Response to "At loggerheads on Blanchard"

Editor,

With respect to your coverage of Blanchard Mountain, its worth clarifying a couple of things in this complicated and somewhat confusing situation.

The Department of Natural Resources decision, which the judges upheld, was to implement recommendations concensed upon by the 10 member Blanchard Strategies Group, of which I was part. That agreement was to find $12 million, hopefully from the state legislature, to compensate the trusts for the conservation set-aside of the 1,600 acres of Blanchard Mountain that provide the greatest ecological and recreational benefits. The legislature hadn’t guaranteed in any sense that such funds would be provided. The agreement was that our diverse group would work together to make the best case it could to raise those funds within five years.

So far, over two budget cycles, the legislature has provided $5.5 million, so the balance must be found during next spring’s session. This will be a monumental challenge given that Olympia will be looking to trim perhaps another $2-3 billion from present emaciated levels. Resolution of the lawsuit provides clarity that will definitely help us make our case.

The best part of the agreement is how DNR is to spend the $12 million. In past such funds have always been dispersed directly to the trusts. This time DNR is to use the funds to buy private timberland that is otherwise at risk of being sold to developers for conversion to sprawl. DNR has already closed on a couple such deals with the $5.5 million raised to date, including buying 80 acres on the SW side of Blanchard, just above the Japanese gardens.

This represents a new model in which we work together, conservationists, timber interests, and counties, to simultaneously protect the very best state forest (like the top of Blanchard) from logging while also keeping other working forests from the most damaging fate of all: urbanization. This approach holds the most promise for wildlife, carbon storage, cleaner runoff into Puget Sound, and maintaining rural economies and urban quality of life.

Mitch Friedman, Bellingham