On Tuesday morning, University students and Eugene residents hoisted a wooden platform, a tarp, several books and a hand-crank cell phone charger into a pine tree across the street from the Capitol building in Salem, Ore. The group was preparing for a four-day tree sit-in protest of a logging proposal that will appear before Gov. Ted Kulongoski this month.
University senior Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky spent four days living in the tree in order to bring public attention to the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, the Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to increase logging in 18 counties around Oregon. The protest will culminate in a rally at the Capitol today, where Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson will give a speech.
Sorenson said he distrusts the WOPR because he feels it’s connected with U.S. President George W. Bush and his cohorts. “They’re trying to ram this through at the end of their administration,” he said.
The BLM has jurisdiction over 15 million acres in Oregon, and 2.6 million will be affected by the new plan. More than 2 million of the affected acres fall under the Oregon and California Lands Act of 1937, which requires the BLM use the land for harvesting timber in order to provide revenue to state counties, as well as protect species in the area.
The BLM drew up the WOPR because many counties in Oregon were concerned they were not receiving ample timber money, according to BLM spokesperson Michael Campbell.
In 2011 the Secure Rural Schools Act will expire, ending federal payments to Oregon counties, which total about $115 million annually. Campbell said the BLM’s goal is to be prepared to replace most of this money when the payments stop. The total estimate is $75 million annually.
The Eugene chapter of the environmental group Cascadia Rising Tide is coordinating the protest in Salem.
Chapter spokesperson Samantha Chirillo, a University master’s candidate, said the WOPR is environmentally unsound and economically detrimental in the long run.
The plan calls for clear-cuts of old-growth forests. Northwest forests are antidotes to global warming, she explained, because they trap carbon more effectively than almost any forests on Earth. To clear-cut old-growth in Oregon would be the equivalent of putting 1 million more cars on the road for 132 years, she said.
But Campbell pointed out that because the plan does not allow for cutting old-growth areas until after a 15-year waiting period, this is inaccurate. Because protecting forest species is mandated as part of the BLM’s use of land, Campbell said, the WOPR has instated this waiting period to provide a habitat for the spotted owl while more research is conducted on owl-related issues.
Chirillo also expressed concerns about the effect of the WOPR on rural Oregon communities. She said 40,000 rural residents live adjacent to BLM lands, and the logging plan mandates would create erosion and increase the risk of wildfires. Both effects would put rural communities at risk.
Sorenson expressed concern that the federal logging would inundate the market with timber, squelching the growing private sustainable logging industry.
Chirillo also said the WOPR encourages unsustainable forestry practices because clear-cutting eliminates the trees so quickly there is nothing left to harvest.
“We just want an accountable, sustainable forest policy,” she said.
Campbell disagreed. He said clear-cutting is only one harvesting strategy, and thinning makes up a significant part of the WOPR as well. In addition, he said the WOPR would add 1,200 jobs to the Oregon economy, instead of the 3,800 jobs that would be lost were Kulongoski not to approve the WOPR.
Chirillo said she has heard from fellow students, citizens and even timber company managers who said they don’t think the WOPR is an appropriate timber harvesting plan.
“Future generations deserve to enjoy (Oregon’s forests) and survive by them,” Chirillo said.
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