Is DNR 'fleecing' Wahkiakum County?
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November 26, 2015
To The Eagle:
The July 16, 2015 Eagle has a front-page story: “County loses $1 million in last minute legislation.” On page 2 Rick Nelson reports that DNR’s practice is to extort (my word) a 25% commission off trust timber sales, to be raised to a kleptomaniac (my word) 30%. Thirty percent! County Commissioner Dan Cothren made the math real--$1 million trust sale proceeds equals $300,000 DNR rakeoff (my word). Please go back and read that story.
If there’s that kind of gravy in timber, why in April 2014 was I forced to sell Rayonier stock because they decided to dump on me stock in their fiber business in lieu of cash (dividend). Why as I write this are Weyerhaeuser and Plum Creek moving in together to save rent? Actually, it’s about a 65-35% merger that will dwarf now No. 3 Hancock. And how long will it be before Hancock needs pruning to pay its bills?
I’m thinking of 2016, doing some Trump talk here, mixing metaphors. The DNR--30%!--is living in lotus land with a rectal-cranial inversion. Somebody needs to hide the punchbowl. The function of trust timber is to offset county disadvantage. Wahkiakum is disadvantaged by its historically low population. The timber ownership and sales are not intended to fatten wallets of bureaucrats nor to float the undisciplined state budget.
It is heartbreaking to watch local people work their buns off volunteering, writing checks, donating goods, running around to make things function so state bureaucrats have job security, something “important” to do. (E.g. mess around with Wahkiakum and other counties in a parasitic way.) This of course is just my opinion. It calls to my mind words like “hijacking,” “plundering,” “looting” and “fleecing.”
Vail St. Vrain
Seattle
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