RCW 43.23.300 Program to promote and protect pollinator habitat and pollinator species.

The department shall establish a program to promote and protect pollinator habitat and the health and sustainability of pollinator species. As funds are made available, the program must provide technical and financial assistance to state agencies, local governments, and private landowners to implement practices that promote habitat for managed pollinators, as well as beekeeper and grower best management practices. The program must be administered in coordination with the apiary program established in chapter 15.60 RCW, the honey bee commission authorized in chapter 15.62 RCW, and programs administered by the conservation commission and conservation districts.

[ 2019 c 353 § 2.]

NOTES:

Findings—Intent—2019 c 353: "The legislature finds that more than three-fourths of the world's flowering plants and about thirty-five percent of the world's food crops depend on pollinators to reproduce. In Washington state, honey bees and other pollinators are responsible for the production of tree fruits, small fruits, and other crops, with the value in 2016 of crops pollinated by honey bees exceeding three billion dollars. The legislature further finds that, beyond agriculture, pollinators are keystone species in the terrestrial ecosystems of Washington, with fruit and seeds derived from insect pollination providing a major part of the diet of numerous bird and mammal species. The state has experienced pollinator habitat loss through property conversion, fragmentation, and degradation of land, and with the state's population continuing to grow at a fast pace, the additional loss of habitat is a significant concern.

Therefore, the legislature intends by this act to initiate a concerted effort to protect and expand the habitat upon which pollinators depend, by providing technical and financial assistance to public and private landowners, and by coordinating with other state agencies and local governments in promoting practices to ensure sustainable, healthy populations of managed and native pollinators." [ 2019 c 353 § 1.]