A budding relationship

A man once loathed locally for spiking trees sits at a table with a former logger from East Lewis County, discussing a partnership that may signal the end of the forest wars.

Mitch Friedman, who organized what may have been the first tree-sitting protest in the mid-1980s, and Red Rogers, a former logger from Randle, are two of more than 20 environmentalists, loggers, union representatives and community leaders looking for ways to bring forest jobs back to rural Lewis County.

The pair and seven other members of the coalition, the Gifford Pinchot Collaborative Working Group, met with The Chronicle Wednesday to discuss the progress they have made since banding together in October.

The group's goal is to identify forest projects both sides can agree on in order to prevent the gridlock caused by lawsuits filed by environmental groups over controversial logging sales.

Over the past nine months, their meetings have been filled with debate, arguments, position-shifting, trust-building and, finally, the beginnings of agreement: the group proposed two projects to the forest Resource Advisory Committee for next year.

One of the proposals was a road reconstruction project, the other a 50-acre thinning of 20- to 50-year-old trees in the Pinchot. If funded, the group wants to award the thinning contract to a local company and then send the small-diameter logs on to a local mill or woodworker for value-adding.

Thinning operations like these are where they are focusing their energy: New research indicating thinning is good for forests has made environmentalists open to the idea.

"The science has changed," Friedman said. "There seem to be measurable benefits to thinning, if done right. … In '96 I wasn't even aware of the habitat benefits of thinning second-growth forest. Now we're aware of what needs to be done for second-growth. That's great common ground."

The environmentalists present attested that their concern in getting jobs to East County was heartfelt.

"The (Gifford Pinchot) Task Force has played a key role in stopping timber sales," said the acting director of that environmental group, Emily Platt. "We acknowledge there have been timber wars, tree sits, and we're trying to put that behind us."

Now, she said, the group wants to avoid litigation and help create jobs.

"We're committed to working to revitalize the communities in East Lewis County. … Thirty percent unemployment is ridiculous," Platt said.

Timber flow is the main goal of the East County residents in the group, but they acknowledged that communities dependent on logging alone are vulnerable.

John Squires, Packwood, a member of tourism-promoting Destination Packwood and a member of the RAC, hopes to see enough timber to support another mill in his community.

"There will be a mill in Packwood someday," said Squires, but "it won't be like the old mill."

Squires explained that mill jobs were being lost even before the Northwest Forest Plan went into effect, due largely to the mechanization of mill work that made many jobs obsolete.

"We have to recognize that the world has changed," he went on. "I don't want just a mill: we need to value-add. We need as many high-paying jobs as we can get."

Creating jobs also means promoting restoration projects and harvesting forest products other than trees, said several voices at the meeting.

"There are non-timber forest products, stream restoration, thinning and brushing," that can translate into local jobs, said Chris Van Daalen, with the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment.

Although many in East County scoff at the suggestion that harvesting mushrooms or gathering boughs can be a significant source of employment, Bob Guenther, president of the Thurston/Lewis County Central Labor Council stressed such activities have the potential to bring profits.

"We want to look at the products that are leaving the east end without being value-added," Guenther said. "I'm talking about the mushroom industry, the brush industry, (and others) that we as an economic committee should be looking at."

Group members are aiming high but starting small: they are all aware of how easily the group could spontaneously combust.

They are therefore treading carefully, and have not invited the press or the public to any of their regular meetings for fear of seeing their efforts go up in smoke.

"We've done a lot of work and we expect in the near-term to have some results," said Van Daalen. "(But) I want to caution that our intention as a working group is to show the public what our promise is not by promising but by delivering. … We don't want to make all these promises and not get results."

That doesn't mean the group is not optimistic.

"We are here because we expect to get results," said Bob Dick, Washington manager of the timber conglomerate American Forest Resource Council.

Results, for him, mean timber flow.

The reason Dick's expectations are high, he explained, is the group is not wasting time debating the controversial points of old growth logging and spotted owl habitat preservation, and focusing instead on the margins, however slim, where their ideas overlap.

"When I was invited to be part of this group late last year, I saw it as an opportunity to break out of the cycle of disagreement. It doesn't mean I've quit my day job — nobody at this table has. On the other hand, I've seen the (forest) war for 20-plus years, and all it does is beget more war," said Dick.

Squires agreed.

"I'd like to discuss why we have such a backlog of pre-commercial thinning and road maintenance, these non-controversial things everybody agrees on," he said. "Instead of discussing why we're at war over old growth, I'd like to discuss what the needs of the forest are and how we can take care of them."

Representatives from both sides have had to overcome their inclination toward suspicion of the other side.

Woodworker union representative Steve Fluke, originally from Pe Ell, said he made a distinction between radical environmental groups and those represented in the working group.

"You've got a group that wants to manage the forest and one that wants to keep it in litigation," Fluke said. "You've got biologists that want to protect the frog and the slug and don't want to see anything (logged).

"These entrenched people like to use controversy for politics and fund raising. We, the local communities, have been left in the middle. … I'm an East County person. We're really independent. We don't even really trust West County," added Squires, explaining he has overcome that distrust to work with Tourism Lewis County to promote tourism in Packwood.

"It's easy to hate the other guy, especially when they're faceless. It's harder when you sit down across a table with them. I envision a day when Bob Dick and Mitch (Friedman) and I can go to our politicians and say 'Hey guys, here's a work plan, here's what we need to do in the forest. Let's get the job done,' " he said.

Both sides said they hoped the collaborative effort signaled the end of the forest wars.

"This wouldn't have happened a year ago," said Platt. "(It) could be the beginning of the end of the war."

Though his tree-sitting days are over, Friedman wouldn't write off combat forever.

"I don't think my message is no more wars," he said. "I might need to fight wars with energy companies (in the future), but among this group and this landscape, we've got a lot in common. There's going to be a lot that can be done in the forest for a long time that can also benefit the ecosystem."

The group members agreed they could not solve the world's problems, or even the state's, and that the fruits of their collaboration are only beginning to bud.

"I don't think we're moving fast enough — I've got friends and neighbors that need jobs now," said Rogers, the East County former logger. "But I think we're making progress."

Jennifer Latson covers rural Lewis County, South Thurston County and East Grays Harbor County for The Chronicle. She may be reached at 807-8245, or by e-mail at jlatson@chronline.com.