Tree nerds already know, but your choice for public lands commissioner is probably the most consequential vote you will cast on this primary ballot. Thanks to some recent court cases going the planet’s way, Washington’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) can now manage its lands for the good of the public and not just for the good of the timber industry, and it can work with organizations to sell carbon credits instead of only tree trunks. Plus, the agency can now use money from the state’s new cap-and-trade program to conserve mature forests that would otherwise fall to chainsaws.
