Forest Forward – A New Direction For Our Forests

Our world is changing, and our forests are changing along with it. How we steward those forests must change too. Since 1957, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources has been a world leader in thoughtful, sustainable forest management by constantly evolving and innovating to meet the moment.

Now, to meet this moment of change and challenges, we must evolve again.

Which is why Commissioner Upthegrove signed a Commissioner’s Order that conserves 77,000 acres of our most critical forests on August 26, 2025.

A bold step forward for forest conservation. DNR is conserving 77,000 acres of structural complex forests, including almost 10,000 acres of older forests. This bold action will ensure that the Agency continues to meet our responsibilities to schools and local governments by innovating and diversifying the way we generate revenue from these lands. Leveraging DNR’s globally recognized leadership in sustainable land management, we will pursue strategies other than traditional industrial harvests to ensure these carbon-dense, habitat-rich forests are available for future generations.

Strategies will include pursuing selling carbon credits and other valuable ecosystem services, acquiring replacement timber lands, and seeking increased value from timber sales by promoting mass timber markets, maximizing return on certified forest products, and reviewing how we structure and configure sales. Innovative silviculture practices to improve habitat, forest health, and accelerate stand stage development also may provide revenue opportunities.

Our climate, our habitats, our communities can’t wait for us to act, and neither can future generations. These forests are workhorses for capturing climate pollution and are critical for healthy, biodiverse ecosystems. Ensuring they become the old growth of tomorrow while developing and implementing innovative management practices across these lands is the next step in the Agency’s world-leading sustainable forest management practices. Guided by DNR’s ecological expertise, we will put Washington State on a path to achieve desirable habitat outcomes faster while expanding and diversifying the sources of revenue for schools and local governments.

Structurally Complex Forest Finder

Using the best available methodology, a team of DNR foresters, data scientists, and forest ecologists developed an updated inventory of forest types across DNR lands. That model identified 106,000 acres of structurally complex and older forests. Based on that data, DNR identified 77,000 of the best acres for ecological health, habitat connectivity, and diversity of stand types across the landscape to conserve. This includes almost 10,000 acres of older forests. Explore the map below to see where those acres are across western Washington.

Click for a full-page view of the Structurally Complex Forest Finder map viewer 

The viewer reflects the data available at the time of analysis and contains inherent uncertainties due to data resolution, accuracy, and temporal differences with other datasets. This information is for illustration purposes and should not be used to make management or policy decisions. The viewer will be updated as data is refined and updated.

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What is the Impact?

This is the biggest step forward for forest conservation in a generation. Conserving these 77,000 acres will enable us to nurture and steward these forests in more innovative, diverse ways, so that we can do more for our climate, for our habitat, and for the communities we serve.

This will let us innovate and implement new ways to manage these forests and diversify the revenue state lands have provided since statehood.

This order also provides certainty for our foresters, beneficiaries, and the timber industry. By keeping nearly 30,000 acres of these forests available for harvest, DNR’s five-year plans remain on track and we believe harvest levels will remain steady for ten years. Rural libraries, schools, and fire districts will remain whole.

DNR is providing certainty today to allow us to innovate tomorrow.

What are the Next Steps? 

DNR’s lands are well-suited for ecosystem services, and Commissioner Upthegrove is eager to work with the Legislature to get the authority for DNR to enter into the carbon market and invest in other ecosystem services on these 77,000 acres.

Once DNR has the tools and resources it needs to enter these markets, the agency will explore the possibilities of forest carbon credits, avoided wildfire emission credits, leasing excess water rights, and promoting better practices.

Beyond ecosystem services, DNR will also participate in ongoing efforts to expand the mass timber market, supporting local, state, and federal funding efforts to scale infrastructure and mills for engineered wood products. Commissioner Upthegrove will encourage the Agency to prioritize the harvest of higher value wood products like Maturation I Douglas Fir and Hemlocks that are suitable for poles, and hardwoods where it can help improve riparian habitat and ensure that DNR is maximizing the value it receives for SFI and FSC certified products.

When appropriate, the Commissioner will also seek funding to acquire working forests at risk of conversion to keep them as forests and expand the state’s portfolio of lands that can enter ecosystem services markets and provide the supply for engineered wood products.

While we pursue innovative methods and diversify its portfolio, DNR will continue to meet its responsibilities to the schools, counties, and communities that rely on the revenue generated on its lands.

This Forest Forward policy sets us on a different path, helping us conserve our forests, support our communities, and hit our habitat goals faster.

Access our Landscape Assessment Datacube

For eight months in 2025, DNR’s world-leading team of foresters and forest scientists developed and implemented a new tool to inventory state-owned forests and identify the structurally complex forests. These forests, regenerated naturally across western Washington, are vital to sequestering carbon, supporting critical habitat, ensuring healthy ecosystem functions, and providing the biodiversity that is essential to the health of our state. DNR scientists combined cutting-edge technology with old-fashioned field viewings to identify these forests and develop tools to allow anyone to see where these forests are, and how they are being managed.

View the datacube and see for yourself.

Download GIS Layers

Watch a video on how to view the datacube