Goldmark launches bid to oversee state lands

OLYMPIA – Harvest season wrapped up, Peter Goldmark went from Okanogan rancher to state-hopping Democratic political candidate Thursday, flying hundreds of miles to launch his campaign for state lands commissioner.

Winning will mean unseating two-term incumbent Doug Sutherland, a Republican who’s already raised nearly $60,000 for his re-election campaign so far. Goldmark has raised only $200.

But Goldmark says he’ll bring a fresh perspective to the job, which he says is more important than many voters realize. Starting with a breakfast with backers in Spokane on Thursday, he’s piloting his Cessna to meetings with supporters and reporters in Olympia, Seattle and Wenatchee this week.

The commissioner of public lands oversees 6 million acres of state forests, grazing lands and shorelines, and helps set policy for about 10 million acres of privately owned forests.

Washington puts the dollars from those state-owned lands – selling timber, for example, or leasing land to ranchers – into a trust that pays for construction of public facilities, particularly schools.

The key, Goldmark says, is balancing today’s revenue with the long-term health of the land. And Sutherland, he thinks, is tipping the scale too far in favor of industry, particularly timber. He points to a recent environmentalist lawsuit, saying it reduced Sutherland’s recommended timber harvest from about 650 million board-feet a year to 550 million.

“I’ve been a land manager for over 30 years” on his family’s 8,000 acres, Goldmark said. “I understand the tension between productivity and making sure there’s something there for the future.”

Sutherland couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday night, but campaign spokesman Todd Myers disputed any overcutting of trees. The recommended harvest level was actually 597 million board-feet, he said, and was unanimously backed by the state Board of Natural Resources. The six-member board included Sutherland, Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson, a representative of the governor’s office and the dean of the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources.

Also, Myers said, the recommendation always included a caveat that the number could be lower, depending on how the state dealt with forest streams.

Goldmark, a former Washington State University regent and a molecular biologist, is no stranger to politics. He ran for Congress in 2006, losing to Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Among the lessons learned, he said: fundraising is critical, as is hiring top campaign staffers. The campaign also taught him that truth is often a casualty of politics, he said.

In an interview Thursday, Goldmark took issue with Sutherland’s leadership on three other points:

“On Sutherland’s watch, he said, the state’s land-management agency has boosted its management fee on public lands from 25 percent of revenue to 30 percent.

“So he’s effectively raised taxes against the trust – really against the people of the state – for management,” Goldmark said.

Myers’ response: Environmentalists backed the change, which is due to the increasing rules about land use. “You’re leaving more trees, you’re leaving bigger buffers, and the standards are higher than ever before,” he said.

“The state should strive for Forest Stewardship Council certification for all its timber, a designation that makes the wood more valuable.

Myers’ response: The state’s already headed in that direction. The council is working on a report about Washington’s forests, he said, although it’s unclear how close the state will be to actually getting certification as a result. The report’s due by the end of the year, Myers said.

“Sutherland is too closely allied with the timber industry.

“When he came down with a sustainability number (for harvest), he came down on the industry’s side,” said Goldmark. “The industry always wants to cut more.”

Yes, the forest industry is vital to the state, he said, “but I don’t think they should be dictating state policy.”

Myers maintains that Sutherland has broad support. “Doug has worked in a very bipartisan way with this governor and the previous governor to create strategies that everyone can agree on,” he said. “I’m happy to compare the diversity of Doug’s support to the narrowness of Peter Goldmark’s support any day.”