Oregonian Editorial

The Oregonian
EDITORIAL
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/07/timber_country_and_you.html

July 24, 2011


Every Oregonian has a stake in the loss of federal payments to counties and a court ruling that threatens the future of private forestry in the state

It's already tough out there in the Other Oregon, with double-digit unemployment and a housing market flat on its back. But if nothing is done to avert the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal timber payments or respond to a potentially devastating court ruling, it's going to get much worse.

The issues -- county payments, O&C lands, logging roads, the Clean Water Act -- may sound like none of your concern. But they are central to the Oregon economy and integral to school funding. And how they are resolved will shape the future of Oregon forests.

The federal program that sends several hundred million dollars annually to 33 Oregon counties and the state school fund will expire Sept. 30. This money isn't charity: The payments uphold the century-old obligation to rural areas where the federal government owns more than half the land, crimping local tax bases and economies.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and other lawmakers are fighting for an extension of county payments. At best they may win a couple of years of reduced payments. If the money is cut off, rural counties could plunge into insolvency. State Rep. Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, fears a cascade of counties failing and collapsing their neighbors under the weight of new obligations.

Oregon also is threatened by a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that stormwater runoff from forest roads should be treated under the Clean Water Act as a discrete point source of runoff, like an industrial pipe.

If the ruling stands, it would require tens of thousands of permits for new and existing forest roads, on both public and private lands. And because the Clean Water Act allows citizen lawsuits, virtually every logging project anywhere in Oregon could be challenged. That's the last thing that the Oregon timber industry needs as it struggles to compete with timber producers in other parts of the country and the world, none of which face this regulation of forest roads.

Why should you care? The Oregon economy still relies on the timber industry, which provides 125,000 direct jobs and tens of thousands of related jobs. Moreover, where private forest owners go, so go Oregon forests. Already owners are resisting forces pushing them to sell their timberland for development. A burdensome new regulation that makes Oregon timber less competitive will cost more private forests.

Congress must get engaged both in the clean water ruling and county payments. Wyden and several co-sponsors have introduced legislation to take Clean Water Act regulation of forest roads back to the previous standard as non-point-source runoff. Some environmental groups claim the bill would roll back protections, but in fact it would simply continue the regulation that has been in effect for 35 years.

But Wyden and the rest of Congress need time. Oregon Attorney General John Kroger should seek a stay of the 9th Circuit ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio and others are pursuing a long-term plan to provide consistent timber revenue to the counties. The idea is to separate the 2.4 million acres of federal O&C lands into two trusts. The remaining old-growth and environmentally sensitive areas would be part of a conservation trust and permanently protected. The other lands would be in a timber trust, and subject to active management and logging. Leases of the timber trust lands could supply crucial funding to the local communities.

It's not an economic solution for all of rural Oregon, but it's the most promising idea we've heard for managing the forests, creating rural jobs and helping fund schools and other public services. In timber country, there's no greater priority.