Photo by Ellen Miller

Monday, March 16, 2015

What will Governor Kate Brown do with Natural Resources?

What will Governor Brown do with Natural Resources?
The frantic early days of her reign as governor addressed legislative Democratic leaders’ and Governor Brown’s top priorities. Will the Brown administration now continue the work of John Kitzhaber’s administration with regard to O & C forestland legislation, addressing forest health on the National Forest Lands of Eastern Oregon and magically coming up with timber supply to save failing mills in Cave Junction and John Day?

Governor Brown has a great compassion for distressed rural communities. It will be incumbent on timber industry advocates to help generate enthusiasm in the Governor and her office to address both State and Federal forest issues. In fact, most of Kitzhaber’s Natural Resources team is still working for Brown.

It is timely for Governor Brown and her team to step into forest matters. The State Land Board, (Governor Brown, Treasure Wheeler and Secretary of State Atkins) is considering how to deal with the embattled Elliott State Forest, and the Board of Forestry seeks to redo the land management plan for the Northwest State Forests to avert a financial crisis due to the low harvest levels from this highly productive forest land.

On the federal side, Kitzhaber established a broad based stakeholder group to devise a strategy for the 2.4 million acres of forestland in Western Oregon. Unfortunately, Sen. Wyden wasn’t willing to accept Governor Kitzhaber’s two key requirements for any O & C solution: final harvest prescriptions for Southern Oregon and legal certainty for the entire plan.


However, the last Congress rejected Wyden’s O & C Bill so Wyden may be more inclined to embrace the Kitzhaber proposal, which is similar to the bill passed by Congressmen Walden, DeFazio and Schrader.

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