Will Stimulus Put Jobs in Our Woods?
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Congress and the Oval Office have reached a tentative agreement on a $789 billion economic stimulus package, but just how that will spur jobs in the Southern Oregon woods remains unknown.
Neither U.S. Forest Service nor the U.S. Bureau of Land Management local officials know how much money will be available for the agencies or what the restrictions will be on how it could be spent.
"But a recovery of jobs in local communities would be a priority," predicted Patty Burel, spokeswoman for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Jim Whittington, her counterpart at the BLM's Medford District, concurred.
Those in the private sector whose work takes them into the woods have plenty of suggestions on how the forest funds should be spent.
Help the economy while helping the environment, urged Dominick DellaSala, executive director of the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy in Ashland.
"We all know we are going through an economic crisis but the other crisis we can't forget about is the ecological crisis," said the forest ecologist. "The solution is to bring both of them together with projects that both stimulate the economy with green-based jobs and lowers our carbon footprint.
"We have been treating them as though they are at odds with one another," he added. "The solution is to bring them together. There is an incredible opportunity for that."
Such projects could include removing old logging roads that contribute to sediment in mountain streams, cutting small trees to reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires and creating defensible spaces around rural communities susceptible to wildfires.
"We can do things like lower the risk of wildfires to these communities and improve the streams for salmon and clean water," DellaSala said.
"There are jobs in the woods in this."
But don't forget the timber and sawmill workers, stressed Dave Schott, executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association.
"We need more people in the Forest Service and the BLM who can go out and put together timber sales," he said. "They are restricted now because of available funding. If we have federal timber coming in, albeit sold at a lower price, there will be mills to buy it."
Since timber sale contracts give them two to three years to harvest the wood, it is likely the economy would improve during that harvest period, he said.
Like DellaSala, Schott believes thinning around rural communities could produce jobs while reducing the potential for a devastating wildfire.
Yet there has to be a market for the product if the work is going to provide sustainable employment, particularly if it involves mills, he said.
"You have to have a demand for the lumber," he said. "Right now, if the wood were given to you, you could not helicopter log and come out with a profit ... business is wretched."
Stephanie Tidwell, executive director of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland, hopes a portion of the forest funds will be spent on decommissioning old logging roads to help protect the habitat of valuable Rogue River salmon and steelhead runs.
"It's expensive work that would put a lot of people to work at wage-earning jobs out in the woods," she said. "And it is part of the transition that needs to happen regardless."
Meanwhile, a letter sent by a coalition of business, environmental, labor and community leaders to Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Oregon U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley urge that the stimulus funding include "significant investment" in Oregon's federal forests, forest workers and forest-sector infrastructure.
The Feb. 3 letter called for stimulus funding dedicated to forest restoration and related rural development projects. "This dual investment will create good, family-wage jobs and restore the condition of our national forests," it concluded.
Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.
