::: Blanchard Mountain :::

· Blanchard Mountain is Public Land: 4800 acres OWNED BY THE CITIZENS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON and Revocable by Skagit County for park purposes only. Reconveyance to the county was not adequately discussed by the Blanchard Strategies Group (BSG). For background on the BSG, visit www.dnr.wa.gov/htdocs/agency/blanchard/index.html

· Blanchard Mountain is unique geologically in all of Puget Sound. It is the only place where the Cascade Mountains meet the sea. It rises 1,000 feet at 0.3 miles from the sea, and rises 2,000 feet 1 mile from the shoreline. It is the home of five mountain lakes.

· Blanchard Mountain represents the largest remaining mature coastal mainland forest, including old growth, between Vancouver B.C. and Olympia: the only coastal Marbled Murrelet nesting area remaining in the Greater Puget Sound Region.

· Blanchard Mountain is an invaluable component for the restoration of Puget Sound and serves a higher value as a permanently protected relic old-growth forest for all citizens and generations to experience, learn from and enjoy forever.

· The BSG process was exclusive, not inclusive, of open community and scientific input. The BSG was hand selected by the Commissioner for Public Lands and heavily favored interests friendly to the timber industry.

· There was little consideration in the BSG’s proposal for fish & wildlife and supporting habitat (for all life phases). Biodiversity was documented by an earlier study (2002) as the second highest value, but was not given sufficient consideration at the BSG.

· The BSG agreement vastly underestimates the positive recreational and economic values of not logging Blanchard Mountain. More than 50,000 people are likely to use Blanchard Mountain annually, generating direct revenues into local economies (both Whatcom and Skagit counties).

· Using Blanchard Mountain as a “demonstration forest for eco-logging” is a poor rationale for increased logging along the I-5 corridor and in the National Forest. Societal values are changing to favor better protection of ecological and recreational values. DNR’s mission needs to adapt accordingly. There are many thousands of acres of forest land available for harvest in Skagit County.

· Contrary to public perception, the majority of timber revenues generated by logging on Blanchard Mountain do not go to the Burlington-Edison School District. In fact, the revenues generated represent less than Ľ of 1% of the school district’s annual budget. Supporting schools with timber revenue is not sustainable.

· In a time of increasing concern with global warming, the primary responsibility of the DNR should be to protect Blanchard Mountain’s ecological integrity and biodiversity, as well as its carbon-sequestering value (pulling carbon dioxide out the air).

· Ask DNR to impose a moratorium from logging until a comprehensive scientific assessment is completed. The BSG agreement will have direct and immediate adverse environmental consequences.

· Oppose new roads on Blanchard Mountain until the scientific assessment is completed.

· Permanently protect a much larger reserve area for passive recreation and habitat conservation. The 1,600 acre recommended core by the BSG is too small. It is not based on biological, ecological or recreational values, but instead is based on accessible timber.

· The DNR needs to protect existing mature forest, other sensitive habitat, and associated corridors for preservation and restoration, including a substantial connecting corridor to Larrabee State Park.

· The governor has announced a program for the environmental restoration of the Greater Puget Sound Region. If Blanchard Mountain is not logged, it will be unnecessary to expend tax payer funds to restore the damage
incurred from logging.

The value of Blanchard Mountain protected FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS: Priceless!!

Contact any or all of the following:

Skagit County Commissioners: Sharon Dillon, Ken Dahlstedt & Don Munks
(360) 336-9300 – commissioners@co.skagit.wa.us

Dept. of Natural Resources, Northwest Region: Bill Wallace
(360) 856-3500 – bill.wallace@wadnr.gov

State Commissioner of Public Lands (DNR): Doug Sutherland
(360) 902-1004 – cpl@wadnr.gov

40th Legislative District: State Sen. Harriet Spanel
(360) 786-7678 – spanel.harriet@leg.wa.gov

40th Legislative District: State Rep. Jeff Morris
(360) 786-7970 – morris.jeff@leg.wa.gov

40th Legislative District: State Rep. Dave Quall
(360) 786-7800 – quall.dave@leg.wa.gov

Skagit Valley Herald: fax: (360) 428-0400 – letters@skagitvalleyherald.com
Limit of 250 words, no attachments

Argus (weekly publication of Skagit Valley Herald):
arguseditor@skagitweeklygroup.com
Limit of 300 words; write to Argus if you live outside Skagit County

Blanchard Forest Strategies Group Agreement – OPPOSING VIEW
Mt Baker Group, Sierra Club – February 12, 2007

1. No new roads should be constructed on Blanchard Mountain.

2. An area of 2,400 acres should be adopted and managed for Natural Resource Conservation Area values.

3. The northwest vicinity linking Larabee State Park and the Puget Sound Shoreline with Blanchard Mountain should be restricted from logging, and maintained in a forested state as a habitat corridor.

4. Promotion of logging on National Forest Lands, specifically in the Finney Block, is outside the scope of this agreement, and is opposed.

5. The Blanchard Forest Advisory Committee should not be appointed at the whim of DNR, as the Blanchard Strategies Group was. Otherwise DNR will be able to stack the committee with members who will provide a “rubber stamp” approval of anything DNR proposes for Blanchard Mountain timber harvest and management. This is NOT representative government.

6. Restrict logging on Blanchard to the south and eastern most areas for 5 to 10 years to allow conservationists the opportunity to assemble resources to expand the core protected area.

7. No support for “securing sustainable timber supply in Skagit or Whatcom Counties”. This is a job for the DNR, not for private citizens who want to maintain State Lands for recreational and environmental purposes.

DNR needs to hear from local and statewide residents that Blanchard is important to them in its current UNLOGGED status and why!

Written comments can be submitted by email to:
blanchardforest@wadnr.gov
or contact Kristen Ohlson-Kiehn at the DNR Sedro-Wooley office at (360)
856-3500

NEWS!!--Chuckanut Conservancy wins in court against the DNR

On July 8, 2008, King County Superior Court Judge Susan Craighead ruled in favor of the Chuckanut Conservancy (and co-plaintiff North Cascades Conservation Council), finding that the DNR erred when it concluded that the agency's new logging plan would have no significant environmental impact on Blanchard Mountain. The court required the DNR to begin preparing an environmental impact study (EIS) for its plan to significantly increase logging across two-thirds of the mountain. The EIS will need to look at less harmful alternatives that ensure better protection of environmental and recreation values on the mountain.

The judge agreed that Blanchard Mountain is a very unique place. She wrote in her decision, "Most important, Blanchard Forest represents a slice of near-wilderness in the middle of a rapidly urbanizing area. Some 35,000 people currently use the forest for recreation annually, and that number can only be expected to grow as the area's population increases and wild places become harder to find." The fight to save Blanchard Mountain isn't over by any stretch, but this is a very important victory nonetheless.

We still need your generous support, so please consider making a donation today. To all those who have supported the cause, we simply wouldn't have made it this far without your support. Thank you!

Read the judge's decision here.

The Battle over Blanchard Mountain

The Washington Department of Natural Resources and Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland plan to intensify logging across wide areas of Blanchard Mountain in the very new future. We need your help... volunteer, write a letter, make a donation. The threat to Blanchard Mountain is very real, so now is the time to act. Here's why...

Roads and logging will impact many miles of existing trails, including the Lily and Lizard Lakes Trail, Oyster Dome Trail, Pacific Northwest Trail, the British Army Trail, Max's Shortcut, and North Butte Trail. New road systems are planned high on the south, east and north flanks of the mountain, radically altering the backcountry experience currently enjoyed by tens of thousands of trail users each year.

Blanchard Mountain and the Chuckanuts are the most heavily used year-round recreation destination in Northwest Washington, yet the DNR has not acknowledged the true impacts of its logging plans. For example, much has been made of viewshed protection measures included in the DNR's plan for Blanchard Mountain. Yet only the views from a limited area south of the mountain would realize any benefit. Logging and new road corridors will be visible from I-5, the Lake Samish Area, Larrabee State Park, various Whatcom County park lands, Samish Island and Samish Bay, and from within the Blanchard Mountain trail system itself.

Logging will scar a significant portion of the spectacular view from Oyster Dome. Outstanding views from other high points, such as the North Butte Trail (highest trail in the Chuckanut Mountains), South Chuckanut Mountain, the Pacific Northwest Trail, and Raptor Ridge will also be seriously impacted. Narrow trail buffers planned for some trails are inadequate to screen the logging impacts for trail users.

In short, the wild and roadless backcountry experience currently offered at Blanchard Mountain will be lost to the communities that depend on the Chuckanuts as an extremely valuable regional recreation destination.

Despite a wealth of "green" sounding rhetoric issued over the past year by the DNR, partial cuts and new road construction will virtually destroy this last coastal forest, disrupting major habitat corridors between Blanchard Mountain, Larrabee State Park, and nearby wildlands, while fragmenting the largest unprotected roadless area left along the coast of the greater Puget Sound region.

It's no secret that Conservation Northwest of Bellingham supports the DNR's logging plan. The group believed that the small and oddly shaped protected core area provided for in the DNR's plan was the best that could be obtained. Yet almost every group and advocate who has been deeply involved in the debate over Blanchard Mountain for the past fifteen years strongly disagrees. Groups on record opposing the DNR's plan include the North Cascades Conservation Council, North Cascades Audubon Society, Sierra Club, Bellingham Mountaineers, Coast Watch Society (which facilitated the Friends of Blanchard Mountain), and of course the Chuckanut Conservancy. The point is not to single out Conservation Northwest, since they are surely entitled to their position on the issue. Blanchard Mountain aside, Conservation Northwest has certainly accomplished many great things over the years.

The more critical point is this: rather than bringing everyone to the table to resolve the issues, Commissioner Sutherland hand-picked a committee that he believed would give him the result he was looking for. Not surprisingly, each of the groups opposing the compromise plan developed by Sutherland's committee we're carefully excluded from the process. Voices favoring expanded logging on Blanchard Mountain dominated the committee. Even good science and the expertise of numerous professionals familiar with the mountain were not consulted.

Because of the damage that was about to be done and the fact that we believe the public will support a much more visionary plan for Blanchard Mountain, we joined the North Cascades Conservation Council in September 2007 as co-plaintiff in a lawsuit against the DNR to stop the implementation of this destructive plan. To date, we have enjoyed several important court victories; however, the lawsuit is ongoing and some key issues have yet to be decided. We will report on the latest developments as they occur. We have an outstanding legal team representing our case, led by attornies Dave Bricklin, Jennifer Dold and Toby Thaler of Seattle.

While we have offered to discuss reasonable alternatives and settlement terms with the DNR which include assurance that the trust would be compensated as required. Nevertheless, the agency has been unwilling to discuss potential solutions to the controversy. Instead, they continue to spend our tax dollars defending an unfair public process that short-changed both recreation and conservation interests. We expect the DNR will continue to stand in the way of a reasonable solution that truly protects Blanchard Mountain, while also maintaining a viable working forest that generates revenue for the trust.

Needless to say, your continued contributions to the cause are appreciated.

Below, we have highlighted some of the more interesting facts about Blanchard Mountain and the concerns that have been expressed by the Chuckanut Conservancy and other groups. Contact information and suggestions for how you can help save this last great coastal forest are also provided.