In a year that feels like a hellish landscape or a fever dream, it is often easy to forget that we did in fact live in a hellish landscape for a few weeks. Last summer, of course, we were subjected to weeks of dirty air, water and devastating evacuations as fires spread through the West Coast and most of Oregon.
As bystanders seeking to just be able to return to a normal routine — whatever that means these days — it was easy to attribute the blame to climate change. “Fix climate change and that will prevent the future wildfires,” everyone seemed to suggest. Of course, it is true — but quite reductive. Wildfires last summer were spurned by many stakeholders who go unnoticed under the umbrella of climate change. It is imperative to address one of the most historic and silent groups: the lumber lobby.
In October, Gov. Brown, for some odd reason, suggested that the legislature was at fault for blocking legislation that would have “increased logging on public lands.” This sentiment is nothing but a decadeslong narrative construction. At the heart of this, with blood on their hands, is the timber industry’s lie that “private lands are less prone to wildfires, saying that forests thick with trees fuel bigger, more destructive blazes.” Not only is this categorically false according to OPB and ProPublica’s reporting on those very fires, but what is most concerning is how easily Oregon’s legislature bought into the lie.
The reality is that the logging industry is regulated by the logging industry. In 2019, Oregon Secretary of State Clarno rejected petitions to restrict Oregon’s logging practices. In a well-covered press release mistake, they unveiled a grotesque truth: Oregon’s logging industry has all but infiltrated great spaces of power in the state government. Oregon Wild, for example, notes that the Board of Forestry has been cuckolded by “lavish” donations to Oregon state Senators to control a majority of the commission.
It’s a blatant conflict of interest. Just not in Oregon’s state government, apparently — Board of Forestry members have a “special exemption” from typical conflict of interest restrictions. Anyone, regardless of financial stake, can serve on the board.
The consequences of this coup on democracy are grotesque. In 2019, Oregon State Forester Peter Daugherty reported 98% compliance with the laws governing private logging. Sounds good, right? As I’m sure you can guess, it is complete fabrication. Brenda McComb, serving on the board, responded “we don’t know if it’s 98, 99, or 50.” Inundated with “biases and analytical” flaws, the report is unable to defend any claims of compliance. As a result of the ridiculous connection between regulators and the industry barons they are supposed to be regulating, we cannot be sure of any laws’ or regulations’ actual efficacy in Oregon.
The logging industry’s grip on the state stretches back decades. In the 1990s, the state government cut logging in forests, trying to protect the northern spotted owl. The industry devastation left a vacuum.
Guess who filled it. Wall Street.
Their real estate trusts seized private forest lands and hiked prices, since the national forests were protected. In the past, private timber paid a severance tax that grew based on the amount of trees they cut. The grip Wall Street had on the state, though, got rid of that tax. It was nothing major, of course. It was just an estimated $67 billion in revenue that was taxed one-third of what it normally is that goes to irrelevant things like schools and local governments.
Now, they want to completely eradicate the tax. As OPB reported, Hans Radtke, an owner of 100 acres of forestry, opposed the bill knowing it would “devastate rural communities.” At one moment, he let loose, telling the logging lobbyist “you’re fucking us,” only to be met with a smile from the lobbyist.
Our state is based on timber. Our symbols, school names and soccer teams all reflect this culture. Being infested with timber seems like a part of heritage, but ignores the fact that, for decades, the logging industry has devastated the state and prevented its growth. They’ve lied, manipulated and infiltrated all necessary levels of Oregon’s state government in order to bend the law designed to regulate them to one that protects them instead.
The threat of wildfires and statewide catastrophe is not going away anytime soon. The risks have only increased since then. We cannot simply lament that climate change is getting the best of us — people are too. To point the finger at the logging industry is essential. To protect the state, our climate and society, the logging lobby must be chopped at the trunk and uprooted from our government.