Outcry for Old Growth

Local residents tour ancient forests outside Corvallis that are threatened by BLM WOPR.

A motley crew of hikers hailing from Corvallis, Monroe, Alsea and Eugene came together for a hike near Alsea Falls on Sunday to see forestland with its future in question. At times conversation was brisk as forest management strategies were discussed while crunching along gravel back roads past Pacific Yew, Alder and giant Rhododendron. At other times, the atmosphere was more reverent, as the group ventured off-road into the company of giant Douglas firs that they measured in five or more armspans.

The hike was organized by members of Oregon Wild and the Coast Range Association who are trying to raise awareness about areas that might be re-designated under the Bureau of Land Management’s pending Western Oregon Plan Revision.

The WOPR provides analysis of three new management alternatives for BLM forests against the existing management of the Northwest Forest Plan. Key differences in the alternatives include the width of riparian reserves, clearcutting practices, the possibility of post-fire logging and management of threatened species such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

Two of the alternatives would create new land-use allocations called “Timber Management Areas.”

Alternative 2, the plan preferred by the BLM, proposes to intensely manage mature and old-growth forests using clearcuts. Alternative 1 is along the same lines, but calls for less clear-cutting. A third alternative, dubbed “No Change” would maintain the current plan which includes the least amount of clear-cutting and an emphasis on thinning as a management strategy.

According to hike organizer Rana Foster, Alternative 2 could call for a 700 percent increase in the clear-cutting of ancient forests, a possibility that does not sit well with environmental groups.

The plan revision will affect six western Oregon BLM districts and 17 counties, including Benton County, which falls into the Salem District.

The WOPR arose from a recent settlement agreement between the Bush Administration and a timber industry group that brought a lawsuit alleging that the 1937 Oregon and California Act, which makes timber harvest a priority, had not been appropriately considered in the Northwest Forest Plan’s management direction.

Because of the enormity of the revision process and the numerous details of the proposed alternatives, the BLM took the extra step of setting up a special Web site to provide information about the proposed revisions and allow citizens to submit comments. The site allows users to be as specific as clicking on a specific stand of forest for comment.

The BLM is also accepting comments received via e-mail or letters addressed to the agency.

“We’ve received hundreds of comments through the Web site at this point,” said the BLM’s Public Involvement Coordinator Alan Hoffmeister.

Although the initial comment period for the plan began in August and closed in November, the comment period has been extended twice to give people more time to review the cumbersome 1,600-plus pages of documents. The new deadline for public comment is Jan. 11.

Besides environmental and recreational activists such as Sunday’s hikers, Hoffmeister sees the main stakeholders in the issue to be state and federal agencies and the 17 western Oregon counties that have historically received timber money through the county payments system. Those payments, which were mandated under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 to provide transitional assistance to historically timber-based economies expired in 2006, but were extended through this year as a stop-gap measure.

Of the alternatives proposed by the WOPR, alternatives 1 and 2 are geared to restore some of the timber revenue lost by counties. Benton County, however, is not included in the list of counties that have requested revenue from the WOPR.

According to Hoffmeister, the BLM gets a lot of heat from environmental groups for any plan that could include the cutting of old-growth forests, but the agency is bound by its mandates to find a balance between the Oregon and California Act of 1937 which requires them to manage for timber harvest revenues and the Environmental Species Act and Clean Water Act of the 1970s that are meant to protect critical species and habitat.

“Our statutory responsibility is to maintain timber harvest for communities,” said Hoffmeister.

However, there is room for compromise, according to Hoffmeister. Although the BLM initially supported Alternative 2, based on citizen comments and some further analysis by the BLM of the impacts on marbled murrelet and spotted owl, Hoffmeister feels that the BLM might revise their recommendation before the process is through.

“I think there will be a significant change when we come to our proposed action,” said Hoffmeister.

He encourages citizens to continue to comment on the plan.

“We want to hear ideas, that’s the dialogue we want to have,” he said.

Doug Heiken, the Conservation and Restoration Coordinator of Oregon Wild attended Sunday’s hike in the Alsea Falls area. He doubts some of the BLM’s key arguments, specifically the link between the amount of proposed timber harvests and future county payments. He is in the process of writing his own analysis of the WOPR’s alternatives that he plans to submit to the BLM.

In the meantime, the group who organized Sunday’s hike will continue to lead hikes up to old-growth trees within the proposed timber management areas. They strongly believe that some elements of the old-growth environment, once cut, cannot be recreated on a human time scale. They want to show as many people as possible what these towering giants are like, up close and personal, while there is still time left to make a difference in their future.

Some like Reed Wilson of Corvallis, have been out every weekend going on eight weeks already. “Forests like these are why I moved to Oregon,” he said.

Nancy Raskauskas can be reached at nancy.raskauskas@lee.net or 758-9542.

SEE THE TREES

The organizers of Sunday’s hike plan to continue bringing groups up to see old-growth in the Alsea area. Hikes are generally on Sundays and meet at 10:30 a.m. at the Alpine Community Center. Information: Contact Reed at 541-754-3254 or unclereedy@hotmail.com.

BLM COMMENTS

The Bureau of Land Management has extended the citizen comment period for the proposed Western Oregon Plan Revisions for Coast Range Forests to Jan. 11. For information on the plan or to submit a comment see www.daylightdecisions.com/wopro/.