A lawsuit filed by the timber industry challenging a Grays Harbor County ordinance prohibiting large forest landowners from getting a property-tax break if they charge for access is likely to go to trial in Thurston County Superior Court sometime early next year.
The lawsuit, filed by the Washington Forest Protection Association, Green Diamond Resource Co., Rayonier and the Weyerhaeuser Co., alleges that the county’s new ordinance is in direct conflict with state law, the state constitution and the U.S. Constitution.
Attorney John Justice of John Justice, with Law, Lyman, Daniel, Kamerrer &Bogdanovich in Olympia, is representing the county in the suit. Justice said that the parties to the lawsuit submitted schedules to the court on Friday, Dec. 5, and the court will use those to set a trial date sometime early next year.
The county ordinance in question says that timber companies should not be allowed to get a tax break for growing timber while at the same time charging hunters and hikers to access that land. The state allows an “open space” designation for forest land, which allows timber companies to get a big discount on their property taxes because the companies are growing timber and eventually pay a harvest tax. The state put the program in place but left it to the counties to determine what should be in the forest management plan that timber companies are required to abide by. The ordinance adopted last month by the county commissioners would prevent fees for access as a condition of opting into the “open space” tax break program.
The lawsuit acknowledges that once land is designated as forest land under the proper state law, one of the only ways it can be removed is if “the owner ceases using the land primarily for the growing and harvesting of timber.” Once removed, the land would be revalued for property tax purposes at its highest- and best-use market value and subjected to a compensating tax equal to the property tax differential for each year the land was designated to get the property tax break up to 10 years, the lawsuit notes.
The Prosecutor’s Office Justice’s firm to represent the county commissioners, instead of utilizing a deputy prosecutor in the case.
The county’s attorney argues that the lawsuit is full of “legal conclusions rather than factual allegations that can be fairly admitted or denied.” And that claims in the timber industry’s lawsuit that the statutes “speak for themselves” is also false, noting that a court has never heard the arguments and the county’s ordinance is the first of its kind in the state.
The county also argues that the appeal was not filed in a timely manner, citing “RCW 36.32.330 Appeals from board’s action,” which states that the timber industry had 20 days to file a facial challenge of the county’s ordinance.
However, the lawsuit was filed 30 days after the ordinance went into effect.
The ordinance came about after Weyerhaeuser started charging for access during the hunting months on its property in Pacific, Lewis and Grays Harbor counties. Rayonier and Green Diamond also charge for access. Weyerhaeuser officials have said the access fees are necessary to compensate for vandalism and dumping in the forests.
The lawsuit asks that the court invalidate the county’s ordinance and award costs and attorney fees to the timber companies. The county has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit and award costs to the county.
Meantime, a biologist for the state Department of Fish &Wildlife has publicly and said that charging fees and limiting access to vast areas of traditional hunting grounds is ultimately bad for hunting and therefore bad for wildlife.
Eric Holman, district wildlife biologist for the Washington Department of Fish &Wildlife, told The Daily News of Longview that the practice “attacks the very premise of wildlife management in North America — that the wildlife belongs to everybody.
“Privatization, even when veiled in the form of access limitations, erodes this relationship and therefore the social and economic support for wildlife,” Holman said. “Hunted wildlife species such as waterfowl, elk, pronghorn, white-tailed deer and wild sheep have rebounded from historic population low-points around 1900 under this system. This is true whether it’s on a private game reserve in Europe, a fenced white-tailed deer ranch in Texas or and industrial tree farm with severe access restrictions.”
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