OLYMPIA — A webinar is set for Wednesday on a state Department of Natural Resources proposal to add 7,500 acres of Western Washington state trust lands, including property on the North Olympic Peninsula, to a pilot project to set aside forest for carbon sequestration.
In April, Hilary Franz, state Commissioner of Public Lands, announced the launch of what she said was the first-of-its-kind carbon project on state lands. The project committed to set aside 10,000 acres of state lands for conservation and carbon sequestration, and to generate revenue for state trust land beneficiaries through carbon markets.
At that time, the agency had identified the first 2,500 acres of forests to be set aside. Since then, agency staff identified a candidate pool of parcels for the remaining 7,500 acres.
The state now seeks input on the potential parcels as it narrows them down to a final selection.
The public webinar will be conducted at 11 a.m. Wednesday. An in-person open house will be scheduled in the Olympia area at 6 p.m. Nov. 1. A survey is available online that will close on Nov. 18. To register, find the survey and more information, see the DNR webpage at www.dnr.wa.gov/carbonoutreach.
The Clallam County proposed area has Lake Sutherland at its western tip. Jefferson County parcels are scattered throughout East Jefferson County. Maps of proposed parcels can be found at https://tinyurl.com/PDN-CarbonDNR, or by going to www.dnr.wa.gov/carbonoutreach and searching.
DNR calls the criteria used to identify parcels as Conservation Value (HCV) used by forest certification systems to find areas that “merit special attention in the context of natural resource management,” such as to sequester and store carbon.
The HCV criteria include areas with significant concentrations of biodiversity; significant landscape-scale ecosystems; rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems and habitats; basic ecosystem services in critical situations (e.g. watershed protection, erosion control); areas or resources fundamental to meeting basic needs of Indigenous populations and local communities (e.g. subsistence); and areas or resources critical to Indigenous populations and local communities’ traditional cultural identity.
DNR also considered other special attributes of forests, including areas of older, mature forests or rare plant communities.
Agency staff have identified 50 parcels totaling 11,726 operable acres as candidates for Phase II of the Carbon Project.
In addition to Clallam and Jefferson counties, parcels are proposed in Skagit, Snohomish, Lewis, Mason, Whatcom, King, Grays Harbor, Skamania and Thurston.
