Increase in Compensation for Timber Left along Streams
Since 1999, with the passage of Washington’s Forest and Fish Rules, forest landowners must leave timber unharvested along streams, on steep slopes, and near critical wetlands. The goal is to protect fish habitat. Small forest landowners tend to own forests in the lowlands where streams are more prolific and wider, and thus have been disproportionately affected by these rules. As a mitigation measure, the state established the FREP (Forest Riparian Easement Program) to pay landowners a minimum of 50%, and up to 90%, of the value of timber required to be left adjacent to harvested areas. After the failure of our 20-year battle to obtain workable alternate plan templates to partially harvest within these areas while still protecting fish habitat, WFFA pivoted and developed a bill asking for an increase in the amount of compensation and adjustment to the terms. On March 18, 2024, Governor Inslee signed into law Bill 5667. Now landowners will receive 90% for trees left behind after an adjacent harvest. In addition, the bill decreases the number of years between compensation from 50 years to 40 years to better align with harvest entry periods.
WFFA member Ken Miller was the champion of this change, along with Executive Director Dr. Elaine Oneil, Legislative Liaison Nora Palattao Burnes, and Grays Harbor Chapter President Orville Mowry. Together, they, and the many members who contacted their own elected officials, were successful at advocating to have Washington lawmakers change the law to provide fair compensation to small forest landowners. For more information about FREP, please visit the Department of Natural Resources page.
Flame Capped Kilns Allowed to Burn Slash Piles and Create Biochar
Nearly all management actions generate leftovers called slash, which are usually piled and burned. Burning slash piles comes with escape risk, neighbor concerns, and limits on burn windows due to weather and air quality. Often the piles are just left in the woods as chipping and mulching, masticating, and hauling and dumping alternatives are all cost prohibitive. A low-cost alternative is using a flame capped kiln to burn the slash. There are demonstrably fewer air emissions, it is safer, and it has the added benefit of producing biochar, a durable carbon substrate that holds water and nutrients for improved forest health. Unfortunately, Washington state banned these kilns, lumping them into the same category as burn barrels. WFFA spearheaded a carve out of existing law to allow flame capped kilns for burning clean biomass. They were joined by a coalition of large landowner, conservation district, tribal, environmental NGO, and biochar proponents to successfully advocate for this law change in a 60-day session – an amazing feat! On March 26, 2024, Governor Inslee signed into law Bill 6121 allowing flame capped kilns. Now, small forest landowners have another tool in their tool belt for managing slash piles. For more information about kilns and biochar, please see an article published by the U.S. Forest Service, Mobile biochar production by flame carbonization: Reducing wildfire risk and improving forest resilience.
We are especially grateful to the many senators and representatives who worked with us to pass these bills. A special shout out to Senator Muzzall as prime sponsor of the FREP bill and Senator Van De Wege as prime sponsor of the biochar bill in the senate and Rep. Orcutt and Rep. Chapman as prime sponsors in the house. And in the final hour, we had huge efforts from Rep. Kretz, Rep. Chapman, Rep. Springer, Rep. Waters, and Rep. Abbarno to get the FREP bill passed at the last possible minute.