Monday March 13, 2023
News Radio KPQ 560 —
A House bill that would incentivize landowners to convert their land for *riparian habitats and restore salmon populations died in the House Capital Budget Committee, and 7th-District Rep. Joel Kretz (R) claims Gov. Jay Inslee killed it.
“The Governor was in complete kill mode from day one, I think it was mostly personal,” Kretz later added, “I think his worst fear was that it would have passed and worked really well, which tells you [that] most of these things aren’t about the environment, they’re about taking credit and posturing.”
HB 1720 proposed to make two riparian grant programs, one facilitated through the State Conservation Commission and another managed by the Salmon Recovery Funding Board.
Early in the 2023 legislative session, Inslee initially pushed his own version of the riparian easement program through HB 1838, which received support from local tribes, but also pushback from landowners and agricultural stakeholders.