Last month, in my first act as commissioner of public lands, I paused the sale of certain structurally complex, mature forests on state lands.

These are older, second-growth forests — most of which were logged before World War II — that have spent almost a century regrowing naturally into diverse stands teeming with life and contributing invaluable biodiversity.

These forests make up a very small part of our state forestlands but have an outsize impact on habitat, providing the benefits of old-growth stands.

To ensure our forests are economically sustainable, we must first manage them to be ecologically sustainable by ensuring we always have a mix of forest ages and types across our landscapes.

At the Department of Natural Resources, our existing plans and policies envision restoring and maintaining 10% to 15% of the forest landscape in Western Washington as structurally complex mature forests.

My goal is to meet this important habitat objective sooner, ensuring the long-term sustainability of our forests and supporting our state’s forest products industry — not just today, but for generations to come.

Recently, The Seattle Times editorial board (“Lands commissioner’s logging ‘pause’ upsets a careful calculation,” Jan. 30) characterized this pause as “setting aside” 80,000 acres of forest; that I’m proposing we lock up our forests and yank funding away from schools, counties and other trust beneficiaries.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I’m not setting our forests aside. I’m setting them on a better path.

A path that ensures we more quickly reach the habitat outcomes we want for our forests. A path to better meet our habitat protection and environmental goals, to better promote biodiversity across our forestlands and to better meet the challenges and choices of a changing world.

My plan, once we have new criteria in place, will simply defer some sales while prioritizing others until we reach our habitat goals. In doing so, we will hit these habitat goals sooner — while enabling us to achieve the kind of long-term sustainability we all want.

Sales of structurally complex mature forests have consistently faced lawsuits from environmental organizations. In Capitol Forest alone, five recent sales are currently caught up in litigation.

This is no way to provide certainty to Washington’s timber industry — and the communities who depend on forest product revenue.

We can do better, because we already know how.

Washington is a world leader when it comes to sustainable forestry. The Department of Natural Resources has a long legacy of leading on forest management issues, setting one of the first old-growth forest policies in the nation and developing sustainable harvest and ecological standards that remain among the highest in the world.

We didn’t get where we are by being complacent. We did it by leading, adapting and evolving.

Now, to meet the needs of a new world — to meet the challenges presented by a rapidly changing climate, deteriorating forest health, decreasing biodiversity and devastating wildfires — we must evolve again.

This pause will enable us to do just that, by allowing us time over the next six months or so to accomplish two essential things:

First, we will deploy current technology and new methods to better identify and map the characteristics of the forests we manage so that we get a more accurate inventory of our forests.

Second, this pause will allow us time to seek collective input from our trust beneficiaries — including schools, counties and essential services — alongside tribal governments, environmental groups, the industry and the public — to help us develop an improved management plan for these forests.

This open, transparent, and inclusive process will help us to dial back the yearslong anger and acrimony around these timber sales and enable us to achieve our shared goal: the long-term economic and environmental sustainability of Washington’s forests.

We are not locking up or setting aside these forests. We will continue to nurture and steward them just as we always have — investing in their responsible management in order to make our landscapes ecologically healthier and more resilient to the threat of wildfire.

And we will continue to meet our responsibilities to our state’s schools, counties and communities — without the near-constant delays and disruptions we’ve seen in recent years.

I will not be deterred or delayed by short-term thinking, by reflexive defenses of the status quo or by people who use phrases like “follow the science” when they really mean “follow the money.”

It’s time to set aside business as usual, put away the arguments of the past and set a path forward that continues to live up to our state’s history as a forestry leader.

It’s time to think long term and work together to secure a more sustainable future for our forests, our wood products industry and the people of Washington.

Dave Upthegrove: is the Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands.