New WA lands commissioner orders pause on logging sales for some older forests
On his first day in office, Dave Upthegrove, the state’s new public lands commissioner, said he would pause logging sales in some older state-managed forests for about six months.
In doing so, he’s taking a step toward fulfilling a campaign promise to set aside nearly 80,000 acres of older, but not necessarily old-growth, trees. How much acreage the pause would cover was not immediately clear, but a Department of Natural Resources spokesperson said Wednesday it would involve slightly more than 20 timber sales.
Upthegrove announced the pause on sales of “certain structurally complex mature forests” shortly after being sworn into office, during remarks to Department of Natural Resources staff.
“During this pause, we’ll deploy cutting-edge technology to better identify and map the characteristics of the forests under our care,” Upthegrove said in his speech, delivered in the lobby of the department’s headquarters in Olympia. “We also will establish criteria for which structurally complex mature forests will help us meet our long-term habitat goals.”
https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/01/16/new-wa-lands-commissioner-orders-pause-on-logging-sales-for-some-older-forests/