Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Upthegrove has acknowledged that the maps used to identify legacy forests in his
Executive Order are deeply flawed. You can see a
map called the Structurally Complex Forest Finder used by DNR by scrolling down the page and clicking
I agree. The CPL promised revised maps early next year.
The League of Women Voters of Snohomish County has worked with the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition to map the forests on state lands in our county and to consider a strategy that preserves all legacy forests. LWVSC and forest advocates met with DNR policy folks, foresters from our NW Planning Unit, and county representatives on Nov. 24th. As LFDC’s Stephen Kropp said, “Our objective is to work with DNR over the long term to ensure that our state forest lands are managed in a manner that serves the best interest of the public and the trust beneficiaries, which are one in the same.” You can read the summary of the meeting
here. You can see LFDC’s presentation
here.
Meanwhile, most folks in Snohomish County have no idea how forests in our county are being used. Driving by a clearcut hillside is normal for Washingtonians. But it is vital to understand which of those cuts removed vital ecosystem services on the land we all own. Or how smarter harvest methods could leave legacy forests and still provide timber, jobs, and more sustainable plantation forests. LWVSC will create and maintain an education campaign about our legacy forests to help explain the difference. We’re busy combing lists of grant makers to find money to mount this campaign. Join us if you like mining data.
The Everett Daily Herald writer Eliza Aronson framed the debate on a pending court case that will determine whether the DNR can continue with business as usual or must update protocols to address climate impacts of logging our forests on a sale-by-sale basis. You can read her Nov. 21
article in
The Everett Daily Herald.
While CPL Upthegrove works to identify and protect mature forests on state lands, he faces tremendous pressure from the timber industry. If you’d like to dig into the facts around logging, read this short paper,
Forests, Fires, and Falsehoods. The timber industry continues to promote the illusion that clearcutting can help fight climate change.
And if you would like to make your thoughts known to the decision makers who auction these forests, consider writing to the Board of Natural Resources at bnr@dnr.wa.gov or testifying virtually at its meeting. You can watch testimony from its last meeting
here. The next meeting is after publication of the newsletter, but you can look for the January 6, 2026, BNR meeting registration.
Registration will open at noon on December 18, 2025. Registration will close at 4:00 P.M. on December 31, 2025.
We welcome folks interested in working on strategy to protect mature forests in Snohomish County. Join us for an hour at the link on the
calendar on the second Tuesday of each month at 10:00 A.M.