DeFazio defends forest thinning proposal

By John Sowell
Roseburg News-Review
March 20, 2008

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio defended his forest thinning plan Wednesday, following criticism from Douglas County commissioners.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio defended his forest thinning plan Wednesday, following criticism from Douglas County commissioners.

During their weekly meeting, the commissioners objected to the plan’s inclusion of the Oregon & California Railroad lands for thinning and other management activities. They said limits placed on harvests would violate provisions of the O&C Act of 1937, which provided that the O&C forests would be used for sustained yield timber production.

Under the plan, thinning would increase in overstocked forest plantations and fire-suppressed lands, while protecting old growth. It would cover national forests and federal Bureau of Land Management forests in Oregon, Washington and parts of Northern California.

“There is no distinction between the O&C lands and the federal forest lands,” Commissioner Doug Robertson said following the meeting. “Our request, given the fact that we have gone through an exhaustive planning process with the BLM, with the Environmental Protection Agency, with NOAH Fisheries, with U.S. Fish and Wildlife on new management plans for those six districts, (is) that Peter eliminate the O&C lands from his proposal.”

Robertson said he was hopeful that the Western Oregon Plan Revisions being developed by the BLM will provide better management of those lands.

“It’s being revised and, I think, in a way that’s going to be much more attractive to him and others who have had concerns,” Robertson said.

DeFazio’s plan would limit logging in “mature forests,” Robertson said, but that’s a term that’s hard to define.

“A mature forest may be something that’s between 60 and 80 years old,” Robertson said. “Well, does a mature forest mean you can’t manage it? What does that mean?”

DeFazio spent the day in Roseburg, speaking to students at Roseburg High School and at the Boys & Girls Club of the Umpqua Valley.

He also spent an hour delivering packages in downtown Roseburg with United Parcel Service route driver Dewey Estrada. DeFazio, who chairs the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee, said the experience was important to provide him with information on the challenges faced by freight haulers.

During a Wednesday afternoon discussion with The News-Review’s editorial board, DeFazio said the Western Oregon Plan Revisions from the BLM, also known as the WOPR, is a “false promise” that won’t stand up to scrutiny.

“What I’m proposing would probably more than double the current federal timber harvest, which means more revenues,” DeFazio said. “They’re betting that the Bush administration is going to take the O&C lands back to the 1980s with the WOPR. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

DeFazio, who has long criticized the Northwest Forest Plan authored by then-President Bill Clinton, has spent more than a decade trying to come up with an alternative plan that would protect old-growth forests while increasing logging and thinning operations on other forest lands.

During the Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Marilyn Kittelman introduced a resolution condemning DeFazio’s plan. Most of the discussion between her and fellow Commissioners Joe Laurance and Robertson centered on the resolution rather than the plan itself.

Robertson, who said he was handed a copy of Kittelman’s proposed resolution as he walked into the meeting, said DeFazio’s plan is still in draft form and he would like to wait until an actual bill is produced before taking a stand on it. He noted that the Association of O&C Counties, which represents the 18 Western Oregon counties with O&C lands, has already sent DeFazio a letter expressing concerns.

“It’s letters like this that are getting this thing derailed. And if we don’t add ours to it, there’s a good chance it doesn’t get derailed,” Kittelman said.

Laurance said DeFazio has been a “great friend” to Douglas County, who has worked hard on legislation to extend the timber safety net that has provided the county with $52 million a year and to alter legislation to allow biomass projects to be conducted on federal forests.

“While there are important elements in the resolution, things that we wish to convey, I’m uncomfortable with the tone that we are directing toward a great friend of Douglas County and would like a chance to review it,” Laurance said.

The resolution failed, with only Kittelman supporting it.

You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.