A Timber Truce in Northeast Washington

KUOW local news highlight on the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition and a blueprint for the Colville National Forest.

For more than a decade, Northwest environmentalists have waged a war on what they consider unsustainable logging practices. They've filed lawsuit after lawsuit to stop timber sales. That's why in timber towns, environmentalists are often blamed for ruining the economy. So what if the two sides called a truce and decided to work together to bring back jobs AND preserve the forest? It's happening in the Northeast corner of Washington. And that's where we start our weeklong series on Northwest communities reinventing themselves. Correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

On a dirt road in the Colville National Forest, a helicopter logging operation is underway. Two men, Tim Coleman and Lloyd McGee, watch as the helicopter approaches with its load of logs. Not so long ago, Coleman and McGee were on opposite sides of the battle over logging in Northwest forests. Coleman, with the environmental group Conservation Northwest, was an avowed treehugger...