Logging Rules Often Broken, But Citations Few Survey Checks State Rules Compliance And Finds Dangers To Fish, Wildlife

A survey of more than 200 logging operations in Washington found 68 percent of them violated rules aimed at protecting fish and wildlife, and that few violators were cited by regulators.

The findings are in a draft report by Timber, Fish and Wildlife - a private-public panel of foresters, regulators and environmentalists.

“It’s alarming,” said Joseph Pavel, a habitat policy analyst for the Northwest Indian Fish Commission and a member of the Timber, Fish and Wildlife committee that examined the issue. “We have regulations on the book. … Basically, they’re not being enforced; people are not respecting them.”

Other committee members, however, cautioned against reading too much into the survey’s findings.

“Unfortunately, we learned that we would like to learn more,” said Sherri Felix, an operations specialist in the state Department of Natural Resource’s forest practices division.

“We don’t know how bad the violations are. We don’t know how they’re out of compliance. We didn’t ask such specific questions.”

The survey last summer found some logging operations failed to maintain small numbers of trees in every clearcut to provide habitat for birds, small mammals and other wildlife.

The other general problem found was inadequate road maintenance, which can allow fish-damaging silt to wash into streams.

Committee members said the survey was not thorough enough to determine the effects violations were having on fish and wildlife.

The survey, which looked at a random sample of logging operations, was done to see “how state policies are playing out on the ground,” said Jerry Gorsline, who represents the Washington Environmental Council on the committee.

The draft report has yet to go before Timber, Fish and Wildlife’s policy committee, which looks at larger issues facing the state’s forest land, Felix said. The committee will decide whether another survey is in order, or whether an education campaign or other efforts are needed to address the problem, she said.

The timber industry in recent years has touted its use of new logging techniques that are more friendly to the environment, and some said the new survey could unfairly reinforce some people’s image of loggers as environmental ravagers.

“We helped develop many of these rules,” said Mike Munson, a spokesman for the Washington Forest Protection Association, the state’s largest timber industry group. “In many instances, we’re going beyond the rules. Yet we’re battling an impression that’s just the opposite.”

Munson said members of his organization, mostly large timber companies, “are firmly committed to compliance.”

“It’s in their best interest to do so,” he said.

Bob Dick of the Northwest Forestry Association, another industry group, said he thinks all landowners honor “the really important stuff” - buffers along fish-bearing streams, for instance. But the rules governing logging run some 200 pages, he said.

“The rules are so complex that the smaller landowners are totally intimidated by them,” he said.

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