Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary S. Franz: Forest Health Strategic Plans

In 2019 smoke from Washington and Canadian wildfires
filled Puget Sound and spread across the U.S.

Building on the success of our 20 year forest health strategic plan

From Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary S. Franz

Last month, the federal government announced a plan to help address the wildfire crisis with a 10-year goal of increasing forest restoration treatments in wildfire-prone states like Washington.

Many of the focus areas in this plan have significant overlap with priority areas in our state’s 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan, which we launched in 2017. 

Thanks to great work by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and our partners, we are already almost 30 percent of the way to reaching the goal we set of treating 1.25 million acres of unhealthy forests.

Read my op-ed about the progress we’ve made to restore our forests and combat the wildfire crisis.

We have built the groundwork for success here in Washington state and this federal commitment will allow further investment in our “all hands, all lands” strategy to make our forests more resilient to wildfire across jurisdictions, property lines, and even state borders.

Read my conversation with Crosscut on this new plan and the potential impact here in Washington state.

It’s a privilege to lead these efforts and serve as your Commissioner of Public Lands. We’ve got much more in store for this year, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. If you’d like to stay updated, be sure to follow along on my Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts.