Counties fine tune timber swap plan

Commissioners from three lightly populated, timber dependent counties are preparing to lobby for legislation that would increase their revenue from timber harvest.

Wahkiakum, Pacific and Skamania counties all have portions of their state managed trust timberland tied up in habitat conservation areas for endangered species. The counties have been seeking compensation for the lost revenue and have had limited success.

Now, they have a new plan and some unexpected allies among environmental preservation organizations. Columbia Land Trust, who has purchased land up and down the Columbia, have been part of the planning from the start.

Commissioners from the three counties, representatives from the land trust, and a consultant met Tuesday afternoon to formalize their approach to legislators.

The plan involves two steps, Wahkiakum County Commissioner Dan Cothren said Tuesday.

First, counties and the state would exchange the encumbered county trust timber land for nearby harvestable state school trust lands. Second, the new non-harvestable school trust lands will go into the existing Trust Land Transfer Program to compensate the school the school trust. There are already state funds available for the compensation, Cothren said.

The plan benefits both the counties and the state's Marbled Murrelet Long-term Conservation Strategy, Cothren said.

Cothren said the county would exchange around 5,000 acres and perhaps obtain as much as 7,000 acres.

The land would have to be appraised for both land value and timber value, he said, but the county has already done those appraisals.

With harvest off the new land, the county should be able to have sufficient revenue for its budgets, Cothren said.

"We want to get this done in 2016," Cothren said. "In a year and a half, we're whole again."

The counties are preparing information to supply to legislators to seek support of the proposal.

Commissioner Blair Brady commented that the land trust and other environmental groups originally floated the idea.

"They're in the middle," Cothren said. "They're lobbying for it."