Kulongoski tries again to fill seats on state Forestry Board

Two years after his last nomination to the Forestry Board went up in flames, Gov. Ted Kulongoski has named two new nominees and reappointed two incumbents.

Two years after his last nomination to the Forestry Board went up in flames, Gov. Ted Kulongoski has named two new nominees and reappointed two incumbents.

The Forestry Board appointments were among dozens announced by the governor's office Tuesday to fill 37 state boards and councils, including his former chief of staff Peter Bragdon to the Port of Portland Board of Commissioners.

The Oregon Senate will vote to confirm the appointments when it meets Sept. 13. Typically the Senate approves the governor's choices to state board positions, which are largely unpaid.

But that wasn't the case in 2005, when the governor named former congressman Les AuCoin, a Democrat who served in the U.S. House from 1975 to 1993. Republicans, the timber industry, rural Democrats and some conservationists bitterly opposed AuCoin's nomination.

As the debate wore on, the AuCoin nomination also created an angry rift between Senate Democrats and the governor. AuCoin withdrew from consideration, and the governor has waited to put forward other nominees.

This time, conservationists say they won't block the governor's choices. But some representing the timber industry and counties dependent on dollars generated by timber harvests said Tuesday that they may put up a political fight.

Kulongoski has reappointed Larry Giustina, managing partner of Giustina Land and Timber Co., and Bill Hutchison, a Portland lawyer.

The new members would be Peter Hayes, president of a firm that manages family-owned forest lands, and Cal Mukumoto, biomass product manager for Warm Springs Forest Products.

"It's long overdue," Ivan Maluski, conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club's Oregon Chapter, said Tuesday.

The Forestry Board determines the rules that govern timber harvests and land conservation on state and private forests, which amount to about half of the forestlands in Oregon. Pressed by cash-strapped counties in need of timber revenue, the board recently reopened the question of whether to increase logging in the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests.

"These are the people who will decide what the forest management plan looks like," said Sybil Ackerman of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. "We really want this board to move beyond having a timber production focus."

But representatives of the timber industry and county governments say now is not the time to make radical changes to the board.

"This board has spent an inordinate amount of time grappling with the very complex issues. . . To replace two of the board members at this time will just upset the whole process," said Tim Josi, a Tillamook County commissioner who heads the Council of Forest Trust Land Counties.

The governor will have an additional chance to remake the Forestry Board when the three remaining members' terms expire in January.

Michelle Cole: 503-294-5143; michellecole@news.oregonian.com