Read FOCC’s Letter to the Board of Natural Resources on the Dendrophobia and Copperhead Timber Sales
To Commissioner Upthegrove and the members of the Board,
In September, we wrote to you with concerns about the Turnover timber sale and requested that you deny the harvest plan as it was written. We have been attempting to convey with urgency that Clark County’s remaining naturally regenerated forests such as Turnover, Dendrophobia, Copper Head, and others, are worth more to the county, and the people that live here, intact. These concerns have been echoed by the letters written to you by our elected officials – who up until this year, had very little knowledge or awareness about DNR harvest plans or even DNR management operations in general. As these lands are purportedly managed for the benefit of the public, we strongly lament that the words of our elected officials, the concerns of our residents and groups like ours are not taken more seriously by those with the power to affect and address the concerns we have raised.
We remind you that Friends of Clark County is a non-profit organization representing its thousands of supporters who are residents of Clark County, Washington. Today we write to you requesting that the board reject the harvest plans of Dendrophobia and Copper Head in Clark County. We urge the Department of Natural Resources and those on the board to respect the wishes of the people of Clark County and its elected representatives by rescinding the approval of the Turnover sale, which was influenced by misleading testimony by Duane Emmons at the October meeting, when he incorrectly conveyed our County officials consent to the sale.
Some points of reflection that we urge you to consider as you exercise your vote:
- There are still no cumulative climate impacts considered in the SEPA checklist for Dendrophobia or Copper Head and other sales planned on naturally regenerated primary forest land. The source materials for the policy used in the Environmental Checklists have been found to be considerably out of date by recent analysis (Cole 2025). DNR management insists that these policies “mention climate change” but that rebuttal is non-specific, nor is there anywhere in the policies or checklist that considers all aspects of the environmental effects which is required under SEPA. The source material and policies used do not consider the most recent forecast of hotter, drier climates in the next 10 years and their effect on our forests. This is reflected in a recent statement by a DNR representative that “The main climate takeaway for Washington in 2024 was the continuation of long-term warming trends…For the third time in four years, the annual average temperature in Washington was among the 10 warmest on record” (Fitzgerald 2025). Recently, it was reported that a new study showed that 750,000 acres of forest was damaged in Washington and Oregon in the 2021 heatdome (OPB). The environmental checklist used for Dendrophobia or Copper Head sales do not consider this data. Similarly, a WA Forest Health Survey found that half a million acres of forest in Washington were stressed or damaged (Fitzgerald 2025). Please do not approve these harvest plans as they are not scientifically sound.
- Less than 3% of forests in Western Washington are considered structurally complex by DNR’s definition. The forests in the sales we urge you to deny contain some of the most viable forest land to be managed for structural complexity and future old-growth characteristics. Once they are intensively harvested, we can’t get those ecosystems back. Planting trees on the site is not the same as an intact ecosystem. Clark County deserves to have a say in saving the few remaining nearly old growth forests we have left. The units we speak of – Turnover, Dendrophobia, and Copper Head are the choicest forest sites to develop into old growth. We need them for multiple reasons, to meet the HCP’s old growth targets; to provide recreation for our residents; and an ecologically sound environment for the species who inhabit these areas.
- We encourage you to support the Counties who are asking for alternatives to cutting the aging trees for new plantations. We realize that the Commissioner has fiscal issues but do not believe that the best of Washington’s forest legacy should pay the ultimate price without the benefit of a conversation about alternatives.
- We are concerned about the support for all of the schools, locally and statewide, who receive funds from the timber sales. Recently, as the Clark County Council was poised to vote on the 4th letter, public testimony was given by Heath Heikkila from the American Forest Resource Council. He informed the Council that they were doing the wrong thing by sending a 4th letter, insinuated that by doing so they were hurting schools districts all over the state; and insisted that the three units in question were not Maturation 2 forests. As a result of that, you will see they removed Copper Head from the 4th letter they wrote. We believe Heikkila’s statements to the Council were inaccurate and misleading.
We all know that there has not been a satisfactory response to the 4 letters written by the Clark County Council from the DNR. No conversation with the Council about alternatives such as land swaps; no conversation with the Council about how to address their concerns and work together to find new and innovative ways to allow the remaining units to be thinned to produce the old growth trees Washington is famous for; and no recognition that the school district most likely to receive funds from the sales will not realize the full payout because they cannot pass a levy.
Please bring these issues to the forefront of the discussion. Please require the DNR staff to explain why they have ignored the asks of the Clark County Council.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of our requests.
Friends of Clark County
References:
2021 heat dome left Rhode Island-sized damage in Oregon’s, Washington’s western forests – OPB
Cole, Brandi. 2025. “Evaluating Public Involvement in Environmental Assessment: A Case Study of Washington Department of Natural Resources Dabbler Timber Sale.” doi:10.7273/000007526.
Fitzgerald, Emily. 2025. “WA Forest Health Survey Finds 545,000 Acres of Stressed or Dead Trees.” The Columbian, July 11. https://www.columbian.com/news/2025/jul/04/wa-forest-health-survey-finds-545000-acres-of-stressed-or-dead-trees-2/