Washington State Capitol

OLYMPIA — Washington environmental groups are asking legislators to spend $80 million from cap-and-trade auctions to stop thousands of acres of state-owned timber from being logged.

The money would compensate rural schools and counties for lost timber revenue and to buy “replacement forestland” from private landowners.

Environmental groups are making it a top priority, hoping to conserve 7,000 to 8,000 acres of older forests that would otherwise be harvested in the next few years.

Senate Democrats unveiled the plan last week in their budget proposal, seeking to implement the policy through the spending plan rather than through a separate bill.

At a hearing the next day, sawmill operators said putting more land off-limits to logging would hurt their businesses and rural economies.

Counties that depend on state timber sales to support public services were not consulted, Washington State Association of Counties policy director Paul Jewell said.

“This (budget) proviso will have a significant impact on counties. Unfortunately, we were not aware of it at all,” he said.

On March 26, the Senate Ways and Means Committee dropped the proposal from the Senate budget, but it could be reinserted later.

“A group of us will work to come up with language that has broader support,” said Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, chairman of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

Cap-and-trade auctions — in which businesses and investors bid for carbon allowances — began in February. The first auction took in nearly $300 million, much more than expected.

The state projects raising $2.3 billion over the next three years — $1 billion more than originally forecast.

Lawmakers are getting their first chance at allocating up the proceeds. The $80 million for conserving state timberlands was the single largest cap-and-trade expenditure in the Senate budget proposal.

Conservation Northwest policy director Paula Swedeen said the proposal is not intended to choke off the flow of timber to mills.

The Senate budget also proposes spending $10 million in cap-and-trade money to plan commercial thinning on state timberlands. The thinning could offset logging fewer acres, Swedeen said.

“I know there’s a lot of fear around it,” she said. “We’re not trying to shut down the mills. We’re not trying to deprive counties of the benefits of timber money.”