DNR: Revenues up for 2010, down for 2011

As Wahkiakum County officials began working on their 2011 budgets, they received a report from the state Department of Natural Resources on Tuesday regarding potential income from logging on trust timber lands.

Steve Ogden, newly promoted manager of the agency's lower Columbia district, said income could hit $1.6 million this year, up from the $1.1 million the county commissioners anticipated a year ago when they wrote the 2010 budget.

The income goes to the county's Current Expense Fund, which finances most county offices.

Ogden said purchasers of a timber sale up Schraum in the Elochoman Valley have started logging the sale earlier than anticipated, which added to the anticipated total for 2010.

However, sales now sold or ready to be sold will generate about $784,874. That figure, an estimate, is conservative, he said; the total could be higher if purchasers go to work on sales that could be logged in either 2011 or 2012.

Market swings have affected timber revenue.

No one bid during the summer on a sale named Rattler. Ogden said DNR staff checked with possible bidders to learn why.

Bidders responded that the sale was set up to be logged in just over a year, and the purchasers weren't sure they would have good markets.

They also pointed out that the sale had been appraised early this year when the market was high, and the agency set a minimum bid of $2 million. By the time the sale went to bid, the market had softened, and purchasers felt the timber was over valued.

The DNR consequently turned the sale into a two year sale and cut the minimum bid to $1.53 million to reflect current market conditions.

The Rattler sale will go to bid on November 18.