OUTSIDE SPECIAL INTERESTS are threatening to tie up more Clallam County trust lands. These lands produce revenue that pays for county services.
The Elwha Watershed study is authorized by Section 3120 of the 2025 capital budget. The budget directs the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to “conduct an analysis of the ecological and conservation values of the Elwha watershed on department managed lands” which might be preserved as Natural Area Preserves or Natural Resource Conservation Areas.
DNR conducted a poorly attended virtual telephonic public meeting on Nov. 18 to explain the scope of the study and how it will be conducted. The explanation needs to be presented to all Clallam County taxpayers because establishment of the preserves and conservation areas could have profound impacts on their property taxes.
The study will evaluate about 7,700 acres of DNR-managed land in the watershed. There are two types of DNR land to be evaluated.
The first is about 2,500 acres of federally granted common school trust land. The state owns the land but the Constitution says land or products from the land can only be sold to the highest bidder at auction. The proceeds can only be used for school construction throughout the state.
The second type of land is about 5,200 acres of Clallam County forest board trust land. The county took ownership of that land through tax foreclosure.
In 1935, the state demanded that land be deeded to the state to be held in trust for the county and its junior taxing districts. The Legislature is the trustee, DNR is the administrator and the county and junior taxing districts are the beneficiaries.
The land belongs to the county forest board trust. It is not owned by the state and certainly not owned “by all the people.”
The land cannot be sold. Timber and products from the land must be sold to the highest bidder at auction. It returns about $6 million per year to county beneficiaries to help county taxpayers pay for school operations.
State ownership of common school trust lands allows the state to sell or set aside the land at will. Loss of school construction dollars will be spread among taxpayers at the state budget level. That is not the case with the county forest board trust lands. Any revenue loss from lands preserved will have to be made up solely by Clallam County taxpayers.
That brings up serious legal questions about Clallam County’s trust relationship with the state. Enabling trust legislation specifically names the county and junior taxing districts as the sole beneficiaries of the deeded land. Numerous court decisions specify “A trustee must act prudently with undivided loyalty to the trust beneficiaries, to the exclusion of all other interests.”
One is hard-pressed to explain how a budget proviso to remove land from the trust at the behest of an “excluded other interest” is the prudent action of a trustee with an undivided loyalty to Clallam County taxpayers.
The Elwha Watershed study is part of the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition’s coordinated attack on our county’s timber industry and tax base. I oppose interference with timber sales that meet state and federal requirements, vandalism, disorderly conduct, trespass and environmental obstructionist lawfare. I support local school programs, fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, libraries, hospitals, county services and the workers who provide them.
You should ask your elected officials where they stand.
Will they support their Clallam County taxpayers or bow to outside special interests who would sacrifice our services and quality of life without giving up any of their own?
________
Jim Buck is a former state legislator who lives in Joyce.
