OPEN LETTER TO THE WASHINGTON STATE BOARD OF NATURAL RESOURCES
The Department of Natural Resources recently announced its intentions to lease two parcels of land for clear cutting. It’s left me shaking my head in disbelief. It’s hard to imagine a worse location for a couple timber operations than the proposed sites for Bears U1 andU2. The western unit (U1) is almost in Mclane Creek, and crowds the Mclane Creek Nature Trail. Bears U2 is a little less poorly sited but still posses potentially serious risks to the creek. They will turn a portion of the trail into a road through hell and leave an ugly scar on hillsides directly above desirable residential areas.
As a home-owner in the area, I’m not looking forward to such an operation. Timber taking, as necessary as it often needs to be done, is an inherently destructive and ugly business; but it is mainly a serious concern for the fate of Mclane Creek and its 3 species of salmon that prompts this note. They don’t need “another nail in the coffin,” which is what the Bears Project would represent.
The slope of the land where the Bears units are projected to take place is steep. The exact pitch is difficult to determine; but ask anyone who has hiked the trail in that area and they will tell you – it is a tough upslope trek in spots. The hillsides are fundamentally suspect, being an accumulation of glacial till over basalt. The potential for slides in wet weather is very worrisome.
Removing cut logs from the area will cause serious damage to terrain and vegetation. It will end up an awful mess. You simply can’t remove the forest cover from an acreage without doing major damage to the ground and everything that grew upon it. Nor can you expect the remnants to behave normally afterwards. The acreage’s drainage and other natural functions will never be the same. The mono-culture planted in place of the richness removed will be years in coming; in the meantime the damage will have been done.
The seasonal rains in the Black Hills are often strong enough to cause flooding and road closures – Delphi Road between 32nd and the 2400 block is impassable from time to time. How much the Bears timber package would add to those problems is hard to tell; but serious rain – perhaps with untimely snow melt at higher elevations – could end up dumping tons of silt and decaying vegetation in the creek. Not just once, but repeatedly. The short and long-term impacts on the Coho and Chum runs could be disastrous.
I’m not an Environmentalist so much as I am an old fashioned Conservationist trying to walk the often shifting line between perceived need and potential loss. In other words, I think we are going to have to cut down some trees; but we shouldn’t do it at the expense of a Salmon stream. Luckily, there is another option, namely DNR’s Carbon Project. Setting this acreage aside for that purpose makes a tremendous amount of sense, and I strongly recommend that approach to the Board.
Thank you for your time and attention!
The Department of Natural Resources recently announced its intentions to lease two parcels of land for clear cutting. It’s left me shaking my head in disbelief. It’s hard to imagine a worse location for a couple timber operations than the proposed sites for Bears U1 andU2. The western unit (U1) is almost in Mclane Creek, and crowds the Mclane Creek Nature Trail. Bears U2 is a little less poorly sited but still posses potentially serious risks to the creek. They will turn a portion of the trail into a road through hell and leave an ugly scar on hillsides directly above desirable residential areas.
As a home-owner in the area, I’m not looking forward to such an operation. Timber taking, as necessary as it often needs to be done, is an inherently destructive and ugly business; but it is mainly a serious concern for the fate of Mclane Creek and its 3 species of salmon that prompts this note. They don’t need “another nail in the coffin,” which is what the Bears Project would represent.
The slope of the land where the Bears units are projected to take place is steep. The exact pitch is difficult to determine; but ask anyone who has hiked the trail in that area and they will tell you – it is a tough upslope trek in spots. The hillsides are fundamentally suspect, being an accumulation of glacial till over basalt. The potential for slides in wet weather is very worrisome.
Removing cut logs from the area will cause serious damage to terrain and vegetation. It will end up an awful mess. You simply can’t remove the forest cover from an acreage without doing major damage to the ground and everything that grew upon it. Nor can you expect the remnants to behave normally afterwards. The acreage’s drainage and other natural functions will never be the same. The mono-culture planted in place of the richness removed will be years in coming; in the meantime the damage will have been done.
The seasonal rains in the Black Hills are often strong enough to cause flooding and road closures – Delphi Road between 32nd and the 2400 block is impassable from time to time. How much the Bears timber package would add to those problems is hard to tell; but serious rain – perhaps with untimely snow melt at higher elevations – could end up dumping tons of silt and decaying vegetation in the creek. Not just once, but repeatedly. The short and long-term impacts on the Coho and Chum runs could be disastrous.
I’m not an Environmentalist so much as I am an old fashioned Conservationist trying to walk the often shifting line between perceived need and potential loss. In other words, I think we are going to have to cut down some trees; but we shouldn’t do it at the expense of a Salmon stream. Luckily, there is another option, namely DNR’s Carbon Project. Setting this acreage aside for that purpose makes a tremendous amount of sense, and I strongly recommend that approach to the Board.
Thank you for your time and attention!