A statewide race that should be getting a lot more attention this year is the race for Commissioner of Public Lands. Pitting two-term incumbent Doug Sutherland against Eastern Washington Rancher and Biologist Peter Goldmark, this race is one that truly steps outside partisan divides and offers the voters a real choice between individuals and philosophies as opposite as……..well, east and west.
A quick synopsis of the job might be in order here. The Commissioner of Public Lands serves as the head of our Department of Natural Resources (DNR); overseeing the management of some 2.8 million acres of public lands and forests, and over 2.4 million acres of aquatic lands, (such as creeks, river, shorelines, etc.) Oh yeah, and there’s that bit of water called Puget Sound. It is the Commissioner of Public Lands who determines who cuts, drills, and in other ways harvests our state’s natural resources.
So who are these two gentlemen and what makes them qualified for this vitally important job?
Doug Sutherland
Born in Helena, MT, Doug Sutherland lived briefly in Vancouver, WA before settling in Spokane in 1946. In 1959, he received a B.A. in History from Central Washington University. Moving to the western side of the state, he worked for Boeing from 1960-71. In 1971 he bought the Tacoma Tent and Awning Company. He was elected to the Tacoma City Council in 1980 and, in 1982 was elected Mayor of Tacoma. He held that post until the end of 1989, when he took the job of City Manager in the newly incorporated city of SeaTac. He was there until 1992, when he was elected Pierce County Executive. In 2000 he was elected Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands – defeating former governor (and a personal hero of mine) Mike Lowery. In 2004, Sutherland held off a challenge from former state legislator, Mike Cooper to move into his 2nd term in that office.
Peter Goldmark began his education in a one-room schoolhouse at Duley Lake near Okanogan, Washington and went on to graduate from Okanogan High School. In 1967 he received a degree from Haverford College near Philadelphia. After receiving his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971, he traveled to Harvard University for a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology. In 1972 he married his first wife, Georgia, and the two moved back to the family ranch in Okanogan. Sadly, Georgia succumbed to cancer in 2003. In 1993 Goldmark was appointed Director of the Department of Agriculture by Governor Lowery. From 1994 to 1996 he served as Chairman of the Governor’s Council on Agriculture and the Environment. In 1999 he was a founding board member for the Board of Farming and the Environment (a coalition of farmers, ranchers, and conservationists). Goldmark served on the Board of Regents for WSU from 1996 to 2005 and as that board’s President from 1999 to 2000. Today Peter Goldmark has remarried and he and his wife, Wendy, divide their time between a residence in Seattle (to be close to his campaign headquarters) and managing the family farm in Okanogan.
Now a couple of things stand out to me right away. First, while Sutherland has a very impressive record of electoral victories, I see nothing in his biography that tells me where his expertise is on land management or environmental science. Certainly there is nothing that matches Goldmark’s lifetime of commitment to those very skills that should be associated with this position. Farm/Ranch/Land management PLUS degrees in biology; not to mention time in an executive capacity dealing with the state’s Agricultural and Environmental policies clearly give Goldmark and tremendous advantage here. The 2nd thing is Goldmark’s continuing ties to the “other side of the mountains.”
I think that there is a real philosophical divide between these two men as well over what the job of Commissioner of Public Lands should be. I believe that both men see the job as a sort of balancing act between managing vital state resources and maintaining a revenue conduit between the state and private interests. The difference I see is that Sutherland seems to put a bit more weight on the side of short term revenues from the private interests while Goldmark sees the importance of looking toward the future. Goldmark says of the job:
“We need to take a more thoughtful approach focused on long-term sustainability—for trust revenues, jobs, recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, and ecological protection rather than sell off our future for short term profits.”
A vivid example of the potential for harm from Sutherland’s approach can be seen in a recent “Special Report” in the Seattle Times, entitled: “Landslides and logging: What went wrong?” The report looks into the role that “clear cutting” played in the December, 2007 flooding in Lewis County. The report details a lack of oversight on the part of the DNR which may well have led to abuses in the clear cutting rules. They write:
“The December storm triggered more than 730 landslides in the Upper Chehalis basin, according to a state aerial survey. Those slides dumped mud and debris into swollen rivers, helping fuel the floods that slammed houses, barns and farm fields downstream.
A disproportionate number of those landslides started on slopes that had been clear-cut.
The Seattle Times, using information from state aerial surveys, examined 87 of the steepest sites that had been clear-cut. Nearly half of them suffered landslides during the storm. Those sites represented less than 8 percent of the total acreage — both logged and forested — in the Upper Chehalis and its tributary drainages. But the sites produced about 30 percent — 219 — of the landslides.”
Another matter of concern for me is Sutherland’s apparent shortsightedness on the issue of Global Climate Change and its long term potential on our state’s natural resources. In particular I am bothered by a statement from Sutherland to a gathering of industry insiders:
"Climate change is going to be an issue, and what impacts does it have in all aspects of our lives. If indeed it does anything at all. And I'm not one of those that is of the belief that the argument is already settled."
By contrast, Goldmark offers this sobering assessment:
“Over the last 150 years, deforestation has caused 40 to 50 percent of the climate change problem. The more we deforest, the more we leave ourselves open to drastic climate change."
As I said, I think this race deserves the attention of the voters. If they do pay attention, I believe the choice will be clear. We can continue to watch our state be sold tree by tree; stream by stream; shoreline by shoreline, and suffer more cruelty at the hands of nature as a result or we can hire a steward of our natural resources who understands the environment and believes that “Public Lands” belong to the citizens of both today and tomorrow.
Peace,
Chad Shue
Comment
RSS
Email
Print
