Hope for the timber industry in unlikely partner

Oregon Wild Old-Growth Campaign Coordinator Chandra LeGue describes a hopeful forest management future.

As recent news articles have reported, the timber industry is going through tough times.

Like many industries, the logging business has to deal with market fluctuations, technological changes, and government regulations. These changes can impact the size of the workforce and the bottom line. Also like other businesses, logging companies have been forced to respond to shifting societal expectations brought on by past overexploitation. Think whaling in New England.

The timber industry has not always responded well to changes in public demands. The demise of the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) is a case in point.

Though the vast majority of Oregonians want to see old-growth forests protected, this plan - the result of a sue-and-settle deal with the Bush administration - would have cast aside the scientifically-based protections of the Northwest Forest Plan and dramatically increased logging of old-growth forests. The WOPR's faulty science and legal flaws led Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to recently pull the plug on the misguided attempt to log 100,000 acres of our few remaining ancient forests.

So, now what? Unfortunately, the demise of WOPR and the recent court ruling upholding the 2001 Roadless Rule does not mean our remaining old forests are "out of the woods."

The Interior Secretary made it clear that he wants to see some timber sales move forward to provide wood products and jobs in the short term. Some of these projects in the Salem and Eugene BLM Districts are the type of management conservation groups generally support - thinning in young plantations. But others, in the Roseburg BLM District, would allow clear-cuts in healthy, mature forests. To clean house and move on, projects like these need to be tossed in the dustbin of history.

Today, each mill owner and logging operator has a choice: blame environmentalists for their woes or get to work finding the common ground that will keep their business running. Groups like Oregon Wild are actively seeking solutions through collaborations with forest managers and community stakeholders that can help keep a sustainable industry afloat in western Oregon and save the few remaining mills on the eastside.

If the timber interests and management agencies are willing to let go of outmoded plans like the WOPR, and instead commit to a future of economically sustainable restoration forestry, we want to be there to help them.

While much attention is paid to the state's abundant westside forests, a holistic solution can not neglect the forests east of the Cascades, where more than a century of intensive grazing, fire suppression, and industrial logging have left landscapes in desperate need of restoration. Here, as in western Oregon, we need to move towards activities that will make our forests healthier, the protections that will ensure our ancient forest legacy, and the restoration economy that will keep communities working with certainty even in tough economic times.

To forge ahead, Oregonians need assurance that our few remaining mature and old-growth forests and roadless wildlands will remain standing as the natural heritage we pass on to future generations. These public forests provide us with clean water, our best recreation locations, fish and wildlife habitat, carbon storage, and Oregon's legendary scenic beauty. Only by protecting these values can a real solution, one that both conservationists and the timber industry can agree on, be implemented.

Chandra LeGue is the Old-growth Campaign Coordinator for Oregon Wild, based in Eugene. She can be reached at cl@oregonwild.org.