http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/12/wyden_bill_aims_to_end_eastern.html

Wyden bill aims to end eastern Oregon timber disputes

By Matthew Preusch, The Oregonian

December 16, 2009, 7:30AM

Steven Nehl/The Oregonian/2006An old growth stand of Ponderosa pine near Sisters that has been treated by thinning and fire. A new proposal from the timber industry and environmentalists would protect eastern Oregon old growth while increasing the logging of small trees in federal forests.

For decades, the timber industry and environmentalists have battled in courts and the public square over logging on millions of acres of federal forests surrounding communities like Burns, John Day and Lakeview.

Now, many of those same groups are announcing something they say will put that in the past.

Timber executives and veteran tree huggers are standing shoulder to shoulder in Washington D.C. this morning to help

roll out a bill to change the rules for logging on National Forest lands in eastern Oregon.

If it becomes law, the bill would enshrine protections for old growth trees and greatly accelerate the logging of smaller trees through forest thinning projects.

is calling it the "end of the timber wars" for eastern Oregon.

Kerr, an environmentalist, has been a general in those wars for decades. He's even been hung in effigy in the Wallowa Mountain town of Joseph.

"The times and the eastside forests require that both the conservation community and the timber industry reinvent themselves," said Kerr.

The bill is the result of months of negotiations between a handful of environmental and timber interests concerned about the health of eastside forests and the communities and mills they support.

"This is the first time that major environmental organizations and timber companies have come together on a comprehensive piece of legislation, and it indicates a joint recognition of the severity of the conditions eastern Oregon forests face," said John Shelk, managing director of the

in Prineville.

The bill, called the Oregon Eastside Forests Restoration, Old Growth Protection and Jobs Act of 2009, would cover 8.3 million acres of U.S. Forest Service land in all or portions of six national forests east of the Cascades.

While making permanent protections for big trees and waterways, it would result in major increase in logging in the name of forest health and restoration.

Wyden has had little luck pursuing a region-wide old growth protection bill, facing opposition from both timber and environmental groups.

Last April, members of the forestry group supporting this proposal

, the Oregon Democrat's chief of staff, when Kardon unveiled a region-wide proposal to them at a meeting in Stevenson.

So he decided to seek a separate deal for east side forests, where conditions are better for an agreement, Kardon said this week..

Supporting the bill on the industry side is Ochoco Lumber Company, The Collins Companies, Boise Cascade and the American Forest Resource Council; the environmentalists are Andy Kerr, The Nature Conservancy, Pacific Rivers Council, Oregon Wild, The National Center for Conservation Science and Policy, Defenders of Wildlife and the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center.

"We essentially told the parties, 'Look, let's site down to try to find a bill'," Kardon said. "What we'll be rolling out (today) will be the product of a very hard won compromise."

And like any compromise, all sides give and took a little.

Those worried about old growth forests can applaud the portions of the law that would make permanent protections called eastside screens that have been in place in since the 1990s and prohibit cutting down live trees larger than 21 inches across at chest-height.

The bill would ban the construction of new permanent roads and calls for a net reduction in the forest road system.

A new scientific panel and local collaborative groups would help direct Forest Service priorities for the forests, but the bill would make it more difficult to appeal and bring to a halt logging projects deemed necessary for restoration.

"Rather than us saying, 'OK, here's what you should do,' we trust it to a science panel," said Tim Lillebo, eastern Oregon representative for the group

.

Meanwhile, what remains of eastern Oregon's timber cutting and milling industry would get a reliable supply of wood.

"Our company used to have five operation saw mills. We now have one," in John Day, said Shelk. "The primary reason for that reduction has been lack of timber from national forest lands."

Starting three year's after the bill's passage, each of forests would be required to put forward at least one restoration project totaling a minimum of 25,000 acres.

Currently, a total of 40,000 acres of forests are thinned each year east of the Cascades, said Tom Partin, president of the

.

And in the short term, the agency is directed to treat 80,000 acres the first year after passage, then 100,000 and 120,000 acres the next two years. The projects are to "emphasize sawtimber as a byproduct," according to a draft of the bill.

Congress would dedicate $50 million to carry out the bill, but Partin's group estimates more money would be needed by 2011.

But he said industry is supporting the bill in large part because Wyden is promising more funding for thinning projects and oversight to make sure the work is completed.

The bill is based on the premise that eastern Oregon forests are in bad shape, and to make them well again the state needs mills in place to process trees from forest restoration work.

Many areas east of the Cascades, particularly low-elevation pine forests, have been changed by decades of fire suppression, grazing and selective logging.

What were once open stands of wide, yellow-bellied Ponderosa pines are now crowded with thickets of fir and other species, putting them at risk of uncharacteristically large fires and bug outbreaks.

"Back in the '70s and '80s, we said, don't cut another stick. But the science has come around to tell us, 'Hey, we have altered the forest, and there are some things we can do,' " said Lillebo.

The proposal's focus on restoration fits with the vision articulated in a

in Seattle in August.

"Restoring forest ecosystems, particularly in fire-adapted forests, will make forests more resilient to climate-induced stresses and will ensure that our forests continue to supply abundant, clean water," said Vilsack, who oversees the Forest Service.

But not everyone agrees with the idea that further logging is the answer to correcting the mistakes of the past.

And the bill doesn't address the controversial practice of salvage logging dead trees following a fire.

Notably absent from the list of environmental groups are national organizations involved in eastern Oregon like the Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society, as well as local groups like the Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project.

"We hope to convince our conservation allies that this is in the best interest of the forests," Kerr said.

And while the group hopes the eastern Oregon agreement could spread west of the mountains, the forests and companies involved there are different.

"Andy Kerr and his group have I'm sure received brickbats from a number of their colleagues in the environmental movement," Shelk said. "I know I've received some nasty phone calls myself from people in my industry who are not too excited about our involvement."

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