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Forests:
Department of Forestry Budget - logging increases

Our Position: oppose
Bill Number: 5612
Sponsor:
Legislative Session: 2005

Status

More information

Please contact Ivan Maluski, Oregon Chapter Sierra Club

503-238-0442, x304

ivan.maluski@sierraclub.org

Background

The state Senate and House have passed notes in the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) budget suggesting the agency cut more timber from state lands than what even the ODF believes is sustainalbe. The Sierra Club and other conservation groups are asking that these budget notes be removed. The message these notes send to ODF ignores new scientific evidence that indicates that the proposed and annual current level of timber sales (223 million board feet (mbf) to 250 mbf) cannot be sustained without sacrificing wildlife habitat. Further, if ODF reaches the 250 million board feet logging level requested by the legislature, it will amount to a 67% increase in logging on state lands from 2003 alone. This sort of boom-bust, unsustainable logging is not only bad for the environment, its bad for communities and rural economies in the long term.

Preliminary results from a recent ODF study shows that current annual logging levels (223 mbf) are 30% more than forests can sustain if they are to protect salmon and other wildlife. The initial results of ODF's study suggest that the forests could possibly sustain logging of 163 million to 189 million of board feet per year, depending on whether the priority is revenue or habitat.

The Sierra Club feels that logging on state forest lands should not harm or degrade wildlife habitat, clean water, recreation and other long-term non-timber values.The two budget notes listed below should be removed.

1. Package #231 regarding state forests: Approves ODF request for 21.98 full time employees as limited duration positions but rejects permanent status for these positions unless "agency can show that the harvest levels will be sustained at the current levels of 250 mbf or more,..." This is a not-so-subtle requirement from the legislature that unsustainable logging levels must be met if the ODF is to get funding for the employees it has asked for in the next biennium.

2. Budget note B in part says: "Timber Harvest Levels: In recognition of the short and long term concerns of the counties and the legislature about harvest levels on State Forests, and in conjunction with the State Land Board, the Department of Forestry will make every effort to produce Annual Operations Plans that produce harvest levels that sustain current volumes for the Elliott, Clatsop, and Tillamook State Forests." However, current logging volumes are clearly unsustainable even by the ODF's standards.

It has been widely reported in the media that ODF budget note from 2003 drove logging to unsustainable levels this year. During this next budget period, logging levels need to be reduced to sustain and protect future logging and revenue flows while protecting wildlife.

The Eugene Register-Guard editorialized on May 24, 2005 that ODF must keep faith with the voters and make certain that the state's forests are managed in a manner that ensures they will continue to provide timber, clean water, wildlife habitat and recreation to all Oregonians in the decades and centuries to come.

State forests belong to all Oregonians and they are supposed to be managed for the 'Greatest Permanent Value' for the long term, including recreation, fish and wildlife, timber and clean water - not rapid, unsustainable timber extraction for short term revenue production.