Trust Land Transfer

Trust Land Transfer (TLT) is a means whereby the Washington state legislature appropriates money to purchase lands with high environmental value from the various “trusts” managed by the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR.)  Almost all DNR managed lands are part of one of these trusts which were established to provide a steady source of revenue to universities, schools, counties, local fire districts and other public beneficiaries.  DNR managed lands cannot simply be protected outright without compensation to the beneficiaries who have legal rights to revenue from DNR managed lands.

Trust Land Transfer allows DNR managed places with high environmental or other public values, such as important forests, waters, shorelines, etc., to be preserved for their natural values and public use, rather than being logged or developed to produce revenues for the trusts.  On Federal lands, Washington state is fortunate in having three National Parks and many Wilderness areas on National Forests, mostly in high mountain areas.  DNR managed lands are often low elevation places with high biodiversity, and closer to population centers.  Many have species and features not found on higher elevation Federal lands.

Washington state acquired some lands from the Federal government at statehood, and acquired more, and assumed management of others as years passed due to abandonment or tax delinquency.  The state's population was much smaller, and there was a great need to fund public services.  DNR was established and required by law to manage lands under fiduciary trust to provide revenue to the various schools, counties and other trust beneficiaries.  The need to produce money drove almost all management of state lands.

DNR was able to produce revenue for trust beneficiaries, but as the state's population grew, and awareness of the natural values of many DNR lands grew along with it, there was no mechanism to protect and preserve lands of high conservation value.  Demand grew to find a way to start conserving important places.  In the late 1980's DNR, aided by conservation groups and interested individuals, came up with Trust Land Transfer as a way to “buy out” the trusts to allow conservation of important places and spare them from logging or development. The legislature took the additional step of codifying TLT into law during its 2022 session.

It can sometimes seem complicated, but the basic idea is that money is allocated by the legislature to allow important DNR managed lands to be conserved, and other replacement lands to be purchased and managed for continuing revenue production for the trusts.  Logging is DNR's biggest money maker.  Many TLT projects have followed a typical outline such as: an area of big, old tree forest, or other important landscape is identified as having high values for biodiversity, watershed, recreation or other qualities.  Often these areas are difficult for DNR to log or otherwise produce revenue from.

DNR, aided by a public advisory committee, assesses whether the area proposed for TLT meets the criteria, and how it ranks in comparison to other nominees.  If it qualifies and ranks highly enough, it is included in the list of properties that DNR requests the legislature to fund.  DNR includes a preliminary estimate of the parcel’s market value in its request.  Unsurprisingly, the number of places nominated and qualifying for TLT always exceeds the available funding.

 The legislature decides what to fund and what not to fund, although it normally pays close attention to DNR's recommendations.  If our example area is funded, DNR does a more precise monetary assessment, and uses the appropriated money to buy equivalent replacement land for whatever trust the TLT parcel was part of.  This most often means commercial timber land, better suited for logging, and without the special values that the TLT parcel has.

 This is the reason for TLT's success over the decades: the land gets conserved, but the trust beneficiaries do not lose their source of revenue.  The public gains an important area, free from logging or development, and the trusts are “kept whole,” their continuing revenues assured.  It is why TLT has been described as the “win/win” environmental program where everyone gains and no one loses.

TLT protected lands either continue to be managed by DNR as part of one of their existing “Natural Areas,” or, more often, they cannot be added to a DNR Natural Area (DNR is unable to designate new Natural Areas at this time,) and need to transfer to another government entity.  That can be another state agency, such as State Parks, or Fish and Wildlife, or it can be a county or city.  In 2022 the legislature expanded the eligibility to Federally recognized Indian tribal governments.  Several recent TLT parcels will soon be managed by the Quileute, Tulalip, Yakama and Colville tribes.

In all but a very few cases, DNR will add a conservation easement to the title of any lands that it transfers to new managers via TLT.  Anything other than conservation would be a legal violation of such an easement.

Since its inception around 1990, TLT has protected more than 126,000 acres of DNR managed lands.  Recent additions will soon push that number higher.  Although that acreage number may seem small in comparison to the large areas of Wilderness and National Parks in the state, it should be noted that almost all the TLT acreage is at low, biologically rich elevations and close to population centers, with features not usually found in high elevation areas.

DNR's Natural Areas program has been called “the best kept conservation secret in Washington state,” comprised of Natural Resource Conservation Areas, (NRCAs,) Scenic Areas, Natural Areas and Natural Area Preserves (NAPs.)  All these areas are designated to protect natural values, with slightly different focus in each.  NRCAs, sometimes large, are designed for conservation but also recreation where it does not conflict with the natural values.  NAPs, usually small, are designed to protect specific rare natural features or species.  Public use and recreation are not encouraged in NAPs, although most are open to low impact visitation by interested individuals.

These areas are spread across the state and protect a wide diversity of ecotypes and landscapes.  They include undeveloped shorelines on Hood Canal, old growth and mature forests in the Cascades foothills, pine dotted grassland savannahs on the east side of the Cascades, shrub steppe lands in the Columbia Basin, and a number of other rare natural features all across the state.

DNR does not presently have the people and resources to manage more Natural Areas beyond the current number.  DNR's primary mission has always been to provide revenue to state, county and local governments.  Forward looking Commissioners and managers have managed to establish the Natural Areas program but DNR is only able to make modest additions to existing areas and unable to create new ones.  Thus other government agencies need to be willing and able to assume management of most newly TLT transferred parcels.