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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.”
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Kevin Bacon and eggs; actor stars in industry campaign
1 year other countries ......... call for quote
By CANDICE CHOI
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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.
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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
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