Washington State seeks green certification for logging
Forest council to review Tiger Mountain plan
The state Department of Natural Resources has decided to seek the greenest of the green seals of approval for some of its logging operations.
Across 141,000 acres at Tiger Mountain and other state-owned timberlands in the southern Puget Sound region, the agency will seek certification from the Forest Stewardship Council that its timber is being cut in a "sustainable" way.
That means that logging -- on as many acres as half of Mount Rainier National Park -- will be done at a pace that can go on indefinitely without exhausting the forests.
The move should help timber producers that bid on state logging contracts market the wood as environmentally friendly, state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland told the state Board of Natural Resources Tuesday.
"It maintains a better position in the marketplace for our producers," Sutherland said. "The marketplace is getting more and more competitive, and the more we can allow our producers to compete in the marketplace, the better off we are."
It could be the beginning of a larger trend. Environmentalists have long pushed for this, although they would like to see it done statewide.
"I'm excited about this," said Becky Kelley of the Washington Environmental Council. "We worked for years to try to convince DNR this is a good thing, and I'm pleased to see them warming to the idea."
"It happens to be the (region) where the most people see what DNR is doing," she added. "It's important they don't get the seal of approval here, and then do less responsible practices where they're out of the public eye."
The DNR launched the process two years ago when it asked stewardship council auditors to examine its operations, spokeswoman Patty Henson said. After that, the state created an overall timber harvest plan, but environmentalists challenged it in a lawsuit. The state lost and is rewriting the plan for its 2.1 million acres of timberland.
The 141,000 acres at issue in southern Puget Sound represents about 7 percent of DNR forestland.
Continue reading this article from the Seattle P-I:
DNR seeks green star for logging
