(1) Community input through surveys, neighborhood meetings, and letters has indicated a strong interest in conserving our forest lands, open space and the quality of our environment. In 1992, Clallam County designated approximately 243,426 acres as forest lands of long-term commercial significance in the Straits Region, including approximately 3,277 acres of transitional forest lands. Retaining commercial forest resource lands in resource use is the major goal of the resource lands element. Retention of resource lands benefits the taxpayers of the County in that this land use requires few County services while providing substantial income primarily in the form of harvest taxation.

(2) Commercial forestry in the west end of the County is and will continue to be our primary industry. There are sufficient public (federal and State) and private lands to provide the resource base for timber harvesting. Retention of this resource base should limit the loss of forestry related jobs.

(3) Additional benefits of forestland retention derive from the fact that these lands play a major role in protecting both water quality and quantity. Permanent clearing of forestlands associated with housing developments leads to rapid surface runoff as tree and other vegetation are no longer available to allow for slow infiltration of water into soils and aquifers. Construction of roads and housing greatly increases erosion as soils and cut slopes are exposed to rainfall. Roads, roofs and driveways increase impervious surfaces which directly contributes to surface runoff and to a decrease in water added to aquifers.

(4) One of the larger conflicts with commercial forest operations occurs when residences encroach into areas managed for commercial forestry. This type of encroachment is usually only seen in the eastern part of the Straits Planning Region. Commercial forestry zoning is utilized to limit the number of persons locating in areas of commercial forest operations so that conflict is minimized. Commercial forestry/residential mixed use zoning is utilized in areas currently managed for commercial forestry by smaller land owners in order to retain commercial forestry operations but to allow for some development to occur. Commercial forestry/residential mixed use zoning allows some development but creates a safety buffer which separates commercial forest operations from residences through the use of forest reserves and clustered development. Commercial forestry/residential mixed use zoning is also utilized in areas surrounded by commercial forestry zoning where a residential area of limited size is intermixed with commercial forestlands and where designation as rural land use would tend to create conflicts with commercial forestry. Rural very low density designations are utilized in areas not currently managed for commercial forestry to buffer commercial forest areas from more intensive rural density development. Conflicts with traditional forest management techniques will continue to increase but can be minimized by maintaining commercial forest areas in commercial forest uses.

(5) One of the methods that Clallam County adopted to conserve the resource base and ensure compatibility at the forest/rural interface in the eastern portion of the Straits Planning Region was the use of a commercial-residential mixed use zones (CFM). Most of these zones were in the foothills on the east end of the County. Development within the CFM zones was allowed if developed in a cluster pattern (30 percent development/70 percent forest). In exchange for clustering, large density bonuses were possible. This plan responds to critics of these excessive bonuses by scaling back the bonus provisions to a reasonable level. Another legitimate criticism leveled at the CFM zones was the fact that forest reserves were only set aside for 20 years which is not enough time to provide for even one rotation of trees to reach maturity. This plan proposes that the forest reserve be set aside permanently for forest use since the development potential of the entire property will have been utilized in the development area.