Logging plan faces additional delay

Governor's actions throw Bush clear-cutting plan into doubt. Remains to be seen how the BLM will respond.

The Bureau of Land Management’s goal of finalizing a new logging plan on its Western Oregon forests by the end of the year may have just slipped away.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s objections to the current version of the Western Oregon Plan Revision, and 200 protests by others, will most likely trigger bureaucratic delays that push implementation of the plan several weeks into 2009.

The BLM is reviewing the issues raised by Kulongoski to determine whether they’ve already been adequately addressed in the proposed management plan, agency spokesman Michael Campbell said.

Current logging on BLM’s Western Oregon lands recently has averaged 135 million board feet a year, just about half of what’s allowed to be harvested under the Northwest Forest Plan.

The BLM proposal would increase the harvest to 588 million board feet, quadrupling the harvest and doubling the amount permitted under the old plan.

The governor supports the amount of logging the BLM proposes but objects to its methodology. He wants the agency to consult with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service on the broad proposal rather than wait for specific logging projects to discuss impacts to species at risk of extinction.

The governor also called for consultation with local communities in advance of logging in order to better monitor impacts on drinking water quality and fish habitat.

And he wants assurance that forests will be managed to take advantage of their mitigating effects on climate change.

“We’re looking at the questions the governor raised. Some are easy to address. Some will not be so easy to address and will take additional time,” Campbell said.

The settlement agreement reached between the timber industry and the BLM that led to the new plan requires that it be completed by the end of this year.

Among the options available to the BLM is to go back to the judge in the case and ask for an extension.

However, the goal remains to meet the Dec. 31 deadline, Campbell said.

Environmental groups hailed the governor’s decision to send the plan back to the drawing board, while the timber industry blasted him for holding up a proposal that will mean additional jobs and more money for financially struggling counties.

“We agree it’s best for the next administration to figure out how to manage these forests,” said Doug Heiken, environmental director for Oregon Wild.

The governor’s assessment that a half-billion board feet can be harvested sustainably from BLM lands while still protecting at-risk species and keeping water clean is misguided, Heiken said.

The 268 million board feet allowed under the Northwest Forest Plan is a more workable amount, he said.

But the American Forest Resources Council believes the BLM, which spent five years crafting the proposal, successfully balanced environmental protections against its mandate for providing timber revenue to the counties where the forests are located, said Tom Parton, president of the industry trade group.

While it will take a couple of years to ramp up logging to the proposed level, the additional board feet of timber would allow Oregon mills to be more competitive, Parton said.

Currently, Oregon mills import some of their logs from California and Washington. Acquiring them closer to home would cut down on transportation costs significantly, Parton said.

“We’re very disappointed that the governor would look at this and not support it in the light of where we are economically,” Parton said.

The BLM could respond to the governor’s request by implementing some or all of his suggestions, or outright rejecting them all.

If his suggestions are rejected, he has a 30-day window to appeal the decision. If some of them are implemented, it would trigger another public comment period.