People should come first when it comes to managing Oregon’s state forests.
That’s the message Clatsop County Manager Duane Cole delivered to the Oregon Board of Forestry in Salem on Thursday.
Cole is on the 14-member Public Advisory Committee that was assembled late last year to assist the Forestry Board as it undertakes a comprehensive review of how the state manages almost 650,000 acres of forestlands, including the Clatsop State Forest.
The advisory panel, representing industry, conservation, tribal and recreation interests, as well as local governments, has been tasked with revisiting the “Greatest Permanent Value” rule, the mission statement that guides timber harvesting, environmental protection and other management strategies on the forests.
The advisory committee met Thursday for a day-long discussion of the GPV rule, then joined with the Forestry Board for discussion and questions.
The Greatest Permanent Value rule calls for “healthy, productive and sustainable forest ecosystems that over time and across the landscape provide a full range of social, economic and environmental benefits.”
Earlier this year the Board turned away an effort by the Oregon Legislature to boost harvests by putting the state forests on an industrial logging model. But the Board has also proposed changes to the current management plan that would reduce the percentage of land dedicated to complex-structure stands and modestly increase logging levels.
The Board is due to make a final ruling on that proposal in April. The advisory committee’s work and recommendations will help steer that decision.
In addition to jobs for local citizens, state forest timber harvesting provides revenue for local public entities, including Clatsop County, which receives as much as $4 million a year in timber dollars.
But in his presentation Thursday, Cole said the ongoing Northwest timber debates have focused too narrowly on the question of science versus money. What should drive policy-makers is “social sustainability,” an approach that makes people and local communities the top priority.
Social sustainability, he said, recognizes that reliable, sustainable timber harvesting provides not just money, but a strong social fabric for the people and communities that rely on most heavily on timber-related jobs.
“Maintaining social sustainability means providing certainty that sustainable forest employment will continue into the future so people employed in the forest, or by the forest, can prosper,” Cole said in remarks.
The coastal counties that contain most state forest lands, including Clatsop County, already experience levels of poverty and the problems that go along with it that are above the state average, Cole noted.
He said that tourism and recreation alone are no substitute for the timber industry and presented figures showing the disparity in wages between timber-related trades, which pay an average of more than $40,000 a year, to the hospitality jobs that pay less than $15,000.
Decline of the timber industry would also mean the loss of forestry expertise, from loggers and mill workers to university professors, Cole said. “Oregon residents know more about growing and harvesting timber in a temperate forest environment than any other place on earth.”
“Each job equals a person with education, expertise, family, community involvement, and plans,” he said, citing state data showing 13,083 forest industry jobs in coastal counties. “Social sustainability provides we consider each of them in the decisions we make. It also means that we appreciate the expertise and education they offer since these are tools needed to develop a socially sustainable community framework, and support a vibrant and productive forest.”
The Board of Forestry is also taking public input on its proposed forest management changes at two hearings scheduled for later this month, one of which is planned for Jan. 28 beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Seaside City Hall, 989 Broadway.
For more information on the state forests and the management review, go to www.oregon.gov/odf
No comments:
Post a Comment