Two hundred and seventy acres of “legacy” forestland in Capitol State Forest will be auctioned off by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) despite requests from Thurston County residents and the county commissioners to conserve the land.
The decision comes on the heels of DNR excluding Thurston County last month from a list of forestlands that have been designated for conservation through funding from the state’s 2021 Climate Commitment Act.
Last week, DNR’s board voted to auction off timber from the so-called “Carrot” and “Cabbage Patch” parcels of the Capitol State Forest; that is, approved logging of currently intact mature forest ecosystems. DNR’s packet for the board meeting showed that the department would employ a method called variable retention harvest in which key ecological structures such as snags, fallen logs, and other unique trees are retained.
The produce-aisle designations do not reflect the appearance or uncultivated complexity of these wildlife habitats.A significant portion of the auctioned forestland occupies steep foothills whose integrity — not to mention wildlife — relies on the trees’ advanced root structure and canopy. Once logged, erosion, sediment and runoff from the bare slopes will likely endanger public safety, water quality, and critical habitat areas beyond the timber sale boundaries.
The Carrot timber sale area is located 8 miles northeast of Oakville. It consists of three separate units of forestland plus a unit as right-of-way, an area totaling 73 acres. The following links show the approximate locations of the first three units: Unit 1, Unit 2, and Unit 3.
The Cabbage Patch parcel is located 12 miles west of Olympia and comprises 5 units of forestland and one unit for right-of-way, totaling 197 acres. Three of the units are in Thurston County; two are in Grays Harbor.
There are trees in both areas that are more than century old. Carrot’s trees originate from 1910 to 1985, while stands in Cabbage Patch were planted from 1920 to 1950.
DNR’s listing shows that Carrot is expected to yield 3.5 million board feet of wood with a minimum bid value of $1.43 million, while Cabbage Patch could generate 8.5 million board feed of wood priced at a minimum value of $2.80 million.
Both Carrot and Cabbage Patch were included in the Thurston Board of County Commissioner’s (BoCC) request for inclusion in Climate Commitment Act funding and protection.
The board voted on three rounds of motions before coming to its final decision. The third and final motion was to approve all sales, which only only board members Chris Reykdal and Jim Cahill opposed.
The first motion was to defer the vote for the auction of Cabbage Patch and to approve all remaining timber sales. Board member Lisa Janicki, who made the motion, expressed willingness to defer voting on Cabbage Patch. The board reportedly does not have such flexibility with the Carrot parcel, which is an 89% Forest Board Repayment Trust property.
“The board does not have the flexibility to not pay back debt that has long been in place,” Janicki said.
The Forest Board Repayment Trust was established when the board approved the 1990 and 1992 transfer of timber-cutting rights of certain State Forest Purchase Lands to other trust accounts to settle a debt from the Forest Development Account to the Resource Management Cost Account.
DNR staff explained during the meeting that the sale of the timber within those lands goes towards paying that trust loan.
“If we choose to not harvest, the department has to pay that loan back on those lands. So whatever that timber value, the department would have to pay that back,” DNR staffer Duane Emmons told the board.
The vote for the first motion was tied with Janicki, Cahill, and Wendy Powers-Schilling voting yes, while Hilary Franz, Dan Brown, and Reykdal voted no.
The second motion was to approve all sales except for Cabbage and Carrot patches. The motion also failed as only Reykdal and Powers-Schilling voted yes.
At least 13 people spoke during the public comments section of the meeting to specifically oppose the inclusion of Cabbage and Carrot patches in the proposed sales.
Among those people was Thurston County Commissioner Meija who said she spoke on behalf of the entire BoCC as she read a letter that County Commissioner Tye Menser had previously sent to the Board of Natural Resources.
“These two parcels were recently identified today as a high importance to the residents of Thurston County and were included in our recent request to swap these mature structurally complex forest pieces for younger newly acquired lands pursuant to the legislature’s Natural Climate Solutions proviso,” Meija said.
“Although these parcels were not selected by DNR actually none in our county were despite our multiple requests, the letter informing us of the non-selection indicated that DNR would continue to work with Thurston County on use of several other tools and their usefulness and managing county trust lands,” she continued.
“If the parcels at issue are cut before these discussions can really take place, the assurances of goodwill and collaboration we have begun to build with DNR would be compromised,” she added.
Lynn Fitz-Hugh, executive director of non-profit Friends of Trees, also spoke to reject the idea of Carrot and Cabbage patches being non-contigious as the reason for its exclusion from the Climate Commitment Act funding.
“I reject the concept of connectivity used to exclude Capital Forest,” Fitz-Hugh said adding, “It is not our fault that through the mismanagement of Capital Forest, that legacy forest sits amid cuts and plantation forest.”
Emmons explained that Carrot and Cabbage patches consist of non-contiguous parcels. “This landscape doesn't have large contiguous blocks of that legacy forest,” he said. “These are individual 12 acres, 15 acres, 10 acres scattered throughout.”
Board Member Dan Brown, who voted in favor of passing all sales, touched on this concept before the vote, saying that he was appreciative that DNR makes decision based at a “landscape scale.”
“I continue to be very much appreciative of the way in which the department makes decisions in that it is at a landscape scale, it is at the in the interest of prioritizing specific environmental benefits,” Brown said.
“That requires us looking at the full portfolio and making decisions across that entire landscape, not one sort of parcel at a time,” he added.
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hptrillium
DNR could pay back their debt with other forests that don’t have legacy trees.
Thanks to Chris Reykdal and Jim Cahill for opposing the sales.
DNR should be listening to the people of Thurston County who are very upset that these legacy forests are being cut down. DNR should be working for the good of the people and they refuse to.
These old trees take decades to replace. They are worth so much more to the environment than lumber.
Thursday, January 11 Report this
KimDobson
Hillary Franz has made clear consistently by making these Legacy Forest Timber sales 50% of all sales annually that she has not been listening to wise policy suggestions . Thus Ms. Franz with her policy has mismanaged the 3 percent DNR lands with Legacy Forests and ignored pleas from Forest Scientists to preserve these near Old growth diverse whole ecosystems as conservation areas for threatened and endangered species. Profits from the Carrot and Cabbage Patch timber sales are intended to benefit Thurston County to help pay for public school construction. However, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal has publicly stated that the money is not needed for public school construction. And the money that Thurston County will receive represents an almost insignificant fraction of the overall county budget about 1- 1/2 % and can easily be made up by selling off ample supplies of Mature 40-50 year old 3rd growth plantation Doug Fir forests that make up 97 percent of DNR state forestland that contain no Legacy and near Old growth trees instead . Poor conservation policy is robbing our environment and the ability of school children to hike and learn in living Legacy Forest Classrooms . DNR's Forest sale managers are only weighing maximum profit schemes while ignoring best available science written in long standing DNR policy directives . We need a new DNR administration with whole forest ecosystem education and ethics . Yours , Kim Dobson
Thursday, January 11 Report this
Snevets
Sadly Joni Mitchell's song Parking Lot comes to mind.
Thursday, January 11 Report this
OlyGirl
This is not acceptable. Old growth trees are essential to our environment and life. Here is how to contact DNR: bnr@dnr.wa.gov. Here is a list of the people on the board that voted: The Honorable Hilary Franz, Chair of the Board
Olympia, Washington; Dan Brown, Director, Vice-chair of the Board, Seattle, Washington; The Honorable Chris
Reykdal, Superintendent, Olympia, Washington; The Honorable Lisa Janicki, Commissioner, Skagit County – Timber; Wendy Powers-Schilling, Dean, Pullman, Washington; Jim Cahill, Senior Budget Advisor, Olympia, Washington. Three of the four who voted to deforest Thurston County do not even live here. How will they use the money from the auction? Increase in their salaries? Private interests? As far as I can tell they do not have any type of accountablilty.
Thursday, January 11 Report this
WA_Mojo
DNR = Department of Nothing Remaining
Thursday, January 11 Report this
johngreen
The Spotted Owl is on the federal threatened species list just one step away from endangered status. Cutting our legacy forests means that they will not become old growth forests which the owl needs for survival. Also the Western Gray Squirrel is endangered in Washington and and cutting legacy forests harms them even further. Aside being a great carbon sink against global climate change, legacy forests are habitat for rapidly declining birds and other wildlife. What good does it do to outlaw gasoline engines and not protect our legacy forests as a buffer against climate change.
Thursday, January 11 Report this
SecondOtter
I live where I can see the Capitol forest from my front porch. The DNR isn't just logging it off, they're clear cutting it. They're butchering it, leaving slash piles. It isn't 'harvesting,' it's whole sale denuding of the entire Black Hills range. In a few years, those bald hills will start eroding with the rain and the people who live at the foot will see their homes swept away in mudslides. Just remember what happened to Oso.
It's exploitation at it's best. The DNR isn't managing forests, it's destroying them, and likeother posters have mentioned, where will the wildlife go? Away.
Franz is running for Governor, I think. Guess who won't get my vote?
Thursday, January 11 Report this
THURSTONRESIDENT
First let's not say all Thurston County residents oppose the sales. Because we don't. Maybe some do but I hardly think a handful of people showing up to a meeting opposing it represents all of the county. As for the BoCC showing up saying Thurston County opposes it is again incorrect. Yes we have a BoCC that likes to think they speak for all but they don't. They only speak for their own agendas and personal views. I don't recall Menser reaching out asking what the general public thinks. But, like usual, he does not feel he has to work with or even talk to his constiuents.
Lastly, every individual, group, agency or whatever, has the right to purchase these sales. If you want to preserve it, then purchase it. Then you can work it out with DNR to pay the price and have it held for another determined rotation age. You can't expect to have a say in it if you are not willing to pay the price for it.
A non-profit in Canada does not like hunting. And it's their right to like or dislike it. But instead of trying to bully others into their beliefs and values they got together and are purchasing up hunting rights. Which is the way it should be. Hunters don't like it but you don't hear them screaming and bullying others to stop it. They understand it's a fair market.
So in closing, if you don't like it, then pony up and buy it yourself. The BoCc needs to stay out of this stuff and quit interfering in property rights of their constituents. It's a conflict of interest and should be made illegal.
Thursday, January 11 Report this