September 2007

In this issue

	A new look for the Friends Focus newsletter
	Would you attend a field trip with fellow Friends?
	State legislative wrap-up
	Online resources for the Friends
	Mud monsters, beauty queens and shorelines - what's the connection?

About the Friends

The Friends of Our Natural Heritage is a group of about 1,600 citizens throughout Washington state who provide a voice for the conservation of natural areas. By taking simple steps to educate officials and community leaders about the value of our state's natural heritage, Friends are helping to safeguard some of the most ecologically valuable lands remaining in Washington. Stay involved -- and invite your friends to join the Friends!

For more information about the program or to sign up visit our Web site or contact Jeff Compton at The Nature Conservancy of Washington: (206) 436-6249 or jcompton@tnc.org.

A new look for the Friends Focus newsletter

Here it is -- the new Friends Focus newsletter! Thank you for being an electronic Friend of Our Natural Heritage. Around the state, nearly 600 people like you are receiving our communications electronically. But many more are not. We don't want to leave anyone behind, but we've decided to stop producing paper versions of our newsletters and other announcements.

The change means we can use this new format that we hope will be friendlier and easier to use. Plus we'll be more efficient. Look for us to simplify future messages, with more links to relevant information online.

I hope you'll stay involved. We don't send out much, but there are times when your voice can truly make the difference for our native species. And this winter promises to be one of those times. Let us know what you think of the new look. Thanks!

Would you attend a field trip with fellow Friends?

It's been a while since we organized an outing for interested Friends of Our Natural Heritage. If there is sufficient interest, we would be happy to arrange another one.

This would be a casual trip to a place where the efforts of The Nature Conservancy, its partners, and great folks like you have influenced public policy and protected vital habitat on public lands. There are many possibilities.

How about a winter raft trip down the Skagit River to see bald eagles? Or a visit to one of Washington's wonderful National Wildlife Refuges? Or a walk in a state natural area? Or a stroll along one of Puget Sound's public beaches? Maybe even a special audience with the MudUp campaign's Mud Monster (I've got connections)!

Email Jeff Compton at jcompton@tnc.org if you'd be interested in attending a trip to one of the many places that our combined public policy efforts have helped to protect.

State legislative wrap-up

The following is a brief summary. For more details, including links to the programs mentioned below and much more, please see the 2007 Legislative wrap-up on our Friends Web site.

I know it's been a while since the 2007 state Legislative session wrapped up, but you deserve to know what happened. All in all, it was a great session for Washington's natural heritage. The Conservancy's priorities fared well. Here are a few highlights. Feel free to contact us with any questions.

Puget Sound: All kinds of great stuff was passed this past session to benefit the health and habitats of Puget Sound, including:

• establishing the Puget Sound Partnership as a new entity that is accountable for cleaning up Puget Sound
• funding the removal of derelict vessels that pose health and environmental risks;
• directing the state to adopt rules for regulation of large on-site sewage systems in order to protect human health and the environment.

Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program: The Nature Conservancy assumed a leadership role in nearly doubling funding for the wildly popular Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program in the state FY07-09 budget. The Conservancy also led the effort to establish annual grants for farmland preservation through this program.

Trust Land Transfer Program: The Conservancy has consistently been the leading advocate for the creative and successful Trust Land Transfer Program. This year we convinced the Legislature to budget nearly $100 million for TLT. In addition, a new $70 million program was created in the capital budget for the state to purchase forest lands at risk of conversion to non-forest uses.

Incentives for Farmers: In addition to improving farmland preservation opportunities through the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program, The Nature Conservancy succeeded in securing $500,000 for the state Conservation Commission to benefit the Pioneers in Conservation Program. The Conservancy is leading the way on incentives for habitat-friendly farming in the lower Skagit Valley, and recognizes the need to make conservation of habitat work for farmers throughout Washington. We are excited that the state is working toward this goal, too.

A very special "thanks" to all the members of the Friends of Our Natural Heritage who contacted their representatives in Olympia this past winter.

Online resources for the Friends

There is a section of The Nature Conservancy's Web site dedicated to the Friends of Our Natural Heritage. There we post more information about our public priorities, links for finding officials, and other information to help you speak up for nature. We'll be making much better use of that in the near future, providing links from this newsletter to useful info on the Web.

Friends quiz: How many past Friends field trips are featured -- with photos! -- on the Web site?

Go to nature.org/Washington/friends and bookmark the page for easy reference. Your feedback is most welcome.

Mud monsters, beauty queens and shorelines - what's the connection?

"I've joined up with the Mud Monster and the MudUp campaign to ensure that future generations of children have the opportunity to enjoy the shorelines just as much as I did."
    - Allison Rone, Miss Emerald City 2007

In case you've missed the fun so far, The Nature Conservancy has partnered with two other organizations -- People for Puget Sound and The Trust for Public Land -- to ramp up efforts to protect and restore shorelines around Puget Sound. This collaborative effort is known as the Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines. The Alliance has established very ambitious goals, and has been hard at work for more than a year.

One of the great elements of the effort is the collaboration it is has already inspired. Many groups are doing great work to protect Puget Sound, to clean it up, and to help the public learn more about it. Increased coordination has attracted funds from both private and public sources, which in turn has resulted in a decided increase in on-the-ground restoration efforts and even better coordination between government entities, non-profit organizations and communities throughout the Sound.

One fun outcome of all this has been "MudUp," an effort to facilitate greater public involvement in appreciating, restoring and protecting Puget Sound, especially its beaches and nearshore habitat. The Alliance for Puget Sound Shorelines kicked off the MudUp campaign this past Summer. Perhaps you've seen the elusive Mud Monster at an event in your community.

Or maybe you heard Miss Emerald City 2007, Allison Rone, speaking about why our shorelines are so vital and how all of us can help them out. Muddy people have been showing up at events and beaches all around Puget Sound this Summer, dropping mysterious hints about MudUp.org in the hopes that folks will check out the site and start to develop a new relationship with our magnificent inland sea.

What is MudUp.org? It's intended to be a one-stop shop for anyone interested in doing something to help Puget Sound and its shorelines. At MudUp.org we've collected listings for a wide array of activities and happenings related to Puget Sound. The activities range from casual beach walks, to big festivals, to really muddy volunteer restoration opportunities.

Visitors to the site can quickly find an event they might be interested in by perusing a calendar, sorting out family-friendly events, looking at happenings in a particular region, or even limiting listed events based on how muddy they are willing to get.

This first summer was a success, in that we established a fun Web site and reached out to many partners to provide all sorts of opportunities around the Sound for folks to check out. Look for MudUp to be even bigger, more visible and more fun in the coming year. Tell your friends, and don't forget to get dirty for Puget Sound!

If you haven't checked out MudUp.org yet, do take a look, and send us any questions you may have about the effort and how you can get involved. We've also got a lot of information about the Conservancy's role -- including great media coverage -- on The Nature Conservancy's Web site.