Schools Sue For Lost Money Districts Contend State Failed To Halt Pine Beetles, Costing Schools $100 Million

Okanogan County and an Olympic Peninsula school district sued state Lands Commissioner Jennifer Belcher on Thursday, contending she has cost state schools $100 million by failing to halt a state forest insect infestation.

At issue is an infestation of mountain pine beetles in the 144,000-acre Loomis State Forest in north-central Washington.

Money from timber sales on state-owned trust land goes for school construction, higher education and other uses.

“Commissioner Belcher and her staff have known about this problem since she took office in 1992,” County Commissioner Spence Higby said. “While she has paid lip service to the problem, she hasn’t done one thing to halt the bug infestation that is devastating our trees and limiting revenue to build new schools.”

The suit contends that pine trees on 50,000 acres have been killed or damaged by the burrowing beetles. It contends that if affected trees were harvested to stop the infestation, resulting timber income would be about $100 million.

Belcher did not immediately return a phone call Thursday night. She was scheduled to tour the Loomis forest today.

The suit was filed in Okanogan County Superior Court. It names Belcher and the state Board of Natural Resources.

Joining the county as a plaintiff is the Quillayute Valley School District in the logging town of Forks.