10A • January 27, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Clatsop County opts out of timber suit
Commissioners
heard
‘overwhelming
message’ from
public
By Jack Heffernan
EO Media Group
A $1.4 billion lawsuit pit-
ting Oregon timber counties
against the state will no longer
include Clatsop County.
The Clatsop County Board
of Commissioners voted 3-2
Wednesday, Jan. 18, to opt out
of the class-action suit that in-
cluded 15 counties throughout
Oregon. The suit claims the
state Department of Forestry
has not maximized revenue
from timber harvests on land
the counties turned over to the
state to manage.
Hundreds of people, both
in person and in writing, have
offered opinions to the coun-
ty since it was included in the
suit filed by Linn County last
year. Out of the 19 people who
spoke during the comment
session Wednesday night, 11
voiced their support for opting
out.
“The overwhelming mes-
sage from public testimony
EO MEDIA GROUP/FILE PHOTO
Clatsop County has opted out of a $1.4 billion timber lawsuit against the state.
has been in favor of balanced
forest management and against
the Linn County lawsuit,”
Scott Lee, the board’s chair-
man, said.
Commissioners Sarah Ne-
beker and Kathleen Sullivan
joined Lee in voting to opt out
of the lawsuit. One of the most
common issues both commis-
sioners and opponents of the
suit raised was that, should
the state lose in court, county
residents could be affected by
higher state taxes.
The fear of higher taxes
stems from how the state could
pay the counties back for the
lost timber revenue.
“There is no free money
here, as far as I can see,” said
Nebeker, who also expressed
concerns about the future
ramifications on state forestry
policies. “I do not think this is
a good or wise way to change
such far-reaching rules and
practices.”
Linn County
Linn County, with finan-
cial aid from a number of pri-
vate timber industry groups,
filed the lawsuit against the
state in March, claiming it had
failed to meet an agreement to
maximize timber profits. In
October, a Linn County Cir-
cuit judge’s ruling gave the
lawsuit class action status,
meaning 14 other counties
— including Clatsop — and
130 taxing entities could par-
ticipate.
Commissioner Lisa Clem-
ent, who voted against opting
out along with Commissioner
Lianne Thompson, said while
she was concerned with the
potential rise in state taxes as
a result of a successful law-
suit, she saw the timber issue
as a legal, not political, issue.
Clatsop County’s roughly
147,000 acres of forestland
represented 23 percent of all
land included in the suit. Sher-
iff Tom Bergin, Warrenton
Fiber’s Martin Nygaard and
people who work in the local
timber industry were among
those who urged commission-
ers to remain in the suit.
Both Nebeker and Sullivan
said the lawsuit favors Linn
County’s interests more than
those of Clatsop County.
“(The lawsuit) assumes
that Linn County and Clatsop
County agree with the great-
est permanent value rule,”
said Sullivan, who earlier in
the meeting was sworn in for
her first term as a commis-
sioner. “While not perfect,
the forest management plan is
working.”
Thompson said that while
she “hated” the lawsuit itself,
she wanted Clatsop County to
have a say in how its forests
are managed.
“What I’m interested in is
how best to control the out-
comes,” she said.
Lee disagreed.
“Why would we join a
lawsuit that demands maxi-
mum timber harvest over all
other interests if we don’t sup-
port that position?” he said.
Should the counties win
the lawsuit, Clatsop Coun-
ty might have received $262
million. The county budget,
by comparison, is roughly
$57.6 million.
Other taxing districts, such
as Clatsop Community Col-
lege, would receive some of
the money should they decide
to remain in the lawsuit.
County Manager Cameron
Moore said it was unlikely the
county would consider filing
a separate lawsuit against the
state.
Moore said it’s not entire-
ly certain what the board’s
decision will mean for the
county or the lawsuit. “I don’t
think anyone will know what
the exact impact of Clatsop
County’s decision will be for
at least a year,” he said.
Linn County Commis-
sioner Roger Nyquist said the
decision Wednesday night is
between the board of com-
missioners and its constitu-
ents and it will not hamper the
lawsuit going forward.
“Clatsop County must be
in a much better financial situ-
ation than the rest of us, which
is a good thing,” Nyquist said.
“I don’t know how they go
to the voters now and ask for
more money.”
Haystack lecture speaker speaks on
China’s shrinking coastal wetlands
By Nancy McCarthy
For Cannon Beach Gazette
It’s not easy to fill in a wet-
land or a coastal tideland in the
United States. Federal laws
aimed at protecting wetlands
make sure of that.
But in China, very few
regulations exist, according
to Roy W. Lowe, a volun-
teer working with the World
Wildlife who was the featured
speaker for January’s Haystack
Lecture Series.
“Anyone can fill a wetland
anywhere at any time” in Chi-
na, Lowe said.
As a result of the lack of
regulation in China, massive
construction of new cities,
ports and industrial areas on
former wetlands bordered by
the Yellow Sea is destroying
the habitat that millions of mi-
grating birds depend on, Lowe
said.
“They are all declining very
precipitously,” Lowe said.
“There’s a huge decline.”
Birds such as the bar-tailed
godwit, which flies nonstop
from New Zealand to the Yel-
low Sea – a distance of 6,800
miles – in nine days are being
threatened. When they reach
China, they depend on the wet-
lands for food to replenish the
fat they lost in the first leg of
their journey so they can con-
tinue their migration to Alaska,
another 4,500 miles away.
A medium-sized shorebird,
called the “red knot,” feeds
only on small crabs in the wet-
lands when it lands in Bohai
Bay on the Yellow Sea from
NANCY MCCARTHY/FOR CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Roy Lowe, a World Wildlife volunteer, was the featured
speaker for January’s Haystack Lecture Series
Russia, on its way to Australia,
Lowe said.
The gobbling up of feeding
grounds is becoming so seri-
ous, he added, that the spoon-
billed sandpiper could be ex-
tinct by 2020.
In all, 36 distinct species of
shorebirds use the Australasian
Flyway, which includes 22
countries and encircles more
population than all of the rest
of the world. An estimated 50
million birds use the flyway
and depend on the nutrient-rich
mudflats and wetlands in Chi-
na for food, Lowe said. Yet
two-thirds of the coastline has
disappeared since 1950, con-
verted to expansion of coastal
cities.
A former U.S. Fish and
Wildlife project leader with the
Oregon Coast National Wild-
life Refuge Complex, Lowe
made several trips to China
during his career to recruit ex-
change students to come to the
United States. In 2014, he was
invited to speak at an interna-
tional workshop in China that
focused on the loss of wetlands
there.
After retiring in 2015,
Lowe began volunteering with
the Paulson Institute, a Chi-
cago-based think tank, which
works with the Chinese gov-
ernment and businesses to im-
prove economic growth and
environmental protection in
both countries. The institute’s
Global Parks project partners
with the World Wildlife Fund
to find ways to sustain the en-
vironment.
Lowe continues to travel to
China to conduct small work-
shops with wildlife managers.
The workshops focus on de-
veloping strategies to protect
wetlands, a new experience for
many of the participants, Lowe
said.
In a recent visit to the af-
fected area, Lowe counted
A happy place,
a safe place,
a learning place…
72 construction cranes along
the coast. The leaders of lo-
cal provinces compete for
income-producing develop-
ments.
“It’s all about money and
funding projects,” he said.
“We’re trying to get the envi-
ronment into that discussion.”
Every month, at least 270
acres are filled in to make way
for factories, cities and high
rise apartments that stretch
way beyond the former coast-
line. At least 1.25 million peo-
ple are moved every month
from the countryside into cit-
ies, Lowe said.
“I wonder what will happen
in an earthquake,” he said. “It’s
scary to think about what the
future holds for them.”
The reclamation of wet-
lands also is bound to affect
China’s seafood industry,
he added. In 2011, about 28
million tons of seafood, with
a value of $200 billion US,
was produced in the area. The
shrinking coastline, oil drilling
and pollution threaten that pro-
duction.
“We’re afraid the people in
China are going to learn this
lesson later,” Lowe said.
Lowe’s talk was part of the
Haystack Lecture Series, spon-
sored by the Friends of Hay-
stack Rock. The next lecture
will be “How to Help Protect
Over 50,000 Acres of Forest in
Clatsop County” with Bob Van
Dyk, policy director for the Or-
egon & California Wild Salm-
on Center in Portland. The lec-
ture will begin at 7 p.m. Feb. 8
in the Cannon Beach Library.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Salmon River estuary system.
Protecting our
waterways, salmon
Join Lower Ne-
at Salmon River have
halem
Watershed
now quantified the
Council for a presen-
direct contributions
tation by author and
of estuary restoration
scientist Dan Bottom
to Chinook and Coho
examining the sci-
salmon populations.
ence behind estuary
Bottom served as a
wetlands restoration
fishery research biolo-
Dan
and the recovery of
Bottom
gist and project leader
salmon populations,
in state and federal
Thursday, Feb. 9, at the Pine government for 38 years, in-
Grove Community House cluding 22 years with the Or-
1225 Laneda Ave., in Man- egon Department of Fish and
zanita.
Wildlife Research Section in
Although estuaries have Corvallis and 16 years with
long been recognized as bi- NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries
ologically productive plac- Science Center in Newport.
es, their value as nursery He serves as a member of
habitat for juvenile salmon the expert regional technical
has not been fully appreci- group for the Columbia River
ated until recently. The first estuary and as courtesy facul-
comprehensive study of ju- ty at Oregon State University.
venile salmon in an Oregon
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
tidal marsh began less than for refreshments. The pre-
20 years ago in the Salmon sentation begins following an
River estuary. Millions of update from Lower Nehalem
dollars are spent each year to Watershed Council at 7 p.m.
restore estuarine wetlands to
This event is part of the
support salmon recovery ef- Lower Nehalem Watershed
forts on the coast and in the Council’s regular speaker
Columbia River. Researchers series.
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