County OKs ending watershed logging rules lawsuit

Whatcom County is willing to end a three-and-a-half-year legal battle with Skagit County by signing a settlement that preserves restrictive logging rules in the Lake Whatcom watershed.

The County Council on Tuesday, Sept. 23, voted 5-0 to approve a settlement that would leave intact the rules, called the Lake Whatcom Landscape Plan. The city and environmentalists say they're needed to help protect the lake, drinking-water source for more than 91,000 Bellingham-area residents. Council members Sam Crawford and Ward Nelson were absent from the meeting.

The version of the settlement approved by county leaders excludes a controversial clause requiring the county to lobby for a change to state law regarding school funding. The Mount Baker School District, which also challenged the rules, gets money from timber cuts on watershed trust lands, but the state deducts some of the money when it allocates other money to the district.

The settlement clause requires lobbying to change that, so the district gets all the money. The city of Bellingham already approved a settlement with the clause.

But the discrepancy may not be a deal-killer. The superintendent of the Mount Baker School District, the main backer of the lobbying clause, said the district would be reasonable and consider signing the county's version.

"It is disappointing to find significant objection to it," Richard Gantman said. At the same time, "we find ourselves able to be flexible in that."

County Council members voted after a closed-to-the-public committee meeting, and they didn't comment in open session on the decision.

The legal fight started in February 2005 when Skagit County, the Mount Baker School District and Skagit's United General Hospital filed a lawsuit challenging the landscape plan, which was ordered by the Legislature and became effective in 2004. The state Department of Natural Resources manages trust land in the watershed, and logging proceeds go to the counties and districts. The plan reduced the amount of logging and, thus, the amount of money counties and districts receive.

On the other side, Whatcom County, Bellingham, environmental group Conservation Northwest and the Lake Whatcom Water and Sewer District jumped in to defend the rules, which, they say, are necessary to protect the lake.

Bellingham announced a settlement on Tuesday, Sept. 9, that leave the rules intact, while requiring the city, Whatcom County and the state to reimburse the Mount Baker School District for some lost money. Bellingham would give $225,000, Whatcom County $150,000 and the state $725,000 by July 1, 2009, under the settlement. The settlement goes away if the Legislature doesn't pay the state's portion.

"This is money that is seriously needed for the upkeep of facilities," Gantman said.

Controversy over the lobbying clause erupted when Conservation Northwest called it a "poison pill" and urged County Council members to reject it. The clause would have required Bellingham, Whatcom County and Skagit County help the Mount Baker School District lobby the state Legislature.

Conservation Northwest Executive Director Mitch Friedman said his group opposes it because it further ties logging to school funding, and he called it "awful public policy." Meanwhile, the city worked to persuade the County Council to accept it, arguing it wasn't that much money in the grand scheme of things and the settlement still compensates the Mount Baker School District.