Dave Upthegrove
Candidate for Washington Commissioner of Public Lands
Why do you want to be the Commissioner for Public Lands?
Our world is changing. We are experiencing the impacts of climate change all around us. We are seeing a rapid loss of biodiversity. I'm running for Lands Commissioner to improve the management of our public lands to meet these realities of today. For me, this isn't a stepping stone to higher office; it is the culmination of a life and career spent on environmental and natural resource issues.
How does your past experience prepare you for the role of Public Lands Commissioner?
My love of the outdoors developed at a young age. I spent my summers in high school and college working outdoors — teaching young people about conservation on Dabob Bay and leading week-long treks through the Cascade Mountains.
My interest in politics developed as an environmental activist on campus at the University of Colorado where I earned my degree in Environmental Conservation and Biology— later earning a graduate certificate in Energy Policy from the University of Idaho.
During my twelve years representing the diverse working-class suburbs of South King County in the State House of Representatives, I served as Chair of the House Select Committee on Puget Sound-- helping create the Puget Sound Partnership to restore our State’s crown jewel. I later served as Chair of the House Environment Committee— working in every corner of the State to reduce carbon pollution, clean up toxics, and improve oil spill prevention.
In the legislature, I was a leader of the Blue-Green Alliance—a pro-labor, pro-environment coalition that rejected the false choice between jobs and the environment, and instead found common ground to promote sustainable economic opportunities.
For my work, I was honored as Legislator of the Year by the Washington Conservation Voters.
Now, as Chair of the King County Council, I am working with my colleagues to preserve public lands and manage growth, parks, wastewater and transportation in environmentally sustainable ways here in our state’s most populous county.
As Chair of the King County Flood Control District, I doubled funding for salmon recovery and led major reforms to better protect our region's rivers. And I continue my work on salmon recovery as co-chair of my local watershed council (Green/Duwamish WRIA 9).
Many people may not know this, but in my current role as Chair of the County Council I supervise about 200 employees in five legislative branch agencies. The agency heads report to me, as does the Chief of Staff to the Council. I am responsible for overseeing the administrative, HR, budget and vision for this branch of government. While DNR is a much larger agency, I certainly have developed and I believe demonstrated strong executive management and organizational leadership skills. I will provide a fresh start and thoughtful ethical management that supports and respects the talented staff of the agency.
What needs to change at DNR?
(1) As Commissioner, I will bring a new management and leadership style focused on professionalism, ethics, and creating a fresh new culture that respects and empowers the talented staff. I have no designs on higher office, so my focus will be on helping the agency and the people doing the work be successful, rather than on my personal political success.
(2) I will transform the way DNR engages with and empowers the community. For example, I don’t need 20+ communications staff promoting me at headquarters. Instead, I will shift resources into the regions for authentic community engagement. Because the staff in the field has those local relationships and builds the community trust. We need to get them the resources, and empower them to create the processes for authentic early engagement that we know is most meaningful.
(3) I will be more intentional about attracting more diverse voices at the agency. This starts by hiring people who share this mission and people who bring lived experience from a range of backgrounds. It also will mean making an effort to ensure the nearly 100 commissions, task forces and advisory committees at DNR reflect the diversity of the state (and that we listen to them). And it means working with women and minority owned businesses to identify and eliminate barriers to contracting with DNR.
(4) The Department needs to bring to life the State Supreme Court decision "Conservation NW vs. Franz" that recognized that there is a responsibility to manage the trust lands for the trust beneficiaries but also in the broader public interest. To me this means recalibrating the overall vision at the department to place a greater emphasis on broader public conservation values, and consideration of thoughtful collaborative changes to how and where we harvest timber. This will take creativity and legislative partnerships to ensure we do this while nurturing rural economies, creating jobs, and fully funding public services like schools.
(5) I want to expand recreational opportunities on DNR lands-- and do it in an ecologically smart way. As part of this work, I particularly want to advance new initiatives that make us the national leader in accessible recreation for people with disabilities.
What is your favorite DNR-owned land?
The Dabob Bay Natural Area. As I mentioned, I spent many of my summers in high school and college teaching environmental science to kids out on Dabob Bay on Hood Canal. This beautiful area, where the mountains meet the sea, with its intact salt marsh and sand spit plant communities holds special memories for me.
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?
I believe the urgency of our climate crisis and threats to biodiversity make it wise to strive to achieve this goal in a shorter timeline. On my first day in office, I intend to sign a mature forest policy that ends the destruction of the naturally-regenerated, structurally-diverse older forests that have the necessary habitat characteristics. This will jump start an important but challenging body of work with the industry, local governments and other trust beneficiaries, which in the short term will involve adjusting planned harvests to instead harvest other parcels. Our initial analysis shows that nearly every taxing district has other suitable parcels. In the long term, we will have work to do with the Legislature in order to maintain harvest levels. Specifically, I want to use existing funding streams like the natural climate solutions funding, the trust land transfer program (in some limited cases), and state capital bonds, to acquire replacement timberlands. In particular, I am interested in growing the trust by purchasing private timberlands at risk of conversion. This approach was wisely used previously to provide the working forests that provide green space in the I-90 corridor. In the long term, we also can explore other creative systemic changes with the Legislature.
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)?
Wildfire prevention and response needs to be a top priority not only for public safety, but also for our public health.
The smoke we have all experienced from recent wildfires creates health risks—and does so disproportionately on already marginalized community members.
That’s why we need to do more to continually improve our prevention efforts. In local government, we learn that emergency response has four phases: prevention, preparation, response and recovery. We need to put more resources upstream on prevention.
We need a greater emphasis on prescribed burns and non-commercial thinning to not just manage wildfire prevention but also forest health.
This means working to address barriers to local-level training and support—including securing increased dedicated funding and capacity.
I want to pursue effectiveness monitoring to get better information on how these different forest health treatments impact wildfire behavior.
I also intend to work with local governments to improve land use plans and building codes in wildland urban interface areas—those areas on the edge of urban and forested areas. I’m worried we currently have a bit of a “one size fits all” approach, and need to better tailor our management to the local circumstances.
Additionally, I think it is important to recognize the importance of things like routine maintenance and invasive weed management in also contributing to ecological resilience to wildfires, yet these strategies (which also bring co-benefits) are often neglected by DNR.
Finally, ecological and community resilience go hand-in-hand. We need to stabilize and grow funding for the community-based grants to local partners working on local community resilience efforts, which include wildfire risk assessments, trainings and educational events, development of wildfire protection plans, and localized ecological treatments including fire smart landscaping.
At the end of the day, I am going to support the DNR fire chief and use my state legislative experience to fight to get them the resources to do their job. Public safety and public health demand it.
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?
The Department needs to bring to life the State Supreme Court decision "Conservation NW vs. Franz" that recognized that there is a responsibility to manage the trust lands for the trust beneficiaries but also in the larger public interest. To me this means recalibrating the overall vision at the department to place a greater emphasis on broader public conservation values, and consideration of thoughtful collaborative changes to how and where we harvest timber. This will take creativity and legislative partnerships to ensure we do this while nurturing rural economies, creating jobs, and fully funding public services like schools.
My proposal to preserve our mature legacy forests in order to meet our old growth targets and to prioritize climate and biodiversity balances these other needs in the short-term through harvesting other parcels, and in the long-term, by growing the trust and pursuing more systemic structural changes to state and local financing with the Legislature.
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?
I want the Forest Practices Board to operate in a transparent and inclusive manner. The current forest practices rules provide for "adaptive management." I will take this process seriously. We should be constantly evaluating our regulatory frameworks to ensure they meet the public interest and meet the needs and realities of today-- of this moment in history-- as we are confronted with a climate crisis and heartbreaking loss of biodiversity. This needs to be a collaborative process, but it is important for the Commissioner to provide leadership.
One specific area I am interested in exploring is a review and improvement of the forest practices processes now used. I think that the public can play a much stronger role if DNR simply improves process transparency and does things as simple as lengthening the time for public comment. I would like to see large logging projects have to place visible public signage upon application and then also post any conditions once a permit has been issued. As I’ve traveled the state in this campaign, lots of people have told me stories of how they had no idea that a nearby property was about to be clearcut or that they had no idea a logging operation wasn't following the permit conditions.
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?
As a lifelong recreational user myself I understand how important it is to maintain basic infrastructure. My vision is not just to maintain this infrastructure, but to improve it and expand recreational opportunities. My twelve years experience in the State Legislature, serving on the Capital Budget Committee, including as the natural resources lead, will be helpful as we build legislative support for stable adequate funding. We need strong professional management at the agency as well to ensure our internal systems identify and plan for capital improvements so we can be effective in our legislative efforts.
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?
I came out of the closet the year I first ran for office. My mentor at the time told me she loved me, but that I couldn't run for office. (This was 23 years ago and the thought of an out gay legislator deep in the working class suburbs was unheard of.) But I ran. Won. And made history as the first out LGBT legislator outside the City of Seattle in the history of our state. I share this, because what drove me then still drives me today: a passion for justice-- LGBT equality, racial equality, gender equality, fighting for tribal treaty rights, labor rights. I am the son of a father with disabilities and the brother of someone who has overcome addiction and criminal justice involvement. So this commitment to justice is personal. And when it comes to public lands, environmental justice means recognizing that climate change disproportionately impacts low-income communities and communities of color-- and our solutions have to reduce those disparities not make them worse. And for me, environmental justice means respecting tribal treaty rights and strengthening the co-management role of tribes.
I choose to live my life with kindness, and above all else, treat people with respect. I think this is such a part of who I am because I grew up as a closeted gay kid with messages that were unkind toward me, and I experienced prejudice and fear and unfair treatment for being different. So along with my passion for protecting planet earth, the other thing that gets me out bed in the morning is the opportunity to use the privilege I DO have to make the world a little more fair for others who also are different. Who speak a different language. Who have a disability. Who are transgender. Who are a different race.
I have represented the most diverse corner of our state for more than 20 years—and have found joy in immersing myself in communities of color and immigrant and refugee communities. Being present. building authentic relationships and friendships. Listening. And working hard to deliver results....Results like eliminating the local match requirement for parks and open space grants in low-income diverse communities...Or providing funding to an immigrant and refugee farming cooperative to purchase farmland in South King County to grow culturally relevant crops.
At DNR, my mission will be to incorporate equity and social justice into all of our operations and programs.
This starts by hiring people who share this mission and people who bring lived experience from a range of backgrounds.
It also will mean making an effort to ensure the nearly 100 commissions, task forces and advisory committees at DNR reflect the diversity of the state. And that we listen to them.
It means working with women and minority owned businesses to identify and eliminate barriers to contracting with DNR.
And it means transforming the way DNR engages with and empowers the community. For example, I don’t need 20 plus communications staff promoting me at headquarters. Instead I will shift resources into the regions for authentic community engagement. Because the staff in the field has those local relationships and builds the community trust. We need to get them the resources, and empower them to create the processes for up front early engagement that we know is most meaningful.
I also plan to go beyond the requirements of the HEAL Act and conduct environmental justice assessments on key agency actions—including some of the MANY at DNR that are currently exempted from the law.
I think it is important to approach this work with the same sense of urgency and commitment to transformational change—as we do the other environmental work.
Do you believe the DNR should engage with tribes on management or co-management of DNR-owned lands, and if so, how?
As commissioner, I’ll approach my relationship with the tribes with respect.
We have clear treaty obligations that legally need to be honored. There is a co-management role that needs be fully realized.
But this is not just a legal issue. We have a greater moral responsibility to not turn away from the genocidal legacy of our colonization. The intergenerational pain. A recognition of the racism that continues today.
My relationship will also be based on listening.
I understand Commissioner Franz undertook a substantial body of work to hear from the tribes as to how the agency could better fulfill it’s responsibilities. But other than hiring a liaison, I don’t know how much of the feedback has been acted upon. Institutionalization of tribal needs throughout the agency is more important than simply having a liaison.
I think the key is robust communication and EARLY consultation. Consultation can’t just be lip service. It can’t be just checking a box. We need to be engaging more in genuinely joint planning efforts.
One early priority is to work with tribes on a long-term strategic plan for use of public lands for clean energy development. We need to protect sacred spaces. My plan for a new clean energy trust envisions that the lands placed in the trust would be identified with consent of the local tribes. Not consultation, but consent. We shouldn’t be pitting clean energy against tribal sovereignty. We can do better.
Part of my definition of a respectful relationship means looking for those opportunities to incorporate indigenous knowledge systems and cultural practices into our conservation work.
One of my supporters and advisors is native American State Representative Chris Stearns. Chris previously served as director of Indian Affairs at the US Dept of Energy. When Chris decided to support me, he said it was because he had watched me get big things done for years to protect our environment by working collaboratively with tribes. Hopefully his testimonial affirms my record, and commitment to a collaborative, productive and respectful relationship.
The Issaquah Alps Trails Club is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse candidates for political office at any level.