Special interests fund much of lands commissioner race

Gunning for re-election to regulate Washington's timber industry and care for millions of acres of state-owned land, Republican Doug Sutherland promotes himself as a man of balance.

Yet more than two-thirds of the money supporting his candidacy came from timber and other industries with an interest in those lands -- and Sutherland's decisions about them.

Challenger and Democratic state legislator Mike Cooper, with strong support from environmental activists, calls himself the greener candidate. He vows to roll back Sutherland's plans to boost timber-cutting on state lands -- the central promise of his campaign -- but acknowledges that it won't be easy.

As head of the Department of Natural Resources, the lands commissioner is in charge of more than 5 million acres of state-owned forests, farms, commercial properties and underwater acreage used for marinas, shellfish harvesting and other activities. The land is used to raise revenue to supplement school-building funds and some counties' budgets.

The department and its Forest Practices Board also enforce rules governing how timber can be cut on 12 million acres of private land.

Sutherland, 67, who was elected to the four-year job in 2000 after 20 years in public service in Pierce and King counties, speaks repeatedly of the need to "find a balance." He says he is proud of progress in cleaning up contaminated sediments in Puget Sound and shoring up DNR's finances, a move that required reducing its work force by nearly 200 jobs, to about 1,400.

Cooper, 52, chairman of the House Fisheries, Ecology and Parks Committee, harps on what he considers the incumbent's failings to curb clear-cut logging, save old-growth forests, and to press hard enough to improve the health of Puget Sound.

Libertarian Steve Layman also is in the race.

The biggest point of conflict between Sutherland and Cooper comes over a unanimous decision by the Board of Natural Resources, which is led by Sutherland but includes Democrats who vote independently of him. The board last month approved a one-third increase in timber-cutting across 1.4 million acres of state-owned lands.

Cooper points out that the 70-year plan increases the cut substantially over the next 10 years, but then reduces it in later decades. He says the amount of clear-cuts allowed should be reduced, and supports "variable-density thinning" that would leave more trees standing. As few as 8 trees per acre are currently left intact after logging.

"The people of the state of Washington deserve a leader that will take the state in a new direction, the direction of the people of Washington, and not the timber companies and polluters of the state," Cooper said.

Cooper conceded, however, that he would have to persuade the Board of Natural Resources, with at least some of its membership intact, to reverse course. "It's going to be a challenge," he said.

Sutherland said the spurt in tree-cutting in the coming decade was justified because the state failed to hit its timber goals in the 1990s when concerns about the spotted owl and other threatened species put the brakes on.

And, Sutherland said, the state now has 34 billion board-feet of timber -- up substantially from the 23 billion board-feet when it was last counted more than three decades ago.

"Trees are like any other crop you harvest in agriculture," Sutherland said. "We've got way too many trees." He said the cutting plan is "a very defensible, very balanced approach to how we're going to manage forestlands."

Sutherland and other board members argued that the plan will, over 70 years, increase the amount of older forestland suitable for spotted owls. It will also help make the woods healthier by thinning the trees in some places. Thinning can reduce the likelihood of disease and fire and opens up the forest so a diversity of plants and animals can thrive, say advocates of the plan.

However, over the course of six decades, the plan reduces the amount of forests in a crowded, unhealthy state from 68 percent of state forests to 60 percent.

Other disagreements between the candidates for the $101,750-a-year position include:

"Green" wood certification. Cooper says the state's timber would fetch a higher price if it won the approval of the Forest Stewardship Council, which environmentalists favor. Sutherland says the Sustainable Forest Initiative, which has its roots in the timber industry, will be sufficient to entice green-leaning consumers in the decades to come.

Geoducks. Cooper charges that Sutherland has not taken a careful look at the environmental and economic effects of how many of the huge clams are being taken from state-owned tidelands. Sutherland's campaign points out that the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which had raised similar concerns in the past, has concluded an agreement with DNR on the matter.

Aquatic reserves in Puget Sound. Sutherland pulled back six designations of aquatic reserves, saying his predecessor, Democrat Jennifer Belcher, put the protections in place without sufficient consideration. He reinstated four of them -- but Cooper said Sutherland also redrew the boundaries on the one at Vashon and Maury islands so that a proposed dock for a gravel-mining operation could be allowed.

(Editor's Note: In reinstating the Maury Island aquatic reserve in September 2003, Sutherland did not redraw the boundaries. The terms of the reinstatement may allow a dock to be built to serve a gravel mine if certain conditions are met.)

Sutherland and Cooper have raised a total of nearly $1.5 million in cash and in-kind donations for their campaigns. That's 50 percent more than was raised in the 2000 race.

Cooper has attracted the most support from environmentalists, including endorsements by the Sierra Club and Washington Conservation Voters. An independent group seeking to oust Sutherland is funded mostly by a $250,000 check from Seattle environmental attorney Peter Goldman.

Sutherland has sparse support from environmentalists, but strong backing from the timber industry, which also has opened up an independent committee that drew most if its support from timber industry stalwarts Weyerhaeuser Co., Hampton Resources Inc. and Port Blakely Tree Farms.

Altogether, the funds supporting Sutherland's campaign come to $817,000. Slightly more than 70 percent of that came from the independent timber committees; timber companies, loggers, mills and other timber-related businesses and workers; and industries whose business could be affected by DNR.

The total pot for Cooper's re-election is $622,000, with $335,000 raised by two independent environmentalist committees. Of the remaining $287,000 raised by the campaign, about 15 percent came from labor, dominated by firefighter's unions. Cooper is a longtime firefighter and union official.

Both sides have charged wrongdoing in the other's fundraising.

Sutherland's campaign charged in a complaint to the Public Disclosure Commission that Goldman improperly funneled money to Cooper through the Democratic Party. Goldman made a donation of $40,000 to the party, which later gave Cooper $34,000. Both Cooper and Goldman deny any wrongdoing.

Goldman later provided $250,000 of the nearly $318,000 raised by Citizens for Protecting Our Water and Forests to support Cooper's bid. Goldman, whose philanthropy is supported by a fortune from real estate investments, runs the Washington Forest Law Center, a Seattle firm that often sues DNR on behalf of environmentalists.

"I really believe Doug Sutherland goes to work every day trying to serve the special interests," Goldman said. He said he made such a large donation because "I faced the bleak prospect of watching the timber industry buy this election for $400,000. I couldn't live with myself."

Meanwhile, the Committee for Balanced Stewardship -- a timber-industry coalition -- raised more than $330,000 on Sutherland's behalf.

Timber companies and William and George Weyerhaeuser have also chipped in $27,000 to a Republican political committee listing Sutherland as one of three beneficiaries of their funds, Mainstream Republicans of Washington.

This month, Mainstream Republicans also became the target of a complaint about unfair election practices. A brochure the group mailed to some 180,000 homes said The Nature Conservancy and Washington Conservation Voters backed Sutherland. The first group made no endorsements -- and can't, because of its non-profit tax status -- while the conservation voters endorsed Cooper.

"Doug is probably one of the best ... land commissioners we've ever had," said Bob Dick, Washington manager of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber group.

"He's a good manager. He's prudent," Dick said. "He's conservative, and I don't mean politically conservative, I mean from a resource-management standpoint."

LANDS COMMISSIONER

Term: Four years.

Salary: $101,750 a year.

Duties: Heads Department of Natural Resources, overseeing management of 5 million acres of state forest, agricultural, range, tidal and shore lands, subject to Board of Natural Resources policies. Chairman of Board of Natural Resources and Forest Practices Board, which regulates timber industry.

P-I reporter Robert McClure can be reached at 206-448-8092 or robertmcclure@seattlepi.com.

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