This bill amends RCW 36.75.040 to add a new county power allowing a county board of commissioners to enter into a "shared stewardship agreement" with any federal land management agency, including the U.S. Forest Service, to maintain and manage fuel breaks on federally owned land. The fuel breaks may extend up to one mile on either side of roads the county chooses to include (including interstate and intrastate highways). The bill requires that any such agreement include a revenue sharing provision under which the county retains the proceeds from any timber sales. The amendment also restates the statute’s existing enumerated county powers (such as acquiring property, road administration, and leasing county lands or airspace under specified conditions). Legislative findings in the bill state counties should be able to engage with the federal government to manage forestlands for wildfire prevention and to receive revenue to address lost timber sale revenues and losses affecting rural schools. The bill is S-4004.1 / Senate Bill 6242 (69th Legislature, 2026), read first time 01/20/26, sponsored by Senators Braun, Boehnke, Goehner, Wagoner, Warnick, and J. Wilson, and referred to the Committee on Local Government. This is a procedural/authority change to existing law rather than a criminal or penalty change: it creates a new county authority to enter shared stewardship agreements and imposes a revenue-sharing requirement that counties retain timber sale proceeds. The text provided does not include formal definitions of "shared stewardship agreement," "fuel breaks," or "proceeds from any timber sales," nor does it provide details on how revenue sharing agreements must be structured, approved, enforced, or how federal approvals or broader federal law requirements would be met. No effective date or other implementation timing is included in the extracted material.

If enacted, counties would have a new, explicit ability to make shared stewardship agreements with federal land managers (including the U.S. Forest Service) to create and maintain fuel breaks on federally owned land up to one mile on either side of roads, and those agreements must let the county keep proceeds from any timber sales. That likely gives counties a new source of local revenue they can use to help replace lost timber-sale income and support rural schools, while also making counties directly responsible for negotiating and overseeing wildfire-risk work on federal lands. The people and offices most affected will be county commissioners and county engineering offices, which would take on added duties and negotiation tasks with federal agencies and potentially new operational costs to carry out fuel-break work; federal land managers would be required partners. Important details are not specified here—how revenue sharing is structured or enforced, whether federal approvals are needed, and when the authority would take effect—so the timing, size of revenues, and exact administrative burdens remain uncertain.