A group of activists locked themselves together inside the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) building in Olympia on Tuesday June 27, demanding an in-person meeting with Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz over timber sales.
The group of five, comprising members of the Lorax Coalition and other forest advocacy groups, are challenging ongoing logging and timber sales in “legacy” forests — forests that were last logged before 1945 and have naturally regenerated — in Western Washington.
Among the five are Whatcom County-based activists from the Bellingham Forest Defense calling attention to the recent Box of Rain and planned Brokedown Palace timber sales.
“Across Washington, DNR is clearcutting public lands that belong to all of us and to future generations, including the proposed Brokedown Palace timber sale in Whatcom County where I live,” Sonja Lerner, a member of the Bellingham Forest Defense and one of the five activists, said in a statement. “We need Commissioner Franz and the [Board of Natural Resources] to be bold climate heroes for our communities instead of clearcutting our future.”
Brokedown Palace, a controversial timber sale in rural Whatcom, has already been paused twice by DNR: the first time, after state reviewers could not safely visit the site due to snow and weather conditions; and the second time at the request of the Whatcom County Council.
The group has seven demands, including an end to clearcuts of mature forests on public lands, inclusion of environmental justice advocates and tribal members in decision-making bodies, and an end to herbicide and pesticide spraying on recently-logged lands, among others.
“We at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources share the demonstrators concerns for Washington’s environment and protection of the Evergreen State,” DNR’s Joe Smillie wrote in a statement. “However, there are more productive and effective avenues for addressing them.”
Smillie wrote the agency is committed to managing state forests for all benefits, including clean air and water, wildlife habitat, recreation and the timber industry, amongst others. He also stressed that DNR does not cut old growth forests, which remain protected under the Board of Natural Resources Policy for Sustainable Forestry.
The funds from tree sales on public lands, including the Brokedown Palace sale, go toward state trust beneficiaries like public school districts, rural libraries, emergency responders and local universities.
Currently, more than 1 million acres of DNR’s trust lands — 50% of all state forestland — are managed exclusively for conservation purposes, Smillie said.
The demonstration is part of the Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance’s Week of Action.
This story was updated to include comments from the Department of Natural Resources on Tuesday, June 27 at 4:27 p.m.
