PORT TOWNSEND — Would the net result of a proposed land deal be a loss or a gain for Jefferson County coffers?
While a Port Ludlow Republican candidate for Jefferson County commissioner questions why the county is reducing timber sale revenues in a state trust land deal involving land between two parks, the incumbent commissioner and the county administrator say the deal could provide long-term gains.
“They are closing parks, yet they are creating more parks,” Jim Boyer said of the county commissioners’ proposal to preserve 64 acres of land the state Department of Natural Resources has agreed to set aside between the county’s Beausite Lake and Gibbs Lake county parks near Chimacum.
The proposal is intended to join the two parks.
Concern expressed to commission
Boyer — who has announced that he is challenging first-term county Commissioner John Austin, D-Port Ludlow, in the November election — took his issues before the county commissioners during a public comment period last week.
“I’m hearing mixed messages and an inability to explain the budget,” he said.
He asserted that the proposal is going to cost the county at a time when the budget is tight.
“There are a lot of questions that need to be answered,” he said.
Both Austin and County Administrator Philip Morley said that the county and DNR would work out an exchange of land of equal value elsewhere in the county.
With timber prices bottoming out in 2009 and now climbing, Morley said the county stood to actually break even or make money should timber prices go up.
“So,” said Austin, who has worked with DNR to preserve a popular hiking trail between the two parks, “I do believe the county would come out ahead financially.”
The proposal would transfer 64 acres of mature DNR-managed state timberland to the county.
The deal is expected to take two years to complete.
The state Natural Resources Board, chaired by Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark, cleared the path for the deal when it voted recently to withdraw the acreage between the two county parks from a proposed DNR timber sale auction, called the Silent Alder timber sale.
Losses to county
Figuring the land preserved was valued at a little more than $1 million, Morley said that if the timber were preserved rather than harvested, the county’s general fund stood to lose $51,000, while the county road fund would lose $36,000 and the county Conservation Futures Fund would lose $1,400.
DNR now charges 25 percent of the net receipts to manage state trust lands in the county.
The remaining 75 percent of DNR timberland revenues generated is distributed to the county and its junior taxing districts, including the schools and fire districts, Port of Port Townsend, Jefferson County Public Utility District, the Jefferson County Library and Jefferson Healthcare hospital district.
Of the proceeds, 32.5 percent goes to the county general fund and roads.
About 0.4 percent goes to the Conservation Futures Fund for preservation projects.
Morley said the loss would not be felt immediately, but in perhaps two to three years.
Come out on top
Austin, who has helped push the preservation proposal through the state process, said the county would likely come out on top in the long term.
The county will work with DNR to exchange other state trust land for harvest or some other arrangement.
The value of the land and trees elsewhere has to be equal to what they preserve in land and trees between the two county parks.
“The most recent [timber sales] have all been bid on, which I think shows the price of timber is moving up,” Austin said.
Austin has been working closely with DNR to position the county to acquire the site to preserve the forestland between the two popular parks, which have limited trail access.
He has said he has received a number of e-mail messages from park users asking that the trees be preserved.
The county must also agree to pay the state $30,000 for land preparation and administrative costs that DNR incurs.
Another $15,000 could be charged to the county for title review, Austin said, including easement issues involved in the reconveyance.
Gibbs Lake Park contains 240 acres around a popular fishing, boating and swimming lake. Its trials are used by hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians.
Beausite Lake Park is home to the Northwest Kiwanis Camp and a conference and reception facility.
The parks are less than one mile apart.
Five more units in the “Silent Alder” sale that originally included the two units now heading for park preservation would remain available for possible future timber sale and harvest.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.