Washingtonians! Join me (left) in voting for Dave Upthegrove (right) for our next Commissioner of Public Lands. Ballots are out and are due by August 6th. Don’t sit this primary out!

The Department of Natural Resources needs a strong leader who works with but is not bought by the timber industry. Dave is the ONLY candidate in the race who is not taking money from the timber industry, their corporate executives and lobbyists. He is the ONLY candidate who is seriously addressing the need to protect Washington’s 77,000 acres of legacy forests. His grassroots campaign has the sole endorsement of the Sierra Club and the Washington Conservation Action. He is the ONLY candidate backed by the environmental community.

Why am I voting for Dave Upthegrove? I spent several years attending meetings conducted by the Board of Natural Resources under current CPL Hilary Franz when the board was making important decisions about the managing the state lands for endangered species, including a seabird known as the Marbled Murrelet. I wrote a book about this endangered murrelet and the coastal forests where it nests. Despite the documented precipitous decline of the murrelet population, the conservation plan the board ultimately adopted in 2019 revealed a "business as usual" approach to forest management. The plan resulted in no meaningful protections for the Marbled Murrelet and no meaningful assurances of jobs and revenue for the timber industry or trust beneficiaries. No one was happy with the decision. Dave Upthegrove would not have let this happen.

Dave is squarely in the 21st century with creative, progressive, workable ideas for shifting the business-as-usual approach to land management. Dave is a well-spoken, well-informed, thoughtful candidate who—judging from his comments at a recent campaign talk—has a solid grip on the role and responsibilities of the CPL. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think he’d already taken office. Dave is looking out for the trees, the wildlife, the timber-dependent counties, and all the people of Washington State—not just the narrowly defined trust beneficiaries.  Please join Dave’s grassroots campaign to shift the paradigm so our “working forests” need to work optimally for all Washingtonians. For more information go to https://upthegrove.org/