EVERETT — Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove said recent executive orders by President Donald Trump aimed at boosting logging in federal lands won’t drastically change his agency’s positive relationship with federal land agencies.
Since 2017, under Washington’s Good Neighbor Authority agreement, the state’s Department of Natural Resources has worked on projects with federal agencies in every Washington national forest except Umatilla.
The Good Neighbor Authority agreement allows the state to hire local companies to work on watershed, range land and forest restoration projects with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
“We probably have one of the most successful Good Neighbor Authority operations in the country,” Upthegrove said in an interview with the Daily Herald on Tuesday. “We can continue to be a good example of how states can work with the federal government on shared forestry goals, and it seems like [the executive orders] could mean opportunities to expand that work together to meet some of our shared goals around fuels reduction and science-based restoration work.”
On Saturday, Trump issued two new executive orders, titled “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production” and “Addressing The Threat To National Security From Imports of Timber, Lumber.”
The first order calls for exceptions from the National Environmental Protection Act and streamlining the Endangered Species Act, possibly allowing logging projects to skirt lengthy environmental reviews.
The second order promotes domestic timber production and asks to investigate whether importing wood threatens national security.
Upthegrove’s decision in January to pause sales of older forests on state trust land for six months won’t be affected by the federal orders, he said.
Since 2019, Washington’s Federal Lands Program at DNR has produced more than 25,300 acres of restoration and fuels reduction projects and completed more than 345 miles of road improvements and more than 70 aquatic improvement projects, DNR spokesperson Will Rubin wrote in an email.
Upthegrove and Rubin pointed to the 2022 Bandera Restoration Project as an example of collaborative work done in Washington’s national forests. The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest project worked along 138 acres of two well-trafficked Forest Service roads near the popular Ira Springs and Talapus Lake trailheads.
The project included commercial thinning work that sold for $301,000, which was deposited in the state’s Natural Resources Federal Lands Revolving Account for use on future restoration projects in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
Upthegrove said he believes that, even with the current administration, science-driven forest management can still be accomplished when the state decides to partner with federal agencies on Good Neighbor Authority projects.
But while he’s eager to continue collaborating with the federal forest service and Bureau of Land Management, Upthegrove said he won’t cut any environmental safety corners.
“We’re not going to do any work that violates the Endangered Species Act at this agency while I’m commissioner,” he said. “Our involvement through the Good Neighbor authority will be in ways that are consistent with our priorities and values.”
During Tuesday’s interview, Upthegrove also addressed concerns about the upcoming wildfire season with the recent U.S. Forest Service layoffs and federal hiring freeze.
While it appears that the layoffs didn’t affect any federal firefighters, they did terminate a large number of employees who provided logistical support and critical incident managers to firefighters, he said. Washington’s Department of Natural Resources is still gathering information to assess how the state agency will need to adjust to accommodate for fire season.
“I’m very hopeful that the Forest Service is going to continue to be a really critical wildfire partner in all of this. There just are some changes that could mean we’re going to have to do some things differently or step up a little bit,” he said.
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson.
Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.
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