Governor asks panel to find a solution in rural Oregon: Allow more logging while protecting the environment

Governor asks panel to find a solution in rural Oregon: Allow more logging while protecting the environment

Published: Friday, September 21, 2012, 7:12 PM     Updated: Saturday, September 22, 2012, 12:42 PM

 By Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian 
Follow

View full sizeJamie Francis/The Oregonian 2009Gov. John Kitzhaber wants an Oregon panel to figure out how to allow more logging while protecting watersheds and wildlife.
Gov. John Kitzhaber said he'll convene a panel of timber industry executives, conservation groups and hard-hit county representatives to figure out how to allow more logging on 2.6 million acres of federal land while protecting key environmental features. 

Kitzhaber said an existing proposal to revise management of what are known as the Oregon & California Railroad timberlands is doomed by opposition from conservation groups, which felt left out of a bill backed by Oregon Reps. Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader and Greg Walden. 

In an interview Friday in Portland, the governor said he envisions a group of 10 to 12 people who will meet weekly in October and November to craft a proposal, and will present it to the state's congressional delegation by December. He said having the presidential election settled midway through the discussions could clarify matters, such as whether Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, ascends to chairmanship of the Senate's influential Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 

If ultimately approved by Congress, a deal on the O&C lands could be a first step in resolving a problem that has bedeviled rural Oregon for decades. The federal government owns 60 percent of the forestland in Oregon but now provides only 12 percent of the annual timber harvest, which generations of Oregonians depended on for jobs and funding for schools, roads and county services. 

It's crucial to find balance in natural-resource management, the governor said. 

"I think there's a larger narrative here about the future of rural America, and Oregon," Kitzhaber said. "If the message is 'we're going to write it off,' I think there's going to be a significant backlash that could do much more damage to the fabric of our environmental laws than this issue alone." 

View full size

The decline of logging due to policy changes, endangered-species protection, lawsuits, recessions and other forces has greatly reduced timber revenue to a number of Oregon counties. 

Congress supplied replacement funding with the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Actbeginning in 2000. The act was extended twice, ramped down, and a last round of emergency checks was delivered this year. In several counties, the payments provided 60 percent or more of operating budgets. 

Many have low property tax rates that aren't sufficient to pay for services, and voters have been reluctant to approve tax increases. Some counties have already reduced sheriff's patrols, let prisoners out of short-staffed jails and closed departments. 

Allowing more logging on O&C land alone won't replace the timber payments, but some believe the model might be applicable to the 12 million acres of national forests in Oregon, providing even more revenue and jobs. 

"We can't ignore what's going on out there in our rural communities," the governor said. "They want the dignity of being able to bring home a paycheck and take care of their families. That's the part I'm really concerned about." 

Reps. DeFazio, Walden and Schrader announced a plan in February to convert 1.5 million acres of O&C lands to a public trust managed by a committee appointed by the governor. The trust property would be managed for commercial purposes, with some of the revenue going to counties for education and law enforcement. 

But Kitzhaber said conservationists were prepared to dig in and fight the bill, and it probably would have been defeated in the Senate. 

The group he's convening is a "good faith effort" to broaden support, he said. 

Some observers believe the timing is right: Federal replacement payments to timber-dependent counties are ending, there is broad recognition that timber harvest targets haven't been met and conservation groups -- in the past often knee-jerk opponents of logging -- may be inclined to go along because they want to be seen as part of the solution. 

Backers believe the idea has a chance in Congress if it's backed by all groups, the congressional delegation and the governor's office. Also in its favor, it involves a limited amount of federal land in a single state and may not require additional federal funding. 

Increased logging on the O&C lands will require modified clear-cuts, sometimes called "regenerational harvesting." One of the issues to be settled, the governor said, is whether there is "social license" for clear-cutting on public land. The timber industry will need assurance that logs are put up for sale and harvested as promised. Conservationists groups will press for protection of watersheds and wildlife. 

"Both sides -- and hopefully we can get beyond sides -- both groups of interests need some certainty, I think, for this to work," Kitzhaber said.