To: NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: Steve Dunphy of Cascade Land Conservancy, +1-206-905-6933 (ofc); Tony Meyer of NW Indian Fisheries Commission, +1-360-528-4325 (ofc); Cindy Mitchell of WA Forest Protection Association, +1-360-791-9372 (cell)

OLYMPIA, Wash., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- During the summer of 2008, three leaders from the conservation, timber and tribal community entered into a dialogue about the importance of sustaining our private working forests. As the population grows in our state, new demands will be placed on the land, putting pressure on sustainable forestry. The ten-minute dialogue is airing on Comcast - Video on Demand: Comcast Ch. 888, choose: Community, then select: Forests, and is also available through the website -- www.workingforestalliance.org.

While the leaders each came from different points of view, they are sending a common message -- "We want to tell the generations after us to have the courage to work together and try new solutions - we can achieve much more working together, than we can working separately."

Gene Duvernoy, President of the Cascade Land Conservancy, who has led the creation of The Cascade Agenda and who has devoted more than 25 years to land conservation throughout the Puget Sound Region, notes, "We deserve to give those future generations the same quality of life we have today. Now that's not going to be easy, if we want to do that, we need to learn to conserve and live within the footprint our communities have already claimed for themselves. That's the challenge for our generation."

Billy Frank, Jr. of the Nisqually Indian Tribe, Chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission for 22 years says, "We have to be a model for the world here in the great northwest working with the timber industry and working with partners on all of our management and working together to make it happen."

Mark Doumit, a former elected leader, now Executive Director of the Washington Forest Protection Association, represents an industry that has been part of the state for over a century and is still the second largest manufacturing industry in Washington State. He states, "There will always be a certain amount of resource land conversion in WA State. But keeping sustainable forestry and keeping forestry practiced in a way that works for the economic sustainability of the industry is very important. In the end, we need to do everything we can to encourage people to grow trees for the long term needs of this country, and for the people of WA State."

Three leaders with a message to all of us.

Visit www.workingforestalliance.org to view the 10 minute dialogue and find out more about the importance of maintaining Washington's privately owned working forests.

SOURCE Washington Forest Protection Association

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