News From Your Friends

Don’t Dabble with Dabbler: FOCC Needs Your Help Saving The Dabbler Forest

October 22, 2024 in Climate Change, Farmland & Forests, Parks, Trails, & Open Spaces, Rivers, Lakes & Aquifers, Wildlife Habitats

What is it?

Dabbler” is a name given by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to three forested units it manages in Clark County comprising 156 acres of legacy forest that are slated to be auctioned off at a timber sale set for November. FOCC opposes this timber sale and you can read our letter to the DNR here

These great trees hold repositories of ancient stories, telling tales of resilience as they stand against whatever time and weather hurls their way— be it fire, tornado, drought, ice storm, or historic torrential rains.

There are lessons to be learned in the way of the woods. Birds and a multitude of other creatures all keep watch, share food, warn each other of danger, help create ecosystems that moderate heat and cold, store vast quantities of water, generate necessary humidity, and—perhaps most importantly in this age of climate uncertainty—store harmful carbon from escaping into the atmosphere. 

What does it look like?

Parts of Clark County are home to legacy forests. Legacy forests like “Dabbler” are not considered old growth forests, but they aren’t forests that have been managed as plantations either. Most legacy forests haven’t been logged, and are recognized by huge old growth “snags” (a standing hunk of a dead old growth tree) filled with holes that are home to little creatures, such as the endangered Spotted Owl. 

Trees in the Dabbler units are structurally complex and are located adjacent to a rare 30-acre patch of verified old growth. The trees range in age from 70 to 80 years old, however DNR has also identified the trees in Unit 1 of the sale at 115-120 years old. It contains large standing dead cedar and Douglas fir snags as well as 120-year-old living trees that can measure as much as 4 feet in diameter. 

95 acres of this area has already been classified as “Type A” high quality Spotted Owl habitat and a large part of the sale area is classified as high-quality nesting habitat. This is an incredibly biodiverse area that has plenty of nurse logs (dead trees that other plants, mosses and lichen feed on.) The Legacy Forest Defense Coalition has determined through DNR information and their own research (including viewing area photos taken in 1952) that these trees are closer to 122 years old. 

Where is it?

Primary forests are legacy forests that have naturally regenerated after a devastating wildfire, like the historic Yacolt Burn in 1902. The Dabbler units are located in the Siouxon Creek watershed, and this stunningly beautiful area can be easily accessed in about an hour from Battle Ground. Old gravel roads throughout the area offer hiking opportunities and views of nearby Mt. St. Helens. 

What is happening?

To make a long story short, the DNR has now classified these three units as ready for a clear-cut sale vote. The Clark County Council has known about this sale and the concerns the public and conservation groups have had for months, as hundreds of letters have been written and much public comment has been provided to them. They also know that they are legally and morally obligated to act on climate change. As the beneficiaries of the timber sale, Clark County has multiple ways in which it could act to stop it. The Council could:

1) ask the DNR to halt the sale until further research is completed on the benefits of leaving the units intact (such as climate benefits), or 

2) ask the DNR to reconvey the land to Clark County. 

Instead, the County is fiddling while Rome burns. 

The sale will be voted on by the Board of Natural Resources (BNR) at its November 2024 meeting. If passed, it will be approved for sale in December 2024, and the units will go to auction on January 30, 2025.

What is at stake?

It is the opinion of FOCC, along with a host of other organizations such as the Center for Responsible Forestry and the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, that this sale is irresponsible forest management, as it ignores the state legislature’s landmark climate legislation, SB 1181. FOCC’s president, Ann Foster, in her letter to the Clark County Council on September 16, 2024, stated, “…such a sale is a betrayal to ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren who will inherit the devastating consequences of these actions.”  

Recently, the independent research non-profit, Resources for the Future, found that mature forests store substantially more carbon than young forests, with avoided deforestation having twice the carbon benefits as afforestation (planting new trees). Read the report here.

This means that Dabbler, along with the other legacy forests threatened in Washington State, must remain intact in order to have a fighting chance at meeting Washington’s carbon emissions reduction targets.

Additionally, the Dabbler Timber sale contains some of the best available spotted owl habitat in the Siouxon Spotted Owl Management Unit (SOMU). The current DNR forest inventory data shows there are only about 525 acres left within the Siouxon SOMU that contain trees over 100 years old. Clear cutting this area would remove the nesting, roosting and foraging habitat for this endangered species.

A recent forest walk through the area also proves that other species utilize the varied biodiversity of the area, including woodpeckers, bats, fishers, elk and deer, as well as several varieties of edible and nonedible mushrooms, lichen and mosses.

In fact, this area was originally set aside in 2021 by the DNR to contribute to older forest targets in the Columbia Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). Evidently, the DNR changed its mind about Dabbler.

If we cannot convince the Clark County Council and/or the DNR to pause this sale indefinitely, Dabbler will march through the ranks of various governmental agencies to be sold in January to the highest bidder who will decimate the area, destroying this incredible, structurally complex habitat. It will go from a lush, living ecosystem to an exposed hillside desert filled with slash piles and weeds. 

Who benefits from proceeds of the sale should it go through?

The argument in favor of Dabbler’s destruction centers on funding brought by timber revenue. Under state law, the funds are slated to be divided up between 3 separate funds, with the estimated proceeds totaling $3,034,592. Here is the funding breakdown for several of the JTD recipients:

  1. The DNR would receive $863,354; 
  2. Battle Ground Schools would get approximately $635,140.11;
  3. Fire District 10 – 17.55%; 
  4. Clark County roads – 13.11% would receive the largest share) of $1,705,358; 
  5. The School Construction Assistance Program (SCAP) fund will receive $465,880. 

Making sure we have funding for schools is crucial; however, sourcing school funding from revenue generated by throwing our children further into climate catastrophe through deforestation is pretty darn nonsensical, and it has become painfully obvious that when it’s gone, it’s gone! These sales are also not regular – they’re intermittent, so these revenues are different every time there is a sale, do not happen on any kind of a regular basis, and therefore are an unreliable source of funding.

On July 13, 2022, Chris Reykdal, Washington State Superintendent of Public Education, commented on the state of the Common School Trust (CST), specifically with regard to the forest revenues. He wrote, “Timber harvests are not a driving force for school construction. Timber harvests have become an almost insignificant share of total school construction, and timber counties are primarily shipping their wood products and the tax revenues derived from those products to the benefit of urban counties…It’s time to make a basic education commitment to school construction with more reliable sources of revenue than timber harvests.” In conclusion, he said, “Finally sever urban school construction from timber harvests.” 

What to do and how to do it!

  • Email the Board of Natural Resources (BNR) at BNR@wa.gov. Although the official comment period is over for their Determination of Nonsignificance (DNS) on Dabbler, they can still see comments generally before the next board meeting on November 5th where they will determine Dabbler’s fate. You can also provide spoken public testimony in person (in Olympia at 9am) or remotely. Details here.
    The most salient point you can make is that there was no climate change assessment done as part of the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) checklist for Dabbler. Email us at info@friendsofclarkcounty.org or DM us on social media for help crafting your talking points—we have droves of information on hand to help you!
  • The Clark County Councilors could change their mind and send a letter to the DNR if a majority of them chose to represent the will of their constituents. You can email them or speak at any Open Public Comment period, and we recommend that you remind them of the climate impacts of clearcutting legacy forest and their obligations to act on the climate crisis. 
  • Send in comment to the Clark County Climate Advisory Group saying that county officials need to collaborate with DNR to prioritize conserving structurally complex mature forest lands and manage our oldest forests for carbon sequestration and environmental benefits. You can send in a written comment here. You can also plan to speak at an upcoming Climate CAG meeting. View that information here.
  • Dabbler is the urgent issue now, but there are many forests under threat in Clark County (and all over Washington State), especially in the Comprehensive Planning process. We must make destruction of all existing forests politically untenable in the face of the climate emergency. Email us at info@friendsofclarkcounty.org to join our team as a volunteer or learn about becoming a board member.

Submitted by Mary Goody

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