PORT ANGELES — Clallam and Jefferson commissioners are in the midst of a discussion regarding how shared revenue should be split between five small timber-dependent counties that have state-managed encumbered timberland.
“Encumbered” timberland is forest that cannot be harvested due to Endangered Species Act (ESA) restrictions that reserve the land as habitat for the northern spotted owl and/or marbled murrelet. Because it cannot be harvested, counties are losing out on funds that the land used to generate.
Some counties have been hit harder than others.
Clallam, Jefferson, Pacific, Skamania and Wahkiakum counties have been identified as especially impacted by harvesting restrictions due to each county’s size and resource dependency.
Together, the five counties have about 54,944 acres of encumbered state transfer timberland.
About 22,673 acres of the encumbered timberland are located in Clallam County, while about 335 acres are located in Jefferson County.
The state Legislature has taken several steps to help counties replace revenue that has been lost from the timberland.
Since 2021, the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has purchased more than 842 acres of replacement forests, including almost 82 acres within Clallam.
“[However], the DNR has recognized they’re not going to replace those acres in each one of the counties,” Commissioner Randy Johnson said during the commissioners’ Monday work session. “It’s almost impossible.”
Another step the DNR is taking is acquiring “pooled” property that will distribute funds between all the affected counties.
County commissioners from each of the encumbered counties are working to recommend what system the DNR could use to distribute the resulting revenue.
Two potential allocation methods are being examined: the impact share method and the equity share method.
The impact share method would distribute funds proportionally, based on the amount of encumbered timberland each county has when compared with the total amount of encumbered timberland identified between all the counties.
Under that method, Clallam would receive a 41.3 percent share of a timber sale (22,673 acres divided by 54,944 acres) and Jefferson would receive a 0.6 percent share.
For a $1 million timber sale, Clallam would receive about $413,000 while Jefferson would receive about $6,000.
The equity share method would base a county’s share of benefits on a county’s relative financial need and ability to generate revenue, with a goal of funneling a higher share of the benefits to counties with more financial needs.
Some potential county data that could factor into an equity share model include per capita personal income, area median income, average property tax levy rate, total property value, median property tax, county poverty rate or other data points.
Under that model, different calculations have Clallam County receiving $156,000 or $187,000 of a $1 million timber sale, while Jefferson County would receive either $15,000 or $160,000 of the sale.
Clallam County commissioners said they would prefer the impact share method.
“I understand the impetus behind the equity model,” Commissioner Mark Ozias said. “But I don’t think that’s the right screen or the right model for the allocation between the counties.”
“When you do countywide data, it paints a very different story than when you do region-specific data inside of our county,” Commissioner Mike French said. “It’s not Clallam County that really is feeling this impact, it’s the west end of Clallam County that felt the impact. If we’re going to do some sort of equity share, we can’t look county wide at Clallam County and say, ‘You’re doing fine compared to [the other counties].’”
At the next meeting between the five county representatives, Johnson said a decision likely will be made regarding the funding model recommendation, and DNR will have the final say.
Once the distribution method has been chosen, each county will decide how the revenue will be distributed between its junior taxing districts.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
