Time running out to stop logging of Washington campground
Aspen Ford
(Washington State Standard) Shortly after purchasing 74 acres in a state timber sale on the northern end of the Olympic Peninsula, Bruce Webster received a phone call from Earth Law Center attorney Elizabeth Dunne.
She asked if the Elwha Legacy Forests Coalition could pay Webster the amount he would make from logging to forgo the removal of the 2 acres of trees surrounding Sadie Creek Campground.
Webster agreed and set a price: $32,000.
The agreement would allow Webster to pay the Department of Natural Resources its management fee. It would allow counties and junior taxing districts to get their fair share of it, too, Webster said.
“It’s kind of a win-win for everybody,” he said.
When approached about the agreement in September last year, Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove said the plan wouldn’t work.
Upthegrove, who campaigned on a promise to save older forests on state-owned land, said he couldn’t change a sale that took place before he became commissioner. Though, he told Dunne in an email, it is “very much the sort of idea I want to explore.”
“It’s two acres, for God’s sake,” said WendyRae Johnson, soil advocate and a member of the forest coalition. “I just thought it would be a no-brainer.”
The dispute over saving the Sadie Creek forest has played out over the last two years, but the clock is ticking for the Elwha Legacy Forests Coalition. Webster gave the group a Monday deadline to raise the $32,000. As of Thursday afternoon, the group has raised nearly $17,000.
But without the Department of Natural Resources’ backing, the land remains harvestable even if the coalition pays Webster, Upthegrove told the Standard.
In his forty years of logging, Webster never heard of a group buying out a portion of a timber sale for conservation, but he has no problem with it. He would make $16,000 and give the Department of Natural Resources the same amount.
“My side is pretty straightforward. If you can do that, we can do it. If not, I’ve got to start cutting,” he said.
The sale
The Sadie Creek Campground is located about 20 miles west of Port Angeles, just off State Route 112. It is part of the 74 acres within the Doc Holliday timber sale. The area is filled with a mix of Douglas firs, western red cedars, and sitka spruce, with some up to 125 years old. A nearby salmon-bearing stream is also on the property.
The state-managed area has miles of trails for hikers, horseback riders and off-highway vehicle riders, offering views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island. With a Discover Pass, visitors can camp overnight at any one of its six campsites for free.
The timber sale didn’t come without protest.
Elwha Legacy Forests Coalition, which is a grassroots volunteer organization, documented trees larger than 60 inches in diameter that had not been previously marked by the agency, pointing out that the Department of Natural Resources had missed those, according to Scott McGee, founding member of the coalition.
As state law requires, the Department of Natural Resources cannot allow the logging of trees of that size.
Another group, known as the Troublemakers, removed all boundary markers in one unit of the Doc Holliday tract and turned them into the agency with a letter urging them to cancel the sale.
The Department of Natural Resources put the markers back in place and added the larger trees the coalition found to those that wouldn’t be cut down.
Webster Logging bought the timber for $620,000 in August 2024.
After the sale, S’Klallam tribal members wrote a letter to Upthegrove explaining the cultural significance of the land.
“The forest of Sadie Creek… is home to plants critical to traditional medicine and ceremonial practices,” it said. “Sadie Creek provided our people with their first canoe, a testament to the enduring bond between the forest and the Skallam peoples way of life.”
‘Uncharted territory’
Randy Johnson, Clallam County commissioner and member of the Board of Natural Resources, approached Upthegrove this week to discuss saving the two acres of campground.
“Maybe there is a way to make something happen,” Upthegrove told the Standard on Wednesday. ���There is something compelling about the very small scale of this.”
The logging company has not approached Upthegrove, he said. The agreement set in place between the logging company and the forest coalition doesn’t include the Department of Natural Resources. That means the land could theoretically be put up again in another sale.
Upthegrove described the situation as uncharted territory.
“The question isn’t just about two acres,” he said. “It’s about, are we going to get into the business of conservation easements as a department?”
“To have the first one posed be on a sale that’s already at this stage makes it even more complicated,” he added.
More recently, Upthegrove said he developed a conversation lease workgroup within the agency to develop procedures for how something like this would work. He said he would continue looking into the issue, but couldn’t give a timeline.
Others aren’t impressed with Upthegrove’s handling of the situation.
“So you run for office, but then you’re not going to change anything that ever happened before?” said Bill Bryant, former Republican candidate for governor and founding board member of the Nisqually River Foundation.
“The Sadie Creek sale highlights that Washington State does not value forests beyond their timber value,” he said. “The only person standing in the way of this is the commissioner.”
Stephen Kropp, founder of the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, has sued the Department of Natural Resources on numerous occasions over timber sales with older trees.
“He completely ignores the fact, the reality, that these forests and many watersheds are going to disappear on his watch,” Kropp said. “He’s literally presiding over the liquidation of the last remaining legacy forests.”