Friday
Jul172009
On Oregon Timber
Friday, July 17, 2009 at 10:47AM 
The Obama administration is withdrawing a controversial Bush-era logging plan for millions of acres of federal forests in western Oregon. More on here on Oregon Live.
I'm actually sitting in a Yachats, OR cafe (southbound to Cali) trying to get a read on local opinion. Seems they're more proud of their french toast.
Reader Comments (6)
With obama running things, we will all be holding hands singing kumbaya and all problems will be solved. We won't have any cash left but we can sing for our food or get it from a gov handout..
Obama's "Ruining" everything. EVERYTHING! Next he'll resorting salmon runs and protecting trout.... Socialism I tells ya..... SOCIALISM!!!!!
How many jobs you think were lost because of this. This helps Oregon's already sky high unemployment! Sometimes I'm glad I voted for the guy, other times..........? My dad had to move us into a double wide and work seven days a week at shit jobs because of anti logging administration. Come on Mr. President, find a balance!!!! We can protect the fish by practicing responsible timber management rather than eliminating it as a whole.
Oregon, and the whole NW Quad for that matter is an F-in Gold Mine just waiting to be tapped. It's time to turn the corner and leave the "Dinosaurs" of our past economic bliss (ie,heavy dependence on Logging) behind. Speaking for Oregon, the "Old Guard" in Salem has a hard time with this. I agree with RB, we need a balance. Here's a novel idea...why not ask the people, let them be the innovators of the NW's future.
Resource!...NOT Clear-Cut
RB,
nobody's eliminating anything but the very real potential of the WOPR to log inside stream buffers, raising water temps, putting a far higher silt load over spawning gravel during periods of heavy rain, eliminating large woody debris, etc. etc. your rhetoric continues to paint innocence on the timber companies without basing anything in fact.
in fact, if it's a balance—real, science-based balance—you truly seek perhaps the defeat of the unscientifically-sound WOPR in Western Oregon federal forests makes up a tiny bit for the Oregon Board of Forestry's recent ignoring of science (despite sound public testimony from nearly one hundred people last month in Salem that begged for a peer-review of any changes to the logging policy) and upping the cut in the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests. doesn't seem very balanced to me at the moment.
the antiquated "logging = the most jobs." argument also falls flat when you look at the cbbulletin numbers: "Coastal counties received the biggest infusions in terms of travel-generated expenditures. Lincoln ($95 million), Clatsop ($73.1 million) and Tillamook ($63.5 million) topped the list.".... these monies are generated largely from hunting and fishing, both of which need healthy forests to continue, forests that are far more valuable when left, in part, standing. these jobs are also far more long-term than the boom and bust logging model that's affected your family.
today's responsible timber management is not turning a blind eye while private timber corporations rape, destroy and profiteer off a commonwealth resource in the name of a couple bucks the common Oregonian will never see. and even if you look out into our forests and all you see is an economic model, time has proven that model's worth far more in the long run when it's left standing.
I have watched that show Ax Men, which makes me an authority of Oregon logging, and I say cut'em down. HAHA
The real problem is that the views of RB and Bacon are ones shared all across the country from the Pebble Mines in Alaska to the timber in OR to the amount of water GA must give up to Florida and Bama. There is no right answer so its best to choice your battles between jobs and nature. But we all can agree Socialism is not the answer...