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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 2015)
National Forest 1 deep “ th e W6St Cascade w ilderness, ding among a few sparsely scattered tte e s m a clearing otherw ise void of life. and n ? d | 0Ver u ° Sely Packed piles of twig8 nd needles - th e dried rem ains of Douglas recentlv u ? ® ° nCe flourished in this recently logged patch of forest. Zer° ’ and dePendW on how you , it s eith er a heartbreaking scene of ^ s t tu c b o n o r a stage set for rejuvenation. b e I hX hte^ h t ° f th e Northw e s t’s tim ber w ars may J e a d s tan t memory, b ut a fierce debate over how T h eu T ? ? ! tS Sh0UW be m anaged rages on- nf not • i f F orest S enuce says active m anagem ent of national forests, including som e logging is necessary for forest health, restoration and the benefit of th e public and local econom ies. Forest watchdog groups say th ese restoration projects are nothing m ore than tim ber sales thinly veiled as restoration, and when logging operators move in, they often cause m ore harm than good. Are th ese restoration projects helping or hindering A m erica’s beloved national forests? Both sides have studies, scientists and o th er experts backing up th eir claims. To g et an on-the-ground understanding of this debate, S treet Roots invited the F o rest Service and an environmental group with a histoiy of suing it to join us on a field trip into M ount Hood National F o rest to see how this m odern-era tim ber w ar is playing out in Portland’s backyard. But before we venture any farth er into th e woods it s im portant to understand how we got h ere in the first place. Regulation rewind ■ liliB llii Plan was M un ve ile d in 1994, ending the timber ware 4 wtivwuy nau piano, 300 some were more environmentally friendly than others. ' Wildlife protections among forests varied depending on the nature of the Forest ’ consistency to those plans, forcing forest T WO significant changes to forest management rose out of the jobs- , « ^ “E nvironm ent debate of the early 1990s. For one, President Bill Clinton unveiled the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994, creating rules for managing 24.6 million ’ acres of federal land in northern spotted owl territory spanning Oregon, Washington and northern California. Since then, lawsuits have been fewer and logging in national forests has decreased drastically. Timber cut from Mount Hood National Forest in 2014 was 12 percent of what it was in 1990. In forest management, the rules are dense, the term s many and the-politics complicated. To follow along on our field trip, understanding a few basic principles is necessary. When the Northwest Forest Plan Was enacted, the 19 national forests in its jurisdiction amended their individual forest plans accordingly. Under the updated rules of Mount Hood National Forest’s plan, timber harvest for producing wood products can occur only in areas designated for “timber emphasis.” When logging does occur in those areas, the Forest Service must follow hundreds of standards and guidelines put in place to protect wildlife, water quality and scenery. Logging can occur in areas designated as reserves, but thè rules governing those areas are even stricter; timber can be removed only to specifically benefit the forest and, dependent species. These reserves include “late successional reserves,” which either contain old growth or have been selected to evolve into old- growth forest, and “riparian reserves,” which are areas adjacent to waterways, including rivers, wetlands and seasonal streams. Forest plan revisions now underway may put these protections at risk because the Forest Service has indicated it wants to do away with the regional plan. Also stemming from the timber wars decades ago was the establishment of collaborative groups. Their purpose is to bring together timber interests, - environmentalists, elected officials, citizens and the Forest Service to come to a consensus on whether a restoration project or timber sale should move forward. Ultimately, however, it’s the Forest Service that makes the final decision. There are 26 page 5 managers within northern spotted owf territory in Oregon, Washington and northern California to comply with the same rules and guidelines, which were aimed at repairing badly clear-cut forests and at protecting at-risk species by improving ecosystems over the next 100 years. Since the Northwest Forest Plan’s implementation, logging in national forests has decreased, and according to a 20-year monitoring report on the plan’s progress released in dune, it’s achieving many of its ecological goals. But since the Northwest Forest Plan was written, there have been a tew developments. P H O T O B Y T R IP J E N N IN G S /B A L A N C E M E D IA This aerial photo o f an isolated u n it within the Jazz T hin project in M ount Hood National Forest was taken by drone. A moderately thinned area such as this is typically left with about 65 to 75 trees standing per acre. A heavily thinned u n it is typically left with about 40 trees standing per acre. More photos from our field trip are online a t news.streetroots.org. collaborative groups in Oregon. Earlier this year, members of 19 environmental groups spanning the U.S., including two in Oregon, issued a statement claiming their voices are ignored at these collaborative-group meetings, and the “over riding goal has become economic return to local communities and/or the timber industry.” Most stated they were withdrawing from the collaborative process altogether, a move that will likely lead to an increase in the lawsuits these groups were created to avoid. Mount Hood National Forest watchdog group Bark signed the statement, but it hasn’t given up entirely on the collaborative process. Bark frequently files objections to proposed Forest Service projects When it finds the Forest Service strays from governing forest plans. In cases where Bark believes the Forest Service is outright breaking the law or that logging activities will significantly harm protected areas, it takes the Forest Service to court. Since Bark’s formation in 1998, it has sued to stop projects 10 times, winning half of those lawsuits. ccompanying Street Roots on the Sept 25 field trip were two Bark staffers, attorney Brenna Bell and Forest Watch Coordinator Michael Krochta, and two Forest Service employees who work in the Mount Hood National Forest, District Ranger Jackie Groce and Silviculturist Glenda Goodwyne. Goodwyne prescribed the restoration projects on our field trip agenda. As a silviculturist, it’s her job to evaluate each stand, or grouping, of trees in a proposed project and decide how it should or shouldn’t be managed. At 9 a.m., we met at the Clackamas River Ranger District in Estacada, about 40 minutes southeast of Portland, where Goodwyne worked for 26 years after-earning a degree in forest management from Oregon State University in 1985. She said when she went to work at the Estacada station in 1989, it had 175 employees, and another station 26 miles away had 200 employees, plus seasonal help. But that station closed, and when she took a position at the Forest Service Region 6 office about 18 months ago, she left just 34 permanent employees behind her. “Before the major cuts came in 2002, A See FOREST page 8 C hanges in climate are affecting forests, the Northwest is coming off another record-breaking wildfire season, and science behind forest management has evolved. In 2014, the U S . Forest Service announced it was time for a plan revision, but rather than have one overarching set of rules, it wants to go back to having an individual plan for each forest. That approach didn’t go so well for the environment in the past, so with this announcement, conservationists grew - concerned. On Oct. 1, a letter signed by 37 environmental groups, including Bark, Audubon Society of Portland and Oregon Wild, urged the Forest Service to maintain the framework of the Northwest Forest Plan, incorporate the best relevant science and “engage in further dialogue with us before making final decisions? Brenna Bell, attorney for Bark, said conservationists would like the Forest Service to revise the Northwest Forest Plan rather than do away with it, and then update individual forest plans to comply with the new version. On Sept 20, Seattle Times published an editorial stating that returning to the old model of forest planning “would be a mistake” and a reversa, of the 1994 plan’s forward thinking.
