Enviros say forest plan would hurt fish habitat

Fight over state logging policy heats up as groups challenge board vote

By Nicholas Bellos

The Forest Grove News-Times, Aug 5, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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A coalition of environmentalists lit a fire last week in the debate over the future of Oregon’s state forests by petitioning the state Board of Forestry to reconsider a controversial vote to expand cuts in state forests.

The petition, filed by the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club and Wild Salmon Center, along with other wildlife groups, charges that the board’s June vote to allow clear cutting on up to 70 percent of state-owned forests would endanger fish and wildlife habitat.

The board will have 60 days to decide whether to act on the petition.

Dan Postrel, agency affairs program director at the Department of Forestry, said the board is still consulting legal advice to determine a way to proceed.

The petition, he said, “focuses on a board action. It would be something ultimately for them to address. But obviously advice and support would come from the Department of Forestry and support from legal experts.”

The board split 4-2 in their June 3 vote, rankling environmentalists, who say the majority sided with timber interests.

Cuts over critters

“The Board of Forestry showed its allegiance to the timber industry by steamrolling over the public, ignoring the best available science and making a political decision to prioritize timber production,” Donald Fontenot, a spokesman for the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club, said in a press release.

State law requires high levels of protection for streams and other ecosystems in the Tillamook and Clatsop forests, which have been recovering after decades of heavy clear cutting and dense road con-ting and dense road construction. As a result, all forest management policy must ensure a high probability of maintaining and restoring aquatic habitat.

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