Hilary Franz

On Friday, the Washington Superior Court sided with Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, LLC, and extended the deadline to safely harvest steelhead trout and remove equipment at the Rich Passage and Hope Island fish farm in Puget Sounds to April 14th...

The Washington state Department of Natural Resources announced this week it is expanding its wildfire response team across the state.  DNR will add 60 positions, including hand crews, heavy equipment operators and more.  Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz says these new positions, made possible by House Bill 1168, won’t be limited to a wildfire fighting role, they’ll also be trained to do f

Earlier this week, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources announced plans to purchase the former Dallesport Elementary School to create a new regional wildfire response center in the Columbia River Gorge. The Klickitat County school closed in 2016 due to decreasing enrollment across the Lyle School District ...

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources announced this week it will transfer 230 acres of state forestlands in Pacific, Wahkiakum, and Skamania counties into permanent conservation status. The 230 acres, which would have been managed to fund local services in the three counties, are being transferred to Natural Resources Conservation Areas to protect habitat for the marbled murrelet

Because of the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases across the state, specifically from the Delta Variant, the head of the Washington Department of Natural Resources is calling for all wildland firefighters to be vaccinated. On Monday, Commissioner Hilary Franz called on the federal Departments of Agriculture and the Interior to take additional steps to secure our nation’s wildfire resp

Earlier this week, the Washington state Department of Natural Resources approved the purchase of 266 acres of forestland in Wahkiakum County. Of the six parcels, five will be managed to generate revenue for Wahkiakum County. The county, home to 4,000 residents, will receive an average of $1 ...

According to the state Department of Natural Resources, forests across Washington continue to face an array of challenges. According to the state’s latest Forest Health Highlights Report, many of those challenges have been brought on by an increasingly dry climate as well as past forest management practices. T ...

To help the state prepare for what she calls a potentially catastrophic wildfire season, Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz recently kicked off the Wildfire Ready Neighbors! program. The campaign connects those in wildfire prone areas with efforts and tools to help home and property owners take proactive step action to better protect their belongings from wildfire ...

When it comes to managing Washington’s forests and preventing wildfires, House Bill 1168 is getting a lot of attention this session. The proposal would create a dedicated fund of $125 million every biennium for wildfire response, forest restoration and community resilience. The ...

Earlier this fall, the Washington state department of Natural Resources released its 2020 Forest Action Plan, which out lined more than 100 priority actions to improve and conserve forests across the state. Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said this updated Forest Action Plan, builds on existing work taking place on the east side of the state, and adds in the unique needs of western Wash