Eight months after Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove entered office and paused logging sales in older forests on state land, Washington’s Department of Natural Resources has identified 77,000 acres to set aside for conservation.
Another 29,000 acres covered by the pause will be made available for harvest.
Called “structurally complex forests” by the Department of Natural Resources and “legacy forests” by some conservationists, these older forests aren’t quite old enough to qualify for old-growth protections but are biologically diverse and naturally resistant to wildfire.
Upthegrove campaigned last year on protecting these types of forests, drawing support from environmental advocates and opposition from the logging and wood-products industry.
“Doing this will allow us to continue to nurture and steward these forests, but in innovative and diverse ways that do more for climate, more for habitat, and more for the communities we serve,” Upthegrove said in an interview ahead of signing Tuesday’s directive.
“I think it will be the biggest step forward in forest conservation in a generation,” he added.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
