Longtime residents of Walla Walla, we have always been proud to live in a community that cares about and protects our water resources. We have enjoyed the benefit of generations of unilateral and bipartisan collaboration to ensure the continuing stability and prosperity of Walla Walla’s agriculture and commerce.
That’s why we were shocked to hear that the City of Walla Walla is moving ahead with an unprecedented Forest Service proposal to conduct logging, burning and road construction in 38,000 acres of the Mill Creek Municipal Watershed and adjacent forests.
The proposed work, slated to begin in June, carries a high probability of costly disruptions to our municipal water resources, serious implications for public health and a significant burden on taxpayers for decades to come, as well as grave implications for the environment, especially for salmon and other endangered native fish populations.
Under Federal rules, the Forest Service retains profits from the sale of timber from public forests to foreign and domestic private companies. This is clear conflict of interest.
The Forest Service frames the proposed timber extraction as fuels reduction to mitigate wildfire risk and “ecological restoration” of the healthy mature and old-growth forest. While there is some debate between ecologists and logging interests on the short-term efficacy of fuels reduction, the overwhelming scientific consensus is that the long-term effects of these intensive forest management strategies are ultimately disatrous and irreversible.
In any case, one thing is certain: the Forest Service is using fear of fire to extract timber from protected forests. The City is going along without question, charging ahead with a dangerous plan, and our local interests are not being represented or protected.
In the last 15 years, numerous other communities in the Pacific Northwest have faced costly and crippling impacts to their water supplies due to logging in and around their watersheds, with no recourse or accountability for the harm done. We believe that the citizens of Walla Walla deserve greater transparency and opportunity for public comment before allowing federal agencies and unchecked private interests to extract public resources and saddle our residents and local businesses with the bill.
We call upon the Mayor, the City of Walla Walla and its elected and appointed representatives to require the USFS to provide an Environmental Impact Statement and at least some independent analysis to consider and plan for the foreseeable outcomes to our water before approving the Forest Service’s shortsighted plan. We ask for a public Town Hall where the interests and views of the citizens of the impacted jurisdictions may be heard, and we require that failsafes be put in place to give the City recourse in the event that the project does not proceed according to plan. We ask anyone who shares these concerns to make them clear to our local representatives.
URGENT ACTION NEEDED: The City Council plans to make a final decision on this plan in a Work Session at 4pm on Tuesday, May 27th. The public is allowed to attend, but will not be given an opportunity to comment. Join the meeting via Zoom or in person in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 15 N 3rd Avenue.
