Do not forget that this was more than a 100 year event, or at least that is what the talk is around work.
It is easy to point fingers at the logging community as they have had a poor enviornmental record in the past in our state, but our new regulations have kept most operators in check during the past ten years.
The state and private industry ( I cannot speak for the USFS) are harvesting timber today under more restricted enviornmental conditions than ever before. "Most" companies in the private sector I have dealt with have their own "HCP" as well as the state and do not want to screw it up.
My area was hit hard, and now a week later we are already back in business in some of the area. Some roads may take years to fix, and some of the damage makes me sick. The money from the timber I put up goes to our schools, prisons, and counties in this state and I am proud of that. We leave large buffers along our streams, and another 8 trees per acre throughout the cut. We also do not operate during the wet season, as to keep the sediments out of the streams. We did not have one slide on the ground I work on, but we did lose roads and bridges due to the increased water flow from the "rain on snow " event.
Are we harvesting to much? Maybe.

Are we using the best science we have today to keep harvesting? Yes.

Should you build a new Wal-Mart and Home Depot in a flood plain to save a twenty minute drive to Olympia? No.

Could we have predicted that 8 inches of rain would fall on 16 inches of snow in a twenty four hour period, and how it would effect the communities in which we live? No.

I do not think we can put blame on clear cuts for what happened.
Did it play a part? Maybe.