In Our View: Build a Bigger Pie; DNR’s Sutherland Has Established Himself As a Solid Manager of Forests and Funds

Doug Sutherland makes a good case for allowing the Department of Natural Resources, which he directs, to receive 30 percent of the revenue from state timber sales instead of the current 25 percent. By allowing DNR a bigger piece of the pie, it can reap additional revenue for schools, colleges and counties.

But there’s a lingering question that has little to do with timber sales or the protecting of natural resources. It has more to do with fiducial acumen: Is Sutherland qualified to manage this increase? In other words, has he earned these boosts in responsibilities and rewards for his department?

The answer is an unqualified “yes.” In fact, few state department heads have accumulated a more impressive track record than Sutherland. While gathering state revenue of about $250 million annually, the DNR has reduced overhead costs by almost 20 percent. In the past four and a half years, Sutherland has reduced staffing in the agency while increasing the revenue earned per employee by 40 percent.

He operates a $400 million biennial budget, and the agency manages almost 3 million acres of publicly owned lands and 2 million acres of aquatic lands.

That track record builds a strong case for House Bill 2084, which would increase the DNR’s share of timber-harvesting proceeds from 25 percent to 30 percent.

The next big question, then, is: Whose ox gets gored? Thankfully, there is no such critter. By increasing the DNR’s management resources, an estimated $300 million in additional revenue would be generated, and that’s why state schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson supports the bill.

Bergeson also serves on the Board of Natural Resources, which guides and monitors the DNR’s numerous multiple-use and sustainable- harvest policies.

Recently the Board of Natural Resources adopted a new sustainable- harvest plan that helps manage forest lands for the next 10 years. And that’s how long the DNR’s proposed increase (from 25 percent of revenue to 30 percent) would last.

For more than a century, logging of state lands has provided as much as 30 percent of the state’s contributions to school construction costs. And as both the need for more school buildings and construction costs increase, the demands on that funding source must increase as well.

DNR has established itself as an effective revenue producer and environmental steward. The Washington Environmental Council supported an early version of HB 2084, although it later opposed a changed version that removed safeguards to ensure overall forest health. But we hope the bill will not become bogged down in this detail. There are multiple layers of public and bureaucratic oversight to which it must answer.

The agency and its director have earned a bigger piece of the pie, especially when the additional revenue will benefit all of the state’s citizens.