Answers on timber resources sought by legislators

Five members of the Oregon congressional delegation want Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to tell them how he plans to replace the timber volume axed by the cancellation of the controversial Western Oregon Plan Revisions last year.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Salazar, the bipartisan group requested a face-to-face meeting to be briefed on how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will fill the timber harvest void left by the withdrawal.

The WOPR was adopted by the Bush administration in 2008 to manage the BLM's 2.1 million acres of lands in Western Oregon. The Interior Department oversees the BLM.

"As evidenced by a decline in timber volume produced, the BLM appears to be unable to offer an adequate and sustainable timber supply throughout much of Western Oregon," the letter stated.

"This is particularly evident in the Medford and Roseburg BLM Districts, where harvest levels are far below those forecast under the Northwest Forest Plan."

The letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, and U.S. Reps. Greg Walden, a Republican, and Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader, both Democrats.

Oregonians want a balanced approach that produces sustainable timber, protects endangered species, reduces hazardous fuels and ensures that the forests remain healthy for future generations, the letter continued.

"For nearly 100 years, the economic vitality of Western Oregon has been intrinsically linked to the federal government's management of BLM lands," the letter observed, noting that connection reflects everything from environmental protection to timber harvests.

After being told the BLM anticipates further timber reductions in the coming fiscal year, the delegation also asked for an update on the 62 BLM timber sales that were announced in mid-October 2009.

Salazar had announced that the BLM was going to offer up to 230 million board feet of timber in Western Oregon this fiscal year as part of an interim plan to replace the WOPR. That included 21.1 million board feet of timber in the BLM's Medford District, a figure generally reflecting what has been offered in the district each year for the past three years. However, the district's annual harvest goal is more than twice that at a little under 50 million board feet.

"Though many have concerns over where the Department is heading, we inherently believe that there is a solution to this issue that will properly manage and maintain our forests while putting jobs back in our rural communities," the letter concluded.

The WOPR was the result of a 2003 legal settlement between the federal government and the Portland-based American Forest Resource Council.

The WOPR would have allowed some 502 million board feet of timber to be sold in the region. The forestland managed by the BLM in Western Oregon grows 1.2 billion board feet of timber each year, officials said.

However, the WOPR was withdrawn by the Obama administration in July because it failed to adequately complete required Endangered Species Act consultation.

Meanwhile, Walden said the BLM's short-term plan announced last fall shifted the management focus to thinning projects on younger forests largely in northwestern Oregon, thus reducing the amount of timber volume available on its land in southwestern Oregon.

"We need to put people back to work, period," Walden said in a prepared statement. "We can't start doing that in the forests of Southern Oregon until there is an immediate re-focus of the short-term plan."

David Schott, executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association, agreed.

"We just need to put people back to work and get our local economies back on track," he said, adding that careful and professional management practices can also protect forests from catastrophic fire.

Joseph Vaile, conservation coordinator for the Ashland-based Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, which lobbied hard against the WOPR, is also watching to see what the BLM will propose.

"We think there is significant opportunity for the BLM to move forward with restoration-based management that would provide jobs," he said. "But we don't want the BLM to go back to a plan that would involve clear-cutting old-growth trees. Hopefully, there is a way forward that isn't the WOPR."