Where to start to try to save a patch of wetland
August 11, 2022 12:06 PM   Subscribe

There's an area of wetland--about 125 acres--that's set to be paved over for warehouses near where I live in the western part of Washington State.

A woman on Nextdoor posted photos showing that it's a lushly forested area with mature trees, and who knows how much wildlife. We have all kinds of it here.

She posted that the land is being bought by a railroad company. I have the name, so I can start researching the history of this decision.

I know from reading about this beautiful area in local news coverage that wildlife is already under stress from existing development, and rare plants species and several kinds of animals are disappearing. I realize you could probably say this same thing about nearly every spot on the planet. I've never gotten involved with an environmental cause before, but this is where I live and somehow this is upsetting to me like nothing like it has done before. The thought of this project going forward is making me feel physically ill.

I figure my efforts are doomed because of large business interests who plan to make beaucoup bucks out of this development. My city council has the reputation of being unresponsive to people's concerns. I'll have to try them anyway. I'm not rich, I'm not a celebrity, and I don't have any contacts in the world of environmental ecology, or whatever banner this would fall under. But I'm willing to make them. I just don't know where to start.

I randomly googled "environment Washington State," and found a page related to ecology. But they just take reports of people burning stuff illegally in protected areas. The Nextdoor poster said that someone at the City had determined that no ecological impact statement had to be made in this case, for some reason. I don't know how to pursue finding out about that.

Which other organizations should I contact? I know about the Fish and Wildlife Department and other government entities. And there must be a ton of non-profits near me related to environmental aspects. I can start googling, but is there anything specific I should be targeting?

The Nextdoor poster said she knew of a tree organization that had already written to whoever is heading the development, but they made no headway. I figure I should get a list of every group that has become involved so far, and perhaps write a collective letter to the city council. I imagine at some point I might need to get legal representation.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to try. Should I stay small, or try to get a lot of others involved? Has anyone on the green ever tried to organize a movement like this? I would love your advice on how to structure what I'm doing.
posted by cartoonella to Science & Nature (19 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Good luck from a fellow Washingtonian. I would certainly be contacting local environmental groups, trees, birds, etc.
posted by Windopaene at 12:23 PM on August 11, 2022


Yes, first step, contact any an all local environmental groups - your local chapter of Sierra Club, you could also contact the Seattle Chapter of Earth Justice, and likely more-local orgs that I'm not aware of - you could also do a bit of research and write an op-ed in your local paper(s).
posted by coffeecat at 12:26 PM on August 11, 2022


Is it adjacent to a river, or the watershed of a river? There might be a Riverkeeper or Waterkeeper group already interested.

Are there people downstream on the banks of a river, who will face more floods if a wetland is paved?


The "no EIS” seems so unlikely as written.
posted by clew at 12:37 PM on August 11, 2022


This is exactly what I do in NYS, so the details are different but I’d tell you what I’d do here. Look for environmental clinics in local law schools, and call the professors who teach them. What they do is train students to do litigation by finding interesting cases to work on, and this might be an interesting case.

Everything’s different state-by-state, but what you’d do here is bring a proceeding to challenge the determination of the state agency responsible for permitting the project that no EIS is required. There’s a good chance that you can find that determination posted somewhere online, and that’s what you’d need to bring to the law school clinic prof to see if they’d be interested in the case.
posted by LizardBreath at 12:47 PM on August 11, 2022 [6 favorites]


Here's WA state's overview on environmental impact process. For turning wetlands into industrial warehouses they would have to "rezone" the land from conservation to industrial if it isn't already designated as such. This is a fairly involved process with a paper trail and checkpoints including public hearings. Can you find a zoning map for the city or county planning dept? (Here's an explanation of zoning).
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:48 PM on August 11, 2022 [3 favorites]


My first step would be to fact-check that Nextdoor poster's assertion that no impact study had been done. Call the city, probably a Building or Development department, and explain the situation. You learned about the impending development and wanted to see if there's an impact statement. If they confirm there isn't one, ask why. If there is, ask for a copy; it should be a public record.

Then I'd look up the laws relating to impact statements. If you have a law library near you, the law librarian should be able to help you out. If you're in a smallish city, you might have to travel a bit.

This way, when you approach organizations for help, you'll have something to back up what you're saying. Personally, I find "wetlands > parking lots" persuasive, but that's not enough to change anything. A property owner can do what they want with their property, within the law. But if it's not within the law, then people will be interested.

Realistically, if the railroad company followed the law, most of what you'll be able to do is symbolic. You might try some economic activism - the railroad is probably a publicly held company, and if you could interest some major shareholders in your cause, management is a lot more likely to listen to them than to some random protestors. But that's easier said than done, not least because the types of people who become major shareholders in large companies are usually just as bad as the company's executives, maybe worse.

You could always do the squatting-in-the-tree thing. It won't work, but you could attract some publicity at least. More of a last resort; try the legal stuff first.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:50 PM on August 11, 2022 [1 favorite]


I just looked, and I’m not seeing environmental law clinics at U Wash, Gonzaga, or Seattle U, so that may be a dead end. But someone above suggested Riverkeeper, and that’s a good idea — I would call these guys, who are probably the wrong organization, and explain the location of the wetland and what’s going on. They might be able to refer you to the organization that would be interested.
posted by LizardBreath at 12:58 PM on August 11, 2022


If it is wetland habitat, any developer will also have to work under SEPA:
https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Wetlands/Regulations

That doesn't mean it can't be developed, but there are more regulations involved and there would also be a need for wetland mitigation.

https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Wetlands/Mitigation

The other advice I can offer is very dependent on your city and county, if you are wiling to send me a memail with your location, I can offer some other resources.
posted by Maude_the_destroyer at 12:59 PM on August 11, 2022 [7 favorites]


To add, 125 acres is a pretty large wetland parcel, I highly doubt that it doesn't require an EIS. I would contact state wetland staff at the links provided by myself and spamandkimchi.
posted by Maude_the_destroyer at 1:08 PM on August 11, 2022 [2 favorites]


As noted just above, SEPA should apply and is likely required in the city or county code of whomever has jurisdiction. If there is a federal nexus (meaning something is happening that requires a federal agency to permit the action), then other things would kick in, like Section 106 compliance, Clean Water Act permits, and so on. At the local level, this development might trigger the need for, say, a Conditional Use Permit, and Critical Areas ordinances should apply as well.

But something important to remember is that none of these really prohibit impacts, they just limit willy-nilly casual destruction. You can, for example, fill in beautiful existing wetlands, as long as it has been appropriately documented, reviewed, and permitted, and almost certainly mitigation would be required. Whether or not the city/county has followed their own procedures and the law is a different question, and is often a point of vulnerability that people can use to challenge these projects.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:22 PM on August 11, 2022 [5 favorites]


Check Google Scholar to see if anyone's written / researched it. I find a lot of useful info about sites where councils claim to know nothing, altho' my context in different.

There are some interesting cases with US railroad companies where adjacent parcels and various rights have lapsed/ been abandoned with good developers being able to use that. SPAR City in Los Angeles being an example where thinking outside the box led to a good outcome.

LizardBreath is onto it, more or less what I was going to add. sometimes engage a planning lawyer to scope out a project where there are a lot of unknowns.
posted by unearthed at 1:32 PM on August 11, 2022


If you have an environmentally-friendly congressperson for/in your district/state, I would try calling their office and seeing what they suggest. They probably know more about what works politically than most people -- although not everything, and I wouldn't necessarily rely on their interpretation of various laws and/or what's possible and what's not possible. However, they will know a lot that Metafilter doesn't.
posted by amtho at 1:39 PM on August 11, 2022


Maybe try Conservation Northwest
posted by pinochiette at 1:54 PM on August 11, 2022


If you didn't mind sharing the exact parcel location I'm sure there's enough resources here we could probably figure out what it is zoned for and what the next steps would be.
posted by geoff. at 2:48 PM on August 11, 2022


So, first, take everything you are reading on NextDoor with a big grain of salt. An entire salt lick, perhaps. NextDoor is the home of NIMBY's who block development at any turn for any reason they can come up with. Reacting with emotion, as you are, is hard to avoid, but that doesn't mean that the NextDoor poster is sharing accurate information in good faith.

I encourage you to research this project as much as possible to understand who is building what and why. Specifically, I'd suggest you reach out to pro-housing groups to make sure this isn't a project they've been advocating for. For example, here's a development partially on wetland in Kent, Washington that's going to bring hundreds of much-needed homes to an area near a future light rail station.

So, please do look into this from different perspectives. It's important to understand the development pressures in the pacific northwest, where we are already getting influxes of climate refugees from California and elsewhere.
posted by bluedaisy at 3:57 PM on August 11, 2022 [3 favorites]


My dad became an official wetlands steward through the program connected here and the state Dept. of Ecology, and they might know some resources. The Dept. of Ecology is here, as well, so there might be resources you can find as well.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 4:13 PM on August 11, 2022


Bluedaisy, I’m active in my local YIMBY group, but this is warehouses, not housing. There are plenty of areas that warehouses can be built that are not wetlands.
posted by rockindata at 5:50 PM on August 11, 2022 [1 favorite]


Hey, I live in your neck of the woods and I'm familiar with this project. It's been talked about at some neighborhood council meetings and on Reddit. Memail me if you want to brainstorm.
posted by missmobtown at 7:55 PM on August 11, 2022 [2 favorites]


this is warehouses, not housing.
According to an angry person on a local NextDoor, 125 acres of wetland are being filled in for warehouses.

NextDoor is not a reliable source of information. That is my point. The poster needs to find out more information about this project from different sources, including those who might support it.
posted by bluedaisy at 8:20 AM on August 12, 2022 [1 favorite]


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