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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 2019)
A3 THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 Timber companies agree to protections for Pacifi c fi sher By JES BURNS Oregon Public Broadcasting Federal wildlife offi cials have entered into agree- ments with timber compa- nies and the state of Oregon to protect the rare Pacifi c fi sher on nearly 2 mil- lion acres of forestland in Oregon. Five companies — Green Diamond, Weyer- haeuser, Roseburg, Lone Rock and Hancock — have signed conservation agree- ments with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the past few months. The fi sher is a carniv- orous mammal related to weasels and mink and once was widely found in the Pacifi c Northwest. But their numbers crashed because of trapping, the use of roden- ticides and destruction of their habitat through log- ging and other development that removed forestlands. The agreements puts on-the-ground conservation measures in place while still allowing timber com- panies to kill fi sher though a provision called “inci- dental take,” a commonly employed allowance in federal species protection plans. The agreements’ con- servation measures include things like maintaining a quarter mile radius of undis- turbed buffer around known den sites, leaving downed trees in place to provide habitat and lengthening the time between cutting trees. “The biggest part of these agreements are the measures that these compa- nies are agreeing to do on their property,” said Fish and Wildlife Service Ore- gon supervisor Paul Hen- son. “To increase the reten- tion of certain types of habitat on the property that they otherwise wouldn’t have to do under state forest practice regulations.” Currently, private- ly-owned timberlands in Oregon are regulated under the Oregon Forest Practices Act. “These voluntary conser- vation measures to protect the fi sher, it’s something new to Roseburg, but some- thing that we’ve embraced,” said Mark Wall, land and timber manager for Rose- Greg Davis/Oregon Public Broadcasting Five timber companies have signed conservation agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Pacifi c fi sher on nearly 2 million acres of forestland. burg Forest Products. Currently, small native populations of fi shers remain only in Southern Oregon and Northern Cal- ifornia, although efforts are underway to reintro- duce fi shers from Canada in Washington. Wall says the compa- ny’s surveys haven’t found any fi shers living on their land in southern Douglas County, the closest Rose- burg Forest Products prop- erty to the current known range. But the agreement provides an avenue for fed- eral fi sher repopulation efforts to include releases in Roseburg Forest Products land. “We hope that the habi- tat that we’re leaving and starting to create for them will one day lead to them becoming something you’ll fi nd on our property,” Wall said. Wall said the company is training its forest contrac- tors to recognize fi sher dens and habitat. The Fish and Wildlife Service is currently consid- ering whether to protect the fi sher and its habitat under the federal Endangered Spe- cies Act. The voluntary con- servation agreements could infl uence that decision. “If you get enough folks to do it over a wide enough area of a species range, you could actually infl uence the conservation status of that species to such an extent that maybe you don’t need to list it,” Henson said. If the fi sher does get endangered or threatened status, then the new agree- ments will exempt the tim- ber companies involved from further regulation to protect the fi sher. Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diver- sity says the agreements aren’t a suitable stand-in for Endangered Species Act protections. “The Fish and Wildlife Service is working overtime to get these agreements in place in order to avoid list- ing of the fi sher under the Endangered Species Act. It’s something that we and other conservation groups have been pushing for since the 1990s and (the service) has been resisting,” he said. Greenwald says a sci- ence-fi rst approach is needed to ensure fi shers recover. Through the agreements the timber companies have also agreed to contribute close to $90,000 in cash and supplies over the fi rst three years. The funds will be used for fi sher research and monitoring. After this infl ux of funding, Henson says it’s unclear how those Consult a PROFESSIONAL Q: What does it OREGON CAPITAL INSIDER Backers of driver’s license measure start state petition process again By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — After hitting a legal roadblock, backers of an initiative to undo a new state law that allows undoc- umented immigrants to get Oregon driver’s licenses fi led a new petition . Their goal hit a snag after the Secretary of State Bev Clarno said the original peti- tion that supporters submit- ted didn’t comply with the state constitution. The supporters’ fi rst peti- tion asked voters to sim- ply repeal House Bill 2015, which Clarno said was inadequate. Clarno said the petition- ers needed to show how the law specifi cally would be changed to refl ect a repeal. The legislation, passed ear- lier this year, affected sev- eral aspects of state law. Oregon drivers have had prove their legal residence to get a driver’s license since 2007. House Bill 2015 allowed Oregonians to use forms of identifi cation that don’t establish residency status to get a license start- ing Jan. 1, 2021. The new petition includes both the current and a revised version of four sec- tions of state law affected by House Bill 2015. Last week, one of the petition’s backers, perennial political candidate Mark Callahan, of Oregon City, had said that his petition campaign would fi ght Clar- no’s interpretation. Reached Monday, though, Callahan said he and the other chief petitioner, Angela Roman, of Brooks, decided to revise and re fi le a new petition instead, mod- ifying it in ways to address Clarno’s concerns. “We were kind of at a point where we could either fi ght it in court, which would cost a lot of money, or revise and re fi le as a new initiative petition, which we did,” Cal- lahan said. Because they have fi led a new, separate petition alto- gether, the campaign will have to gather an initial round of 1,000 signatures — called sponsorship signa- tures — again. Callahan said they are at work gathering those signatures. The Oregon Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group, Pamplin Media Group and Salem Reporter. Get the inside scoop on state government and politics! mean that support for Windows 7 ends in January? LEO FINZI will no longer provide A: Microsoft security nor feature updates. 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