Enviro group wants county out of land use association

Group argues Lane County can spend money better than to support old-growth logging advocacy.

Environmentalists are turning up the pressure on Lane County to pull its longtime membership in the Association of O&C Counties, calling the group a radical, pro-timber lobby that uses taxpayer dollars to promote clear-cutting of forests.

The association said it has soundly represented county interests on federal timberland in Western Oregon for 80 years. But the county Board of Commissioners chairman is highly critical and said the county’s fiscal challenges have put membership back at the forefront of debate.

The association, named for the Oregon and California Railroad that once owned the 5 million acres of timberland, represents counties with a stake in the management of the lands, which are now controlled by the federal Bureau of Land Management.

Oregon Wild, a Portland-based environmental group, said the association has long used dues paid by Lane and other counties to take “extreme” positions, such as clear-cutting near streams and supporting sweeping sales of public land for timber harvest.

Oregon Wild criticized the association for proposing in 2006 to sell 1.2 million acres that Oregon Wild said needed to be preserved to protect drinking water in Eugene. The association also embraced the bureau’s controversial plan for increased logging, called the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, the environmental group said.

Doug Heiken, a conservation coordinator with Oregon Wild, said the county board can “turn over a new leaf” by breaking from the association, which receives $37,000 in annual dues from the county.

He has a friend in Pete Sorenson, chairman of the county board, who said he hasbeen critical of the association for years and supports eliminating the county’s membership.

The association’s pro- timber positions complicated the county’s recent efforts to win congressional reauthorization of federal payments that historically were provided in lieu of timber sales, Sorenson said.

The county budget committee — which consists of the five commissioners and five citizen members — has received more correspondence on the issue than on almost any other topic, Sorenson said.

“I think the budget committee is going to take a hard look at it,” he said. “We have some very serious fiscal problems.”

Doug Robertson, a Douglas County commissioner and the association president, said Lane County’s withdrawal would remove one of the area’s strongest advocates for the federal payments — at a time when the county’s financial situation is precarious.

“We have done as much or more than anyone in support of (federal timber payments),” Robertson said. “They would lose their identity with that effort, which seems very counterproductive.”

He rejected the charge that the association’s positions complicate efforts for renewal of the timber payments.

The association agreed with lawmakers who thought a higher but sustainable harvest was the answer to the counties’ problems, Robertson said. But the group did point out that the federal government’s lockup of forest land made the payments critical, he added.

Nor is the association “pro-timber,” Robertson said — his group’s support of the BLM plan was opposite that of the timber industry, which sued over the proposal.

The association’s proposal to sell 1.2 million acres also included placing another 1.2 million acres of the most sensitive, “oldest of the old growth” forest in a permanent reserve, Robertson said.

“Many in the environmental community are very interested in that,” he said.