HomeMy WebLinkAbout052322afternoonsession03 JEFFERSON COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA REQUEST
TO: Board of County Commissioners
Mark McCauley, County Administrator
FROM: Heidi Eisenhour, Commissioner
DATE: May 23,2022
SUBJECT: Further discussion Beaver Valley Sorts Timber Sale/ DNR Carbon Project
STATEMENT OF ISSUE: On April 4, 2022 the Jefferson County Commissioners sent a letter to the Board
of Natural Resources asking them to defer the Beaver Valley Sorts Timber Sale (BV Sorts) which was on
the agenda for consideration at their April 5th meeting. They heard us and delayed the auction of this sale to
the July 2022 auction. At that BNR meeting they discussed that reconveyance is an option we have with this
sale as these lands are all State Forest Transfer (SFT)trust lands. In our letter, we stated that we"see
enormous opportunity for innovation in how state- owned lands are managed. Whether it is variable
retention harvest, or the selling of carbon credits..." Ironically, on April 6, DNR Public Lands
Commissioner Hilary Franz announced a first-in-the-nation Carbon Project.
BV Sorts is a three unit/ 66-acre sale located in District 3, generally just WSW of Teal Lake in Port Ludlow.
All acres fall in the SFT and 76+Years old age class (based on DNR's "Harvest Unit Adjacency map").
Since the April 5 BNR decision, Commissioner Eisenhour has undertaken initial outreach to DNR staff,
junior taxing districts and interested residents to study the implications of this sale to our local taxing
districts, of requesting reconveyance of some SFT lands and what some options are for generating revenue
from these lands. Between April 5th and May 16th, we also heard from interested Jefferson County residents
about additional forests/timber sales deserving a second look, including the Pennywise TS and gathered
Currentlythere almost 15 000 acres of SFT
information to share about older forests in Jefferson County. ,
trust lands in Jefferson County. Estimates indicate that—1,400 acres can be characterized as older forests.
On May 16 we reviewed information collected about 1) around fiscal impact of the BV Sorts timber sale to
the county and junior taxing districts, 2) what some options other than the harvest plan we had at that time
might be—including reconveyance - and 3) if the carbon market might be a viable pathway forward.
ANALYSIS: In debriefing this conversation, we 1) decided to send a letter requesting inclusion of Jefferson
County older forests in phase two of DNR's carbon project and time for researching a potential pathway for
a reconveyance request for some SFT lands containing older forests. That is the letter before us today. We
have also begun conversations towards developing criteria for the lands we might request reconveyance of
The purpose of today's agenda item is to discuss further next steps including timing issues.
FISCAL IMPACT: TBD
RECOMMENDATION: Further discussion, consider reconveyance and additional next steps.
REVIEWED BY:
Mark McCa , County Administrator Date
Board of County Commissioners
1820 Jefferson Street
PO Box 1220
Port Townsend, WA 98368
Kate Dean, District 1 Heidi Eisenhour, District 2 Greg Brotherton, District 3
May 23, 2022
Board for Natural Resources
MS 47000
Olympia, WA 98504-7000
Dear DNR policy leaders,
We want to start by saying we stand firmly by our collective belief that forestry is an important economic and cultural
driver in the state of Washington and especially here at home on the Olympic Peninsula. We also see enormous
opportunity for innovation in how state-owned lands are managed. Whether it is variable density thinning, or the
selling of carbon credits alternatives to clear-cutting exist.
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On April 4 we sent a letter asking you to not approve and defer the Beaver Valley Sorts timber sale that was before
the Board on your agenda for Tuesday, April 5, 2022. We asked this given the important work that DNR is engaged in
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which will ultimately inform this sale and others like it in the future around older forests. At that point on April 4, we
did not know about the DNR’s historic carbon project that was announced April 6, 2022.
We are very grateful that you deferred Beaver Valley Sorts to the July auction to give us time to understand the
implications locally and also now to begin to digest the new carbon program you introduced. Thank you! As we said in
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our April 4 letter, Jefferson County highly values the ecosystem functions that our forests serve, especially carbon
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sequestration as we see the impacts of climate change accelerating. Imagine our surprise with the April 6
announcement essentially answering this call for acknowledging the wealth of carbon storage potential represented in
older forest stands in Washington, including in east Jefferson County and the entire Olympic Peninsula.
It feels like DNR has many balls in the air including the review of older forests policy and now the historic carbon
project. To that end we feel we need to wait to see if our older forest stands, especially in East Jefferson County, which
represent gold mines of carbon storage and biodiversity, are included Phase II of your carbon project and how they are
considered via your update of your older forests policy. In conversations with the region we understand that you’re
currently assessing the best place to focus for Phase II of the carbon project. We’re interested in the outcome of this
assessment and have a hard time not being optimistic that older forests in Jefferson County will end up high on the list.
Finally, we ask that that you pause further action on the Beaver Valley Sorts and Pennywise Timber Sales and allow
time for full consideration of the options – which we understand includes the possibility us requesting reconveyance of
State Forest Transfer (SFT) trust lands. Even if we pursue reconveyance of most of the acres of SFT older forests in east
Jefferson County there would still be over 90% of lands in this trust for DNR to manage on our behalf. It seems prudent
to wait for DNR to finalize the timeline for the carbon project’s phase two selection process and your consideration of
older forests before you move forward with timber sales with stands of older forests in Jefferson County.
Thank you for your attention to our input.
Sincerely,
Heidi Eisenhour, Chair Greg Brotherton Kate Dean
District 2 District 3 District 1
Phone (360) 385-9100 Fax (360) 385-9382 jeffbocc@co.jefferson.wa.us