A6
THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, FEbRuARy 5, 2022
Timber, environmental groups
pitch Private Forest Accord
Crisis: ‘There’s only so
much we can do to force
anybody into anything’
Continued from Page A1
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Environ-
mental advocates presented
a united front with the tim-
ber industry while recently
pitching new forestry regula-
tions to Oregon lawmakers.
The state Legislature
is considering whether to
enshrine a compromise deal
on logging rules — the Pri-
vate Forest Accord — into
law, expanding no-harvest
buffers and making other
management changes.
For the timber industry,
the passage of Senate Bill
1501 would ensure decades
of regulatory predictability
for forestland owners and
sawmills, said Diane Mey-
ers, the vice president and
assistant general counsel at
the Weyerhaeuser timber
company.
“The stability makes
Oregon an attractive place
for the forest product indus-
try’s continued invest-
ment,” Meyers said Tues-
day before the Senate
Natural Resources and Wild-
fire Recovery Committee.
Aside from expand-
ing logging buffers, the
Private
Forest Accord
would strengthen rules for
roads to ensure they don’t
obstruct fish passage and
don’t increase sediment in
streams, she said.
“Frankly these conversa-
tions have been difficult on
both sides,” Meyers said.
Small streams that lack
no-harvest buffers would
receive protections under
the deal, which is significant
because they affect the tem-
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Felled trees are moved in preparation for being cut into log
lengths and loaded onto a truck.
peratures of larger water-
ways, said Bob Van Dyk,
Oregon and California pol-
icy director for the Wild
Salmon Center nonprofit.
The agreement calls for a
habitat conservation plan for
protected species in private
forests within five years,
which could prove challeng-
ing due to Endangered Spe-
cies Act processes, he said.
“That’s a federal deci-
sion, and given federal time-
lines, that may be ambi-
tious,” Van Dyk said.
The
Private
Forest
Accord would track the
removal of beavers from for-
estland and prioritize nonle-
thal approaches to resolving
conflicts between the spe-
cies and timber operators,
said Sean Stevens, executive
director of the Oregon Wild
nonprofit.
The Oregon Department
of Forestry’s enforcement
abilities would be enhanced
and civil penalties for repeat
violators would be increased
tenfold, from $5,000 to
$50,000, he said.
“We don’t want to see
those people breaking the
law with impunity,” Stevens
said.
Small forestland owners
typically harvest a third less
timber from their properties
than commercial operators,
which is recognized with
more flexible rules in the
agreement, said Jim James,
the executive director of the
Oregon Small Woodlands
Association.
However, small land-
owners who meet the more
rigorous standards would be
rewarded with a tax credit
that compensates them for
the unharvested timber,
James said. Those tax pro-
visions would be enacted
under a companion bill, SB
1502.
The deal is aimed at pre-
venting small forestland
owners from being pres-
sured to convert their prop-
erties to other uses, which
would be environmentally
detrimental, he said.
“I hope it finds its way
across the finish line,” James
said of the deal.
Apart from the Private
Forest Accord, lawmakers
will be considering other
landmark timber legislation
this year: A new manage-
ment regime from the Elliott
State Forest.
The state forest has long
been controversial because
the logging revenues it gen-
erates are obligated to pro-
vide funding for schools and
because it was considered
for privatization.
Under Senate Bill 1546,
the forest would remain in
state ownership and its rev-
enues would be decoupled
from the Common School
Fund after generating $121
million for it.
The vast majority of
future logging would occur
on tree plantations younger
than 65 years and more than
a third of the 90,000-acre
property would be set aside
in a reserve for older forests.
The forest would be ded-
icated to public use and
research, with Oregon State
University taking a key role
in its management.
Vehicles: A push to bolster response and rescue
Continued from Page A1
The vehicles are capable
of accessing flooded areas,
performing water rescues
and fighting fires. Benches in
the flatbed allow firefighters
to relocate a large number of
people in an emergency.
Both fire departments
applied for the grants sev-
eral years ago, but recent
flooding and wildfire condi-
tions made the vehicles all
the more needed.
“It has been a long time
coming,” Cannon Beach
Fire Chief Marc Reckmann
said.
Cannon Beach’s fire dis-
trict plans to utilize the new
vehicle for multiple pur-
poses, but it will primarily
serve as a brush rig running
out of the Arch Cape Fire
Station. Since firefighters
have easier beach access in
Cannon Beach, Reckmann
thought it would be of better
use in Arch Cape.
The fire district plans
to install a removable tank
and pump system, as well
as a water filtration sys-
tem to pull from streams in
the event of a water system
failure.
Warrenton and Cannon Beach have received all-terrain
vehicles from the state.
Warrenton will also add
a tank and pump system to
its vehicle, Warrenton Fire
Chief Brian Alsbury said,
once the city is able to fit it
into the budget. The vehicle
will also be used for navi-
gating sand dunes. The fire
department has relied on
mutual aid and Camp Rilea
for help in the past.
“That’s really our big-
gest, troubling spot is being
able to get into the dunes
and into the shore pines and
really thick stuff where big
problems can happen if we
don’t get on it right away,”
Alsbury said.
While the vehicles, con-
structed by a company in
Bend, will be under man-
agement by the fire districts,
the state has the option to
request them elsewhere if an
emergency occurs.
The addition of the
all-terrain vehicle, Alsbury
said, is a part of his push
to bolster the city’s wild-
land response and rescue
capabilities.
“You’ve seen in the last
few years, how these big
fires are happening in Ore-
gon and we’re drying out,”
he said. “The last two sum-
mers have been pretty dry
… Unfortunately, our future
is getting warmer and things
are drying out quicker and
staying dryer longer, and
that basically is building a
perfect storm in a way.
“I want to be ready for
it. I want to stop it before it
gets here. I’m trying to do as
much as I can to protect the
community.”
To test the rig’s effective-
ness, Alsbury took it to a
spot the fire department has
always had problems with
– the road that divides Fort
Stevens State Park from
Camp Rilea and turns into
Strawberry Knoll. The area
is filled with deep holes.
Alsbury was impressed with
its performance.
“We powered right
through that stuff,” he said.
“It’s a remarkable vehicle. I
think we were pretty fortu-
nate to get it.”
The police chief cau-
tioned, “There’s only so
much we can do to force
anybody into anything.”
Co-response
the responder should be a
social service provider,”
she said. “A behavioral
health (provider) should be
able to respond to behav-
ioral health needs.”
Merila is encouraged
by the opportunity, but
acknowledged it will not
fix everything.
“In the absence of
actual resources in Clat-
sop County to connect peo-
ple to ... these people will
continue to cycle through
the law enforcement sys-
tem and the behavioral
health system,” she said.
“Without housing we can’t
address the homeless issue,
which is part of why we’re
pursuing the Heritage
Square project.”
The Astoria City Coun-
cil is considering a work-
force housing project at
Heritage Square that would
include low-cost hous-
ing for Clatsop Behavioral
Healthcare’s clients.
The mental health
component of the project
has drawn broad support
among the City Council,
the county Board of Com-
missioners and social ser-
vices agencies, but it has
also provoked some strong
reaction by people opposed
to having more social ser-
vices downtown.
Astoria police and Clat-
sop Behavioral Healthcare
are also in the initial stages
of developing a program
that would embed clini-
cal staffers in the police
department.
The program would
resemble the co-response
model, which generally
involves law enforcement
and clinicians responding
to crisis calls together.
Clatsop
Behavioral
Healthcare, Clatsop Coun-
ty’s mental health and sub-
stance abuse treatment
provider, is beginning with
Astoria, but hopes to even-
tually expand the program
countywide.
One clinician has been
hired. The agency plans to
hire another with funding
support from the county
and state.
Neal Burton, a mental
health counselor at Clat-
sop Behavioral Healthcare,
said the agency’s hope is
to provide more imme-
diate assistance and even
prevent a crisis before it
unfolds.
Exclusion zone
“We have some con-
cepts we’re working with
Astoria’s homeless pop-
about what that’s going to ulation has become more
look like on the ground,” visible downtown, along
with peo-
B u r t o n
ple passing
said. “We
SIMILAR
through the
don’t know
who
exactly how
ORDINANCES region
are tempo-
it’s going
rarily liv-
to
grow,
HAVE BEEN
ing on the
but
we
PASSED IN
streets. The
want to be
city
has
more avail-
CITIES SUCH
able and do
received
more pro-
AS ASHLAND f r e q u e n t
active work
complaints
AND LINCOLN a b o u t
in
closer
uncomfort-
proximity
CITY.
able interac-
with
law
tions, trash
enforce-
ment countywide.”
and human waste left in
Clatsop
Behavioral public places and people
Healthcare has a mobile harassing passersby.
Over the past few years,
crisis team available to
help law enforcement the city has discussed
when called, but inade- adopting an exclusion
quate funding and staffing zone ordinance as a way
has made it a less effective of addressing repeated bad
behavior.
tool for police.
Under the ordinance, the
Burton said both mod-
els serve a purpose and can city could move to exclude
people from neighbor-
work together.
Shyra Merila, the clin- hoods if they repeatedly
ical operations officer at commit violations like
Clatsop Behavioral Health- theft, drinking in public or
care, said the co-response harassment. If expelled by
model will allow clinicians the court, people would be
to respond to calls when subject to trespass if they
return.
appropriate.
Similar ordinances have
“Law
enforcement
often gets called for things been passed in cities such
that are not necessarily as Ashland and Lincoln
related to criminal behav- City.
ior because people don’t
Spalding said he has
know who else to call,” been asked to give a pre-
sentation about exclusion
Merila said.
“When the need is zones during a City Coun-
really about getting access cil work session later this
to mental health services, month.
“At that point, the coun-
getting access to substance
use services or getting cil will decide if this is
connected with resources something they’re inter-
in the community that ested in enough for me to
can help people address bring them an ordinance,”
their basic needs, then he said.
Incumbents: County overhauls comprehensive plan
Continued from Page A1
Kujala and Thomp-
son said the lack of child
care options in the county
remains a problem they
would like to address.
Kujala sits on a county task
force looking at the issue.
The county also suffers
from a housing scarcity that
impacts all income levels.
Wev is the commission’s
representative on the board
of the Northwest Oregon
Housing Authority, which
manages properties for peo-
ple with low- and- mod-
erate- incomes in Clatsop,
Columbia and Tillamook
counties. Wev has supported
the establishment of a hous-
ing project, consisting of
more than 40 apartments,
being developed in War-
renton’s Chelsea Gardens
neighborhood.
In addition, the com-
mission is overhauling the
county’s
comprehensive
plan, a document that will
help shape the future of the
county’s
unincorporated
areas and how the county
grows.
The three commission-
ers’ experience on the board
predates the coronavirus
pandemic, a crisis that at
times has displaced other
priorities.
Kujala said that, “as a
commission, I think, we
work well together.” He
said the board, under his
leadership, has worked with
municipalities, nonprofits
and other organizations in
the county in a collaborative
fashion.
“That was one of my
goals,” he said, “and I think
that’s happened.”
Thompson pointed to the
working relationships she
has fostered over her nearly
eight years as a commis-
sioner — with state agen-
cies, judges, community
activists and county staff,
as well as with her fellow
county commissioners in
Clatsop and statewide. She
works with the Associa-
tion of Oregon Counties and
is vice chairwoman of the
Columbia-Pacific Economic
Development District.
Her message to voters:
“Thank you for honoring me
with your trust. I’ve worked
hard for you, and I hope I’ve
worked well. Let’s carry on
and do more good together.”
In a release announcing
her run, Wev’s campaign
said, “These are uniquely
difficult times for Clat-
sop County. With (Wev’s)
reelection, we will bene-
fit from her vast experience
and leadership to help nav-
igate us through these trou-
bled waters.”
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