From Friends of the White Salmon River
Public comment at March 16, 2021 BOCC meeting
To: bocc@klickitatcounty.org, Commissioners Anderson, Sauter, and Christopher,
We want to bring the upcoming SDS Lumber Company sale to your attention. We ask you to consider how you might best serve the county in this process. The mill and the largest proportion of the timberland are here, in Klickitat County, so it seems that we have most at stake.
Public interest and concern are high, as demonstrated by news coverage, social media posting, and attendance by nearly 200 people at the showing of the film UPROOTED on March 14.
We think you have a role to play in the discussion of economic impacts. We’ll go farther, in fact, and ask you to take leadership in protecting the County’s economic well-being.
The 2017 Klickitat County 10-YEAR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIC PLAN identifies the forest products industry as a priority. Goal Two “Catalyst Opportunities” states a goal to “Continue to promote the importance of the forest products industry to the county, while staying aware of opportunities for enhancement and expansion.”
What might you do? We see a critical opportunity to work to retain a thriving forest products business under local ownership. The Economic Development Department spends time encouraging businesses to move here. It would seem that efforts to retain existing business would be essential as well.
In addition, the County could provide information, using data already available to the Economic Development Department, on the economic role of the SDS Lumber Company in the county/ region at present. We know that they are drivers of economic activity here. It’s important to put some numbers to this reality.
Finally, the County could assess the economic impact of the mill closing and/or to a substantial reduction decrease in timber harvest. Of particular concern, of course, are the employees and contractors of the company, but there is a general multiplier effect as well. If these potential
impacts are significant, as we think they would be, the County needs to undertake some planning for response to lessen the impacts.
We all know this is a complicated situation. FWSR and many others have deep concerns about environmental matters. You can’t solve every problem, but you can help ease the concern in the community, you can share information, and very possibly you can help in getting to good outcomes.
A first step you could take quickly would be a public statement acknowledging community concerns and explaining what you can (or cannot) do to walk through this together.
