Let’s Talk Timber, Madame Governor!!!

Following President Barack Obama’s visit to Oregon last week, the Salem Statesman Journal published a letter to the President: Let's talk timber, Mr. President.

In the letter/editorial, the newspaper thanks the President for talking up Salem-based Oregon fruit products. However, the letter notes, “there's an even more important issue that cries for your help: increasing timber harvests on federal lands.”

Me, Too!

The same plea could be addressed to Governor Kate Brown for increasing timber harvests on State Forest land. Previously, the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources considered, House Bill 3210. HB3210 was a bill that increased timber production on the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests.

The Council of Forest Land Trust Counties in Northwest Oregon supported modifications to the original bill. The counties, who were the original owners of the forestland, sought to increase sustainable timber harvests from the State Forests.

The counties and several House Ag and Natural Resources Committee members are frustrated with the length of time it has taken the Board of Forestry and the Department of Forestry to craft a new plan that increases timber sales.

Died too soon…

As the Committee prepared to adopt the counties’ proposal, Chairman Rep. Brad Witt announced that he was pulling HB 3210 due to a letter he received from Board of Forestry Chair Tom Imeson and State Forester Doug Decker. The letter promised to keep the forest plan changes on a fast track.

Meanwhile, the counties are suffering financially from dwindling federal and state timber revenue. In fact, the Department of Forestry is seeking to replace timber receipts with scarce money from Oregon’s General Fund.

All State Forests

Northwest Oregon isn’t the only place the Governor could increase revenue from improved forest management. The State Land Board, Chaired by Governor Brown has over 80,000 acres of very productive forestland on the Elliott State Forest. These Common School Fund trust lands have seen a sharp decline in timber production following the settlement of an Endangered Species Act lawsuit filed by environemntalists upset with the new forest management plan to manage the ESF.

Madame Governor, it is not just the US Forest Service’s National Forests and the USDI Bureau of Land Management’s Oregon & California trust lands that need the President’s attention. State Forests in northwest and southwest Oregon could help produce County revenue, School funds and most importantly jobs!  Act now, while the 2015 legislature is still in session!!!

Oregon House Committee gets Forestry’s attention

Oregon House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Chair Rep. Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, withdrew HB 3210 after he reported that he received a letter from Board of Forestry Chair Tom Imeson and State Forester Doug Decker. Imeson and Decker’s letter indicates that they received the message HB3210 and proposed amendments were seeking.

Their letter promises to expedite the process of developing a new plan for the State Forests based on the recommendations of a BOF subcommittee recommendation to change the previous Structure Based Management to a new 70-30 strategy.

Under the new 70-30 plan, 70% of the forests would be managed with a timber prominence and 30% with a conservation emphasis. The new strategy is expected to both increase timber production and better address water quality and wildlife habitat concerns.

Previously, Rep. Witt and several of his committee members expressed frustration over the length of time it was taking for the BOF and the Forestry Department to design a new management plan for the state forests in Northwest Oregon.

Timber harvest receipts have been dropping for several years. Counties receiving revenues from State Forest timber sales have been at the front, along with State Forest timber sale purchasers, advocating for increased timber sales from the forest plan that has never produced the volumes expected when it was developed over a decade ago.

Meanwhile, the Forestry Department is seeking General Fund dollars for their operating expenses to replace the dwindling timber receipts. The trust counties, a different group than Oregon’s O&C Counties, long ago agreed to share the timber receipts to cover the Forestry Department’s management costs.

Ore. Forestry seeks more timber and more habitat

Ore. Forestry seeks more timber and more habitat

Capital Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- The Oregon Board of Forestry has taken on a tough job: figuring out how to produce more logs as well as better fish and wildlife habitat through logging on state forests.

The board voted unanimously Wednesday in Salem to embark on a new management plan for three state forests in the northwest corner of the state -- the Tillamook, Clatsop and Santiam.

There has been widespread dissatisfaction with the current plan -- including from the governor -- for failing to meet the statutory goals of producing economic, environmental and social benefits through active management.

Board Chairman Tom Imeson said in a statement that the current plan, from 2001, was based on the best information of the time, and he believes they can do better.

But conservation groups are skeptical that the forests can produce more logs while improving fish and wildlife habitat.

After national forests in Oregon, Washington and Northern California cut logging by 90 percent to protect habitat for the northern spotted owl and salmon in 1994, Oregon adopted a new vision for state forests, where logging would be designed to crate forests with old growth characteristics. However, the new policy did not satisfy the timber industry, which depends on state forests for logs, local counties, which share in state forest timber revenues, or conservation groups, which felt the forests were being thinned too heavily, and too many roads were being built.

The board increased logging and cut goals for older forests in 2009, but the dissatisfaction continued. In 2001, Gov. John Kitzhaber spoke to the board, urging it to find a new approach that makes state forests a model for resolving the conflicts between logging and fish and wildlife habitat that have beset the region for 30 years.

In that spirit, the board also created a new system to make it easier for the public to see just which state forest lands are dedicated to fish and wildlife habitat and conservation, rather than logging.

"Commitments to conservation -- and to economic and social values - will all be important outputs of the future state forest management plan we must achieve," State Forester Doug Decker said in a statement.

Jim Geisinger of Associated Oregon Loggers said the forests in Oregon's northwest corner are highly productive, and should be managed more intensively for timber than national forests.

"There is absolutely no reason they shouldn't be turning a substantial profit for the state and in turn for the counties," he said. "They need to be selling more timber -- recognizing their growth potential-- and be more efficient about selling those timber sales."

Bob Van Dyk of the Wild Salmon Center said the financial structure, where the Department of Forestry is directly funded by the sale of timber, gives the state an incentive to cut trees rather than protect fish and wildlife habitat.

"It remains to be seen whether such a solution is out there," where state forests can produce more logs and more habitat, he said. "We think the governor is going to need to come to the table with assistance to diversity revenue sources to diminish the incentive to just cut more to pay the bills."

State forests look for financial answers

State forests look for financial answers

By Mark Hester, The Oregonian 
on February 21, 2013 at 12:13 PM, updated February 21, 2013 at 4:55 PM

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State Forester Doug Decker and Oregon Board of Forestry Chair Tom Imeson met with The Oregonian editorial board today to discuss issues facing state forests.

Decker and Imeson discussed the Department of Forestry's role in three areas: management of state forests, fire protection for forestlands

View full sizeTom Imeson is chair of the Oregon Board of Forestry.Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian 

and advocacy for Oregon in federal forest policy. But much of the discussion revolved around a common theme: money.

In short, Imeson and Decker said, the department needs to change its management approach to be economically viable. At the least, that means looking for new management strategies. At the most, and in the longer term, it could mean finding ways to "monetize" forest assets other than wood. One example would be trading carbon credits or other credits tied to the environment.

One possible change in management would be to zone forests for different uses -- wood, conservation or recreation, for example. 

Currently forest managers try to balance competing interest while managing the forest as a whole.

"We get push from both sides," Decker said. "We're looking for a scientifically based forest-management style that is economically viable," and achieves other desired outcomes, such as conservation.

The department is backing House Bill 2050 to shore up funding for fire protection in forests. The bill, among other ways, would change how financial responsibility for fire fighting is spread among the general fund, landowners and insurance.

U.S. Supreme Court may punt on Oregon logging road pollution case

U.S. Supreme Court may punt on Oregon logging road pollution case

By Scott Learn, The Oregonian 
on December 03, 2012 at 5:43 PM, updated December 03, 2012 at 9:31 PM

Ross William Hamilton, The Oregonian

The U.S. Supreme Court may decide to punt on an Oregon logging road pollution case that has already bounced through the federal courts since 2006, justices indicated today, a move that could spawn years of additional litigation. 
The justices' comments came after the Environmental Protection Agency issued a new rule Friday clarifying that polluted run-off from logging roads shouldn't be treated like "point source" run-off from factories and feedlots under the Clean Water Act. 

EPA's new rule was intended to be timber-industry friendly, directly contradicting a 2010 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the Supreme Court had decided to review. 

Instead, the change could end up prompting the court to decline to judge the case, leaving the 9th Circuit's decision in place for now or prompting a second round of lawsuits over the new rule. 

EPA's 11th-hour rule change "surprised" the justices, Chief Justice John Roberts said. Instead of discussing the substance of the case during oral arguments today, the justices focused on whether or not they should even consider it. 

Timber industry officials nationwide are hoping for a clear win in the Supreme Court. The underlying lawsuit says EPA is incorrectly interpreting the text of the Clean Water Act, as passed by Congress, so an EPA rule change may not resolve the legal issue. 

The 9th Circuit concluded that the text of the Clean Water Act indicates that loggers in western states, even on private lands, need stormwater permits for active logging roads that drain to streams through pipes, ditches and culverts. 

Timber groups say permits would stall logging, create regulatory chaos and foment a spate of lawsuits from environmental groups. State laws, including Oregon's Forest Practices Act, already require best management practices for logging roads, they note. 

The Portland-based Northwest Environmental Defense Center, which brought the original lawsuit in 2006, says permits would prompt better tracking of pollution and more road improvements. Sediment runoff from logging roads can harm salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act and other fish. 

Attorney Timothy Bishop, speaking for the timber industry and the state of Oregon, spent most of his time Monday arguing that the court should still review the case. 

"What we would like to do is to get sorted out once and for all here an argument that otherwise would drag through the courts for the next five or six years," he said, according to the court's transcript. 

Jeffrey Fisher, representing NEDC, said the justices should dismiss the case, deferring it to lower courts to study the issues raised by the new rule. 

The Supreme Court may signal soon how it intends to proceed. If it decides to consider the case, a decision might come by next spring. 

Meantime, Congress could prevent future lawsuits by amending the Clean Water Act to make it clear that logging roads don't require permits. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, has been among those favoring that approach. 

-- Scott Learn; Twitter: @slearn1 

Kitzhaber wants Oregon forests to be model for region

Majority of state's timber being shipped overseas

From Salem Statesman Journal

Written by

Jeff Barnard

AP Environmental Writer

By Jeff Barnard

Gov. John Kitzhaber on Thursday called on the state Board of Forestry to take a new approach to managing state forests that will make them a model for resolving regional conflicts that have pitted logging against fish and wildlife habitat in the Northwest for more than 30 years.


Speaking to the board at its regular meeting in Forest Grove, Kitzhaber said since national forests in Oregon cut logging 90 percent to protect old-growth forest habitat for salmon and northern spotted owls, the bulk of the timber now comes off private lands. Too many of those logs are being shipped to China rather than sustaining jobs in Oregon mills, he said.


"This amounts to nothing more than exporting our natural capital and our jobs," Kitzhaber said. "We are at risk of becoming a timber colony for Asia, while undermining our mill infrastructure and their surrounding communities."



The governor's speech comes as his office and Oregon's congressional delegation are struggling to save rural timber counties from going broke when a federal safety net expires at the end of this year. The Secure Rural Schools Act has made up for the big drop in federal revenue sharing based on logging.


In the past four years, West Coast log exports from private lands have gone from $42 million to $500 million, Kitzhaber said. Meanwhile, federal forests, which amount to 59 percent of Oregon's land mass, produce just 12 percent of the timber. State forests produce 10 percent of the timber from 3 percent of the land. And private forests produce 75 percent of the timber from 19 percent of the land.


Legislative efforts to increase logging have just eroded trust on all sides, he added.
To make Oregon a model for resolving these issues, Kitzhaber said the state will have to work closely with agencies managing federal and private forests.


He suggested the board adopt strict performance standards to measure the success of forest policies and re-examine the longstanding model that produces timber by cutting forests in a way to encourage structures similar to old growth, rather than for maximum timber yield.

He also encouraged the board to act more aggressively to protect fish and wildlife habitat, particularly along salmon streams and on hillsides vulnerable to landslides, which will create conservation jobs and give everyone a better idea about what to expect from state forests.

Kitzhaber told the board to take a new look at its business model, taking into account the economic problems faced by timber counties, where plummeting federal timber revenues have left them struggling to survive.


Oregon Board of Forestry Chairman John Blackwell said he liked the fact the governor was giving them permission to be more aggressive protecting fish and wildlife habitat.


Ray Wilkeson of the Oregon Forest Industries Council, a timber industry group, said he was encouraged by the governor's recognition that management on public forest lands, state and federal, is not working and needs changing.


Josh Laughlin of Cascadia Wildlands project, a conservation group, said the speech did not follow with the governor's recent vote to approve a 40 percent increase in clear-cut logging on the Elliott State Forest.

Gov. John Kitzhaber says forest policies must balance health of habitat and rural communities

By Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian  

FOREST GROVE -- Gov. John Kitzhaber called on the state Board of Forestry Thursday to step back from the "politically driven seesaw management" of the state's timberland and adopt a balanced approach that can be extended to the much larger federal forests as well.

Kitzhaber, in a rare appearance by a governor before the board, said current management practices put state, federal and private forests in isolated silos, when they should be viewed as an interconnected landscape.

"We are mired in ongoing conflict -- timber sale by timber sale, forest by forest -- rather than engaging in a holistic strategy" that balances environmental, economic and community values, the governor said.

The result is unhealthy forests and damaged rural communities, the governor said. The 18 million acres of federal forests, which make up nearly 60 percent of the forestland in Oregon, are choked with unmanaged stands of young fir and pine and produce only 12 percent of the annual timber harvest.

That puts harvest pressure on the relatively tiny state forests, which make up only 3 percent of the forestland base but produce 10 percent of the timber. Meanwhile, private forests make up 19 percent of the land base and produce 75 percent of the timber.

Much of the private timber, however, is exported overseas. West Coast log exporters are on pace to ship $900 million worth of logs this year, compared to $42 million four years ago, the governor said.

Kitzhaber said excessive log exports undermine Oregon's mill infrastructure, hurt communities and put more harvest pressure on the public forests.

"This amounts to nothing more than exporting our natural capital and our jobs," he said. "We are at risk of becoming a timber colony for Asia."

Kitzhaber challenged the board to make several management changes. Among them, he said the board should establish conservation zones in state forests, and likewise define the amount and location of land that will be used for timber production.

He said the state should move away from "structure based" management and should not let harvest revenue targets drive forest management. Timber harvest revenue from state forests supports counties and school districts.

A "land allocation" management approach with both timber production and conservation emphasis would provide stability and certainty for everyone concerned, he said.

To manage Oregon's forests as a joined landscape, the board will increasingly have to work closely with federal and private forest managers, Kitzhaber said. The governor said increased management -- thinning and other logging -- is required to restore the health of federal forests.

Groups at both ends of the state's long-running forest arguments found things to like among the governor's ideas.

The Sierra Club, Wild Salmon Center and Association of Northwest Steelheaders issued a joint statement applauding the idea of establishing conservation areas.

Ray Wilkeson, president of the Oregon Forest Industries Council, said Kitzhaber's ideas are worth a try both on state and federal land.

"If anybody can do it, it would be him," Wilkeson said of Kitzhaber.

In other business Thursday, the board voted 4-2 to approve a management plan for the Elliott State Forest near Coos Bay.

Under the plan, the Elliott's annual timber harvest will increase to 40 million board feet, compared to 25 million board feet under a plan implemented in 1995. The new plan increases the targeted annual harvest to 1,100 acres with up to 850 acres to be clear-cut. The previous plan logged 1,000 acres annually, half by clear-cutting. The new plan will produce annual net revenue of up to $13 million, compared to about $8 million currently.

Board members John Blackwell, Cal Mukumoto, Jennifer Phillippi and Gary Springer voted in favor of the plan. Peter Hayes and Sybil Ackerman opposed it

More than 90 percent of the 93,000-acre Elliott consists of Common School Fund lands under jurisdiction of the State Land Board, made up of Kitzhaber, state Treasurer Ted Wheeler and Secretary of State Kate Brown. The land board unanimously approved the plan Oct. 11.

--Eric Mortenson

New State Forester

Oregon's Board of Forestry selected Doug Decker as State Forester.