loss of use of these forest lands; management costs including costs of taxes and regulatory compliance; the strength of domestic and international markets for forest products; perceived risks due to markets and regulations; attractive investments in alternative uses of capital and land; and varying management objectives of very diverse types of owners.” Five of those factors come into play regarding the Lake Whatcom reconveyance. Realistically, reconveyance could tip the forest products industry over the edge of the economic precipice in Whatcom County. If the industry vanishes, according to data available from Washington’s Employment Security Department, jobs associated with logging—jobs currently paying about 20-25 percent more than the average wage job in the county— will be lost. Based on data from Employment Security, that would amount to about $4.5 million a year in lost wages for each 100 forest products industry jobs lost as the result of the industry’s demise. (Data issues preclude accurate counts of exactly how many people are actually employed by the forest products industry in Whatcom County. More directly in economic terms, Whatcom County’s website on the reconveyance includes estimates of revenue distribution losses as a result of the action the County Council is proposing. DNR estimates those losses to state and local governments will initially average $844,000 annually year. In the near term (20 years) $16,880,000 would be lost to the Bellingham and Mount Baker School Districts, the Whatcom County Library Board, the Port of Bellingham, Whatcom County and the State of Washington. Over the entire DNR planning horizon of 200 years, the estimated reduction in revenue amounts to more than $96 million to those
sources. Offsetting those losses, Mount Baker School District agreed to accept a $500,000 dollar donation in return for dropping its opposition to the reconveyance. Sales tax, B&O tax, fuel tax, and all other taxes and economic benefits a community gains as the result of business activity become permanent losses when land gets converted from an economic use to a non-economic use.
SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF RECONVEYANCE The Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan recognizes that forestry is an important part of the county’s cultural heritage. But timber is not the only opportunity private land owners have. An industry that no longer exists loses its hold on the hearts and minds of the residents of an area, as well as the economic value it offers landowners.
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