Local News

July 12, 2007

The Washington Board of Natural Resources on July 3 adopted a modified sustainable harvest level for forested state trust lands in western Washington, setting a new 10-year sustainable harvest level at 5.5 billion board feet.
This action addresses decisions made since the board’s 2004 adoption of 5.97 billion board feet as the harvest level for the 2005 to 2014 planning decade.
When the board adopted the 2004 sustainable harvest for Westside trust forests, the members knew that the completion of two long-term projects would affect that harvest level. Those projects included implementation of streamside forest restoration strategies and marbled murrelet strategies.
Also, a lawsuit was filed in 2004 challenging the sustainable harvest calculation. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and the riparian restoration strategy was completed, thereby combining to reduce the harvest level by about eight percent.
The marbled murrelet strategy is expected in 2009 and may result in further adjustments to the harvest calculation.
“The board has taken great care to establish policies that accomplish the best possible habitat conditions to support owls, murrelets, salmon and other native species, while increasing revenue production for schools and other trust beneficiaries,” said board Chair Doug Sutherland, Commissioner of Public Lands. “Our improved and faster computer modeling makes it possible to anticipate how changes during the planning decade would affect harvest levels for state forests. This gives the board the flexibility to modify the level, as appropriate.”

The action should have little impact on the revenue that Wahkiakum County receives from its state Forest Board Transfer trust timberland, County Commissioner Dan Cothren said July 10.
The revised figures actully increase the sustainable harvest level for county trust lands, he said, but the calculation includes several thousand acres with harvestable timber but which have been taken out of the rotation because they contain marbled murrelet habitat.
The settlement over riparian zones, which were greatly expanded, also takes more land out of the rotation, Cothren said.
"Overall, it's about a wash," Cothren said.