State lands commissioner talks conservation and climate change

SPOKANE — More than 60 people crowded into a little log building at the Dishman Hills Natural Area recently to hear Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz detail her plans to improve the state’s forest health.

Just hours earlier, students across the globe, including a large group in Spokane and a smaller group in Moscow, participated in a strike for the climate inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. And as Franz spoke, some of the same topics, including climate change and conservancy, came up.

“I will just say right from the get go, we’re literally on the front lines every single day. It’s a rapidly changing climate,” Franz said.

The Department of Natural Resources completed a climate risk assessment on all 6 million acres of land it manages to identify the impacts climate change has already made.

“How do we make those lands more resilient? Because our job is to manage them inter-generationally, not just for the people who are here today,” Franz said.

The importance of that job resonated with Jeff Lambert, executive director of the nonprofit Dishman Hills Conservancy.

“With the climate change issues, it’s important we work together on the state and local level,” Lambert said.

The Dishman Hills Conservancy, which was established in 1966, has the longest partnership with the Department of Natural Resources of any state conservancy. The partnership covers 3,000 acres of land that DNR and the conservancy are actively working to expand.

“DNR is one of our best partners,” Lambert said.

He was quick to praise DNR and its firefighters for their role in minimizing wildfires during what was a “pleasant summer.” Lambert’s praise didn’t stop there. He was also excited to hear from Franz about her statewide plans geared toward sustainability and forest health.

“Scarcity always increases appreciation of any asset,” Lambert said of natural lands.

Franz was elected in 2016 and, as the head of DNR, has been a vocal advocate for funding preventative forest health measures statewide.

“I think what’s really fascinating about Spokane right now is you’ve got one of the more populated communities, and it has a growing economy,” Franz said. “You also have a signification forest health issue right within your city and then it expands outward.”

Franz discussed specific plans to work on creating a healthy forest on both private and public lands through cleaning up the forest floor to removing low-hanging dead branches to prevent canopy fires.

One of Franz’s major goals has been to fund DNR’s 20-year forest health plan, which encourages interagency collaboration on the state, regional and local levels, she said.

Franz acknowledged that the department needs to focus resources on the wildland-urban interface, which involves working with private landowners who have to be motivated to improve their land’s health.

Franz has a litany of plans to encourage landowners to engage in an existing cost-sharing program that the Department of Natural Resources offers.

“A lot of these projects wouldn’t be happening without cost sharing,” said Paul Knowles, parks special project manager for Spokane County.

Knowles said DNR has been an important partner for the county.