H-1509              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1985

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Representatives Hargrove, Belcher, Basich, Jones, Sayan, Raiter, Vekich, Beck, Brumsickle, McLean, Bowman, Doty, Winsley, Cooper and H. Myers

Read first time 2/15/89 and referred to Committee on Natural Resources & Parks. Referred 3/1/89 to Committee on Appropriations.

AN ACT Relating to timber inventory and assessment; creating new sections; making an appropriation; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     The college of forestry at the University of Washington shall prepare a plan to develop a comprehensive forest resource information system.  This plan shall identify methods to obtain and retain information on a computer system which will assist the state in periodically assessing the regional availability of timber of all ownerships, the quality of the timber, and the regional abundance of nontimber forest resources.  The data collected should be of sufficient quality and detail that it may be used to assess the impact of possible changes in forest resource availability.  This will include data on the needs of existing or proposed processing facilities, the impact new technology may have on the demand for forest resources, and the effect forest regulations and land use planning may have on forest resource availability.

          The plan, along with an assessment of the cost of the systems development, shall be submitted to the appropriate committees of the house of representatives and the senate by December 1, 1989.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     By September 1, 1990, the college of forestry at the University of Washington shall prepare a report which identifies the impact to local economies and the state economy of incremental withdrawals of forest land from the land base used for producing trees for commercial harvest.  The report shall:

          (1) Identify the social, economic, and employment effects associated with withdrawals of land from commercial timber production;

          (2) Contain an assessment of possible changes to local economies and the state economy if forest lands continue to produce resources under existing management methods without additional land withdrawals from timber production by legislative decisions;

          (3) Contain an assessment of the impact of anticipated technological changes in the forest products industry, possible structural changes in the forest products industry, possible investments in new or existing industries, and known impacts from previous withdrawals of land from timber production; and

          (4) Contain an assessment of the future economic impact of the forest product industry if the land base for commercial timber production remain unchanged.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.     The sum of eighty thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1991, from the general fund to the University of Washington for the purposes of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.     This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect July 1, 1989.