Oregon Public Broadcasting

Steep-slope logging is likely to become a top issue in this fall’s campaign for Washington State Lands Commissioner.

It became front page news after last winter’s devastating storms in Southwest Washington. Correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

It took a visit to the now famous Stillman Creek mudslides to bring current Washington State Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland and his challenger Peter Goldmark together.

Tour Guide: “Okay, this is the first of our stops for today.”

This is where Weyerhaeuser clearcut a steep hillside. Then last December nearly 20 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours triggering a series of mudslides.

Huge sections of the hillside simply caved away – sending a wall of mud into the creek below.

A Seattle Times photographer in a helicopter captured the aftermath. The photo sparked a debate that continues to this day.

Peter Goldmark: “Well this is clearly on Sutherland’s watch.”

Goldmark, a Democrat, points the finger at Sutherland - his opponent in the lands commissioner race.

Peter Goldmark: “It’s unacceptable, yes, we must do better.”

Goldmark says lax oversight by the Department of Natural Resources allowed logging in too steep an area. He accuses Sutherland of having a cozy relationship with the logging industry.

Doug Sutherland: “I’m not cozy with the forest industries.”

Sutherland says what happened at Stillman Creek was a 500-year storm that no one could have anticipated.

Doug Sutherland: “Try to envision dumping 55 million gallons of water on that hillside and try to imagine what would happen. Well you can see what happened.”

Sutherland says DNR is reviewing whether it needs to improve its oversight of logging on private lands. And whether steep slope logging rules need to be rewritten.

It’s a policy debate that’s quickly becoming a political football. Even one of the most vocal scientists on steep-slope logging has given 70 bucks to candidate Goldmark.

David Montgomery says reforms are needed.

David Montgomery: “If we’ve known for well over a decade how to identify the steepest, most highest failure probability parts in a landscape like this why are we still clearcutting them?”

The logging industry responds it’s not clearcuts that are the problem.

Mark Doumit is with the Washington Forest Protection Association. He points out there were slides on forested slopes too.

Mark Doumit: “I see half a dozen landslides in tall timber and some here in reprod – that’s ten, fifteen years old and some here on the slope that we’ve all seen the picture of.”

A state funded study of steep slope logging practices is due out this fall – just about the time voters will be casting their votes for lands commissioner.