We are happy to announce that on 8/17/2026, the Western Region Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) decided in favor of our petition to overturn the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners’ 4-1 decision to rezone the Black Lake Quarry parcels to Rural Resource Industrial (RRI). (It had been Rural 1 Unit per 20 acres, or R1-20.) The GMHB found that the rezone conflicted with Thurston’s own Comprehensive Plan and failed to comply with Washington’s Growth Management Act (GMA). The Board also granted our request to invalidate the County ordinance.
The Black River Corridor is a remarkably intact river and wetland system that provides habitat for Oregon spotted frog, Olympia mudminnow and approximately 150 species of birds. The river flows through the Black River Unit of the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge and past the Glacial Heritage Preserve before eventually joining the Chehalis River. This interconnected landscape provides wildlife habitat, water-quality benefits, flood storage and other ecosystem services that are increasingly important as our climate changes.
The County designated these parcels R1-20 in 2007, limiting development to help conserve the sensitive environmental value of this area. The attempt to replace that low-density designation with RRI zoning would have opened up the property to a substantially more intensive range of industrial uses.
As the County reconfigures their land use ordinance to fix the GMA violations confirmed by the GMHB, we suggest that they either return this area to its original low-density zoning or find other creative ways to permanently protect the Black River Corridor from degradation. We support conservation of this area for its value to wildlife and the environment.
The County will draft revisions to the ordinance and hold public hearings before adopting a new ordinance by February 17, 2027. We will be closely following the County’s response and working with our allies to ensure that the problems identified by the GMHB are genuinely corrected rather than simply repackaged in a new ordinance. We will keep SSBA members informed about opportunities to participate as hearings and public-comment periods are scheduled.
Additionally, SSBA is still seeking donations to cover the significant legal fees required for this lawsuit. Please click here to donate.
The Conservation Committee did not pursue this alone; we’d like to recognize and thank our co-appellants, Bob Metzger and Gordon White, as well as Ronda Larson Kramer, for helping lead and support this effort in so many ways. Our gratitude and admiration go out to our legal team — Claudia Newman and Zak Griefen of Bricklin & Newman LLP — for their guidance, knowledge and expertise. We thank the SSBA Conservation Committee, other committee volunteers, and SSBA Board for sticking with us and helping. Finally, we thank all the generous donors who have helped defray legal costs and supporters who gave us invaluable insights, and all the SSBA members who support conservation, now and for the last 20+ years. We could not have been successful without all of you. Thank you.
For further reading:
- View the GMHB Decision below, or follow the link: https://southsoundbirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026-08-17-Final-Decision-and-Order.pdf
- Black River Unit of Billy Frank Jr Nisqually NWR Conservation Plan 2017
- Thurston County 2045 Comp Plan Ordinance
Photo credit : Halo of Hope around the Sun, by Rachel Holland.
