Our Thurston County Commissioners (TCC) have earmarked Bears U1 and U2 as part of a broader plan to save more than 13,000 acres of legacy forests in the Capitol State Forest. That’s right, they have asked the Board of Natural Resources (BNR) to take the woods above McLane! You can get a peek at the back and forth communications, here.

A few takeaways from the TTC’s draft letter to BNR:

• Commissioners are requesting a halt to all timber sales of the structurally-complex older forests identified, in red, on this map, which is approximately 4.25% (4,677 acres) of the 110,000 acres in the Capitol State Forest. You can see the McLane forests, Bears U1 and U2, are in red on the map.
• The DNR has enough harvest-ready plantation forest to meet their financial targets for more than a decade, allowing ample time to develop long-term solutions that marry conservation with fiscal duty. Additionally, the plantation forests within the impacted school district trusts are enough to ensure schools will not miss forestry revenue during that time.
• Commissioners find the DNR has an “aggressive schedule of auctions of mature forest” which prevents the agency from meeting its required 10-15% restoration of impacted areas to old-growth-like conditions.
• They are asking BNR to develop a Stakeholder Work Group composed of Department of Natural Resources officials, County officials, community groups, and junior beneficiaries to develop a long-term plan for the Capitol State Forest. 

We are grateful the TCC and Legacy Defense Coalition has dived into this issue, put boots on the ground, and are fighting to preserve Bears U1 and U2. But, they need our support to show BNR that the public cares about these woods.

How can we help them Save McLane?

• Send your county commissioner and the Board of Natural Resources an email supporting the county’s plan. Make sure you mention how important  it is to save the forest above McLane Creek Nature Trail. We have sample emails here.
• Attend the TTC Board Work Session this Wednesday, Sept. 25th at 2PM. You can attend it in person or virtually on the Thurston County YouTube Channel. 
• Attend the Board of Natural Resources meeting Oct. 1 at 9AM and let them know you support the TTC’s plan. To comment, you need to register ahead of time, here. 

What else can you do?  Keep spreading the word about the scheduled clearcut of the forests above McLane Creek. Send emails to friends and family and use your social networks to link to the petition and share information from our website. We appreciate anything you can do to Save McLane!

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Web: friendsofmclane.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564326080445
Petition: https://chng.it/6Qds5WzZjs
Email Campaign: https://www.friendsofmclane.org/emailcampaign
TCC’s Draft Letter to BNR (with map): https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/thurstoncountywa.gov.if-us-west-2/s3fs-public/2024-09/09252024%202pm%20BWS%20pACKET.pdf