4A | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
Cottage Grove Sentinel
116 N. Sixth St.
Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424
NED HICKSON , MANAGING EDITOR |
Opinion
541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ CGSENTINEL . COM
The First Amendment
C
ongress shall make no law respect-
ing an establishment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press, or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the Govern-
ment for a redress of grievances.
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800)
USPS#133880
Copyright 2019 © COTTAGE GROVE SENTINAL
Letters to the Editor Policy
The Sentinel welcomes letters to the editor as part of a
community discussion of issues on the local, state and national
level.
Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters
must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address
and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters
should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to
editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any
letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the
volume of letters received.
Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumentative,
sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without
documentation will not be published.
Letters containing poetry or from outside The Sentinel
readership area will only be published at the discretion of the
editor.
Political/Election Letters:
Giesy Plan is alternative to current Elliott State Forest management
(Editor’s Note: View-
point submissions on this
and other topics are always
welcome as part of our goal
to encourage community
discussion and exchange of
perspectives.)
M
ismanagement of the
Elliott State Forest in
Coos and Douglas coun-
ties in recent years has cost
Oregon schools hundreds
of millions of dollars, our
local families and commu-
nities the loss of hundreds
of high-wage blue-collar
jobs — all with an ever-in-
creasing risk of catastrophic
wildfire to communities in
Coos and Douglas counties.
Somehow, this news has
mostly been kept quiet and
away from public attention.
There is still time to fix
these problems, but that
time is short and citizens
must become aware of
how they developed — and
what can be done to reverse
course before things be-
come worse.
Background:
The Elliott State Forest
is Oregon’s first state forest.
It was created in 1930 spe-
cifically for the purpose of
funding Oregon’s Common
School Fund. Such proper-
ties are required by federal
law to be managed to the
maximum economic ben-
efit of all Oregon schools.
Beginning with statehood
in 1859 and continuing to
present, management has
been the responsibility of
the State Land Board: Gov-
ernor, State Treasurer and
Secretary of State.
The Elliott was created
by combining the scattered
remnants of other Com-
mon School Fund proper-
ties around the state and
trading them for Siuslaw
National Forest lands and
other private and public
holdings to form a compos-
ite 60,000 acres of imma-
ture timberland.
Most of the Elliott had
been denuded by cata-
strophic wildfires from
1840 through the late
1800s. By 1930 the land was
mostly covered by young
Douglas fir saplings with
only 4,000 acres in mature
timber that had escaped the
fires. Informed estimates
were the new forest could
begin harvesting a sustain-
able 50 million board feet
(mmbf) of timber per year,
once the trees had matured.
By the mid-1950s the
saplings had developed into
young second-growth tim-
ber approaching commer-
cial size. The decision was
then made to sell the older
trees in order to pay for a
series of access roads to and
through the Elliott.
The purpose was to begin
active management of the
developing second-growth;
most of the remaining old-
er trees were then logged at
money for the first time in
more than 50 years.
The Land Board tried to
rid itself of these problems
by hastily appraising the
Elliott at a fraction of its
Guest Viewpoint
By Dr. Bob Zybach
Cottage Grove
that time and the proposed
roads built.
Recent History:
Then, in 1962, the Co-
lumbus Day Storm blew
down 100 mmbf of 70-year-
old trees on the Elliott,
causing an immediate need
to accelerate harvest sched-
ules — and finally begin
providing regular jobs and
incomes to local communi-
ties and Oregon schools, as
originally planned.
Jerry Phillips, long-time
Coos Bay resident, began
working on the Elliott in
the 1950s and continued
there until his retirement
as its manager in 1989. He
is the Elliott’s historian and
his 1996, 414-page histo-
ry, “Caulked Boots and
Cheese Sandwiches,” in-
cludes detailed accounts of
the 1962 hurricane and the
subsequent management
challenges and accomplish-
ments that resulted.
During his career, Phil-
lips added several thousand
acres to the Elliott by way
of statewide and local land
trades and sales. He was
also able to sell 50 mmbf
of timber a year the entire
time, adding greatly to local
jobs, government treasuries
and the Common School
Fund.
Despite the continued
harvest, when Phillips re-
tired there was a far greater
volume of older trees than
when he began — mostly
because the Elliott grows 60
to 80 mmbf of new timber
a year, whether it is logged
or not.
Almost immediately af-
ter Phillips’ retirement,
harvest levels, employment
and income from the Elliott
plummeted dramatically.
Federal regulations, en-
vironmental lawsuits and
political decisions based on
“critical habitat” designa-
tions for marbled murrelets
and spotted owls were the
stated causes.
Problems only became
worse in following years
and a new plan was written
in 2008 to stabilize jobs and
income and to meet per-
ceived federal regulations.
Another lawsuit was filed
and the plan was not adopt-
ed. More lawsuits were filed
and the Elliott began losing
former value and attempt-
ing to sell it for $220.8 mil-
lion — no more and no less.
There was a single bidder at
this fixed rate and the curi-
ous transaction approved.
Under public pressure the
Land Board then reversed
itself and negated the sale.
The Giesy Alternative:
As these latter events
were unfolding in 2016,
then-Oregon State Senator
Ted Ferrioli was meeting
regularly with long-time as-
sociate and forest industry
supporter, Wayne Giesy.
Meetings often includ-
ed a continued discussion
of many years regarding
Giesy’s theories on ending
the costly “timber wars”
that had become imbedded
between proponents and
opponents of active forest
management.
Giesy’s thought was that
if public forestlands could
be divided into three zones
— riparian, habitat and
product — that would help
resolve the legal disputes of
previous decades without
unfairly punishing rural
families and businesses,
and while making certain
desired wildlife habitat con-
ditions were maintained.
Ferrioli suggested that a
“Giesy Plan Alternative” to
management of the Elliott
as a test for application on
federal forestlands might be
a good idea. At that point
Giesy and I began to devel-
op this proposal and con-
tinued to work on it almost
daily until his passing last
August at age 99.
The plan would only last
20 years and rigorously re-
search land use patterns of
key Elliott bird, fish and
animal species by using
the successful Oregon State
University (OSU) “paired
watersheds” design em-
ployed for many years on
the North Umpqua River.
By that time, taxpayers
and scientists would have
far better information for
making a new set of long-
term plans for the property.
Basic elements of the
proposal were to divide the
Elliott into about 25 sub-
basins, similar to the 2008
plan. Fish-bearing riparian
areas would be managed
separately and upper forest-
ed slopes would be used ei-
ther for older forest habitat
or for intensive harvest.
Animal
populations
would be closely monitored
to see how different species
responded to each condi-
tion — all while maintain-
ing Phillips’ 50 mmbf per
year harvest schedule for
schools and local jobs.
A 2017 analysis by an Or-
egon Legislative Economist
estimated the plan would
produce more than $440
million for the Common
School Fund and more than
440 local jobs over the 20-
year life of the plan.
This proposal was for-
mally entered into the pub-
lic record at three Land
Board meetings, endorsed
by Boost Southern Oregon,
discussed on a number of
Lars Larson radio inter-
views, thoroughly written
about in a series of articles
for a statewide sportsman’s
magazine, presented to a
number of industrial orga-
nizations, and then some-
how buried without com-
ment.
Instead, the State Land
Board opted to — hopeful-
ly — sell the Elliott to OSU
at the reduced sales price
and give a year to develop a
long-term “research forest”
plan for the Elliott with lit-
tle mention of the proposal
already on the table.
Current Opportunities
During the recent meet-
ings in Coos Bay and
Reedsport with OSU, De-
partment of State Lands,
and local residents on Oct.
23 and 25, tentative plans
were revealed in which
more than one-half of the
Elliott would be reserved
for wildlife habitat, the re-
mainder used for a series of
research projects, and log-
ging reduced to as little as
10 mmbf/year “incidental
harvest related to research.”
There are real questions
as to how OSU could even
afford to manage the Elliott
with these numbers, much
less pay for ownership or
produce income for the
Common School Fund.
What can be done to re-
store the Elliott to an active-
ly managed condition, as
previously required by law?
The next meeting of the
State Land Board to con-
sider the OSU proposal and
the future of the Elliott is on
Dec. 10, in Salem.
Dr. Bob Zybach has a PhD
in Environmental Sciences
from OSU, with a research
focus on forest fire history
and reforestation planning.
He has been Program Man-
ager for ORWW.org since
1996.
Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely
issues of interest to our readers at-large.
Letters must: 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns
on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information
about a candidate is accurate, fair and not from second-hand
knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support
candidates based on personal experience and perspective
rather than partisanship and campaign-style rhetoric.
Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor
column to outline their views and platforms or to ask for votes;
this constitutes paid political advertising.
As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper,
at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and
editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow
the above criteria.
Send letters to:
nhickson@cgsentinel.com
HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS
Oregon state
representatives
Oregon federal
representatives
• Sen. Floyd Prozanski
• Rep. Peter DeFazio
District 4 State Senator
PO Box 11511
Eugene, Ore. 97440
Phone: 541-342-2447
Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@
state.or.us
(House of Representatives)
405 East 8th Ave.
#2030
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: defazio.house.gov/
contact/email-peter
Phone: 541-465-6732
• Rep. Cedric Hayden
Republican District 7 State
Representative
900 Court St. NE
Salem, Ore. 97301
Phone: 503-986-1407
Website: www.leg.state.or.
us/hayden
Email: rep.cedrichayden@
state.or.us
• Sen. Ron Wyden
405 East 8th Ave., Suite
2020
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: wyden.senate.gov
Phone: (541) 431-0229
• Sen. Jeff Merkley
Email: merkley.senate.gov
Phone: 541-465-6750
S entinel
C ottage G rove
541-942-3325
Administration
Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher
Gary Manly, General Manager... Ext. 1207
gmanly@cgsentinel.com
Gerald Santana, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1216
gsantana@cgsentinel.com
Veronica Brinkley, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1205
vbrinkley@cgsentinel.com
Carla Summers, Inside Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1203
csummers@cgsentinel.com
Editorial
Ned Hickson, Managing Editor... 541-902-3520
nhickson@cgsentinel.com
Damien Sherwood, Lead Reporter... Ext. 1212
dsherwood@cgsentinel.com
Nick Snyder, Sports/Community News Reporter... Ext. 1204
nsnyder@cgsentinel.com
Customer Service
Meg Fringer, Office Manager, Legals, Classifieds... Ext. 1200
mfringer@cgsentinel.com
Production
Ron Annis, Production Supervisor... Ext.1215
graphics@cgsentinel.com
Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties:
10 Weeks ....................................................................................$11.50
One year .....................................................................................$43.50
Senior 62+ ...................................................................................33.00
e-Edition year ............................................................................$35.00
Rates in all other areas of United States: 10 weeks, $16; 1 year, $56.50; e-Edition $35.
In foreign countries, postage extra.
No subscription for less than 10 weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30
days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are
non-refundable.
Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424.
Local Mail Service:
If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication,
please let us know.
Call 541-942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Advertising Ownership:
All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the
property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without
explicit written prior approval.
Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2019 Cottage Grove Sentinel