READER OPINION

Yesterday was good for legacy forests in Capitol Forest

Posted

Yesterday was a good day for Legacy Forests in Capitol Forest. In response to a letter from all three Thurston County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC), requesting that a parcel of land known as “Juneau,” in Capitol Forest, be excluded from yesterday’s timber sale package, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz acted to remove it.

This has not been common practice for many years.

Last May, without ceremony, Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz commented in a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) meeting that DNR was removing protections on older forests - many of which have been in place for decades - because requirements to protect habitat for the endangered Marbled Murrelet, were federally removed. As a result, between May and December each monthly auction included multiple Legacy forest parcels adding up to 15,000 acres of Legacy Forests sold and logged.

Legacy Forests are naturally regenerated forests that originated before WWII after hand-cutting or fire. These forests have qualities that make them uniquely adaptive to climate change and to fighting climate change. Among DNR’s vast
holdings only 5% remaining are Legacy forest - the rest have become mono-crop plantation forest.

A coalition of community groups made up of Friends of Trees, Thurston Climate Action Team, Legacy Forest Project, and Center for Responsible Forestry have been testifying monthly to protect these forests. Legacy forests do the lion's share of carbon storage and are more resilient against the threats of climate change.

On June 16, 2022, The Thurston County BoCC, in response to concerns raised by the public, wrote to DNR, asking them to stop auctions of Legacy Forests inside Capitol Forest. The BoCC did not receive a response to their letter
until January of this year, when a Legacy parcel was sold. In February an additional parcel in Thurston County known as “Buttercup” was sold; the average age of trees in this parcel is 103 years old.

On Tuesday, February 28th, the Thurston County BoCC released a second letter to DNR reminding them of their desire to protect these last Legacy Forests within Thurston County and asking them specifically to stop the auction of “Juneau” a 95-acre parcel up for vote with today’s package. Juneau holds 38,200 megatons of stored carbon and stores 574 megatons per year.

Yesterday in response to the Thurston County BoCC’s requests, DNR announced that they would pause the auction of “Juneau” for the next month, to meet with the commissioners. DNR stated a desire to “clarify” with the commissioners about the sale and where the revenue from the sale goes. Thurston County commissioners requested certain trades be made, to account for the change in revenue.

This followed impassioned testimony about protecting Legacy forests by many member of the public.  Lynn Fitz-Hugh of Friends of Trees, a Thurston County-based group said, “We are really grateful to our county commissioners. These trees are protecting us, so we are protecting them. We have solutions coming out of the legislature that can give DNR tools to protect these older forests. It would be a shame for them to be logged before the session ends!"

~  Alice Grendon, Programs and Communications Manager 
    Thurston Climate Action Team , Olympia

The opinions above are, of course, those of the writer and not of The JOLT. Got something you want to get off your chest? Post your comment below, or write it up and send it to us. We'll likely run it the same day we get it. 

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  • wildnature

    Good Job!

    Thursday, March 9, 2023 Report this