The Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) wants to create a stakeholder workgroup to “plan the best way forward” for Capitol State Forest, according to the board’s October 1 letter to the Board of Natural Resources (BNR).
The same letter told the BNR that the county will not be able to produce a plan ensuring that the beneficiaries of timber sales will be made whole monetarily as the county preserves its mature forests. The letter was in response to BNR instructing the county to deliver the said plan by October 1.
According to the letter, the stakeholder work group will consist of DNR officials, county officials, community groups, and junior beneficiaries and will aim to protect the last 4,677 acre of mature forest in Capitol State Forest.
The BoCC even noted that in a recent meeting with school superintendents, the board heard strong support from schools for the concept of a stakeholder committee.
The board acknowledge that reducing harvests without any other changes could reduce revenues for beneficiaries in a 20-year timeframe but mentioned possible solutions such as “green bonds, replacement lands, carbon credits, additional state funding, trust land transfers and others.”
In the short term, the county wants DNR to defer harvest on identified parcels until the proposed stakeholder workgroup can develop a long-term solution. According to the letter, these identified parcels have been "ground-truthed" by multiple community groups.
BoCC added that DNR already has excessive harvest-ready forests to meet its targets for Capitol State Forest.
“We are convinced, based on data we have been presented, that DNR has more than enough harvest-ready (>40 years old) plantation forest in CSF (269-401 million board feet) to meet its sustainable harvest targets for CSF for at least the 10-year time frame in which sales are planned (204 million board feet),” the letter stated.
“Preliminary analysis also suggests that sufficient available timber exists in each of the four school district trust,” the letter continued.
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hptrillium
Great idea to have a stakeholder group to work on a plan to protect the last 4,677 acres of mature trees in Capitol Forest. Thank you Thurston County Board of Commissioners for all the work you have put into this. This is very important work.
Tuesday, October 8 Report this
Snevets
Thank you.
Tuesday, October 8 Report this
2theroots
I think this article is rather misleading and the lead is buried at the bottom. The County has proposed a plan. They have proposed that DNR cut plantation lumber instead of Legacy Forest and has documented that this is possible and can generate almost the same income. Additionally, they proposed the workgroup. But what is left out of this story which is significant is that the letter from the county starts by saying they cannot make a plan with the level of detail about money because they have had a hard time getting cooperation from DNR. The letter details all the things DNR has told them they cannot do and the lack of ANY constructive comment from DNR as to how to do what the county has been asking now for two years...to find a way to preserve Legacy Forest because it holds huge stores of carbon and is climate resilient.
Tuesday, October 8 Report this