Dear Members of the Board of Natural Resources:

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We, the undersigned University of Washington students, staff, and organizations, call for an immediate moratorium on the logging of structurally complex legacy forests on trust lands managed by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

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These increasingly rare native forests are irreplaceable. Unlike industrial tree farms, they play an outsized role in carbon sequestration, wildfire resilience, flood mitigation, biodiversity support, and watershed health. They also hold deep cultural significance for Washington’s tribes and provide wide-ranging opportunities for recreation, tourism, and scientific research. Each one is worth more standing.

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The ongoing destruction of legacy forests is at odds with the University of Washington’s public identity as a global climate and sustainability leader. It also fails to provide any meaningful material benefit to the University. From 2015 to 2024, DNR timber revenue accounted for less than 0.05% of the total revenue UW received from all sources. Such a negligible return is not worth the cost to our public lands and climate.

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There are alternatives to logging what little remains of our legacy forests. To meet its fiduciary obligations to trust beneficiaries, DNR can prioritize harvesting timber from younger plantations instead of legacy stands. Longterm, we encourage the implementation of mechanisms for conserving forests that are both ecologically and economically viable (e.g. inclusion in the 2025 Forest Forward plan, Trust Land Transfer, Natural Climate Solutions funding, carbon credit and ecosystem service programs, etc).

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Until the DNR develops a longterm management plan—one that values biodiverse forest ecosystems for more than their timber volume—setting a more sustainable example is up to the Board. Superintendent Reykdal and Dean Khosla are already using their positions to oppose many of DNR’s worst logging proposals; it is time for the rest of the Board to follow suit. Please protect the old growth of tomorrow by voting against all timber sales that threaten mature, structurally complex forests.

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The University of Washington community stands united in this call. We urge you to act with the urgency and responsibility that the current moment demands—for biodiversity, the climate, and future generations.