A timber cut in Capitol Forest has been put on hold after all three Thurston County commissioners wrote to the Department of Natural Resources, asking them to protect the county's remaining Legacy Forests.
The Board of Natural Resources met March 7 and heard nearly an hour of public testimony, most regarding protecting more state-owned land.
Olympia resident Charlotte Persons urged the board to remove the Juneau sale from the agenda and listen to the county commissioners.
"Their letter asks that you postpone the Juneau sale until a program and funds can be found to protect legacy forests in our county," she said. "Commissioner Hilary Franz recently expressed her wish to work with county officials to manage timber on state trust lands. Please respect her desires and make this coordinated action with our county a possibility."
Afterwards, Duane Emmons, assistant deputy supervisory for State Uplands, discussed the letter, finally saying the sale known as Juneau, which was set to be approved at the meeting and then sold in April, would be paused.
The decision gives DNR a chance to meet with county commissioners, talk about the sale and where the revenue would go, and clear up some misperceptions in the letter.
According to DNR board meeting information, the Juneau sale is 160 acres in size and is valued at more than $2.7 million. The entire property is in Thurston County, and parts of the stand are more than 100 years old. That's not old enough to be considered old growth, which has to be left alone. Some trees in the stand date to the 1700s and would be left alone if the sale goes through in the future.
Commissioners Tye Menser, Carolina Mejia and Gary Edwards sent a letter to the DNR board March 3. In it, they said the board has asked the DNR on multiple occasions to postpone and/or protect the remaining legacy forests in Thurston County. That's defined as structurally complex, biodiverse forest patches that predate WWII, according to the Center for Responsible Forestry.
According to the commissioners, there are 3,100 acres of unprotected legacy forests in Thurston County that are slated for auction. The commissioners previously asked the board to halt the Hopscotch and Buttercup sales in Thurston County, which in total were more than 15,000 acres and valued at more than $6 million. The commissioners said their requests for trees to be saved haven't been honored at this point.
The letter states that the State Legislature is working on two programs that could benefit the county and its efforts to preserve legacy forests. One involves a Transfer Land Trust program, which they said could allow the county to apply to swap its older forest parcels with ones that have less ecosystem value.
Alice Grendon with the Thurston Climate Action Team said the Juneau property holds 38,200 megatons of carbon, and it stores 574 megatons per year.
The second program being looked at is to use funding from the Climate Commitment Act to protect older forests at risk of harvest in the near future.
Emmons said the DNR will have to speak with the county commissioners about the management of underlying trusts within the sale. He said the property isn't county transfer land, so it likely wouldn't be up for consideration in the transfer program. According to DNR documents, it's 61% forest board repayment property and 39% state forest board purchased property.
