based on the 1973 BC Land Commission Act, is managed by the Agricultural Land Commission .

The objective of the Agricultural Land Reserve is to preserve agricultural land and encourage and enable farm businesses throughout BC.¹⁵ In addition to the ALR, BC has adopted a number of other laws that help to preserve farmland:

• Farm Practices (Right to Farm) Act
• Local Government Act: Part 25: Growth Strategies, and Part 26: Planning and Land Use Management¹⁶
  
• Islands Trust Act¹⁷
  
• Land Title Act
  

In Washington State, the Growth Management Act supports agricultural land designations and in some larger counties such as King County, protection is afforded through the Farmland Protection Program, Agricultural Protection Districts (APDs, established in 1985) and Transfer of Development Rights¹⁸ (see King County's Agriculture Program for more information). Property owners can sell their development rights to the County, which then restricts the property to agriculture and open space. The Agricultural Protection Districts are in larger contiguous blocks in Snoqualmie, Sammamish, Lower and Upper Green River Valleys and the Enumclaw Plateau.

Under the APD system, owners of productive agricultural land can apply to the County assessor's office to have land assessed at its "current use" value rather than at its highest and best use or market value.

 

 

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