The DNR has announced plans to take bids on a couple stands of timber located in the State’s Capital Forest. The two sections are called Bears U1 and U2, and you can find them by enlarging this map to 50% and studying the east side. Look in Quadrant #35 in the extreme NE corner, just a stone’s throw from the Mclane Creek Nature Preserve. You'll see that U1 actually comes down very close to the creek itself.
A little familiarity with the lay of the land in that area should give you a good idea why wetlands advocates might be alarmed by the news. At the very least, logging in that specific area is sure to increase environmental strain on Mclane Creek and the basin through which it runs. And with a little attendant bad luck during the process it could even end the creek’s usefulness as a spawning ground for multiple species of Salmon.
The terrain in that general area is very steep and rugged. The base rock is Basalt, but the upper surface is several layers of till and glacial outwash deposited by both the advance and retreat of the Puget Lobe of the glacier that moved over and through this area around 19k BP. This soil is mostly packed layers of sand and gravel somewhat amended over the centuries by intermittent deposits of wind-blown silt and organic matter.
As a “skin” it leaves a lot to be desired because it is neither thick nor well-connected to the bedrock. Saturated with water it tends to move easily over sloped ground. When that slope approaches the Angle of Repose (roughly 30-40 degrees) layers within the saturated soil may begin to move on their own – “creep” takes place. At steeper angles that movement may occur wholesale – a landslide, in other words.
The slopes upon which Bears U1 & U2 are to take place are uniformly steep, sometimes so steep as to be unnavigable except by the most determined and skilled hiker. Even when the landscape is healthy and in its natural state this steepness, combined with the area’s geological properties and its location just a short distance above the creek makes any major disturbance in the area a potential threat to the stream and it’s seasonal lodes of Salmonid species,
At any point in time serious threats to the creek’s existence as a Salmon bearing stream will almost surely occur. A disastrous forest fire, landslide, or weather event – any one of these kinds of extreme events could occur. But an incursion by a timber operation would almost certainly cause permanent damage to Mclane Creek’s continued ability to be a spawning ground for the thousands of Salmon that return each year.
“The Mclane Creek basin is in relatively good shape,” according to a study by Thurston County’s Regional Planning Council. But the key word here is "relatively," and its vital not to loose sight of it when studying any environmental report by a state or federal authority. The fact is Mclane Creek isn’t at all “well.” Its dealing as best it can with a suite of serious water quality and environmental challenges. Almost all are attributable to human action, and all of them combined have been severe enough to land the creek on state and federal D303 lists of water quality impaired streams for decades.
The major issues from a Salmon standpoint are turbidity, temperature, and nutrient load. A forest operation like this in such proximity to the creek is bound to negatively impact all three of these. How much impact is a very difficult question to answer, until the damage is done. But there will be significant damage to the regular order of things, of that there can be no doubt. You can’t cut down a bunch of big fir and cedar trees without tearing up a good sized chunk of underbrush and the ground upon which all of it grows. While most of it will regenerate* over time, the initial blow will be felt by the land for years.
The timber harvesting industry has made great strides in terms of protecting human and forest health, and the DNR and other state agencies have much to say about how the process of harvesting should take place; but for locations such as those where Bears U1 and U2 are proposed, those rules and regulations won’t prevent real damage from occurring to the soil, vegetation, and wildlife of the area. Neither will they adequately protect the Salmon of Mclane Creek.
As far as the potential revenue that Bears U1 and U2 timber sales might generate for the state, an intact forest is worth potentially much more, particularly in the long haul. There's always the Carbon Capture angle to consider. It would be great if DNR decided it should look toward that option where Bears U1 and U2 are concerned, now that it can.
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*Growing a monoculture where a diverse one once existed is in no way "regeneration," but it's what frequently gets passed off for being one by proponents of plantation forests.