Washington Hardwood Commission Annual Meeting June 10, 2009 wffa slides

Rick Dunning, Executive Director www.wafarmforestry.com

Washington Farm Forestry Association 501 c 5 Non-Profit, Non-governmental Assn. Purpose to provide our 1400 family memberships with educational programs and to promote development of fair taxation and regulation. Members are considered model* owners who see their woodlots as an investment and lifestyle and believe they have a responsibility to be stewards of the land. They involve themselves in educational programs and are likely to invest in management plans, certification programs, and the social activities of our association. *Roper report – Judy Langer, January 2008

Washington State Forestland Database This map shows the federal, state, tribal, industrial and family forestlands in the State. Only at the county level have we had such a detailed accounting of where Washington’s forest resource lands are. You can see here that the small forest land owners are located in that critical region between our suburban areas and the industrial, state and federal forestlands higher in the watershed. Using this information base as a foundation we have:

Washington State Forestland Dataset Project Luke Rogers, Principle Investigators Steve Stinson, Family Forest Foundation

ATFS, WFFA and DNR Stewardship WFFA = 292,000 acres ATFS = 150,000 acres

Washington State Forestland Dataset Size Class Acres # Owners >2 acres 5,704,700 215,000 >5 acres 5,475,500 150,000 >10 acres 5,096,000 89,400 >20 acres 4,467,400 55,400 >20 and <30K 6,515,800 56,400

…mapped where small forest landowners are for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources…

Private Forest Acreages (2008)

Geographics Conclusion: Significant amount of land in buffers Ownership Sizes Owner Type % Buffer Industrial 15.5% SFLO > 10 Acres 9.7% Tribal Industrial 6.1% Tribal SFLO ATFS 14.0% WFFA 13.7% Conclusion: Significant amount of land in buffers Owner Type Tract Acres Industrial 15,937 SFLO > 10 Acres 111 Tribal Industrial 402,378 Tribal SFLO 165 ATFS 475 WFFA 1,159 Conclusion: Small owners have smaller contiguous ownerships but still substantial

Geographics Distance to Urban Areas Distance to Development Owner Type Miles Industrial 10.43 SFLO > 10 Acres 8.05 Tribal Industrial 26.71 Tribal SFLO 13.64 ATFS 6.60 WFFA 6.46 Conclusion: Small owners are much closer to urban areas than industry lands Owner Type Miles Industrial 1.15 SFLO > 10 Acres 0.33 Tribal Industrial 4.41 Tribal SFLO 1.40 ATFS 0.35 WFFA 0.39 Conclusion: Small owners are 3 times closer to developed land than industry (2000 ft on average)

Risk of Conversion By comparing the current market values of the properties to the net present value of continuing to manage as forestland we developed risk profiles for the likelihood of conversion to non-forest uses.

Conclusions Family Forests are unique and need unique solutions Development pressures Significant portion of land in riparian areas Close to urban and suburban areas Fragmented Growing Family Forest population and land base Interested in providing ecosystem services maintaining the forest land base Being recognized as increasingly important.

2050 2050

Contact Us Luke Rogers Andrew Cooke lwrogers@u.washington.edu Andrew Cooke agcooke@u.washington.edu http://depts.washington.edu/wagis/projects/parcels I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Washington Farm Forestry Association and the Family Forest Foundation for their unrelenting efforts to help quantify and better understand the interactions between policy and science and for their continued support of a project that has benefits far beyond their parcels of forestland.

Conifer Restoration Template SFLO Advisory Committee: Small Forest Landowners Maximum of 1000’ of stream reach with one side of stream harvest 50’ variable width no touch buffer Leave all conifers Mandatory reporting on reforestation Adjacency issues with neighboring parcels Hopes for finalization in coming months

Issues affecting Woodlot owners: Forest and Fish Rules offered 3 things to WFFA: 1.) Forest Riparian Easement Program 2.) Alternate Plans (Templates) with less costly prescriptions 3.) Small Forest Landowner Office Conclusion: Forest and Fish Rules have failed SFL’s.

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