County may intervene in Audubon suit

Wahkiakum County may file a counter claim in a suit the Seattle Audubon Society and the Olympic Forest Coalition have filed against the state Department of Natural Resources.

Seattle Audubon and Olympic, collectively identified as "Audubon" in the suit, are seeing review of a May 1 action by the state Board of Natural Resources (BNR) in which the BNR approved an amendment to the state's Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) without going through the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) review process.

DNR personnel gave the amendment a declaration of non-significance, which exempted it from SEPA review.

The amendment would permit the DNR to log approximately 12,000 acres of "state-owned, higher quality" habitat for endangered marbled murrelets, the suit says.

The murrelet is a sea bird which flies as far as 60 miles inland to nest in old trees. The DNR has been working on a management plan for murrelet habitat in the trust timber it manages. Some of that timberland is in the Wahkiakum County Forest Board Transfer Trust, and the county relies on harvest of that trust timber for a significant portion of its revenue.

The plaintiffs ask the court to order the DNR to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) examining alternatives for managing logging on the lands and that the DNR halt any forest practices until the EIS is completed.

On Tuesday, Wahkiakum County commissioners reacted to the suit by agreeing to intervene with a counter claim.

The county had 12,911 acres of timberland in trust, managed by the DNR. About 3,000 acres have been pulled from the harvest schedule because they have large trees that meet the definition of marbled murrelet nesting habitat.

County officials have been working with the DNR and state legislature to resolve whether or not the land can be logged, and if not, how the county would be compensated for the loss of its trust asset. The legislature and governor have signed bills setting up a process where encumbered land in Wahkiakum, Pacific, Skamania and Klickitat counties may be transferred to a DNR conservation program and counties be compensated (see related story in this issue).

County Commission Chair Dan Cothren said Tuesday that the suit threatens logging plans that should generate $1.2 million or more for the county.

He said that he and Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow had consulted with DNR staff about the suit, and the DNR asked that the county intervene because of the potential lost revenue. Pacific County also stands to lose revenue because of the suit and may also intervene, he said.

After discussing the matter, the board voted unanimously to intervene with a counter claim.

Cothren commented that the planned logging was either near the encumbered lands or, under a new practice approved by the DNR, thinning logging in parts of the encumbered lands.