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2 CapitalPress.com March 20, 2015 People & Places Forester no stranger to controversy Norm Johnson plays key role in forestry debate By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Forester Norm Johnson was enticed by “a career that lets me wander around the woods,” but his time is often spent in the thicket of contro- versy. During his three decades as a forestry professor at Oregon State University, Johnson has shaped key federal forest pol- icies while drawing fire from environmentalists and the tim- ber industry. “He’s had a real imprint on forest management out here,” said Josh Laughlin, executive director of the Cascadia Wild- lands environmental group. His role in forming the Northwest Forest Plan, which established a conservation and harvest regime for federal lands in 1994, is often cited as a sig- nature achievement. Making an impact in such a contentious field is impossible without ruffling a few feathers, so Johnson is by now accus- tomed to criticism. He nonetheless seems tak- en aback by the recent rancor surrounding his advocacy for increasing “early seral” condi- tions in federal forests. “Boy, have I caught hell over this,” he said. The proposition is currently facing an onslaught of oppo- sition from environmentalists who claim that it marks a return to clear-cutting mature stands. The forest products industry also isn’t enthusiastic about the idea, as it delays the production of harvestable timber. Despite the tough reception, Johnson makes no apologies for the concept. “Am I sorry we’re doing this? No. Will we keep going? Yes,” he said. When moist forests in the Northwest were still untouched by the descendants of European settlers, it was natural for wild- fires to create openings in the canopy, he said. Before being reclaimed by trees, these sunny clearings Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press Oregon State University forestry professor Norm Johnson, who was instrumental in shaping the Northwest Forest Plan, has long courted controversy over his strategies for timber harvest on federal lands in the West. Western Innovator Norm Johnson Occupation: Forestry professor at Oregon State University Hometown: Corvallis, Ore. Education: Bachelor of science in forestry from the University of Califor- nia-Berkleley in 1965, Ph.D. in forest management and economics from Oregon State University in 197. Age: 72 Family: Wife, Debbie, and four grown children were initially populated by shrubs and other plants that produce flowers, fruits and seeds for wildlife to eat. “It’s a tremendous food source for an amazing variety of creatures,” Johnson said. “It’s really in a lot of ways the most biologically diverse stage in a forest.” At this point, though, such early seral habitat is actually scarcer than old growth in fed- eral forests, which are dominat- ed by fairly uniform stands of evenly aged trees, he said. Managers with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are current- ly focused on thinning projects to achieve a more complex structure associated with “late successional” forests. Inevitably, though, federal forests will run out of areas suit- able for commercial thinning, putting the USFS and BLM on a trajectory of further declines in timber volume, Johnson said. In the minds of Johnson and his research collaborator, University of Oregon ecology professor Jerry Franklin, the solution to these problems is to emulate natural disturbances. Their recommendation to federal forest managers is for a “variable retention harvest” in which patches of forest are logged and left treeless for years, generating timber while clearing the way for early seral habitat. “That’s the part that really got us into hot water,” Johnson said. “We’ve made everyone mad.” Allowing parcels to be over- come with shrubs is considered a “regeneration failure” by in- dustry-oriented foresters, while some environmentalists think the strategy shows Johnson has “gone over to the dark side,” he said. The blowback from environ- mentalists suggests that Johnson and Franklin have tried to deal with a “social science element” that they’re not well-equipped to handle, said Scott Horngren, an attorney with the American Forest Resource Council timber industry group. Only a small portion of fed- eral lands can be logged, so the decision to turn such areas into “brush fields” is questionable, he said. “You ought to be managing that for timber production.” From the environmental perspective, the timing of the early seral strategy is dubious in light of the pressure on fed- eral lands to produce timber revenues in rural areas. “It gained a lot of prominence as western Oregon counties’ fi- nancial security was more and more unknown,” said Laughlin of Cascadia Wildlands. There is a shortage of com- plex early seral habitat, but it would be better restored by al- lowing some forest fires to burn and avoiding salvage logging, said Andy Kerr, former execu- tive director of the Oregon Wild environmental group. In Kerr’s view, Johnson’s strategy is overly influenced by economic considerations. “It’s driven more by getting logs out than by what the forest needs,” he said. Though they have dispa- rate views of his work, timber and environmental groups can agree on one thing: Johnson has played a pivotal position in the longstanding debate over feder- al forests. “He’s got the ear of some important people,” said Horn- gren. When Johnson was studying forestry in the 1960s, critical environmental laws hadn’t yet been passed and conflicts over forest management were still bubbling below the surface. By the time he signed on as a forestry professor in 1985, the issue was coming to the fore- front. “I realized Oregon was in the middle of a major shift in how federal forests are man- aged, and I wanted to be a part of it,” he said. Johnson developed a com- puter model called 4-Plan that the Forest Service adopted to calculate sustainable harvest levels in national forests. The formula was based on the volume of growing timber needed to replace stands that were cut, but over time it be- came apparent that other con- siderations — such as rare spe- cies and water quality — were gaining in political importance. Johnson and several other scientists were recruited by members of Congress to study these issues, which eventual- ly led to his participation in a group that designed the North- west Forest Plan. Lawmakers and federal managers have since contin- ued to depend on his expertise when crafting timber projects such as the White Castle proj- ect near Myrtle Creek, Ore., which is considered a test case for the early seral strat- egy. Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the project and a federal judge re- cently agreed it was approved unlawfully. Johnson continues to stir up controversy, but the over- all thrust of his ideas has nonetheless moved forestry forward, said Kerr. “The for- ests are better off because of Norm Johnson’s decades of work.” Capital Press Established 1928 Board of directors Mike Forrester ..........................President Steve Forrester Kathryn Brown Sid Freeman .................. Outside director Mike Omeg .................... Outside director Corporate officer John Perry Chief operating officer Capital Press Managers Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher Joe Beach ..................................... Editor Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager Entire contents copyright © 2015 EO Media Group dba Capital Press An independent newspaper published every Friday. Capital Press (ISSN 0740-.704) is published weekly by EO Media Group, 1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem OR 97.01. Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Capital Press, P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR 97.08-2048. To Reach Us Toll free ............................. 800-882-6789 Main line ........................... 50.-.64-44.1 Fax ................................... 50.-.70-4.8. Advertising Fax ................ 50.-.64-2692 News Staff N. California Tim Hearden .................... 5.0-605-.072 E Idaho John O’Connell ................. 208-421-4.47 Idaho Carol Ryan Dumas .......... 208-860-.898 Boise Sean Ellis .......................... 208-914-8264 Central Washington Dan Wheat ........................ 509-699-9099 E Washington Matthew Weaver .............. 509-688-992. Oregon Eric Mortenson ................ 50.-412-8846 Mateusz Perkowski .......... 800-882-6789 Graphic artist Alan Kenaga ..................... 800-882-6789 To Place Classified Ads Ad fax .............................. 50.-.64-2692 or ...................................... 50.-.70-4.8. Telephone (toll free) .......... 866-4.5-2965 Online ......www.capitalpress.com/classifieds Subscriptions Mail rates paid in advance Easy Pay U.S. $..75/month (direct with- drawal from bank or credit card account) 1 year U.S. ...................................$49.49 2 years U.S. .................................$89.89 1 year Canada .................................$275 Kevin Bacon and eggs; actor stars in industry campaign 1 year other countries ......... call for quote By CANDICE CHOI 9 months 4-H, FFA students & teachers .....$25 The Associated Press NEW YORK — The egg industry is ordering up a side of Kevin Bacon. The American Egg Board says it plans to launch a print and online ad campaign this week featuring the “Foot- loose” actor and puns using his last name. The group says it’s the first time it’s using a Hollywood celebrity in a ma- jor marketing push. The campaign comes at a promising time for the egg in- dustry, with the nation’s pro- tein craze helping fuel sales after decades of eggs being viewed as cholesterol bombs. The online spots feature a woman making scrambled eggs for breakfast, when Ba- con appears lying sugges- tively on the counter behind her. At one point, she leans in to sniff the actor and says she loves the smell of bacon, when her husband walks in. The “Wake Up To Eggs With Bacon” push by the ad agen- cy Grey is an update on the “Wake Up To Eggs” cam- paign that launched in 2012. Bob Krouse, CEO of Mid- west Poultry Services, an egg AP Photo/American Egg Board This image provided by the American Egg Board shows a print ad featuring actor Kevin Bacon. The American Egg Board is launching a series of online ads featuring the “Footloose” actor and plenty of puns on his last name. producer in Mentone, Indiana, said he’s glad the egg board is taking a slightly edgier ap- proach in its marketing. Del Mar , San Diego, www.CAFreshFruit.com IDAHO April 8-11 — State FFA Leadership Conference, College of Southern Idaho, Twin Falls, www.idffafoundation.org/ April 24 — Forester map and compass workshop, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., University of IdahoExtension office, 1808 N. Third St., Coeur d’Alene, $10 fee, 208-446-168., http://www. uidaho.edu/extension/forestry/con- tent/calendarofevents “I always felt like egg farmers were too conserva- tive,” Krouse said. Already, the egg indus- try says it’s seeing a recent uptick in consumption. Last year, Americans on average consumed 259.8 a year, ac- cording to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s up from 249.3 in 2010, but still a long way from the levels before the 1970s, when people were con- suming an average of more than 300 a year. People cut back amid warnings about the choles- terol in egg yolks. In 1976, egg producers got worried about falling consumption and formed the American Egg Board to promote eggs and fund research showing their nutritional benefits. More recently, the group says the industry is benefiting from the demand for protein, espe- cially in the mornings when people are shifting away from carb-filled options like cereal. Then last month, a govern- ment advisory panel helping shape new dietary guidelines said the available evidence shows no significant relation- ship between heart disease and dietary cholesterol. So it said overconsumption of cho- lesterol is no longer a concern. “We think we’re in the beginning stages of the most positive, long-term growth period for eggs in decades,” said Kevin Burkum, senior vice president of marketing at the American Egg Board. Still, the egg industry — in which about 175 compa- nies account for 99 percent of the laying hens — is also dealing with new regulations and scrutiny over animal wel- fare. A law that went into effect in California this year requires egg producers to give chick- ens enough room to stand up and spread their wings. Paul Shapiro, vice president for farm animal protection at the Human Society of the United States, said the law was inter- preted by many at the time of its passage to mean chickens should be cage-free, but that some egg producers have since disputed that position. Although the egg indus- try has been moving toward cage-free chickens, Shapiro said the vast majority of eggs in the U.S. still come from chickens kept in cages. ber), 509-257-22.0, dvm@feus- telfarms.com April 6-11 — Washington State Sheep Producers Shearing School, Moses Lake April 16-19 — Washington State Spring Fair, Puyallup, 2-10 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, http://www.thefair.com/ spring-fair/ MAY WASHINGTON May 14-16 — Washington FFA Convention, Washington State Uni- versity, Pullman, www.washingtonf- fa.org/convention CALIFORNIA May 1-2 — Forest Landowners of California annual meeting, Holiday Inn, Auburn, www.forestlandowners. org/ Calendar MARCH OREGON March 20-23 — Oregon FFA State Convention, Silverton, www.oregonffa. com March 20-22 — Northwest Horse Fair & Expo, Linn County Fair and Expo Center, Albany, www.equinepromotions. net IDAHO March 27 — Forestland grazing workshop, 1 to 5 p.m., Federal Building meeting room, Seventh Avenue and Col- lege Street, St. Maries, 208-245-2422, http://www.uidaho.edu/extension/forestry CALIFORNIA March 22-24 — California Fresh Fruit Association Annual Meeting, The Grand APRIL OREGON April 18 — Oregon Women for Ag- riculture Auction and Dinner, Linn County Fair and Expo Center, Albany, 50.-24.- FARM (.276), http://owaonline.org/ April 25-26 — AgFest, 8:.0 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Oregon State Fairgrounds, Salem, $9 for adults, under 12 are free, http://www. oragfest.com CALIFORNIA April 18-21 — California State FFA Conference, Selland Arena, Fresno, www. calaged.org/stateconvention WASHINGTON April 4 — Washington State Sheep Producers Lambing and Management School, Sprague, $50 (member), $60 (non-mem- JUNE CALIFORNIA June 15-26 — Postharvest Tech- nology Short Course, University of Cal- ifornia-Davis, http://postharvest.ucdavis. edu/Education/PTShortCourse/ JULY IDAHO July 11 — 94th Annual Idaho Ram Sale, Twin Falls County Fairgrounds, Fil- er, 208-..4-2271 or iwga@earthlink.net 1 year Internet only ............................$49 1 year 4-H, FFA students and teachers ....$.0 Visa and Mastercard accepted To get information published Mailing address: Capital Press P.O. 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