By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – A judge has ruled a controversial timber sale west of Port Angeles can proceed.
On Tuesday, Clallam County Superior Court Judge Simon Barnhart denied a preliminary injunction to stop the sale of a 126-acre section of forest along the banks of the Elwha River known as “Power Plant”. The Department of Natural Resources has scheduled the sale for today (Wednesday).
On June 30, the Earth Law Center, the Center for Whale Research, and the Keystone Species Alliance filed a legal action challenging the sale. Their reasons for doing so are many. They say timber harvest is incompatible with the ongoing restoration of the Elwha River since the largest dam removal in US history was completed there in 2014.
The lawsuit also alleges the DNR failed to consider how the logging could impact salmon and orca populations. The Power Plant section also borders popular recreation routes such as the Olympic Adventure Trail, the trail to access the old lower dam site, and nearby climbing areas.
Elizabeth Dunne, Director of Legal Advocacy for the Earth Law Center, says they’re not trying to stop all logging activity in our state, just the few that have the most impact on communities.
“It is definitely not all timber harvests. We’re not focusing on those mom-and-pop plantations. We’re focusing on these forests that are in critical areas. It’ll be a dramatic impact to the first three miles of the Olympic Adventure Trail, as well as the route down to the Lower Elwha Dam site. So, we’re definitely not opposing all logging. Like I said, you know, we’re sympathetic to the revenue situation. And this is a low-dollar sale compared to a lot of sales, but it will have a huge impact on our community.”
One of the ways they’re trying to do that is to raise money through the “Elwha Forest Fund” to pay the revenues that would come from the sale and spare the timber. The DNR is required by state law to sustainably harvest timber on forested state trust lands to generate revenue for beneficiaries, including schools, hospitals, and more.
“Being members of the community, you know, folks want to just make a good faith effort to raise those funds, and I think we’re really confident that we will be able to raise those replacement funds. And part of the reason we asked for the delay to the county was that, to just give time to do that. Still, there’s no real rush, and there’s no real reason to log, you know, when we come up with that replacement revenue.”
That said, the minimum bid on the Power Plant timber sale is $463,000. That’s a lot of fundraising, and Kenny Ocker from the Department of Natural Resources says, to his knowledge, no such deal has ever been agreed upon by the DNR.
“So, as far as our prior history goes, our institutional knowledge going back decades, no one can ever remember the Department accepting a deal like that. And so, with this sale, we have a fiduciary responsibility to manage these lands in the best interest of the junior taxing districts of Clallam County. And so, something like this is not likely in the best fiduciary interests of our trust beneficiaries.”
The move to stop the sale was not without community support. On March 5, over a hundred community members joined together in a rally at the Elwha River Observation Area near an active timber harvest site called “Aldwell”, which was logged earlier this year by the DNR. At the time, the Port Angeles City Council submitted letters to DNR to plead for the auction to be put on hold.
(Photo courtesy of Scott McGee)