Commission: Time to negotiate settlement on trust timber

Wahkiakum County commissioners have asked to open negotiations with the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to recover the value of timber set aside as habitat for marbled murrelets.

The small bird finds food along ocean beaches and flies 50-70 miles inland to nest on wide branches of old trees. Because of coastal logging and other impacts, the bird is on the federal and state endangered species list.

Ten years ago, the agency began working on a habitat recovery program for the bird, and it set aside plans for logging 2,200 of the 12,980 acres of Wahkiakum County Forest Board timberland.

Since the 1990's, revenues from the trust lands have provided as much as 50 percent of the revenue for county Current Expense Fund, which funds most courthouse offices.

However, over the past several years, timber revenues have fallen because of environmental impacts related to the deferral of land set aside for the marbled murrelet study, commissioners said in a news release this week; in 2007, timber revenue made up only 16 percent of the county’s general operating budget.

The scientific team working on the study released a preliminary draft two weeks ago, and it indicated the deferral would continue, affecting about 25 percent of the county trust timber, said Commissioner Dan Cothren.The scientists asked for another two years to complete the study.

The agency already witholds about 4,000 acres for protection of riparian zones and steep slopes.

“The county cannot keep going like this,”Cothren said. “The latest recommendations published in the science team study cause me considerable concern and require the county to take a different approach, first direct negotiations and perhaps a lawsuit if negotiations aren't successful.

"We need to begin negotiations for state and/or federal reimbursement for the land we are losing. Rather than waiting another two or three years for the Department of Natural Resources to complete their strategic management plan, and then begin negotiations, we need to start now – the county has waited long enough.”

The first session will be March 21, Cothren said. He hopes to have a proposal to take to the state legislature in January.

"They have suggested some avenues we can follow that seem promising," Cothren said. "Let's discuss them."

Cothren added that the Quinault Indian Nation successfully pursued a similar action with the federal government and received compensation for tribal timber set aside as murrelet habitat.

He added that state and federal agencies are steadily restricting logging on lands they manage while allowing private companies to continue their harvest.