PORT ANGELES — A committee that was formed to study state management of Clallam County forest lands heard a three-hour briefing on environmental policy Friday.
The Clallam County Trust Lands Advisory Committee is in the early stages of a yearlong effort to determine whether the county should reclaim the management of 92,525 acres of revenue-producing state Department of Natural Resources timberlands.
The 20-member advisory panel will eventually make a recommendation to the Clallam County Board of County Commissioners.
Timber that was identified for sale but wasn’t sold by DNR, or arrearage, has been blamed for the demise of Clallam County mills and the loss of tens of millions of dollars in revenue to the state, millions of dollars to the county and hundreds of thousands of dollars to junior taxing districts like schools, hospitals and libraries.
Environmental constraints affecting timber sales include the State Environmental Policy Act, Forest Practices Habitat Conservation Plan and the federal Endangered Species Act, DNR officials said.
‘Forest practices 101’
Stephen Bernath, DNR deputy supervisor for forest practices and chair of the state Forest Practices Board, delivered a “forest practices 101” in the committee’s third monthly meeting Friday.
Angus Brodie, DNR forest resources division manager, followed up with a review of the complexities of timber management, including old-growth forests, riparian areas, wetlands, salmon, the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.
The DNR-administered state Forest Practices Act was enacted in 1974 to protect water, fish, wildlife and public improvements like state and county roads while maintaining a viable timber industry, Bernath said.
“In other words, the [Forest Practices] Board cannot adopt rules that would run the timber industry out of the state,” Bernath told the panel.
“We don’t want that. We value that here in this state, and we need to both protect the environment and have a viable timber industry.”
The trust lands committee includes representatives of the forest products industry, environmental groups, junior taxing districts, municipal governments and political parties.
Charter review
It was assembled by county commissioners on a recommendation from the Clallam County Charter Review Commission. The charter review voted 10-4 last year to support the effort.
If reconveyance is not recommended by the ad hoc committee, its members will look for ways to help DNR fulfill its trust mandate to the county, its citizens and junior taxing districts.
DNR collects a 25 percent management fee on revenue generated from timber sales.
Brodie displayed a pie chart showing a breakdown of Clallam County’s state forest transfer lands.
Fifty-eight percent of those lands are classified as general ecological management, meaning they can be managed for revenue.
Twenty-nine percent of county trust land are deferrals — land protected from harvest to achieve some ecological objective or to conserve public resources.
Twelve percent are classified as riparian for the protection of rivers, streams and wetlands.
The remaining 1 percent are considered uplands with potentially unstable slopes or northern spotted owl habitat, Brodie said.
“The DNR is part of the landscape,” said Tom Swanson, trust lands committee member and Green Crow vice president and area manager.
“Forest lands are part of a landscape that includes national forest lands, Olympic [National] Park lands, other state and private lands, other tribal lands. So to look at them in isolation is not a whole picture.”
DNR developed the Forest Practices Habitat Conservation Plan in response to the federal listing of threatened and endangered fish, Bernath said.
The plan, which will soon be updated by the state Board of Natural Resources, covers some 9 million acres statewide.
“The whole premise right now is that if you follow the rules, particularly around aquatic resources for fish and water quality, the assumption is you’re not going to be in violation of either the Endangered Species Act or the Clean Water Act,” Bernath said.
“That doesn’t extend to terrestrial species like owls and murrelets.”
Marbled murrelet
Most of the North Olympic Peninsula is considered as habitat for the marbled murrelet, a small seabird that nests on old-growth tree branches.
The presence of suitable habitat for marbled murrelet triggers a “Class 4 special” designation that requires a State Environmental Policy Act review of proposed timber sales, Bernath said.
Complicating the environmental constraints of trust land management is the fact that the Olympic Experimental State Forest, the area west of Lake Crescent, has its own set of conservation models.
DNR has not yet completed a three-year survey to determine whether murrelets actually are occupying their designated habitat on the West End, Brodie said.
“Just for interest’s sake, a stand that is marbled murrelet habitat is considered to be occupied if a bird flies over it,” Swanson said.
“The vast majority of occupied habitat is on public land. There’s some on private land. But the standard is very low for occupancy.”
Water focus
Most environmental regulations affecting timber harvests are focused on water, particularly under the Forest Practices Habitat Conservation Plan, Bernath said.
For example, riparian zones on fish-bearing streams are divided into three zones, including a 50-foot no-cut buffer in the core.
Select trees in the middle zone can be harvested after an inventory, model and determination that the forest is fully stocked.
Certain trees in the outer zone extending to 100 feet from the stream can be selectively harvested, Bernath said.
Unstable slopes, he added, are a “big deal to forest practices.”
“We know there are a lot of unstable slopes out here on the Peninsula,” said Bernath, a forest hydrologist.
“We are very serious about making sure that we look very closely at anybody who is going to propose a harvest in or around an unstable slope.”
“The goal of the rules when it comes to unstable slopes is not to increase any risk that that action would either initiate or contribute to a landslide,” Bernath added.
“You can’t stop landslides in this state. It’s a natural part of the topography. But we want to make darn sure we’re not adding to the problem human management concerns.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
