PORT ANGELES — A Port of Port Angeles-sponsored economic study of the Wild Olympics Campaign narrowly focuses on long-term trends and non-tourism, non-logging-related employment, a spokesman man for the wilderness set-aside effort says.
The study is focused on only two small sectors of the economy — forest products and tourism, which represent less than 10 percent of total current Clallam and Jefferson counties’ employment, said Roy Nott, CEO of Paneltech Products Inc. of Hoquiam.
The study suggests a “false choice” between timber jobs and tourism jobs, Nott said.
The Wild Olympics answer to the port’s $10,000 economic study was delayed as supporters of the campaign waited for the final port-sponsored report last week.
The study was presented to the port commission Sept. 26, conducted by Dan Underwood, who teaches economics and environmental science at Peninsula College, and Jason Cross of the Olympic Natural Resources Center in Forks.
It indicated the plan could cost Clallam and Jefferson counties as many as 72 jobs in the forest industry.
“We are commissioning a broad economic study of the four counties of the Olympic Peninsula” said Jim Gift of Sequim, conservation co-chair of the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society, one of 10 conservation, recreation and environmental groups making up the Wild Olympics Coalition.
The Wild Olympics Campaign proposes a long-term series of purchases from willing sellars that could add 37,000 acres — mainly on the West End — to Olympic National Park, 450 miles of wild and scenic-designated rivers and 134,000 acres of other wilderness additions to the Olympic Peninsula.
“The [Wild Olympics] study,” Gift said, “will examine direct and indirect economic benefits that conservation of our forests, clean water, salmon and wildlife habitat provides to the local economy and how rural counties can leverage these natural assets to boost sustainable, real living wages.”
Nott, who has previously worked in timber management, said, “There appear to be significant errors and omissions in the study, and the economic assumptions in the analysis seem flawed.
“As a result, the study’s conclusions about potential job losses are probably also flawed.”
Nott noted:
■ The port study looked at only two small sectors of the economy, forest products and tourism, which combined contribute less than 10 percent of total employment in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
At no time has Wild Olympics advocated “replacing” or “offsetting” timber jobs with tourism jobs, Nott said.
■ The study ignores the other 90 percent of current employment and doesn’t consider new company and job recruitment that is heavily impacted by quality-of-life considerations.
■ Current employers like the Peninsula’s shellfish and fishing industries depend on healthy salmon habitat and clean, silt-free water. That’s likely why Taylor Shellfish is one of the 150 Peninsula businesses which support Wild Olympics.
■ The study appears to look only at the north end of the Olympic Peninsula and the supply of and demand for logs within that system.
■ The willing seller provision of the Wild Olympic Campaign doesn’t compel industrial owners to sell — it only gives them a new option.
The port study appears to make significant errors in assessing the impact to timber harvests, Nott alleged.
“These undermine the credibility of their job impact estimates, even if you accept their methodology,” he said.
The study found that 12 jobs would be lost over Wild and Scenic designations on national forest and state natural resources lands.
“The Forest Service lands on the majority of river segments in the proposal are already currently managed as Wild and Scenic Rivers under the current Forest Management Plan published in 1990,” Nott said.
The designation would not change management policy that has been in place for two decades. It would merely make current protections permanent, he said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
