Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove has dedicated his life and career to public service and our public lands. After studying environmental science and energy policy in college and graduate school, he began his career in public service at the Washington statehouse, representing the working-class suburbs of South King County in the Washington House of Representatives for over a decade. He then went on to serve on King County Council for 12 years, where he advanced sustainable policies across the largest county in Washington State. Last January, he made history when he became the first out LGBTQ statewide executive in Washington's history. As Commissioner, he now leads the Department of Natural Resources and its 2,200 employees working on the frontlines of Washington's most urgent environmental challenges, from climate change to forest management to wildfires. He has successfully navigated the agency through an uncertain period at both the state and federal levels and has initiated new, innovative forest management strategies in tens of thousands of acres of Washington's structurally complex and older forests.