Dnr Sells Salvage Timber From Tyee Creek Fire Boise Cascade Pays Almost Quarter-Million More Than It’s Worth

The fire-scarred hills above the Columbia River in Central Washington are alive with new wildflowers and wheat.

Soon, the rumble of logging trucks will resonate through the forest’s wooden skeletons.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday sold nearly 3 million board feet of salvage timber - enough to frame 200 average homes.

Boise Cascade Corp. won the bid on three separate timber sales for $650,000 - $220,000 more than the charred wood was worth.

Sawmills such as Boise Cascade’s are scrambling for any public timber, most of which is closed to chainsaws over environmental challenges.

“There was a lot of interest in the sales,” said the state’s George Shelton. “We’re very happy with the process.”

Last July and August, about 4,343 acres of state-owned land north of Entiat and west of Chelan were burned by the lightning-ignited Tyee Creek wildfire.

More than 135,000 other acres of private and Wenatchee National Forest land also were scorched by flames so wicked they created tornado-force winds.

The Tyee Creek fire burned 100 homes and outbuildings, cost $41 million to fight and required thousands of firefighters and Marines. It is blamed for a water-truck driver’s fatal heart attack.

The federal government already has spent more than $21 million restoring Wenatchee National Forest land and helping minimize the impact of future floods.

The slicked-off hillsides still are expected to speed runoff during the next major thunderstorm, land managers predict.

The only benefit from the Tyee Creek blaze, other than thinning out crowded and unhealthy forests, is the presence of wildflowers and wheat. Fire sparks new vegetation.

The state-owned trees sold Wednesday are mostly ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. Like those on other state-owned land, they were managed in trust for the benefit of schoolchildren.

“Though we hate to lose any value for our trust beneficiaries, it’s gratifying that some trust revenue can be salvaged from the devastated forest,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Jennifer Belcher.

“Aggressive firefighting kept state losses to a minimum,” she said.

Her department is the first agency to ready public timber sales for market, a process that normally takes 18 months but was streamlined to six months before the wood rotted and lost all market value.

Boise Cascade beat out four other bidders.

“It was a real push for us to get it done,” said Shelton, the state’s assistant regional manager in Ellensburg. “It was not an idea of cutting everything that was black.

“We rushed, but we took our time to make sure we did it right.”