Clatsop County Circuit Court Judge Beau Peterson dismissed the Jewell School District’s case against the state over the Western Oregon State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) limits on logging that will lead to reduced funding for the district. The Jewell School District with 124 students, funds its current $4.3 million budget entirely with state forest timber harvests. They rely on timber harvests along with 13 Forest Trust Land Counties.

The School District argued that the Oregon Department of Forestry will cause the school and the forestry department serious financial harm by allowing the HCP to move forward that will reduce logging more than 35% in the Clatsop State Forest. The HCP will scale back logging on 630,000 acres for the next 70 years claiming to protect 17 threatened or endangered species.

Judge Peterson’s decision stated there was not enough evidence that the forestry department couldn’t find other cost-saving or revenue-generating activities to make up for any lost revenue from the HCP. He must not be aware that ODF is asking taxpayers for $450 million in lost wildfire revenue, or that a 2010 administrative rule mandates that ODF harvest enough timber from state forests to fulfill its obligations to manage the forests. The judge also determined that ruling against the state on the HCP wouldn’t guarantee the school district would receive financial relief. The judge is making a political decision leaving Jewell’s fate to taxpayers because the Oregon Department of Education is obligated to provide adequate funding. Under the state education funding equalization formula, Jewell would take a 17% cut with the timber harvest reduction.

Recently, an Oregonian had the opportunity to ask President Trump his thoughts on removing dead trees and debree from forest floors instead of backburning. After he explained the need for the jobs wasted, Trump agreed that the jobs are important to rural communities and he will look into a more productive forest management plan.

Meanwhile an investigation is brewing to carry on the work of the National Wildfire Institute (NWI) to continue research into the increasing wildfires that pose financial risks to communities in addition to the HCP. The need for USFS to better manage its wildfires and forestlands includes immediate snag salvage and site preparation followed by better reforestation planning and forest maintenance strategies for future generations.

In the past 10 years, 51 communities in western states were struck by wildfires started on National Forests, and most of those are in the legal range of spotted owls and subjected to the NWFP. These communities had at least 30 structures burned; or 50% of a community’s structures. A part of the project is to determine if the source of fires are related to parts of the forest management practices.

Bob Zybach, spearheading the project, said, ”We were pretty shocked at how recent most of the fires were, and also that they were almost entirely related to USFS lands. All indications are that the September 2020 fires were at least as destructive, if not as deadly, as the historic 1871 and 1910 Fires.”

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

As reports come out on increasingly destructive wildfires in western states, regrowth is proving to be slow. It isn’t just that nursery can’t keep up with seed supply, training enough workers is difficult to prepare burnt sites and replant. The Forest Service says the biggest roadblock is the never-ending task of completing environmental and cultural assessments and preparing severely burnt land for replanting.

Now studies show a slowing of regrowth blamed on climate change producing extended drought. This makes young trees more vulnerable to repeat fires and often killing them. Research indicates hot fires also can harden the ground leaving barren slopes susceptible to washing away in rainstorms and polluting waterways that may never recover.

Forestry practices have been a hot topice for decades, starting with enviornmental and conservation clamp downs to forest management, which has steadly increased wildfire risks. For the first time, what once was a self-supported Oregon Department of Forestry, it is in the red asking for taxpayer bailout. While some call the HCP illegal, it will also have its toll on taxpayers to makeup for reduction in harvesting timber as many counties and school districts rely on those funds.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2024-11-01 15:18:46

Last Update: 2024-11-01 16:49:46