HomeMy WebLinkAbout120122 FW_ Jefferson County Forestry Workshop _ DNR Carbon Program
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From: Bill Turner
Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2022 11:10:44 AM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
To: Heidi Eisenhour; Greg Brotherton; Kate Dean
Cc: Mark McCauley
Subject: Jefferson County Forestry Workshop / DNR Carbon Program
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Heidi/Greg/Kate
Thank you so much for the opportunity to learn more about what Jefferson County is doing with their parklands and the discussion around forestry and specifically the DNR carbon proposal.
This is a huge topic and lots of sensitivities on all sides and it is hard to get at the core of the discussion with only two minutes of comment, so I thought I would follow up with
some more thoughts.
WA DNR manages over 2 million acres of timberland in the state with about 1.3 million of those acres on the westside of the Cascades. Of that 1.3 million acres approximately 50% of
these lands have been set-aside for non-management protections through the 1997 Habitat Conservation Plan <https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/lm_hcp_plan_1997.pdf> , Long-Term Conservation
Strategy for the Marbled Murrelet <https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/amp_sepa_nonpro_mmltcs_feis_entire.pdf> , Policy for Sustainable Forests <https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/lm_psf_policy_sus
tainable_forests.pdf> (all old growth set aside), as well as research natural areas and recreation areas. The 50% of the set-aside lands, if they are not already older forests or old
growth forests, are well on their way to becoming older forests and old growth forests. These lands are excluded from active management, even light touch active management as Jefferson
County is practicing with their parklands.
The remaining 50% of the DNR managed lands are available for active management. Only these lands are being considered for the carbon project.
Climate change and sequestering more carbon are global issues. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded, “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.” IPCC 4th Assessment Forestry Chapter.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations expresses the demand side of the equation regarding using more carbon friendly building materials, “Sustainably using forests
and building green value chains would help meet future demand for materials – with global consumption of all natural resources expected to more than double from 92 billion tonnes 2017
to 190 billion tonnes in 2060 – and underpin sustainable economies.” In Brief to The State of the World’s Forests 2022 (fao.org) <https://www.fao.org/3/cb9363en/cb9363en.pdf>
In brief, good carbon policy is good sustainable forestry practices. DNR has independent third-party certification of their management practices through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative
(SFI). This program is not exclusively looking at economic outputs and timber deliverables as being sustainable, but it also looks at the sustainability of forest practices on water,
wildlife, forest health, aesthetics, biological diversity and more. Here is the 2021 summary of the audit DNR’s adherence to these principles: Washington_DNR_2021_SFI_Public_Summary_Report_FINAL.pd
f (sfidatabase.org) <https://sfidatabase.org/media/k2/attachments/Washington_DNR_2021_SFI_Public_Summary_Report_FINAL.pdf>
I can make this longer and cite more material, and get into substitution of building products, additionality, leakage, etc., but to keep this as brief as possible, in your consideration
and deliberations about what to include or exclude in your requests to DNR over the carbon program that they are currently proposing, I would hope that you would consider that the current
DNR management of these lands in a sustainable way is the best long-term strategy for carbon management. There are other reasons to set-aside or preserve land, and as mentioned above,
and as Jefferson County has pushed for in the past such as preserving land around Dabob Bay. DNR has already preserved about 50% of the land base but preserving land under the expectation
that it is the best long-term carbon strategy is incorrect considering an increasing global demand for wood and paper products; that sustainably managed lands are the best place to
meet that demand; and locally sourced rather than additional imported wood and paper products are better for the climate long-term.
The DNR carbon offset project as currently crafted is not a method to maximize carbon sequestration over the long run in both the forest and the built environment, but rather a mechanism
to allow polluters to purchase credits to continue polluting.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment and as always if you would like to discuss this in more depth, please let me know.
Bill Turner
Sierra Pacific Industries
Washington Timber Procurement Manager
421 South Front Street
Shelton, WA 98584
360-770-5097
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