State Rep. Mike Cooper, D-Edmonds, will give up his 21st District seat in the House of Representatives to run for commissioner of public lands in the fall.
“I’ve been looking at it for awhile,” said Cooper, who began his campaign March 12, the day after the Legislature adjourned, with appearances across the state.
“I felt like the time was right for me to look at doing something new. The natural resources issues are an area I have a great deal of interest in,” Cooper said.
Cooper, an Edmonds native and Shoreline firefighter by trade, was first elected to the state House in 1996 and is now finishing his fourth two-year term. He chairs the House Fisheries, Ecology and Parks Committee.
“It’s been a real pleasure for me – for eight years it’s been a real honor for me to serve the people of the 21st District,” Cooper said.
The public lands commissioner oversees the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which managed more than 5 million acres of land – forests, farms, commercial properties and underwater lands in the state. In a long-established system, proceeds from sales of timber and wheat from state lands go toward school construction.
Current Commissioner Doug Sutherland, a Republican, formerly served on the Tacoma City Council, two terms as Tacoma mayor, three years as SeaTac city manager and two terms as Pierce County Executive. He is finishing his first four-year term as commissioner of public lands.
Cooper says he differs with Sutherland’s philosophy when it comes to managing forest lands and habitat.
“The current commissioner isn’t too interested in preserving the old growth we have,” Cooper said. “I think we protect it and we manage the balance in a little different way.”
He contends the DNR’s plan for the next decade calls for doing some cutting in old growth forests – not clearcutting, but Cooper, noting that old growth is a small percentage of forests, says none of it should be cut.
But Cooper is mistaken about Sutherland’s policy, according to Todd Myers, spokesman for Sutherland’s re-election campaign.
“We will not cut in old growth,” Myers said. “There’s no reason to cut in areas that are in good habitat.”
Myers said economic return on old-growth timber is not good and therefore there’s no incentive to cut in those areas. “Doug Sutherland has been very clear about that,” Myers said.
Cooper also contends the DNR plan calls for cutting too close to streams in some cases, and that timber harvest rates are projected to increase by 35 percent over the next decade. Myers responded that plans are to thin in some areas, including non-native hardwood growth near streams, as a way to improve habitat He put the harvest increase figure at 10 percent.
Cooper said he has received preliminary backing from the Washington Environmental Council, Washington Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club.
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