OLYMPIA — Washington Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz said Feb. 9 selling carbon credits can increase timber harvests, a claim challenged by the wood-products industry.

Franz is asking the Legislature to give the Department of Natural Resources authority to treat carbon credits like timber or gravel — a valuable material that could be sold.

Speaking at a press conference, Franz said carbon credits could fund replanting burned forests or buying timberland, increasing the volume of timber available to sawmills.

“There is this (idea) that the only way we sell carbon is we take wood off the market. That is not the case,” she said. “Much of what we’re trying to do is actually have the ability to grow our wood-basket, grow our working-forest lands.”

Senate Bill 5688 would allow DNR to sell directly to businesses a host of “ecosystem services,” such as carbon sequestration, air and water infiltration and “climate stabilization.”

DNR already plans to lease 10,000 acres of harvestable timber in Western Washington to a business that would market carbon credits to companies seeking to offset their emissions.

Franz said last year the project would “repurpose public lands for climate solutions.” A DNR press release said the project would save tree stands from “imminent logging.”

Sierra Pacific Industries timber procurement manager Bill Turner told the Senate Environment and Energy Committee on Feb. 10 that Franz’s new proposal is so wide-open it also could lock-up timberland.

“She said last spring working forests would be sacrificed,” Turner said. “That could still be done under this bill.”

Under SB 5688, the Department of Ecology would assist DNR in contracting out “ecosystem services that … directly or indirectly benefit humans or enhance social welfare.”

That would translate into less timber and revenue, and fewer jobs, said American Forest Resources Council director of government relations Heath Heikkila.

“Instead, some multi-national corporation will claim it has reduced emissions,” he said.

Washington State Association of Counties policy director Paul Jewell said storing carbon and new ways of making money from public lands was good, but that the bill was too broad.

The legislation should be tightened to ensure timber harvests are not reduced, he said. State timber sales fund rural counties, schools and junior-taxing districts.

“We’re not interested in trading revenue from timber harvesting for less revenue from carbon,” Jewell said.

Franz said she wants to grow forests, and carbon credits could help. “The goal here is to keep working-forests working,” she said.

Speaking at the same press conference, Swinomish Tribe vice chairman J.J. Wilbur had a different view of the bill’s impact. He said it would preserve forests for wildlife.

“With this bill, instead of cutting down our forests to generate revenue for essential county services, the same revenues can be generated by leaving the trees and ecosystem intact,” he said.