What's the Point?

Proposed new rules to regulate logging on private lands in Oregon fail to meet federal law according to the Pacific Rivers Council.  “The committee did not even try to comply with the Endangered Species Act or the Clean Water Act,” says David Bayles, conservation director at the Pacific Rivers Council.  

Testimony by Pacific Rivers Council, to be presented to the Board of Forestry on July 28, 2000, reads in part, “. . . the Forest Practices Advisory Committee’s recommendations are legally questionable . . . .”  

“It’s ironic,” says Bayles.  “Oregon started developing new rules because of the Endangered Species Act, but the new rules don’t measure up to the act.  Why bother?  What’s the point of adopting new salmon protection rules that don’t protect salmon.”

The Pacific Rivers Council will file a formal request that new logging rules be drafted that do meet federal law.  “If Oregon is going to adopt new logging rules, they need to be scientifically sound and legally defensible,” says Bayles.  “The current recommendations are neither.”

At the Governor’s request, a representative of Pacific Rivers Council (PRC) participated on the Forest Practices Advisory Committee (FPAC) that drafted the new rules.  But PRC objects to the committee’s final recommendations, as legally and biologically insufficient.
 
Early in the process, a panel of independent scientists appointed by Governor Kitzhaber and the legislative leadership told FPAC what it needed to do to protect Oregon’s salmon.  In September, 1999, the Independent Multidiciplinary Science Team (IMST) recommended:

    1.  Protect refuges (salmon sanctuaries)
    2.  Increase streamside buffers.
    3.  Provide landslide protection
    4.  Rehabilitate and remove roads.

But FPAC and the Department of Forestry evaded the scientific issues in crafting its recommended changes to Oregon’s logging rules for private lands.  “FPAC is proposing trivial increases to the grossly inadequate streamside buffers currently required on private timberlands in Oregon,” said Bayles.  “The proposed standards won’t save the salmon, so what’s the point?”

The Pacific Rivers Council is one of the largest and most successful river conservation organizations in the United States.  Our mission is to conserve and restore rivers, their watersheds and native aquatic species.