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A Silent 
Crisis.

Unless we take action to protect them, soon there will be virtually no natural forests left in the Chehalis River watershed.

This opportunity will not come again

COLLECT SIGNATURES IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

If you live in Southwest Washington, we need your help!  Please register below as a volunteer and download a copy of the petition.

DOWNLOAD MAP

OF LEGACY FORESTS

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Capitol State Forest

Legacy Forests of

Capitol State Forest

Includes the Porter, Cedar, Waddell, Mima, Gibson, Mox Chehalis, and Dry Creek watersheds, and the south end of Puget Sound.

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Elk Creek

Elk Creek

Legacy Forests

Includes the Elk Creek watershed and other subwatersheds of the upper Chehalis River.

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Lincoln Creek

Lincoln Creek

Legacy Forests

Includes the Lincoln Creek watershed, and portions of the Garrard, Hope, and Independance Creek watersheds.

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Rock Creek

Rock Creek

Legacy Forests

Includes Rock Creek and its tributaries, and portions of Garrard, Davis, Gaddis, and Raimie Creek watersheds.

Support a Moratorium on Logging of Legacy Forests in the Chehalis River Watershed!

SIGN the Petition Below

Petition

to Enact a Moratorium on Logging of Legacy Forests in the Chehalis River Watershed

Thanks for submitting!

To Chair Franz and the Board of Natural Resources:

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 the Chehalis River watershed, while the agency works to explore other management alternatives.

Legacy forests are a rare and rapidly disappearing fraction of forest lands managed by DNR in the Chehalis River watershed.  These old legacy forests naturally regenerated after they were selectively logged in the early 1900’s, and represent the oldest and most biologically diverse forests in the watershed.  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.

The vast majority of the forests in the Chehalis River watershed are managed as tree plantations, and composed mostly of even-aged stands of Douglas fir.  It is therefore important to protect the few legacy forests that remain.  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.

The decision to specifically target these rare forest ecosystems for commercial logging 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.

There is no defense for logging these forests.  DNR forest inventory records reveal that there are tens of thousands of acres of plantation forests on state trust lands in the Chehalis River watershed 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 Thurston, Grays Harbor, Lewis, and Pacific counties, and other beneficiaries.  There is no need to clear-cut these forests.  To be clear, the decision to schedule commercial 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.

Download Petition:

This petition will be sent to the following people:

Hilary Franz

Commissioner of Public Lands

360-902-1000

hilary.franz@dnr.wa.gov

Angus Brodie

Deputy Supervisor for State Uplands

360-902-2122

angus.brodie@dnr.wa.gov

Lisa Janicki

Board Member and Skagit County Commissioner

360-416-1300

lisaj@co.skagit.wa.us

Dan Brown

Board Member and Professor

University of Washington

206-685-1928

danbro@uw.edu

Chris Reykdal

Board Member and Superintendant

of Public Instruction

360-725-6000

chris.reykdal@k12.wa.us

Wendy Powers, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
Washington State University

509-335-3590

w.powers-schilling@wsu.edu

Jim Cahill

Board Member and Senior Budget

Assistant to Jay Inslee

360-902-0569

jim.cahill@ofm.wa.gov

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