Ranger station may sell homes

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, August 23, 2005

DARRINGTON – The U.S. Forest Service plans to sell 10 houses built for employees near the Darrington Ranger Station about 50 years ago.

The cost-cutting decision would change a longtime relationship with employees. The ranger district still provides some permanent and seasonal employees with affordable housing.

Everett White, acting district ranger, said shrinking budgets have made the homes less affordable.

Michael V. Martina / The Herald Phyllis Reed of the Darrington Ranger District stands before two of the 10 houses owned by the U.S. Forest Service that may be put on the market in an effort to reduce maintenance costs.

“As the Forest Service has downsized in the last 10 or 15 years, we’ve just got a lot of excess buildings that are a drain on our budget for maintenance,” White said.

The Forest Service is shedding buildings not just in Darrington but throughout the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, said Wayne Hamilton, an assistant forest engineer based in Mountlake Terrace.

Maintenance for all those buildings costs $888,000 a year, but the Forest Service only has $67,000 budgeted to pay for it, Hamilton said. The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest covers an area from the Canadian border to well south of Snohomish County.

Darrington is just a piece of that puzzle. Selling the homes could raise between $1 million and $2 million, based on the going rates for homes there.

Ten homes near the Darrington Ranger Station may be sold in an effort to reduce the agencys maintenance costs. The proposal must first pass through the National Environmental Policy Act, which will allow for public feedback.

The move raises the question of whether the Forest Service is considering downsizing Darrington’s ranger station. Former ranger stations in Verlot and Skykomish were converted primarily into visitor information centers during previous budget crunches.

Such fears are exaggerated, White said.

“By selling the houses, we’re not doing any more downsizing as a result of that,” he said.

Nor did he know of any plans to close the Darrington Ranger Station, he said.

“As our budget keeps shrinking, I can’t tell you that’ll never happen, but there’s no plan to,” White said.

In fact, the Forest Service is looking for a full-time ranger for the Darrington district, he said.

Many details of the ranger station home sales are still stuck in the bureaucratic process, including reviews of environmental and archaeological rules, as well as public comment periods. It may be 18 to 24 months before the homes could be sold, White said.

That leaves some details up in the air for the folks living in those homes. Some are wondering if they will get the chance to buy or bid on their homes.

Phyllis Reed, an ecosystems coordinator, has lived in her home on Price Street since 1988. The ranger station is just a block away.

“It’s a convenient commute,” Reed said.

It’s also handy to be available for other duties, such as responding to fires or checking on work crews, she said.

Her ranch-style house was built in 1957. She would like to stay.

“I like the community of Darrington,” Reed said. “I kind of like having the forest as a big back yard.”

Money from the sales could be used for office upgrades at Forest Service facilities in Mountlake Terrace or North Bend, White said.