PORT ANGELES – The Clallam County Superior Court denied environmentalists’ request for an administrative stay on two local Department of Natural Resources parcels, although it granted a motion to compel information from the state agency.
If the stay had been granted, it would have barred logging-related activities for 90 days on the parcels named Parched and Tree Well.
The motion to compel will require the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to file administrative records relevant to the case by June 18 – a five-month delay from the original required date of Jan. 2.
The logging rights for these two forests were bought by Oregon-based Murphy Company in December.
Although road building has begun, there is no planned logging on these properties until next year at the earliest, according to Murphy’s intervenor.
However, activists argued in court Friday that logging related activity – such as building logging roads – is damaging the area, and if logging does occur it could render moot the lawsuits leveraged against these parcels.
“There is nothing legally preventing the destruction or damage of the forests before the Court can fulfill its role as the arbiter of this decision,” Earth Law Center attorney Steven Turner said.
This case has been ongoing since December, when the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, the Earth Law Center, the Center for Whale Research and the Orca Network filed two lawsuits centered on the impact of logging in the Elwha Watershed and the Department of Natural Resources’ alleged failure to follow its own conservation policies.
These organizations have lawsuits filed on several other sales in Clallam and Jefferson Counties, as well. Junior taxing districts argue that these lawsuits delay their ability to receive funds that would be generated from these forests.
Although the administrative stay was denied, plaintiffs have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would halt logging activity until the case is heard on its merits. That motion will be heard on June 6 at 1:30 p.m. by Judge Elizabeth Stanley.
A temporary injunction had been issued by Stanley on May 7, blocking logging activity until May 21. The Legacy Forest Defense Coalition filed a motion to extend that injunction until June 6, but the court has not ruled on that yet.
In addition to the motions, activists have blocked access to the parcel titled “Parched” since May 7 by engaging in a tree sit.
This plan involves a pile of debris placed in the middle of a logging road that leads to Parched. The debris is attached to a dunk tank that is about 80 feet up in a nearby tree, with a tree-sitter positioned on that platform.
The primary demands of the tree sit are to stop logging in that specific area and the entirety of the Elwha Watershed, according to activist Peter Stedman. Today marks the third week of the tree sit, and Stedman said it will continue until an injunction is issued or the demands are met.
“Until then, we’re just acting as if they won’t,” he said.
Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove has stated that, although he supports public activism and discourse, these actions are putting people in danger.
“When you put the safety and lives of my employees at risk, that’s a line too far,” Upthegrove said. “This is not the way to get things done in a civil society.”
Currently, Upthegrove said the DNR’s priority is ensuring the safety of everyone involved. When it is over, he said “we intend to hold people accountable for their actions.”
The pile of logs has also blocked Murphy Company’s access to road building equipment that was stored on the other side of the road. To get the equipment without disturbing the tree sitter, the intervenor said the logging company will likely widen that road.
All this activism is part of a larger attempt to reverse sales approved by the Board of Natural Resources during the last few months under previous Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz. The disputed sales are what activists call “legacy forests” or complex, structurally mature trees that have the potential to be old growth forests in the future.
When Upthegrove took office Jan. 15, he immediately implemented a stay on the sale of all legacy forests, affecting a few forests in Clallam County. This stay is set to last around six months.
“I am committed to trying to reach some of our landscape level stand structure diversity habitat goals faster,” Upthegrove said during a presentation to the Olympic Peninsula Fire Commissioners Association on Thursday. “I want to make sure we are able to harvest trees for generations to come.”
The stay will not result in any more forest parcels being removed from harvestable rotation, Upthegrove said.
“The ideas I’m looking at aren’t about taking productive lands out of that harvestable county land and locking them away,” he said. “It’s about management strategies within those constraints.”
Although he is placing a pause on legacy sales going forward, he has also made a commitment to protect legacy sales that were approved before he took office.
“It’s important to defend policies and the authority of the agency,” Upthegrove said.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
