(1) Lands meeting the definition or criteria for commercial forest lands in the County General Plan should be designated as commercial forest lands of long-term commercial significance. In general, these lands should have a minimum parcel size of 80 acres or contiguous parcels under the same ownership can be grouped into 80-acre sizes, are currently forested, and have a forest land grade which is capable of growing trees at a commercial growth rate.

(2) Commercial forestry (CF) designation and zoning at 80-acre minimum lot sizes is the preferred form of protection for forest resource lands. Conversion of commercial forest (CF) zoning to zones which provide less protection of the forest resource such as commercial forestry/residential mixed use should not be permitted during this planning period.

(3) Lands designated in the Comprehensive Plan as commercial forestry and zoned as commercial forest/residential mixed use function to retain commercial forest land use in an area whose predominate use is commercial forestry but which may be experiencing some development pressure due to residences in the area. This designation also serves as a buffer between more intensively managed commercial forestlands and rural development patterns. 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. These areas are currently managed for commercial forestry but they have been impacted by adjacent residential development. They provide for a mix of protected forest reserves and low density residential lots built in a clustered development pattern. The current commercial forest/residential mixed use zones should be modified in the following manner so that they may accomplish their intended purpose of protecting commercial forest uses in areas experiencing some growth pressures:

(4) Areas not presently managed for commercial forestry which are found in close association with large blocks of commercial forest land should be utilized as a buffer between commercial forest lands and rural sized developments. These areas should be designated for very low density residential use at 20-acre densities.

(5) Retention of all designated commercial forestlands in the Straits Planning Region is vital to maintenance of the forest industry as the regions leading industry. Given that development potentials of rural and urban lands in the region could accommodate much more than 20 years of population growth, designated commercial forest resource lands should be retained in the original commercial forestland designations and zoning proposed by the 1994 plan throughout the planning period.

(6) Retention of designated commercial forestlands is a key component to protection of water quality and water quantity when properly managed to protect water quality.

(7) Clallam County should assist private landowners with problems such as trespass, dumping, poaching, and vandalism in order to encourage large private commercial forest landowners to maintain and increase opportunities for public access, especially access across private lands to public lands.

(8) Master planned resorts should be visually compatible with rural areas and should not be located on forest resource lands when more than 50 percent of the proposed site would be covered by critical areas.

(9) Clallam County should work with private landowners to provide emergency access and improve safety along public roads.

(10) Traditional uses of public land and private resource lands (where allowed) should be recognized. These uses include thinning and harvesting of timber, brush picking, mushroom gathering, hunting, and recreation. These uses are necessary to the livelihood and well being of the citizens of the Straits Region. Clallam County should coordinate with any federal or State agency on any proposal that would impact these traditional uses of public or private lands. This would include joint planning and analysis of impacts to the environment as well as socioeconomic impacts.

(11) Public use of logging roads that connect Highway 101 and Highway 112, such as the Joyce Access Road, Sadie Creek Road, East Twin Road, etc., should be retained. Existing logging roads are utilized by the Olympic Discovery Trail west of the Mary Clark Road to access the community of Forks and extend a spur of the trail to the vicinity of LaPush. These roads should be available for recreational users such as hikers, bicyclists, and equestrians and only closed when harvesting practices necessitate. With the frequent closure of Highway 112, these roads provide important secondary and emergency routes for the Straits Region.

(12) RV parks and campgrounds should be allowed in commercial forest land use designations within the western portion of the Straits Planning Region.