So about those mature legacy forests…

Plus some campaign cash tidbits, recommended reading, and save the date: Dec. 3 is our Re-wire Conference.

In politispeak, following the science can mean doing long division as often as defining terms. Rarely does it mean both. Take the clarion call to save Washington’s “mature legacy forests,” for example.

Said forests are regarded in conservationist circles as woodland harvested before 1945 that has since grown back and remained largely untouched by human hands. King County Councilmember and would-be Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove has promised to save the remaining 3% of unprotected legacy forests in the state.

But here’s the thing: There’s no way to know whether they're at risk in Washington for one simple reason, they don’t exist. Not according to the Department of Natural Resources’s dictionary, anyway. It is worth noting what woodlands the state has taken under its wing, however.

Image courtesy of The Department of Natural Resources.

To answer that, we have to back up and explain how the department manages forests, which are classified into three separate tiers.