BLM sets first pilot project date

A tentative schedule was released Friday for a new Bureau of Land Management pilot project, in which local officials are trying to iron out differences between habitat and harvest interests.

Roseburg District Manager Jay Carlson is rolling out his local plan, called the Collaborative Forestry Pilot, to the public next week after testing it on some local groups.

The first gathering, called an initial scoping meeting, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Roseburg District BLM office, 777 Garden Valley Boulevard.

Members of the public are strongly encouraged to get involved.

Carlson hopes that in addition to the usual suspects, other voices not often heard in the debate will air their opinions.

“I want to get at a broader cross-section ... people who are interested but may not enjoy the tempest of conflict that surrounds this,” he said last week.

Goals for the project include accelerating habitat restoration for northern spotted owls and marbled murrelet recovery, reducing fire hazard in densely stocked forests and providing consistent timber volume for the local economy.

A tentative schedule has meetings, tours and speaker presentations set through May 19.

Times and locations have not yet been set for meetings beyond next week's date.

Carlson hopes to have one year's worth of work complete and ready for review by June or July.

A public comment period would follow in August. Carlson expects a decision by September on whether to proceed.

Though all facets of federal project planning are included, BLM officials said the strength of this approach is public involvement from the onset.

“I really want everyone to have to talk about the social, economic and environmental,” Carlson said. “I want the rank and file to grapple with it for while, because if you drop back for a bit, our job is to provide for all of that.”

A Web site will be developed so people unable to attend every meeting can keep tabs on the pilot's development and jump in at any time.

According to BLM data, about 85 percent of the district is or could be home to spotted owls, making timber projects difficult to develop and projects often contested.

Under the pilot project, Carlson estimates the district could still sell a substantial volume — between 25 and 35 million board feet — of timber annually for 25 to 30 years.

“This may be one of the first times we're not trying to make people make a choice between habitat or community development,” Carlson said. “I think we can do habitat and production.”

The district has identified two sites for the pilot, one dry and one wet forest. Carlson has named them the South Myrtle project, near Myrtle Creek, and the Halfway Creek project, near Elkton.

He said each was about 300 acres in size.

Local BLM spokesman Bob Hall said some elements of the project might translate for other BLM districts.

However, he said the pilot is a ground-up approach specific to Roseburg, in contrast with the broadstroke approach of the Northwest Forest Plan and Western Oregon Plan Revisions.

“This is local,” he said. “The WOPR was such a huge scale ... this is our backyard, we can focus in a lot more detail on a piece of ground than we could on the WOPR.”

• You can reach reporter DD Bixby at 957-4211 or by e-mail at dbixby@nrtoday.com.