Sporting groups criticize BLM management plan

Hunters and anglers let the BLM know that increased clear-cut logging will be bad for fish and wildlife.

The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees 2.6 million acres of public lands in Western Oregon, or about 10 percent of all lands west of the Cascades.

These public lands have long been crucial to hunters and fishermen because — unlike privately held timberlands — they are almost always open to public access.

Now, proposed changes in the management plan for BLM lands in Western Oregon pose “a threat to the state’s legacy of hunting and fishing,” according to a coalition of eight hunting, fishing and conservation organizations.

The coalition last week issued a report highly critical of the BLM’s so-called Western Oregon Plan Revision (WORP).

Issuing the joint statement were Trout Unlimited, the Oregon Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, the Oregon Division of the Izaak Walton League of America, the Oregon Council Federation of Fly Fishers, the Northwest Steelheaders, the Berkley Conservation Institute and the Native Fish Society.

Their report urges hunters and anglers to submit written comments on the WORP proposal before the Friday deadline.

The BLM has been working on a new Western Oregon management plan since 2005. Its draft environmental impact statement analyzes three possible courses of action, plus a “no-change” alternative.

The BLM’s “preferred alternative” would allow more-intensive use of federal lands west of the Cascades — including more clear-cut logging, the building of 1,000 miles of new roads, and creation of additional all-terrain vehicle (ATV) play areas.

The new roads would open up areas “traditionally valuable for hike-in hunting and secure habitat,” the coalition said, adding that it makes no sense to build more roads when the government cannot even afford to maintain its existing routes.

The BLM says new “management objectives, management actions and land-use allocations” are needed to bring the agency into compliance with various federal laws.

Timber harvests, for example, have been well below the sustained yield level required by the O&C Act, the agency says in its statement of need for the new plan. The agency also said WORP will allow it to better mesh its management with requirements of the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Federal Land Management Act.

Former Oregon & California Railroad Grant lands reclaimed by the government — totaling about 2.2 million acres in a checkerboard pattern — account for most of BLM’s land in Western Oregon. Put together, they would equal Yellowstone National Park in size.

The sportsmen’s coalition report says those BLM-managed lands include “watersheds critical for salmon, steelhead and trout as well as forests that are habitat for Oregon’s prized big-game species such as Roosevelt elk, blacktail deer and black bear.”

Coalition members take particular issue with a WORP proposal that would reduce the “no logging” buffer along fish-bearing streams by more than half, allowing cutting within 25 feet of stream banks. That provision alone would free up about 200,000 acres for harvest, according to the coalition.

“The plan has the potential to trigger big problems for some of Oregon’s most famous fishing rivers — the Rogue, the Umpqua and the Siuslaw,” the report said.

“Other affected watersheds include the Applegate, Coquille, Smith, Nestucca, Sandy and North Santiam.”

The existing streamside logging buffer is “helping to lead recovery of damaged rivers and tributaries,” the report said. “There is no reason to go backwards.

“Trout and salmon need clean, cold water to spawn and survive. In watersheds under BLM jurisdiction and management, more than 700 miles of streams fail to meet standards of the Clean Water Act. On 500 of those miles, the biggest problem is water temperature. Reducing streamside buffers could further damage our streams and fisheries by increasing water temperatures.”

The report also disagrees with the BLM’s proposal to reduce “Late Successional Reserves,” or old-growth forests, by more than 40 percent. Such a move would be harmful to big-game species that “count on mature forests for a certain degree of security, cover and winter forage,” the report said. The coalition statement urges the BLM to “go back to the drawing board, and make wildlife habitat and fisheries a higher priority.”

“For most Oregon hunters and anglers, our public land is the only hunting and fishing estate we will ever own,” said Mike Beagle of Eagle Point, a sportsman quoted in the report. “The Bureau of Land Management proposal lacks the balance needed to support Oregon’s priceless outdoor heritage.”

Public forest management is a complex and controversial issue, but one that has a significant impact on the 750,000 Oregonians who hunt and fish every year.

To learn more about the BLM’s Western Oregon Revision Plan, log on to: www.blm.gov/or/plans/wopr/index.php. A copy of the sportsmen’s coalition report is available at: www.tu.org.

Meanwhile, the comment deadline approaches on another environmental assessment of interest to recreationalists. A 30-day comment period on the Willamette National Forest’s Santiam Pass Summer Motorized Recreation Project ends next week.

The EA, which can be viewed at www.fs.fed.us/r6/willamette, examines three action alternatives that would designate roads, trails, and other areas for motorized recreation vehicle use within a 13,850-acre parcel in the Old Santiam Wagon Road area south of Highway 126.