DNR Considers Logging Rare Elwha Forest, Despite Policy

Last spring, our staff identified a globally imperiled ecosystem within the boundaries of the highly controversial Parched timber sale in the Elwha watershed. Our discovery halted active road building and forced DNR to send Natural Heritage Program staff to the site to assess our findings. In the fall, DNR sent us the results of that assessment.

The DNR’s Natural Heritage Program agreed with our findings, identifying a large Element Occurrence (EO) of a globally imperiled ecosystem overlapping the Parched timber sale. This plant community—Pseudotsuga menziesii – Tsuga heterophylla / Gaultheria shallon – Holodiscus discolor forest—is considered threatened in Washington State and imperiled globally, with a rank of G2/S2. It is also identified as a priority for inclusion in state natural areas in Appendix E of the 2025 State of Washington Natural Heritage Plan for the Northwest Coast Ecoregion, where this EO is located.

This map shows the extent of the rare ecosystems in the Parched timber sale,

the blue areas represent rare plant communities

Ordinarily, the discovery of a rare plant community like this would result in DNR canceling the timber sale—either by buying the project back from the purchaser or providing replacement timber. However, with several million dollars in timber value at stake, new documents we obtained through a public records request suggest that DNR intends to log these imperiled plant communities anyway—an explicit violation of DNR’s own Policy for Sustainable Forests.

Under the Policy for Sustainable Forests, the Policy on Special Ecological Features states that:

1. The department will identify forested state trust lands with special ecological features of regional or statewide significance that fill critical gaps in ecosystem diversity.

2. The department will protect such areas through means consistent with trust objectives, including transfer out of trust status, retention in long-term deferral status, creative partnerships, or other available mechanisms.

Yet in documents obtained from DNR, agency staff discuss removing just 21 acres of the mapped Element Occurrence from the timber sale while allowing the harvest of 86 acres of this imperiled plant community—asserting that logging this globally imperiled ecosystem would not have a “significant environmental impact.” This claim is indefensible. Proceeding with harvest would constitute a clear violation of the Policy for Sustainable Forests and would cause severe and lasting harm to this ecosystem. Even more troubling, allowing this logging would set an alarming precedent, signaling that DNR is willing to disregard its own policies when it is bureaucratically convenient—placing all rare ecosystems on state trust lands at risk of future logging.

Given that several million dollars in timber revenue are at stake, it is clear that the Olympic Region is motivated to proceed with logging this occurrence. This represents a serious conflict of interest and does not justify allowing the destruction of an ecosystem that would ordinarily be protected in the normal course of business. 

Compounding this concern, the Legislature has directed DNR to identify Element Occurrences in the Elwha watershed for the purpose of creating a natural area. Logging EOs in the Elwha watershed despite this legislative proviso is alarming and does not serve the public interest. Senator Chapman recently sent a letter inquiring about the status of the parched timber sale and urging DNR to utilize natural climate solutions funds to protect this rare plant community.

These rare ecosystems were included in the Parched sale only because DNR has systematically failed to search for them over the past 20 years, in violation of the Policy for Sustainable Forests, which states: “The department will identify forested state trust lands with special ecological features.” The DNR overlooked this responsibility until LFDC staff began corresponding with the agency and documenting the overlap of hundreds of acres of rare ecosystems with planned timber sales. There is little doubt that DNR has logged thousands of acres of these forests since 2006, and the agency’s failure to proactively identify these ecosystems does not justify grandfathering in a timber sale that should never have advanced in the first place.

The Policy for Sustainable Forests also states that the department will protect such areas through means consistent with trust objectives, including transfer out of trust status. DNR currently has access to Natural Climate Solutions funding that could provide replacement revenue to trust beneficiaries while transitioning these rare plant communities out of trust status. This approach would align with DNR policy while keeping trust beneficiaries whole.

Instead of green-lighting the destruction of globally imperiled ecosystems, we are calling on DNR to remove these threatened ecosystems from the Parched timber sale—as they have done in other sales in the past—and to use Natural Climate Solutions funding to permanently protect this rare plant community.

We need your help to stop the destruction of this imperiled ecosystem.

Please contact the Department of Natural Resources and urge them to immediately remove these threatened plant communities from the Parched timber sale. Ask DNR to follow its own Policy for Sustainable Forests, honor the Legislature’s direction for the Elwha watershed, and use Natural Climate Solutions funding to permanently protect this rare ecosystem while keeping trust beneficiaries whole. Public pressure works—and right now, it is essential. 

Dave Upthegrove:  CPL@dnr.wa.gov

Olympic Region:  olympic.region@dnr.wa.gov