No Time for a Forest Tour? Here are some videos to help.

What do Foresters do? Washington is one of the best places in the world to grow trees - see how foresters reduce catastrophic wildfire and maximize wood products.

The Riparian Zone: 60,000 miles of streams protected with more than 2 million acres of forests to protect cool, clean water for fish.

Upland Wildlife: A wide range of upland wildlife, birdlife, flowers and pollinators live in Washington's working forests.

Working Foresters have a plan to manage forests because if they didn't we are more likely to lose our forests to decay and wildfire, the last thing we need is more smoke in the skies.

Life of a Tree: information about our magnificant working forests - it all begins with a seed.

Water Typing - Looking for Fish Streams: How foresters identify fish and non-fish habitat streams.

Salmon Journey to the Forest: While the Forests and Fish Law provides protections for 60,000 miles of streams running through 9 million acres of forests, more action is needed to ensure salmon can reach their spawning grounds and thrive in healthy forest ecosystems.

Key Points of the Forests & Fish Law - Forest landowners Doing their Part

After two years of preparation and negotiations, five stakeholder groups produced a science-based protection plan for water quality and fish habitat covering 8 million acres of private forest land in Washington. This Forests & Fish agreement will make significant changes in forest management practices and ensure that forest streams continue to flow with the clear, cool water that fish need.

The Forests & Fish agreement is part of Governor Gary Locke's state Salmon Recovery Strategy. Legislation to implement the agreement was passed by the Washington State Legislature on May 19, 1999, and signed into law by Governor Locke on June 7, 1999. In addition to the governor's office, the parties to the agreement include federal and state agencies, a number of the treaty tribes, county government and private forest landowners. The agreement is historic because it meets the requirements of both the federal Endangered Species Act and federal Clean Water Act. Here are key points of the agreement:

Riparian Protection - The most far-reaching changes are in riparian (streamside) zones, where new buffer zones will provide shade and contribute large wood pieces into streams.

Unstable Slopes - Significant improvements in the forest practices permit process to prevent landslides. The most hazardous areas will be identified and operations there severely restricted.

Forest Roads - All existing forest roads must be improved and maintained to a higher standard for fish passage, preventing landslides, limiting delivery of sediment and surface runoff water to streams, and avoiding capture or redirection of surface or ground water. In 2021, landowners completed repair to all forest roads, by removing 6,500 fish passage barriers opening 9,200 miles of streams.

Pesticide Application - Change buffering rules and management practices to prevent entry of pesticides into water.

Wetland Protection - Improved mapping of wetlands and clarification of existing rules for wetland protection.

Enforcement - The state Department of Natural Resources would gain greater authority to identify and punish repeat forest practices violators through requirements for financial assurances and denial of forest practice permits.

Compliance - Monitoring whether timber harvest and road construction across Washington state are being conducted in compliance with the Forest Practices Rules is the objective. "There have been statistically discernable increases in compliance since 2010 for some prescriptions and, equally notable, no significant decreases in rates of compliance with forest practices rules for any prescriptions." (2022-2023 Report)

Adaptive Management - To ensure that science continues to guide forest management, specific technical research will be conducted to test the cause-and-effect relationship of management changes.

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