OLYMPIA — The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee showed a lively interest in repealing a rule that will lock up 200,000 acres of timber in Western Washington. The committee held a hearing Feb. 3 on House Bill 2620, sponsored by a mix of conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats. The bill targets the Forest Practices Board’s decision in November to widen and lengthen riparian buffers along streams without fish. The bigger buffers will eliminate $2.8 billion worth of timber, a University of Washington analysis estimates. The rule barely passed, 7-5. …The buffers, which go into effect Aug. 31, are needed to keep logging from raising water temperatures in most cases, according to Ecology. Timber groups say Ecology’s no-increase-in-water-temperature standard is humanly impossible to meet. What matters is that water temperatures stay cool enough for fish downstream, they argue. Forest landowners and the Washington State Association of Counties suggested buffers that would take 44,500 acres out of production.