Applegater., November 01, 2016, Page 21, Image 21

Applegater Winter 2016
21
OPINIONS
Losing our
forests 32,249 trees at a time
Behind the Green Door
BY CHRIS BRATT
Recently, efforts to increase timber
cutting in the Applegate’s public forests
have accelerated. In September the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
advertised 32,249 merchantable trees
to be auctioned off from the Nedsbar
Timber Sale. It seems that the BLM, the
supposed guardian of these public lands,
has given in to political and economic
interests that value commodity extraction
over protection of irreplaceable resources.
After working cooperatively
for over two decades trying to
put these local public forests back
in good working order, we’re again
faced with increased forest degradation.
BLM has returned to a maximized and
dominant logging approach to forest
management. They have dropped the
Applegate Adaptive Management Area
(AMA) plans that were “intended to be
prototypes of how forest communities
might be sustained.” It also makes a
mockery of our two-year effort to work
collaboratively on a Citizens Alternative
for the Nedsbar Timber Sale.
Needless to say, BLM’s unwelcome
action to bring back an excessively
narrow timber-dominant interpretation
of the 1937 Oregon and California
Chris Bratt
Lands Act (O&C Act) has raised strong
objections in our community. Many
of us feel that the BLM is evading the
multiple- and sustainable-use mandate
of the O&C Act by no longer giving
equal consideration to “protecting
watersheds, regulating streamflow, and
contributing to the economic stability
of local communities and industries,
and providing recreational [facilities]”
despite the multiple- and sustainable-use
mandate of the O&C Act. These original
mandates for O&C Act forestlands have
been further strengthened by the Clean
Air and Water acts, the Endangered
Species Act, the National Environmental
Policy Act, and BLM’s Federal Land
Policy Management Act. All these
laws contain additional mandated
responsibilities that the BLM must
adhere to and enforce.
It seems the BLM has now
been forced (from many quarters)
into an unsustainable management plan.
Numerous politicians, representatives
of Oregon’s timbered counties, the
forest products industry, and some
BLM managers are clamoring for huge
increases in the number of trees to be cut
from our public forestlands in western
Concern about Nedsbar rhetoric
BY KEN CHAPMAN
From the outset, I have been
concerned about the rhetoric surrounding
the proposed Nedsbar logging sale.
Before any final decision had been
made, signs appeared simplistically
stating “Stop Nedsbar.” Early posts about
the project included unsupportable
conclusions about logging. One post
from a group in Williams talked about
the forest being “destroyed” and claimed
that the project area represented “the last
best older forest.” Really? Did they mean
anywhere, or just in the Little Applegate?
Later in the summer, the rhetoric
heated up and the civility trended
down. At an informational tour of the
Nedsbar project area, an opponent of
the project asked the BLM representative
how she could justify her humanity,
thus proving that the question should
have been asked in front of a mirror.
Later, after the BLM announced its
decision, the spokesperson for the
Applegate Neighborhood Network, a
person I know and respect, said that
decision represented a “middle finger”
to residents. Obviously, a person could
read the decision and disagree with it. A
fair reading of the document, however,
would not conclude that it was a “middle
finger” to anyone.
More important than the factual
misrepresentation of the decision,
however, was the fact that the rhetoric
was inflammatory. The “middle finger”
is often the start of road-rage incidents
and fights of all varieties and venues.
It is, whether intentional or not, a dog
whistle to the unbalanced and/or the
unprincipled.
So it was probably not coincidental
that shortly after the inflammatory
reaction, some wannabe criminals, with
all of the courage of Internet trolls,
anonymously announced that they
had spiked trees within the project
area. Better forest health through tree
spiking—that’s definitely thinking out
of the box!
Having made an inflammatory
response to a BLM proposal that did not
include tree spiking and the implication of
violence against opponents of their plan,
you would think that the spokesperson
for the Applegate Neighborhood
Network would have been purple with
rage at the serious implications of a tree-
spiking incident. You would be wrong.
Acting like an understanding parent of a
rascally child, the spokesperson made a
statement to the effect that while anger
was justified, violence was not.
It is unfortunate that the moderate
language used against the tree spikers
was not used to characterize opposition
to the BLM’s decision. While there
is no obligation to agree with BLM,
responsible citizenship would seem to
include the belief that a differing opinion
is not itself proof of bad intent.
Ken Chapman
kenjanchapman@gmail.com
Oregon. Some O&C counties are
demanding that 500-million board feet
of timber be cut annually in perpetuity.
Cutting this massive amount of timber
every year could wipe out hundreds of
species and eventually destroy the forest
itself. But these folks continue to believe
this overcutting is the cure-all for putting
money into county coffers and providing
the timber industry with logs and jobs.
I think these people who support the
BLM’s overcutting scheme are looking
for pie in the sky. Their economic and
timber goals are questionable, especially
here in the Applegate. BLM’s maximum
timber production plan not only comes
at the expense of the environment, but
it also has some technical and economic
questions that need addressing.
Take, for example, the Nedsbar
Timber Sale mentioned earlier. The BLM
put their timber sale plan (alternative 4)
out to potential bidders, but didn’t receive
one bid. Could it be that selling over
32,249 trees for only $231,014.60 (that’s
$7.16 per tree) still isn’t a moneymaker
for loggers and that any county proceeds
will end up being chicken feed? I find it
very disturbing (and hope you do too)
that our valley ‘s magnificent, towering
Douglas fir trees (32,249 of them with
an average diameter of 12.8”) are offered
at the giveaway price of $7.16 each.
These trees are definitely worth more
left standing in place, still growing and
absorbing carbon as part of a warming
climate solution.
Because the beautiful, unique, and
slow-growing forests we have here in
the Applegate are experiencing greater
fire danger than ever, as well as drought,
warming temperatures, and insect
outbreaks, they require responsible
management. Management is made
even more difficult here because these
BLM forestlands are checkerboarded
with other landowners’ lands in difficult
terrain. These and other factors make
logging in the Applegate harder to deal
with—and less lucrative.
The BLM has di scar ded
adaptive management and their
own mission to “manage and conserve
the public lands...under our mandate
of multiple use and sustained yield.”
Certainly there is no justification for
BLM’s backsliding and putting extreme
emphasis on cutting more trees while all
other resources go begging.
Chris Bratt • 541-846-6988
Veterans’ outreach
program comes
to the Applegate
Josephine and Jackson County Veterans Service Offices offer assistance
to veterans and their dependents in obtaining benefits provided for them by
county, state, and federal law. In an outreach program that began in November,
veterans service officers are now available in the Applegate to help veterans
from 11 am to 2 pm on the first Wednesday of every month at Applegate
Valley Fire District Station #1.
“We are excited to bring our services to the Applegate to support the
local communities. I’d like to thank the fire chief and the board for allowing
us to utilize Station #1. It’s an ideal location,” said Lisa Pickart, the Josephine
County Veterans Service Office program manager.
Applegate Valley Fire District Station #1 is located at 18489 North
Applegate Road, next to the Applegate Library. For more information, contact
the Josephine County Veterans Service Office at 541-474-5454 or the Jackson
County Veterans Service Office at 541-774-8214.