Members of the Clallam County Resource Advisory Committee on Thursday discussed results from a recent Department of Natural Resources forest inventory and the status of multiple timber sales that have been on pause pending further review. Committee members were told draft inventory work shows more forest on the landscape than previously thought, but DNR staff said final numbers had not yet been released and the Commissioner of Public Lands has not announced a timetable for decisions.

The discussion mattered because multiple timber sales affecting county taxing districts were postponed earlier this year; committee members and local fire and school-district representatives said the sales delays have budget consequences for junior taxing districts that rely on timber revenue. The RAC voted to send a letter from the committee to the county commissioners urging them to request that the Commissioner of Public Lands move the paused sales forward. The committee approved the letter in a motion, with the DNR representative and Commissioner Johnson recorded as abstaining and recusing themselves.

DNR staff described the inventory results as preliminary. Drew Rosenbaum (DNR region staff) said draft figures indicate some sustainable-harvest units exceed previously reported thresholds (for example, the 10–15 percent figure referenced for the 70‑year plan), but that the division is still consolidating regional and division-level draft numbers before they become final. Rosenbaum said the commissioner has the final decision about whether to permanently set aside lands or to change the timing of sales; to date the commissioner has said he is not pursuing new permanent set‑asides but may alter timing for bringing sales forward.

Committee members raised concerns about specific sales caught up in litigation and post-sale environmental reviews. DNR staff described the example called “Dungeons and Dragons,” saying a post-sale review identified a potentially sensitive plant community; DNR reduced or removed one unit of that sale and attorneys indicated the litigation on the litigation‑focused unit might be dismissed because that unit was no longer slated for harvest. DNR staff also said the agency has hired a natural‑resource scientist to conduct pre‑sale plant‑community surveys in the region beginning in September to identify sensitive sites before sales are advertised.

The committee discussed the broader impacts of the six‑month pause (referred to repeatedly as “six-ish”) and said some members had drafted the letter to urge the county commissioners to press for resumption of sales. The motion to send the RAC letter carried; DNR and Commissioner Johnson abstained and recused from that vote. Committee members said they will forward the letter to the county commissioners and hoped the county would press the commissioner of public lands to announce a decision soon.

The RAC also received an update on state purchases of encumbered lands intended to compensate taxing districts; DNR staff said the legislature provided funds (discussed in the meeting as “over $10,000,000”) that enabled recent purchases, including a roughly 1,600‑acre acquisition that will be managed for long‑term timber production and benefit taxing districts. Staff said valuation and benefit‑allocation work remains to determine how revenue will flow to individual junior taxing districts.