“So don’t be the timber industry’s bitch and let our clean drinking water go south,” writes Austin Locklear, a senior at South Medford High School, in his official public comment to the Bureau of Land Management, opposing its proposal for the Western Oregon Plan Revisions.
In an effort to substantiate his case, Locklear quotes the Buddha: “The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the manifestations of its life and activity; it affords protection and nourishment to all beings.” He finishes his argument with a simple yet powerful statement that pounds home the core environmentalist ethic of the Pacific Northwest: “More trees, not less.”
The WOPR, which would increase logging in Oregon, is the catalyst for a classic showdown between the federal government’s extractive resource policies and the tree-hugging commitment of Oregonians to their environment. The most recent chapter of this showdown came when Oregon Wild and Earthjustice, among others, took the Bush Administration to court in Portland over its plan to expand clear-cut logging in Oregon.
The Bureau of Land Management is the federal agency responsible for the increased logging plan. So far, the Bush Administration has aggressively pursued changes to Clinton-era regulations that prevent logging of old growth and environmentally sensitive forestlands. Its movement has been so hasty as to invite lawsuits regarding the length of the public comment period from environmental groups, and even has made the beneficiary timber industry a little nervous.
The American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry lobbyist, recently filed a legal motion objecting to the BLM’s plan to fast-track clear-cut logging. Arguing that the administration is failing to enforce the Endangered Species Act, industry representatives have become concerned that the Bush Administration, in its haste to start the clear-cutting, is skipping over important regulatory processes that will leave subsequent logging vulnerable to legal disputes.
“We want to make sure we are operating in a positive manner to make sure (the WOPR) don’t get derailed,” AFRC President Tom Partin said. In a bizarre legal alliance, timber fat cats and conservationist tree-huggers find themselves in agreement that the Bush plan is simply moving too fast.
Environmentalists argue the rush is fairly transparent in these final lame duck days of the Bush presidency. The administration knows any hope for future old-growth clear-cuts will die Jan. 20, when President-elect Barack Obama is sworn into office.
It’s important to note that the administration’s agencies hardly agree on the WOPR. The federal government’s own Environmental Protection Agency has also criticized the WOPR. Christine Reichgott of EPA’s Seattle office said her agency would surely submit comments to the federal BLM. The EPA claims the plan, as it stands, “does not afford additional protection for BLM lands in the WOPR planning area that provide drinking water to over one million Oregonians.”
Which, of course, brings us back to Austin Locklear’s argument: Opposition to the WOPR isn’t just about protecting the beautiful and biologically diverse forests of the Pacific Northwest from massacre by clear-cutting. This factor is certainly important; one such forest, for example, goes by the local name “The Grandmothers of Wolf Creek,” and is a majestic – almost spiritual – old growth stand located near Veneta, Ore., that is in the crosshairs for utter obliteration under the Bush plan. Drive out on Wolf Creek Road near Crow, Ore., sometime and see it while you still can. But the effects of environmental degradation extend well beyond the site where the BLM wants to let loose the chainsaws. The forest purifies our watersheds and prevents erosion, services which make the food and water of the Pacific Northwest some of the healthiest in the world. It is these services we have to thank for our consistently top-ranked quality of life.
If we begin down the road of letting the federal government take away those services on the land it may own but we are most affected by, we might lose an essential part of who we are as Oregonians. The scrappy Facebook group “Stop the WOPR!” is joining with other environmentalists to take their calls for restraint to the governor on Friday in Salem. They even have bus rides from Eugene, leaving Fourth Avenue and Willamette Street at 10:30 a.m. If you care at all about the quality of our water, I implore you now: Get on that bus.
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