Timber industry gets exemption from endangered-species law
For the next half-century, Washington's timber industry will be shielded from Endangered Species Act prosecutions for harming salmon and four dozen other types of water creatures, the federal government declared Monday.
In exchange, the industry pledged to take steps to help salmon, such as leaving forests alongside streams on 9.3 million acres. That's one-fifth of the state, making it the largest such deal in the West.
But as speaker after speaker at a signing ceremony cited that figure -- 9.3 million acres protected -- none bothered to bring up the asterisk: Officials don't really know yet how many of those acres actually will get the promised preservation measures.
That's because of breaks granted in the deal to small-time timberland owners. There is no firm figure on how much land is involved.
Indian tribes, citing their on-the-ground look at it in portions of the state, objected last week and warned that up to 35 percent of the land supposedly protected might not be.
"We don't have a solid answer" about how much acreage won't be subject to the improved conservation measures, acknowledged Bob Turner, the National Marine Fisheries Service executive who shepherded the deal to approval. "That's where the uncertainty lies. ... We want to watch it, and we will."
As a parade of government and timber-industry representatives took the podium at a signing ceremony on the shores of Scott Lake, south of Olympia, all praised the deal, which was worked out in principle in 1999 and approved soon after by the Legislature. It took until Monday for the federal government to sign off.
Proponents promised that a series of uncertainties known at the time of the original deal -- uncertainties still not settled -- will be dealt with through a series of studies. If the protections need to be increased to better protect salmon, they will be, said the pact's proponents.
"Washington leads the way with a farsighted, science-based approach to the protection of salmon ... and protection of our forestry industry," Gov. Christine Gregoire told about 150 government and timber-industry representatives. She said the deal shows "Washington state will be globally competitive when it comes to timber."
Said Bill Wilkerson, director of the lobby representing big timber companies, the Washington Forest Protection Association: "We're doing something pretty special here for the resources of the state of Washington."
The deal is allowed under a provision of the Endangered Species Act enacted by Congress in 1982. The brainchild of a developer's lawyer, the provision allows the government to promise not to prosecute violations of the act to landowners who take steps to help the imperiled species.
Environmentalists have criticized the 1999 pact -- known as the "Forests and Fish Report." They sought unsuccessfully to block it in court before deciding to work through the so-called "adaptive management" process that is supposed to be able to fix anything judged too hard on salmon or on timberland owners.
Native American tribes have had mixed reactions. But late last week Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, fired off a letter expressing concern because of the uncertainty over small-forest-landowner exemptions. He also complained that the agreement fails to take into account the effects global warming will have on salmon over the next half-century.
Terry Williams, a Tulalip tribal official and member of the Indian Fisheries Commission, described tribes as "apprehensive" about the approval Monday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the federal fisheries service.
"It's pretty scary," Williams said. "What we're trying to do is remind people that this is our property right -- the fish are our property right. The Supreme Court has upheld our right to the fish. It's an ownership thing we share with the U.S."
He compared the deal to the federal government giving the timber industry "a 50-year get-out-of-jail-free card, without taking all the impacts into consideration."
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Timber industry gets exemption from endangered-species law
