DNR: County timber should hold its own

Revenue from the sale of Wahkiakum County trust timber should total close to budgeted figures, officials from the Washington Department of Natural Resources said Tuesday.

Reporting to Wahkiakum County Commissioners George Trott, Dan Cothren and Blair Brady, the officials said they expect county revenues to total slightly over $1.9 million for 2008.

Commissioners budgeted $2 million from trust timber revenue.

While timber markets are down, county sales should hold their own, said Area Manager Eric Schropf. It depends on the mix of timber; prices for some species are weaker than for others.

"We are in a 1-2 year long downward trend," Schropf said. The slump in the housing industry likely will send a ripple into the global market, he said, and the domestic market will rebound to take up the slack.

Commissioners expressed concern that a salvage sale of timber blown down on county trust lands in the winter of 2006-07 won't sell, or if they sold, it will be at a low price because so much other blowdown timber will be on the market from the December, 2007, storm.

Cothren said private timber companies were able to log their blowdown within months, so why did it take the DNR so long to prepare the sales.

"I'll take full responsibility," Schropf said.

The major portion of the Wahkiakum blowdown was in three pieces, he explained. One was on hillsides; the other two were in riparian zones along streams. He ordered staff to prepare the project as one sale, but permitting issues with the wetland areas have held up the sale.

"I didn't realize at the time that it would take so long," he said. "In hindsight, I would have done them in two sales. I won't make that mistake again."

The upside is that the agency now has the process in place to quickly prepare permits for salvaging timber in riparian zones, he said.

He added that he and his staff agree that the agency's process for putting up a sale takes too long, and they're going to work to make changes in the process.

In related business, Forester Collin Robertson and Regional Manager Marcus Johns reported that the agency is preparing a large sale for bid this spring. Called Nagasawa Pass, it should generate about $1.8 million for the county in 2009, they said.