BY YSABELLE KEMPE
The Olympian

Planned logging of a more than century-old forest near the Nooksack River’s Middle Fork has been paused, according to a Friday, Jan. 28, email the state Department of Natural Resources sent to community members who had contacted the agency regarding the sale. The nearly 89-acre “Upper Rutsatz” timber sale will not move ahead at this time as the DNR reevaluates its policies regarding older forests, wrote Angus Brodie, the agency’s deputy supervisor for state uplands. The forest near Deming is on state trust lands, managed by the DNR to bring in revenue for public schools, state universities, construction on the Olympia capitol campus and prisons. The timber sale was scheduled for auction in April 2022, according to an environmental review prepared by the DNR in May 2021.

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