Now Playing: The Olympian and The Chronicle (Lewis County)
Topic: Energy & Environment
Clearcuts partially to blame in flooding, experts say
BY JOHN DODGE
THE OLYMPIAN
Clearcut logging is partially to blame for the landslides in the upper Chehalis Valley that caused so much downstream damage to farms, bridges and roads during last month's wind and rain storms, scientists and environmental groups testified today at a state legislative hearing.
"Without changes to the forest practices rules, clearcut-caused landslides will occur again and again," Karl Forsgaard of the Washington Forest Law Center told members of the state Senate's Natural Resources, Ocean and Recreation Committee.
He said a coalition of environmental groups will introduce a bill in the 2008 Legislature to create more stringent logging rules in flood-prone watersheds with steep slopes slated for timber harvest.
Timber industry officials insisted the state's Forest and Fish rules adopted in 1999 forestry rules are adequate, but can be amended, if field studies this year in the upper Chehalis Valley bear out the claim that logging contributed to the severity of the storm damage and flooding in December 2007 in Lewis County.
"We may be able to tweak it to make it more effective," Weyerhaeuser Co. scientist Robert Bilby said in reference to the geological review to identify landslide hazards before logging occurs.
Weyerhaeuser officials and others said the flooding, landslides and timber damage was so severe because it was such a dramatic storm event with record levels of rainfall in the Willapa Hills and hurricane-force winds.
"The hillsides turned to liquid - there's not much humans can do about it," said Mark Doumit, executive director of the Washington Forest Protection Association. "It truly was an act of God."
For more on the story, see The Olympian Friday.
Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times
This Dec. 7 photo of a steep, clear-cut slope and mudslide above Stillman Creek near Pe Ell has prompted Weyerhaeuser officials and state lawmakers to examine land use and logging rules.
Seeking the Cause
Major Studies Planned on Slide Areas After Flood
The Chronicle Online
[Excerpt]Legislators and members of state environmental agencies toured washed-out areas of Lewis County on Wednesday, a day before the Senate Natural Resources, Ocean and Recreation Committee was scheduled to hear about how recent flooding affected local timberland.
Much of the tour focused on Weyerhaeuser property near Pe Ell, where company officials talked about plans to conduct impact studies on the extent of damage caused by mud and trees that careened down steep hills on the vast acreage.
A Seattle Times aerial photograph published last month showed a clear-cut Weyerhaeuser hillside that appeared to have dumped significant mud and debris into Stillman Creek, prompting some to ask whether timber practices contributed to widespread damage in the string of west Lewis County towns along state Route 6.
But Weyerhaeuser scientists said much more information needs to be gathered before they can determine whether clear-cutting played a role.
The timber giant’s current data did not account for the Dec. 3 storm that rain gauges in the Willapa hills recorded as having dropped 20 inches of rain in 48 hours. A watershed study was done in the mid 1990s for the Stillman watershed, but it did not account for such a powerful event, officials said.
...On the Tour
Five of the nine members of the Senate Natural Resources, Ocean and Recreation Committee toured West Lewis County flood areas Wednesday. They were:
Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle (chair)
Sen. Bob Morton, R-Kettle Falls (ranking minority member)
Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Olympia
Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester
Sen. Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond
