DNR has planned a 735 acre commercial timber sale on Virginia Ridge, scheduled for auction on May 30, 2018. Logging is planned during the summer and fall of this year.

This project has been promoted as a forest health treatment aimed at reducing wildfire hazards. However, respected foresters and fire ecologists tell us that when it comes to the treatment plan, this is just a standard commercial timber harvest. Proposed actions will have little benefit for fire hazard reduction.

As envisioned, the harvest will remove mid-sized trees and leave 26-30 of the largest trees per acre. Currently, there is no plan to remove the small-diameter trees and no plan to follow the harvest with prescribed burning. More than a dozen large “landings” will be created for the processing of whole trees.

The Virginia Ridge timber sale is planned for an area that is visible from Highway 20, Winthrop, Sun Mountain, and much of the upper Methow Valley, areas where tourism and visual values are of major importance. This should necessitate every effort being made by DNR to minimize visual impact.

DNR’s recently completed 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan for Eastern Washington outlines a vision aimed at management and restoration to increase forest and watershed resilience on over 1 million acres. It is disappointing that this sale is not being used as a demonstration of their revised approach.

Bottom line: there are alternative methods to carrying out this treatment that would be more effective at restoring wildfire resilience to the forest, without the severe visual impact.

THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW:

1. COMMENT! COMMENTS ARE DUE APRIL 23
Send Comments to the SEPA Center at: sepacenter@dnr.wa.gov Be sure to include” SEPA File No. 17-113001″ on all comments.

2. EMAIL THE BNR (Board of Natural Resources):
BNR will vote on May 1 whether to approve this sale as proposed. Send an email to: bnr@dnr.wa.gov, urging them NOT to approve this sale as proposed. Be sure to include “Virginia Ridge FIT Timber Sale #96324” in the subject line.

3. EMAIL THE COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC LANDS:
Share your concerns with Hilary Franz: hilary.franz@dnr.wa.gov. Tell her to suspend this sale and give it more consideration, from both a fire and an aesthetic standpoint. Be sure to include “Virginia Ridge FIT Timber Sale #96324” in the subject line.

Points to consider:

• Let science rule the day. The most current science dictates there is a better and alternative way to “treat” these forests to make them resilient.
• Pre-commercial thinning of small diameter trees before commercial harvest is one example of a scientifically supported, “better” way.
• The science is also clear on prescribed fire – forest thinning should be followed by prescribed burning. Projects that omit this burning generally leave fuel conditions in a worsened rather than improved condition.
• Given the sale location, the DNR has special responsibility to consider both environmental impacts and aesthetics.
• This is a huge opportunity to demonstrate appropriate dry forest restoration in an extremely high visibility location. Let’s get it right!