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State approves deal to save Loomis Forest
Wednesday, January 5, 2000
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OLYMPIA -- The state yesterday closed a deal to preserve 25,000 roadless acres of the Loomis State Forest in north-central Washington.
The Washington Board of Natural Resources voted 6-0 to protect the forest from logging and to accept a $16.5 million from the Loomis Forest Fund.
More than 5,000 people donated money to the fund. Environmentalists thought they had won when they raised $13.1 million by July, but then the natural resources board increased the price tag. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen came to the rescue with a $3.4 million donation in October.
The $16.5 million replaces what would have been logging revenue from the land and goes to a school construction trust fund.
"It's a very exciting day," Public Lands Commissioner Jennifer Belcher said. "We accomplished something very good for the school trust."
The 134,000-acre forest on the Canadian border is home to rare and endangered species, including one of the healthiest lynx populations in the lower 48 states, environmentalists said.
"The site has got a really high ecological value, and it's got a low timber value," Loomis Forest Fund campaign coordinator Fred Munson said.
That said, Munson and other environmentalists hope forest-preservation sales of this sort don't become a trend. The conservationists want to change the laws that make school construction and other trust funds depend on sales of timber from state forests.
"We will turn our attention to reforming the trust lands so we don't have to pay a ransom to stop these ecologically important areas from being cut," Munson said.
Belcher said she is willing to discuss changing the current system of logging trust lands to pay for school construction and other needs.
"There are some real benefits and there are some real disadvantages" to the system, Belcher said. "It's probably time for us to have that conversation with the public and with the Legislature."
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