Applegater., November 01, 2016, Page 18, Image 18

18 Winter 2016 Applegater
The important history
of O&C lands
BY JAKOB SHOCKEY
The “O&C lands” and the “county
timber receipts” they generate are regional
subjects that many of us pretend to
understand. We have become practiced
at nodding in agreement when the topic
arises. But they are an important piece
of our region’s history and well worth
understanding. Here goes.
In 1866, 3.7-million acres of
land were deeded to the Oregon
& California (O&C) Railroad
Company in a checkerboard pattern
across the forests from Portland down
into California. These lands were
meant to incentivize the building of a
great railroad, which would encourage
settlement and commerce along what
is now the I-5 corridor. Under this land
grant, these lands were to be sold, in
160-acre parcels by the O&C Railroad
Company, along the proposed route to
“actual settlers” for the reduced rate of
$2.50 per acre. In theory, the funds from
these sales would go toward building
the railroad, while simultaneously
populating the railway corridor.
These lands were heavy in virgin
timber, which was worth a lot more than
$2.50 an acre, so top officers from the
O&C Railroad Company commenced a
scheme to round up drifters from saloons
in Portland’s waterfront district and set
them up as shill settlers. As soon as these
“settlers” had acquired the O&C parcel’s
title from the lands office, this title was
quietly signed back over to the railroad
men, who sold bundles of these “settled”
parcels to timber companies at a fat
profit. Eventually, this fraud was exposed,
and in 1916, Congress took back 2.9
million acres that were still deeded to the
O&C Railroad Company.
In 1937, during the Great
Depression, Congress passed the O&C
Lands Act, which stated that timber was to
be “sold, cut, and removed in conformity
with the principle of sustained yield for
the purpose of providing a permanent
source of timber supply, protecting
watersheds, regulating streamflow, and
contributing to the economic stability
of local communities and industries,
and providing recreational facilities.”
That quote is the first important thing to
remember about the 1937 O&C Act—a
vague bit of text that set the fate of these
forests, the loggers who work in them,
and the adjacent communities. Also in
this act was an initial Allowable Sale
Quantity (ASQ) of 500-million board
feet per year, until the productivity of
these lands could be better assessed—
Voices of the Applegate
Voices of the Applegate, our community choir directed by
Harmony Sue Haynie, ended the fall session with two concerts: the first
one on November 18 at the Old Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville,
and the second at Applegate River Lodge on November 20. Harmony,
our new director, led the choir through an impressive variety of music
consisting of South African songs, Bulgarian hymns, Georgian wedding
songs, and Jamaican and gospel worship arrangements.
Voices of the Applegate will begin another session in the spring
with rehearsals at Ruch Library once a week starting in January 2017.
The beginning date and rehearsal days will be announced in December.
Sessions are 12 weeks long, including the concerts, and the membership
cost is $55 per session, which pays for the director, the cost of the
venues, and copies of the music scores. Concerts are free, but donations
are always welcome.
For more information, call Joan Peterson at 541-846-6988.
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W ednesday Lodge
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Restaurant 541-846-6082
Wedding/Special Events 541-660-0244
www.applegateriverlodge.com
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For rates and other information,
contact:
Ron Turpen
541-601-1867
ronaldaturpen@gmail.com
Next deadline:
February 1
another important detail. It fell to the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to
manage these lands in accordance with
this language.
The 1937 O&C Lands Act also
provided that 75 percent of the revenue
from timber sales would go back to the
counties from which the timber was
harvested. These are the fabled timber
receipts, which became a windfall for our
counties post-World War II as demands
for lumber soared. Since nearly all old-
growth timber had been harvested from
private land, energy turned toward
logging the big timber from the federal
O&C lands. The counties were taking
in so much money by 1953 that they
offered to return 25 percent to the BLM,
which used those funds for creating more
roads into O&C lands and reforestation
of clear-cut stands. By 1983, the ASQ
soared to 1,185-million board feet. Most
of the remaining virgin forest had been
clear-cut, and our counties had become
reliant on these payments.
The rest of this story is one
many of us are more familiar
with. The vanishing northern spotted
owl and silted-over streams led to the
1994 Northwest Forest Plan. The ASQ
fell to 211-million board feet, and our
counties were suddenly desperate for
funds. Passions flared, mills closed, and
people lost their jobs. In the Applegate,
we came together under the Applegate
Partnership—a group of residents,
environmentalists, timber industry folks,
and federal agency staff who sat down
at a table together to work through
differences and toward a shared vision
for our forests.
However, behind that collaboration
has been the specter of the 1937 O&C
Act, and it’s important to remember
that BLM continues to interpret its
mandate for our forests’ management
from that legislation. I recently heard
someone in BLM make a statement to
the effect that “when it comes to forest
management, there is public land, and
then there is O&C land.” With a nod to
L. Frank Baum’s classic book, the O&C
Act continues to be the “man behind
the curtain” in decision-making for our
forests, even today.
Jakob Shockey • 541-890-9989
Restoration Program Manager
Applegate Partnership and
Watershed Council
jakob@apwc.info