PORT TOWNSEND — State Department of Natural Resources officials delivered dismal 2009 timber sales projections, citing a stalled housing market that has left North Olympic Peninsula timber unsold and lumber mills at a lull.
“This is the worst situation we’ve ever experienced,” said John Viada, DNR Olympic Region manager who has been with the agency for 36 years.
Viada, based in the DNR’s Forks office, addressed the Jefferson County commissioners on Monday, saying the timber market in Jefferson and Clallam counties was declining “faster than any time in history.”
The 13,892 acres of state forest lands that benefit Jefferson County taxing districts — county, schools and the hospital — produced about $1.4 million in 2008 and were projected to produce about $600,000 this year.
In Clallam County, Viada produced numbers showing that of the 92,507 acres of state forest lands, timber sales generated $9.3 million in 2008 with 2009 projections at about $1.3 million.
Clallam’s acreage is the largest in the state.
Even more telling, Viada said, was that there was no timber under contract in either county as of December 2008.
The next projections will be made in April.
DNR officials in April 2008 showed Jefferson’s state forestlands revenues from timber harvest has tumbled by more than half, from $1.66 million in 1999 to $762,629 last year.
Clallam County’s timber revenues from DNR forestlands were at $8.06 million in 1999 compared with $5.6 million in 2007.
Viada said the timber market then was the lowest it’s been for a number of years.
A large chunk of timber revenues is now coming from the sales of state-owned trees for telephone poles, not for wood products to support the building industry, DNR officials said.
DNR manages 1.4 million acres of timber trust land in Western Washington and 2.1 million acres statewide.
Statewide, DNR reports that 2008 sales totaled $53.7 million, compared with $64.7 million in 2007 and $67.5 million in 2006.
No bids have been received for Jefferson County timber sales in 2009.
“We’re obviously in a budget crisis with our funds,” Viada said.
“Certainly if we stop selling timber completely, you stop spending money.”
He added that DNR is not yet at that point.
The trend has been on a continuous downward spiral.
The 2007 sales goal was 74 million board feet, and the DNR hit 68 million board-feet, DNR officials said.
The 2006 sales goal was 80 million board-feet, but DNR sold only 21 million board-feet as the agency complied with settlement terms of a lawsuit filed by the Washington Environmental Council and Olympic Forest Coalition.
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
