Debating the future of Washington's public lands: Where the candidates stand

Few Washington races have grabbed as much attention this year as the one for Commissioner of Public Lands.

The Commissioner heads the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which oversees more than $450 million in revenue and more than 5.5 million acres of public land. The agency is in charge of wildfire preparedness, forest management, and the protection of critical habitat throughout the state.

RELATED: Washington loves its public lands — perhaps a little too much

After a crowded primary and a recount decided by just 49 votes, the two candidates voters will be asked to decide on are Republican Jaime Herrera-Beutler and Democrat Dave Upthegrove.

Jaime Herrera-Beutler is a former congress member representing Washington’s 3rd congressional district in the southwest part of the state. She served from 2011 to 2023.

Dave Upthegrove is Chair of the King County Council, which he has served on for 10 years.

Soundside’s Libby Denkmann recently hosted both candidates for a debate ahead of this year’s Nov. 5 election.

Working Forests

Throughout the debate, candidates discussed their plans for combatting wildfire, the future of the state’s carbon sequestration program, and perhaps most starkly, their philosophy for managing Washington’s forests.

At issue is policy around what some call “legacy” forests, or what the DNR calls "mature" and “structurally complex” forests. These are unique and biologically diverse forest stands last logged before World War II. They are not old enough to be protected as “old growth.”

“We want a range of age classes and types of forests across the landscape at any given time. We're failing to meet those targets right now,” Upthegrove said, referencing the state’s Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), which aims for 10-15% of state forests in each region to be structurally complex over the next 70 years.

The state oversees 2 million acres of state forests, with 800,000 acres already set aside for conservation. If elected, Upthegrove said he plans to set aside an additional 77,000 acres (3%) of state forest land to preserve mature stands and push the state toward those future conservation goals.

“We have barely 1% in most of our plant areas of these forests in that older stage. And so I would defer the harvest of these structurally diverse older forests,” he said.

Herrera-Beutler disagreed with Upthegrove’s plan, saying the HCP already sets acreage aside for future conservation, and that the rest is intended for harvest over time. She said that setting aside acreage, as Upthegrove is proposing, would shrink the amount of downstream revenue and hurt the rural schools and counties who depend on nearby timber sales.

Since the state’s founding, public institutions — such as schools, universities, and county services — have been the beneficiary of timber sale revenue from nearby public trust land.

Several DNR-approved timber sales have hit delays after being challenged by conservation groups, and Herrera-Beutler said those hiccups in funding are hurting schools and counties who depend on public trust logging. To this point, she noted the pause of a mature forest sale by Upthegrove and the King County Council last year.

“I have a letter from the Mount Baker School District, begging and pleading the state to not pull aside that timber harvest,” Herrera-Beutler said. “They said this drop in state forest revenue is a major cause of our deficit.”

Upthegrove responded by saying his plan would offset the revenue from conserved acreage by identifying harvestable timber elsewhere, and would look at expanding the acreage available by possibly acquiring private timber lands in the future.

To make up public trust funding for schools and counties, Herrera-Beutler said she would maintain current harvest levels, and would largely be in line with the management strategy of Democratic Commissioner Hilary Franz.

Both candidates agreed that DNR timber sales are not a complete fix for deficits in school funding, and would like to see that revenue more equitably distributed to rural schools in need.

Carbon Markets

Earlier this year, the Department of Natural Resources won a court ruling allowing it to go ahead with a 10,000-acre lease of timberland for use as carbon offset credits.

Trees are highly effective at absorbing and sequestering carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere. The idea behind the program is to generate revenue by allowing companies with high emissions to offset those emissions by investing in forest conservation. Big picture, the pilot program is also testing the waters for generating revenue on public lands by a means other than timber harvesting.

Some in the forestry industry argue the environmental benefits of carbon credit markets are questionable, and also say that local mills depend on state forests, which should be sustainably managed as working forests.

“I'm interested in seeing if the pilot project works, and so I support it moving forward,” Upthegrove said when asked if sequestration has a place in DNR policy in the future. “I do think, however, our greatest opportunities aren't in participating in a carbon market through conservation, but participating in a carbon market through improved forest management.”

“My biggest question is: Is it effective? Because there are very real consequences for doing it,” Herrera-Beutler said. “So, we’ll see.”

The size of trees in older, mature forests are prized for their use in a variety of unique wood products, like telephone poles. Candidates disagreed on the effectiveness of those wood products to continue storing carbon long term.

Wildfires

Wildfire preparedness and response are top of mind for voters this year. In the past few years, wildfires have burned hundreds of thousands of acres on both the wet west and dry east of the state, decimating towns like Malden and Medical Lake near Spokane.

In response, Commissioner Hilary Franz revived a prescribed burn program and repeatedly fought to secure increased funding for wildfire prevention.

Candidates said they supported those efforts, and would like to see improvements in forest management to reduce the risk of bigger and faster conflagrations, along with faster response plans for wildfires in harder to reach areas of the state.

“They've been unmanaged, and so they are tinder boxes. Those fires are catastrophic,” Herrera-Beutler said. “So whatever we can do to be flexible, to allow them to respond more quickly, I've committed to doing.”

“Improving wildfire prevention and response is an issue of public safety first and foremost, and we need to be doing everything we can to prevent and respond to wildfires,” Upthegrove said. “I believe we need to be increasing our investments in forest health, both prescribed burns, non commercial thinning, and commercial thinning.”

Closing Arguments

In her closing arguments, Republican candidate Jaime Herrera-Beutler pointed to her independence and record as a legislator working across the aisle, with commercial and conservation groups, and with Tribes to support the environment.

“I've improved watershed habitat, and I've improved forest health, and I've done it while helping to maintain over 150,000 forest products jobs in the Northwest,” she said. “Those are hardworking middle class families who just want to work.”

Democrat Dave Upthegrove said that “...this race comes down to values, [and] our records in our legislative bodies.” He also emphasized his record supporting the protection of natural resources, as well as his independence.

“At the end of the day, these lands belong to we, the people, and they need to be managed in the public interest for all the people of the state of Washington,” he said.