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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Editorial: Improving Northwest forests, economies can go hand in hand

Timber companies, conservationists and government stewards agree that national forests are ailing. In the Inland Northwest, trees are weakened from overcrowding and insects ravaging their innards. The result is willing tinder.

But efforts to improve their health are often met with a thicket of bureaucratic obstacles, counterproductive lawsuits and chronic underfunding.

However, there is hope, because an innovative pilot project in the Colville National Forest is providing a model for the rest of the nation to follow. Last November, the Vaagen Brothers lumber company was awarded a 10-year federal contract to harvest timber. Along with collecting the wood products needed to keep the mill humming in Usk, the company is improving forest health on about 55,000 acres.

The Lands Council, a regional conservation group, is fully supportive because the U.S. Forest Service doesn’t have the budget to conduct the thinning and other practices needed to maintain healthy stands of trees. Executive Director Mike Peterson recently returned from a conservation conclave where he spread the word.

But to fully realize the potential of this public-private partnership, the federal government needs to reverse some unhealthy trends. More than half of the Evergreen State is forested, and 44 percent of that is under federal control. Over the years, Eastern Washington timber harvests have declined by 83 percent. Nearly all harvests are now conducted on non-federal land. The economic impact to rural northeastern counties has been devastating.

The Northeast Washington Forest Coalition, which includes loggers, lumber mill owners and conservationists, is asking that some of the balance be restored. This cooperative effort merits support.

The coalition points out that the state Department of Natural Resources is actively managing state forests, harvesting 513 million board feet and generating more than $215 million for state trusts, including schools and universities, in 2013. But state-controlled forests comprise only 10 percent of the Washington total.

In addition, the lack of management on federal lands — in part due to ranger turnover — is exacerbating wild land fires. The U.S. Forest Service spent $1.5 billion on fire suppression in 2013, and only a fraction of that amount on treatments. An agency that used to average $1 billion a year in revenue now spends twice as much as it generates.

The Vaagen Brothers project shows that forest health and economic health can go hand in hand. But the coalition says progress is still impeded by “analysis paralysis” and a cumbersome federal bureaucracy. The Vaagens are paying more than $1 million for the environmental review on the “A to Z” Mill Creek Pilot Project.

U.S Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has been a strong advocate for this cooperative effort to manage forests and aid depressed local economies. Her congressional colleagues should come take a look, because it’s healthy for their budget, too.