LONGVIEW — Weyerhaeuser Co.’s real estate company is selling about 6,500 acres of timberland at Merrill Lake and Shultz Creek near Mount St. Helens, saying the land is no longer profitable for timber management.
The move has outdoor enthusiasts worried that the land, which includes year-round hunting and fishing opportunities, could be developed into small parcels by a new owner. It comes about two years after the company’s controversial sale of the 4,100-acre “High Lakes” area sparked the same concerns.
The 1,410-acre Merrill Lake property is north of Cougar and adjacent to the southern edge of the Mount St. Helens National Monument.
The 5,095-acre Shultz Creek tract is popular elk-hunting land off Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. It’s located in the blast zone of the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens.
The company conducted extensive salvage and reforestation operations there after the blast.
The two parcels go on the market next Saturday. Weyerhaeuser has not determined a price.
The company transferred the Merrill Lake and Shultz Creek lands from its timber division to its real-estate division this spring because it was no longer profitable to harvest, said Brad Johnson, sales and marketing manager for the Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development Co.
The lands are remote and difficult to reach. In addition, Shultz Creek is packed with Noble fir trees, whereas Weyerhaeuser harvests primarily Douglas fir. Also, the company has extracted a lot of the value of the nobles already, harvesting lower branches for wreaths and other Christmas decorations.
The company is marketing the properties for their timber value and recreational opportunities but has no control over its use after the sale, Johnson said.
“We think of it as forestland. That’s how we’re selling it,” Johnson said.
Sam Spade PI
The sale of Weyerhaeuser land should not surprise anybody. The company has a lot of debt and needs cash. My investigation of timber lands in Lewis County has revealed that 20% of the forested land, completely undeveloped, were not classified as Forest Resource Land (FRL) back in 1996. Nobody was paying attention when Lewis County failed to preserve all the timber lands for future jobs in Lewis county. As a result, about 20% of timberland in Lewis County is zoned for development at 1 house per 20 acres or 1 house per 10 acres. This is kissing goodbye to the forest industry, even though it is the forests and ag lands which give Lewis County its economic backbone. Jobs should be first priority, not housing tracts.Housing tracts and moble home parks in the rural and forested lands do not bring economic prosperity to Lewis County. Rural housing bring increased costs in the form of road maintenance, sheriff services, school services, and miscellaneous county costs. Rural housing for people who have to travel to Longview or Olympia to find a job is not pouring money into County koffers.When your economy is based on the monies that are generated from ag land and forested land, then the County Commissioners and Chronicle editors better wake up and figure out what lands should be protected as resource lands.Converting that valuable resource land into housing tracts may increase the circulation of the Chronicle and provide temporary jobs during construction, but it is a short-lived pleasure trip that does not increase long term industry in Lewis County.The realtors love housing tracts, and so do the master builders. Housing tracts are like heroin to builders, realtors and newspapers. Let's build, build, build.Like heroin, they cannot get enough.They need more. Always more.