Late notice, I know. I just got word of this a short while ago.
If you’re in the Portland area you may want to attend a meeting this evening on a new management plan for BLM land in Southeast Oregon.
Late notice, I know. I just got word of this a short while ago.
If you’re in the Portland area you may want to attend a meeting this evening on a new management plan for BLM land in Southeast Oregon.
A Greater Sage Grouse near Burns, Oregon. Photo from BLM.
Faced with a difficult decision about protecting – or not protecting – the Greater sage-grouse, Interior says it’s going to split the difference.
Secretary Ken Salazar announced Friday morning that the sage-grouse deserves to be listed by the Endangered Species Act, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. The official label is that listing is “warranted, but precluded.”
So it becomes a candidate species. The bird’s status will be reviewed yearly. But Interior says it can’t protect every species that deserves it, and it has to set priorities. The sage-grouse falls into the bottom third of the candidate list.
Ever have one of those days? You make a lot of phone calls and nobody is calling you back? That’s what I get for slacking off yesterday and trying to do some news gathering the day before a long Holiday weekend.
When they do call back, I’ll have some interesting stuff to report. But in the meantime, a few things to pass along that I should have already posted.
The climate change study was conducted in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Photo by Mike Gooseff, OSU.
The Impact Of Climate Change On Western Oregon
Research by Oregon State University shows that snowpack in the Cascades is about half of what it was 77 years ago. It’s not that we’re getting less precipitation. It’s that we’re getting less snow and what we do get is melting faster.
Since 1958, temperatures in January, March and April have increased an average of four degrees. Spring is arriving earlier. But the study also shows little change in average temperatures the other times of the year.
“What we’ve seen the most already, and will probably see even more in the future, is declining snowpacks and related effects on stream flows,” says Julia Jones, a professor of geosciences at OSU and coordinator of the report.
But what’s not so clear is how this will impact trees and vegetation. Jones says they have some ability to adapt to changing climate. Older Douglas Fir, for example, can survive droughts by shutting down their photosynthesis, she says. “Some of them are 500 years old and have already lived through a lot of climate variability, they get knocked around all the time.”
Waldo Lake Gas Motor Ban Supported At Public Hearing
The overwhelming number of people who testified at this week’s hearing on the Waldo Lake motor ban were in favor of the idea. The Eugene Register Guard estimated that about 75% of those who testified were in favor while 25% were against.
See Story: Many Favor Ban On Motors At Waldo Lake
The Oregon State Marine Board is looking at banning all gas boat motors and float planes from Waldo Lake, but allowing electric motors. Waldo Lake is more than a mile high in the Cascades in far eastern Lane County. If the ban is approved, it would be the largest “no gas motor” lake in the state.
Interior Announces Oil and Gas Lease Auctions For Oregon
The energy industry will have four chances next year to bid on oil and natural gas leases on federal lands in Oregon. The auctions are scheduled for March, June, September and December. The Bureau of Land Management says there are more than 500 leases available representing about 775,000 acres in Oregon and Washington.
But in Oregon, auctions are frequently canceled for lack of interest. Last year, only one auction was held and no bids were offered.
The timber industry filed suit last week, hoping to force the Obama Administration to bring back a Bush-era logging plan for Western Oregon.
It’s known as the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, or WOPR. If it went into effect, it would greatly increase how much logging is allowed on more than 2.5 million acres of BLM forests in the state.
Clear cut logging near Eugene. Photo courtesy Kristian Skybak. See more at flickr.com/kristiansven.
The lawsuit filed by the American Forest Resource Council says Obama doesn’t have the authority to simply withdraw a logging plan that had been developed over a five year period. The group also says the law that created these forests, known as the Oregon and California act, calls for as much sustainable logging as possible. To not allow that, it argues, violates the law.
The Interior Department announced in July that it was killing WOPR. Secretary Ken Salazar called the plan “legally indefensible” and said it would never stand up in court. For starters, Interior said WOPR was approved before going through all the steps required by the Endangered Species Act.
It also raised questions about changes the Bush Administration made to the Spotted Owl Recovery Plan. The Bush changes were part of the process that allowed WOPR to move forward. But a report by the Inspector General says the Bush team used “improper political influence” to get what it wanted.
As far as Oregon is concerned, this may be the biggest blow yet to Bush-era environmental policies. And local green groups couldn’t be happier.
Today, the Interior Department says it’s killing a plan that would greatly increase logging on about 2.6 million acres of federal forests in Western Oregon. The plan, known as the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR), was approved in the final weeks of the Bush Administration.
A Western Oregon Old Growth Forest. Courtesy BLM.
Why the change in direction? Two reasons.
First, Interior says WOPR was approved too soon and that the Bush Administration failed to follow all the steps required by the Endangered Species law. As a result, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the plan is “legally indefensible” and “cannot stand up in court.”
Next, it point to problems with Bush Administration changes to the recovery plan for the Northern Spotted Owl. Those changes, made in 2008, were used to help write the WOPR. But an Inspector General’s report says the process was potentially jeopardized by a former Bush official using “improper political influence”.
U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service will take a new look at the recovery plan for the Northern Spotted Owl.
As a result, Interior is asking a federal judge to toss out the Bush spotted owl plan and is directing the Fish and Wildlife Service to start work on a new one.
Among the Northwest environmental groups praising today’s news is Oregon Wild. The group’s Doug Heiken says, “President Obama has pulled the plug on the most cynical attack on Oregon’s old growth forests in decades.”
Oregon Wild has been critical of the WOPR because it believes the plan allows too much logging on forests more than 80 years old. These “mature forests” include old growth areas, and play vital roles in providing habitat for spotted owls, marbeled murrelets, and clean, cold streams for salmon.
Chuck Willer, Executive Director of the Coast Range Association, believes the decision will save the “best remaining native forest” in Oregon’s Coast Range. “This is a gift to tomorrow’s children for a region in short supply of old growth forest and quality salmon habitat.”
No one expects a halt to logging in Western Oregon. In fact, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar used today’s announcement to praise Governor Kulongoski, Senators Wyden and Merkley, and Congressman DeFazio for their work to build a consensus on how to move forward. “There is broadening agreement that it is time to reevaluate the logging of old growth forests on BLM lands,” says Salazar. “There is also agreement that logging should not occur in areas that would put water quality at risk, and we should fully consider advances in forestry and increased knowledge of species’ needs over the last two decades.”
Welcome to our first video story produced for Natural Oregon.
Recently, we joined researcher David Wiens of Oregon State University on a field trip in the forests near Veneta, Oregon. He and his team are studying the competition between the Northern Spotted Owl and the Barred Owl, a relative newcomer to the state. We got some amazing close up views of Spotted Owls, including a fledgling. You’ll see those images in our video.
As Wiens reminds us, the loss of old growth forest habitat is still the top reason for the decline in Spotted Owl numbers. But the Barred Owl is only making things worse. When Barred Owls move in to old growth areas, the Spotted Owls are almost always driven out, never to be seen again. Where they’re going, and what’s happening to them, are just some of the questions Wiens is trying to answer.
He’s also trying to learn more about how the two species compete. Are they fighting over the same territory? Are they fighting over the same food? Do Barred Owls deserve some of the blame for the Spotted Owl decline? Or are they just taking advantage of it?
Barred Owls have the upper hand in this fight. They’re bigger, stronger and more aggressive. They’ll eat just about any small animal in the forest, including mice, voles, squirrels, fish, snails and crayfish. Native to eastern forests, they migrated across Southern Canada before invading the Pacific Northwest.
Spotted Owls are fussier eaters. They’ll travel far and wide for their preferred prey, Northern Flying Squirrels and Tree Voles. They’re also more dependent on old growth for places to nest.
The results of Wiens studies could have major implications for how old growth is managed in the Northwest. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering shooting Barred Owls to keep their numbers in check, and help Spotted Owls survive. But Wiens research may lead to non-lethal ways to control Barred Owl populations.
Wiens primary sponsor for this $850,000 research project is the U.S. Geological Society. Other agencies contributing include the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, National Park Service and the Oregon Department of Forestry. The field work wraps up by the end of summer.
Just a couple of days before the Memorial Day weekend, the BLM office in Coos Bay says it’s opening several campgrounds and recreation sites.
The Coos Bay district includes ten campgrounds with 158 sites near Reedsport, Coquille and other areas along the southern Oregon Coast. One of the the campgrounds, at the Loon Lake Recreation Area, allows you to book reservations online. But when we checked this evening, all those sites were taken for the weekend. But BLM says there are several first-come, first-served sites at this location.
Loon Lake Recreation Area. Courtesy BLM.
The recreation pages on the Coos Bay website are in some kind of transition. The information about where all the campgrounds are located is somewhat messy and hard to find. You’re best bet may be to call the office at 541-756-0100.
If you want to start online, begin here. It only includes information on two of the ten campgrounds and some of the day use sites. But it does include a link to an older page with some information about all the campgrounds.
High above the Rogue Valley, the Table Rocks are the remnants of an ancient lava flow, and so unusual they support species found nowhere else on Earth.
According to the Medford Mail Tribune, more of this area will be protected thanks to the Nature Conservancy. The group says it’s completed a $4 million deal to buy more than 1700 acres of Table Rocks land. What the Nature Conservancy doesn’t own has special protection under the Bureau of Land Management. Both organizations want to keep the area open to the public.
Senator Ron Wyden’s latest attempt to find some common ground on managing Northwest forests is… no surprise here… getting mixed reviews.
As described in this Associated Press report via the Register Guard, Wyden says he wants to stop logging of old growth trees while shifting the focus to more thinning of forests.
(In my previous life as a member of the mainstream media, I had a couple of brief conversations with Wyden about forest thinning. He was adamant that thinning was the best way to reduce wildfires.)
The AP says Wyden wants to ban logging of trees based on their age. How old they have to be before being protected depends on their location in the state. It would spend $50 million on thinning projects and fast tracks projects on about 25,000 acres.
While praising Wyden for his efforts, both the forest industry and environmental groups think the plan has serious flaws.
It’s interesting to see what agencies have to do to keep OHVs from entering areas where they’re prohibited.
Along the Rogue River, the Bureau of Land Management is placing huge logs across roads and building giant dirt berms that are also known as “tank traps”. Some of these roads were closed to motor vehicles in 1972, but OHVs still managed to slip by roadblocks. BLM says OHVs have their place, just not so close to the Rogue National Wild and Scenic River Corridor. From the Medford Mail Tribune.
