(The Center Square) – Washington Lands Commissioner-elect Dave Upthegrove is laying out his vision for the office, which will balance forest management with an environmental agenda.
“The point in the process I’m at right now is finding out where the bathrooms are,” Upthegrove joked during a Monday phone interview with The Center Square.
Outgoing Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz did not advance after placing third in the August primary in the 6th Congressional District race.
“My vision is to continue to build upon the work of the current commissioner to continually improve the management of our public lands to better meet today’s realities,” Upthegrove continued. “The realities to me are we’re facing impacts of climate change, we’re seeing a rapid loss of biodiversity, and I want to lean into these challenges and work with all of the impacted parties to strengthen our conservation values.”
During the campaign, Republican challenger Jaime Herrera Beutler, who represented southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House for a dozen years until 2023, argued that Upthegrove, the current chair of the King County Council, was tied to radical environmental groups.
According to the Washington State Republican Party, Upthegrove planned to “close 77,000 acres of working public forests – state trust lands that provide essential revenues for local communities and public services.”
During the campaign, Upthegrove said he believes the state can add additional forestlands to the harvest pool to make up for the older growth set-asides. Logging and forest product groups strongly oppose the plan.
Upthegrove rejected the pejorative radical environmentalist label.
“That’s ridiculous,” he said. “In my last reelection to the county council, I was challenged from the left because I have operated as a pragmatic, solution-oriented mainstream Democrat. My approach to governing has always been collaborative, and that kind of name-calling is not unusual during a political campaign; the bulk of that came from the Republican Party itself.”
Herrera Beutler says groups that have funded Upthegrove have threatened to sue the state Department of Natural Resources.
“The main faction that is funding him are extreme environmentalists,” she said Monday. “They want to change radically how DNR is run.”
One of those groups that sued is Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, which is litigating to prevent the logging of older forests in Washington.
“Is he going to be balanced and have everyone at the table or are some of those groups going to have undue influence?” asked the former congresswoman.
“DNR is biologists and foresters and conservationists who have to work in concert with federal law when it comes to the environment and they’re very good at what they do, and it’s very concerning to me to think about them not being backed up in court especially when it comes to lawsuits from special interest groups, so we should all keep an eye on that,” Herrera Beutler continued.
Upthegrove received 52.7% of the vote, to Herrera Beutler’s 47%. Her showing was the best for any Republican who ran for statewide office. Democrats retain control of all statewide offices and hold majorities in the House and Senate.
“I haven’t proposed reducing timber harvest in this state,” Upthegrove noted. “I have suggested some modest changes in where we harvest, and so I’m very optimistic we can continue to do things that do a better job for the climate, while still supporting rural economies and creating jobs and fully funding public services.”
He went on to say, “I did campaign on some forest policy changes, and I anticipate I will not be bringing forward structurally diverse mature forests for industrial harvest, so that will be a change, but I’m very committed to [bringing] forward other forest timber parcels.”
Upthegrove told The Center Square one of his goals is to increase accessibility for people with disabilities in recreation programs.
“My father lost his vision about 15 years ago, and the department and state parks do a lot with accessible recreation and options for people with wheelchairs, but do we have Braille on signs?” he asked, adding he also wants to look into a youth civic education program tied to public lands.
Upthegrove said the country and state are very divided, so he intends to represent all Washingtonians.
“I anticipate spending a lot of time as I did during the campaign in eastern Washington and in rural communities making sure that I’m understanding their concerns as well as communicating what we are doing,” he said. “It’s incumbent on me to maybe spend more time, at least initially, with people who disagree with me and spend more time listening and learning from one another.”
