Editor's note: This article was updated to include public comments about the Tiger-Mill project shared at the Wednesday, May 28, City Council meeting.
Though there is more than 6,000 acres of commercial logging planned in the Tiger-Mill project area southeast of Walla Walla, only a sliver of that harvest will take place in the city’s watershed.
In the Mill Creek Watershed, about 351 acres will be commercially logged, 2,562 will be thinned, and 16,262 have been analyzed for prescribed fire, Forest Service officials shared at a Tuesday, May 27, workshop with the Walla Walla City Council.
The City Council hosted a workshop with the Forest Service after getting emails from residents and environmental groups who oppose the project, Public Works Director Ki Bealey said.
The project has been in the works since 2023, and a work plan was approved in February.
Bealey said the city’s partnership with the Forest Service goes back more than 100 years, and wildfire treatment and prevention has been a longtime priority for the city, along with protecting the city’s main water source, Mill Creek.
Those who oppose the Tiger-Mill plan argue the work has the potential to harm the city’s water supply and will threaten the old-growth forest and the habitats that native fish populations and other species rely on.
At the workshop, Walla Walla District Ranger Johnny Collin and fuels and prescribed fire specialist Joseph Sciarrino responded to questions ranging from habitat preservation and oversight of commercial logging activities to federal funding and who will be held responsible if plans go awry.
Sciarrino said the project map shows that a lot of the Tiger-Mill treatments are on the edge of the Mill Creek Watershed and near existing roads, especially on the southwest edge. The work is meant to improve access for wildland firefighters and to create breaks that will help control the progression of a fire, he said.
“With these large landscape projects, we look at areas where we're going to have the most success controlling a large fire when it does occur,” he said.
The work that is planned within the watershed — predominantly prescribed fire, with some logging and noncommercial thinning — is meant to reduce the impact of a severe fire, Sciarrino said.
“It's steep country. (Prescribed fire) is one of the only tools that we can utilize to reduce fuels,” he said. “We do believe fire is good. It's beneficial, and we want to be in charge when that fire does occur so that we can control those impacts.”
Logging and thinning in the Inventoried Roadless Area, a small subset of the watershed bound to tighter restrictions, will be limited to trees with trunks less than 21 inches in diameter.
The workshop was reserved for questions from the City Council, and the public had a chance to comment on the plan at the City Council meeting the next day, Wednesday, May 28.
Walla Walla resident Paul Lynn, concerned about the impacts of the project on the city's main water source, asked that the city pursue Environmental Collaboration and Conflict Resolution and requested that the finding of no significant environmental impact be revisited and the project decision reopened.
"To be clear, I am not here to argue that all logging is bad, or that prescribed burns aren't an important and effective tool for responsible land management," Lynn said. "I am here merely arguing that this is a complex issue with extremely high stakes, and that allowing federal interests and private contractors to shortcut important regulatory safety checks runs the risk of saddling our small community with an irreversible and costly mess and no recourse."
Lynn didn't get through the entirety of the statement in his allotted three minutes. Five other residents used their public comment time to continue reading the statement aloud.
City Attorney Tim Donaldson told the Council on Tuesday that the city does not have a role in appealing or reversing the project decision.
Many of the City Council members’ questions focused on monitoring and oversight of the activities detailed in the plan.
Council Member Jeff Robinson asked about measures being taken for water monitoring and habitat preservation.
There will be a biologist on site and screens will be implemented to help protect fish in critical areas, Collin said.
The water monitoring tools the Forest Service plans to use will measure the turbidity, or the amount of sediment in the water. He said the agency plans to work with the city if other measures are desired, and the city may have tools the Forest Service does not for measuring water quality.
Sciarrino said specialists also inspect the area after the treatments to see how habitats have been affected.
“If we can keep an intact buffer, there’s less opportunity for direct input of sediment from our activities and keeping activities away from those vegetation or streams,” he said.
Council Member Gustavo Reyna said one concern of the public has to do with a lack of trust with the logging contractor that will ultimately come in to do the commercial harvesting. He asked whether the Forest Service gives any training to that third party.
Collin said the commercial logging is guided by a strict and specific contract that identifies which trees are to be cut, where skid trails are allowed to be placed and more. The decisions about which trees will be removed are made internally by the Forest Service and outlined in the contract, he said.
The Forest Service also has timber sale administrators who oversee the contracts and are on site to ensure the work is being done as outlined, Collin said.
Robinson also asked which agency would be held liable if plans don’t go as outlined.
“We all know sometimes even the best laid plans can go awry,” he said. “How do we determine liability in a situation like that? What is the absolute backup plan to ensure that the municipalities that are all connected to this, not just the city of Walla Walla, aren't in a situation where something goes drastically wrong?"
Collin didn’t have an answer to Robinson’s question and said he could reach out with a response in the future. He said it is a risk, though “certainly an outcome we don’t want, large scale damage coming from the result of our actions.”
Sciarrino said he thought it would be the Forest Service’s responsibility, as the implementing agency.
Reyna and Council Member Rick Eskil each asked what the City Council’s role is, and whether there is a decision to make or an action they can take.
Bealey said there’s no action that will be on a future agenda.
Donaldson, the city attorney, elaborated later in the meeting, saying that the window to file objections against the proposal expired in late 2024, and the city didn’t file an objection.
Six groups and individuals did object to the plan, and at least one — the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project — has indicated an intention to sue. But the city doesn’t have that option, Donaldson said.
“We're a participant in this,” he said. “The only people who can now go and appeal this decision and try to reverse this decision are the people who filed the objections. Period.”
Collin said the Forest Service wants to continue working with the city if there are concerns.
“If there's something specific that you guys learn that (you are concerned about) we are more than happy to work with you,” Collin said. “I think in terms of large-scale change, I don't know that the council has a large role in that at this point, but certainly, we would be more than happy to work with you.”
Recordings of the workshop and meeting are available on the city's website or on Vimeo.
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