Push on to stave off logging

STEVENS PASS — Conservationists are scrambling for money to buy property in the Skykomish Valley to preserve old-growth forests, roadless areas and river shores.

More than a dozen parcels potentially targeted for logging — totaling about 3,000 acres — include roadless, high-elevation old-growth forests and lands along the Miller, Beckler and Tye rivers as well as near Lake Serene, Mount Persis and Index Creek.

If one parcel, directly above the town of Wellington, near Stevens Pass, were clear-cut, views would be altered from the Iron Goat Trail, the historic location of one of the worst train disasters in U.S. history. In Washington's most lethal natural disaster, an avalanche on March 1, 1910, swept down Windy Mountain, toppling two Great Northern Railroad trains, killing 96.

Views of the new Wild Sky Wilderness and Henry M. Jackson Wilderness also would be affected.

The lands that conservationists would like to protect are managed by Longview Timber and owned by Brookfield Asset Management. The company, based in Toronto with corporate offices in Rio de Janeiro, New York and London, owns about 665,000 acres of timber in Washington and Oregon as part of its $90 billion asset portfolio, which includes hydroelectric and electric-transmission facilities in Chile and Brazil.

But a hometown push is on to preserve the Skykomish Valley properties, with a coalition of state conservation groups signing onto a letter sent to Longview Timber last month urging permanent protection. Signers include the Sierra Club; Friends of the Wild Sky; American Whitewater; the Alpine Lakes Protection Society; Conservation NW; The Mountaineers; Volunteers for Outdoor Washington; and the North Cascades Conservation Council.

In the letter, conservationists ask the company to hold off on building roads and logging until discussions about preserving the properties can take place.

"We are happy to pay fair-market value, but we need some time to put a deal together," said Charlie Raines, of the Sierra Club, who blew the whistle for help after a hike last October on which he encountered a fresh logging road and clear-cut near Embro Lake in the Skykomish Valley. "There is nothing like stumps to get you excited," Raines said.

"I thought, this roadless old growth — ... we are at 4,000 feet, this is crazy, and it's not even high-value — this is going to be toilet paper. This is not where we ought to be doing this, and what could be next? If we can protect the roadless areas and the river shore, that is the priority."

The company is happy to sit down with conservationists, said Chris Lipton, Washington state manager for Longview Timber, based in Longview, Cowlitz County.

"We have looked at the list provided by the coalition, and we don't have any active operations planned for 2009 in the sections they listed," Lipton said.

"We understand that people care a lot about that drainage and other wild places, and we are sensitive to that, and we are experienced in doing these kinds of deals, even in this same valley. We are definitely willing and eager to responsibly create value, and we can do that in a lot of ways and very creatively."

Raines hopes to work with other conservation groups to put together a series of deals over time, beginning this new year with help from Congress to purchase the properties.

The preservation pitch continues a trend for the Skykomish Valley, which has been a focus of considerable and special conservation attention. The residents of the town of Index last year raised more than $1.2 million from private donors and Snohomish County to buy timberland above their town to preserve views from Main Street.

Last year, Congress approved and the president signed into law a bill creating the 106,577-acre Wild Sky Wilderness north of Highway 2 in the Skykomish Valley, the first new federal wilderness designation in Washington in a generation.

Volunteers also have put in countless hours building and maintaining the Iron Goat Trail near Stevens Pass. The trail commemorates the history of the train disaster at Wellington and the Great Northern — and provides expansive views into the surrounding forests, some of which would be cut if the lands are not preserved.

"It would just ruin that trail," said Ruth Itner, 90, of Seattle, a lifelong mountain climber and hiker and informal godmother of the volunteer effort to build the Iron Goat.

Nick Harper, Snohomish County Conservation Director for the Cascade Land Conservancy in Seattle, sees a valley that is redefining itself. "All of these communities sit in this beautiful natural corridor," Harper said. "We need a coordinated strategy for the future that includes logging where it is appropriate, and conservation where that is the best fit."

Money's money, whether for land or timber, and the company is willing to consider a deal, Lipton said.

Longview "is obviously in the timber business, and we have a responsibility to create value for our owner off that property," Lipton said. "But one of the ways we can do that is by selling it."

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com