Mudslide photo spurs look at logging practices

Seattle Times ^ | 12/16/07 | Hal Bernton

[BurbankKarl]

Nearly 3 ½ years ago, Weyerhaeuser asked state officials for approval to clear-cut 106 acres on a steep mountain slope fronting on Stillman Creek in Lewis County.

This was a slide-prone drainage. But a Weyerhaeuser geologist found "no potentially unstable areas" in the area to be harvested and the state approved the logging.

Earlier this month, the huge storm that enveloped Southwest Washington triggered numerous slides on this slope. Slides crashed into Stillman Creek, a major tributary of the South Fork of Chehalis River, adding to the destructive mix of mud, wood debris and floodwaters that inundated homes and farms in the Boistfort Valley west of Chehalis.

This slope captured the eye of Seattle Times photojournalist Steve Ringman as he made a helicopter flight over dozens of slides in the Stillman Creek drainage. His photograph, first published last Sunday, offered a stark view of the storm's effects on a tract of heavily logged lands.

The photo raised concerns at Weyerhaeuser, the timber giant that has sought to cultivate an image of solid environmental stewardship. In recent days, corporate officials did their own flyover, scouting landslides there and elsewhere in the Northwest, where Weyerhaeuser owns more than 2 million acres.

"This storm was a catastrophic event, a natural disaster," said Frank Mendizabal, a Weyerhaeuser spokesman, noting that a Stillman Creek gauge recorded nearly 20 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period. "That said, what I can tell you is that we are going to look at this particular unit and others, and see what effects the storm had, and see if we need to make any changes in our practices."

[RobRoy]

>>The mountain is a temporary pile of volcanic pyroclastic debris and was meant to flow away<<

I’ve never articulated it that way, but that is basically my position as well. Heck, does anybody in Seattle know why we call the Denny regrade the Denny REGRADE? That time we did it on purpose!

[Tailback]

Did the 129 mph winds or the mudslide cause that?

[spunkets]

I don’t see any slides in those pics. There’s erosion from runoff after soil saturation’s achieved, but the same would appear in the forested areas. Had there been slides, the stuff at the bottoms would be covered. It’s not. Hte heavy rain just made the surface like quick mud, which could be washed away easily. Those tree roots there in the forsested areas wouldn’t prevent that from happening. The forest does is hide the erosion that occured there.