Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Seeks injuction to prevent sale, harvest
Mason County Climate Justice and the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition are suing the state Department of Natural Resources over two timber sales in Mason County.
The lawsuit alleges that DNR, agency director Hilary Franz and the Board of Natural Resources failed to comply with the State Environmental Policy Act.
According to attorney Jennifer Calkins, who is representing the parties pro bono, the lawsuit was filed May 3 in Mason County Superior Court. The two timber sales include Sherwood Forest, which is 154 acres between Trails End Lake and LakeLand Village, and Plumb Bob forest, which is 4 miles northwest of Belfair near the Tahuya Adventure Resort.
“We are asking for the Mason County Superior Court to vacate the ‘determination of nonsignificance’ that DNR issued for each sale and to direct the DNR to undergo an environmental review for each,” Calkins told the Journal in an email. “If we prevail and the court provides us this remedy, the sales may not go forward until the agency completes the review. We are also asking the court to direct DNR to consider alternatives outside of the EIS process to the current planned harvests given the conflict over resources in these forests. However, because the litigation will not move fast enough to be completed by May 23, when Sure Wood is up for auction, we anticipate filing a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent sale and harvest while the court considers our appeal.”
Members of the Mason County Climate Justice group spoke to the Board of County Commissioners at its Tuesday meeting, asking commissioners to write a letter to the Board of Natural Resources about the Sure Wood Timber Sale in Sherwood Forest before May 22.
According to group documents and public testimony, the letter should request the state Department of Natural Resources purchase alternative working forest as replacement for canceling the Sure Wood Timber Sale in Sherwood Forest and using the money from the capital budget set aside by the state Legislature.
“The proposed solution involves no net loss of working forests and no cost to Mason County. In fact this solution would grow the state’s investment in Mason County,” Mason County Climate Justice’s Julianne Gale said during public comment. “The process for protecting Sherwood Forest by acquiring state-funded replacement forest land must be initiated by a letter from county commissioners, that’s in the law, and that means you. Time is of the essence. Sherwood Timber Sale is scheduled for auction May 23. After that, it will cost the state money to cancel any contracts so the sooner you can send a letter to the Board of Natural Resources, the better.”
Along with Gale, Peggy Morell, Michael Scoblete, Sherri Dysart, Joshua Wright and Michael Siptroth all spoke during public comment urging the commissioners to write a letter to the Board of Natural Resources. One man spoke in favor of the timber sale.
The commissioners didn’t appear to be interested in penning a letter to the Board of Natural Resources. Commissioner Randy Neatherlin, who represents the district with Sherwood Forest, and who also lives in the area, said he would love to have his trees, but “it would be inappropriate for me as an elected official to do something different than we would normally do just because I have a want or a desire.”
“I would love to not have those trees gone, I live there, I look at them. I understand and appreciate them, it’s just not that simple,” Neatherlin said.
Neatherlin did request the topic be brought up in next Monday’s commissioner briefing, and a special meeting could be called to approve a letter.
Reader Comments(0)