Critics seize on lands commissioner’s mudslide remark

OLYMPIA — A block away from the state Capitol, in a fourth floor office partially framed with picture windows, Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark is seated at his desk, looking nervous.

He is the man entrusted by voters to make sure harvesting of timber doesn’t trigger destructive landslides. Now they want to know if a 7.5-acre clearcut atop Hazel Hill nearly a decade ago contributed to the deadly mudslide in Oso last month.

He is getting asked the question a lot these days.

“It is too early to know what were the major causes of that terrible landslide,” he said Tuesday. “We want to rely on science and scientific studies to ascertain what the causes of the landslide were.”

At least one renowned geologists who has studied landslides for 30 years says that logging isn’t to blame.

Goldmark’s position is different than he expressed in an April 3 television interview.

At the time, he sounded pretty convinced of no connection between the felling of trees and the catastrophic March 22 geologic event. He suggested that speculation about a link was the propaganda of anti-logging interests.

Some of those interests — who helped elect Goldmark, a Democrat, in 2008 and re-elect him in 2012 — criticized the commissioner’s stance.

Goldmark reacted by retreating to a less judgmental message and launching a probe into the clearcut on the hill above Steelhead Haven.

“We are carrying out an investigation into what happened in 2004,” he said. “I want to emphasize this was under a previous administration. It wasn’t under this administration when that logging occurred. There have been questions about that earlier harvest and we are looking into the matter.”

He did not say when the investigation would be completed or what its scope is.

While Goldmark assumes a wait-and-see attitude on the impact of that timber harvest in 2005, federal geologist Randall Jibson is confident the outcome will reveal no link.

“Clear-cutting and timber harvesting had nothing to do with that landslide,” said Jibson, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “I don’t think there is a credible scientist working up there that thinks it had anything to do with the landslide.”

Jibson and several of his USGS colleagues reached that assessment soon after the mudslide and have not been swayed from it. The slide appears to have begun 200 feet below the surface, he said, and that is far too deep to have been influenced by logging.

They contend there are three ingredients — weak glacial soil, heavier than normal rainfall and steep topography. The mystery is how those elements blended together to liquefy such a large mass of earth so rapidly and propel it more than 5,800 feet from northernmost point at the top of the scarp to the farthest southern point. The debris reached 60 mph. In all, the slide displaced 10 million cubic yards of earth.

“We’re not surprised by where it happened. We’re not surprised by the conditions that caused it to happen,” Jibson said Monday. “What surprised us was the size, the speed and the distance. For a landslide of this volume starting at the height that it did it went farther than any other we’ve measured.”

In size alone it is 50 times bigger than a 2005 landslide that killed 10 people in the California seaside town of La Conchita, Jibson said.

Jibson’s perspective provides Goldmark and Aaron Everett, the state’s chief forester, one scientist’s analysis as they prepare to review agency policies and practices governing timber harvests, particularly on steep slopes.

“There will be many, besides DNR, who will be involved in formulating a plan of lessons learned here and what further scientific information could be useful in helping to identify and provide public safety from this point going forward,” Goldmark said.

Everett said in the end it is “important that we have the right answer.”

When asked what that is, he said: “Speculation is not the right answer.”

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Traffic idles while waiting for the lights to change along 33rd Avenue West on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood seeks solutions to Costco traffic boondoggle

Let’s take a look at the troublesome intersection of 33rd Avenue W and 30th Place W, as Lynnwood weighs options for better traffic flow.

A memorial with small gifts surrounded a utility pole with a photograph of Ariel Garcia at the corner of Alpine Drive and Vesper Drive ion Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Death of Everett boy, 4, spurs questions over lack of Amber Alert

Local police and court authorities were reluctant to address some key questions, when asked by a Daily Herald reporter this week.

The new Amazon fulfillment center under construction along 172nd Street NE in Arlington, just south of Arlington Municipal Airport. (Chuck Taylor / The Herald) 20210708
Frito-Lay leases massive building at Marysville business park

The company will move next door to Tesla and occupy a 300,0000-square-foot building at the Marysville business park.

A voter turns in a ballot on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, outside the Snohomish County Courthouse in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
On fourth try, Arlington Heights voters overwhelmingly pass fire levy

Meanwhile, in another ballot that gave North County voters deja vu, Lakewood voters appeared to pass two levies for school funding.

Judge Whitney Rivera, who begins her appointment to Snohomish County Superior Court in May, stands in the Edmonds Municipal Court on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Judge thought her clerk ‘needed more challenge’; now, she’s her successor

Whitney Rivera will be the first judge of Pacific Islander descent to serve on the Snohomish County Superior Court bench.

In this Jan. 4, 2019 photo, workers and other officials gather outside the Sky Valley Education Center school in Monroe, Wash., before going inside to collect samples for testing. The samples were tested for PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as dioxins and furans. A lawsuit filed on behalf of several families and teachers claims that officials failed to adequately respond to PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, in the school. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Judge halves $784M for women exposed to Monsanto chemicals at Monroe school

Monsanto lawyers argued “arbitrary and excessive” damages in the Sky Valley Education Center case “cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny.”

Mukilteo Police Chief Andy Illyn and the graphic he created. He is currently attending the 10-week FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. (Photo provided by Andy Illyn)
Help wanted: Unicorns for ‘pure magic’ career with Mukilteo police

“There’s a whole population who would be amazing police officers” but never considered it, the police chief said.

Officers respond to a ferry traffic disturbance Tuesday after a woman in a motorhome threatened to drive off the dock, authorities said. (Photo provided by Mukilteo Police Department)
Everett woman disrupts ferry, threatens to drive motorhome into water

Police arrested the woman at the Mukilteo ferry terminal Tuesday morning after using pepper-ball rounds to get her out.

Bothell
Man gets 75 years for terrorizing exes in Bothell, Mukilteo

In 2021, Joseph Sims broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home in Bothell and assaulted her. He went on a crime spree from there.

Allan and Frances Peterson, a woodworker and artist respectively, stand in the door of the old horse stable they turned into Milkwood on Sunday, March 31, 2024, in Index, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Old horse stall in Index is mini art gallery in the boonies

Frances and Allan Peterson showcase their art. And where else you can buy a souvenir Index pillow or dish towel?

Providence Hospital in Everett at sunset Monday night on December 11, 2017. Officials Providence St. Joseph Health Ascension Health reportedly are discussing a merger that would create a chain of hospitals, including Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, plus clinics and medical care centers in 26 states spanning both coasts. (Kevin Clark / The Daily Herald)
Providence to pay $200M for illegal timekeeping and break practices

One of the lead plaintiffs in the “enormous” class-action lawsuit was Naomi Bennett, of Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Voters to decide on levies for Arlington fire, Lakewood schools

On Tuesday, a fire district tries for the fourth time to pass a levy and a school district makes a change two months after failing.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.