The Steps Toward a Better Oregon Economy

Rep. Mike Schaufler  from NFIB Oregon

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In the first of a series of guest editorials by Oregon lawmakers, state Representative Mike Schaufler offers some suggestions on how to get Oregon's economy back on track. Schaufler was chairman of the Business and Labor Committee of the House of Representatives in the last session of Legislature. 

Oregon is still in the deepest recession since the Great Depression. Over the past two years or so, I’ve been asked by thousands of Oregonians what state government is going to do about it. The 2009-10 Oregon Legislature took three actions that I think will help. In 2009 bills were passed:

• to upgrade Oregon’s transportation infrastructure
• provide and make accessible health insurance to every child and tens of thousands of low-income adults
• and invest in low-income housing.

What we did not do is spend, cut or tax Oregon out of this recession. The 2011-13 Legislature will not spend, cut or tax Oregon out of this recession either. Like always, Oregon will have to work its way out of recession.

How will we do that?

• Oregon needs policies that recognize and take advantage of our abundant and sustainable natural resources. We must take far greater advantage of the army of working families who know how to responsibly and sustainably manage these resources as well.
• Oregon needs to get back in the forest. Trees grow faster and better in Oregon than any where else in the world. Oregon forestry workers and Oregon woodland owners know how to manage our forests better than any one else in the world, (including the federal government). Oregon needs to invest in woody biomass for energy and be prepared to crank up our lumber mills when America’s economy improves.
• Oregon needs to develop more water. With just one percent of the annual flow of the Columbia River, thousands of upper eastern Oregon acres could be irrigated. These irrigated acres would not only increase yield but would allow for much more diversity in what crops could be grown. Oregonians want to buy Oregon produce. Greater and more diverse production would greatly increase the need for food processing and create thousands of jobs in rural Oregon.
• Oregon needs more flexible land use laws for industry. Getting large industrial projects to pick Oregon requires one hundred acre plots of shovel-ready land to build on. Oregon needs to streamline its permit process as well. All building permits should be granted or refused in twelve months. Anything longer than that isn’t process. It’s denial.

These are just some ideas. I do not take personal credit for any of them. I do very much support all of them completely and unequivocally. These are large-scale concepts. The positive impact would be felt through out the economy. The demand for goods and services provided by small business, as a result, would increase exponentially. 

Communities benefiting from these proposals would see a marked increase in the demand for machinery, fuel, groceries, cars and pickups, flowers, fencing, flagpoles, furnaces, flat work and an exhaustive list of goods and services.

Last of all, Oregon needs you. I encourage every NFIB member reading these words to be in contact with your state legislators and governor. Oregon is a great place to live. We must have a sustainable economy and sustainable environment. Get involved.

Roseburg News-Review Salazar Editorial

Roseburg News-Review-Salazar-Editorial

Bob Ragon Op-Ed for the Roseburg News Review 2010

2010 began with most economic forecasters optimistically predicting a 35 % improvement in housing starts. Unfortunately new home construction results were disappointing and dominated by foreclosures and challenging credit markets.

Several world events significantly impacted our timber industry. First was the massive earthquake in February crippling Chile's plywood exports to the United States. As a result panel prices in the US skyrocketed from an average price of $260/Msf to a high of $460/Msf in early May. The beneficiaries were our plywood mills, principally Roseburg Forest Products and the Swanson Group. The run-up in prices was a temporary shot in the arm, but unfortunately the market retreated quickly when Chile resumed exporting plywood in late May.

The second major world event affecting our industry was the entry of China into our forest products market this summer. Russia imposed a 25% tariff on logs exported from Siberia to Chinese sawmills and now lumber and logs from the northwest are in high demand to satisfy China's expanding economy. This is a two edged sword for our industry by improving the overall lumber market but also driving up log costs to our local mills.

Finally Douglas County is now on the Secretary of Interior's radar screen for relief from the gridlock that has brought timber sales from the BLM in southwest Oregon to a virtual standstill. Secretary Salazar convened a one day roundtable discussion in Roseburg in October with a followup meeting in Washington DC in December. Several of our industry leaders including Allyn Ford and Steve Swanson participated as well as County Commissioner Doug Robertson. The lack of federal timber availability remains a key impediment to jobs and county revenues in Douglas County and all of rural Oregon.

Doug Robertson Op-Ed

There was recently a meeting with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in Washington, D.C. regarding federal forestlands in Western Oregon. I participated in the meeting, as did nearly the entire Oregon Congressional Delegation.

The meeting was the second with Secretary Salazar arising from our Congressional Delegation’s concern about lack of timber-related jobs and the economy in the wake of the withdrawal of the Western Oregon Plan Revision, which would have created thousands of jobs had it been implemented.

The meeting in Washington, D.C. centered primarily around three proposed pilot projects that would attempt to improve forest conditions and create limited timber harvest. While I am hopeful for success, my expectations are low. Even the two professors in charge, Norm Johnson and Jerry Franklin, attempted to lower expectations by cautioning that “The uncertainty created by the draft Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan affects what might potentially be accomplished as a part of any pilot projects given the abundance of owls in the Roseburg and Medford District.”

The uncertainty comes from a labyrinth of overlapping Federal rules that make any attempt to manage these Federal lands nearly impossible. Hal Salwasser, Dean of the OSU College of Forestry, recently referred to Federal forest management as “dysfunctional.”

For instance, the proposed spotted owl recovery plan severely limits activity on forestland that is currently or could become occupied by a spotted owl. In essence, this requires protections for owls that don’t exist. They are referred to as “virtual owls.” The pilot study areas have thousands of acres of this protected category of land. In addition, before any management activity can take place, the agency must conduct a survey for many other species that are neither threatened nor endangered. Among these is a small rodent, the relatively abundant red tree vole which is a food source for spotted owl. If voles are located in an area where timber is to be cut, the harvest must be moved or canceled. Add to that the requirement for “consultation” with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, each of which has a potential veto on any proposed management plan or activity. There are many other examples of bureaucratic barriers to rational management.

Management for our federal forestlands is being driven primarily by an effort to “recover” the spotted owl. At the meeting with Secretary Salazar, the regional director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service was asked how we will know when the owl is recovered, and how long recovery will take. He had no answer to the first question and his response to the second was that it could take up to 150 years.

The spotted owl expert from the US Fish & Wildlife at the meeting made no mention of the barred owl, in spite of a growing consensus that a major threat to spotted owl survival is the larger, more aggressive and invasive barred owl. When asked how the agency would deal with this threat, the expert said the barred owl could be trapped, but he admitted that he had contacted many agencies on the east coast, where the barred owl originated, but none of the east coast states contacted wanted any of their native barred owls returned to them. The spotted owl expert mentioned shooting the barred owl, but doubted the public would support it.

The concern voiced by many is that we are building management policy for federal forest around the recovery of a species that can’t be recovered.

With the focus on the proposed pilot projects, it is more important than ever that there be a genuine balance. That means rational thinking about environmental protection, and equal consideration for people, jobs, and economic stability for our communities.

A plan proposed by the Association of O&C Counties offers balance. The Counties’ plan would protect over a million acres of the oldest timber as old growth habitat, while at the same time allowing timber management that would create many thousands of new jobs. Please take a moment and go to www.FFCSSA.org. There is a place on the website for you to ask questions or make comments, which would be welcomed. Federal management has failed. It is time to try a new direction.

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Doug Robertson is a Douglas County Commissioner, President of the Association of O&C Counties, and VP of the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition

Oregon's Coquille leaders hope to tap a niche market for wood products certified as sustainable

Published: Thursday, December 30, 2010, 2:22 PM Updated: Thursday, December 30, 2010, 2:43 PM
By The Associated Press



BY NATE TAYLOR COOS BAY WORLD

BRIDGE -- At an elevation of about 1,800 feet, seven miles deep into the Coquille Forest near Bridge, an inspection was taking place.

Equipped with a clipboard and pen, Craig Howard analyzed the landscape, making notes and firing off questions to forest managers.

Provided the auditor didn't see any red flags, the Coquille Indian Tribe would be well on its way to earning approval from the Forest Stewardship Council, authenticating the tribe as a conscientious steward of its ancestral lands.

Tribal officials believe their forest management practices are poised to receive that certification from the FSC, an international conservation organization.

With it, the tribe not only would score points with environmentalists, it could branch out into new markets.

"There is a small niche market for certified wood products," said Jason Robison, the tribe's biological and environmental services coordinator.

"By being FSC-certified, we're able to get into that market and provide a high-quality product to the local mills that are already certified."

By doing so, wood would be carried along a "chain of custody" -- coming from a certified forest and fashioned at a certified mill -- lending the product environmental integrity, if not worth.

"I wouldn't go as far as to say it's worth more," said Paul Beck of Herbert Lumber Co.

Already a longtime customer, Herbert Lumber is one of five FSC-certified mills in the south coast region. It's in Riddle, about 20 miles south of Roseburg.

He said the tribe was wise to pursue certification, even if it doesn't translate to higher profits. It's an important step in establishing credibility, he said.

"I think it's more of a case of somehow gaining recognition in these politically charged times of resource-management issues."

Cal Mukumoto, CEO of the Coquille Economic Development Corp., does see mark-up potential with a seal of sustainability.

"For high-quality wood, there is certainly a premium," Mukumoto said.

The green-building market is ripe with high-dollar products.

And some builders have strict standards.

The U.S. Green Building Council recently ruled that FSC-certified lumber was the only acceptable lumber in LEED-certified projects. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system for green-building design.

Besides meeting self-imposed standards, the tribe adheres to two strict sets of guidelines: the Northwest Forest Management Plan and the National Indian Forest Resources Management Act.

"The Coquille Indian Tribe is the only tribe in the nation that manages according to the same standards and guides as adjacent federal lands," Robison said.

The tribe manages about 5,400 acres of forestland in Coos County, along with the 1,100-acre Empire Reservation in Coos Bay and several smaller parcels.

The tribe allows harvesting only on about 2,300 acres with an allowable salable quantity of 3.5 million board feet over a 10-year period, generating about $13 million, officials said.

"A million board feet employs about 20 full-time jobs," forest engineer Ed Vaughn said.

"Our sales help out the local economy quite a bit."

The Coquille Forest near Bridge abuts private and federal lands. The tribe's property is distinguished by varying tree heights, some spaced apart, others growing in clusters.

"That's our intention, to provide a lot of diversity," said Tim Vredenburg, the tribe's land resources and environmental services director.

"It's more structurally complex at an early age."

The tribe's resource management plan goes beyond environmental interests. Protecting its cultural resources also is a key priority.

Officials say ancestral gathering places such as prayer and vision-quest sites are managed with reverence.

Plus, the plan calls for retention of culturally significant species such as western red cedar and Port Orford cedar, traditionally used in longhouses. Other species are valued materials used in baskets and regalia.

The protection of cultural amenities is considered, among other stipulations, in the designation of an FSC certification, said Craig Howard, a Canadian auditor with the Bureau Veritas, the world's second-largest group of environmental certification providers.

He said his watch list also includes soil disturbances, high stumps, insect damage and flammable materials, among other problems.

He said there's no such thing as a tidy harvest site, but apparent red flags must be addressed.

"We're really looking to make sure that the forest was harvested properly, that the access coming in was good, and that it's growing back," Howard said.

On a recent trip through the forest, the auditor and foresters tromped through foot-sucking muck atop fog-cloaked hills.

The tribe's property is primarily ridge top, buffered from nearby streams.

"When you look at the ridge strategy, that's to stay away from water as much as possible?" Howard asked.

"That's by design," forest analyst Terry Droessler replied.

Though the watershed is cushioned from harvest activities, "we still have a sophisticated water-monitoring program," Vredenburg said.

It's an added precaution implemented by the tribe.

"It's above and beyond," Vaughn said.

Howard couldn't estimate when the tribe would receive a certificate, saying his findings must be reviewed during a long, technical process.

Tribal officials said they didn't expect the auditor would find any surprises.

"I think Craig is going to like what he sees," Vaughn said.

The Coquilles are among a number of tribes currently pursuing an FSC certification, said Brad Kahn, communications director of FSC U.S. in Seattle.

Those already certified include Oregon's Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Wisconsin's Menominee Indian Tribe and the Hoopa Valley Tribe of California.

"I think there is a building momentum of tribes looking at certification," Kahn said.

"There is a sense among tribal land managers that FSC aligns with traditional values.

"By achieving the FSC certificate they are communicating values the market understands."

The FSC so far has certified about 130 million acres in North America.

Friends Have a Falling Out

Measure 76 would preserve a percentage of Oregon Lottery revenue for environmental protection.Oregon’s Measure 76 reminds me of Israel’s foreign policy principle: “My Enemy’s Enemy is my Friend.” The November initiative would make permanent 1998’s Constitutional Amendment that allocates 15 percent of lottery revenues for conservation of State Parks and salmon.

Measure 76 is brought to us by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and is supported by most Oregon environmental organizations. Environmentalists’ opinions are very important to Democrat leaders in Oregon. However, Oregon’s other liberal power brokers, public-employee and teacher unions, oppose Measure 76 because it will dedicate some lottery funds that could help with Oregon’s $3 billion budget deficit.

It is unusual for environmentalists and public-employee unions to disagree on a public policy issue. In an effort to resolve the matter, House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone, stepped in to convince the TNC to pull the measure. When environmentalists said no, Hunt crafted a complicated compromise to temporarily resolve the issue.


The deal goes something like this: Rep. Hunt and public-employee unions will not oppose Measure 76. Should Measure 76 pass in November, legislators will send a new version back to voters in 2011. The legislative referral will allow the salmon and parks money to be used to help mitigate revenue shortfalls, like we are currently experiencing.

The timber industry frequently battles Oregon’s environmental groups and, as part of the larger business community, runs up against public-employee unions on tax and budget matters.

But in this case, the timber industry probably would side with the environmentalists over the public-employee unions regarding Measure 76. Lottery dollars spent on watershed and fish restoration helps forest landowners manage their forests for wood products while still protecting the environment.

Public-employee unions wanted the TNC to withdraw the initiative before it made the ballot. After investing more than $1 million to gather sufficient signatures for the Constitutional amendment, the TNC was not willing to give up on a very successful program. The lottery dollars have provided millions for fish habitat and watershed improvement projects, and have helped create new state parks.

Legislators spent the past 10 years trying to get their hands on the dedicated lottery dollars. They have used lottery funds for natural resource agency budgets and have gone so far as to designate the State Capitol as a State Park so they could use the lottery dollars for some much-needed Capitol grounds maintenance and improvement.


Article originally appeared on CFM Strategic Communications http://www.cfm-online.com/state-lobbying-blog/2010/10/28/friends-have-a-falling-out.html

An opportunity to move forward in our forests

The Oregonian

Guest Columnist
By Ed Shepard

The other morning when I opened The Oregonian and read "Our forests forever -- if only we go about it right," I thought: "I couldn't agree more." Now it's time to roll up our sleeves and have an honest-to-goodness dialogue about our forests, not sit around and mull over the past.

I too was at the recent meeting convened in Washington, D.C., by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on forest management, the meeting that Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild refered to in his commentary in The Oregonian. And I'm grateful to Heiken and the entire Oregon congressional delegation's commitment to help us find a long-term strategy for forest management and restoration that's environmentally sound, economically sustainable and socially responsible. Unfortunately, Heiken chose to focus on the past with inaccurate data and misrepresentations of past management, the Northwest Forest Plan and current planning efforts by the federal Bureau of Land Management.

I was particularly concerned by Oregon Wild's singular characterization regarding the Northwest Forest Plan. The dialogue that we undertook recently is about providing timber for harvest and habitat for the conservation of federally listed species. Both harvest and habitat -- not one or the other.

This is not something new. Since 1994, the BLM has operated under only one plan for these forests -- the Northwest Forest Plan. And the Northwest Forest Plan contemplated both timber production and habitat conservation. In addition to continuing to manage these lands to help create healthy forests, communities and habitat, we need to be conscious of the infrastructure needed to manage these lands -- infrastructure that also provides jobs and economic opportunities in Oregon's rural communities. Restoration-related work can and does contribute to the economies of rural Oregon, but both this work and timber infrastructure is needed to manage these lands. Once the infrastructure is gone, it cannot be replaced with the flip of a switch.

Since the inception of the Northwest Forest Plan, the BLM has worked collaboratively with its federal, tribal, state and local government partners to implement the plan. We remain committed to working with our partners and the diverse public that we serve to find workable and sustainable solutions to the management of these important and unique public forests.

As the health and resiliency of our forests continues to decline in some areas, we must move forward. The battles of the past have not benefited the northern spotted owl, our local communities or the forest products industry. All sides of this issue have been given an opportunity to craft a solution, and we need to take advantage of Secretary Salazar's offer and move forward.

Edward Shepard is state director for Oregon and Washington for the Bureau of Land Management.

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/12/an_opportunity_to_move_forward.html

© 2010 OregonLive.com. All rights reserved.

The future of the forest can sustain communities and the trees, OSU's College of Forestry dean says

The Oregonian By Eric Mortenson

Hal Salwasser's observations come across like forest clearcuts: Blunt, dramatic and starkly efficient. Just as some people think clearcuts are nothing but ugly, not everyone likes what Salwasser has to say.

No matter. The dean of Oregon State University's College of Forestry holds a Biltmore measuring stick to federal forest policy and calls out his readings:

Not sustainable, he declares. Not sustainable on an environmental, economic or social basis. Federal proposals to thin sections of the vast federal holdings, and produce some logging and mill jobs for Oregon's poor rural communities is a step in the right direction, but too "timid," Salwasser says.

"We can't thin our way to sustainability," he says.

Instead, he says, it's time to reclaim the federal forests as a source of community wealth and health by making more timber available for logging. We can do it, he says, by returning to areas where trees were logged in the 1960s to 1980s, were replanted and have grown to suitable size. That can be done without screwing up the environment, without cutting old growth and without grinding intrusive new roads into roadless areas, he says.

As recession-wracked Oregon searches for firm economic ground, Salwasser has emerged among those saying the state's resource-based jobs and products must be revived. At a Portland City Club forum earlier this month, Salwasser and other panelists said great opportunity lies within the 18 million acres of federal forests in Oregon.

Among the first promising steps is a logging and restoration project on U.S. Bureau of Land Management forests in southwestern Oregon. Salwasser said the work, projected to provide logs for mills while improving wildlife habitat, is a "good experiment."

The project areas would be thinned but would have a specified percentage of trees standing, retain old growth and be replanted with multiple tree species instead of mono-culture Douglas firs. Forest scientists Norm Johnson from Oregon State and Jerry Franklin of the University of Washington designed the project.

The experiment is important because federal forest management is "dysfunctional," Salwasser says. Among other problems, collaboration and innovation among industry, agency and conservation groups can be foiled by narrowly focused opponents who sit out the process but stall it with well-tossed lawsuits, he says.

Pioneering forest projects such as the BLM work should be protected from such tactics, he says.

The alternative is a continued mess, a triple-header of unsustainable problems.

Federal forests have grown so dense from lack of management that they are environmentally unhealthy, and susceptible to catastrophic fire and insect damage, he says.

Secondly, forests are no longer economically sustainable because they don't generate the capital -- money from timber sales -- necessary to pay for the stewardship they require.

Last, they are not socially sustainable because they no longer support the jobs and timber harvest revenue that once nourished Oregon's rural towns, counties and school districts, Salwasser says.

The forests are capable of producing that kind of social wealth again if timber sales get back on track.

"They can," he says. "Far more than they are right now."

Oregon remains among the handful of regions best suited for growing trees for wood products, he says. Oregon still produces a fifth of the nation's softwood lumber, despite the 2009 harvest from federal land being the lowest since the Depression.

In Salwasser's view, Oregon has hundreds of thousands of federal acres that can be part of a sustainable timber supply. Another harvest of replanted trees would avoid cutting old growth, building new logging roads or violating stream setbacks and habitat protection rules added in the intervening years.

Forest productivity and mill efficiency have increased so it takes fewer trees to meet the international demand for wood products, says Salwasser, who has been dean for a decade at OSU.

"That frees up the rest of the forest to do something else," such as provide wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration and water filtration.

That's an altered view. In decades past, forestry students studied how to grow, harvest and transport timber, and how to manufacture it into wood products. Graduating foresters entered the woods with a compass and the trusty Biltmore stick, used to estimate a tree's diameter, height and volume in board feet.

In a legacy link, OSU students still learn to use Biltmore sticks in addition to the GPS and other computer systems used in modern forestry. But their coursework reflects the changed nature of forestry. The college offers programs in forest ecosystems and society; forest engineering, resources and management; and wood science and engineering. The college has close to 1,000 students, with another 400 taking on-line natural resource classes.

"All the stuff we do here," Salwasser says, "is an aspect of sustainability."

-- Eric Mortenson
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/12/the_future_of_the_forest_can_s.html

© 2010 OregonLive.com. All rights reserved.