Guest Column

The framers of our nation deemed that education was important, so to that end, they granted every section 16 and 36 for the purpose of funding schools when a territory became a state. A section of land is a square mile, and there are 36 sections in a township. The state uses school trust lands to help pay for new school construction. 

DNR also manages county trust lands, which make up the majority of DNR-managed trust land for our

county. These county trust lands came into being when timber companies, with the exception of a couple in the early to mid-1900s, would log off the land and, in lieu of paying taxes on the land, they gave it back to the county. Forestry was not a science back then, and many thought the land would be worthless. The counties had all of this “worthless land,” and since DNR was managing school trust lands, they asked DNR to manage their lands for them.

Now, of course, these lands have millions of dollars of second-and third-growth timber on them. Some of the second growth from the 1930s on good forestry ground are now fairly large trees, some big enough to peel for plywood, while younger “plantation” forests are used for smaller, less valuable dimensional lumber.

Some states sold their trust lands to generate revenue for schools; thankfully, Washington believed forests were renewable and would be a continuous source of revenue for the trusts by growing and selling timber. 

The money generated from county trust timber lands comes into the county just how your real estate taxes are distributed by the county. Some money goes to county roads, libraries, the fire department, ports, county services and other purposes. Want to know how valuable these timber dollars are for the county? Just go talk to your local fire department or Mason County public works. If it were not for our county trust lands, taxes would need to be raised to cover the shortfall, or fewer services would be provided.

Timber harvested in this county often stays here, providing logs for Sierra Pacific and other mills.

Sure, everybody loves big old trees forests. We have the entire Olympic National Park and millions of acres of U. S. Forest Service lands. Back in the day, USFS lands provided revenues to schools and counties just like trust lands; however, USFS lands have been “captured” by the environmental lobby, and there has been little to no harvesting from federal lands in our county. In other words, there are plenty of dedicated recreation lands with big trees.

The thousands of people who ride off-road vehicles on DNR-managed lands in North Mason County don’t seem to mind traversing through a multiple-use forest, nor do the hunters who often look for deer in newer young forests as the deer have something to browse on. 

DNR, USFS and the National Parks Service do not pay property taxes in Mason County. DNR county trust lands provide a nontax source of revenue and timber for our mills. 

Of course, there is more to the trust lands story. Perhaps in another story, I will explain how sections of land became forests, and rulings by the Washington and U.S. Supreme Court on cases of misuse of granted trust lands.

■ Phil Wolff is a retired Department of Natural Resources employee who spent the majority of his career working in Mason and Thurston counties, and lives in Allyn.