The Hells Canyon Preservation Council says it just can’t support a compromise deal for logging forests in Eastern Oregon.
The deal, put together after 18-months of negotiations between environmental groups and the timber industry, opens the door for logging on about 8 million acres of federal forests east of the Cascades.
The council’s decision to oppose the deal was previously covered in this Oregonian story. But today, the HCPC posted the reasons for its decision on the group’s blog.
“Upon first hearing about the bill, we felt excited at the potential,” writes Executive Director Greg Dyson. “But after analyzing the language, it was clear that our concerns outweighed the positives.”
News of the logging compromise broke back in December when Senator Ron Wyden held a news conference in Washington to announce the breakthrough.
The idea of the deal was to change the way the Forest Service thinks about timber harvests. Instead of logging for the sake of logging, the new focus is on forest restoration projects. Logging will occur when it helps forests and watersheds. Large trees will be protected. The plan will be guided by a panel of scientists.
But today, Dyson writes…
“When we read the bill, we found some disturbing aspects:
• It would unnecessarily use time and resources to convene a new scientist advisory panel, instead of adopting the findings of a 1994 scientist advisory panel convened for the exact same purpose.
• It does propose some protections for big old trees, but does not protect intact old growth stands or ancient forests.
• It proposes an “Interim Period” of more intensive logging on the eastside, with mandated acreage targets and no firm end date.
• During this Interim Period, the public’s rights to provide input on projects would be limited.
• Even though it would create a scientist advisory panel to create recommendations for managing our eastside forests, it does not require the Forest Service to actually follow these recommendations.
• It would allow continued road building, even though roads are perhaps the single biggest threat to our eastside forests.”
You can read the full post here.
The Hells Canyon Preservation Council also published a letter it wrote to Senator Wyden explaining why it won’t support the deal.
Have to stop this “logging for the sake of logging” label on the Forest Service. The Forest Service has been practicing forest restoration using logging as a tool for the past 2 decades, in eastern Oregon.