Opinion
4A
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
OUR VIEW
Merkley’s
forest ideas
have merit
O
regon voters should feel pretty good about
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley’s ideas on forest
management, concepts he discussed last
week.
Merkley wants to push the Biden administra-
tion to spend at least $1 billion per year for log-
ging, prescribed burns and other work to get the
tinderbox forests of the state in shape to with-
stand disease and uncontrolled blazes.
“Management” is the key word Merkley used,
and we hope that is exactly what happens. Forest
management is not closure of forests. It does
not mean blockading vast tracts of forestland to
watch it die and then become kindling for another
massive fi re.
Instead, Merkley seems to back a cooperative
concept where traditional rivals — such as the
timber industry and conservation groups — work
together to help forests.
Merkley correctly pointed out that in the 2018
federal farm bill he included authorization to
double spending on forest collaborative projects.
That is just not idle talk. That is putting hard cash
behind a concept that is probably the only way we
can move forward in the future.
Merkley’s next challenge will be to get the
money into the Forest Service budget.
Meanwhile, Merkley’s focus on cooperative
projects has great merit. It seems obvious even to
the most pessimistic observer of the forest situa-
tion in the Northwest that the only way forward
will be through collaboration. That isn’t going to
be an easy sell for either environmental or timber
advocates, but it is the way to the future.
For a special interest group — such as the
timber industry or an environmentalist group —
to believe it can have it all one way simply is not
a viable solution. In fact, it is a roadblock that
pushes important matters, such as the health of
our forests, away and puts the focus on egos.
The cooperative model is one that will be, we
think, utilized on rangeland as well.
For too long there was a “winner-takes-all”
mentality regarding natural resources issues.
On one side stood the timber advocates, on the
other countless environmental groups. Both sides
believed they were right, and both could conjure
up data and rhetoric to make it all seem real.
Fact is, none of that matters when the broader
problem of forest and range management is
placed fi rmly into focus. What matters is fi nding
compromise and solutions. Fighting over dogma
is not going to get us to where we want to be in
terms of forest health. Good, sound planning will.
EDITORIALS
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YOUR VIEWS
Forest plan needs robust
input from all stakeholders
Almost every fall since child-
hood, I have headed into the Blue
Mountains to hunt big game. As
the decades pass, I spend more
and more time here, hunting black
bears and turkeys in the spring and
fi shing the many rivers throughout
the year. The Blue Mountains pro-
vide some of the best hunting and
fi shing anywhere in Oregon and
contain more than 5.5. million acres
of public lands across three national
forests: the Malheur, Umatilla and
Wallowa-Whitman.
Finding the appropriate bal-
ance of multiple uses on 5.5 mil-
lion acres is no easy task. The
eff orts to fi nd that balance have
been ongoing for nearly 20 years
through the Blue Mountains Forest
Plan Revision process. A draft plan
has already been completed twice,
but they both received widespread
objections and were never fi nal-
ized. These forest plans determine
the social, economic and ecological
goals on public lands and provide a
framework for future management
decisions.
Strong voices and comments
from sportsmen and women will
be critical to ensure the fi nal man-
agement plans contain ample fi sh
and wildlife habitat protections.
Identifying and conserving big
game migration corridors, reducing
road densities in certain areas and
actively managing forest and stream
restoration projects should be pri-
orities in the next plan revision, all
while continuing to provide for local
socioeconomic priorities. Proper
management of fi sh and wildlife
habitat will help to recover strug-
gling mule deer herds and ensure
the robust elk populations spend
more time on public lands to min-
imize increasing damage concerns
on private lands.
Michael O’Casey
Bend
Wyden can spearhead
transition to clean energy
economy
I would like to thank Sen. Ron
Wyden for his service to the state
of Oregon and our nation, and
encourage him to continue to take
action to create change in order to
power Oregon and the U.S. with
100% clean energy.
Wyden has risen as a leader on
sustainable practices: working on a
just transition toward a renewable
energy future and ensuring relief for
Oregon communities impacted by
natural disasters exacerbated by the
changing climate.
Wyden has introduced and sup-
ported bills to protect Oregon’s
rivers, improve soil health and crop
resilience, ban U.S. oil exports,
create millions of good-paying jobs
in repairing America’s infrastruc-
ture and reduce air and water pol-
lution. These actions are among the
many that have shown that Wyden
is in favor of climate legislation
and community resiliency that puts
the planet and its people before the
profi t of unsustainable and outdated
businesses.
As the chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee and a senior
member of the Energy and Natural
Resources Committee, Wyden has
the ability not only to understand
the importance of transitioning to a
clean energy economy but also the
connections to take action and pro-
vide funding for this transition. In
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Diverse student
population makes for
better teaching
I encourage all Eastern Oregon
voters to contact your Oregon state
legislators and ask them to support
the Oregon Opportunity Grant for
college students. Federal student
loans and Pell Grants cannot pro-
vide enough support for lower-in-
come Oregon students to attend
college.
I have been teaching in Oregon
high schools, colleges and univer-
sities for more than 20 years and
have seen the value of these Oppor-
tunity Grants fi rsthand. Thanks to
these programs, more of Oregon’s
students are able to attend college
and serve their communities across
the state. My classes at Oregon State
University and the University of
Oregon are defi nitely more engaging
places for learning when I have stu-
dents from across the state from dif-
ferent economic backgrounds and
with diverse political opinions.
By supporting the Oregon
Opportunity Grant you can make
my job as a writing teacher even
better by sending more of Eastern
Oregon’s amazing high school grad-
uates to college.
Stephen Rust
Eugene
STAFF
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particular, Wyden has the opportu-
nity to help ensure strong climate
action in President Biden’s Amer-
ican Job Plan.
We need bold climate legisla-
tion that promotes the transition to
a clean energy economy, and I am
confi dent that Sen. Wyden will step
up to help lead this integral project.
Sydney Dedrick
Bend
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