Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 1979)
The Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, May 3, 1979-FIVE Elk Foundation conservationist says... ging of roadle areas not econooiica. By BERYL STILLMAN State Project Manager Elk Foundation Assn. Log According to the Forest Incentives Program admin istered by the U.S. Forest Service, land eligible for financial assistance is re quired to grow at least 50 cubic feet per acre per year; that is if reforestation is to be provided on those lands. The Office of Management and Budget requires that a 10 per cent capitalization rate must be applied to all budget . ary expenditures. That is a 10 per cent return per year over the life of the expenditures. There are five alternatives proposed in the Heppner Land Use Plan (Draft) and all five alternatives lose the taxpayer money. According to table 12 on page 154, the Forest Service is now investing $2,023,263.00 to harvest 34 million board feet of timber on the planning unit; a cost of $59.50 per thousand board feet. Our return on this investment is $1,556,576.00, earning the U.S. $46.00 per thousand board feet. For each thousand board feet of timber sold the U.S. loses $13.50 on the Heppner District. Alternative E, the preferred alternative by the Forest Service, proposes to harvest 39.3 million of timber at an estimated cost of $2,385,513.00, or $60 per thousand board feet. Estimates show our return on this investment will be $1,803,384.00 or $45.88 per thousand board feet repre senting a loss under Alterna tive E of $14.12 per thousand board feet harvested. As currently proposed, man agement of this planning unit under Alternative E loses 23 cents for each dollar invested each year. In conclusion, the timber resources in the roadless areas on the Heppner District is currently uneconomical to manage as proposed. Why is this? Why should the public lands be sold for timber, facing ruin of elk herds and destruction of water sheds for a loss economically? Why does every alternative the Forest Service propose have to lose money? Under Alternative E, the Forest Service proposes to build 446 miles of new road. This represents an investment of $10,258,000 (estimated from an average of $23,000.00 per mile). At an assumed project longevity of 20 years this represents a $512,900. per year investment in new road con struction. It seems to make more sense investing money on more economic lands rather than logging and road building in these last roadless areas, and in the process maintain present elk herds while putting what is actually tax dollars to work on better management of what the Forest Service has already managed. Saturday, May 5 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 575 Gale St.-Ileppner Lots of goods and gocdiQS for a good cause I By The IIHS Spanish Club This Message Sponsored By i AN K OF jEastern Oregon Haoonar-kxie-ArlingKHi v Member: Federal Deposit Developing, roading and harvesting the Heppner Dist- Roadless area costbenefit compared Roadless Area Annual Harvest Benefit Road Cost Return to Taxpayer Kelly Prairie Texas Butte Hells Half Acre Potamus Spookum Bologna Basin 2.2mmbf 4.1 mmbf 0.9mmbf 0.4 mmbf 0.4 mmbf 0.2 mmbf Proposed Wapiti Wilderness consisting of 6 roadless areas in the Heppner Unit GILLIAM COUNTY. V II Good An organizational meeting for a Southern Morrow County Heppner Elks 358 MEXICAN FEED scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled. Stop in for regular dining! Insurance Corporation "Me ri. , - f " - : m-VV.-. skookum : . i i ,; r wheeler jrJ' )y'4i f ' "V I ' K mi IMTY t-r tkSS : . - . RARE II INVENTORIED ' y J JJfSSS ' '" ' 1 W ROADLESS AREAS JaeSPRAY 1 'Bffir, -, ; L T7- : U rffK---' J J BOLOGNA BASIN V' 1 : ; ! GRANT COUNTY' .V v' 1f;:.. i . " f v ' - r: .h : . j : v. 1 , s . .. .": i Vi t N - ' ' ' t ' ' Vi : 'Sf i-r rict roadless areas will result in a net loss of $159,484.00 per $100,936.00 $188,108.00 $41,292.00 $18,352.00 $18,352.00 $9,176.00 $132,000.00 $246,000.00 $54,000.00 $24,000.00 $67,700.00 $12,000.00 Sam Club to form Good Samaritan RV Club is set for Tuesday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m., West of Willow Restau rant. Good Sam clubs across the nation provide a tie for recreational vehicle travelers and local chapters often form & tMLl-,: MORROW COU NTY UMATILLA L: HEPPNER. ."S . x ,'.'V COUNTY ; irVS I' : " ;V TEXAS BUTTE nfii IfS-s- . - V' -F f.:tHARDMAN, . I : SW'V'-1 Ek. mm you tS IT I5C a month! lpiTHERMAcSlSffl ? Buy a Boise Cascade THERMA 2000 home between April 1 and June 15 and mail us your winter heating bills. We'll pay them, for the price of a stamp. Why? Because our THERMA 2000 homes save energy 16 ways. You'll save big money for years. And we'll pay to prove it. Ask us about our new exterior designs and for details of this special offer. Don't miss these mighty hot savings for the cold winter ahead! We're Authorized Dealers For Boise Cascade Homes And We Want To Know You Better CL0UGH HOMES Condon Hwy .-Arlington 454-2795 year to the Forest Service and ultimately the taxpayer. $31,064.00 Loss $57,892.00 Loss $12,708.00 Loss $5,648.00 Loss $49,348.00 Loss $2,824.00 Loss here monthly caravans for group -trips. Don Clark of La Grande, Good Sam regional director, will be at the meeting to explain the purpose and goals of the club. The public is invited to attend. 3 mi; i ! A '4 3 l 8 ALT. E Heppner Land Use Plan (Draft) If implemented would have these impacts on soil and water: Soil 45.7 acre feet of sedi ment (erosion) as compared to 32.4 acre feet if roadless areas are managed as wilder ness. Water Alt. E will produce 290,000 acre feet, plus sedi mentation would be extreme, would cause severe impact on existing anadromous fish hab itat (steelhead). With wilder ness management 281,000 acre feet, 9,700 acre feet less than Alt. E, but would maintain existing anadromous fishery's and protect critical soils from erosion. Elk Oldgrowth-Watersheds Found within the 367 pages of the Heppner Land Use Plan (Draft), these three resources are only vaguely discussed and their value is not empha sized as important. This land use plan as presented would be almost totally non-understandable and misleading to the layman, after this writer has waded through nine of these docu ments reviewing their con tents. What makes this plan mis leading and hard reading? The fact that the Forest Service has based the major ity of this plan on computer readouts, (coefficients) which refer to the amount of, or consequence of, a resource or use that can be expected from one acre of land in one year under a certain management prescription. The coefficients are based on data put into the computer that pertain to the individual landtype and its potential productivity, based on research of the landtypes potential. ESLE Preferred alternative impact questioned The problem is the data is very general in scope and does not deal with site-specific detail or actual facts of the individual acres of land on the unit. Because of this, the Forest Service usually por tray's an overly optimistic attitude towards the concerns of cniiM'ivationists who are dealing with the site-specific facts of individual acres and not just a general attitude about the area being man aged. The second problem with the land use planning process and Rare II has been the time frame involved, which was insufficient and has not allow ed various user groups to actually work together and more openly discuss their concern. In an interview in La Grande, Oregon with the Observer, Asst Secretary of Agriculture Rupert Cutler, stated, "The department wants to move away from the polarization of industry and wilderness advocates. We want all people whether their interest is wildlife, forage, water, mining or wilderness, to be sitting around the same table. We want them looking at the maps and pointing out their special areas of concern. A major concern is getting public involvement into the wilderness review." When Mr. Cutler said, "We want them looking at the maps and pointing out their special areas of concern," he was speaking about the site specific concerns pertaining to individual areas and acres of land. Let's now look at Alt. E, the preferred alternative of the Forest Service, and review the land allocations. Elk From pages 17-18 of the draft land use plan it is . t Pecg&e with a cemmitnsst tojra. 6 is the effective annual yield on our $100.00 minimum deposit 90 day 5 savings certificate. CENTER & MAIN HOME OFFICE: PENDLETON OTHER OFFICES: HERMISTON & MILTOM FREEWATER stated, "Elk respond some what differently to man's activities in the Heppner Planning Unit than in other portions of the Umatilla Forest. In most acres of the forest, cover manipulation achieved through timber har vest benefits elk populations on a majority of landtypes. In the Heppner Unit, cover is more limited than in other portions of the forest. Cover manipulation may still benefit elk in the Heppner Unit, but generally benefits occur on a lower percentage of landtypes and the magnitude of the benefit is considerably less." It has been this writer's continued objection that tim ber management within re maining roadless areas will have no benefit to the elk. My objection is based on the landtypes and elevations found within the roadless areas, and impacts on elk which has occured outside the roadless areas by the same basic management plan. Timber management has had some very unfavorable impacts on elk and with Forest Service figures show better elk population of 664 with management Kelly Prairie Wd 112 N-Wd 161 Texas Butte Wd N-Wd 213 288 Hells Half Acre Wd 40 N-Wd 51 ...don't show current elk population of 3,000 Cent, on page 8 ABO 1 THE 6 CASH BUYERS IDEA. Here's how to really have clout. Buy with cash instead of credit. Put yourself in the great position of being able to pay for cars, vacations, or home improvements in advance. And save the high cost of credit. Just set aside a little bit each month and with the 6 cash buyers idea, that little investment will grow to a lot. And give you a lot of peace of mind. For example, as little as $30.00 a week for 3 years produces $5,236.00. Talk to one of our savings counselors today about this idea. It's another great way to patch up your investment portfolio. HERITAGE & HERITAGE sportsmen. A great deal of concern was expressed by local area sportsmen during the early 70's when extensive logging and roading was done in the Dividewell through the Gilman Ranch area of the Ukiah District. Road density here is about 6 miles of road per square mile. The overall road mile density is projected at 3.1 miles per square mile in Alt. E; that is 1,319 miles for 424 square miles of the planning unit; a road every 1760 feet. One-hundred-eighty miles or an average of 2.5 miles or road per square mile is proposed for the roadless areas. To further illustrate the value of the roadless areas the following table shows what the land use plan intends to achieve by manipulation by timber management. The Forest Service, on page 89, Table 8 of the draft plan, illustrates the potential re source effects of wilderness and nonwilderness manage ment including the Forest Service's figures showing potential for elk. Potamus Wd N-Wd 34 35 Skookum Wd 82 N-Wd 91 Bologna Basin Wd 29 N-Wd 38 WEETERN HERITAGE OAVIHGS WFSTtHX HEMWX FFOERAl SMGS AMD UMN ASSOCIATKM I rri )
