Equity, Environmental Justice and Civil Rights

Environmental Justice

Environmental harms like pollution, heat waves, dirty water, and a lack of access to green spaces impact many communities. But those most impacted are people struggling with basic needs (such as reliable, safe access to food, shelter, and healthcare), those who are furthest from decision-making, and communities of color.

The goal of environmental justice (sometimes referred to as EJ) is to correct this inequity and imbalance. By actively including all people in shaping decisions about the environment, and by working together, we can cultivate healthy places to live, work, and play.

At DNR, we are committed to making equity and environmental justice a priority in our work at all levels, by doing our part in helping communities, people, and the environment thrive. DNR's Environmental Justice Advisory Committee as well as the Washington State Environmental Justice Council, provide DNR with feedback and guidance on programs, assessments, opportunities, and implementation of the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act on an agency level.

How is DNR Achieving Environmental Justice Goals?

In 2021, the Washington State legislature adopted the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 70A.02. This historic law provides a roadmap for participating state agencies to embed Environmental Justice into daily operations. Strategies established through the HEAL Act include integrating Environmental Justice into agency strategic plans, programs, investments, and decision-making processes.

DNR and six other state agencies (Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Ecology, Health, Transportation, and the Puget Sound Partnership) meets with the Environmental Justice Council (EJC) to collaborate on the implementation of this law and inclusion of EJ into our significant agency actions.

Under the HEAL Act, Agencies are required to: Develop and implement a community engagement plan; Develop and implement tribal consultation framework and offer tribal consultation; Incorporate environmental justice in agency strategic plans; Incorporate environmental justice into budget development process and in funding and grant decisions; Conduct environmental justice assessments on significant agency actions; Develop metrics, measure progress, and report progress to the Environmental Justice Council and Office of Financial Management; Serve at Environmental Justice Council meetings as non-voting liaisons and participate in an interagency workgroup.

Environmental Justice at DNR

Investing in Tribes and Communities

HEAL requires agencies to establish a goal of directing 40% of all grants and expenditures that create environmental benefits to go to Tribes, vulnerable populations and overburdened communities. This ambitious goal challenges agencies to reimagine how public funds are allocated, spent, and prioritized to reduce environmental health disparities (EHDs) and invest in overburdened and vulnerable communities.

The state Office of Financial Management (OFM) created a dashboard to track grants, expenditures, and investments made to benefit vulnerable populations in overburdened communities.

Reporting started in 2024. Data reported continues to serve as a baseline for ongoing evaluation of Environmental Justice and HEAL Act implementation progress.

Budget Equity

The HEAL Act requires DNR to create opportunities for equitable distribution of direct and meaningful benefits to overburdened communities and vulnerable populations and tribes. Direct and meaningful benefits include clean air and water, reduced exposure to pollution, and improved access to natural resources.

For projects monitored for environmental impact on specific communities, DNR gathers location and budget information to report to the Office of Financial Management (OFM). OFM tracks the spending and HEAL Act implementation efforts of all HEAL Act agencies.

DNR manages state natural resources with long-term preservation and public benefits in mind but HEAL Act reporting specifically tracks work with direct and meaningful benefits for overburdened communities and vulnerable populations.

Much of the work DNR does is preventative, meaning benefits can be hard to calculate because incidents that could create harm are prevented. For example, wildfire prevention cannot be measured, but it can be tracked. DNR tracks these and other preventative efforts and continues to use HEAL guidance when determining spending priorities.

DNR’s fiscal reporting can be viewed by year or biennium on the OFM Dashboard (best viewed in full screen). A broad overview of how to use and view the dashboard can be found at OFM’s website.

Environmental Justice Assessments

To guide DNR staff through the Environmental Justice Assessment requirements and process and to document feedback and findings, we use an Environmental Justice Assessment Template. 

On the Environmental Justice Assessment page we track those EJAs. Each EJA has the following information:

1. The date the EJA was initiated or completed.

2. The title of the EJA for the Significant Agency Action.

3. A short description of the Action.

4. A link to the EJA (for those that have been completed).

5. A program link and/or contact information.

6. The type of Significant Agency Action:

• Significant legislative rules
• The development and adoption of any new grant or loan program
• A capital project, grant, or loan award of at least $12,000,000 or a transportation project, grant, or loan of at least $15,000,000
• The submission of agency request legislation (ARL)
• Any other agency actions deemed Significant by our agency*

* DNR is in the process of including Sustainable Harvest Calculations as a Significant Agency Action.

Access more information about Environmental Justice Assessments

History of Environmental Justice

Understanding the roots of Environmental Justice helps us appreciate the depth of its impact and the importance of our efforts today.

In 1982, in Warren County, North Carolina, a predominantly African American community was slated to receive over 6,000 truckloads of soil contaminated with PCBs, a toxic waste byproduct found in things like paint, glues, plastics, fluorescent lighting and more. With little public outreach and no government plans to mitigate these harms, the decision sparked outrage and led to a series of protests.

Residents, alongside activists from across the nation, came together to oppose the dumping of chemicals known to cause serious health issues and birth defects for people and serious ecological harm; outraged as their community had been selected because of socio-economic and racial factors, typical of the patterns seen across the country where minority and low-income communities were often unfairly burdened with environmental hazards.

This event did more than just rally local and national support; it ignited a broader environmental justice movement.

Following the Warren County protests, government and congress took action. In 1992 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Office of Environmental Equity (later renamed the Office of Environmental Justice).

Individual states responded in kind. In 2020, New Jersey, passed the Environmental Justice Law which requires environmental reviews to consider impacts on overburdened communities.

Washington State

Locally, the Washington State legislature adopted the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) and the Healthy Environment for All or HEAL Act in 2021.

The Climate Commitment Act caps and reduces greenhouse gas emissions from Washington’s largest emitting sources and industries, allowing businesses to find the most efficient path to lower carbon emissions.

This powerful program works alongside other critical climate policies to help Washington achieve its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by 2050. CCA also puts environmental justice at the center of climate policy.

The HEAL Act, in turn, focuses on ensuring environmental justice in state policy-making. It aims to distribute the benefits of a healthy environment equitably, particularly to historically disadvantaged communities. Significant Agency Actions and EJ Assessments are key in making that happen.

Related Resources

What is EJ: Robert Bullard: 2019 William Julius Wilson Award for the Advancement of Social Justice - YouTube

Environmental Justice at DNR

Urban Forestry

Trees and tree canopies are essential to healthy communities and healthy people. They lower the temperature in neighborhoods and help mitigate the impacts of climate change. DNR has a vision for a Washington where all communities have trees and access to greenspaces in their neighborhoods.

In 2021, through the passage of HB 1216, DNR’s Urban and Community Forestry program took its first major step toward incorporating environmental justice and salmon recovery into the program’s core mission.

In 2023, DNR and American Forests deployed a tool to support the agency’s work to achieve tree equity throughout the state.

In 2024, DNR awarded more than $8 million to communities throughout the state to plant trees and improve tree canopy.

DNR and American Forests launched the Washington State Tree Equity Collaborative to support this work. The Collaborative's purpose is to expand and fortify neighborhood tree canopy cover by engaging cities, community organizations, and key partners to build and support rigorous and inclusive urban forestry programs across the state.

Using the Tree Equity Score tool provided by American Forests, DNR is able to prioritize creating equitable tree cover in urban neighborhoods. This collaboration will increase the Tree Equity score to provide tree canopy cover in all Washington cities. DNR will work with jurisdictions, Tribes, nonprofits, and other partners to raise all urban census block groups to a score of 75 or higher.

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Everyone Outdoors Program

Launched in 2024, the Everyone Outdoors Program aims to reduce barriers to outdoor access by providing applicants with the opportunity to receive free annual Discover Passes.

This is a collaborative effort by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and DNR. Passes are available to community and volunteer groups, youth and outdoor recreational programs, nonprofits, veterans, and other organizations facing barriers to outdoor access.

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Community Health and Wildfire Resilience

After agency leadership toured the damage in the town of Malden, where a Labor Day 2020 firestorm leveled most of the town, DNR worked with communities to develop the Wildfire Ready Neighbors program. This program helps property owners and local fire districts integrate defensible space and home hardening approaches to make Washington’s communities more wildfire ready.

The program launched in 2021 in 6 Eastern Washington counties, and has expanded to 21 counties. As of July 2025, more than 6,800 participants have already pledged more than 34,900 actions to make their homes and communities more wildfire ready. The agency continues to support this program with funding from HB 1168.

DNR is also addressing fire risks with home weatherization approaches to help mitigate smoke and air quality concerns. Home assessments will be accompanied by direct connections to weatherization grant programs to help Washingtonians make home improvements, such as ventilation systems, insulation, and sealing air gaps and leaks in the home. As a key strategy within the DNR Wildland Fire Protection 10-Year Strategic Plan, the agency continues to help communities identify smoke respite areas and utilize community buildings as clean air and cooling centers.

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Youth Education and Outreach

In 2023, DNR launched its Youth Education and Outreach Program (YEOP) to facilitate place-based, career-connected, outdoor learning experiences on state lands and cultivate the next generation of natural resource professionals.

Since launching, YEOP has connected with more than 6,000 K-12 students through: field-based learning; classroom activities; career fairs; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) nights; internships; and other group activities.

The program has already supported more than 8,000 hours of educational programming and provided professional learning opportunities for more than 190 K-12 teachers, including half-day, full-day, and multi-day workshops.   

Equitable Environmental Justice Action Plans

Community Access and Impact Plan

The Community Access and Impact Plan (CAIP) is DNR’s commitment to making our work more transparent, fair, and connected to the people we serve. Our goals are clear: remove barriers to our services, create opportunities for access, and consider the potential impacts of DNR’s actions. CAIP unites our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) and environmental justice (EJ) initiatives into a single framework in alignment with federal and state Civil Rights laws. This plan shows our commitment and who we are at our core – public servants dedicated to promoting equity, justice, access, and belonging for our communities and staff.

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Outdoor Access and Responsible Recreation Strategic Plan

Access and Responsible Recreation (OARR) Strategic Plan is a perfect example of how DNR is incorporating CAIP into strategic planning and operations. OARR is DNR’s first statewide strategy to guide how outdoor access and recreation are managed across all DNR-managed lands. The OARR Strategic Plan addresses multiple challenges and opportunities facing DNR, including the growing demand for recreation, increasing concerns about recreation impacts, funding shortfalls, and more. This plan serves as a guide for DNR to prioritize decisions that protect natural and cultural resources while offering high-quality and equitable recreation opportunities across Washington. OARR incorporated community access and impact at all steps while being developed. DNR collaborated with Tribes, trust beneficiaries, partners, and the public from summer 2023 to winter 2024 to develop its first statewide OARR Strategic Plan. In fall 2024, DNR held a 30-day Tribal review period followed by a 30-day public review period of the draft plan before finalizing the OARR Strategic Plan at the end of 2024. The community and Tribal engagement and feedback periods that this plan used will serve as an example for future community and Tribal engagement.

Get Involved

• To comment on an EJA or for any other EJ related communication, contact us at envjustice@dnr.wa.gov
• Calendar of events at DNR
• Apply to serve on a DNR Board and Commission
• To join the EJ Council and/or to give public comment on EJ in Washington State