Washington State has a tricky set of rules for logging on federally owned land, such as this selective clear cutting I found while trail running on Slide Mountain yesterday.Â
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources maintains 3 million acres of Federal land, but 1.8 million of it is open to logging and development. You cannot log in the State of Washington without the permit approval of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. The head of the Department of Natural Resources is commissioner Peter Goldmark. He is a Democrat and was re-elected in 2012 thanks to receiving four times the amount of campaign money from logging companies as he did from the national Democratic Party itself.
With that kind of money in our back pocket, it’s easy to see why the Department of Natural Resources is so protective of logging companies and their interests. The large amount of logging in the Cascade Mountains both before and since Oso shows that the logging industry isn’t slowing down. In fact, the Department of Natural Resources received 12,000 applications to log each year. This means that a logging company could potentially millions worth of timber on a $150 permit. Furthermore if the application isn’t approved within 30 days, the permit is automatically approved. There is a staggering amount of permits granted due to this loophole alone.
When I came across the trail on Slide Mountain, I was surrounded by people holding target practice in the rock quarries and downhill mountain biker vigilantes whom have created a series of illegal but really awesome trails on Slide Mountain without park approval.
Safe to say, this trail hike was an eye opener.Â
