ISSAQUAH — Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove is making good on a campaign promise to conserve thousands of acres of older forests in Washington dubbed legacy forests.
The state Department of Natural Resources, with Upthegrove at the helm, announced Tuesday it would conserve 77,000 acres of these structurally complex forests.
The state defines structurally complex forests as those with gaps in the canopy, diverse species growing below and a relatively low presence of large fallen logs or snags. Mostly it is time that allows for this diversity and growth. These are forests generally harvested in the last century between the 1920s and post-World War II.
They are very close to fully mature forests with increased biodiversity.
These forests will no longer be in the state’s traditional logging rotation. Instead, the state said it would go to the Legislature for permission to enter carbon markets and look to new ways of managing the lands.
The state is hoping to open up the forests to be managed in a different way, for example, selling credits for the carbon these forests sequester as well as “avoided wildfire emissions,” and different types of forestry. The state said it could also provide supply for mass timber and seek to get the most money for sustainable-certified products.
Foresters, data scientists and forest ecologists developed an updated inventory of forest types across state lands, according to DNR. That model identified 106,000 acres of structurally complex and older forests.
They were identified using a new tool, and prior evaluations, like timber sales and old-growth forest assessments. DNR says its staff did 2,000 field visits to confirm the model’s results.
The remaining 29,000 acres will be available for harvest. That means, according to the state, for the next decade, there won’t be any impact to the state’s timber revenue or its trust beneficiaries like schools and local communities.
A third-party review of agency assets in 2021 found DNR should seek to diversify the sources of revenue it provides Washington’s schools and local governments. The agency said this plan can help.
Central in the 2024 race for lands commissioner was Upthegrove’s plan to pause commercial sales of an estimated nearly 80,000 acres of older, structurally complex forests. These are not protected old-growth forests but rather the old growth of tomorrow.
Environmental advocates have been calling for the protection of these second-growth forests since 2021. These forests’ big trees store more carbon than younger trees on short harvest rotations. They also offer critical habitat and help maintain stream flows.
