The sale of timber on 89 acres of Department of Natural Resources forestland in Whatcom County was approved by the state, to the chagrin of conservation groups that have asked the county government to delay individual sales and focus on a holistic forest management plan.
The four stands of trees on the Van Zandt Dike plateau that collectively make up Little Lilly are mainly Douglas fir and range in age from around 60 to 160 years old, according to the DNR State Environmental Policy Act report. Logging operations will follow the “leave tree strategy” which retains a scattering of the oldest trees and snags in the harvest area. Trees that are 60 inches in diameter or larger will be spared.
Of the 140 acres originally assessed for sale, DNR is conserving 51 acres because of unstable slopes and proximity to riparian areas or wetlands. But much of the sale is mature, naturally regenerated, second-growth forest, and conservation groups argue logging would impact water filtration, flood regulation, summer water supply and climate resilience.
In September, the Sierra Club and the Center for Responsible Forestry wrote letters to the Whatcom County Council and the county executive asking for a pause on Little Lilly and other timber sales until the county and DNR can work out a “shared forest management approach.”
DNR Baker District Manager Chris Hankey said that while “environmental advocacy groups philosophically object to the harvest of those stands,” DNR has strict management practices to protect streams and wildlife habitat and encourage structurally complex stands.
“Substantial areas are set aside in some kind of conservation status in Whatcom County,” Hankey said. “For what’s left, it is our fiduciary responsibility to generate those revenues. Through policies and commitments as well as meeting regulatory requirements, DNR balances ecological, economic and social interests, managing the land base for current and future generations.”
Money from timber sales on DNR forestland goes to public beneficiaries including schools and fire districts.
On Oct. 1, the Washington Board of Natural Resources approved Little Lilly along with a raft of other timber sales. The Little Lilly auction is set to start Nov. 20 and the minimum bid value is $1.59 million. At that price, nearly $300,000 would go to the Mount Baker School District (MBSD), but so far this fiscal year, timber sale bids have averaged 37% over the minimum, so Little Lilly will likely bring in more.
The Mount Baker School Board wrote its own letter beseeching the council not to further delay DNR sales. The school board noted that timber sale delays meant the district only received $107,000 in the 2022-23 school year, down from the 2015-22 average of $1.2 million per year.
MBSD has received additional oversight from the state since summer 2023 after running a million-dollar deficit. But the district’s operating budget for the 2024-25 school year is nearly $35 million, which means that timber revenue is only “icing on the cake” and varies dramatically with no guarantee of annual income, argued Brel Froebe, the executive director of the Center for Responsible Forestry, in his letter to the county.
“There are deeper root causes to solve when it comes to fully funding our schools,” wrote Froebe, who attended Mount Baker schools as a child. “Rural communities shouldn’t have to choose between climate resilience and our kids’ education.”
Kaia Hayes, the land and water policy manager at RE Sources, said the continued march of timber sales sometimes feels to her organization like a “haunted carousel ride.” She said she’s worried that even as the county tries to hammer out its long-term vision for forest management in the region, DNR will continue to log the oldest stands.
RE Sources and other conservation groups want to give the county Forest Resilience Task Force, established in 2023, the chance to develop a comprehensive forest resilience plan with a framework for engagement with public agencies, tribal governments and relevant stakeholders.
“Our goal in this broader ask is to get us all to pull back from individual sales, pump the brakes, collect ourselves and create space where we can do it uninterrupted,” Hayes said.
The Whatcom County Council has been willing to intervene in the past — in 2023, the council asked the DNR to pause the Brokedown Palace sale along the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River, while the two entities discussed forest management. The parcel was later set aside for conservation.
Although some in the community have asked for a pause on Little Lilly, during a Natural Resources Committee meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 8, the council members did not seem to have an appetite for it.
Council member Mark Stremler said the Brokedown Palace pause “sounded good” at the time because of the possibility of finding other harvestable acres to replace the revenue lost by not logging Brokedown Palace or other valuable stands. But the DNR hasn’t made much progress on finding and acquiring replacement parcels in Whatcom County, Forest Advisory Committee chair John Gold told the council.
“We need to revisit that discussion and look at these requests for further pauses through that kind of a lens,” council member Todd Donovan said on Tuesday. “There’s not a mechanism right now where anyone’s going to get compensated for these revenues.”
“I don’t like this funding system. I hope the state can figure out a better way to get these revenues to the school districts, but this is the bad reality we’re facing right now and we’re not acknowledging what we obligated ourselves to in that letter,” Donovan added, referencing a May 2023 letter from the council asking DNR to pause the Brokedown Palace sale.
Hankey said he believes collaboration and communication between the state agency and the Whatcom County government has improved in recent years.
“Counties are a major beneficiary of DNR management, so there should be dialogue, there should be engagement, and I think that’s gotten better,” Hankey said. “I hope the council and the executive feel they’re being listened to, and it seems that we’re being listened to as we explain why we do what we do.”
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
