County, DNR discuss timber revenue issues

With the deadline approching to finish their preliminary budget, Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday received the update they've been waiting for on potential revenue from county trust timber lands.

The revenue from timber sales is an important part of the revenues for the Current Expense Fund, which covers most courthouse services. Declines in the past few years in the harvest level and the market price have left the county in tight revenue situations, leading to reductions in personnel and programs.

Next year, said Marcus Johns, regional manager for the Department of Natural Resources, the county can expect around $886,000, instead of the agency's traditional target of $1.2 to $1.5 million.

The agency will put a timber sale up for bid in December, Johns added; it should generate around $427,000 for the county, but that revenue could come in 2010 or 2011.

Commissioner Dan Cothren suggested the department could put up a small sale or two to bolster the expected total. Johns replied he would look into that possibility, but he would try to keep the sales under a $250,000 threshhold so that they wouldn't have to go through a full-blown agency review.

Johns and county officials also discussed what caused agency errors that resulted in a revenue shortfall for the county this year.

Commissioners reminded Johns that they had been told to expect $1.2 million this year from a sale, but they had learned in September that the total would be over $200,000 less than expected.

Johns said a cruise of the timber suggested a higher volume than actually existed.

He noted that the sale had first been offered as a lump sum sale, but no logging companies bid on the sale. The DNR revised the sale and offered it at acution again as a volume sale, and it sold. However, there wasn't as much volume as expected.

"The bottom line is that it wasn't as intensive a cruise as it needed to be," he said.

Commissioners Blair Brady and Lisa Marsyla commented that the county learned of the lower revenues two months after the logging was finished, and that left the county little time to adjust spending.

"That I don't know anything about," Johns said.

"This kind of thing has happened three years in a row," Brady said. "We can't operate this way."

"I understand," Johns said.

"What is your department going to do," Marsyla asked. "This is huge for us. It's about people's jobs."

Johns replied that he would make sure foresters tighten up on their cruises, and they would follow up with tests to evaluate the original criuses.

"Our cruises will be more accurate," he said, "and I've noted to talk to the field guys to track sales and volume better. We need an early warning system in place."