Allen Lebovitz
Candidate for Washington Commissioner of Public Lands
Why do you want to be the Commissioner for Public Lands?
I believe we need manage Washington’s lands and waters better to ensure they’re healthy and productive for generations to come, I know how this can be achieved, and I feel I have a responsibility to offer to help lead us there. Many candidates for this positions describe a similar vision, one of protecting mature legacy forests, managing younger forests to provide habitat, and managing forests to reduce the threat of wildfire. Where my vision is fundamentally different, is that it’s been developed with over 3 decades of experience working as an ecologist, forester and wildland firefighter and a lifetime of studying and learning about the environment. Where it differs is in understanding what it will take and how to ensure we achieve these goals.
How does your past experience prepare you for the role of Public Lands Commissioner?
Unlike anyone else to run for Commissioner I’ve been a professional ecologist, forester and wildland firefighter for over 30 years. I studied ecology, natural resource management, and public policy in school and earned a master’s degree at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
I began my career managing a natural resources program for a non-profit conservation-based development organization. I also worked as a consulting ecologist and forester and founded and managed a small conservation-based timber company. I’ve worked at the Washington Department of Natural Resources where I’ve served as an aquatic restoration program manager and wildland firefighter for about a decade. I now serve in executive leadership as the Wildland Fire and Forest Resilience Liaison, Chair of the Wildland Fire Advisory Committee, and steering committee member of the Washington Shrubsteppe Restoration and Resiliency Initiative.
What needs to change at DNR?
I’ve worked at the DNR since 2011, and with the Department for many years before that. I’ve seen a tremendous evolution over that time and I believe the DNR has become a much better steward of state lands. Evolution takes time and there is still more than needs to occur. First and foremost, I believe the DNR needs a fundamental shift in the goals it uses for managing its forestlands. The current goal focused on producing timber ‘volume’, needs to be replaced with one that is focused on producing ‘value’. The DNR has a trust obligation to manage state timberlands to provide benefits to the people of Washington, and I believe a part of that value should be in the form of timber resources to generate revenue for the trusts and fuel the production of valuable products and rural economies. However, a more progressive timberlands management approach is needed that maximizes the value of timber harvests and generates revenue from other sources, such as carbon sequestration.
The other significant change at the DNR I would direct is refocusing land management goals to incorporate ecological restoration in all land management plans. One priority I believe that is a key to achieving many others, is the restoration of healthy and self-sustaining forests, sagelands, rivers and estuaries in Washington. This is accomplished with science and practical experience based management. The 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan was published in 2017 and the Forest Action Plan in 2020, both outline approaches for restoring DNR managed landscapes. Since that time progress has been made on implementation of these plans, but not enough to meet the challenges facing Washington’s forests from past management, the growing impacts of wildfire, and climate change. I would prioritize implementation of the plans, starting with the implementation of existing approaches, such as the Riparian Forest Restoration Strategy, and new ones such as a prescribed fire strategy.
What is your favorite DNR-owned land?
That’s a difficult question! The lands DNR manages are incredibly diverse and I’ve spent a great deal of time exploring so many given my diverse background. In western Washington, I spent over 15 years working and living in the Willapa Bay area. I spent a great deal of time exploring the Nemah watershed. This area has some of the most impressive old growth cedar and spruce forests I know of. My children both grew up hiking in this area with me, and found their first marbled murrelet egg fragments there, so it has a special place in my heart.
I’ve also spent a great deal of time surveying and completing marsh restoration work on the DNR managed state-owned aquatic lands of Willapa Bay. Estuarine marshes were my first passion as an ecologist. I’ve also worked on spartina, creosote and shellfish management issues and have a strong interest in seeing state-owned marine aquatic lands restored and protected.
And I can’t leave out the many hours I’ve spent biking on Tiger Mountain, enjoying a very accessible and well developed recreation opportunity for people in the Seattle area.
In eastern Washington, I’ve had the opportunity to see amazing shrubsteppe lands as a wildland firefighter scouting for places to contain fires. I’ve also spent many hours exploring nearly unmanaged shrubsteppe habitat on trust lands in the Methow Valley. One place in particular I’ve explored is adjacent to the small ranch I live on in Twisp and has some of the most magnificent arrowleaf balsamroot fields I know of.
DNR has set a goal of having 10-15% old growth forests within every Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) Planning Unit in Western Washington in 50-80 years. In your view, what policy and operational changes should DNR make to achieve these stated goals?
The most important policy and operational change needed to meet the goal of increasing old growth forests on DNR managed lands is increasing the commitment and implementation of the 2020 Washington Forest Action Plan and other management strategies that support forest restoration. A key change needed to do this is shifting the current timber sale approach from auctioning harvest rights for timber sales, to having the DNR directly manage the forest harvest operations itself and auctioning the timber that is harvested. There is already an existing mechanism for doing this, called a “sort sale”, that is used on some harvests. This approach should be used exclusively. By doing so, management can be much more prescriptive, which will facilitate achieving forest restoration far more effectively, rapidly and cost effectively. In addition, while the approach requires additional DNR staff costs to implement it, revenues generated from sort sales are far greater, which will net an overall increase in revenue for the trusts. I believe with this approach it will be possible to substantially exceed the “old growth goal”, while increasing revenues.
What actions can DNR take to improve wildfire resiliency on DNR-owned lands and non-DNR owned lands (e.g. federal lands and private lands)?
Restoring our landscapes’ natural resilience to fire is the key to getting ahead of the wildfire crisis. With 20 million acres of forests and 10 million acres of sagelands at risk, we must recognize we can’t actively protect and manage all of it. We need to restore the natural ability of these landscapes to resist catastrophic wildfire and the effects of climate change. This takes more than thinning forests and grazing rangelands, which is how its described by many candidates, it takes ecological restoration. More proactively implementing the Forest Health 20-Year Strategic Plan, Washington Forest Action Plan, and Washington Wildland Fire Protection 10-Year Strategic Plan, is the most important step that can be taken for improving wildfire resiliency in Washington. Specifically, accelerating the development of the “Potential Operating Delineation” planning process will dramatically help all forest and sageland managers plan and implement restoration work that is needed to improve the natural resilience of these landscapes. Doing so will also allow wildland fire managers to implement restoration while responding to wildfires that occur in these planning units. Lastly, this will greatly accelerate the implementation of prescribed fire, which is vital for addressing the impacts of 120 years of overly aggressive fire suppression policy in the US.
The other important step to improving wildfire resiliency will be increasing efforts to bring federal funds to Washington to implement the work that’s needed. The Washington State Forester is key to leveraging federal funding for forest restoration and wildfire management. I would elevate this position to a stand-alone role that is focused on this specific task. Further, I would increase the capacity of the DNR’s Good Neighbor Authority program, that carries out forest management and restoration work on federal lands using federal funding. This would dramatically increase the rate at which federal lands are restored. Lastly, the demand for small forest landowner restoration assistance far exceeds the staffing and funding currently available. I would direct the expansion of this program as well, using funds from both state and federal sources.
In 2022, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that DNR can consider other priorities in trust land management other than revenue maximization, but may choose to generate revenue from timber harvests on trust lands based on their own discretion. In your view, how can DNR continue to meet its obligations to generate trust revenue while also balancing other priorities, such as recreation, habitat conservation, and carbon sequestration?
Doing exactly this is my top priority for the management of DNR state lands, as I’ve explained in previous responses. This begins with a fundamental shift it the goals set for the management of state lands, focusing on value produced, not volumes of natural resources. The goal must also recognize all of the values state lands can provide, including timber, carbon sequestration, recreation, green energy, and many others. It then requires implementation of ecological restoration that supports the production of all the values forests and sagelands can provide. This will also produce a sustainable supply of natural resources to generate revenue for state trust funds and fuel the local economies that harvest and manufacture valuable products with them.
The Forest Practices Board, an independent state agency chaired by the Commissioner of Public Lands or a designee, sets standards for forest practices on private lands. What is your vision for the Forest Practices Board, and how, if at all, do you think the Forest Practices Board rules should be amended to better serve DNR’s priorities such as conservation?
The Washington Forest Practices Board is probably the most effective board of its type and the Forest Practice Rules some of the most progressive, in the US. I base this opinion on the opportunity I’ve had to closely watch the evolution of the Board and Rules over the last 30 years and compare them with those in neighboring states. One key strength of the Board and Rules is the requirement to evolve the Rules based upon research and monitoring of their implementation, or “adaptive management”. In my opinion, monitoring of the forest practices rules has been robust and is providing information needed to assess and revise forest practice rules. However, I believe the process for using this information to update forest practice rules should be improved. I would direct that a review of the Adaptive Management Program be completed to advise the development of an improved process for bringing the results of monitoring work forward for application in revising forest practice rules and advising forest management on DNR managed forests.
Hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians recreate on DNR land each year. How will DNR ensure that recreational facilities (e.g. trailheads, bathrooms, parking lots, trails) are adequately maintained?
Recreation is one of the key “values” that I believe is a priority to produce from DNR managed lands. It’s also a priority to make the opportunity to recreate on state lands accessible to all Washingtonians. I believe user fees can be an important source for funding stewardship of recreation lands, and that they also encourage users to value and protect them. However, this needs to be balanced with the priority of accessibility. My belief is that user fees should not be increased because of the need to make state lands accessible. An alternative I’d favor for increasing funding for the maintenance of recreation lands is the development of private vendor agreements to offer services at popular recreation areas. Having vendor provided services will not be appropriate for all recreation areas, wild areas need to remain wild. But, there are many high traffic areas that would be good opportunities for generating revenue in this way, while also offering more services such as food and beverages and interpretive tours.
In 2021, the State legislature passed the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act, which requires state agencies to account for environmental justice in their decision-making and strategic planning. In your view, what should the DNR do to comply with the HEAL Act and incorporate the voices of underserved communities in agency decisions and actions?
The passage of the HEAL Act has been transformative for DNR, incentivizing the Department to deliberately consider environmental justice and equity in all of our work. I’m extremely proud of the honest commitment we’ve made and hard work we’ve done at DNR to address EJ&E in just the last few years. I’ve had the opportunity to learn about how to deliberately address systemic barriers to EJ&E in our programs by helping to lead changes in how we implement our Fire District Assistance Program to better serve underserved, highly impacted, overburdened, and vulnerable populations in how we provide resources to rural fire districts. I also led the consideration of the principles and practices of EJ&E in the development of the Washington Shrubsteppe Restoration and Resiliency Initiative Long-term Strategy that DFW, DNR, and SCC just completed and submitted to the Legislature March 1. As one of the three primary authors of the Strategy, I drafted the section that explains our commitment to EJ&E and led the review of ensuring we followed through on it throughout the Strategy. I believe the key to integrating EJ&E across DNR’s work begins with recognizing the systemic barriers that exist. It then requires understanding who is affected by these barriers and who the underserved, highly impacted, overburdened, and vulnerable populations are with the new tools we have available for doing this, like the Health Disparities Map, and by working with groups, like Café Wenatchee, that have a deep understanding of the issues and people effected by them. Engaging these groups and effected people in identifying the problems, developing solutions, and implementing them is the critical step that is then needed in order to affect real change and to eliminate systemic barriers. One other crucial step my administration will take is to add members of these representative organizations and populations to our leadership and throughout our agency to evolve our Department culture and programs from the inside.
Do you believe the DNR should engage with tribes on management or co-management of DNR-owned lands, and if so, how?
The DNR has a legal obligation to engage with Washington’s Tribal Nations in co-management. Separate from this obligation to co-manage state lands, Tribal Nations can be exceptional partners in meeting many shared stewardship goals from wildland fire management to ecological restoration. While leading the River’s Restoration program at DNR, I helped coordinate dozens of large scale restoration projects worth 10’s of millions of dollars in close partnership with the Quinault, Cowlitz, Yakama, and Coville Tribes. I believe the key to successful co-management and collaboration with Tribal Nations includes three things.
Deliberate efforts to communicate at a leadership level, building a shared understanding of the priorities we share and those where we differ, and an understanding of each organization’s needs.
Developing opportunities to share knowledge and other resources.
Proactively encouraging collaboration at the staff level to complete work together. We have work to do with strengthening our relationships with Washington’s sovereign Tribal Nations, and I’m confident I know how to achieve this.
The Issaquah Alps Trails Club is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse candidates for political office at any level.