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 legacy forests on state lands in Snohomish County.

We must protect the rare lowland legacy forests in our county that are not already in conservation. There are more than 8,000 acres of legacy forests on state lands in the lowlands vulnerable to timber harvest. They are being auctioned and logged at an alarming rate. Sign up for updates and alerts by clicking the button above, and add your voice to the fight to preserve legacy forests.

We support:

permanent protection of legacy forests as natural systems
management of younger forests for jobs and timber
equitable access to ecosystem benefits, and
consistent, reliable funding for county trust land beneficiaries

We are asking our Snohomish County Council to collaborate with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on a forest management plan that conserves legacy forests through Natural Climate Solutions funds, the Trust Land Transfer Program, reconveyance, carbon parks, and other tools that align with Tribal rights.

Legacy forests are extremely rare. The 2.4 million acres of forest land managed by DNR contain less than 77,000 acres of carbon-dense structurally complex legacy forests. The legacy forests are carbon workhorses that, if cut, will release 31 million metric tons of CO2—and the complex ecosystem both known and unknown, will be lost for a century. We want the Snohomish County Council to urge the DNR to harvest younger forests using ecological forest management practices to provide long-term wood production while permanently conserving legacy forests.

THE CHALLENGE

We believe DNR’s harvest practices lag behind current forest ecosystem science. They prioritize short-term economic gains from timber and revenue over long-term ecological health and economic resilience. While DNR’s 1997 Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and 2006 Policy for Sustainable Forests (PSF) established a promising framework for optimizing forest services, most of those services have been eclipsed by the DNR’s focus on maximizing timber production. Legacy and old-growth forests play an outsized role in providing forest benefits: carbon sequestration and storage, climate regulation, wildfire buffering, flood and erosion control, groundwater recharge, air purification, soil formation, wildlife habitat, nutrient cycling, pollination services, cultural and ceremonial use, recreation, education and wellness.

Legacy Forests are found throughout the forested lowlands and foothills of Snohomish County. One notable example is Stimson Hill in Snohomish County, much of which contains massive old-growth trees yet remains unprotected under current DNR old-growth definitions.

Critically, many unprotected legacy forests in Snohomish County sit within the Skykomish, Snoqualmie, and Stillaguamish watersheds. The Snohomish River Basin contains about 2,718 miles of stream length and supports nine salmonid species, including two populations of threatened Chinook salmon — the Skykomish and Snoqualmie — both of which are below 10% of their estimated historic population levels. The Stillaguamish watershed is home to two additional listed Chinook populations, as well as coho, pink, chum, steelhead, and bull trout.

These forests also carry deep cultural significance for the Tulalip, Snohomish, and Stillaguamish Tribes, whose treaty rights and ancestral connections to the land depend on healthy, functioning forest ecosystems.

THE SOLUTION

It’s time to reimagine forest management on Snohomish County’s state trust lands in a way that reflects the community’s ecological, economic, and cultural values. This requires optimizing the whole spectrum of forest services beyond timber production. To this end, we propose a collaborative forest management strategy that balances revenue generation with the many other benefits that communities rely on.

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.

We propose:

Replacing future timber sales of legacy forests with sales of younger plantations. Unlike DNR’s largely homogenous tree plantations, old-growth and legacy forests maximize most forest services with little or no management other than to improve ecological integrity and follow the internationally accepted precautionary principle. The DNR can help our schools and hospitals by expediting already scheduled timber sales, which total 10,143 acres. Additionally, DNR can harvest marketable timber by preparing new sales in 14,110 acres of currently underutilized plantations over the next five years.
Developing balanced funding mechanisms and initiatives. To balance forest benefits with revenue generation, DNR will need to develop alternative funding mechanisms and initiatives by leveraging existing programs and developing new ones including:

Participation in the State’s cap-and-invest program to generate revenue through reforestation, conversion avoidance, and improved forest management practices.
Purchase of trust lands through Snohomish County’s Land Conservation Initiative
Purchase of replacement lands for those taken out of production through the Trust Land Transfer program.
Leveraging Natural Climate Solutions.
Reconveyance: County can take back ownership and convert to a park. Counties may sell carbon credits on forests they manage.
Purchase of land for timber harvest, wind farms, and regenerative agricultural operations using the Rural Resilience Pool Trust to generate revenue for beneficiaries.

Implementing ecological forest management methods. We urge the DNR to revise their forest management practices to ensure that forest benefits are maximized through longer rotations, selective thinning, and allowing harvested timberlands to regenerate naturally. Ecological forestry has been used by humans for millennia in Snohomish County. Traditional practices support healthy ecosystems and communities without logging legacy forests. Their ecological value far exceeds their board-foot value at any rotation length.

The strongest long-term model for wood production from state lands combines protected legacy and old-growth cores, selective harvest on lower-value second-growth stands, strong riparian and wildlife protections, and honest carbon accounting — with local communities economically supported through that transition.

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