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Blanchard Logging Options Sought: Mountain is a Playground, Source of Timber Money

Posted on: Saturday, 3 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Katie N Johannes, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

Jun. 3--Whether it's a strenuous hike to the top of Oyster Dome or launching off a mountainside in a hang glider, Blanchard Mountain is a Pacific Northwest playground.

But it's also home to 4,827 acres of "working forest," managed by the state Department of Natural Resources and logged to raise money for the state, Skagit County government and Burlington-Edison schools. Now, as DNR is working out its plans for the mountain, recreation groups and environmentalists are trying to stop the logging without taking money away from the beneficiaries of timber sales.

"It's the classic conflict," said Lisa McShane, community relations director for Conservation Northwest, a Bellingham-based nonprofit environmental group. DNR has put together a 10-member Blanchard Forest Strategies Group, charged with writing a draft plan for the site before the end of summer.

Timber sales on the mountain have been suspended until the plan is finished, said Bill Wallace, DNR's northwest region manager. 'EXTRAORDINARY VALUE' Blanchard Mountain is just south of the Whatcom-Skagit county line.

Its extensive trail system is popular with hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders and bird watchers. Hang gliders and paragliders can drive up a logging road to a launch site. It offers views of Samish Bay, the San Juan Islands and the Skagit Valley.

The forest is home to a variety of wildlife, from salamanders to cougars.

Located west of Interstate 5 near Bellingham, the land is easily accessible and is touted as being one of the only places where the Cascades meet the ocean."We would like everything above the existing logging roads preserved in a no-logging model for use ... as open space, for environmental benefits and recreation," said Eron Berg, a lawyer and member of The Friends of Blanchard Mountain. Berg is on the DNR strategic planning group.

That area turns out to be about 3,000 of the 4,827 acres, Berg said.

His group is lobbying for a trust land transfer. It's a complicated process that likely would entail an act of the Legislature and would require finding a different location to generate revenue for the trust beneficiaries.

Berg said his group is open to other options.

"Our objective is preservation of that core (forested) area," he said. "I certainly think there is room to discuss what the core is and other methods of preservation."

Mitch Friedman, executive director of Conservation Northwest and a member of the DNR strategic group, isn't counting on the land transfer option.

"It certainly has extraordinary value in terms of ecology, scenery and recreation," Friedman said. "So we want to see those values protected. That doesn't mean that we'd oppose any and all logging. I'm eager to see whether we can find some commonality in this group." BALANCING NEEDS Wallace, from DNR, said about 95 percent of the mountain was logged when it was under private ownership in the early 1900s. About a third of the mountain has been logged in the last 40 years, mostly at lower elevations, Wallace said.

Current laws protecting streams, wetlands, unstable slopes and habitat would mean about 20 percent of the land could not be logged, he said.

Since 1989, DNR has negotiated timber sales on six patches of Blanchard Mountain, totaling 446 acres.

In the past 12 years, timber sales have generated about $2.7 million. Nearly a quarter went back to DNR to manage trust lands, and the remainder was divided among Skagit County government, the Burlington-Edison School District and other small taxing districts.Mark Peterson, president of the Whatcom Independent Mountain Pedalers (WHIMPs) and owner of Kona Bicycle Co. in Ferndale, hopes there is a better way to provide the same funding.

"In the mountain bike community, we understand that Skagit County needs to find funds from those local lands," he said.

"It may not be the best area to manage trust lands in the way they have historically been managed."

Reach Katie N. Johannes at katie.johannes@bellinghamherald.com or call 756-2805.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Bellingham Herald, Wash.

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