State Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark is protesting deep cuts to his agency’s budget that he says will make it difficult to enforce forest practices rules across the state.
Goldmark also warned last week that a House budget proposal to make timber companies pay the full cost of enforcing logging rules through steep hikes in the cost of their permits was not realistic.
“To ensure that timber harvests are done in a manner that protects the public, we need boots on the ground,” Goldmark said in a statement. “Rules without compliance are meaningless.”
Goldmark, an elected official, oversees the Department of Natural Resources, which administers the state’s forest practices rules on more than 12 million acres of private and state-owned forestlands including 58,000 acres of state forestland in Clark County. Forest practices rules set standards for timber harvesting, forest road building and reforestation that are designed to protect streams and prevent landslides and flooding.
DNR spokesman Bryan Flint said the Forest Practices Division already has been hit with a 20 percent cut, which forced the layoff of 25 compliance staff members in 2009. Gov. Chris Gregoire’s 2011-13 budget plan makes another $4 million in cuts to the compliance program, which is down to 118 employees. The governor’s budget calls for fees from the forest industry to help make up the difference.
In response, the department proposed a graduated fee structure for forest practices permits, with fees ranging from $100 to $5,000, to fill the gap. The current fee of $50 has not changed since fees were first established in 1993, Goldmark noted. He said an industry that brings in $2 billion a year should be able to afford that increase.
But the proposed House budget cuts an additional $2 million from the Forest Practices Division, and last week the House Ways and Means Committee directed the agency to come up with a plan by October to make the regulatory program fully supported by fees.
“We are concerned,” Flint said. “We think the fee now is reasonable. It would be a significant jump in fees to cover the entire program. It’s possible the industry would change its behavior if fees were that high.”
Besides, Flint said, because the public benefits from the regulation of forest practices, it should contribute some portion of the costs through its tax dollars.
“Not enforcing the rules could have devastating impacts,” Goldmark said in a statement. “Flooding, dangerous landslides, and negative impacts to our drinking water and the environment can all result from violations taking place in the forest. In these hard economic times, industry will have to pay its fair share of the cost. It is up to the Legislature to decide what fair means.”
