Groups are calling for the elimination of wood

PORT ANGELES – The Elwha Legacy Forest Coalition may not be the Lorax, but they still speak for the trees.

On Tuesday, the State Board of Natural Resources (BNR), which oversees the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), will vote on whether to move forward on three timber sales, totaling 725 acres, that are partially or completely in the Elwha River. Watershed.

To oppose these timber sales and their potential environmental impacts, organizations and citizens have banded together to form the Elwha Legacy Forest Coalition.

The goal of their advocacy, says Elizabeth Dunne, the Earth Law Center’s director of legal advocacy, is to delay the sale, communicate a way to permanently protect these parcels from industrial logging and find alternative financing methods for junior tax districts .

If the sales are postponed or canceled, junior tax districts are estimated to lose out on more than $2.7 million in funds that would be distributed to roads, schools, the port, the county, hospitals, a fire district, the library, the pool and more , according to a letter written by the County Revenue Advisory Committee.

These forests in question have been labeled by proponents as “legacy” forests: mature, structurally complex forests that contain great diversity.

“We can’t lose these forests because we can’t create more of them,” Dunne said. “Because of climate change, we don’t know if we can get these kinds of forests.”

The age and diversity of these forests make them important for mitigating climate change, advocates say. The Seattle Times calls trees “one of the cheapest, fastest and most reliable forms of carbon storage.”

Proponents also say these plots are potential breeding grounds for the marbled murrelet, an endangered species, and are home to the rare plant species Whipplea modesta.

Although the land for sale totals approximately 725 hectares, the final hectares harvested would only be approximately 490 hectares.

That’s because the DNR has protections for about 229 acres of riparian, wetland, old growth and deciduous tree areas.

But, Dunne said, “their regulations are not adequate at all.”

Harvesting these trees could also harm the flow of the Elwha River, Dunne said.

Matt Rosener, a hydrologist and owner of North Shore Hydrological Services, said in a statement that clearing these forests would negatively influence the Elwha’s water supply, causing erosion, sediment deposition and more.

“Risks to the watershed associated with industrial logging include increases in peak flows and reduced streamflow in summer,” the statement said.

“Let’s stand up for it and let’s preserve it and protect it,” said Port Angeles City Council Member LaTrisha Suggs, adding that protecting systems already in place would be cheaper in the long run.

Advocates are also concerned that the DNR has not completed a watershed analysis.

Duane Emmons, DNR assistant deputy supervisor for State Uplands, said that while a full watershed analysis was not conducted, geologists and hydrogeologists assessed the areas and determined there would be no impact on water supplies.

The DNR also examined a water systems study that Port Angeles commissioned in 2018. That report found that logging would not impact the river basin or the city’s water supply, Emmons said.

“You don’t notice a change until about 20 percent (of the land in the watershed) has been harvested,” Emmons said.

The Elwha Watershed extends over more than 200,000 acres, Emmons said, about 85 percent of which is protected by Olympic National Park. The DNR only owns about 4 percent of that, and that’s fair planned harvest for the next five years is less than 0.4 percent of the total watershed, according to a DNR fact sheet.

“I honestly believe, from a scientific standpoint, that they (the DNR) are doing a very good job,” Clallam County Commissioner Randy Johnson said.

Lawyers disagreed.

“You can’t create more water,” Dunne said. “If the DNR says it’s OK and it’s not, which is what we think, we can’t go back in time and fix that immediately.”

The Elwha Legacy Defense Coalition was formed after individuals noticed the impacts of harvesting the Aldwell parcel, a DNR land located in the Elwha Watershed, Dunne said.

“On paper it may seem like the protected acres are enough, Dunne said, but “when you see what it looks like across the entire landscape, it’s certainly not enough.”

These forests also have cultural significance for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (LEKT).

Many tribe members hunt and gather medicines, berries, cedar wood and more from the area, said LEKT member Tashena Francis.

“That whole forest (Elwha Watershed) is important because we use everything we need there,” Francis said.

If the sales are postponed or canceled, many lower tax districts are concerned about losing revenue from timber sales.

“That’s a potential loss of revenue for the fire district if the sale doesn’t go through,” said Jake Patterson, chief of Clallam County Fire District 2 (CCFD2).

CCFD2 typically uses timber revenues for “larger capital items for which we do not currently have sufficient funding,” said Patterson.

This could include things like new stretchers, heart monitors and more.

Clallam County also plans to receive some of those funds — both for the general fund and the road fund, both of which are under “financial pressure,” Johnson said.

“The loss of those trees is significant, far more than the dollar value they are sold for,” Dunne said. “There is no requirement that DNR generate revenue from logging these forests. They can generate income in other ways.”

Some proposed options include using Climate Commitment Act funds to offset the loss of revenue, harvesting other monoculture forests, soliciting donations and more.

The DNR has protected similar forests in the past, including 69 acres from power plant sales and an area around Lake Sutherland.

This protection was paid for with legislatively designated Climate Commitment Act (CCA) funds, which allowed the DNR to set aside up to 2,000 acres of land. However, the 2,000 hectares do already identifiedEmmons said, so these parcels would not qualify for that program.

In addition, finding replacement land becomes increasingly difficult as the state’s environmental protections increase. In Clallam County, habitat protection for the marbled murrelet and spotted owl alone has claimed nearly 23,000 acres of DNR habitat, Emmons said.

Theoretically, it wouldn’t be impossible to set these lands aside and find replacement lands, “but it takes time,” Emmons said, and it would most likely be land that had recently been harvested.

Finding replacement land ready for harvesting “would cost a fortune”, said RAC chairman Connie Beauvais.

Additionally, Patterson said there is a complicated conversation about which district — or even which county — would get the money if the alternate land were in another taxing district or county.

Johnson noted that no matter what happens, this is a complicated issue with many different facets.

“We have emotions, we have science (and) we have dollars that absolutely help our community,” he said.

If the BNR decides to sell these lands, the planned auction date is December 18.

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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at [email protected].