RESTORING THE BALANCE

Creating Jobs through Ecoforestry and the
1998 Oregon Forest Conservation Initiative

By Gary Kutcher

The so-called "golden age" of timber harvest in Oregon is over and will not return. It's over because of the rampant overharvesting of pristine forestlands and because of widely abused forest management practice--like clearcut logging--based on greed rather than on conservative ecological principles. This is not to say that forestry cannot be done in an ecological fashion. But industrial forestry has proven that clearcut logging is not a sustainable timber harvest practice. The "golden age" of timber harvest has left in its wake millions of acres of ravaged forest lands, thousands of unemployed workers who depended on healthy ecosystems for work, and dozens of species of fish and wildlife pushed to the brink of extinction.

OLIFE (Oregonians for Labor Intensive Forest Economics) proposes restoring ecological balance to Oregon's forests through the Oregon Forest Conservation Initiative (OFCI) of 1998. The OFCI is a statewide ballot measure put together by environmentalists and ecoforesters for the November 1998 state ballot. Currently being circulated by hundreds of concerned Oregonians, the measure will require ecological management of private, state, and federal forestlands in Oregon, prohibiting both clearcutting and chemical spraying on Oregon's forestlands. To protect forest diversity, the OFCI also prohibits cutting of any old-growth tree wider than 30 inches at breast height. If the OFCI passes, the Oregon Department of Forestry will be required to develop and promote selective cutting of timber and organic weed and pest control methods in strict accordance with the ecological principles outlined in the initiative.

Forests and wildlife need our help

Oregon's forests continue to suffer at the hands of industrialists and politicians bent on extracting as much of the remaining native forest as they can get away with. Even though a broad panel of scientists empowered to investigate threats to native fish, plants and wildlife have categorically proven that further destruction of Oregon's native forestlands will seriously harm a variety of native species--including the northern spotted owl, the marbled murrelet, and dozens of native fish species--further destruction has been sanctioned by Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber and the Clinton Administration in their recent agreement to refuse a listing to the coho salmon along most of Oregon's coastline and to continue to rely upon failed voluntary efforts regarding logging on state and private forestlands in the state.

In 1993, I worked with a coalition of environmentalists and fishing groups to promote several amendments to Oregon's Forest Practices Act, the state law that regulates logging on state and private forestlands in Oregon. In the Oregon legislature, we came face to face with the dozens of lobbyists representing the timber industry, chemical companies and other huge corporations. We watched with dismay as legislator after legislator capitulated to the political pressures these lobbyists exerted and we came to the earnest conclusion that if the forests of Oregon are to be given serious protections through tough ecological forestry standards, that it will be the people of Oregon who will accomplish this via a statewide ballot initiative.

In the summer of 1993 John Talberth, Director of Forest Conservation Council, drafted the first ever attempt at a citizen initiative that defined strict standards for ecological forestry in Oregon. OLIFE was created to promote the initiative petition. Since that time, OLIFE and other conservation groups have worked together to qualify a statewide forest conservation initiative for the ballot. After we were held up in court in 1994 over the State of Oregon's wording for our ballot title, we regathered out forces and made a strong effort, using only volunteer petitioners to qualify for the 1996 ballot. We were able to garner 50,000 signatures in roughly six months, but fell short of the requirement for qualifying.

This year we are in an excellent position to pass the Oregon Forest Conservation Initiative. We got off to an early start and were able to collect 100,000 signatures to qualify the Oregon Forest Conservation Initiative for the November 1998 Oregon ballot. OLIFE has well-organized offices in both Portland and Eugene and we are finding tremendous support on the street for our ballot. We're building our statewide campaign and contacting people across Oregon who want to help. We've learned that the citizen initiative is an excellent tool for organizing at the grassroots level and for sharing our concerns with the people of Oregon. We believe that this is crucial if we are to educate folks to the necessity of conserving our forests and putting in place ecological standards for forestry in Oregon.

Some examples of what's at stake

The Register-Guard article of October 4, 1996 described a "Habitat Conservation Plan" approved by Governor John Kitzhaber and U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, "Nests of the threatened northern spotted owl no longer will be off-limits to loggers in the Elliot State Forest". The plan allows for the "incidental taking" (destruction) of approximately 60% of the spotted owl nests in the forest. Babbitt praised the plan as a "national model." This "model plan" will result in accelerated destruction of one of Oregon's last intact coastal rainforests and is certainly not a "model plan" for the spotted owl, the marbled murrelet, the coho salmon, or the hundreds of other species that rely on intact native forests in the Oregon Coast range for their survival. The plan for the Elliot State Forest relies on extensive clearcutting, with virtually no focus on alternative forest uses like recreation or tourism.

The Clinton forest plan and Congress's salvage logging rider also rely on clearcutting as a primary timber harvest method. Clearcutting has been shown to damage forest ecosystems in a variety of ways: water quality degradation, fisheries destruction, massive wildlife disturbances, and reduction of recreational opportunities. Recently, heavy rainfalls barraged Oregon. Because of massive clearcutting, the resulting flooding and landslides decimated rural and urban areas, killing several people and causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage.

Clearcutting also relies on the environmentally destructive practices of slashburning and chemical spraying to regrow trees. Clearcutting displaces thousands of forest products jobs by requiring machine-intensive technologies and discouraging investment in highly-skilled labor. In contrast, selective harvesting methods and labor-intensive alternatives to herbicide and pesticide use in forestry can continue to create thousands of new job opportunities in ecologically sustainable forest management.

How we can help restore the balance

The less than 10% of Oregon's old growth forest that remains should be totally off limits to logging. These ecosystems are irreplaceable. Balance can be restored to the ecology and economy by halting clearcutting, by further restricting log exports and by restoring second growth forests through the selective, ecological harvesting of trees and other forest products. This can be done without spraying chemical poisons on the land.

Ecological forest uses and restoration can employ thousands of Oregonians. William Oberteuffer and other foresters involved with the Oregon-based Ecoforestry Institute are leading the way in developing forestry methods that enhance rather than destroy forest ecosystems. We have the knowledge to implement a variety of ecological methods.

The 1998 Oregon Forest Conservation Initiative will promote jobs in the woods while protecting what Oregonians love best about Oregon: our native forests. In a four-page article entitled "All-Age Multiple Species (AAMS) Forest Management", Oberteuffer describes the ecological forest management system he practiced on his 240 acres, "AAMS management of a forest is a system in which all species of plants that naturally occur in an area are allowed to continue growing in some number, and all age classes of these plants are encouraged. A continuous crop of trees is available from the forest yearly, and management which encourages maximum production is continuous." Oberteuffer's system uses only selective logging or "individual tree selection." Efforts are made to avoid the compacting of the soil or destruction of native plant cover. Diversity of native species is critical to forest health. Replanting is rarely needed since existing mature trees drop the seeds that become the new trees in the forest. Large, dead trees are left standing to provide wildlife habitat and downed-woody matter is left to rot and add nutrients to the soil.

The wood products industry is taking steps to improve mill efficiency and to develop high-value, engineered wood products, using a greater variety of tree species. Conservation and recycling are slowly gaining acceptance. We must redouble our recycling efforts. Alternatives to wood are being developed that will take the pressure off using trees for fiber.

Some people applaud the shipments of wood products being exported to the rest of the world because they provide a source of money for the local economy. However, much more money could be circulating in the local economy if the massive shipments leaving Coos Bay were of value-added, finished goods rather than minimally processed logs. Amidst the clamor of owls versus jobs, it's been hard to hear those protesting that tens of thousands of jobs have been lost to log exports. By passing the Oregon Forest Conservation Initiative we will be taking a big step toward ecological forest management in Oregon and setting an example for the rest of the nation. With only 3% of our native, virgin forests left in the U.S., we have no time (or forest) to waste. Your support is need to pass the Forest Conservation Initiative. Please call us to help today!

Gary Kutcher is a Chief Petitioner for the Oregon Forest Conservation Initiative and Co-director for OLIFE (Oregonians for Labor Intensive Forest Economics). OLIFE is currently working to pass the Oregon Forest Conservation Initiative. The ballot measure is #64 on the November 1998 Oregon ballot. Using a grassroots campaign, OLIFE collected 100,000 signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. To help in this effort or to get more information about the campaign, call OLIFE at (541)683-1494 in Eugene or (503)294-0681 in Portland or write to:

OLIFE
454 Willamette St.-- Rm 211,
Eugene, OR 97401.