HomeMy WebLinkAbout051622AS02 JEFFERSON COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA REQUEST
TO: Board of County Commissioners
Mark McCauley, County Administrator
FROM: Heidi Eisenhour, Commissioner
DATE: May 16,2022
SUBJECT: Beaver Valley Sorts Timber Sale delay/deferral considerations workshop
STATEMENT OF ISSUE:
On April 4, 2022 the Jefferson County Commissioners sent a letter to the Board of Natural Resources asking them to
defer the Beaver Valley Sorts Timber Sale(BV Sorts)which was on the agenda for consideration at their April 5th
meeting. They discussed our letter,with Commissioner Bill Peach noting that he had never seen a letter like this
signed by all three commissioners, and voted to delay auction of this sale to the July 2022 auction. At that BNR
meeting they discussed that reconveyance is an option we have with this sale as these lands are all State Forest
Transfer(SFT)trust lands.In our letter,we stated that we"see enormous opportunity for innovation in how state-
owned lands are managed. Whether it is variable retention harvest, or the selling of carbon credits..."Ironically, on
April 6,DNR Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz announced a first-in-the-nation Carbon Project. It was a busy
first week of April on this front. After these three developments, Commissioner Eisenhour was tasked with working
with stakeholders to bring back implications of and considerations related to our request for a deferral of this sale to
her seat mates.
ANALYSIS:
The SFT trust includes about 546,000 acres that were acquired by 21 counties, including Jefferson, in the 1920s and
1930s through tax foreclosures.Unable to manage these mostly harvested and abandoned lands, counties deeded them
to the state to manage as trust lands. In exchange,the county and the taxing districts in which the land is located are
given most of the revenue from timber sales and other revenue-producing activities. Currently there over 14,000 acres
of these lands within Jefferson County.
BV Sorts, as currently proposed, is a three unit/66-acre sale located in District 3,generally just WSW of Teal Lake in
Port Ludlow. All acres fall in the SFT and 76+Years old age class(based on DNR's"Harvest Unit Adjacency map").
Since the April 5 BNR decision, Commissioner Eisenhour has undertaken initial outreach to DNR staff,junior taxing
districts and conservation leaders to study the implications of this sale to our local taxing districts and also to begin to
understand what some options are for generating revenue from these lands. We also have heard from Jefferson County
conservation leaders about additional forests deserving a second look and gathered information to share about older
forests in Jefferson County.
FISCAL IMPACT:
TBD
RECOMMENDATION:
Discuss, consider reconveyance and determine next steps. DNR has requested notification by 6/1/2022 if we
intend to go this direction.
REVIE ED BY: ?
c /VZ.-z-
Mark McCau , County Administrato Date