OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — A Lake Crescent clearcut of 30 to 100 trees along about 100 feet of privately owned shoreline has prompted a park investigation and drawn the attention of Superintendent Karen Gustin.
The property was habitat for marbled murrelet and eagles, said Olympic National Park Chief Ranger Colin Smith.
Landowner Ben Skerbeck, a Port Angeles dentist and “inholder” by virtue of owning property — including a house — inside park boundaries, said Friday he had verbal permission from a park ranger to cut “hazard trees” that were endangering his house along the lake off East Beach Road.
The investigation was prompted by Pam and Gordon Simpson, next-door neighbors of Skerbeck, who contacted park officials with concerns about the extent of the tree-cutting.
Park officials said Skerbeck cut more trees than were allowed.
The investigation is the result of “a huge misunderstanding,” Skerbeck said.
“I maintain steadfastly that we had the park visiting us twice to look at our trees for purposes of removal,” Skerbeck said.
“They never said we had to have a written permit,” he said.
“I have to confess I was not aware of a permitting process.”
Park Patrol Ranger Jennifer Jackson, assigned to Lake Crescent, gave Skerbeck permission to log what his logger estimated were 30 trees, Skerbeck said, although Smith said 100 may have been cut, according to a park staffer’s estimate.
Gordon Simpson said 50 were cut.
“It might be only 30,” Smith acknowledged
Whatever the number, Skerbeck may be fined for not obtaining a permit for what Smith called “a clearcut.”
“A ranger does not have the authority to give them permission to do a logging operation, nor would I expect her to tell them to do so,” Smith said.
“Someone needs a permit to do any sort of logging operation in the park. This is considered a logging operation.”
A park botanist identified and marked just three hazard trees that signified which trees Skerbeck was allowed to cut, Smith said.
Skerbeck maintains no trees were marked.
Inholders do not need a formal permit to remove single hazard trees, “but they do need park permission, which is often given verbally,” Smith said.
Skerbeck must abide by forest practice regulations and register any logging operation within the park “and we were not contacted before he did that,” Smith said.
But Skerbeck said he did not know, nor was he ever told by park staff, that he needed a permit until the Simpson’s alerted park officials.
Work has ceased at the site.
Smith said the investigation, which he expects will be completed by Friday, has included the participation of the park superintendent, Gustin, who visited the site and talked with Pam Simpson.
Gustin did not return calls for comment Friday.
The Simpsons discovered the project July 1 when they returned to their property from their home in Snohomish, Pam Simpson said, describing the couple as bird enthusiasts.
“It was really devastating, just like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, what’s happened here?” she recalled Thursday.
“It’s a sad situation. It was the first time I really heard birds cry. They were all looking for where they belong, and it’s gone.”
Smith said Skerbeck likely will be required to replant some of the denuded shoreline, which Skerbeck said he intends to do.
That will mitigate the shoreline from potentially eroding into the pristine, 16,000-acre natural lake.
Skerbeck said runoff water is channeled by a 3-foot culvert under East Beach Road and into the lake.
“That water shoots under our house and out into the lake,” he said.
Park officials are determining what laws apply and what remedies are available when inholders are involved in a logging violation.
The park has an estimated 100 inholders, many of whom live on Lake Crescent.
“It’s a unique situation dealing when dealing with private land in park boundaries,” Smith said.
“It’s not as straightforward as if this occurred on park land.”
He’s been in contact with the Department of the Interior Solicitor General’s Office, the state Department of Natural Resources “who are the keeper of forest practice rules,” the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “pretty much all agencies that might have some control over the situation,” Smith said.
A National Park Service investigator out of the agency’s Seattle office also is taking part.
“We want to be sure we all agree on a path forward from here,” he said.
“Is this the same as a 1,000-acre wildfire or cutting 100 acres? No. It’s a small stretch. But I think it is a significant impact to that area,” he said.
“Part of our issue on this lot is the lot on the other side of the Skerbeck lot is owned by the park,” he said.
“We are the neighbor on one side, and the bigger issue is, this is an inholding in the park, and it affects the park.”
Skerbeck said park staff told him he could allowed some trees to fall into the lake.
He also had the stumps removed and is building a road close to the shoreline, where he wants to build a cabin.
Skerbeck was bewildered at what has transpired in the last nine days.
He did not find out about the alleged violation until Jackson, Crescent Lake’s park ranger, paid him a visit to the logged site as a result of the Simpsons’ complaint.
“Her position was, you were given permission to cut a few hazard trees, so she was obviously surprised,” Skerbeck recalled.
Not every inholder dispute with the park is the same, Smith suggested.
The Lake Crescent case is different than the June 25 incident involving the sister of inholder Pearl Rains Hewett of Port Angeles, he said.
After traveling from her home in Redmond, Hewett’s sister was denied access to family property on the Elwha River off Olympic Hot Springs Road, which was under repair but passable.
Smith told Peninsula Daily News on June 28 that Hewett’s sister should have been granted access and termed the incident the result of “internal miscommunication issues” with the ranger who denied her entry past a locked gate.
“It’s a totally different scenario when a landowner is doing a logging operation on their land without getting permission,” Smith said.
That’s the same permission Skerbeck insists he already had.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
