Did you see your LWVSC Action Alert in your inbox on Feb. 24th? Here’s what it asks:
Please make a comment to protect the timber sale known as Stilly Revisited. Call CPL Upthegrove's office at 360-902-1004 or send him
email and urge him to cancel the contract with Sierra Pacific.
CPL Upthegrove has the discretion to cancel a contract when (pick a reason and cut and paste or just tell your story in your email):
- The State would suffer significant environmental damage by logging this rare mature forest, part of which has never been logged and has survived fire damage.
- There are restoration efforts underway by the Stillaguamish Tribe in this part of the watershed, yet this timber sale could have significant negative impacts on water quality and quantity.
- Logging in this timber sale would fragment and destroy large parts of one of few remaining stands of old growth forest in the Puget Sound lowlands. It is located on slopes that are even steeper (and closer to the river) that those that failed in the Oso slide in 2014, sending a torrent of mud and debris into the Stillaguamish River Valley.
Please write or call today!
See more about this mature forest
here. Check out LFDC's photo gallery
here featuring a 10-foot-wide ancient cedar.
Nomination to the Natural Climate Solutions funding: LWVSC asked our Snohomish County Council to send a nomination to DNR to permanently protect a legacy forest near Darrington called Next Regeneration through the Natural Climate Solutions program designated and funded in 2024 for the Stillaguamish watershed.
The DNR sent a
letter to the council responding to its inquiry about our request. The letter says Next Regeneration is not a mature forest. Ground-truthing by Center for Responsible Forestry, Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, and the community disagree. The selective thinning done nineteen years ago has improved the health of the forest, not declassified it as complex. It was chosen by LWV because it was listed as a timber sale to be auctioned in 2025. DNR explains it is in the 50% of a Spotted owl area that is subject to logging. But we stand by our contention that no carbon-dense structurally complex forests in our county should be logged.
There is good news though. DNR has identified an alternate area for the council to consider if it wishes to nominate an area. This area, called Wheeler Mountain, is directly adjacent to federal ownership to the south and west. That federal ownership contains what is very likely old growth forests and so the preservation of these 40 acres of forest would add to the habitat benefits the federal ownership provides. This area is also State Forest Transfer trust, managed on behalf of the county and the local taxing district beneficiaries. LWVSC will support nomination of this area.
Reasonable Forest Management: We are working on a reasonable forest management plan to submit to our county council. It will identify the few acres of carbon-dense, structurally complex mature forests that should not be logged. It will also identify legacy forests that are not complex that could be part of more continuous habitat. As they mature in complexity, they could be selectively thinned and planted to improve them while supplying needed timber for revenue. It will identify younger plantation forests of 40- to 60-year-old trees that are ready for harvest now. This plan is based on a plan the Thurston County Commission is working to implement with the DNR. You can see their plan
here.
JTDs: We will continue with listening sessions among junior taxing districts in our county – schools, fire departments, hospitals, and libraries. These interviews are intended to learn how district leaders think about state revenue from timber sales.
Please join our mature forest advocacy at 10:00 A.M. on the second Tuesday of the month beginning Mar. 11th, 2025 at this
Zoom Link.