Conservation and Timber Interests Unite Around Wyden Forest Legislation

Contact:    Mary Scurlock, Policy Director, 503-320-0712 (cell), mary@pacificrivers.org

A group of conservationists, including Mary Scurlock, Policy Director at PRC and Timber Industry representatives stand with Senator Ron Wyden as he introduces the new East Side Forest Legislation in DC, December 16th 2009

Washington, D.C. --  Conservation organizations and timber industry representatives today joined Oregon Senator Ron Wyden at a press conference to express support for new legislation proposed by Oregon Senator Rob Wyden that builds on common ground between conservationists and the timber industry.

The Oregon Eastside Forest Restoration, Old Growth Protection and Jobs Act would protect old growth forests and refocus national forest management in eastern Oregon on science-based ecological restoration. Future logging must be consistent with the watershed and forest restoration goals, and would focus on removal of smaller trees. The legislation follows months of intense negotiations between conservationists, timber industry leaders, and Senator Wyden's staff.

The proposed Oregon Eastside Forest Restoration, Old Growth Protection and Jobs Act applies to National Forest System lands within Oregon not covered by the Northwest Forest Plan. In all, the legislation will set new management priorities on six National Forests covering nearly 10 million acres of federal public land. The terms of the bill call for watershed protection, protection of old-growth forests, and a restoration standard and intent for all future management activities.

Implementation of the bill is expected to result in forest thinning projects which will increase the volume of small-diameter wood available to the few remaining timber mills in Eastern Oregon, and to provide increased certainty of timber supply in both the short and long terms.

Pacific Rivers Council (PRC), a regional conservation organization dedicated to protection and restoration of freshwater ecosystems, supports the bill because it places strong sideboards on forest management and helps address the forest service's growing forest roads problem.

"Eastside streams and the species that rely on them still suffer from the legacy of past management, and this bill keeps us moving toward recovery of aquatic ecosystems," said Mary Scurlock, Policy Director for Pacific Rivers Council. "Fifteen years ago, we were using the courts to shut down logging on eastside forests over harm to salmon, but today we've got broad agreement that investing in stream protection benefits everyone."

PRC is supporting this bill for the following key reasons:

1. The bill establishes science-based ecosystem restoration as the dominant management paradigm, requiring all forest management to "conserve and restore forest and watershed health, natural structure, processes and function" and be "consistent with best available science" and the advice of a science panel.
2. The bill would legislate the current aquatic and riparian protections of the regional administrative policies known as "Pacfish" and "Infish" as the minimum floor for aquatic and riparian protection. These policies have been implemented and significantly strengthened since their advent in 1995 to address Endangered Species Act listings of salmon, steelhead and bull trout.
3. The bill protects against harmful riparian logging by clarifying that any near-stream management must be restorative of aquatic and riparian resources, i.e. short-term adverse impacts to be justified by a finding, "in accordance with the best available science," that the proposed management will "accomplish the long-term restoration of the riparian habitat conservation area."
4. The bill clarifies changes to aquatic protections during forest plan amendments must provide equivalent or additional protection to those established in this legislation, best available science.
5. The bill prohibits new permanent roads, requires net road reduction, and places strict conditions on temporary roads.
6. The bill is likely to reduce controversy and associated litigation over national forest management because it promotes collaborative, landscape-scale projects with clear watershed and mature forest protection sideboards while making some administrative process concessions to meet the demands of industry and rural economic development stakeholders.
7. The bill does not make unacceptable changes to administrative procedures, judicial review or the National Environmental Policy Act. Although the bill makes minor process concessions on administrative appeals and project implementation timeslines, adequate public participation is assured, and access to the courts is not restricted. NEPA remains intact, and modest, soft guarantees on treated acres avoids management by timber target.

The legislation comes at a critical time: a century of management mistakes is now being compounded by global warming, increasing the urgency to protect remaining natural forests and to reduce erosion and runoff from thousands of miles of logging roads, so that valued watershed, wildlife, and forest resources can be sustained.

The organizations and individuals announcing their support today with Senator Wyden are as follows:

• Rick Brown, Senior Resource Specialist, Defenders of Wildlife
• Steve Pedery, Conservation Director, Oregon Wild
• Michael Powelson, Senior Policy Advisor on USDA/USFS/NRCS, US Government Relations, Worldwide Office, Director of Government Relations, N. America Conservation Region, Western Division, The Nature Conservancy
• Mary Scurlock, Policy Director, Pacific Rivers Council
• Randi Spivak, Vice President for Policy, National Center for Conservation Science and Policy
• Tom Partin, American Forest Resources Council
• John Shelk, Ochoco Lumber Company
• Tom Insko, Boise Cascade
• Wade Mosby, Collins Pine

Watch a Press Conference with Senator Wyden and supporters, December 16, 2009 

Read Senator Wyden's Press Release

Read a story in the New York Times about the news conference

Read the Legislation

Read a Summary of the Legislation