E A RT H D AY 2 0 1 2
COMMUNITY FORESTS
Can a town save its
nearby trees? BY EPHRAIM PAYNE
T
he idea of a community forest has been kicking around
the Siskiyou Mountain hamlet of Williams, Ore., for a
while. But it took an out-of-state landowner’s plan to
slash forests safeguarding the town’s water supply to
turn ideas into action.
This spring, loggers are razing diverse groves of
second-growth trees on a 320-acre plot above Williams.
Meanwhile locals are raising money to buy the land in hopes
of establishing an economically productive, sustainably
managed public forest.
In 2000 locals fi rst pressured then-owner Boise Cascade
to shelve logging plans for the groves, known as the W320,
a wildlife corridor that is home to the red tree vole, Pacifi c
fi sher, mariposa lily and northern spotted owl, as well as the
site of a well-used hiking and horse riding trail. In February
2011, Idaho timberman Michael Riggs bought the W320
for $900,000, according to Williams Community Forest
Project (WCFP) President Cheryl Bruner, whose group tried
unsuccessfully to buy the land from Riggs before cutting
started.
“It was well known that this property was of interest to
the community,” says Bruner. “Riggs knew about the protest
when he bought it.”
Almost half of 250 acres of planned clearcuts have been
cut already, locals estimate. Aside from the transformation
of a diverse forest into a monocrop tree plantation, locals
say they worry most about the threat post-logging herbicide
use poses to three streams providing salmon spawning
habitat, community drinking water and irrigation for
organic farms.
“The water here was so pristine that I gave birth to my
son in it,” says WCFP steering committee member Juliette
Mountain, who lives next to the W320. “But we can’t even
drink the water now.”
Community forests, rare on the West Coast, are more
common in places like Montana, where tree regrowth
is slow and timber companies sell cutover forestland.
According to the nonprofi t Communities Committee, which
promotes community forestry, “3,000 communities in 43
states own and manage forests totaling 4.5 million acres.”
The concept calls for a community to control the destiny of
its forests by developing management strategies balancing
local economic and environmental needs.
Bruner says people started envisioning community
forests in Williams around 2006. On learning of the new
contract for W320, locals realized the forest was perfect
for what they wanted: a demonstration project to show that
community forests are a viable option in Oregon.
WCFP supporters are not anti-logging. Many community
forest organizers selectively harvest and mill trees on their
own land, producing logs for pole building, dimensional lum-
ber and hardwood products for cabinetry. Local wildcrafters
harvest multiple forest products, from matsutake and chan-
18 APRIL 19, 2012 EUGENE WEEKLY
LOCAL KIDS JADE BUTTERFLY AND
ASA MOUNTAIN PLAY IN A PATCH
OF BLM TIMBERLAND WHILE WCFP
VIDEOGRAPHER DOCUMENTS THE
ONGOING CLEARCUTTING OF THE
W320 ABOVE
PHOTO BY EPHRAIM PAYNE
terelle mushrooms to medicinal herbs. These activities, plus
ecotourism, provide a sustainable economic foundation for
community forestry here.
A WCFP sub-committee is developing concrete plans
to establish a community forest, in hopes of restoring the
W320. In addition to purchasing a different forest, the
group is considering working with the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) to establish stewardship contracting,
which utilizes community forestry principles to manage
federally owned forestland, on BLM-administered acreage
around Williams.
“I’d like to see community forests around here,” says
Johnny Sundstrom, who helped develop stewardship
contracting on the Siuslaw National Forest’s Mapleton
Ranger District in the Coast Range outside Eugene. “The
day when forestry was simply harvesting is past. Now that
we’ve entered an era when productivity and restoration are
of equal importance, communities that depend on federal
and private timber land must be included in every aspect of
their management,” Sundstrom explains.
The W320 cut is part of a new logging boom in an area
that for years drew new residents that were attracted to its
mature forests and lack of logging. But the boom may not
pay off for Williams. Residents say the W320 harvest has
produced no jobs for locals, and the wood is earmarked for
export.
“The community doesn’t really have a voice in what
goes on in its own back yard,” says resident Leaf Nielson.
“Yet an absentee landowner from Idaho can come in and
control things. We could be creating local jobs and using
local resources in this community.”
So far, the WCFP has received $130,000 in pledges, and
has $13,000 in working capital and $12,000 specifi cally
earmarked for land purchase. Bruner says the group hopes to
attract a benefactor to purchase the land, which they hope to
get for much less than the $1.5 million price it commanded
before trees started to fall, or fi nance a 10-year low interest
loan. The WCFP shares information on the W320 and
plans for its protection, including future fundraisers, at
williamscommunityforestproject.org
Local youth have become very active in the campaign,
attending meetings, using social media to spread word of
the W320’s imminent demise and raising $10,000 online
via fundraising website IndieGoGo. Sisters Imani, 16, and
Nia Pratt, 14, created a video for the campaign featuring
local children and community members talking about the
importance of the forest.
“It’s all about the fundraising at this point,” says Imani
Pratt, adding that the children are planning more fundraisers.
“We should be able to decide as a community how to
practice forest management, just because so many people
are affected by what goes on.”
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