Board votes to increase harvest on state forests
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GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Pressed by counties and the timber industry, the
Oregon Board of Forestry has voted to increase logging in state forests in
the northwestern corner of the state.
The 4-2 vote Wednesday in Salem came despite a staff report that increasing
the timber harvest from the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests was likely
to degrade salmon habitat.
The changes, expected to take effect over the next two years, increases
timber production as the focus on 70 percent of the 518,000 acres and
reduces fish and wildlife habitat to 30 percent. The split had been 50-50.
Board chairman John Blackwell, who voted in favor of the changes, said time
had shown that the current management plan does not work.
The forests were burned and heavily logged in the 1930s and taken over by
the counties for taxes, then turned over to the state with a promise that
two-thirds of the logging revenues would go back to local counties and
schools.
In 2001 the Oregon Department of Forestry adopted a management plan designed
to restore old growth characteristics to the forest and improve fish and
wildlife habitat, while still turning out logs, but the timber output never
measured up to expectations.
The forests cover important salmon streams and are a popular outdoor
recreation area for the Portland area.
The changes are expected to eventually produce 196 million board feet of
timber annually, a 5 percent increase from current levels.
That is not as much as Tillamook County Commissioner Tim Josi had hoped for,
but a move in the right direction.
"It is important to us that these forests remain working forests," he said.
"Right now the balance has shifted quite a ways away from timber production
towards other values that impact the viability of our communities."
Josi said with log prices and homebuilding at rock bottom levels, the
increased logging would not significantly increase revenues for counties and
schools, or jobs in the industry, in the short term, but they looked forward
to long-term improvements.
Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity said conservation
groups were certain to sue, arguing the increase in logging would harm
threatened coho salmon and northern spotted owls.
"Increasing the cut is not supported by science," he said.
While the board debated the issue in the Oregon Department of Forestry
headquarters in Salem, conservationists and fishing guides rallied outside
against the changes.
"Some of the best salmon runs in the lower 48 states come out of these
streams," Bob Van Dyk of the Wild Salmon Center said in a statement. "So
those are good reasons for multiple use up there."
