“All the public lands granted to the state are held in trust for all the people.” 
                                                                                                 — WA State Constitution

On May 8 and May 17, folks from Clallam County and several other counties were alerted to rally and provide support for a person camped on a small platform 80 feet above the ground, just a few miles west of Port Angeles. The tree-sitter, a skilled climber, is committed to stopping the logging of an 183-acre Department of Natural Resources (DNR) legacy forest named Parched. Sadly, the first few days of this action were marked by law enforcement intentionally harassing and endangering the protester by using verbal taunts and spotlights trained on the tree-sitter throughout the night.

The term “legacy forest” denotes a mature forest, usually 75 years old or more. These forests were seeded naturally, have never been industrially cut, and soon will be considered old growth. They are lush, diverse, and dense with moss and vegetation. They hold rich, absorbent soils created by the slow breakdown of fallen logs which, in turn, create new growth. Firs and other conifers are home to insects, birds, and wildlife, including flying squirrels. The indigenous peoples of the region consider these forests sacred and have gathered food in them for centuries. Leaving mature NW forests standing has great value – likely much more than their logged price tag – because recent research has found that legacy forests are the best at holding carbon and cooling the land.

The Parched forest is one of three legacy forests targeted for cutting within the Elwha Watershed. Parched was auctioned off to Murphy Company and some of its logging roads are already scraped off. 

Since the tree-sitter began the protest, the DNR has blocked vehicle access to the area, forcing a 7-mile round trip hike for anyone who wishes to support the tree-sitter, or to observe and document any further actions by law enforcement.

By blocking access for the loggers, the tree-sitter is buying time to save this particular legacy forest from being clear cut. However, this action is not a one-off. It is part of a two-year effort by grassroots groups and volunteers to engage the public and create awareness of what is at stake. Right now, there are two ongoing lawsuits awaiting a court decision. The ultimate aim of all these efforts is to save at least 12 other legacy forests in seven Washington counties from being logged and turned into tree plantations. 

There is a worry in part of the community that saving these older forests from logging would hurt rural economies, schools, and jobs. But the facts are that: (1) unprotected legacy forests represent less than 5% of Washington’s DNR lands; 2) timber revenue represents about 25% of the school construction budget, so timber revenue from unprotected legacy forests would make up only about 1% of the school construction budget; 3) timber revenue only makes up about 10% of all funding for schools, so unprotected legacy forests represent less than 0.5% of overall school funding. Even our superintendent of schools, Chris Reykdahl, has said the state can find other ways to make up any shortfall. Although timber industry jobs declined over the last few decades, it is not due to any shortage of harvestable trees, but to the high mechanization of operations and the export of raw logs that no longer get processed in Washington.

In November of 2024, the Clallam County Democrats approved a resolution calling on the Commissioner of Public Lands and the Washington State legislature to adopt policies and legislation in 2025 and beyond to protect and restore forest lands in the Elwha Watershed, starting with the remaining legacy forests. This included cancelling legacy forest timber sales in the Tree Well and Parched parcels, along with any other legacy forest timber sales in the Elwha Watershed.

On Friday, May 23, Clallam Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Stanley held a hearing on whether the DNR is in violation of the law for failing to file the administrative record for nearly five months. The courtroom was standing-room only, packed with many legacy forest supporters as well as loggers. The Legacy Forest Defense Coalition (LFDC) and Earth Law Center (ELC) asked that a 90-day injunction be declared on logging operations in the Parched and Tree Well parcels. The court ordered the DNR to file the record by June 18, but declined to enter the requested injunction. 

The parties are now seeking another temporary injunction until the court can hear another motion set for June 6 at 1:30 p.m. before Judge Stanley. In that motion, the LFDC will argue that the DNR has failed to set aside a sufficient number of older forests and that logging activity must be stopped until there can be a full hearing on the merits based on the administration record the DNR has repeatedly failed to file.

We urge readers to stay tuned and stay engaged. For updates on this ever-evolving situation, sign up for the Elwha Legacy Forest Coalition newsletter at elwhalegacyforests.org. 

Take action today:
Call Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove and leave a message (360-902-1000 ext. 4), or email him at [email protected] asking for:

• Immediate cancellation of the Parched timber sale
• A pause on all logging in the Elwha watershed
• A permanent ban on logging on all legacy forests in western Washington 

Sources: CRF Center for Responsible Forestry; Elwha Legacy Forests; Legacy Forest Defense Coalition; End the DNR Mandate; Washington Policy Center; Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

And thanks to: Forest For the Trees #2 - Under Severed Canopies: Grief, Growth and Resistance, a pamphlet-zine that is “the collective work of seven writers, artists, and musicians inhabiting the forested and deforested lands of Western Washington.” ​(Not available online)

PORT TOWNSEND — An estimated 800 people filled the Jefferson County Courthouse steps, spilling out across the yard and filling Jefferson Street, to protest President Donald Trump and business mogul Elon Musk on Monday.

“Democracy is the main issue here, and that’s what we’re fighting for,” said Gina McMather, an organizer with Indivisible Port Townsend, which organized the protest. “Trump and his puppet master are dismantling things.”

Protests took place across the Peninsula on Monday, with rallies also occurring in both Port Angeles and Sequim.

McMather, a former world history teacher, said she is concerned about the foreign effects of recent funding cuts to the United States Agency of International Development (USAID).
“Think of the millions of people who depend on that in refugee camps,” she said.

Loss of jobs

Bryan Sluis, a project manager for the state Department of Transportation, said he has a number of friends who worked for the National Park Service who have lost their jobs.
“A lot of the people that I’ve talked to were planning on working at Olympic or Rainier or at North Cascades (national parks),” Sluis said. “They received an email that they were terminated. People don’t really understand how that can affect their lives. They’re in their 20s and they’re trying to start out their life and make a positive impact. They have now been left hanging out to dry.”

Esther Cramer and Brian LaVere traveled to the Port Townsend protest from Oak Harbor.

“I want them to stay out of our U.S. Treasury,” Cramer said. “He (Musk) doesn’t have the clearances to have his hands in there. He’s been given the ability to read and take information; it’s scary. I think it was crazy for Trump to pardon all of the (Jan. 6) criminals and go after the FBI, who are trying to uphold the rule of law. Bottom line, the future of our children and our children’s children is at stake. We can’t just complain. We have to get active.”

Cramer said elected Democrats need to do more. She said she doesn’t feel represented.

“I believe we have a burgeoning authoritarianism,” Cramer said. “Which I never thought I would see in my lifetime.”

Trump is trying to attack the constitution, Cramer said. She specifically called out the 14th amendment, which grounds birthright citizenship.

“I’m a latina,” Cramer said. “I grew up in Chicago, my mother had proper documentation, but she was not a U.S. citizen. She is now. My brothers and sister were born in Mexico, Michoacan.”

Cramer wondered if even she could eventually be impacted by ramped-up efforts to clamp down on immigration.

Barbara Tusting held a sign which read “No hate, no fear” on one side and “Immigrants are welcome here” on the other side.

“We’re all immigrants here,” Tusting said. “My grandfather took a banana boat from Panama. My great grandmother took a slow boat from Ireland. We are all immigrants, except for the Native American people. Everybody belongs. That’s what makes America.”

Port Townsend Mayor David Faber also attended the protest.

“I’m very concerned about what’s going on,” he said. “The expansion of executive authority is particularly concerning. America is one of very few presidential system democracies that haven’t slid into autocracy. It’s worrisome what we’re seeing now with the abdication of power by Congress. The executive orders that are grossly out of scope with what the president’s powers are under the Constitution are just being treated as though they’re law. That’s really worrisome.”

Faber said he is concerned in his capacities as a citizen, as mayor and as a lawyer.

The crowd was full of signs on Monday. One read “resist the billionaires.” Another read, “We the people must stop the coup.” A third read, “defend the U.S. Constitution,” and another read, “reject fascism.”
A man carried a sign which read, “Nazis are bad, remember?”

David White, who traveled from Poulsbo, held a sign with a Swastika as the “S” in Tesla.

“Why is Musk going over and supporting the neo-Nazi party in Germany?” White asked. “Why is vice president (J.D.) Vance meeting with the neo-Nazi party in Germany?”

According to several national publications, Vance recently met with Alice Weidel, the leader of AfD, a far-right party in Germany. Musk spoke recently at an AfD rally, according to national publications.

“When you start dehumanizing people and seeing them as subhuman, all sorts of cruelty is possible,” White said. “Everything I’m seeing from the current administration is, ‘We don’t care if we break up families. We don’t care if these people have been working here for 20 years. We’re are going to deport them anyway.’”

That has got to stop, White said.

“On my sign is a picture of Elon Musk doing a Nazi salute,” said John Piatt, a research scientist who worked for the U.S. Geological Survey for 37 years. “Everybody knows that’s what it is. That’s not funny to me.”

Piatt said both of his parents served in the second world war and that he spent part of his childhood in Germany, 20 years after the war.

“It wasn’t a distant memory,” he said. “We lived in a small village. We lived among people who were Nazis. Many regretted it and some didn’t.”

As a child, Piatt visited the Dachau concentration camp, built in 1933 and in use until 1945 at the end of the war. He remembered asking his parents to explain photographs of thousands of corpses piled like sticks.

“The depravity that goes with this is beyond comprehension,” Piatt said. “Until you see it yourself and realize humans can do this. The one thing my parents told me, ‘Don’t think for a second that this only can happen in Nazi Germany, ‘cause these are just people.’ Humans are humans.”

Piatt said Trump and Musk are not immoral, they are amoral.

“It’s not like they have morals and they’re deliberately violating them. They have no morals,” Piatt said.
Linda Martin, who has been involved with Indivisible Port Townsend since its formation in 2017, said immigrant rights, women’s rights and LGBTQ rights are among the top of her concerns.

”We’re very concerned for our gay and trans friends,” she said.

Indivisible Port Townsend also organized the peoples march on Jan. 18, which saw more than 600 people attend, Martin said.

Indivisible Port Townsend meets at 5 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month at the Unity Center across from Blue Heron Middle School, Martin said.
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For more information, visit https://www.ptindivisiblehuddle.org. To join their newsletter, email McMather at [email protected].