http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003042186_timberhcp06m.html
Timber-salmon plan gets federal go-ahead

Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland turns to Gov. Chris Gregoire after signing the Washington State Forest Practices Habitat Conservation Plan, in his hand, at a ceremony on the Miller family tree farm in Olympia.

 

JOHN FROSCHAUER / AP

Toby Espenshied, whose grandparents hosted Monday's signing ceremony at their tree farm, reminds Gov. Chris Gregoire to try the cake that was on hand for the celebration.

The contentious, hard-fought agreement grew out of rules approved by the state Legislature in 1999 that will govern 9.3 million acres of public and private state forest land. The rules will require loggers to leave more trees near streams, reduce timber harvest on unstable slopes and control runoff on private land across the state.

In exchange, the government will give the state's thousands of participating landowners assurances that they won't be required to further restrict use of their land to save fish.

The blueprint, known formally as a Habitat Conservation Plan, and its organizers were praised by officials from the state, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, who consider it the only way to ensure salmon and timber harvesting can both survive in rural Washington.

"Their health and their well-being mirror our health and our well-being," Gov. Chris Gregoire said.

Timber-industry officials were equally pleased.

"We're proud to have the guts to stay the course," said Bill Wilkerson, director of the timber industry's Washington Forest Protection Association.

The idea behind the plan was simple: Provide landowners with some kind of regulatory certainty, and offer rules flexible enough that they could change when new science suggests that new ideas are needed to restore healthy runs of salmon, steelhead and bull trout.

But environmentalists, who backed out of initial negotiations seven years ago claiming their positions would never be seriously considered, remain deeply skeptical that the program will work as designed.

"Our concern is that it is nowhere near protective enough," said environmentalist Glen Spain, of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen. "Will this adequately protect the state's fish runs? That's a big open question."