FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, February 3, 2026
For more information contact:
Rachel Baker, 206-631-2602, rachel@waconservationaction.org
Dave Werntz, 360-319-9949, dwerntz@conservationnw.org
Last Friday, conservation groups were granted intervention in a lawsuit filed by the timber industry against the Washington Department of Natural Resources, Washington Department of Ecology, and the Forest Practices Board. The lawsuit seeks to remove protections for forests along headwater streams that provide cool, clean water to downstream habitats supporting salmon, salamanders, and communities. Conservation groups will join state agencies in defending these science-based protections and Washington’s commitment to a healthy environment.
The lawsuit was filed after the Forest Practices Board adopted an update to an existing rule. The rule was the product of decades of collaborative scientific research supported by the timber industry, Tribes, agencies, counties, and the conservation community. This state-funded science demonstrated that wider, continuous forested buffers along headwater streams are necessary to ensure streams remain cool and clean. The new rule provides 50- to 75-foot wide buffers along more than 19,000 miles of headwater streams on the Westside of the state.
“The science is clear: this updated rule is needed to achieve our state’s water quality standards. The timber industry co-developed the science that shaped this policy,” said Rachel Baker, Forest Program Director, Washington Conservation Action. “To now reject the outcome of this process undermines the integrity of Washington’s unique collaborative, science-based forest management.”
“The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community strongly supports the Forest Practices Board’s riparian habitat buffer rule because it provides the necessary science-based water quality protections our salmon need to recover,” said Swinomish Sen. Jeremy “JJ” Wilbur. “As People of the Salmon, Swinomish appreciates our state agency and conservation partners’ work to defend this important rule. As stewards of our lands and waters since time immemorial, the Swinomish Tribe will continue to honor the deal struck decades ago to ensure that our rivers always have wild salmon so that future generations can practice our cultural lifeways and exercise their Treaty rights.”
These headwater streams flow from high in the mountains, and run year-round. Although they do not contain fish, they are critical for downstream habitat. These waterways play an essential role in supporting salmon, trout, and other aquatic species transporting high quality water, large woody material and nutrients downstream. Salmon and trout are cold-water species that suffer significant stress, disease susceptibility, and mortality when stream temperatures are too high.
“Headwater streams are the lifeblood of our watersheds,” said Dave Werntz, Science and Conservation Director at Conservation Northwest, “When headwater streams are degraded, the impacts ripple downstream, affecting fish, wildlife, and communities. This rule being challenged maintains the ecological connections that sustain wildlife across Washington.”
The old rules allowed forests to be clearcut along half the length of these streams. Over the last 20 years, rigorous studies and monitoring demonstrated that fragmented and degraded streamside buffers are inadequate, highlighting the need for continuous buffers that the updated rule provides. Recognizing the change may cause financial pressures on small forest landowners, the rulemaking process generated strategies to protect livelihoods and vital aquatic ecosystems.
Washington Conservation Action and Conservation Northwest are represented by Oliver Stiefel and Kelsey Dunn of Crag Law Center, and Paul Kampmeier of Kampmeier & Knutsen PLLC.
Additional background:
Washington Conservation Action and Conservation Northwest have advocated for science-based stream protections for decades. WCA was an original signatory to the 1987 agreement that created the state’s Adaptive Management Program (AMP), which was designed to establish stream buffers based on the best available science. Today, WCA leads the Conservation Caucus within the AMP.
The AMP brings together landowners and industry, Tribes, state agencies, counties, and conservation organizations to identify research needs and update rules based on scientific findings. The timber industry participated throughout the process and had both input and voting power.
In the final stages of rule development, industry representatives attempted to undermine the AMP process and spread misinformation. WCA and partners corrected the record and informed the public, resulting in hundreds of public comments supporting the updated rule.
The updated rule requires continuous forested buffers of 50 to 75 feet along “Type Np” streams — non-fish-bearing streams that flow year-round — in forested areas of Western Washington. These streams total more than 19,000 miles and make up nearly 80% of stream lengths in many Western Washington watersheds. Until now, logging has been allowed up to the streambank along roughly half of the length of these streams.
Although these headwater streams do not contain fish, they are essential to downstream water quality. Once streams warm, restoring the cool, clean water salmon need — and that orcas depend on — becomes nearly impossible. Without upstream protections, downstream communities, Tribes, and farms bear increased costs to meet water quality standards.
The science is clear: protections for these streams have been insufficient for decades, allowing private profit while the public absorbed the costs of degraded water and ecosystems. The updated rule impacts less than 1% of forests in Western Washington.
This rule fulfills a promise first made in the 1987 agreement that created the AMP and reaffirmed in the 1999 Forests & Fish Law: to update forest practices when the science shows a need.
The science has been done, the need is clear, and the rule has been updated. This lawsuit seeks to roll back progress — and Washington Conservation Action and Conservation Northwest and partners will defend these protections.
