'Old-growth' is reportedly to be off-limits

By Rebecca Cook
The Associated Press

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OLYMPIA — State Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland will announce plans today to make old-growth forest on state trust land off-limits to logging, a source familiar with the planned announcement told The Associated Press.

The move would protect about 60,000 acres of old-growth forest in Washington state, according to Department of Natural Resources estimates.

The state manages about 2.1 million acres of forestland, selling the timber to raise money for school construction, universities, county government, fire districts and other public needs.

The agency defines "old growth" as forest stands with an estimated age of 160 years or more. Most of the 60,000 acres of old-growth trees on state trust lands already are protected — only about 14,000 acres are open to potential logging now, according to department estimates.

Sutherland, a Republican, was elected in 2000 to head the Department of Natural Resources. He was scheduled to announce details of his initiative on old-growth protection at a news conference this morning.

Loggers and environmentalists have long battled over the fate of old-growth forests. In 1990, the spotted owl was listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Millions of acres of federal and state forestland were declared off-limits to protect the owls' nesting habitat, old-growth forests. Thousands of logging jobs disappeared, crippling some rural economies.

Sutherland believes environmental goals can coexist with a healthy logging industry.

"Many of the environmental choices we face are in fact false choices," he said in 2002. "As our understanding of ecosystems and forestry improves, the standard owls vs. schools argument is becoming a nonargument."

Sutherland probably will present his plan to the state Board of Natural Resources at its meeting next month. The six-member board, of which Sutherland is a voting member, guides decisions about state trust land.

Board member Bruce Bare, dean of the Forest Resources School at the University of Washington, said the news took him by surprise.

"It's a bolt out of the blue," Bare said yesterday evening. "As a board member, I would certainly want to look at the impacts."

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