SALEM – Tuesday morning Senator Ron Wyden unveiled his proposal for the Oregon and California Land in Governor John Kitzhaber’s office surrounded by industry and environmental advocates.
Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association Executive Director Liz Hamilton was in attendance and said she was encouraged by the new plan because of the certainty it would give those in the timber and sportfishing industries.
Wyden’s bill, called The Oregon and California Land Grant Act of 2013, seeks to improve the management of O&C Lands and boost timber harvests while upholding environmental laws. Wyden said the bill that takes a science-first approach to managing 2.1 million acres of federal land, streamline environmental review of timber sales and protect old growth trees, clean water, fish and endangered species.
“NSIA cares about the uses of O&C lands because of access for our customers to fish and hunt, and because many O&C lands sustain critical salmon and steelhead bearing streams,” Hamilton said after the event. “The art of compromise is making sure that all interests are respected, not that all interests are necessarily delighted. We applaud Senator Wyden for his ability to find a true compromise, to strike the right balance between the parties. Some of our friends in the conservation community will not support this plan because of the increase over current levels of logging in Oregon and will say that this compromise does not provide enough protections to sensitive habitats. However, in spite of increased logging, increased certainty and increased revenues to counties, some of our friends in the timber industry will want even more.”
Hamilton said the NSIA supports a management plans of O&C lands that protects the jobs sustained by public access to fish, hunt, hike and camp on public lands managed for sustaining abundant fish and wildlife. We will also support a plan that puts our jobs in outdoor recreation on equal footing with Oregon’s timber jobs.
“Senator Wyden has worked hard to protect these jobs, while getting our forests working again for all of us,” Hamilton said. “We believe it’s a big step forward for all of us who rely on Oregon’s forested O&C lands.”
Wyden’s legislation, called The Oregon and California Land Grant Act of 2013, amends the original Oregon and California Lands Act passed in 1937. Compared to the last ten years it would roughly double timber harvests on O&C lands for decades to come. At the same time, the bill would permanently protect old growth trees, ensure habitat for sensitive species, and put in place strong safeguards for drinking water and fisheries.
“This new foundation will more than double our timber harvest across 18 timber counties and ensure that harvest continues for years to come. It uses the best available science to mimic natural processes and create healthier, more diverse forests,” Wyden said. “My philosophy is that forest policy should be dictated by science, not lawyers.”
“This approach will create a sturdier economic foundation for the O&C counties, centered on new middle class jobs for choker setters and crew bosses working in the woods, jobs for millwrights, sawyers and sawfilers, turning logs into lumber for new homes, and it means jobs throughout rural communities for outfitters and guides, for new lodges and diners, and the plumbers and hardware stores, teachers and deputies who support a strong local economy,” Wyden said.
“I would like to thank Chairman Wyden for his strong leadership on one of the most intractable natural resource issues in the state — management of the Oregon and Californ
ia lands,” Governor John Kitzhaber said. “It would be easy to shy away from tackling an issue of this kind, but fortunately we have a senator who will take a stand.”
The legislation requires the Secretary of the Interior to provide a sustained yield of timber in forestry emphasis areas, using ecological forestry practices. Wyden’s proposal, while taking the most controversial harvests off the table, ensures that old growth stands in moist forests currently over 120 years old and trees over 150 years old across the O&C landscape cannot be harvested.
- While keeping the O&C lands under the protection of federal environmental laws, the bill proposes streamlining the environmental review of timber sales by:
- Improving timelines for environmental and judicial reviews;
- Eliminating the individual environmental impact statements for each timber sale and replacing them with two large-scale environmental impact statements – one each for dry and moist forests – covering 10 years of timber sales;
- Requiring better coordination between federal agencies during environmental reviews; and
- Requiring upfront studies of areas to prioritize treatments.
The bill would also permanently protect nearly a million acres of conservation areas that would be managed for the benefit of old growth trees, native wildlife, recreation and tourism. In the conservation areas, road building would be limited and mining prohibited. Timber harvests would be limited to improving habitat and forest health.
Finally, the bill provides new ways to consolidate land ownership and reduce the checkerboard of public and private lands across Western Oregon.
Senator Wyden will introduce companion legislation to this bill that will extend long term funding to the counties which currently receive PILT, SRS, and similar payments, ensuring that communities who produce energy, minerals and timber and other resources that benefit the entire country are fairly compensated for the local impacts of that work. The federal government owes these communities, and other resource producing communities too much to allow county payments to end, he said.