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Nearly Century-Old Forests Get Protection
On August 26, 2025, Washington Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove stood in Tiger Mountain State Forest near Issaquah and signed an order protecting 77,000 acres of forest across western Washington.
These aren’t old growth forests yet, but they’re getting close. Logged between the 1920s and World War II, they’ve spent the last 80 to 150 years growing back naturally.
Now they’re dense, diverse, and full of life, and the state just took them off the logging rotation to let them finish what they started.
Wikimedia Commons/William F. Boyd
They Were Logged Before World War II
The protected forests were cut down before chainsaws became standard. Loggers used hand saws and steam donkeys to haul timber out…