As the first Latina to hold a statewide office, who and how I hire matters. As the only person in the race who has been an Executive Director, I know that success and trust are built with shared values and strategy, consistent check-ins and supportive accountability structures, and a boss who will have staff’s backs when big moneyed bullies and people invested in the status quo come after them.

This office needs someone who understands the shift in public sentiment and adapts to it; someone who can put their ego aside to create space for peer learning, collaboration, and professional development; and someone who shows a willingness to make decisions based on the best science available. Many of the experts are already part of the DNR staff and its many boards, commissions, task forces, and workgroups. I will continue to support their work and consult with Tribes, environmentalists, former and current DNR employees, labor unions, the Environmental Justice Council, and other agency directors to inform how best to structure my executive office; and then work to retain and recruit the best-qualified individuals who will allow our administration to succeed.

We must do everything we can to stop climate change, which starts with recognizing our state forests are among the best in the world at storing and sequestering carbon. I will be a leader who engages with local communities so that the transition to better carbon management on state lands supports local economies and well-being. I will incorporate climate-smart forest management principles into DNR’s next Sustainable Harvest Calculation and update the Policy for Sustainable Forests to ensure that managing forests for climate mitigation is a foundational policy goal and practice. These principles will also work to protect endangered species like the Northern Spotted Owl, Marbled Murrelet, and Bald Eagles. I will also develop policies and incentives that support private landowners to increase carbon storage on their lands, including support for small forest landowners.

I will protect existing structurally complex older forests; increase commercial thinning to create more complex and resilient forests; and manage for longer rotations on the westside and appropriate uneven-aged management in eastside forests.

I will set DNR on a path to transitioning to climate-smart forestry while keeping the agency solvent and preventing unmanageable backlash from timber interests and communities who rely on timber revenues. Together, we will find ways to restructure how DNR is funded to be able to pay for this transition, and I will prepare a legislative agenda that supports DNR’s ability to implement new Sustainable Harvest Calculations based on climate-smart forestry. We can have timber at the table without them driving the agenda. I will cultivate relationships in the legislature and the Governor to reduce the ability of the timber industry to overpower everyone else’s interests. I will also form a stronger alliance with forestry and mill workers to demonstrate how climate-smart sustainable management is better for high-quality jobs.

My life’s work has been about standing beside and fighting with workers and everyday people to get their needs met across industries despite differing political views and opinions. I have strong relationships with the unionized workers who were not afraid to stand up to Weyerhauser to hold the company accountable; with the farm workers who pick our food year-round in some of the most burdensome conditions; and with construction workers who will build out our clean energy infrastructure, retrofit and build our homes, schools, and childcare facilities to be climate resilient and fire adaptive.

I will work with our rural communities, counties, and Tribal Nations to make sure we are investing in good, living-wage jobs. As an Executive Director and State Senator, I’ve successfully increased apprenticeship pathways for workers to get started on construction careers and have led disparity studies that allow agencies to measure and increase outcomes for contracting with small business, minority, and women-owned businesses. I will continue to work with labor to ensure community benefits from public and private development. I will prioritize these relationships when reviewing our current and new lease opportunities with clean energy while strengthening partnerships with Tribes and local communities around siting economic development projects. DNR has identified 37 potential sites in our Urban Growth Areas, where we can work together to support affordable housing and community-led development while preserving natural resources. I will work across sectors to maximize the use of these lands for revenue, mutual benefits, and climate resilience.

First Nations have long been the best stewards of our environment. Coast Salish peoples were first and ongoing stewards of our natural resources as the first peoples of Washington State who have called this beautiful place their home since time immemorial. Indigenous wisdom and stewardship practices can help balance our ecosystems and strengthen local communities. I will honor Tribal Nations’ sovereignty and protect their access to natural resources for both subsistence and cultural and spiritual practices. Working in partnership with Tribal Nations, we can expand the use of ecological practices to heal and repair our lands.

I will take the necessary steps to better integrate Tribal sovereignty, Environmental Justice, and racial equity in the agency’s work by promoting Tribal co-stewardship and cultural burning through ramping up prescribed fires; prioritizing community-led work on adaptation to wildfire and smoke; and implementing policies and processes to evaluate and promote ecosystem services and public benefits on state lands in a way that treats them as equally important as revenue. DNR should consult with Tribes early and often about land use, including any energy siting proposals. As Commissioner of Public Lands, I’ll review our contracts to include community benefits and Tribal rights to access cultural resources in designing our leases with private companies. Whether it’s with counties, local communities, and/or Tribes, we can take one step back and look at leases to restore and strengthen our communities. This starts with protecting the beautiful lands we have and looking at ways to maximize carbon storage with climate-smart management that can ultimately provide more jobs, and restore habitat in Tribal, rural, and urban communities. For far too long, Tribal Nations have been an afterthought in land management strategies. I will ensure we prioritize Indigenous communities’ needs, lived experiences, and traditional stewardship practices.

I will prioritize an evolving distribution of funds on state lands so rural communities have a say in the balance between revenue and ecosystem benefits, and other local community-identified benefits. Stewardship must be adaptive to the diverse needs of communities across our state. From the peninsula to the east side, I will look for ways to increase jobs and provide new ways to work better together to address our most pressing issues: wildfires, employment, and affordability.

On forestlands, our policies will improve long-term carbon storage and increase ecosystem resilience by preserving our complex older carbon-dense forests, increasing rotation ages, and increasing commercial and pre-commercial thinning in westside forests. In our eastside forests, I will direct staff to manage and restore larger trees and ensure that forests are managed for their natural species and structure rather than as plantations. This will provide timber for our rural economies that rely on the timber industry and reduce clear-cuts while conserving our forests and protecting our recreation areas from destruction.

Urgent and practical action is needed now to address wildfires that devastate our communities and the climate crisis that drastically impacts our lands. I will continue to work with first responders and ensure they have everything they need to respond to wildfires and other natural disasters. I’ll look to increase the training and pay for our first responders and firefighters. Along with first responders, much of the fire resilience and preparedness work has been done by community-led groups. The responsibilities held by these community organizations are often not properly resourced or funded. As Commissioner of Public Lands, it’s my responsibility to right that wrong. Strong collaboration is needed and as an experienced organizer and coalition builder, I’ll be able to strengthen the relationship between DNR and community wildfire resilience efforts. We can do this in several ways: establish consistent funding to community organizations; improve how we implement the Wildfire Ready Neighbors program so there are fewer barriers for low-income households or non-English speaking households, and change DNR’s culture so we can continue to learn from each other and implement best and culturally appropriate practices. Outreach and education can drastically improve community resilience to fire. I will continue to strengthen current partnerships and look for ways to increase DNR’s outreach.

The severity of wildfires can be minimized through better stewardship of our forests by retaining and restoring large-diameter, fire-resistant trees, thinning ladder fuels to prevent fires from traveling up to and across treetops, and removing excess dead wood and debris. This will reduce the amount of fuel for fires and prevent the fires that do occur from developing into devastating crown fires. I will support the scientists and programs in DNR’s Forest Resilience Division to design landscape-level ecological restoration plans that ensure fire is maintained in a more natural scale and pattern and that our eastside dry forests are managed to be resilient to the impacts of climate change. I will also work with Tribes and their natural and cultural resource departments to implement cultural stewardship practices to ramp up the DNR prescribed burns program to increase forest health and protect adjacent communities from wildfire, preventing devastating fires. Prescribed burns have many benefits including reducing the catastrophe of wildfires; it also supports the leadership of Indigenous fire practitioners and grows skilled and diverse fire management workforces.

Salmon are essential to our state, and I have a track record of working with and hearing from Tribes to ensure habitat is protected. As Commissioner of Public Lands, I plan to make ecosystem restoration a top priority. Our ecosystems have been incredibly damaged by climate change, development, unsustainable logging practices, and pollution. For our public lands to thrive, we must invest in ecosystem restoration. I plan to dedicate a large portion of the DNR budget to grants for ecosystem restoration projects, fund apprenticeship programs in the restoration industry, and fund science that will improve the science around environmental restoration.

With dams on the mainstem of the Columbia River, which are currently a significant source of renewable energy for our state, we can add salmon ladders, elevators, and other means that still allow wildlife to access both sides of the river. But for some dams, the harm outweighs the benefits. As CPL, I will make sure that we always work with Tribes and local communities, and follow and implement the best science available. I believe DNR can show up as a convenor and partner with our ports, fishers terminal, Department of Ecology, shellfish industry, and commercial and Tribal fishers to work together on a shared vision and strategy to ensure we can adapt to changing ocean conditions to support traditional jobs and explore new opportunities for shared economic and environmental endeavors.