On a recent Sunday, The Herald published a front-page article highlighting the desire of a local Gold Bar group to have 5,300 acres of Snohomish County forestland converted from multiple-use, including sustainable timber harvests, to a dedicated recreation-use only park (“Would a 5,300-acre county park be a good thing?” The Herald, Aug. 16). The implication is that if periodic logging on the tract continues, hiking and other recreational opportunities will be destroyed.

In contrast to that notion the state Department of Natural Resources, which manages the land in trust for the county, has bent over backward designing harvests in the general area that minimize the impacts on other values while meeting its legal mandate to provide revenue for the local taxing districts. Most avid users of our public forests recognize that professional, sustainably managed harvests can enhance the potential benefits to other uses and provide access for folks beyond those fit enough for strenuous hikes. Ironically, the most expansive views along any trail are frequently those from recently logged tracts, where a solid timber canopy would have blocked any vista. This forestland has been logged in the past and should continue to be in the future.

The proponents of the park contend that revenue lost from a cessation of timber management could be made up by increased tourism dollars. That old bromide has been repeatedly used around the state for decades attempting to justify the end of timber harvests. Such offset has never happened. Ask the residents of Forks, Aberdeen, Port Angeles, Darrington, Skykomish, Morton, Packwood, Concrete and numerous other rural towns around the state how that promise has worked out for them. Sadly, once vibrant communities are now simply struggling to exist.

Ron Baker

Arlington