County workshop speakers urge commissioners to oppose proposed state stream-buffer expansion

A Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners workshop on the Forest Practices Act drew timber-industry and landowner testimony on a proposed Forest Practices Board rule to expand stream buffers on small, non–fish-bearing streams.

Speakers including Wade Boyd, a forestry industry veteran, told commissioners the state Department of Ecology’s approach would bypass the adaptive-management process in the Forest and Fish agreement and impose broadly applied buffers without stream‑level study. Boyd said the change would remove tens of thousands of acres from active management and reduce county excise-tax receipts.

The proposal matters locally because timber harvest supports logging jobs, mill operations and county excise-tax revenues used for schools, roads and other local services. County officials said…