The past few years of community advocacy have brought state-managed forest lands back into the public eye—and renewed interest in the activities of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the agency tasked with managing them on our behalf.
In Whatcom County alone, we’ve come together for incredible older forests in the Nooksack watershed like Upper Rutsatz and Brokedown Palace, rallied to tell DNR’s Board of Natural Resources (BNR) to update its approach to mature forests, and secured the protection of more than 650 acres in Whatcom County through the Climate Commitment Act (CCA).
Last fall, Washington voters kept the momentum going and elected Dave Upthegrove as the next Public Lands Commissioner, resonating with his commitments to lead the Department of Natural Resources toward a better integration of what science and public opinion have long made abundantly clear—now, and in the coming decades of our climate-changed future, the last of our oldest, structurally complex forests are worth more standing than cut.
With the DNR’s Sustainable Harvest Calculation (SHC) coming up in 2026—the process the agency uses to determine where and how much to “get the cut out” over the next 10 years—it’s safe to say that the values guiding the agency’s actions in the coming year will have an outsized impact on the state of our forests for decades to come. Ensuring that the DNR embraces the management of forests for multiple benefits is more important than ever.
Complex Solutions for Complex Forests
In January, Commissioner Upthegrove announced a “Timeout for Trees” pause on sales of the oldest, structurally complex forests on state lands, to allow the DNR time to inventory and develop a longer term strategy for the more than 100,000 acres of particularly ecologically valuable stands managed by the agency in Western Washington.
At the end of August, Commissioner Upthegrove responded to the end of the initial six-month pause on older forest sales with an announcement of the “Forest Forward” executive order, outlining a plan to conserve 77,000 acres of about 106,000 acres of Structurally Complex Forest (SCF) and older forests identified by the agency. Upthegrove also spoke to the need for short and long term solutions at the BNR and legislative level to enable the DNR to use alternate revenue sources to generate income for state trust beneficiaries.
Our Take: If done right, conserving 77,000 acres of SCF lands can be a bold and historic first step in Upthegrove’s efforts to fulfill campaign promises of protecting structurally complex forests and guiding the agency to adapt its forest management approach to a climate-changed future. But we need more details on the process and plan for implementation to truly get behind the DNR on this effort.
Washingtonians need to know:
- How were the proposed acres for conservation selected?
- With a total 106,000 acres of SCF modeled, decisions were made about what to keep and what to cut in the preliminary maps provided. What were these criteria? An initial review of the proposed 77,000 conserved acres shows:
- A significant portion of the protected acres are made up of fragmented, smaller-sized parcels with lower conservation value, making it challenging for meaningful management
- Some counties received little to no acreage in critical watersheds and popular community areas where conservation matters most
- A number of the most contested, high conservation value SCF forest sales remain unprotected and slated for auction in the next five years
- With a total 106,000 acres of SCF modeled, decisions were made about what to keep and what to cut in the preliminary maps provided. What were these criteria? An initial review of the proposed 77,000 conserved acres shows:
- Here’s what we’d like to see to get a final selection of 77,000 conserved acres that truly achieve Upthegrove’s intent:
- Prioritization of areas of highest ecological value
- Prioritization of contiguous parcels of at least 10 acres in size
- Prioritization of conservation of forests where there is strong community interest in conserving or managing for values other than timber
- How will inaccuracies in the modeled layer be resolved?
- Initial review by Legacy Forest Defense Coalition (LFDC) found several thousand acres of mis-classified land included in the initial map of the 77,000 conserved acres. These are areas such as those already protected by other means, sales that had already been clearcut, or parcels lacking the characteristics to qualify as SCF.
- How will DNR manage Structurally Complex Forests (SCF) that don’t make the cut?
- Even with corrections made to the 77,000 Conserved Acres map, it’s likely that some number of acres of SCF forests will remain unprotected. In recognizing the value of mature, complex forests beyond the timber they provide, we hope to see the DNR explore the many options at hand to manage these older forests differently—including alternatives to Variable Retention Harvest (VRH) like Variable Density Thinning (VDT) that allow the agency to generate revenue from sales without compromising the ecological function of the forest on the level that clearcutting and minimal-retention harvests will.
- The Trust Land Transfer (TLT) Program and funding from the Climate Commitment Act’s Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) account should be leveraged, to conserve any remaining unprotected areas that are especially high priority for conservation while still fulfilling the agency’s trust obligations through the purchase of replacement lands.
- What opportunities for stakeholder input are planned to direct the agency toward a meaningful outcome that safeguards the future of both older forests and the communities that depend upon them?
- The DNR must consult Tribes and stakeholders to verify modeling and conservation priorities on a local level.
- The agency should also provide additional opportunities for communities to review the proposed acres and identify alternatives that better suit the priorities of their region.
Stay tuned for updates and actions you can take to support the DNR in doing this right. In the meantime, check out the Center for Responsible Forestry (CRF)’s data viewer map to see how this executive order currently impacts state forests planned for auction near you.
What does this mean for Upper Rutsatz?
In July, we launched the second phase of the campaign to secure permanent protections for Upper Rutsatz forest, which remains in limbo after community advocacy paused the sale in 2022. Many thanks to the more than 1,000 community advocates who have signed the petition to protect Upper Rutsatz to date! This petition focused on using this year’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA) dollars to purchase replacement lands that the agency can manage for timber revenue in place of older forests like Upper Rutsatz. Since then, we’ve also weighed the opportunity to protect Rutsatz through the Trust Land Transfer (TLT) program, which works similarly to the CCA by replacing trust lands.
With the announcement of Commissioner Upthegrove’s conservation of 77,000 acres of SCF, yet another tool is available for us to consider—much of the original Upper Rutsatz sale has been included in the preliminary layer showing proposed acres.
We’ll continue to monitor the process to ensure that Whatcom’s forests are well-represented in the final 77,000 acres conserved by Commissioner Upthegrove’s executive order. Alongside local coalition partners, we’re in conversation with Tribes, stakeholders, and beneficiaries to determine which path forward makes the most sense for our community, and are excited to rally our community soon to finally bring permanent protections for one of Whatcom’s best forests across the finish line!