Meeting Minutes

Meeting was called to order at 7:30am.

Guests: Jim Jones, Bill Peach, Rich Erickson, Judith Morris and Jackson May.

Minutes:

Edna Petersen moved and Connie Beauvais seconded acceptance of minutes for July 19 meeting. Motion carried.

Announcements:

Edna Petersen reported on the Olympic Peninsula Collaborative meeting she attended.  She said questions were not allowed but the group did get copies of the letter from PABA asking for more representation.  It will be 5-6 months before an answer is known.

Membership:

John introduced new PABA member Allen Coleman, an IT staffer for Clallam County.  Allen said he grew up in the area and wants to help make it a better place to raise his kids.

Politics:

John introduced several candidates at the meeting:  Randy Johnson, Gabe Rygaard and Maggie Roth, running for County Commissioner; Dave Neupert, running for Superior Court Judge, Position 2.

Announcements, Redux:

Edna Petersen told of several shoplifting incidents in her store.  She reminded people to be on the lookout for shoplifters, especially at the end of the month.

Andrew May invited everyone to his annual Corn Roast on Sunday, Aug 7 from 12 to 12.

Edna Petersen invited everyone to her stores’ 18th birthday.

George Bergner said the “Ride to the Ridge” will be on Sunday, August 7 and might attract as many as 800 bike riders.  The ONP will close the road to all but bikes and emergency vehicles.  Andrew invited them all to the Corn Roast after that.

Program

Bill Peach, County Commissioner, presented a recent graph that the DNR put out on harvest levels for the next 10 years. He said much analysis needs to be done by the end of the year when there will be three new members on the board.  The marbled murrelet continues to be the “problem holding up things”, but the DNR continues to work on several ideas.  They could do nothing, use 1.2 million acres – 600,000 of that in LTFC or Long Term Forest Cover; take away 150,000 acres for habitat or consolidate areas and ideas.

Mr. Peach said 85% of the revenue generated from timber harvest goes to the schools.  He traced the history of how over 92,000 acres which were once private were acquired by counties during the Depression when people couldn’t pay their taxes.  The Counties then asked the DNR to manage the lands for them.  When that land is harvested, funds go to allocated property taxing districts.  As revenues decrease, junior taxing districts such as schools, libraries, fire districts, hospitals, etc., must find funding from other sources.  He would like to have a public vote when monies are needed.  He is hoping the subject will be brought up at the next DNR Board meeting.  He would also like to see an annual statement as to the variance and what is being done with it.  He feels the DNR should be held accountable for all its decisions and expenditures.

Q & A Period

Does the DNR plan to evaluate its existing plan?  How is it doing on its existing plan? How many jobs vs. acreage? – Seven jobs per acre.

Supply vs. Expansion? Environmental Groups vs. Rest of Board after the election?

** Andrew May moved and Edna seconded extending the meeting an additional 15 minutes.  Motion carried. **

Cross Laminated Timber and supply?  Do other counties feel the same as Clallam?  Does DNR have enough revenue and what is it doing with it?  Forest fires vs. unharvested timber? – $10,000 per acre.

Upcoming Speaker

Next weeks’ speaker is Michael Peters, CEO, Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.

Meeting adjourned at 8:42am.