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By Andy Kerr and Sean Stevens March 14. 2015 2:00AM Guest Opinion: Return to clearcutting is wrong approach for counties During the clearcut logging boom that ravaged America’s public lands during the 1970s and ’80s, some county politicians were able to live beyond their means. Here in Oregon, where “O&C” counties received a 75 percent cut of the proceeds from liquidating old  growth on publicly owned lands, this allowed for an expansion of county government without the need for the local tax rates necessary to maintain it. But in the 1990s, when public opposition finally reigned in the liquidation of old-growth forests, these politicians were left without a Plan B. More than two decades later, some are still demanding a return to old-growth clearcutting. Congress tried to throw counties a life preserver to allow county politicians to transition to a more sustainable government funding model. The most recent has been theSecure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS). Last fall Congress adjourned before reauthorizing and funding SRS. While Oregon’s O&C counties receive the lion’s share of the money, the program benefits over 700 hundred counties in over 40 states — all of whom are being harmed by inaction in Congress. Given these facts, one would think that politicians in Oregon’s O&C counties would be clamoring for SRS renewal. But the opposite is true. These politicians are instead actively working against SRS renewal, instead demanding a return to the style of clearcutting that ravaged America’s public lands 30 years ago — with the proceeds going to counties. Oregon’s public lands — and the clean water, wildlife, tourism and outdoor recreation economy they sustain — can’t afford this approach. The Forest Service says that in order to replace SRS funding with revenue from timber sales they would have to increase logging on the national forest system by 550 percent — from the 2.8 billion board feet of logs produced in 2014 to 16.6 billion board feet! This would exceed by one quarter the highest level of logging that has ever occurred on Forest Service lands (13.38 billion in 1970). In 2013, the Bureau of Land Management in Western Oregon logged 208 million board feet. If BLM were to meet SRS values by logging alone, 622 million board feet would be necessary — a 300 percent increase. These figures are likely low, as they assume that flooding the log market will not depress log prices. If these numbers seem incomprehensible, consider this: meeting these logging levels would require exceeding those of the late 1980s, when two square miles (about 1,320 football fields) of old-growth was clearcut each week on Oregon federal public forestlands alone. For cash-strapped county politicians, clearcutting federal forests is the wrong battle and the wrong battleground. While they may wish to return to the clearcutting of the past, the rest of society doesn’t. Oregonians today place a high value on clean water, salmon and wildlife habitat, and the quality of life that public lands bring. The idea of clearcutting federal forests is about as popular today as cars with tailfins and whitewall tires. Linking county payments to a return to obscene levels of federal logging is an all-or-nothing strategy that will end with nothing. While tasty red meat for certain politicians to throw to their political base, it won’t solve the county funding payments problem. Sen. Ron Wyden has introduced a responsible SRS reauthorization bill that has bipartisan support — and it doesn’t re-link educating our children and filling our potholes with clearcutting our forests. Rep. Greg Walden should take note. Last Congress, Walden co-sponsored a reckless bill that would have re-linked county politicians' budgets to vastly expanded logging (and mining and drilling) of America’s public lands. Backers of the legislation knew full well it would never pass the Senate, and that it would be vetoed by President Obama even if it did. Scoring political points was more important to them than actually solving the problem. This Congress, Walden should join with Wyden and enact the bipartisan Secure Rural Schools and Payment in Lieu of Taxes Repair Act (S.517). With both Wyden and Walden backing it, this bill could pass Congress and then be signed the President, solving the county funding problem. Oregon must move beyond the tired old debate over re-linking county politician’s budgets to clearcutting America’s public lands. But Walden needs to act fast. Most Oregon counties will feel the shortfall at the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1. Andy Kerr (www.andykerr.net) and Sean Stevens (www.oregonwild.org) are senior counselor and executive director respectively to Oregon Wild (www.oregonwild.org), protecting Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and waters since 1974. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20150314/OPINION/150319781 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->