Timber at center of lands commissioner race

Published 9:00 pm Monday, October 18, 2004

SEATTLE – In his bid for re-election, Washington’s public lands commissioner touts a new plan that calls for harvesting more timber from state forests as one of the reasons he deserves a second term.

His Democratic rival says it’s a strong case for ousting the incumbent.

Doug Sutherland, a moderate Republican who has won over a number of conservationists, is running against state Rep. Mike Cooper, the favorite among environmental groups, Democratic Party loyalists and labor unions.

Sutherland beamed a bright smile last month when the Board of Natural Resources, after dozens of public meetings spanning more than three years, unanimously approved a timber-harvest target averaging 597 million board feet a year in Western Washington over the next 10 years.

Sutherland, the board’s chairman, hailed the harvest target as ecologically and economically responsible, saying it would raise more money for school construction, meet state and federal standards for protecting fish and wildlife, and make the forests healthier by thinning areas choked with too many trees.

Cooper counters there isn’t much sustainable about the so-called “sustainable harvest calculation.”

As he sees it, the plan calls for too much clear-cutting, threatens drinking water and salmon habitat, and leaves old-growth forests vulnerable.

“You don’t make a forest healthier by cutting it down,” said Cooper, a firefighter who has spent eight years representing the Edmonds area in the Legislature.

What Cooper calls a clear-cut, Sutherland calls a “regeneration harvest” – a forestry term for cutting down most of a stand of trees to maximize the amount of light, water and nutrients for a fresh crop.

About eight trees are left standing on every acre of a regeneration harvest, which Cooper says is hardly enough to provide worthwhile habitat for wildlife.

“You drive by a clear-cut and you see the lonely eight trees out in the middle. What I call them is blow-down trees. They’re out there waiting to be blown down in a winter storm,” Cooper said.

As head of the Department of Natural Resources, the lands commissioner oversees logging on about 2 million acres of state forests and regulates the timber harvest on 8 million acres of privately owned land.

Money from the state’s timber sales goes into a trust that funds school construction, libraries, hospitals, county services and other needs. That forces the lands commissioner to strike a delicate balance between maximizing revenue for the trust and protecting the environment.

Sutherland’s backers, including former Democratic Gov. Booth Gardner and board members of several conservation groups, say he’s a master at the art of compromising who’s done a good job of striking that balance.

“I think Doug’s got a real knack of finding somewhere in the middle ground so everyone gets something they want without giving away the store,” Gardner said.

Cooper and his supporters accuse Sutherland of selling out to the timber industry and other business interests that have contributed to his campaign.

Sutherland, elected lands commissioner in 2000 when he was Pierce County Executive, bristles at any suggestion he’s in anyone’s pocket.

“I’ve pissed off just about everybody at one time or another,” Sutherland said, adding that the state’s new harvest target is much lower than some in the timber industry had been pushing for.

Peter Goldman, a wealthy environmental activist, recently donated a quarter of a million dollars to Citizens Protecting Our Water and Forests, a group he helped set up to thwart Sutherland’s run for a second term.

Among his long list of complaints about Sutherland, Goldman criticized the incumbent’s support for “green certification” through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, a program created by the American Forest &Paper Association.

Goldman and other conservationists favor the Forest Stewardship Council’s program, which has higher environmental standards.

“The only way for Washington to retain a viable forest industry is to improve its practices,” Goldman said. “It’s just too cheap to grow trees somewhere else.”

Sutherland said both programs offer an environmental seal of approval that would make the state’s wood more valuable, but chose to pursue SFI certification first, because all it requires is for the state to improve training for loggers and become a member of the initiative.

To counteract the group campaigning against Sutherland, several timber companies recently donated about $300,000 to a group called Committee for Balanced Stewardship.

Sutherland has a substantial fund-raising edge over Cooper, with about $408,000 raised and $120,00 in the bank. Cooper has pulled in roughly $277,000 and has $29,000 in cash on hand.

For all their differences, the candidates do agree on some points, such as setting aside more aquatic reserves – a program Sutherland created to protect submerged lands near environmentally sensitive shorelines – and leasing more state land to wind power farms.

Doug Sutherland: Republican incumbent:

Mike Cooper: Democratic challenger:

Here is how the candidates for state public lands commissioner stand on some of the issues involved in the race:

Incumbent Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland, Republican:

* Believes the lands commissioner has a constitutional responsibility to maximize logging revenue for schools and counties that benefit from the forest trust while keeping ecosystems healthy.

* Supports “green certification” first through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, a program created by the timber industry, and potentially through the more environmentally stringent Forest Stewardship Council.

* Supports selective logging near streamsides to improve habitat choked with too many trees.

* Signed several wind power leases and would sign more to create new sources of revenue for the forest trust.

* Created the state’s first aquatic reserve program and supports designating more habitat protection areas near shorelines.

* Believes state should set aside legal squabbles and get started on cleaning up contaminated areas of Puget Sound.

State Rep. Mike Cooper, Democrat:

* Believes the state should figure out new ways to fund schools so it doesn’t rely so heavily on logging.

* Supports restoring forest health through “variable density” thinning, which is more labor intensive than standard methods and thus a source of new jobs.

* Believes heavy logging near streams poses too big a threat to water quality and habitat for protected salmon.

* Believes the old-growth forests on state land should be purchased from the trust through a land transfer program and permanently protected.

* Would seek Forest Stewardship Council “green certification” for state-owned forests. Believes the Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s program is too closely tied to the timber industry.

* Supports leasing more state land for wind energy production.

* Supports creating more aquatic reserves and maintaining environmental protections for existing reserves.

* Believes state should explore creation of nonprofit cooperatives and “forest improvement districts” to help family forest owners market their products and to help rural communities to develop mills to process logs from forest thinning.