An example of a healthy Cedar River forest from Wednesday’s briefing (Image: City of Seattle)

While most of the rest of the newly formed Seattle City Council committees have gotten off to slow starts this year with overviews and introductory presentations from the city departments they represent, the committee chaired by first-term District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth was all business Wednesday afternoon hearing the introduction of legislation that would clear the way for the city to thin the thickly grown forest around its highly protected Cedar River Watershed for “ecological thinning” and a limited timber sale.

The first bit of business pertained to issues far from Capitol Hill and the Central District in the city-owned forestland along the Cedar River in eastern King County.

With support from the Muckleshoot Tribe, the legislation that started with Hollingsworth’s committee Wednesday would authorize Seattle Public Utilities to sell timber as surplus property from the thinning effort as it works to clear 600 out of the watershed’s 90,638 acres over five years. Proceeds would go into the city’s Water Fund.

UPDATE: A city spokesperson clarifies that SPU will be thinning 600 acres of forest within the 90,638-acre watershed but says “the 600 acres is not contiguous and will be done in several project locations that total 600 acres over five years.”

Hollingsworth’s Parks, Public Utilities & Technology committee won’t vote on the SPU proposal until later this year. The ordinance proposal was sponsored by former councilmember Alex Pedersen in 2023.

During the afternoon session, the committee heard SPU officials describe the need for reducing the number of trees in areas of the watershed to help promote a healthier forest that will be safer in the event of wildfires. Any timber sold would be subject to federal export restrictions including limitations that the wood not be sold in foreign markets.

The Cedar River Watershed is a unique, mostly untouched second-growth area where nature and wildlife has thrived thanks to hugely restrictive access controlled around the acreage due to its classification as an unusual unfiltered water source for a major American city. The city chlorinates the water at the Landsburg Diversion Dam and again just before entering the district’s system to destroy “Giardia, bacteria, and viruses that may be present.”

While it seems like an unusual topic for Hollingsworth’s parks committee, that Cedar River water could eventually come up again at City Hall in the future. The Volunteer Park Reservoir remains a surplus source for the city and a possible 22 million gallon opportunity for future changes to the popular park.

Wednesday’s meeting was mostly a listening session with no vote scheduled yet for the timber sale proposal. You can view the full committee session here.

Hollingsworth’s committee is slated to meet every second and fourth Wednesday of the month.

UPDATE: This post has been updated to clarify that, while it is mostly untouched due to use restrictions that prohibit the public, the watershed is second-growth forest. We have also corrected a reference to sales restrictions.

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