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51 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, April 23, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend April 4, 2004 The comprehensive Northwest Forest Plan, crafted in 1994, governs federal land like this stand of trees under Bureau of Land Management jurisdiction near Ruch. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Out of the woods? Advocates on both sides agree on one thing: No one’s happy with the way the old-growth management plan has worked By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune After hearing nearly seven hours of testimony at the historic forest summit in Portland on April 2, 1993, then-President Bill Clinton swung his presidential ax at the logjam over the management of old-growth forests. "I intend to direct the cabinet and the entire administration to immediately craft a balanced and long-term comprehensive policy," he announced, adding the goal was to "end this stalemate." His directive carved out the controversial Northwest Forest Plan which became the law of regional federal forestlands on April 13, 1994. The 100-year plan, which turns 10 years old this month, was intended to protect both the old-growth habitat of the northern spotted owl and timber jobs on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management forests in western Oregon and Washington as well as the far northwest reaches of California. But support for the plan, whose initial announcement at the conference drew loud applause from logger and environmentalist alike, fell as quickly as a tall tree before a seasoned timber faller. Advertisement Timber industry representatives say it didn’t provide the promised balance; environmental activists counter that it allowed too much old-growth cutting on forests already hammered by overcutting. Basically, the multifaceted plan, which broke ground by bringing a landscape approach that relied heavily on science to forest management, initially allowed up to 1.2 billion board feet of yearly timber harvest on federal forests in the northern spotted owl region, chopping the previous annual cut from about 5 billion board feet. In practice, the annual cut was whittled down to around 300 million to 400 million board feet in recent years, said Jim Geisinger, head of Associated Oregon Loggers who was one of the 50 panelists testifying at the 1993 forest conference. "The Northwest Forest Plan had an absolutely devastating impact on the forest products industry, particularly small family- owned mills that depended on federal timber," he said. As evidence, he observes that between 25,000 and 35,000 jobs directly or indirectly related to the industry were lost in the past decade statewide. In Jackson and Josephine counties alone, that included nearly 10 mills, he said. While large timber corporations with private timberlands survived, many small firms did not, he said. "In hindsight, we went into that event with a great deal of naivet�," said Geisinger, who was president of the Northwest Forestry Association when he testified in 1993. "Our industry had never before received that kind of attention from the president of the United States. "When we heard the president talk about a balance, we took him at his word," he added. "We were absolutely shell- shocked by what was in the plan." Panelist Andy Kerr of Ashland, then conservation director of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, also was shocked, but for another reason. "After the plan came out, the political half of my brain said this was an unprecedented conservation victory," said the longtime activist. "But the ecological half of my brain wondered if it was enough." Kerr concluded it wasn’t enough to protect the owl’s habitat, that the plan still called for cutting too much old-growth timber. The 5 billion board foot annual harvest level, a timber harvest that had only been reached in the 1980s, was on a devastating scale that could not be sustained, triggering environmental protests and lawsuits, he said. "Clinton deserves political credit for turning what was a hot war into a cold war," Kerr said. "He resolved the issue politically but he did not resolve it ecologically. "The plan was one of the few environmental issues where political reality was changed to be more in line with ecological reality." Yet both agree on one point: Neither liked the plan. The widespread initial support for Clinton’s announcement was the result of his persuasive ability, say those who closely watched the conference. "Clinton was nothing if not a persuasive orator," observed George Sexton, conservation director of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland. "Coming out of the timber summit, he promised all things to all people. "We heard ecosystems — they (industry) heard management," added Sexton, who was mapping old-growth forests in northern Oregon at the time of the conference. A spokeswoman for Clinton’s press office in New York City said the former president was too busy for an interview concerning the plan’s legacy. Despite the controversy the plan has become an integral part of forest management landscape, said Phil Mattson, the assistant director for resource planning and monitoring for the Forest Service in the Northwest. "The plan was a milestone," said Mattson, who helped review and edit portions of the plan. "Basically, it provided a new and innovative way to look at things." Moreover, the 30-year-veteran of the agency doesn’t believe that it should be placed on the endangered species list. "I think we will fix things that need to be fixed, that we will continue to make needed changes as we go along," he said. "Nothing is static. But the basic concepts of the plan will remain." The plan has changed the way the agencies conduct their work at the local level, observed Karen Gillespie, spokeswoman for the BLM’s Medford District. For instance, as a direct result of the plan, the district has thinned more than 20,000 acres as part of a non-commercial effort to improve forest health and reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires, she noted. Yet the district has also sold some 70 million board feet of commercial timber between 1995 and 2002 under the plan, although that is still under the district target, she said. "We’ve met habitat restoration and reserve goals but we’re still working on the timber production objective of the plan," she said. "The plan is really a process. "It’s a long-term process with anticipated changes being made over time." Those changes can’t come quick enough for Dave Hill, executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association. "The Northwest Forest Plan has been a dismal failure — socially, environmentally and economically," he said. The timber industry had agreed to a compromise in return for a "certain and consistent" timber supply from federal forestlands, he said. "That supply never materialized," he said. He believes changes in the plan made recently under the Bush administration will provide the balance he found lacking under Clinton. "The plan is being drastically changed under the Bush administration for the better," he said. "We have discovered you can’t walk away and lock up 85 percent of the forests and expect them to be the same. The recent large fires here in southwestern Oregon are a direct result of that plan." Fellow timber industry representative Geisinger agreed. "When the Bush administration came into office, we (industry) had a long conversation of whether we should support abolishing the plan or trying to make it work," he said. "We chose the latter. "The plan was written for the environmentalists. It gave them more than they ever asked for. But it was never balanced in any way." Major changes made in the plan last month regarding surveying and managing old-growth species and the aquatic conservation program were long overdue, he said. "The president’s commitment is to make the plan work as it was intended," he said. "Every modification is directed at trying to accomplish that, to finally make it balanced." Horse feathers, responded environmentalist Sexton. "The impetus of the plan was to restart the old-growth logging program on federal forests," he said. "Right from the start, the goal was to get the most amount of old-growth logging they could and still have owls." He also takes issue with industry claims about job losses relating to the plan, noting that many of those jobs were already endangered by changing technology and overcutting the supply. "In hindsight, we can see if we had shifted into forest restoration, we would be providing labor intensive jobs that would last," he said. While Sexton finds the plan wanting, he allows it provided a discussion and context where the agencies, particularly the Forest Service, could try to incorporate values of biodiversity, clean drinking water and a heritage of native forests. "But I don't think the plan really exists anymore — no more aquatic conservation strategy, no more survey and manage," he said. He believes that planned timber salvage harvests on both the Biscuit fire in the Siskiyou National Forest and the Timbered Rock fire in the BLM’s Medford District indicate the agencies’ main goal is to provide commercial timber. "We’re going back into that pendulum swing of old-growth logging, which will be followed by a renewed public push for conservation," he said. "We’re going back into that cycle." Kerr agreed. "If George Bush is re-elected, whatever is left of the Northwest Forest Plan will be officially dismantled," he said. "Timber is no longer king in this state yet you have George Bush trying to take us back to the clearcutting heyday of the late ’80s and early ’90s." If that occurs, it will trigger a war in the woods that led up to the plan, he warned. "I think the war is about to turn hot again," he said. "If conservationists are not successful in court to push back the Bush administration’s efforts to emasculate this plan, you’re going to see people sitting in trees and getting arrested at a scale much larger than ever happened before." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times