Will Oregon’s Senior
Senator Grab the gold ring?
As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee Sen. Ron Wyden is perfectly positioned to resolve the federal forest
health/timber supply/county payments conundrum and claim a grand prize.
By rescuing the nearly insolvent O & C counties,
restoring forest health in Eastern Oregon while providing much needed timber
supply to create family-wage jobs in rural Oregon and also increase business
for banks, technology developers, and lots of other suppliers in Metropolitan
Portland.
Such achievements will cement Sen. Wyden’s legacy alongside
other Oregon political greats such as Mark O. Hatfield and Tom McCall. Reps.
Greg Walden, Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader, along with Governor John Kitzhaber’s
O & C task force spent months developing a compromise plan for the 2.3
million acres of forestland in 18 Western Oregon Counties.
Sen. Wyden has labored for three years crafting a collaborative
plan for improving forest health on the National Forests of Eastern Oregon
while reinvigorating the timber dependent communities a long way from the I-5 corridor.
His new leadership position in the Senate provides the platform to craft and
pass generational federal forest legislation.
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