Logging takes a hit for fish's sake

Logging takes a hit for fish's sake :

Sandi Doughton; The News Tribune

OLYMPIA - A state board Wednesday adopted emergency rules that will scale back logging along streams to protect threatened and endangered steelhead trout.

The rules apply to private forestlands in the southwestern, north central and southeastern parts of the state - areas where steelhead have been added to the federal Endangered Species List.

But they foreshadow much more comprehensive logging restrictions that eventually will be required across Washington to protect salmon populations under the Endangered Species Act, Public Lands Commissioner Jennifer Belcher said.

"This is a baby step for salmon recovery," she said.

And even so, Belcher added, the issue was contentious.

During a daylong meeting in Olympia, the State Forest Practices Board heard several hours of public testimony.

Timber industry representatives said the new rules, which essentially create streamside buffers ranging in width from 100 to 200 feet, were unnecessary because existing rules already protect streams.

Foresters also said that in some areas, more than 20 percent of timberlands would be off-limits to logging under the rules.

In l986. . the timber fish wildlife agreement negotiated a consultation process where interdisciplinary teams went on-site and determined recommended stream buffer widths based on stream type, fish abundance, slope and type of vegetative buffer. .e.g. the parties had been in litigation and appeal to the forest practice board for years on the width of RMZ in the DNR rules. . .the final negotiated rule reached a process that was site specific, dictataed by the resource, and provided the best available science provided by an interdisciplinary field team. . . . .for years that agreement provided certainty to the land manager NOT in number of feet but in the process and creteria that would be used. . .today, the parties, issues, and pressures on salmon are different, . . . some will see its a "re-negoatiation" of the TFW agreement . others will see that the agreement didn't last because environmental interests began to appeal the terms immediately to the sustainable forest roundtable and the TFW Phase II negotiations which are still underway. . . or it can be seen as "adaptive managment" . .with ten years of implementation and new information about salmon use of small, seasonal streams, and more information about habitat needs and the value of cover and LOD. . . .this is what the parties agreed to do today. . . . perhaps the mos critical thing is not the number of feet but that the effort continues to bring all interests together to do what is right for the resources.. .we may never know whether what we are doing is right. . .but we must do the struggle together. . . .

Environmentalists argued that current logging practices have contributed significantly to the decline of fish runs and should be changed immediately.

The board is chaired by Belcher and regulates logging on the state's vast private timber holdings. Its nine members debated the issue extensively among themselves.

"We're going through an incredibly difficult process just to take this first step," Belcher said. "It shows how hard it's going to be in this state to do the things that have to be done for salmon."

The emergency rules will be in effect for 120 days. By the end of that period, more extensive, permanent rules will be adopted, Belcher said.

The goal is for the permanent rules to be developed through negotiations among the timber industry, environmental groups, tribes and state and federal agencies.

Called the Timber, Fish and Wildlife Group, the negotiators have been working for more than a year to hammer out more fish-friendly logging practices.

Gov. Gary Locke has said the group's final product will be a cornerstone of the salmon recovery plan the state is crafting in hopes of forestalling federal intervention to protect the fish.

But the negotiators have deadlocked on tough issues, such as how much land to protect along streams and how to pay for monitorin= g.

In adopting the emergency rules, the Forest Practices Board said it couldn't wait any longer for a deal.

"We want to support (the negotiations)," Belcher said.

"But in the meantime, we need a rule that will provide basic protections for fish in the areas where we already have species listed as threatened or endangered= ."

However, timber industry representatives said they thought the emergency rules pulled the rug out from under the negotiations, weakening their bargaining position and leaving them with a feeling of betrayal.

"I've got a lot of angry companies behind me," said Bill Wilkerson, executive director of the Washington Forest Protection Association. The industry group represents most of the state's major timber companies, including Weyerhaeuser.

But Belcher and environmentalists predicted the emergency rules will focus and speed the floundering negotiations.

"An emergency rule will keep the pressure on," said Toby Thaler of the Washington Environmental Council.

The rules require extensive environmental review for any road-building operations within 200 feet of major rivers or streams.

They require similar review of all logging operations within 100 feet of any fish-bearing stream and require shade trees be left standing along seasonal drainages.

Under current regulations, streamside buffers range from 25 to 100 feet, but some logging is generally allowed.

While the new requirements don't automatically rule out logging within the buffer zones, they will have that practical effect, because timber companies dread the time, cost and red tape required for full-blown environmental analyses.

"We will not go through that," said John Gorman of Simpson Timber Co.

"It's a black hole for us."

The rules also require timber companies to prepare plans for restoring logging roads, which can be a major cause of erosion.

The temporary rules will help keep sediment out of spawning streams, shade the water so it stays cool and provide dead trees that fall into the waterways and create pools - all things steelhead and salmon need, said John Mankowski of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlif= e.

But in the long term, even stricter rules will be necessary if the fish are to survive, he added.

"This is just a Band-Aid approach to stop the bleeding while we deal with the less obvious impacts," Mankowski said.