New Logging On Old Growth Forests

ENVIRONMENT 

By Rachel McDonald

Cottage Grove, OR  January 2, 2008 10:02 a.m.

The next few weeks mark your last chance to weigh in on the government's plans for new logging on old growth forests in western Oregon.

Designers of this plan say it represents hope for rural counties that have taken steep budget cuts lately. But not everyone in timber towns is convinced more logging is the way to go. KLCC's Rachael McDonald reports on the Western Oregon Plan Revision.

Sue Gabriel lives outside Cottage Grove on 20 acres abutting federal forest. She’s leading a hike in the woods.

Sue Gabriel: “We’re headed to a stand of really beautiful 200-year-old trees where I’ve seen all kinds of wildlife...all kinds of things.”

Gabriel and a group of other Cottage Grove neighbors got together months ago when they learned the trees that surround their city might be slated for cutting.

Kristin Britz, who also lives in Cottage Grove says the group meets every week.

Kirsten Britz: “It’s collaborative. It’s people from all parts of Cottage Grove within town where I live but also on the west side of town and on the east side of town going towards the national forest. We’re just trying to get the word out because a lot of people don’t know that this is happening even landowners who are interested in the environment’s health.”

Britz is talking about the Western Oregon Plan Revision. It’s a draft plan for Bureau of Land Management -- BLM lands, also called O and C lands.

The checkerboard of forest plots extend from Portland to the California border. In the 1800s the land was meant to become the Oregon and California railroad route but that fell through. Congress placed the land in the care of the BLM in 1937 under the O and C Act.

The Northwest Forest Plan was enacted in 1994 cutting back logging on federal lands to protect habitat for the endangered northern spotted owl.

In 2003 the timber industry sued the federal government saying the BLM was not meeting it’s projections for timber harvesting. Allen Hoffmeister is with the BLM.

Allen Hoffmeister: “Across the board, from BLM standpoint we have, well I’ll say failed to meet those timber targets.”

Western Oregon Plan Revision, nicknamed “whopper” comes out of a settlement agreement between the government and logging companies.

The plan’s preferred alternative calls for logging 48 percent of the forest or 1.2 million acres, including old growth.

At present about 25 percent of BLM land in western Oregon is subject to logging.  Hoffmeister says this increased logging will be good for the economy and restore funding to rural counties.

Allen Hoffmeister: “The O and C Act says counties get 50 percent of the revenue generated from these lands -- a sustainable and predictable flow of timber -- make their plans.”

Oregon counties lost much of their cut of timber revenue after the Northwest Forest Plan was adopted.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden in 2000 created the “Secure Rural Schools” law to make up for that revenue. Wyden and other senators now are trying to extend those federal funds.

Douglas County commissioner Doug Robertson has also been working to secure that funding.

Doug Robertson: “The reality is there are going to have to be some choices made as to how we in resource dependent counties and communities are going to be able to continue to deliver services at an acceptable level including law enforcement, libraries parks, veterans services and use the O and C lands as they were originally proposed to help do that.”

But, the plan calls for logging old growth trees. Back in the forest, Josh Laughlin of the Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands Project says that’s not acceptable.

Josh Laughlin: “There’s so much we don’t know about the old-growth forests that we should just leave the remaining ones alone for people to enjoy for future generations to enjoy for fish and wildlife habitat and in this case to safeguard the drinking water source many of the community members rely on.”

Cottage Grove neighbors asked Laughlin to help them organize to oppose the WOPR.  For Sue Gabriel, there’s no replacing the magical feeling of being in a primeval forest.

Sue Gabriel: “I feel like my spirtitual life is strongest in the forest. To me this is my church and my cathedral and I don’t want to see it destroyed."

The deadline for comment on the Bureau of Land Management’s Western Oregon Plan Revision is January 11th.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife is overhauling their recovery plan for the endangered Northern Spotted Owl. And that new plan will most likely affect the BLM’s plan.

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