Washington has always been one of the leading universities in the biological sciences. For example:
http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html#area13
http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc1.html#RANKBYAREA
http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldLIFE2015.html
http://nturanking.lis.ntu.edu.tw/Default.aspx
http://nturanking.lis.ntu.edu.tw/DataPage/countries.aspx?query=LifeSciences&country=USA&y=2015
As mikemac notes, these “rankings” do not mean that the undergraduate experience for a biology student at one large research university will be that much different (let alone “better”) than at another large research university.
Although Washington emphasizes faculty-mentored undergraduate research and is making substantial capital expenditures in this area (http://www.biology.washington.edu/life-sciences-complex; https://artsci.washington.edu/campaign/life-sciences-complex), excellent facilities and similar opportunities for undergraduate research undoubtedly exist at UCSB.
If your daughter likes UCSB, it would save you about $17K per year (UW OOS tuition, room and board = $45K; UCSB instate tuition, room and board = $28K), which is a lot of money. For many students (if instate versus OOS tuition is not the controlling factor), choosing between UCSB (or other UCs) and UW comes down to personal fit, as they are all outstanding universities.
Good luck wherever she decides to attend, and perhaps she can keep the other one in mind for graduate school.