PORT ANGELES — The timber industry does not accept an environmental coalition’s proposal to purchase West End land from “willing sellers” to designate as wilderness, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce members were told Monday.
In May, spokesman Jon Owen, representing the coalition Wild Olympics, spoke to a chamber audience and presented a long-term plan to add 38,000 acres to wildlands that surround Olympic National Park.
The plan would protect watersheds and forests from increased development and to preserve the area for future generations, Owen said. https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011305179993
On Monday, Carol Johnson, executive director of the North Olympic Timber Action Committee, gave a different view to a chamber luncheon audience of about 100 people at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant.
NOTAC supports the timber industry’s own plan to add more “working forests” while also adding more protected wilderness to the Olympic National Park area, she said.
“We want no net loss of working forests,” Johnson said. “Working forests equals working jobs.”
She said the loss of the 38,000 acres designated by Wild Olympics between Ozette and Grays Harbor County would mean a reciprocal loss of between 112 and 226 jobs, and up to $4 million in tax revenue for local governments, according to industry research.
“Which mill do we shut down?” asked Norm Schaaf, vice president of timberland and administration for Port Angeles-based Merrill & Ring.
“That’s the result if we reduce the land,” Schaaf said.
The industry needs the land base to continue operations, he said.
“We rely on [state Department of Natural Resources] land for 65 percent of our supply,” said Steve Courtney, timber procurement manager for Interfor, which operates a sawmill in west Port Angeles.
Protecting that supply is a priority, he said.
The industry has already lost thousands of acres over spotted owl protections, and to other timber set-asides, and can’t afford to lose any more, Johnson said.
“If these lands are really desired, we’re willing to trade for other lands,” Schaaf said.
The “willing seller” portion of the Wild Olympics plan is in question, Schaaf said.
Schaaf and Johnson questioned whether the “willing” part would remain completely voluntary.
“We all know honesty and integrity is not a requirement for politicians,” he said.
Even if the willing-seller clause was ironclad, Schaaf said he could not support the Wild Olympics proposal, since he does not believe taking any land out of timber production is in the best interests of the region.
The timber industry shares Wild Olympic’s concern about the fragmentation of forest areas as property owners sell their land for development and may support rules that would prevent development of timber properties, he said.
Johnson showed a photo of the border where DNR lands meet national park lands.
On the DNR side, the forest has large trees with space between them, where ferns and grass provide forage for animals.
The national park side is heavily overgrown, with a lot of small trees, and dense growth that cut off all sunlight to the ground.
“It’s just dirt on the ground, no activity,” Johnson said of the overgrown portion.
“If you don’t manage it, you will get a fire,” she said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
