Photo: Tara Galuska

The WASHINGTON BIODIVERSITY PROJECT is an effort of the Washington Biodiversity Council to address one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time: How to conserve our state's native plants, animals, and ecosystems for current and future generations.
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Governor Gregoire extends the state Biodiversity Council

Gov. Chris Gregoire has signed an executive order extending the Washington Biodiversity Council so it can begin implementing the newly produced strategy for protecting the state’s quality of life.

Gov. Gregoire also appointed nine new members to the committee and reappointed another 14. more>

“Every person in Washington deserves to live in a place where the air and water are clean,” Gregoire said. “Ensuring that we have a rich natural environment also strengthens our economy and keeps Washington a great place to live, work, play, and do business.”

The executive order extends the life of the council until 2010, and charges it with coordinating implementation of early action items from the Washington Biodiversity Conservation Strategy: Sustaining Our Natural Heritage for Future Generations.

The strategy, released in December 2007, is a guide for conserving the state’s native plant and wildlife communities while taking into account the needs of cities and towns and working landowners.

“The Biodiversity Council will team up with other environmental efforts, such as those looking at cleaning up Puget Sound, addressing global warming, protecting working farms and forests, and reducing invasive species,“ said Maggie Coon, council chair.

“We will be reaching out to share the strategy’s recommendations, and our hope is that our vision will increase awareness of the importance of conserving biodiversity and inspire many to join in the effort.”

Washington is one of the most biologically diverse states in the nation, but the health of its native plant communities and wildlife is declining because of many factors, including changes in land use, invasive species, pollution, and climate change.

Biological diversity provides Washingtonians with economic, health, and cultural benefits. These include the economic returns of agriculture, forestry, and fishing, which generate roughly $3.5 billion in income in Washington annually. Healthy ecosystems provide services, such as the flood protection, valued at up to $51,000 per acre. more>

Biodiversity Conservation Strategy now available!

After three years of work, the Washington Biodiversity Council has delivered the Washington Biodiversity Conservation Strategy: Sustaining Our Natural Heritage For Future Generations.

The strategy is designed to conserve Washington’s unique plant and animal communities. Three broad initiatives form the heart of the strategy—a new approach to defining priorities, fostering widespread landowner engagement, and measuring progress:

• Guiding investments on the land, through the use of a new tool which maps biodiversity value and threats at a landscape, regional scale;
  
  
• Improving incentives and advancing markets for landowners to provide tangible benefits for conservation on working lands and open spaces, and
  
  
• Engaging citizens to work with scientists to inventory and monitor Washington’s biodiversity.

Pilot Projects complete their work for the Washington Biodiversity Council

The Council’s two conservation pilot projects have both reached successful completion. The two projects, one on the east side of the state and one on the west side each received $20,000 from the Council, and ran for 18 months, January 2006 through June 2007. more >

Important Biodiversity Conservation Tools Now Readily Available

Photo: FCCD

Ecoregional Assessments, developed by The Nature Conservancy and other partners, provide useful information to people working to conserve Washington’s biodiversity. The assessments provide regional scale, biodiversity-based context for conservation efforts. Each assessment resulted in a series of products, including a portfolio of high priority conservation areas and maps of relative conservation value. A new website now makes these tools easy to access. more >

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