September 5, 2004 in Opinion

Balancing state finances with forest health

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The following commentary is excerpted from an editorial that appeared last week in The Olympian in Olympia. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Spokesman-Review’s editorial board.

On Sept. 7, the state Board of Natural Resources will meet to set the harvest level for timber on state-owned trust lands.

This is a pivotal point in forest management in Washington. This decision will determine how many trees are cut, how many timber industry jobs are created, how many old-growth trees are preserved and the overall health of 1.4 million acres of state timber lands.

When Washington became a state, Congress set aside millions of acres of land to be governed by the state. Proceeds from timber sales on those lands go to benefit specific government operations: school construction, colleges, rural library and fire districts, etc.

The state is charged with maintaining a sustainable harvest level – a level of cutting that will allow the lands to be used in perpetuity.

About every 10 years, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Board of Natural Resources take a look at state-owned trust lands and set a harvest level for the next decade. In years past, it was an inexact science, with harvest levels approaching 1 billion board feet in some years. Just about everyone agrees that is not a sustainable level.

After three years of study, the recommendation before the Board of Natural Resources on Sept. 7 is to increase the average annual harvest to 636 million board feet on the west side of the state. That would generate $150 million for the trust beneficiaries.

The timber industry supports the 636 million board-feet level.

Bob Dick, Washington manager for the American Forest Resource Council, said the Department of Natural Resources went through a technically rigorous process, held multiple public hearings and arrived at a reasonable harvest level that is achievable, will create about 2,000 additional timber industry jobs and will increase by 50 percent the timber inventory on state lands in 70 years.

But environmentalists raise concerns that need to be addressed by the Board of Natural Resources as the board members adopt the harvest level and set logging practices.

The Board of Natural Resources cannot focus on the dollars alone. It’s imperative that the six board members give more attention to the forest practices to ensure that wildlife habitat is protected and the state has healthy timber lands to manage for future generations.

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