Legal Fund: Help Save 2,328 Acres of WA's Legacy Forests

In the fall of 2024, Washington's outgoing Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz rushed dozens of destructive timber sales through the approval process and sold them to timber companies. These timber sales target some of Washington State's oldest, most biodiverse and carbon dense lowland legacy forests, including areas designated as high-quality spotted owl habitat, and adjacent to occupied Marbled Murrelet nest sites. These destructive logging projects would cut trees over 170 years old. Many of the timber sales are opposed by community groups, and 12 of them were opposed by county governments or tribes.

In total these 32 timber sales would clearcut 2,328 acres of legacy forests across Western Washington.

The Legacy Forest Defense Coalition has already filed lawsuits in 13 counties to reverse these destructive auctions. We are alleging that the DNR has violated their own Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) by putting these forests up for auction, and that these sales should be reversed. The courts are taking us seriously. We have already obtained multiple injunctions and temporary restraining orders to prevent logging of these forests while our litigation proceeds.

In Thurston County, we are appealing the Carrot, Cabbage Patch, Juneau, Evergreen Gold, Cake Walk, and Matador timber sales.

In Pacific County we are appealing the Freedom, Finale, Intent, and Shift The Paradigm timber sales.

In Grays Harbor County, we are appealing the Jackie Paper, Tweety and Misty timber sales.

In Wahkiakum County, we are appealing the Super Truckin, YewTube and Channel Changed timber sales.

In Clallam County we are appealing the Dungeness and Dragons, Parched, and Tree Well timber sales.

In Lewis County, we are appealing the Action Item, Four Score, Five Dollar Bill and Luna Tix timber sales.

In Jefferson County, we are appealing the Last Crocker and Maladjusted timber sales.

In Mason County, we are appealing the Next Contestant and Serendipity timber sales.

In Snohomish County, we are appealing the Stilly Revisited timber sale.

In Clark County, we are appealing the Dabbler timber sale.

In King County, we are appealing the Sylvan Pearl timber sale.

In Whatcom County, we are appealing the Little Lily timber sale

In Skamania county we are appealing the Geode timber sale.

This is a colossal legal undertaking, but the stakes could not be higher. Some of these timber sales target the best remaining legacy forests in their respective watersheds. Losing these places would cause irreversible damage to the state’s natural heritage.

We can't and won't give up the fight, but we need your help. We are lucky to be represented by a powerful team of pro-bono and low-bono attorneys. However, we need additional funding to continue to litigate most of these cases. That's where you come in. We have set a goal to raise $100,000 to fund this legal campaign and save as many of these forests as we can. If successful, these lawsuits will establish a long-term, statewide legal precedent, that will force DNR to protect the best remaining 10 to 15 percent of state forest lands in Western Washington.

We are counting on your support to make this happen. Please donate whatever you can, and please spread the word!

Any funds that we do not spend on litigation will be spent supporting our regional grassroots campaigns to protect these irreplaceable forests!