This bill amends RCW 76.09.040 and RCW 76.09.370, adds a new section to chapter 76.09 RCW, creates additional statutory provisions, declares an emergency, and takes effect immediately. It directs the forest practices board to repeal the "western Washington type nonfish bearing stream water buffer rule making" adopted on November 12, 2025, to restart riparian buffer rule making consistent with the forests and fish adaptive management process and the Administrative Procedure Act, and to develop by January 1, 2027 a measurable standard for the economic viability of the timber industry (including at minimum small forest landowner market share and the amount of timber harvest needed to maintain operational mills). The board must begin the restart process by April 1, 2027, reevaluate the scientific studies used in the November 12, 2025 rule, and, if no consensus is reached, conduct additional studies with sufficient monitoring and causation evidence before adopting new riparian buffer rules. The bill also prohibits the board from adopting a rule substantially the same as the repealed rule or other rules modifying riparian buffer standards until the required processes and standards are complete. The act sets procedural requirements for rule making: unless there was full consensus during development, any rule creating or modifying riparian buffer standards must propose and analyze a range of reasonable alternatives (including a no-action alternative), meet the least burdensome alternative standard in RCW 34.05.328(1)(e), consider the timber industry economic viability standard, and include minority reports if a dispute resolution process was used without full consensus. RCW 76.09.370 is amended to strongly encourage the board to follow the forests and fish report while permitting other alternatives, to require notification to appropriate legislative committees if the board adopts rules not consistent with that report, and to defer final adoption of such deviant rules for 60 days of the legislative session. The bill establishes compensation and acquisition rules for conservation easements: compensation must include a timber value component equal to the appropriate quality code stumpage value under RCW 84.33.091 and a land value component calculated as acreage of qualifying channel migration zone or board-designated critical habitat multiplied by the applicable average per-acre commercial forestland value for western or eastern Washington (with the department to determine averages using RCW 84.33.140 tables). Subject to appropriation, the department must establish conservation easements for qualifying lands, manage acquired interests as riparian open space or critical habitat, and acquisitions do not trigger certain compensating taxes; owners may elect to donate interests. The text repeatedly refers to "the department" and to section 2 standards and processes; the bill text provided here does not identify which department is meant, the full amended text of RCW 76.09.370 is not present in these extracts, and the complete content of section 2 and other referenced provisions is not included, so some implementation details are unclear from the provided material.

If enacted, the November 12, 2025 western Washington nonfish-bearing stream buffer rule would be repealed and the forest practices board would be required to restart riparian buffer rulemaking using the forests-and-fish adaptive management process and the state Administrative Procedure Act, while also creating a measurable economic viability standard for the timber industry by January 1, 2027. This will directly constrain the board’s ability to adopt similar buffer rules until that economic standard and related processes are complete, shift more weight to consideration of small forest landowners and the small forest landowner advisory committee, and make the timber industry and local mills a central metric for rule decisions—likely slowing new buffer restrictions and requiring additional scientific study where consensus is lacking. The unnamed department would take on new responsibilities to value and, subject to available appropriations, acquire conservation easements and manage acquired lands as riparian open space, paying compensation that includes a stumpage-based timber component and a per-acre land value component; these purchases will depend on legislative funding and could add budget pressure. The bill also raises potential costs and delays from additional required studies and more extensive rule analysis, and creates uncertainty because the text here omits the full compensation formula, the identity of the department, and the detailed contents of section 2 that define the economic viability standard and its exact application.