from Jim Buck, former WA State Representative, 24th Legislative District

August 31, 2025 – Olympia WA – By law, DNR [Department of Natural Resources] State Trust lands are intended to be managed for the benefit of defined beneficiaries, including public schools, local public safety agencies, public health, universities and other community services. Half of these lands — nearly 800,000 acres —are already off-limits to timber harvesting.

Activists want to close an additional 77,000 acres of these working forests despite drastic social and economic consequences:

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES

(DOWNLOAD THIS FLYER HERE: Impact-One-Sheeter-v3

(from Source Document for Impacts of 77,000 acre Set Aside of DNR State Trust Lands – https://dnrtrustlands.org/wp-content/uploads/SourceDocumentforImpacts.pdf)

Timber Volume Per Acre: 50,000 MBF/acre. Highest Returning DNR Timber Sale Each Month, Fiscal Year 2023 Average (51,840 MBF average)  Source: https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/psl_ts_fy23_results.pdf

Value of Timber Per Acre: $25,000/acre. Highest Returning DNR Timber Sale Each Month, Fiscal Year 2023 Average ($26,238.73 average) Source: https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/psl_ts_fy23_results.pdf

Total Timber Stumpage Value of 77,000 Acres: $25,000/acre * 77,000 acres = $1,925,000,000

$1,350,000,000 in Lost Revenue for Public Services: $1,900,000,000 in total stumpage value * 71% share to beneficiaries of state trust lands (average between 75% share for county trust lands and 69% share for federal grant trust lands) $500,000 million in Lost Revenue to DNR for Agency Staff, Forest Health (Silviculture) Activities: $1,900,000,000 in total stumpage value * 29% share to DNR for management fee (average between 25% share for county trust lands and 31% share for federal grant trust lands)

3.85 Billion Board Feet (BBF) Lost Timber Volume: 77,000 acres * 50,000 MBF/acre = 3,850,000,000 MBF

Enough Lumber to Frame 400,000 Homes: 3,850,000,000 MBF of log volume * 1.8 overrun conversion to lumber volume = 6,930,000,000 MBF of lumber. 15,000 MBF per average American home of framing lumber.
Source:
https://www.nahb.org/news-and-economics/housing-economics/national-statistics/framing-lumber-prices

Source for Following Information:

Contribution of Working Forests to the Washington State Economy, Mason, Bruce & Girard (2021):
https://data.workingforests.org/doc/WFPA_Industry_Econ_Impacts_2021_b.pdf

9,252 Lost Jobs over 15 years. Assume DNR harvest of 77,000 acres over 15-year period (~5,000 acres/year). 3.85 BBF in timber harvest volume/15 years = 257 million board feet (MMBF) harvested per year. 257 MMBF * 36 total jobs per MMBFtimber harvest (see page 3 of report) = 9,252 jobs

$400 million in Lost Tax Revenue to State, Counties, and local districts: Counties and local taxing districts to lose 4.2% harvest excise tax revenue and state of Washington to lose B&O,  tail sales and other tax revenues associated with forestproducts sector. $109,450 in total taxes generated for each MMBF of timber harvested. 3,850 MMBF * $109,450/MMBF = $421,382,500 (page 3 of report)

Harms WA’s $36 billion forest industry with annual revenues 65x more than the Seattle Seahawks: $36 billion in annual revenues as an industry sector (page 10) Seahawks annual revenue $550M (2022) – source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/195294/revenue-of-the-seattle-seahawks-since-2006/