Commissioners discuss hunting access, more

Wahkiakum County Commissioners discussed a range of issues at their Tuesday meeting.

Commissioner Dan Cothren invited Rayonier Corporation representative Bob Meyer to address the board. Rayonier, a forest products company headquartered in Florida, manages around 390,000 acres in western Washingon including timberlands in Pacific County.

Meyer explained he was attending to provide information and receive feedback about Rayonier’s recent announcement that they would implement the sale of permits for hunting some of their Pacific County holdings, known as the Fossil Creek and Salmon Creek units.

In a one-week first-come first-serve online sale, the company sold all 175 permits for the 31,000-acre Fossil Creek unit. The permit includes a key to allow drive-in access to gated areas and allows for camping and ATV use.

Permits for the 15,000 acre Salmon Creek unit are still for sale, said Meyer. The Salmon Creek permits are sold through competitive bidding on online auction website EBay.com. Six archery, 20 deer, and four elk permits are available. A visit to the auction site on July 19 showed bids ranging from $100 for an archery access permit to $1535 for an elk access permit.

Cothren said “Bob and I disagree on this. This was one of my worst nightmares when Crown Zellerbach sold its lands in the 1980s.” The cost of the permit on top of fuel charges and a hunting license would make hunting prohibitively expensive to many local residents, he added.

Cothren acknowledged he is concerned that urban residents will bid up the permits and local residents will lose out on hunting opportunities they have traditionally enjoyed.

“I know you have costs such as road maintenance, hiring security, and patrolling for garbage, but maybe there is another way to make our heritage and history still available,” he said.

Commissioner Lisa Marsyla added “I’m not a hunter but I feel strongly about people’s right to hunt. But these are private lands and the company has property rights.” She said she shared Cohtren’s concern that other timber companies would implement similar programs on local lands, and acknowledged the need for working on a long-term legislative solution.

Audience member Frank Loomans asked if the bid permits were only available to Washington residents. No, said Meyer, but one in six Fossil Creek permits were sold to people in Wahkiakum and Pacific counties and 2/3 of sales were to people living within a one county range of Pacific and Wahkiakum Counties.

Commissioner Blair Brady said his constituents have expressed to him that access restrictions are upsetting because they believe timber companies have received tax incentives in exchange for providing public access. Meyer countered that he had researched the issue with Representative Brian Blakes staff and found no evidence that the tax incentives directly relate to public access.

Marsyla encouraged Meyer to stay in dialog with Wahkiakum County and suggested Representative Blake might be invited to a future commission meeting to hold a discussion on the issue.

Health and Human Services Director Judy Bright announced her department had $5000 left from H1N1 flu money that needs to be spent by the end of the month. She proposed using the funds to purchase equipment needed for county departments to connect to high speed internet service soon to be offered by a fiberoptic cable network currently under construction in the area.

Tim Villani, a representative of NoaNet, the non-profit company using federal grant funds to install the fiberoptic cable network in rural areas of the state, joined the meeting by teleconference to brief the commissioners on the status of the project.

Villani said the installation team is currently digging through a substantial amount of rock along SR 4.

The federal grant funding awarded to NoaNet is targeted to support increased internet connectivity to rural hospitals, public health districts, emergency services, schools, libraries, and nursing facilities, said Villani. NoaNet provides the service to companies who then sell to consumers.

Villani committed to scheduling time for a NoaNet representative to attend the commission meeting in person and to do a site survey of county facilities in order to answer specific hardware questions for county staff.

Commissioner Brady encouraged Villani to make sure the Grays River Valley Center in Rosburg was one of the facilities hooked up to the service. Wahkiakum West Communications representative Carol Larson assured Brady that the Center would be able to access the service through Wahkiakum West.

Sheriff Jon Dearmore introduced Jim Mullens, director of the state Department of Emergency Management. Mullens emphasized the importance of preparing disaster management plans. A disaster will go much better if you don’t have to make up what you’re doing during an event, said Mullens. In recent years, the county had funded a paid disaster preparation coordinator working for the sheriff’s office, but the position was eliminated due to funding cuts. The role is currently staffed by volunteer Ron Kimmel of Puget Island.

Dearmore estimated the emergency management coordinator role is a half to full time position. The position entails coordination, communication, planning, and training.

Undersheriff Mark Howie added that once in place, the coordinator will pay for themselves, referencing grant opportunities and the potential to reduce the risk of liability.

Marsyla said “I think we need to revisit this. It is important to our citizens. We need to look at the potential for funding this again.”

Brady asked Mullens if any other Washington county had the emergency management planning role filled by a volunteer. Mullens said no.

Let’s review this at budget time, said Cothren.

“It’s not that this isn’t a priority, it’s just that there are many priorities,” said Brady.

"I’m seeing this as a high priority again," concluded Marsyla.