Description
Washington planned a fire helicopter to get onto a cattle lease.
The email says so. The flight is not in the records we have.
In February 2023, the Department of Ecology fined Wade and Teresa King of Coulee City $267,540 for damaging at least 23 alkali wetlands in Grant County. A second order, in Douglas County, followed on January 15, 2025. Ecology has not rescinded either one. The Kings’ consultant puts the restoration bill above $3 million.Ecology says inspectors walked Grant County sites in 2022, before the fine, and found no sign the basins had been dug as stock ponds. That is the agency’s account. It is on their website. It is not the whole file.
On January 16, 2025, Ecology communications manager Curt Hart emailed colleagues a proposed line: Ecology had penalized the ranch “for damaging at least 23 rare naturally occurring alkali wetlands.” He wrote why the phrase mattered. “This gets to the issue that the wetlands in question were not artificially created stock water ponds.” And: “We regulate and protect wetlands that are not artificially created.” Thirty-six minutes later he asked, “Can we still call them naturally occurring?” Region manager Lori White had already told him Douglas County was different. “We are not calling out alki yet.”Thirteen days after the Douglas County complaint, staff notes still asked whether the ponds had been made 20, 30, or 40 years ago, and whether Ecology even had pictures that old.
Ecology’s own summary says that case began as a desktop review. On November 20, 2024, staff were still asking DNR to fly them in “to ground truth the aerials,” because more enforcement was coming. On December 12, a supervisor asked whether the notice of violation could go out before the legislative session began January 2. The email does not say why session mattered. The order went out January 15.
On May 19, 2023, a DNR manager wrote that the agency was looking at “one of our fire helicopters” to get onto the leased parcel. Skeleton crew. Weight limits. June 1 or 2. The records we have show the plan. They do not show the flight.The ranch’s soil scientists, retained by King Ranch, sampled 57 points. One met all three wetland tests. Ecology says the missing stains are why the problem-soil rules exist, and that its method did not require the extra pH test the ranch’s expert wanted. Both sides are in the video.This is not a verdict. The board hearing is paused. The fine still stands.Not opinions. Documents.
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