Wyden calls for more logging

Workers at Elkhorn Biomass in Baker City are seeking a sustainable source of wood from both public and private lands in order to expand into other uses for the biomass. At the firewood operation, logs are cut and split into 16-inch lengths outside the building, then moved by conveyor and dropped into a revolving catch basin. General Manager Lane Parry, left, sorted pieces Thursday as Josh Buxton arranges pieces in pre-measured forms that are taken by Jeremy Stauffer. He then wraps the bundles in plastic before stacking for shipment.

By ED MERRIMAN

Baker City Herald

Legislation filed Wednesday by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., would accelerate logging and other work designed to restore health to six national forests in Eastern Oregon, including the Wallowa-Whitman, based in Baker City.

“We authorize $50 million in this legislation to implement,” Wyden said during a Wednesday telephone press conference following the introduction of his Oregon Eastside Forests Restoration, Old Growth Protection and Jobs Act.

The money would help the Forest Service plan the forest restoration projects, and hire contractors to do the thinning and hauling of saw logs and woody biomass.

“There is no better way to restore our forests and jobs in some of the hardest-hit counties in our state than to increase the Forest Service budget for forest restoration,” Wyden said. “It will be a top priority for me in my subcommittee.”

The senator said he has worked for nearly a year with a coalition of environmental and timber industry representatives to craft the bill, which is intended to end three decades of dispute over managing national forests east of the Cascades.

That coalition included Andy Kerr of Oregon Wild; John Shelk, owner of Ochoco Lumber; as well as representatives of the American Forest Resources Council, The Nature Conservancy, Pacific Rivers Council, The National Center for Conservation Science and Policy, Defenders of Wildlife; and Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center.

“Industry and conservationists have found common ground on old-growth forest protection and scientifically sound restoration thinning projects, and now we look forward to working with Senator Wyden to turn this agreement into law,” Kerr said.

“Senator Wyden’s Legislation is an important part of an overall effort to restore the health of our eastside forests while preserving the logging and milling capacity needed to do the work on the ground,” said Tom Partin, president of American Forest Resources Council.

The legislation would affect the six national forests in Central and Eastern Oregon: Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla, Malheur, Ochoco, Fremont/Winema and Deschutes.

“Oregonians rightly wondered if this day would ever come, but thanks to the good faith and extraordinary perseverance of these fine men and women, timber and environmental interests are today standing side-by-side to move beyond decades of confrontation and improve forests and create jobs,” Wyden said.

Under the current system, Wyden said, “We end up suing the dickens out of each other.”

The legacy of that litigious era is a national forest health crisis, unnatural stand-replacing forest fires, the near extinction of the region’s timber industry, and double-digit unemployment in rural communities across Eastern Oregon.

In addition to improving forest health and reducing the threat of costly and damaging fires, Wyden said two of his primary objectives in introducing the bill are to create more jobs in Eastern Oregon and to save what’s left of the region’s timber industry infrastructure.

“If you don’t move now to protect Oregon’s wood products sector, we are going to lose it completely,” Wyden said. “We are just not going to take that chance. We’ve got to get saw logs out to the mills so we can get some economic life blood and jobs flowing to rural Oregon.”

He said his bill puts the Forest Service on notice that members of Congress “want to see a lot more done,” and that lawmakers intend the Forest Service “to show the country that this is a new day” for forest restoration, rebuilding the timber industry and creating jobs in rural communities.

Steve Ellis, supervisor of the Wallowa-Whitman, expressed support for Wyden’s bill in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

“While we don’t comment on pending legislation, the Forest Service supports restoration and forest health and the resulting benefit to local communities,” Ellis said.

Bob Parker, Oregon State University Extension forester for Baker County, said the Baker County Private Woodlands Association identified the lack of a reliable long-term supply of woody biomass from private and federal forests as one of the hurdles to building biomass processing plants in Eastern Oregon.

Wyden said his bill addresses that issue by authorizing 20-year contracts for harvesting woody biomass from federal forests.

“I feel very strongly about that. I am going to work every opportunity for more funding, every opportunity to fund biomass,” Wyden said.

Baker County’s last sawmill, Ellingson Lumber Co.’s Baker City plant, closed in 1996 due in part to a dramatic decline in logging on public forests in the region.

Today, the closest thing to a timber operation left in Baker County is Elkhorn Biomass, which operates a firewood processing plant where smaller logs are cut and packaged into firewood bundles for retail sale.

Kyle Denning, an owner of Elkhorn Biomass, said Wyden’s bill could help by supplying work for loggers, providing saw logs for lumber mills and a more dependable supply of woody biomass.

“We rely on that infrastructure of logging contractors, and on that material from federal forests,” Denning said. “It could help to stimulate forest thinning activity and keep the logging contractor infrastructure. That can’t do anything but help Elkhorn Biomass.”

Denning and his business partner, Lane Parry, are in the process of buying equipment to produce compressed fire logs at their Baker City plant.

The Baker County Private Woodlands Association and other groups have also studied the feasibility of building other types of biomass plants, including one that would burn wood waste to produce electricity.

To increase logging, Wyden said his bill would prohibit appeals of certain projects.

During the last year of the Bush Administration, timber was harvested on 40,000 acres from the six eastside national forests.

Wyden’s bill would require logging or other forest restoration work on at least 80,000 in the first year after the bill becomes law, 100,000 acres the second year and 120,000 acres. None of the six forests would be allowed to work on more than 50,000 acres, however.

As a compromise for the banning of appeals, Wyden said the bill prohibits cutting trees larger than 21 inches in diameter, building new permanent roads, as well as specific protections for roadless areas and riparian areas.

Wyden said he hasn’t calculated how many jobs the legislation might create, but he said with double-digit unemployment, every new job that is created will help.

Other provisions of the bill include:

• Requirement to form local collaboration groups within 12 months comprising labor, conservation, county government, state government and industry, with a three-fourth majority required to approve forest restoration projects up to 25,000 acres. If collaboration is not achieved, the forest management agency can move forward with a project up to 10,000 acres.

• Expedited review, expedited timelines for filing protests and administrative appeals, and limits allowing only people who were meaningfully involved in public comment or collaborative processes.

• Revises the definition of renewable biomass to specifically allow biomass from federal forests to count towards sustainable energy goals.

• Directs agencies to contract with local and regional businesses for stewardship contracts when possible for restoration work, with provisions for counties to receive a portion of stewardship contracts. 

• To encourage harvesting of small diameter logs the bill provides a 35 percent federal income tax credit toward the purchase of modern low-impact logging, yarding, hauling and milling equipment.

• Prohibits cutting any tree older than 120 years in moist forests, 120 years in dry forests or older than 160 years on O&C Lands.

•  On lands not covered by the Northwest Forest Plan, the bill prohibits cutting any tree 21 inches in diameter measured at the base or any smaller Ponderosa Pine  tree identified as a Keen Class 3 or Class 4.

• Requires agencies to develop and incorporate aquatic conservation strategies to provide watershed protections with five main components: riparian conservation zones, key watersheds, watershed analysis, watershed restoration and monitoring.

• Absolute prohibitions for forest restoration work carried out under this bill include clearcutting, cutting in inventoried roadless areas, salvage logging or logging that would negatively affect aquatic conservation projects or strategies.  

• To enforce provisions of the bill and to restore trust in federal land agencies, inspectors general for agriculture and interior are to act as observers, and forests that violate bans on cutting old growth or other prohibitions would be banned from the program for two years, while forests that conduct projects by the rules would be allowed to increase the size of projects by up to 50 percent, but not to exceed 50,000 acres per forest.