Several Critically Important Sites to Birds are Under Threat in Snohomish and Skagit Counties

In 2019, the state legislature created the Commercial Aviation Coordination Commission (CACC) to, among other things, come up with a recommended location for a new, large airport within 100 miles of Seattle. This charge was based on the idea that commercial air traffic is growing rapidly and more airport capacity is needed. As you may have already read, the CACC recently issued a list of 10 possible sites for a large new airport from which they will select one to recommend by June 15, 2023.

Two sites in Snohomish County and two sites in Skagit County are on the list of 10 possible airport locations (see maps below). In addition there are sites in King County near Enumclaw and more.

Snohomish County
The Northwest site is west of the current Arlington Airport with the E-W center line on Hwy 531. The Southwest site is west of Monroe encompassing from about Hwy 522 circling north over SR2 taking a huge chunk of farmland and wetlands. Both these areas are important for waterfowl migration and wintering areas and quality farmland.

View Snohomish County Talking Points Here

Skagit County
One site is what we generally refer to as Samish Flats. The other is Skagit Flats, between Highway 20 and La Conner. Both areas are very important to significant bird populations as well as to agriculture and other things we value highly. You can see the maps and a bit more info on these sites at the link below.

View Skagit County Talking Points Here

We Need Your Help To Protect These Sites for Birds

Please take a moment to comment to the CACC on these 4 sites and any of the others with which you are familiar (look at the Enumclaw area for example).

Take the survey:

Go to the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission online open house | WSDOT (wa.gov) website
Scroll down to the "What's New" subheading
Beneath that, click "Greenfield locations"
From here, you can scroll down and comment on each of the 10 proposed locations. The Skagit County sites are listed first, followed by the Snohomish County sites, and so on.

For background information on the study and CCAC, visit: Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission online open house | WSDOT (wa.gov)

For additional talking points and links to background information, go to Skagit Land Trust’s website, then scroll down to “Suggested Message Points.” You can see better maps here for Skagit County. This is a great place for more comprehensive info.

The Commercial Aviation Coordination Commission needs to hear from as many people as possible that the Skagit and Snohomish sites are very inappropriate for development of a large airport.

And please remember that they are looking to potentially expand Paine Field, Arlington or Bremerton. You can find more info about this part of the plan by clicking on Existing Airports Under Study on the CACC website.

Your voice is important.

Sincerely,

Martha Jordan
Avian Science Committee Chair
Pilchuck Audubon Society