Chair Franz, Board of Natural Resources, and Skagit County Commissioners:

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We, the undersigned residents of Washington State, call on the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to enact a temporary moratorium on logging of legacy forests in Blanchard State Forest, while the agency works to explore other management alternatives.*

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These old legacy forests naturally regenerated after they were selectively logged in the early 1900’s, and represent the oldest and most biologically diverse lowland forests in the county. They are an important part of our natural heritage, and may function as ecological "lifeboats" for sensitive plant and wildlife species, and hundreds of lesser-known species of insects, lichens, bryophytes, mushrooms, and other fungi.

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While a Natural Resource Conservation Area (NRCA) conserves 1,600 acres of Blanchard State Forest's core, large sections of nearby legacy forest habitat remain unprotected. Walk through these forests, and you will find they contain multiple canopy layers, composed of a wide variety of trees of different sizes. Gaps in the overstory canopy allow sunlight to reach the forest floor, creating a complex mosaic of different plant communities composed of a diverse array of small trees, shrubs and wildflowers. Standing dead trees and logs provide critical nesting habitat for small mammals, and countless other forms of life.

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The logging of these rare forest ecosystems defies the objectives of the State Trust Lands Habitat Conservation Plan, violates established Board of Natural Resources policies and procedures, and undermines efforts to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires and combat climate change. DNR insists that selective logging, or variable density thinning of old forests improves wildlife habitat by accelerating the development of older forest characteristics. However, legacy forests already exhibit many of these characteristics, and there is little to no evidence that thinning of century-old, natural forests improves habitat or reduces the risk of wildfires.

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There is no defense for logging these forests. DNR forest inventory records reveal that there are alternative plantation forests on state trust lands in the Burlington-Edison School District that are currently available for harvest. Plantation forests hold more than enough timber to satisfy overall sustainable harvest targets for the current planning decade, and fulfill DNR's current commitments to generate revenue for Skagit County and other beneficiaries. To be clear, the decision to schedule timber sales in legacy forests is a choice that was made by the Commissioner and DNR. DNR is not fulfilling a mandate or following best available science by logging these rare, older lowland legacy forests.

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*Short-term alternatives exist in the Burlington-Edison School District that could satisfy DNR's obligation to generate revenue for the taxing districts (i.e. plantations that are ready or near-ready for harvest). Longer-term solutions include direct funding for replacement lands/TLT, carbon offset credits, and green bonds.