In Washington’s forests, Trump’s timber mandate looks shaky

In Washington’s forests, Trump’s timber mandate looks shaky

Loggers fell timber near Bryant, Wash.

For decades now, the forests of Snohomish County have taunted the people of Darrington. It was not long ago that this small Washington town on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains drew its life from the towering stands of Douglas fir, cedar and hemlock on federal lands that surround it on three sides.

But federal environmental rules have made the area’s loggers mostly unwelcome in the places they, and the generations before them, harvested. Efforts to protect the spotted owl severely restricted timber sales on federal land.

“We’ve struggled since the owl wars to find an economy,” says Dan Rankin, who grew up in a local logging family and has for the past 14 years been the mayor o