DNR adopts plan for marbled murrelet

The state Board of Natural Resources on Tuesday adopted a long-term conservation plan for the marbled murrelet, a threatened seabird that has been protected under a controversial interim plan for almost two decades.

The Department of Natural Resources said Tuesday in a news release that the long-term plan will protect 168,000 acres of current marbled murrelet habitat while freeing up more than 100,000 acres where timber harvests were previously prohibited.

The American Forest Resource Council, however, said the plan will directly harm rural jobs and decrease funding for public schools, fire departments, libraries, hospitals and other community services.

The murrelet was listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1992. Five years later, Washington state released an interim plan to protect the bird.

“We are resolving more than two decades of uncertainty with bold action to protect marbled murrelet habitat while supporting Washington’s rural economies,” Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said in a news release. “We are moving forward on a path that safeguards this threatened species while creating jobs and economic opportunity – a dual investment in the future of the marbled murrelet and our small towns.”

The marbled murrelet, which spends most of its life at sea, will travel 55 miles inland to lay one egg per year in old growth trees. According to DNR, the marbled murrelet population declined 3.9% annually between 2001 and 2016 largely due to habitat loss. DNR estimates that about 6,000 murrelets are left in the state.

Under the newly adopted plan, the DNR estimates additional protected forestland will become suitable murrelet habitat over the next 50 years, bringing the total protected habitat to 272,000 acres of state lands.

However, conservationists previously have said the plan is not protective enough.

“DNR is trying to find a balance between the two sides, and we are not sure that even exists,” Kara Whittaker, lead technical scientist for the Marbled Murrelet Coalition, a multiorganization conservation group, said in September. “The bird needs more habitat than they are proposing, unfortunately, and the beneficiaries need more (revenue) than they are proposing.”

The board also set the sustainable harvest level for timber on state trust lands at 4.65 billion board feet, which DNR says will guarantee a more stable flow of income to the schools, colleges and counties that depend on their revenue.

The AFRC, however, said the long-term strategy combined with the sustainable harvest calculation will reduce annual harvest levels on DNR land by 85 million board feet over the next several years.

“This is over 15% below the levels adopted in the previous decade – an across-the-board cut that AFRC estimates will result in the annual loss of almost $30 million in timber revenues to support public services and agency management costs,” according to the organization’s news release.