State Land Board Plans More Logging

Washington’s state-owned forests can produce an average sustainable timber harvest of 655 million board feet a year for a decade, a state panel has recommended.

The amount of logging proposed by the Board of Natural Resources for 5 million acres of trust land is the highest since the northern spotted owl was listed by the federal government as a threatened species in 1990.

The recommendation, adopted last week, is based on the anticipated federal approval of a habitat conservation plan for state owned lands.

Officials in the Department of Natural Resources try to issue timber sales to approximately the recommended volume within a 25 percent allowance for market fluctuations and other conditions, a news release from the agency said.