One of the races I haven’t paid nearly enough attention to this election season is Peter Goldmark’s incredibly strong challenge of two-term Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland (R-Weyerhaeuser).
Goldmark is a farmer, rancher, molecular biology PHD, and former state Agriculture Director and WSU regent, who is not only exceptionally well qualified (and simply a great guy) but a rare opportunity for folks on the other side of the mountains to put one of their own in a statewide elected office. Sutherland, on the other hand, has proven himself to be a lax manager who has clearly sided with timber and mining interests over those of us ordinary citizens who actually own the public lands in his charge.
Sutherland’s failure to effectively manage public lands and protect public resources and public safety was highlighted last December, when torrential rains led to over 730 landslides in the Upper Chehalis Basin alone, that wiped out roads, destroyed homes and contributed to flooding that caused more than $57 million in property damage in Lewis County. And as the Seattle Times reports in an extensive multi-part investigative series, 30% of the landslides were produced from steep sites that had been clearcut without proper oversight from Sutherland’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
State forestry rules empower the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to restrict logging on unstable slopes when landslides could put public resources or public safety at risk.
But in Little Mill Creek and elsewhere in the Upper Chehalis basin, a Seattle Times investigation found that Weyerhaeuser frequently clear-cut on unstable slopes, with scant oversight from the state geologists who are supposed to help watchdog the timber industry.
As Boistfort Valley farmer David Fenn told the Times while standing on his debris covered property,
“Well, look in the field. They get to cut trees and make money, and I get to clean up their mess.
Of course, heavy rains cause landslides, so some of this type of damage is always inevitable in our region, but the state has developed strict rules on approving clear cuts on unstable slopes… rules that DNR apparently has not been enforcing for years. Since 2002 thousands of cuts have been approved without timber companies filing geological reports, and without DNR geologists surveying the sites on their own. And many of these cuts occurred on sites which prior surveys had already determined to be highly unstable, this despite the fact that both the science and the rules are absolutely clear.
David Montgomery, a University of Washington geomorphology professor who reviewed The Seattle Times’ findings, believes Weyerhaeuser underestimated the risks of clear-cutting.
He notes that several logged areas included features specifically defined in state rules as potentially unstable.
Logging these areas removes trees that help intercept the rain and bind the soil. Decades of studies, which have been used to help shape state forest-practice rules, show logging such slopes can increase the number and size of slides.
Montgomery wrote some of those studies. His blunt assessments of the connection between logging and landslides have sometimes rankled state and industry officials.
“If the policy is not to increase landsliding, then they have no business cutting on some of these slopes,” Montgomery said. “There is not a mechanistic model on this planet that would predict cutting down those trees would do anything other than reduce stability. The only question is how much.”
And it’s not just private land owners and mud-clogged municipal water companies who have been forced to clean up DNR’s mess at great expense. As the Times reports today in Part II of their series, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) is at wits end attempting to watchdog the DNR watchdogs at proposed logging sites near state roads, often finding itself in the position of forcing DNR to enforce its own rules.
In March, Weyerhaeuser sought permits to cut 49 acres along another site above Highway 101 in Grays Harbor County. State foresters once again noted unstable slopes in an office checklist. But they didn’t ask for a geological review until Eric Bilderback, a state Transportation geologist, relayed his concerns.
A Weyerhaeuser geologist then agreed to withdraw 5 acres that Bilderback cited as potentially unstable.
“We shouldn’t always have to look over the shoulder of everyone else,” Bilderback said. “It’s kind of frustrating that this is not catching on.”
Frustrating yes, and expensive too, with a recent landslide along one portion of Highway 107 alone costing taxpayers over $3 million in repairs and maintenance.
As for Sutherland, he seems pretty nonplussed by the controversy:
“Do we have enough oversight?” Sutherland said. “With the folks available, with the data available. With the technology available. My answer would be yes, we do. Can we improve it? Definitely.”
I agree, we definitely can improve DNR oversight, but things have only gotten worse under Sutherland’s eight years of mismanagement, not better. So if we really want a Commissioner who is willing and able to enforce DNR’s regulations, and protect both public resources and public safety, it is time to elect Peter Goldmark.
You got that right!
Actually, with all the hub-bub that other races are generating I doubt you could get many folks to look at this race earlier than right around now.
Thanks for getting this post up.
First, good on the Times for doing this series. Shows to go that Blethen’s rag can occasionally do something really well, and this is the sort of thing where doing so took an organization with the staff, resources and patience to do the research, and the readership for it to be worth the bother.
Secondly, this all shows the sorry state to which “business ethics” have sunk in our society. For much of its long history, Weyerhaeuser has cultivated a reputation for stewardship of the forest resources under its purview, and to a great extent has tried to live up to its own hype. In recent times, though, its management has been under tremendous pressure from the Wall Street Shysters to “maximize return to the shareholders”–translate that to “go after the fast buck”. This has led to the company violating not only the inadequately-enforced law, but presumably its own guidelines. The landslide sites are not only disastrous to the community, but now they’re even steeper slopes that can’t be reseeded and logged again in a few decades–but under the current ethos, “that’s a next-quarter problem”.
get kerry killinger on the case. he is proving to be an expert at landslides.
You can always count on Republican freeloaders to milk as much private profit from public lands as they can get their hands on, and leave a mess behind for taxpayers to clean up. And no one plays that game more egregiously than the hard-rock mining industry, which provides … oh … maybe all of 50 or 75 jobs in Washington state.
I made $800 in the stock market today! That may not sound like much to you McCain-voting trailer park high rollers, but that’s equivalent to 100 bucks an hour, and I didn’t have to commute through traffic, wear a shirt or tie, or get out of bed to make it! In fact, I slept throught the whole thing! And I get a two-thirds discount on my taxes! Sure beats working.
But the big stock market news today is that Mr. Cynical lost another $5,000 on his foolish bet on Wells Fargo Bank! It’s almost enough to make me feel sorry for the old goat. I can already visualize him panhandling for spare change to pay his greens fees. Why in hell anyone would risk money on a bank stock is beyond me … unless it’s someone else’s money.
Hey Cynical! If you’ve got any money left (which seems doubtful) you should buy BOOM! I think it’s bottomed, and it’s a steal at under $30.
I read the article and thought it was a well-written piece on an important topic.
But why have an elected “Commissioner of Public Land” anyway? Why is it not just another state department?
o/t but do you think clay bennett’s lawyers read the “rules for homoerotic circle jerks” as background for their cross exam of sherman alexie?
“But why have an elected “Commissioner of Public Land” anyway? Why is it not just another state department?”
You’re not from around here, are you?
Answer: Western populism.
“But why have an elected ‘Commissioner of Public Land’ anyway? Why is it not just another state department?”
You’re not originally from around here, are you?
Answer: Western populism.
Well let’s see what can’t we do on public lands
1) Can’t build clean power hydroelectric dams cuz that will hurt de salmon
2) Can’t build wind power turbines cuz that will hurt de boids.
3) Can’t install solar power arrays cuz you need an environmental impact statement
4) Can’t build nukular powerplants cuz the French love them.
5)
Can’t clear your land cuz of the CAO– Strike that6) Can’t log old growth forests cuz you hurt the spotted owl.
7) Can’t clear dead ground clutter from forests cuz we need those cleansing CA wild fires which put large plumes of smoke into the atmosphere.
8) Can’t build more transmission lines cuz that cuts down old forests.
9) Can’t create firebreaks cuz that hurts old forests.
10) Can’t defecate on public land unless you are a “wascally wabbit”.
@11 “1) Can’t build clean power hydroelectric dams cuz that will hurt de salmon”
That’s right. Salmon are a multi-million dollar industry. They’re food. They’re recreation. They’re renewable. Only a damn fool would throw them away for a little more electricity. Turn off lights you’re not using, dickweed.
@10 (continued) “10) Can’t defecate on public land unless you are a ‘wascally wabbit’.”
It’s a privilege of feral native fauna. Get over it, fuckwad.
To Goldy’s NorthWest Division of Lunatic Moonbat!s – See posts 12&13.
Puddy @ 11: Most of the items you listed are exaggerated, in that most of the uses you mentioned CAN be done, provided that you take the proper steps and it is done in a location and in such a way as to not create more harm than good. Maybe you can’t log old growth timber in areas of spotted owl habitat, but there are other areas where logging is permitted.
It’s a balancing act, but Republicans who are in the habit of pretty much doing whatever they want to do on public land don’t want to go to the effort of doing it properly – they’d rather whine about how it’s too hard to do it right. I’ve got no sympathy for that argument. If you can’t do it right, then get out of the business. And if your project is going to do more harm than good, why are you even crying about it, anyway????
Notice Pelletizer is calling himself feral now cuz he’s the only wascally wabbit around here.
Where’s Pipehead?
Anybody smelled anything lately?
Jim, STILL never having attempted to operate a bagpipe assy.
I think he posted this morning on another thread.
Never attempted? What makes you genuine?
Thanks for the reminder of why I wanted to vote for Goldmark! I just started a “shortcut on the desktop” Word document. Copy&paste snippets there over the next few months, so I can remember next Nov, save time re-researching. Got Goldmark at the top of the list. Even though he’s clearly the best choice on his own standings, it would be great to have a candidate from Eastern WA that we can all get behind, too.
@11
We’ve dammed ’bout everything worth damming. Thanks to conservation efforts Seattle is using ’bout the same amount of power it used 20 yearsago and Seattle still wastes a lot of power. Conservation efforts are cheaper and faster than building new power generation.
Bull Shit, wind turbines are going up as fast as we can build them.
3) Can’t install solar power arrays cuz you need an environmental impact statement
Bull shit again. I wouldn’t even need a building permit to stick some on my roof.
You righties are the ones with issues with the French. Ever seen a strip mine? The French can build Nuke Plants because they’re not building strip mines in their own country. The French, also, aren’t the largest debtor country in the history of civilization. We don’t have the scratch to build them.
CAO is still, largely, in place in King county and that law suit only covered King County.
You can’t log old growth because there’s none left to log and even if you did you couldn’t get the wood milled. The mills retooled to work with smaller trees a decade or more ago.
Wrong again, but fuck you anyway.
Yeah, I’ll go with fuck you on this one too.
9) Can’t create firebreaks cuz that hurts old forests.
Again, not true. You used to do a little research before posting, what happened? We don’t use as many fire breaks in part because we wnat fires to burn and get rid of under growth.
10) Can’t defecate on public land unless you are a “wascally wabbit”.
Admit it, you’re just jealous.
The part about how the DNR regularly ignores and doesn’t do the geological work before OKing clearcutting is the most damning – my transportation taxes are going to clean up million dollar messes so that Weyerhauser can clearcut with impunity. The link between republicans and corruption is like the link between overeating and obesity – just like the latest Bush scandal of access to the president for contributions to the “library” by homeland security. A republican backscratcher in government fixes all the industry itches.
Michael here’s the Moonbat!-speak truth
1) Can’t build clean power hydroelectric dams cuz that will hurt de salmon
chamisa.freeshell.org/dam.htm
2) Can’t build wind power turbines cuz that will hurt de boids.
http://www.climateark.org/shar.....o%20growth
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20040522/ai_n14576737
3) Can’t install solar power arrays cuz you need an environmental impact statement
The BLM required a PEIS because of the green movement. http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/in....._2008.html
4) Can’t build nukular powerplants cuz the French love them.
Google “democrats against nuclear power” enjoy the reading Michael
5) Can’t clear your land cuz of the CAO – Strike that
That was a joke Michael
6) Can’t log old growth forests cuz you hurt the spotted owl.
Google “old growth forests spotted owl” – enjoy the reading Michael
7) Can’t clear dead ground clutter from forests cuz we need those cleansing CA wild fires which put large plumes of smoke into the atmosphere.
http://www.forestcouncil.org/t.....php?id=107
Environmentalists stop ground clutter removal – http://www.kentucky.com/mld/ke.....296024.htm
8) Can’t build more transmission lines cuz that cuts down old forests.
psc.wi.gov/thelibrary/publications/electric/electric10.pdf
9) Can’t create firebreaks cuz that hurts old forests.
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080703132157AABk9TY
http://www.thefurtrapper.com/f.....gement.htm
You see Michael I have my links. All you provided was hot air…
rhp6033: We used to have forest thinning and ground clutter removal. Now even that is verboten to an environmentalist.