Document text
OVERCAST Temp: 51 °F Wind: WNW at 7 mph Wednesday, February 19, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend January 12, 2003 Liz Crosson, outreach coordinator for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, stands in the Ashland Creek watershed, where her group worked with the U.S. Forest Service and city of Ashland to reduce fire hazard. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Fiscal pain pinches grants Environmental groups trim salaries, but many find they have more volunteers By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Outspoken environmental activist Spencer Lennard has often been a thorn in the side of those who have a different view of how to manage federal timberlands. But he is feeling the pain these days. "Right now, we only have enough to pay people for one more pay period — we’re living hand to mouth," said the program director for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center. The problem, according to environmental groups in the region, is that grant funding has plummeted between 40 and 60 percent in the past two years because of the economic downturn. There also are more groups competing for funding to finance education campaigns, to lobby public officials, launch on-the-ground projects or litigate suits. A dozen groups in the region vie for funding now, compared to only a couple two decades ago. The Wildlands Center, which Lennard co-founded in the mid-1990s, has a targeted annual budget now of about $180,000 a year, up some $60,000 from a year ago. But its staff has grown while funding has become increasingly difficult to obtain, Lennard said. His group largely was dependent on grants from the W. Alton Jones Foundation but lost them in the economic downturn. As a result, the center has reduced its five full-time employees to three-quarter-time positions. Those employees continue working at the same level, only now a fourth of their time is volunteer, Lennard said. "We don’t want to lay people off," he said. "About 95 percent of environmental groups are laying staffers off now. And this is when they should be adding them because of the Bush nightmare." But don’t count them out, he is quick to add. "We are all doing this from the heart," he said. "We aren’t going to dry up and blow away. Many of us volunteered for environmental causes for years before ever getting paid anything." While funding has become more difficult to obtain, memberships and volunteers have not. Many groups, citing increased environmental concerns because of what they perceive as anti-environment Bush administration policies, report that membership has increased in the past two years. For instance, the Sierra Club membership in Oregon numbered about 15,000 statewide when Bush took office. It is now around 21,000, said Tom Dimitre, chairman of both the Rogue Group and the Oregon Sierra clubs. The rise in membership demonstrates that concern about protecting the environment hasn’t waned with funding, he said. "There’s a lot of concern out there because there is so much that is anti-environment coming from this administration," he said. His group, which has two paid staffers in the state, has raised the nearly $200,000 it needs for the year, he said. "(President) Reagan was a novice compared to Bush when it comes to dismantling environmental protection," he said. "It’s a challenge for us." Longtime activist Kelpie Wilson, development director for the Siskiyou Regional Education Project office in the Illinois Valley, agreed. Wilson, whose job includes fund raising, blames dwindling grants on a falling stock market. "We started feeling it last year," she said. "There is about 60 percent of the foundation grant money available this year, as opposed to last year." That means all environmental groups are tightening their budgetary belts at a time when environmental worries are increasing, she said. "We aren’t seeing any fall-off in membership," she said. "But the donations we’re getting aren’t as large." The institute, launched 20 years ago this year, has an annual budget of about $450,000 with another $150,000 for its annual summer Siskiyou Field Program. The institute has about 18 on the payroll, including about a dozen full time. But another 50 people do volunteer work, Wilson said. "One of our ongoing problems has always been that our salaries are very low," she said. "We make less than mill workers." Its membership includes about 1,500 people. It has a fund-raising mailing list of some 3,000. The impact of actions by environmental groups can be seen in mature trees still standing in local federal forestlands, Wilson said. "Think what this area would have looked like if there had been no resistance to clearcutting," she said. "We can’t afford to slack off, even when there isn’t a lot of funding available." Over at the Headwaters office in Ashland, executive director Tonya Graham also is closely watching the budget of the group formed more than a quarter of a century ago. Headwaters came close to financial ruin in 2000 when it was discovered that a former director had stolen nearly $160,000 from its treasury. Richard "Rick" Lee Gwynallen, who pleaded guilty to aggravated theft, was sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to pay back the $159,345 he stole from the group. The group has since rebounded financially. For this coming year, it has a bare-bones budget of $142,000, mirroring the 2002 budget, Graham said. "But there has definitely been a downturn with a decrease in both foundation funding and major gifts," Graham said, referring to the economic slowdown. "But one thing we’re seeing is a huge increase in people wanting to volunteer to help," she added. "They are calling us and asking what they can do." Headwaters, which has five paid positions, has roughly 550 members, mainly individuals. About 40 percent of its funding comes from member donations, often small contributions from the grass-roots level, she said. "We definitely need to continue to build our membership," she said. "The difficulty is trying to balance the critical need of programs with the possible reduction in funding." Several environmental groups have joined forces on some projects to spread available finances as far as possible, she said. "We’re trying to prevent duplication of effort, and make what we’re getting the biggest bang for the buck," she said. "The competition has increased but the desire to cooperate has also increased." The funding challenges aren’t restricted to Oregon groups. The World Wildlife Fund, which has an office in Ashland, was forced to terminate 25 staff positions in its Washington, D.C., office because of a budget crunch, said Dominick DellaSala, an ecologist heading the organization’s Klamath-Siskiyou Program. "That all trickles down to our field offices," he said. "All the national groups have seen a downturn that has affected staffing levels. The ecology and economy is definitely linked." When DellaSala opened the fund’s field office in Ashland in 1998, he was the only staff member. There are now four people employed at the office, which has an annual budget of about $500,000. About 40 percent of the budget goes for office space, staffers and related expenses, while 60 percent is used for field projects, he said. "But funding available for our programs has gone through a 30 to 40 percent decline," he said. "We cut all our expenses and increased our fund-raising efforts." When DellaSala arrived, one third of his time was spent on fund raising while two-thirds was spent on projects. Now fund raising takes up two-thirds of his time, he said. "This is a temporary downturn but coming at a real challenging time," he said. "We’re at the intersection of the largest threat to the environment since the Reagan administration, plus a downturn in the economy. This is the perfect storm." But that doesn’t mean support for protecting the environment has decreased, he said, citing a poll taken a year ago that showed overwhelming support for protecting federal timberlands. "Support for protecting mature and old-growth forests is still strong," he said. "These values are still important to people." Liz Crosson, outreach coordinator for the Wildlands Center, acknowledged times are tough. "It’s hard to have a lot of optimism right now," said Crosson, who has a master’s degree in environmental science. "The last few months, the rollback of environmental laws by the Bush administration has been unfathomable." But Crosson says there is reason for optimism. She cites the work of environmentalists on the Ashland Creek watershed with the Forest Service and the city as evidence of working together. After starting out at odds, the participants were able to achieve a workable compromise to reduce a fire hazard, she said. "The Ashland watershed project is a project that is agreeable to most people involved," she said. "It’s a great example of people coming together." Meanwhile, Lennard of the Wildlands Center reiterated that lack of funding won’t deter environmental activists. "Everyone here is still working 50 hours a week," he said of his group’s staff. "Even if we were not able to completely fund (the center), many of our staffers would get a second job and volunteer here to keep it going." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Timber industry groups don’t feel much sympathy By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Dave Hill doesn’t have much compassion for environmental groups battling hard times. "We’ve been cutting back for a dozen years now — we aren’t too sympathetic that the environmental organizations are cutting back now," said the executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association. The cutbacks to the industry can be traced in large part to actions by environmental groups to block planned timber sales on federal land, he said. "Maybe it’s time for them to suffer a little," he said. "Their lot in life is still a lot better than that of many in the timber industry." Timber officials say that thousands of workers lost their jobs with the closure of nearly 20 wood products mills in Jackson and Josephine counties since 1975. Owners of Rough & Ready announced late last year that they will either sell or begin liquidating their sawmill in the Illinois Valley this spring. They blamed the lack of available federal timber stemming from litigation brought by environmental groups for the pending closure. About 145 jobs will be lost at the sawmill, established nearly 60 years ago. Environmental activists have countered that the closure, if it comes to pass, would be the result of global conditions brought about by overseas competition and large corporations. Whatever the cause of mill closures, a study released earlier this month shows that many Oregon timber workers laid off during the economic boom of the 1990s were left behind. More than half the 60,000 workers who held jobs in the wood products industry at the start of the decade had left it by 1998, according to the study co-written by Ted Helvoigt, a former state economist who now works for ECONorthwest, an economic consulting firm. It also was written by economists at Oregon State University and the Oregon Employment Department. In an Associated Press article, the study revealed that nearly half of those who left the timber industry disappeared from work rolls altogether, probably moving to another state, retiring or going unemployed. About 18,000 of the workers found a job in Oregon. But nearly half of them took jobs in service and retail businesses, ending up with lower wages than they had earned almost 10 years before, the study concluded. Researchers found that about a third of those who lost jobs in southwestern Oregon found work at higher wages, but only after moving to the urban northwest part of the state. Hill believes timber workers should be brought in to help the environment by reducing the build-up of vegetation caused by years of fire suppression. "This is not good for resource management, for local employment and the local economy," he said. "These jobs should be added now to take care of the timberlands where there is too much fuel." The blame should be placed squarely on environmental groups, he said. "In a very large extent, this is the result of environmental efforts to restrict or stop all timber management," he said. "Perhaps the loss in funding for these groups will be a good thing for forest health down the road." Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S