22 dead, 20 missing, buried under mud 75 feet deep. Is it too much to hope that this tragedy will force the DNR to do their freaking job and rescind the logging industry's free pass on clearcutting?

It's my understanding the National Forest Service does not allow any clear cutting - they require selective logging, which still does damage, but a lot less. Why can't DNR do the same?

For that matter, why do we have separate departments managing similar lands?

Well written. Good work.

Good read.

@2

The Forest Service manages forestlands owned by the federal government. The DNR manages forestlands owned by the State of Washington. The Bureau of Land Management also manages public forestlands. The National Park Service is another big agency that manages forestlands. Additionally, huge swaths of Washington State are privately owned and managed by logging companies. Local tribes also own and manage an assortment of forestlands all over the state. All of these organizations manage these lands with different objectives and philosophies, even though at heart it's all just a bunch of forest. Two different National Forests can be managed in entirely different ways. Land management is very complicated issue with lots of history.

@1/2 - The DNR really don't have ultimate control over the situation. The State Legislature could ban clear-cuts, but I suspect DNR could not make a change like that without a change in the law. They also likely can't change their own under-staffing or the fact that permits are auto-approved after 30 days. The free pass for the logging industry is written into the law, even if DNR did everything it could possibly do under the existing law, it likely wouldn't be nearly enough.

You guys aren't going to blame George Bush for this one?

@2: You've never heard of political subdivisions?

Agree - well written. Out of respect for the victims hopefully there will be some changes made. It was shocking to have that announcement two days after that there was no warning. Coming from BC, I've always been surprised to see the evidence the DNR does not act as a steward. The government needs to be protecting the forest and that amazing river. This is a case of dereliction of duty.

freedom county!

I don't doubt that logging exacerbated the slide, but that slide was going to happen eventually, regardless of the history of logging done at the site. Likely logging hastened the slide occurring, but not logging the site would not have prevented the slide from occurring at all. The real problem is people living anywhere near that thing. It is easy to bash the DNR, nothing new in that, but to me the real outrage should be directed at the developers who built at the base of that slide and the county commissioners who let them.

"I don't doubt that logging exacerbated the slide, but that slide was going to happen eventually, regardless of the history of logging done at the site. Likely logging hastened the slide occurring, but not logging the site would not have prevented the slide from occurring at all. The real problem is people living anywhere near that thing."

That is exactly what is wrong with our society. To blame victims for the greed of clearcutting? SHAME on you! How DARE YOU?!!

That is to say people who live near a volcano are at fault while nuclear bombs are thrown into a volcano chimney!

Now. Yes, there are problems with soil composite on the hill sides, but remember that trees on those slopes (mature trees that is) absorb 30% of the rainfall easy. Absence of such creates potential for the rainfall seepage into the ground to penetrate the soil and thus to increase moisture content that SLOWLY flows downwards. That is large chunks of soil. The crack that Corps of Engineers have warned about were not a joke. What they have "repaired" was pointless and they knew it.

Who was to blame for this? The State for not keeping an oversight of the mudslide potential. The County for issuing building permits beneath the slide. That type of robo-signing now cost 30 human lives and counting. Stilly River is polluted beyond recognition. One can forget about fishing trout or salmon in this river for GENERATIONS to come.

The Tribe has sued the State to stop clear cutting. No one seemed to care. And what are they suppose to say now? "I told you so?"

Two years back we purchased a property in Oso. Did anyone warn us about this potential danger? NO! It took this tragedy to learn about this the hard way.

Look-up for your interest sake - how much taxes this part of Snohomish county contributes! 2-3 thousand a Year with property values at 150k upward to 500k!!! Who is going to buy these properties in near and far future? NO ONE! We are SCREWED!

@1 Thank you, portland scribe!! Agreed!

@7 I HAVE been blaming Bush for shit like this, Dean, ever since he illegally bought his way into Washington, D.C. TWICE, turning the Oval Office into an Oval Outhouse. Ronald Reagan opened the floodgates of Wall Street corruption by deregulating the banks, then Dubya and his gun nut pal, Cheney, put the oil soaked icing on the GOP's crooked-as-fuck white-collar cake. This is a longterm result of the Bush economy, yet twice-elected President Obama is blamed by the GOP and Tea Party for being the one left to fix it!
And look at the result: how many people of Oso can say they're better off, now, after two previous disastrous terms of George W. Bush, who left his bottomless mess for Obama to clean up?

re; @13: Additionally, I read in the news that many who lost their homes along with everything else are still left with insurmountable mortgage debts. Those with unpaid mortgages of homes lost in the mudslide are being forgiven by Coast Bank, but most other financial institutions as well as FEMA are telling people in Oso that they're shit out of luck, because
1) Developers were allowed to build on a floodplain that was recognized as already vulnerable,
2) Big Timber clearcut the trees, and now
3) [FEMA] isn't offering flood insurance compensations because the 03/22/14 disaster "was a mudSLIDE, and not a mudFLOW" (doesn't this last listed final spit-in-the-eye remind anyone of the G.W. Bush Administration's & FEMA's abysmal handling of the August 2005 Hurricane Katrina massive flooding that wiped out New Orleans, Louisiana?).

Okay, okay. I came, I blogged, I vented, I'm shutting up now.
I'm premenopausal, turning 5-0, and I'm a little fired up right now.
My heartfelt condolences to all impacted by this awful tragedy.

@11 Yes, you are right. That is exactly what is wrong with our society. Clear-cutting can have devastating effects, but so can building homes in floodplains, and building homes in the path of KNOWN unstable hillsides. Greedy and amoral developers and greedy sellers and feckless local officials brought us this tragedy. Why weren't you warned of the risk? Look up the history of the area and you will find out that many people knew of the hazard but either chose not to or were legally barred from informing you when you bought your property. There is a much much bigger scandal here than the DNR issuing logging permits. I hope media outlets like The Stranger don't take the easy way out and just blame the DNR. The story is much bigger than the DNR.

@10 - Very well stated. It was a time bomb waiting to come down, regardless of whether or not it was logged, and regardless of whether or not people lived below it.

@10 & @17: Agreed. My father was an architectural designer who knew better than to ever build on a floodplain.

If the companies doing the clear cutting on steep slopes, and the DNR people approving those clear cuts, were required to live at the base of those slopes, the clear cutting would stop immediately. But, it is never the ones who suffer the consequences who are creating the danger. When someone else's safety is at risk from your behavior, the risk is a minor one. When it is YOUR safety that is at risk from the same behavior, the risk is a major one. Why should I act prudently when I can make money by not acting prudently, when I know that that I will suffer no adverse consequences from my imprudent behavior?

@19: Bingo! Now WHY can't corruption this irreparably toxic be STOPPED once and for all?

" It gets around 12,000 timber harvest applications a year, Goldman said, and they're only $150 apiece: "You could log $5 million worth of wood with a $150 permit." And if a permit is not reviewed by the DNR within 30 days, it's automatically approved. "There is," he said, "a notorious amount of error in this process."

This is a typo and should be corrected. We (Whidbey Environmental Action Network) have been monitoring logging in Island County (Whidbey and Camano Islands) for 25 years now and get every rubber stamped logging "permit" for the County. It was a huge victory when DNR finally began charging a fee in the late 1990s, if I remember correctly). Its a $50, not $150, fee. And that's whether its a 10 acre selective cut on dry flat ground or a 200 acre clearcut on a steep hill weeping with water above a salmon stream. $50 period. Well, don't you think that Weyerhauser needs the subsidy?