Doug Sutherland is trying to repair the damage to the timber industry caused by Jennifer Belcher. She tried to shut down the woods, and limit cutting in every way. She is also acting as an advisor to Sutherland's opponent this fall. If you are for jobs, and economic revival, vote for Doug for Commisioner of Public Lands this fall, that is, unless you want the folks in Canadia to benefit by shipping timber jobs out of the country.

Timber harvests are now projected to increase to 750MM board feet off of state land within 5-7 years, close to their historical harvest, compared to the 400MM board feet Belcher reduced us to.

Using this higher harvest rate, the age of the average tree in the forest over the next 200 years increase, as does the quality of the wood.

The increase in old growth forests (160+ years per DNR, 80+ years for USDA) increases, as do the sources of LWD (large woody debris), a necessary component of healthy streams.

It is nice to see us putting people back to work. Grays Harbor County has an unemployment rate of about 8.5% now. This is higher than the state and national rates of 5.7%, but considering that we haven't seen unemployment in single digits for over two decades, it is outstanding.

In case you didn't know, a large amount of the funds generated from logging directly benefit public schools. Every timber dollar is multiplied by 5 when considering the benefit to the economy.

People complain about lost jobs, and I see jobs being created. First hand. I see an economy recovering, yet others expect to see some magical increase in jobs, but they only want to see it in the industries they choose.

A healthy economy requires growth in all sectors. Magazines are printed on what? Paper. You live in a house that is made of? Wood. The source of many of the products we use every day come from trees.

I have a client who has a great sticker on his logging truck. It says, "Run Forest, Run!" I always smile when I see his truck.