Snohomish County Conservation District proposes rate increase

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, August 20, 2025

EVERETT — Snohomish County’s Conservation District proposed to the county council on Aug. 12 an increase to its rates to bolster services for landowners and support additional large-scale projects.

The conservation district consists of engineers, resource planners and community conservation staff who collaborate with agricultural and forestry communities to develop adaptive management practices to protect the county’s natural resources. Current programs provide residents with resources and guidance to create personal rain gardens, coexist with beavers, convert grass lawns to rows of vegetables and encourage sound horse keeping practices.

From 2010-2017, the district received $5 per land parcel, or 5 cents per acre, to support various programs and work. In 2023, after receiving approval from the county council, the district increased its fees to $10 per parcel, or 10 cents per acre.

During the 2025 legislation session, Washington increased its maximum annual per-parcel rate for conservation districts to $25. At the Aug. 10 council meeting, Snohomish County’s Conservation District Executive Director Linda Lyshall presented to council members a proposal to increase rates to $20 per parcel.

The rate change will “help us to address our cost of living increases over the next five years, and it will reduce our backlog and it will help to fill service gaps,” Lyshall said to council, adding that the district has a waiting list for many of its programs.

Current rates and charges provide $2.3 million out of an $11.3 million budget, primarily filled out by federal and state grants, Lyshall said.

After her testimony, multiple council members voiced concerns over rapidly increasing rates.

Council member Nate Nerhing noted that increasing the rate to $20 would be a quadrupling of 2017’s rate.

“If we look at family budgets or business budgets, if an expense quadruples over a set of years, I think that’s something worth paying attention to, and I don’t think it should be any different when it’s publicly funded,” Nerhing said. “The council’s job is to look at both the benefits of programming like this, but also to be careful about the burden that’s placed on ratepayers, who we represent.”

Council member Sam Low questioned how additional funding would support certain efforts, like the Living With Beavers program.

“A lot of homeowners are struggling on where to turn,” Low said. “Is there going to be more of an outreach to help homeowners and help people who are struggling with beavers on their property?”

Because the conservation district is funded mostly by grants, programs are constricted by the specificity of funding. The district doesn’t currently have grants that direct resources to helping residents with beavers, Lyshall said, so increasing generalized rates would allow staff to work on a broader range of projects.

The council requested a budget covering 2027-2030 and a comparison of how the funds are allocated currently versus how efforts would shift if the rate proposal was approved.

Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson.

Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.