Woody Guthrie’s anthem to the sweep of the United States and our common stewardship of our land was a rousing opening to our meeting featuring Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz.
Interviewed by past Rotary president and KING 5 anchor, Mark Wright, Commissioner Franz explained her broad scope of work since taking office in January 2017.
She oversees six agencies responsible for six million acres of Washington lands: from forests and agricultural lands to aquatic lands. Managing a department of 1600 people, Franz believes that making Washington lands resilient in the face of climate change is her first priority. With firefighting at top of mind this season, she said we must move from a reactive position to a prevention stance. This means we invest in forest clean up and reforestation before tinder dry conditions ignite ruinous fires. In 2018, there were 1850 fires in Washington, 40% of them west of the Cascades, a new phenomenon in state forest fires where traditionally few fires occur on the wet westside.
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After 10 years of the same financial resources allocated by the state to firefighting, she managed to secure $32 million from the legislature to buy a Vietnam era helicopter, a plane and salaries for 30 more firefighters. Our firefighters' lives are on the line to take care of communities and the state, she said, and we desperately need these resources to protect them.
“We have 2.7 million acres of dying or dead forests”, she said. In 2017 she put a plan in place to clean out underbrush and remove dead and diseased trees at the rate of 70,000 acres a year. Lumber from the trees is usable. A mill in Colville and a planned additional mill in Vancouver are reclaiming the trees for housing and providing jobs in those communities.
In response to a question about federal and state jurisdiction, she said that she has signed an agreement with the federal government to clean up federal forests not included in state lands, like the Bureau of Land Management and national park lands.
Her plan to reduce and prevent forest fires also provides economic and environmental opportunities for communities, a theme she is also focused on as she manages wind, solar and land leases around the state. These leases generate $325 million annually for schools and mostly rural counties where the revenue might be as much as 40% of county budgets. She surveyed unleased land statewide and today has 150 projects underway. An example she cited was unleased Red Mountain land in Eastern Washington that today is generating $1,100 an acre by vineyards.
“There is generational poverty in our state and we are responsible for providing a greater future for the benefit of everyone”, she said. She is hoping to change social outcomes through land management to help rural communities grow by diversifying economic opportunity.
Her agencies are on the frontline of climate change. In addition to her work in forest fire management, she is also focused on reducing carbon emission and has completed a carbon inventory of our forests which are major carbon sinks. She is leading the work to develop a climate action plan for Washington which is proactive, rather than reactive.
Asked about growing public interest in her as a gubernatorial candidate, she said that she believes that if we focus on our needs, like housing and jobs, rather than on name calling or divisiveness, we’ll find that we have much in common.
Today’s energy-charged meeting was launched by Jimmy Collins leading us in song, accompanied by Freeman Fong. Trish Bostrom led us in prayer to be good stewards, and two new members were introduced. George Twiss introduced Chris Harrison, principal of Aldridge, and Bailee Neyland introduced Dorothy Miller, a member of Merck’s global vaccine policy team.
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Details of upcoming Seattle Rotary Club business are in this week’s Totem including events by Rotary Peacebuilders, Seattle Rotaract, and the new Seattle Rotary ClubRunner app available for our phones.
President Kim Moore closed the meeting with news of past president Sue Nixon’s recent heart surgery. Sue is recovering from successful surgery however not ready for visitors yet. There will be a blood drive in Sue’s name next week, a way that most of us can give back to honor Sue and support our entire community.
Totem Reporter - Laura Rehrmann