O&C timber counties say they’ll sue over BLM plan
An association representing 18 timber-dependent counties says it will file a lawsuit over the BLM’s proposed new Western Oregon Resource Management Plan.
“This isn’t saber rattling by us,” said Columbia County Commissioner Tony Hyde, chair of the Association of O&C Counties. He maintains the counties were “largely ignored” as the BLM built the proposal.
A timber industry group also might take legal action against the BLM. The American Forest Resource Council, based in Portland, said the plan denies Oregon loggers and mills the opportunity to demonstrate how “sustainability, forest health and economic growth are not mutually exclusive.”
AFRC President Travis Joseph said the council’s board will decide whether to file suit over the plan.
The association includes counties that receive money from timber harvests on former Oregon & California Railroad land, a checkerboard pattern covering 81 percent of the 2.5 million acres in the Western Oregon plan. The feds took it over from the railroad long ago and the BLM manages the land.
For decades, the counties received half the annual timber harvest receipts and used the money to provide sheriff’s patrols, operate jails and other services. As timber harvests declined, the counties received less money and drastically cut services. Voters for the most part voted down property tax increases that would have offset some of the revenue loss.
The BLM’s management proposal, released this past week, sets aside 75 percent of the forestland as reserves for fish and wildlife habitat, stream protection and to maintain older and complex forests.
The O&C counties and timber industry groups believe the plan should allow more logging, which they say could revive the shattered economies in much of rural Oregon.
The BLM estimates it will be able to provide 278 million board feet of timber for harvest annually, an increase over average harvests since 1995 but far below what the O&C counties and industry groups favor.
Hyde, of Columbia County, said the O&C lands could provide 400 million to 500 million board feet annually.
“We’re not asking for exclusive use of these lands for revenue production,” Hyde said. “We can get higher (harvest) levels while still providing for endangered species, clean water and fish habitat,” Hyde said relations between the counties and BLM are not particularly acrimonious, but have reached the point where the plan’s legality must be challenged.
Hyde and Joseph of the AFRC say the language of the 1937 O&C lands act is clear: The land is to be managed under a “sustained yield” principle in order to provide a permanent timber supply, protect watersheds, regulate stream flow, provide recreation and contribute to the “economic stability of local communities and industries.”
The BLM maintains the proposal strikes a balance between multiple statutory mandates, including the Endangered Species Act. The annual timber harvest is set by determining an Allowable Sale Quantity. or ASQ.
The proposal, technically called a Resource Management Plan and final Environmental Impact Statement, covers operations in the BLM’s Coos Bay, Eugene, Medford, Roseburg, and Salem Districts, and the Klamath Falls field office of the Lakeview District.
Conservation groups have criticized the proposal as well. They say it doesn’t do enough to protect drinking water, streams, recreational activity and threatened or endangered Northern spotted owls and salmon.
A 30-day protest period began April 15. The BLM expects to reach a final decision this summer.
The Oregon O&C counties are: Benton, Clackamas, Columbia, Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Tillamook, Washington and Yamhill.