BY ANDY WALGAMOTT, NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE
UPDATED 4:03 P.M., APRIL 8, 2026, WITH A NEW FIFTH PARAGRAPH
The trashing of timberlands is leading to access restrictions or closures around the Northwest, locking hunters out of ground they’ve long prowled or forcing them to buy leases to open gates, but the question is always, who the hell is littering the woods?
The Washington Attorney General’s Office thinks it knows who in a case involving over 1,000 old tires dumped in the Capitol State Forest outside Olympia in spring 2024.
A 44-year-old man and 36-year-old woman were set to be arraigned today in Thurston County Superior Court on seven counts of unlawful dumping of solid waste and two counts of unlicensed transportation of waste tires, according to a press release.
The charges are described as gross misdemeanors, and each count is punishable by up to a year in jail, $5,000 fine, or both.
“The two individuals failed to appear for their arraignment today. The Thurston County District Court ordered warrants for their arrest,” said Mike Faulk, a spokesman for the AG’s Office.
According to an AGO press release and court affidavits, the pair allegedly rented U-Haul trucks and loaded them with tires acquired from large tire shops along I-5 from Seattle to Tacoma and then sold them for $10 apiece to smaller shops. Tires they couldn’t unload were dumped in the Capitol State Forest.
Affidavits describe how in late March and early April 2024 local residents or their security cameras spotted U-Haul trucks headed into the woods, a “very uncommon” sight.
Then in early May, a tow truck operator was hired by U-Haul to recover one of their trucks way up the North Fork of Porter Creek, on the north side of the state forest. When the driver arrived there, the moving truck was gone but a pile of 100-plus tires had been left behind.
The suspects were tracked to a Tumwater motel where they had been staying, and after being contacted by a DNR officer, they allegedly admitted to dumping tires at seven different locations in the forest.
State cleanup crews collected as many as 516 tires at one site, which was used for dumping twice, while others held 150, 127, 122, 64, 15 and 15 tires.
According to the affidavit, neither suspect had a state Department of Ecology license to transport waste tires. Between them, the two have 22 felony and misdemeanor convictions since the late 1990s.
Littering in the woods is a particularly galling subject for hunters, who have seen once-plentiful access to private timberlands whittled away, often due to trash.
Dumping, along with other unauthorized activities, recently led Manulife to remove roughly 8,600 acres south of Couer d’Alene from IDFG’s Large Tracts Program and put it into leases, a blow to North Idaho hunters as tens of thousands of nearby private timberland acres have changed hands as well in recent months.
And it’s not just hunters who lose out when litterbugs strike.
According to the AG’s Office, the dumping of tires presents a “unique threat” to the state’s natural resources, including salmon. When a tire preservative known as 6PPD combines with ozone and is washed into streams, it can be deadly to coho.
“Our salmon populations are a part of our history, our culture, and our way of life,” AG Nick Brown said in the press release. “We will continue to hold polluters accountable and protect Washington’s salmon from the lethal harms of illegal dumping.”
Last year, the agency’s Environmental Protection Division sent a letter to 339 tire shops to only use licensed outfits to dispose of old tires after some were found to be hiring unlicensed people and companies.
Illegal dumping of tires has increased markedly in recent years, per the AG’s Office. Seattle reported it collected 1,400 tires illegally dumped in city greenbelts last year.
In recent years, DNR has also been removing tires dumped in Puget Sound as part of 1970s and ’80s efforts to create fish habitat.
The state Department of Ecology directs folks to https://1800recycle.wa.gov/ to figure out proper residential and commercial tire disposal options.
