Nov 2024
Please forward this newsletter to your friends and neighbors. We want to get the word out about our effort to save Hooven Forest and recruit more volunteers! Saving Hooven Forest will be a big project and we welcome your involvement. Directly reply or contact us at info@hoovenforest.org with any comments, suggestions, or questions.
In-Person Launch Event Coming Soon
The Hooven Forest Steering Committee is working to organize an in-person informational meeting in November or early December to inform our community about legacy forests and kick off our organizing work to protect Hooven Forest. The meeting will be held on a weekday evening (most likely Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening) in an indoor event space nearby the forest. We are finalizing speakers and other details, so stay tuned! We will share more on this mailing list as soon as we have the details.
Remember to Return Your Ballot by Tues Nov 5
It's important to vote this year for many reasons, one of which is that Washington State is electing a new Commissioner of Public Lands — who oversees the Department of Natural Resources, the department that owns and manages Hooven Forest. The two candidates running for Lands Commissioner are Dave Upthegrove and Jamie Herrera Butler. We think the choice is clear when it comes to how each candidate views legacy forests (see below for a definition) like Hooven Forest, as well as their records on conservation and environmental endorsements. We encourage you to watch their recent debate.
WA’s Legacy Forests, the Old Growth of Tomorrow
Did you know that Hooven Forest is considered a "legacy forest"? A new timber war is taking place over some of the state’s older forests managed and logged by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). These are the old growth forests of tomorrow, comprising a second growth of trees since huge swaths of forests were cut in the 1800s and 1900s. Although they capture far more carbon than newer forests, they are not protected like old-growth in federal parks and only represent 3–8% of DNR’s harvestable lands. Read more about the fight in WA over the future of legacy forests in this Seattle Times article (video).
Urgency to Fight for Legacy Forests
According to the Center for Responsible Forestry, in a rush to auction off some of the best legacy forests before the next Public Lands Commissioner is elected, DNR has fast-tracked sales of nearly 1400 acres of legacy forests containing old growth trees, steep slopes, riparian areas, and habitats for endangered species like the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelets. In the most recent Board of Natural Resources (BNR) meeting, five timber sales involving legacy forests were approved, despite overwhelming community opposition.
DNR has moved up the sale dates on many of these forests by as much as three months, leaving little time for public input or opposition. Communities across the state are outraged, and people are beginning to stand up to DNR’s aggressive clearcutting practices.
The next DNR meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 5th @ 9am. Register here for the DNR webinar.
Thank you for reading our Newsletter, and we hope to hear from you soon!
Friends of Hooven Forest Steering Committee
Randy, Rosa and Solveig
www.hoovenforest.org
We are a small group of concerned neighbors organizing ourselves to try and save 180+ acre Hooven Forest (also known as the Crystal Lake DNR Parcel), located just over the King County line in Snohomish County. There is a risk of this land becoming developed for residential or commercial use, and we would like to conserve it for the community and environment.
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