Whatcom County Council approves watershed land-transfer deal

Commercial logging will stop and Whatcom County will build trails on parts of roughly 8,000 acres of Lake Whatcom watershed land, after county leaders narrowly voted to transfer the land from state to county control.

The County Council voted 4-3 Tuesday, Oct. 21, to approve an agreement with the state Department of Natural Resources to transfer about one-quarter of the watershed's land from DNR control to county management. It was a victory for County Executive Pete Kremen, who worked with the agency to develop a proposal.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's not all black and white. It's not that this is the panacea, the silver bullet to save Lake Whatcom," Kremen told the council. "It's not all pros, but the pros far outweigh the costs, in my opinion."

"It's something that I believe people generations much after us will be able to look back and cherish and enjoy forever," he added.

Some supporters have hailed the transfer - through which the county will pay the DNR for the costs of transferring land, but not for the estimated $25 million to $30 million land value itself - as a historic opportunity to create major parks near an urban area. They also say stopping logging in the watershed will help the water quality of Bellingham's drinking-water source.

Opponents say a well-managed forest won't harm the lake's water quality, but taking the land out of commercial forestry will harm the local wood-products industry and cut revenues to taxing districts that receive money from logging there. It'll cost the county to build and maintain a park, but public access is already provided for DNR-managed lands, they say.

Council members Bob Kelly, Seth Fleetwood, Carl Weimer and Laurie Caskey-Schreiber voted for it. Council members Sam Crawford, Barbara Brenner and Ward Nelson voted against it.

Crawford said he had concerns about financial harm to the entities that receive logging revenue and to the local wood-products industry. Brenner wanted to put the proposal in the council's budget process to get a better idea of the county's available funds to pay for it. Nelson cited everything from the impact of lost timber revenue to diversion of money from more important lake-protection projects.

The county envisions two large parks on the west and east sides of the lake with 50 miles of trails, viewing areas and potentially primitive camping. County officials estimated it would cost up to $300,000 to transfer the land, $15,000 to $18,000 a mile to build trails, bridges, gates and signs; and $100,000 to $150,000 a year to maintain and operate facilities.

The transfer reduces logging revenue to the Mount Baker School District, and that badly hurts school children in an already tax-poor district, schools Superintendent Rick Gantman said.

Kremen said he would work to reimburse the district for lost revenue, but Gantman wasn't convinced.

"I'm disappointed at the possibility that the council may not have enough determination to make sure there's no damage to the children in the Mount Baker School District," he said.

The transfer won't be complete until sometime in 2010, according to the DNR-county agreement.