HomeMy WebLinkAboutDepartment of Natural Resources Aldwell Response City of PA 2022DEPARTMENT OF
NATURAL RESOURCES
OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER
OF PUBLIC LANDS
1111 WASHINGTON ST SE
MS 47001
OLYMPIA, WA 98504-7001
360-902-1000
WWW.DNR.WA.GOV
October 12, 2022
Mayor Kate Dexter
321 East Fifth Street
Port Angeles, WA 98362
RE: Aldwell Timber Sale
Dear Mayor Dexter:
Thank you for writing with your concerns regarding the Aldwell timber sale and your request to pause
auction of the sale until the city and other stakeholders have time to review impacts to the Elwha
watershed and the city’s Climate Action Plan policies. As you note in your letter, the Board of Natural
Resources approved the auction of this sale during its September meeting.
The DNR has a unique mission when compared to other public agencies. DNR is required to manage state
trust lands to generate revenues for specific trust beneficiaries, and we manage these lands as a true
fiduciary under the constitutional, statutory, and common law duties of a trust manager. Beneficiaries of
state trust lands include the statewide school construction account, state institutions, Washington State’s
public universities, and critical local services such as school districts, libraries, hospitals, and fire districts.
The beneficiaries of the Aldwell timber sale are Clallam county and the junior taxing districts in the area
where the sale is located. The revenue generated from the sale will directly benefit the local community
and fund critical public services and infrastructure.
DNR manages state trust lands to provide revenue to beneficiaries while also balancing environmental
and social values. We do that through a robust policy and management framework that includes our 1997
Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), the 2006 Policy for Sustainable Forests (PSF), the 2019 Sustainable
Harvest Calculation (SHC), the 2019 Long Term Conservation Strategy for the Marbled Murrelet, and
the Forest Practices Act and Rules (FP). The Sustainable Forestry Initiative independently certifies
DNR’s ongoing commitment to sustainable forestry. In addition, DNR has its own Plan for Climate
Resilience, which we published in February 2020.
The Aldwell timber sale, like every sale we put forward to the Board of Natural Resources for their
approval, is thoroughly vetted by our team of professional foresters, geologists, archaeologists, ecologists,
and biologists to comply with our internal rules and policies. Additionally, each sale is externally
reviewed through the SEPA process and again by Forest Practices staff to ensure legal compliance. The
Aldwell timber sale was carefully designed to exceed Forest Practices Rules, protect critical habitat for
riparian and upland species, and minimize risk to human health and safety.
Across Washington, DNR has used its policy framework to conserve nearly 1 million acres of working
forestland in the areas that will do the most good for rare, threatened, and endangered species. We
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October 12, 2022
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manage the remaining forestland for timber production, which provides a local source of sustainable
wood for a multitude of products that all of us use.
In these conservation areas, our primary goals are to encourage and protect biological diversity, with
particular efforts focused on habitat for northern spotted owls, marbled murrelet, and riparian species such
as salmon and bull trout. These habitat areas include forests of various origins and age classes growing
naturally, although in some cases, DNR designs treatments to enhance stand diversification, leading to
healthier and more diverse wildlife habitat.
The lands that remain available for timber management are managed to generate revenue for trust
beneficiaries, as is the case with the Aldwell timber sale. DNR has conducted multiple detailed
environmental impact statements, and we manage our ownership at a landscape level. Conserving more
areas that are not set aside already by the HCP or PSF (for example, a stand that meets an arbitrary age
threshold) is not compatible with DNR’s policies, our legal framework, or our commitment to trust
beneficiaries.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognizes this approach to sustainable
forest management. Their Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
finds that:
“In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing
forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre or energy from
the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit.”
At the COP 26 meeting in Glasgow in 2021, world leaders reaffirmed their respective commitments to
sustainable land use, and to the conservation, protection, sustainable management, and restoration of
forests and other terrestrial ecosystems.
Finally, the state of Washington has recognized that public and private working forests are “an integral
component of the state's contribution to the global climate response and efforts to mitigate carbon
emissions.” as codified in RCW 70A.45.090.
DNR conducted its own analysis of the impacts to climate and carbon in our 2019 Sustainable Harvest
EIS. Under each alternative considered, more carbon was sequestered than emitted in both the 2015–
2024 period and over a five-decade period.
“Compared to each other, differences in net amount of carbon sequestered across all alternatives
is small. In the planning decade, the action alternatives all sequester more carbon than the no
action alternative. Over 50 years, Alternative 5 sequesters 5.1 percent more carbon than the no
action alternative, while alternatives 2, 3, 4, and 6 sequester 0.4, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.1 percent more
carbon than the no action alternative, respectively. All alternatives result in more sequestered
carbon relative to current conditions.”
In your letter, you also expressed concern related to the long-term impacts to the local water supply and
the watershed that contributes to it. We share your concern about clean water and the long-term impacts
of timber harvest, which is one reason we developed the Habitat Conservation Plan. DNR’s HCP ensures
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October 12, 2022
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that our timber sales include appropriate habitat protection measures, including water quality and in-
stream flows for riparian species. The riparian buffers included in the Aldwell timber sale come directly
from our HCP. DNR’s HCP buffer requirements for fish-bearing streams are 100 to 200 feet on each side
of the stream. The design of these large riparian buffers is to maintain the riparian ecosystem processes
that influence the quality of salmonid freshwater habitat. Water temperature, stream bank integrity,
sediment load, detrital nutrient load, and the delivery of large woody debris were the principal
considerations used for designing the riparian buffer widths in our Habitat Conservation Plan. All of our
stream protection measures meet or exceed forest practices regulations, and they all meet or exceed the
requirements under the Clean Water Act.
DNR is committed to managing state forests for environmental, social, and economic benefits. Forests are
critical habitat for thousands of species, and healthy forests are a powerful tool in mitigating both the
causes and effects of climate change. As Washington’s population grows, we will continue to need locally
sourced, locally processed building materials grown to some of the highest ecological standards anywhere
in the world. Washington forests are enormously productive at both sequestering carbon and growing
timber, which is why we manage our lands to capture both of those benefits. DNR-managed lands also
support rural jobs (including jobs in mills, trucking, and harvesting), and, when forests are managed
sustainably, we can provide a perpetual source of wood for products that all of us rely on, including
lumber, furniture, shingles, utility poles, and wood pulp. DNR’s unique approach to forestry produces
these critical materials while protecting sensitive landscapes and generating non-tax revenue that supports
local public infrastructure. We are proud of our work to balance these outcomes for the benefit of all
people in Washington.
Thank you again for engaging in this important conversation about Washington’s natural resources. For
further information about the Aldwell timber sale or about our trust land management in Clallam County,
please contact Mona Griswold, the Olympic Region Manager, at 360-374-2800.
Sincerely,
Duane Emmons
Deputy Supervisor for State Uplands (Acting)
c: Board of Clallam County Commissioners
Port Angeles City Council
Senator Kevin Van De Wege
Representative Mike Chapman
Representative Steve Tharinger
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