PORT ANGELES — It’s barely springtime, but wildfire season is already in progress, Washington’s top public lands officials said recently.
Elected state Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz paid a visit to Port Angeles on Friday, discussing a fire suppression-forest health legislative initiative to increase the tax on premiums for property and casualty insurance from 2 percent to 2.52 percent.
It would beef up wildfire suppression measures by creating a permanent Wildfire Suppression and Prevention Account for emergency fire costs, firefighter training and positions. It also would foster activities to improve forest health through contracts for thinning and other practices that would prevent drought and susceptibility to fires.
SB 5996 is being proposed in the wake of longer fire seasons of seven to eight months compared to three months.
Franz heads the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which manages 3 million acres of trust lands statewide, including 208,000 in Jefferson County and 162,000 acres in Clallam County.
There were 1,850 wildfires consuming 440,000 acres in Washington last year, and 40 percent of those fires were west of the Cascades, according to DNR.
“This year, we’re expecting a worse fire season,” Franz said.
According to meteorological forecasts, there will be hotter temperatures and drier conditions throughout the state, she added.
“We have hotter, drier temperatures because you’re seeing a change in your climate,” Franz said.
In a wide-ranging interview, Franz also addressed Clallam County commissioners’ concerns over forest-habitat protections measures for marbled murrelet seabirds, safeguards that commissioners say could limit revenue to junior taxing districts that rely on timber proceeds from public land.
In their letter in December to DNR, commissioners said Clallam County could lose $26 million in timber value under DNR’s preferred alternative for a long-term conservation strategy for the marbled murrelet. They said DNR’s fiscal analysis was inadequate.
“We are actually working to create a much more detailed report of the impact on our junior taxing districts as a result of our long-term conservation strategy,” Franz said.
She said DNR must ensure that the seabird is protected and guarantee that the agency meets its fiduciary responsibilities to tax districts.
“We’ll bring that information to light, look at it and make sure we have done that full balancing of legal responsibilities.”
Franz said while DNR develops a long-term conservation strategy, 175,000 acres is “locked up” from harvest, a “significant part” of which is in Clallam County.
“Our goal is to complete it as soon as we can, then we will be able to release those forests so they can be forested,” she said. “No one believes all 175,000 acres should be off-line.”
About 135,000 acres could “come online as soon as that strategy is done,” she said of the acreage’s harvest potential.
Franz added that DNR is analyzing the impact of letting trees grow longer than the current 60- to 80-year rotation period utilized by DNR to determine which practice achieves “more volume and value.”
SB 5996, introduced Thursday in the state Senate, was co-sponsored by 24th District state Sen. Kevin Van De Wege of Sequim, a Clallam Fire District No. 3 firefighter.
The bill would create a dedicated funding source by imposing a 0.52 percent increase on casualty and property insurance premiums, equalling $5 more per $1,000 of premiums, or about $20 more per household annually.
Wildfire suppression costs have averaged $153 million annually over the past five years but make up only 9 percent of the total cost of wildfires when factors such as lost business, timber and health impacts are considered, according to DNR.
“When we have resources and capacity up front, we can keep those fires small,” Franz said.
Funding from SB 5996 initially would be concentrated in Eastern Washington under a 20-year Forest Health Strategic Plan to cull diseased and dead trees.
DNR is developing a Forest Health Strategic Plan for Western Washington that should be ready by late 2019 or in 2020, Franz said.
Of 50 wildfires reported the third week of March, 49 were west of the Cascades, mostly in Cowlitz, Clark and Wahkiakum counties, but also in Whatcom and Skagit counties, DNR spokesman Joe Smillie said Monday.
Funding from SB 5996 also could be channeled to fire districts in Clallam and Jefferson counties for equipment, he said.
Van De Wege said there are more fires in longer parts of the year, and SB 5996 would combat that, adding that rainy areas like the North Olympic Peninsula are drying out faster and becoming more prone to fires.
But state Rep. Mike Chapman of Port Angeles said he was leaning against the bill.
“I’m not inclined to support the [higher] insurance premiums,” he said. “For the average homeowner who doesn’t live in the woods, it doesn’t seem fair.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
