Reasonable Forest Management - League of Women Voters of Snohomish County

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Reasonable Forest Management on Public Lands

OUR COMMITMENT
LWVSC is committed to protecting all carbon-dense, structurally complex mature forests on public lands in Snohomish County. There were about 6,000 acres in the lowlands vulnerable to timber harvest. They are being auctioned and logged at an alarming rate.

We are asking our County Council to collaborate with the Department of Natural Resources on a forest management plan for forests on state lands. We will seek support from our County Council to participate in the Natural Climate Solutions funds available through the Legislature to protect mature forests. We will advocate for nomination of forest lands to be conserved through the Trust Land Transfer Program. We will seek better forest management practices on public lands. We may begin an effort to develop a community forest in Snohomish County.

Join us, as we work toward this goal by clicking the button above, and add your voice to the fight to preserve mature forests.

It takes many voices ( people power) to demonstrate to the county council that we care about protecting our mature forests!

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IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE

Protect all mature forests in Snohomish County

Support our county government in protecting mature forests in Snohomish County. We want to help it find pathways to both protect forests and replace revenues going to rural communities or junior taxing districts or find replacement lands. We need the County as an ally. We are meeting with Council Members to ask that they request the forests’ protection by the Board of Natural Resources (BNR).

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LONGER-TERM OBJECTIVE

Work toward state-wide protection for Mature Forests

Urge our County Council to join other jurisdictions like the Port of Allyn Commissioners, Thurston County Commissioners, Jefferson County Commissioners, and Whatcom County Commissioners in asking the Washington Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) to preserve all mature forests in Washington State. The 2.4 million acres of forest land managed by DNR contain less than 77,000 acres of carbon-dense structurally complex mature forests. The mature forests are carbon workhorses that, if cut, will release 31 million metric tons of CO2. This takes us in the wrong direction toward our state’s sequestration goals. The complex ecosystem both known and unknown, will be lost for a century.

RECENT COURT CASES
Court cases in 2022 and 2024 confirm that the Dept. of Natural Resources “…does not have unbridled discretion to ignore its climate related duties under SEPA for timber sales.” In 2024, the court required that the “DNR cannot circumvent an examination of the impacts of logging on a specific parcel of land by relying on carbon sequestration benefits from other lands that it manages.” Judge Ballinger said, “by failing to consider the impacts of deforestation and forest degradation on climate, DNR’s determination that the Wishbone Timber Sale would have no significant environmental impacts was ‘clearly erroneous.’ The courts have cleared the way for DNR to create carbon parks in state forests. Sales of carbon credits can replace revenue from logging for the benefit of all.

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ALTERNATIVES TO LOGGING MATURE FORESTS

Advocate for Reasonable Forest Management
Manage all forests on public lands in Snohomish County with a vision toward sustainability.
Purchase replacement lands to maintain timber revenue
Use Natural Climate Solutions funding through the Climate Commitment Act. The Legislature funded $83M for the protection of 2,000 acres in 2023 and $8M for more in 2024. We are requesting new funding in the current legislative session.

Use the Trust Lands Transfer Revitalization Program

This takes mature forests out of DNR’s timber portfolio for preservation, while using the funds to purchase productive new timber lands.
Use Carbon Parks option
Reconvey mature forests on county lands back to the county and designate these Mature forests as “carbon parks.” The resulting carbon credits could be sold to benefit the community.
New forms of economic development
Foster new forms of economic development in rural communities and engage existing and new local, skilled workers in sustainable forest harvesting and proforestation.
Community Forests
Respond to concerns over the ecological and economic impacts of recent timber harvests and a growing interest in local forest ownership and management by gathering stakeholders together to develop a shared vision for the future of commercial forestry in Snohomish County. Build a community owned and managed forest that improves and protects fish and wildlife habitat, promotes local jobs through sustainable timber management, and provides recreational and educational opportunities.

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SNOHOMISH COUNTY - LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

We have been advocating with our County Council since 2022 to protect parcels containing mature forests that are scheduled for logging soon. The Council wrote to the Commissioner of Public Lands in 2023 asking that Snohomish County candidate parcels be included in the Natural Climate Solutions Carbon Sequestration Forest Proviso. In 2024, the Council wrote again asking the Commissioner to include the Council in plans to manage forests in our county saying, it “believes that these older forests play a critical role in avoiding devastating wildfires, ensuring clean air and water, sustaining diverse plant and animal life and are essential for addressing the global climate and biodiversity challenges.” The Council wrote to the Board of Natural Resources again in 2025 asking for more forest land to be protected through Natural Climate Solutions funding.
LWVSC co-wrote an op-ed in the Daily Herald in Oct. 2023 urging the Council to maintain or expand the state trust land base with new land managed as working forests; advocate for climate-smart forest management on replacement lands for more carbon sequestration and timber production; and compensate trust land beneficiaries to ensure essential local services are maintained.
We still need to engage the Snohomish County Council members in the process of protecting mature forests. We are working on a forest management plan to present to the Council in 2025.

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WASHINGTON STATE - LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

6,500 forest supporters sent emails from around the state in 2023 and 2024 to prompt WA legislators to approve a state budget that includes $83M into the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) for forest conservation. This placed two thousand acres of structurally complex mature forests into permanent conservation. Another $8M was allocated in 2024.
County council members in three counties wrote and op/ed in Oct. 2024 saying, “Let’s reexamine the ties between public forests and public services in WA.”
An attempted repeal of the CCA was soundly defeated in November 2024 and a new Commissioner of Public Lands was elected. The new CPL placed a pause on harvesting of mature forests on public lands for six months.
The Dept. of Natural Resources has asked the Legislature for additional funding for mature forest protection through Natural Climate Solutions funding in the 2025-27 budget. While the state faces a huge deficit in revenue over the next 10 years, the funding comes from the CCA that auctions credits to big polluters. The last auction raised $250M in March 2025.

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Protect all mature forests in Snohomish County

Work toward state-wide protection for Mature Forests