PORT ANGELES — Proposed state Department of Natural Resources timber harvest levels — among them one alternative that North Olympic Peninsula economic development supporters say could create 800 jobs — will be discussed at a public meeting Wednesday.
For more than a year, Board of Natural Resources officials have been studying a wide range of stewardship options for harvesting on 1.4 million acres of Washington’s state-owned forests.
Seven alternatives have been evaluated under an environmental impact statement that’s part of a “Sustainable Harvest Calculation” to balance revenue production, ecosystem health, and opportunities for recreation and other benefits.
The seven alternatives are being discussed at a series of DNR public hearings around Western Washington.
The North Olympic Peninsula’s only meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Little Theater at Peninsula College in Port Angeles.
The outcome is critical to county governments, school districts, fire districts and other local agencies which depend on state timber revenues to help balance their budgets.
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The rest of the story appears in the Monday Peninsula Daily News.
