[Ski]

Cowlitz Valley RD is seeking input from the public regarding a proposal to sell the Forest Service Packwood office facility. The parcel is approximately 20 acres, including a wetlands area. The facility has been effectively abandoned for over 3 years; the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District now operates out of Randle. There are two buildings considered "historic", but they are not on the National Register of Historic Places. There is another building considered unique in architecture. comments must be received by July 19, 2006 comments-pacificnorthwest-giffordpinchot-cowlitzvalley@fs.fed.us

[yew]

Ski: Nice posts. Hikers who go to the GP will appreciate the news. That's a bummer they shut those facilities down. I used to go there and get trail condition info. That ranger station was a nice service to the public and probably an efficient base of operation for USFS personnel like wilderness rangers and law enforcement officers to work from. The USFS has really took a beating from the left wing and the right wing of the political spectrum since 1991 or so. They got timber sale appeals and litigation from the left wing (from environmental groups like Gifford Pinchot Task Force) and budget cuts from small government conservatives in Washington DC from the right wing. They used to get a lot of money from timber sales. That source dried up with the spotted owl stuff 1989 - 1994. Then they got hit by budget cuts in the early 1990s under the Clinton Administration as part of federal budget deficit reduction. They're getting hit again as a clampdown on domestic spending to pay for other federal budget priorities like Iraq, War on Terrorism, tax cuts,expanding Medicare,... Too bad that lumber mill in Packwood shut down. That was a real blow for working class people in that area. I hear the Boise-Cascade mill in Yakima is shutting down too. I imagine it's pretty hard to run mills without logs and having to compete with cheap foreign imported timber (e.g. not many lawsuits, appeals, environmental restrictions or uppity union timber workers in Brazil unfortunately)

[Rich Baldwin]

As I understand it, most of U.S. timber comes from private land and has for a long time. I learned recently that the ranger districts get charged by central administration on a per square foot basis for all their buildings, regardless of building type or quality. This is giving them a huge incentive to unload buildings.

[yew]

I too have been told that most US timber comes from private land. Alot of the trees cut down in the US for products comes from the pine plantations in the South, timberland in Maine, sawlogs from private timberland in western Oregon and Wash, etc.. But, that doesn't do anything for mills in towns that are surrounded by federal land. Trees available for cutting in the South, or even western Oregon is no help to a mill in Packwood or some other similar type town like Darrington that are surrounded by miles and miles of national forest that most of is more-or-less off limits to logging. Small isolated mills in rural towns can't profitably bring in logs from far away. Mileage costs money. Those log trucks burn up a lot of fuel. So, they go out of business and lay people off. Most US timber coming off private land: some of that is a "self-fulfilling prophecy" (I'm not using that term properly but it's all I can think of right now) since if we ban almost all commercial logging on national forests via litigation, appeals, postcard/e-mail/letter-writing campaigns, than of course, almost all timber will come off private land. That probably is an incentive to get rid of buildings. That's too bad. I liked having a ranger station in Packwood.

[MtnGoat]

seems to me it should be easier for the public to cut public timber. if it's public property, it should not all be locked up. it should be sold sustainably to private companies on a more open and above board basis than was done in the past, and with better timber management basis

[lookout bob]

as Rich Baldwin said, the ranger districts are indeed charged by the square foot for their buildings....this is adding to the 'lookout dilemma' as I call it....districts are struggling to keep up their lookouts and other historic buildings but are quickly losing the battle....it's much easier to sell off properties like the old Packwood ranger station than to upkeep and insure them....lookouts are particularly vulnerable as they are generally only used seasonally. I went to the Lookout conference in McCall Id. last year and that particular district has the most firelookouts of any in the country. They are fighting huge battles to keep the lookouts and to staff them because of funding cuts. 'selling off our heritage' is indeed what is occurring. How can we help?