This bill amends RCW 89.08.220 and adds a new section to chapter 89.08 RCW to clarify the status, powers, and some limits on conservation districts and to impose a property inventory requirement. The amendment reiterates that a conservation district is a governmental subdivision and public body corporate and politic, that it may not levy taxes or issue bonds, and it lists district powers including surveys, education and demonstration projects, cooperative research with state or federal agencies, making materials and equipment available to land occupiers, acquiring and managing property by purchase, lease, gift, etc., and entering interdistrict agreements. The amendment adds a new limit prohibiting a district from purchasing any real property of 20 acres or larger (or rights or interests in such property) that is actively being used for agricultural production. The added section requires each conservation district, using existing resources, to compile an inventory by June 30, 2027, of all real property the district owns as of the effective date of the new section that, prior to district ownership, both totaled 20 acres or more and qualified as farm and agricultural land under the chapter. For each applicable parcel the inventory must include the legal description, any associated water rights, and the most recent crop(s) grown; private land under an easement agreement is not required to be included. Districts must post the inventory to their websites and submit it to the Department of Agriculture, which must post all received inventories to its website. This is a modification of existing law plus the creation of a new reporting/procedural requirement; it does not create a new crime or change penalties. The bill affects conservation districts and the Department of Agriculture. The text provided does not state the effective date of the new section, does not define terms such as "commission," "occupier of lands," "renewable natural resources," or exactly what qualifies as "farm and agricultural land under this chapter," and does not specify what is meant by “existing resources.” The bill was prefiled December 16, 2025 and read for the first time January 12, 2026.

If enacted, conservation districts must, by June 30, 2027, compile and publish an inventory of any real property they own that before the district acquired it both totaled 20 acres or more and qualified as farm and agricultural land; each inventory must include the legal description, any water rights, and the most recent crop(s) grown, and the district must post it to its website and send it to the Department of Agriculture, which will also post the inventories. The bill also bars districts from purchasing real property 20 acres or larger that is actively being used for agricultural production, though smaller parcels and other acquisition methods remain allowed. The most affected parties are conservation districts, which gain a new public-records duty and a new restriction on acquiring large active farmland; they must absorb whatever staff time or costs are needed “within existing resources,” so they will likely reassign work without new funding. The Department of Agriculture must publish the submitted inventories. Important implementation details are unclear from the provided text, including the section’s effective date, how key terms are defined, and what exactly “within existing resources” allows, so practical timing and cost impacts could vary.