DNR officials defend Dabbler timber sale, explain spotted-owl protections as council presses for pause

Duane Emmons, assistant deputy supervisor for State Uplands at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, told the Clark County Council at a Feb. work session that the Dabbler timber sale was designed under the department's Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and sold at auction for $5,100,000 to Stimson Lumber Company. Emmons said the sale spans three units with a net harvest area of about 140 acres and 16 acres designated as conservation or legacy-tree areas.

Why it matters: Clark County is a beneficiary of state trust lands and receives a share of timber-sale revenue that supports local taxing districts and school construction. Council members said they want a pause and a larger discussion about how structurally complex older forests near old growth are managed before harvest proceeds further.

Emmons said DNR manages lands under long-standing fiduciary duties and multiple conservation standards. "All of our lands in Western Washington ... are managed under a habitat conservation plan," Emmons said, referring to the 1997 HCP and its 2019 amendment for marbled murrelet protections. He told the council that DNR's approach includes contract clauses that require leaving legacy down logs and prohibits cutting trees more than 60 inches in diameter, and that the HCP requires leaving a minimum of eight leave trees per acre in harvest units.

Sale details and revenue: Emmons said the Dabbler sale sold at auction for $5,100,000 and that the sale encompasses three different trust types, including state-forest-transfer and common-school trusts. He said portions of sale revenue are distributed by tax-code area and that the county's share depends on which trust parcels are affected. Emmons said about 18% of the sale proceeds go to the common-school trust and that the county receives roughly 25% of the revenue from the state-forest-purchase portion. He added that, as a rule of thumb, a sale of this size typically generates $10 million to $15 million in broader economic activity and supports about 36 to 48 jobs.

Harvest layout, monitoring and contract enforcement: Steve Ogden, assistant region manager for DNR's Pacific Cascade Region, described the sale layout and monitoring. He said the sale was designed after field reviews and took roughly two years to lay out. The contract includes a designated DNR contract administrator who conducts frequent on-site inspections and approves road-building, rock compaction and other work before haul begins. Ogden also noted that DNR must obtain and comply with state forest-practices permits, which provide an additional, separate inspection and enforcement layer.

Habitat rules and old-growth definitions: Emmons and Ogden explained the HCP's northern spotted owl strategy, including nest-patch protections and a landscape-level habitat threshold DNR must maintain. Under the HCP policy described at the meeting, DNR manages spotted-owl habitat so that at least 50% of each spotted-owl management unit (SOMU) remains in habitat; Emmons said the Suson landscape that contains Dabbler was at about 57% habitat under DNR's inventory. Emmons also cited the Board of Natural Resources' old-growth policy adopted in February 2005, saying DNR defines old growth for its policy as stands that originated before 1850 and that old-growth patches must meet other metrics (including a minimum patch size) to be permanently conserved.

Council concerns and commissioner direction: Several council members said they had asked DNR to pause additional harvest activity in older, structurally complex stands until the new commissioner's policy review was complete and requested a direct conversation with the commissioner. Emmons said the new commissioner has instituted a six-month pause on sale of "structurally complex" forest types while DNR performs a broader landscape inventory and that the commissioner is "not looking backwards" to unilaterally withdraw sales previously approved by the Board of Natural Resources. Emmons told the council that the board, which has six members, approves timber sales and that the commissioner is one of those six votes.

Process and limits: Emmons and Ogden emphasized several operational constraints and protections: DNR limits maximum harvest-unit size (policy average in Western Washington is about 35 acres and maximum 100 acres), employs variable-retention harvest patterns rather than 1960s-style large clearcuts, and retains riparian buffers that exceed state forest-practice minimums. Ogden said DNR leaves identified legacy trees and down wood in place and that the sale map and GIS records mark leave-tree areas with white tags and flagging so on-site inspection can verify retention.

Federal review and barred-owl context: Emmons said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reissued a biological opinion in 2024 finding that continued implementation of DNR's HCP and associated incidental-take permit is "not likely to jeopardize the continued existence" of the northern spotted owl and does not require modification of the incidental-take permit. He also said current federal discussion is focusing heavily on interactions with barred owls, which the agency and federal partners are studying separately.

Next steps: DNR staff offered to return for further briefings and to arrange field visits to inspect harvest layout and monitoring in person. Councilors said they would continue to seek a meeting with the commissioner, press for clarity about buffers adjacent to old-growth-designated patches, and follow the commissioner's six-month inventory pause and any board-level policy proposals that emerge.

Ending: DNR officials said the department will continue HCP implementation and monitoring while carrying out board-approved sales; council members said they will press for a substantive conversation about prescription alternatives, buffers and the treatment of structurally complex older forests before additional harvest moves forward in sensitive local areas.