Private Logging, Public Eore Handful Of Small-Time Loggers Causing Big-Time Problems

Two years later, Paul Pace is still upset about the tree.

When a neighbor logged next door to his place in the foothills of Mount Spokane, Pace wanted to be sure a tall pine, five feet on Pace’s side of the property line, wasn’t cut down.

He hung a sign on the tree.

“Leave this tree,” the sign read. “It’s on my property.”

The next day, the tree was a stump.

That, he says, was just the beginning.

The neighbor bulldozed brush onto Pace’s land. A stream disappeared, clogged by debris. The logger’s sandy hillside eroded into Pace’s back yard. Unburned slash piles and a handful of spindly trees still dot the land.

“This guy is giving all loggers a bad reputation,” said Pace, looking at his neighbor’s land, which is now up for sale.

“I think it stinks,” he said. “Why do we have Arbor Day?”

He’s not alone. Hundreds of Inland Northwest landowners file complaints each year against neighbors who log their own land.

Often, officials say, there’s nothing they can do. Environmentalists blame lax rules. The timber industry says the rules are tough enough, the problems are caused by just a few bad actors.

But one thing nearly everyone agrees on: The handful of state foresters who regulate private logging isn’t enough.

“I wish there were more out there, doing follow-up checks to make sure best management practices are being followed,” said Ken Kohli, spokesman for the Intermountain Forest Industry Association. “Any time somebody steps over the line and breaks the rules intended to protect the environment, we get a double black eye.”

In the past two years, federal logging restrictions have lowered the timber supply and driven up prices. Pulpwood prices have surged. Population growth has spurred many landowners to convert forest to subdivisions.

The result: Small landowners, many of whom know little or nothing about logging, are taking trees off their land.

Private logging applications in Washington in 1994 were up 30 percent from 1991; in Idaho they were up 84 percent. More than half the Idaho logs that went to mills last year came from so-called “non-industrial private forests.”

Yet, this year, Washington cut its forestry budget 10 percent. Mom-and-pop landowners needing advice are less likely to get it.

“We don’t have that capacity anymore to do that hand-holding. I wish we did,” said Paul Balfour, a forester with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

Already, there is only a handful of state foresters out there - six for northeastern Washington’s seven counties, and six for North Idaho’s five counties.

There’s a lot of ground to cover. Family-owned forests make up 21 percent of Washington’s timberland and 14 percent of Idaho’s.

Washington foresters visit only about 10 percent of the sites; in Idaho, it’s about a third to half.

“We don’t even pretend to get out to every one,” said Balfour. “Whatever’s critical, we’re going to concentrate on. Whatever’s not, well, that probably won’t get looked at. And we hope it works.”

In Idaho, the Department of Lands hopes to add one forester, probably in the Silver Valley, next year.

“We’re spread pretty thin,” said Idaho forester Jim Colla. “If there’s a bad job out there, we’re going to find it. But so often, we get there after the fact.”

In Sandpoint, independent consulting forester Mike Wolcott makes his living advising private landowners. A year ago, his company canceled a 1,500-acre job after two weeks of work. Wolcott felt the landowner wanted to cut too much.

“It was just too harsh and too dry of a site to cut it that hard,” he said. “We walked away from it.”

As private logging has risen, so have complaints. Often, the issue is ugliness. After years of having a forest next door, now people have a clear-cut.

“People will call and say ‘They’re raping the land. It looks bad,”’ said Colla, of the Idaho Department of Lands. “We don’t regulate ugly.”

The most serious problems generally involve water, such as when loggers skid logs through streams, or leave steep hillsides eroding into creeks and lakes.

Gerry House, a retired U.S. Forest Service forester, tried to warn a neighbor about erosion when the man logged off an acre near his Hayden Lake home. House says he was ignored, and today soil runs down into the road - and toward the lake - every time it rains.

“He stripped the land, and there wasn’t control to prevent them from doing this sort of thing,” said House. “I hate regulation, but some people don’t care.”

Cases like his or the Paces’ are the exception. Regulators, industry officials, even environmentalists say the vast majority of private landowners - and contract loggers - genuinely care about the land.

Such is the case with Dexil Rold, who bought a home and 80 acres in Hayden Lake three years ago.

“When I bought it, if you’d have told me I’d log it, I’d have said you were crazy,” said the 56-year-old financial planner.

But he did, after watching logging on corporate land next to him.

“I watched what they did, and how they did it. They respected the land,” he said. The loggers left big, healthy trees to reseed the ground. They scattered the burned slash piles. They didn’t leave behind broken or bent trees.

“They didn’t just go slaughter it,” said Rold.

So last year, Rold logged 30 acres. A nearby mill, which bought the timber, loaned Rold a forester to plan the cutting. They used an old logging road, installing bumps to prevent erosion, and replanted. Today, Rold says, his thinned forest is healthier and prettier.

“It just plain looks good, and I’m particular,” he said. “The best way to log is not to go out and get the maximum dollar today. What’s left won’t do well, long-term.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story: 1. REGULATION In Washington, private logging is regulated by the Washington Department of Natural Resources. The agency’s northeast Washington headquarters is in Colville. The number is (800) 527-3305. 2. TIPS FOR LOGGING PRIVATE FOREST LAND Families own almost as much Washington forest land as large timber companies do. In Idaho, families actually own more. If you’re thinking of logging your land, here are a few suggestions: See the pros. Universities, state agencies and the U.S. Department of Agriculture can send you information. In addition, there are a host of consulting foresters listed in the phone book. A timber company may loan you a forester in exchange for selling it your logs. To find a good logger, ask around. Local mills can recommend one. Ask for references. Have the mill pay you and the logger individually. Get a copy of the truckload slips. Know what your trees are worth. Unscrupulous loggers sometimes will offer you half-value. A consulting forester can appraise the wood and market it to different mills to get the best price. Mark the trees to be cut. This lets you visualize what the forest will look like afterward. It also directs the logger to cut certain trees. Get a written contract. State agencies can send you sample contracts. Don’t get stuck with a mess. Specify who will clean up the slash. See a forester and probably an accountant, too, to minimize the taxes you’ll pay. Most importantly, plan ahead. “Once a tree’s cut,” said Paul Balfour of the Washington state Department of Natural Resources, “you can’t nail it back up.” In Idaho, private logging is regulated by the Idaho Department of Lands, which has offices throughout the five northern counties. The department’s number in Coeur d’Alene is (208) 769-1525. - Rich Roesler