Big Wins for Forest Carbon and Wildlife Habitat Connectivity

By Paula Swedeen,Ph.D., Senior Policy Director

Queets, Olympic National Park. Photo by Chase Gunnell.

While the 2025 legislative session was challenging, we had a couple of important bright spots given the budget situation. We convinced legislators to appropriate $31 million for forest carbon sequestration projects in western Washington – $23 million on DNR lands and $8 million for a conservation easement on private timberlands in southern Thurston County. The funds come from the Climate Commitment Act’s Natural Climate Solutions Account, which apportions part of the proceeds from auctioning off permits to large emitters of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) for the purpose of using nature to store more carbon and help our ecosystems and communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.   

We worked in partnership with Washington Conservation Action and the Center for Responsible Forestry to secure the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) funds, which will buy replacement lands for permanently protecting structurally complex older forests on state trust lands ($10 million) and for lands protected for endangered species under DNR’s Habitat Conservation Plan ($10 million). These actions will move private timberlands, often managed on short harvest rotations, into DNR ownership. While the newly acquired lands will be managed long-term for timber production and revenue, they must also be managed for increased carbon sequestration beyond their prior levels. An additional $3 million is for habitat restoration and general thinning, which is more expensive for DNR to conduct than clear-cutting. This brings the total amount of NCS funds devoted to conserving older forests and improving carbon storage on acquired lands to $105 million since 2023.  

Nooksack, Mt. Baker Area Big Tree. Photo by Brett Baunton.

The private lands conservation easement is an exciting example of using Natural Climate Solutions funds to accomplish multiple goals. We partnered with Capitol Land Trust and Port Blakely Tree Farms to obtain $8 million to put a permanent conservation easement on 2,357 acres of managed forest near the Black River and Capitol State Forest.  The easement will remove development rights to keep the land in forest cover and prevent carbon emissions. A novel addition will guarantee a 60-year harvest rotation on timberlands that would normally be managed on a 40-year rotation. The land is located close enough to I-5 and Olympia to be at genuine risk of development. Port Blakely acquired the property two years ago from a Timber Investment Management company that could have easily sold it to a developer.  

Preventing development will prevent 233,953 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere while extending the rotation will sequester and store an additional 199,641 tons of CO2. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a working forest conservation easement in Washington State that commits the landowner to a longer than commercial harvest rotation. The Recreation and Conservation Office will administer the grant and is interested in setting up a program where landowners and land trusts can apply for Natural Climate Solutions funds to improve carbon and climate outcomes on working lands.  

        Map of Washington State I-5 Northern Linkage Zone. Data from WSDOT.

The other significant conservation benefit is that this parcel lies within the northern linkage connectivity corridor within our Cascades to Olympics program area. Keeping this large parcel in forest cover and providing bigger trees will allow wildlife to move between the Cascades and Olympics and for some species, like woodpeckers and salamanders, to set up permanent homes on the land. Preventing development in this corridor is a herculean task, with many parcels at risk, so protecting this large piece of land is a huge piece of the puzzle.   

From a local timber economy perspective, the Port Blakely project keeps working forests producing logs for local mills. Extending the rotation will increase total timber yields over 120 years from nearly 87,000 board feet to the acre to almost 107,000 board feet to the acre. In other words, two sixty-year rotations produce more timber volume than three 40-year rotations therefore improving the long-term supply of wood products.

We hope this triple win for the climate, wildlife connectivity, and the local economy is just the first of many more projects like it.