Contact Your Elected Officials

The Trustee – the Legislature

The legislature is the trustee of the lands held in trust for the various beneficiaries of these lands. The legislature is ultimately responsible for the oversight and management of the trusts as well as the management and funding of the trust manager, DNR, to carry out trust management obligations. Keeping legislators up to date on current policy issues or to simply help to educate new legislators on trust land issues is critically important. To find out who your local, state, or federal representatives are, please use this link to the Washington State Legislature’s website:

The Manager – the Commissioner of Public Lands

The Commissioner of Public Lands is a statewide elected position that heads the entire Department of Natural Resources. By statute the Commissioner is the secretary of the Board of Natural Resources, but traditionally has served as the chair of the Board. The Commissioner also oversees the regulatory and wildfire programs at DNR. You can contact the Commissioner’s office via email:

The Policy Maker – the Board of Natural Resources

The Board of Natural Resources serves to guide the management of trust lands. The Board sets management policy including approving the Sustainable Harvest Calculation. It also approves sales, exchanges, transfers, and purchase of trust lands and acts as the state Board of Appraisers to confirm valuations of trust lands that the state sells, transfers or exchanges. The Board also serves two other roles, the Harbor Line Commission and the Committee on Geographic Names. To submit comments to the Board of Natural Resources ahead of its monthly meetings, you can send your comments here:

Timber Counties

Many counties, mostly located in western Washington receive non-tax money, mostly timber sale revenue, from the management of State Forest Transfer and State Forest Purchase Lands. These lands, especially the State Forest Transfer Lands, are often referred to as “County Trust Lands.” When a timber sale or other revenue-generating activity occurs on these lands, the County and Junior Taxing Districts where the land is located receives about 75% of the proceeds of the sale or other activity such as a communication site lease. The Washington State Association of Counties (WSAC) maintains a contact list of County Commissioners of its members here: