New Walden Logging Plan Drains Money From Community Fire Protection

Portland, Ore—Oregon Wild, the state’s leading public lands conservation organization, expressed disappointment today with new federal legislation from Rep. Greg Walden, Rep. Kurt Schrader, and others that would promote increased logging in remote backcountry areas. The plan would expand the controversial Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) beyond areas near communities, potentially diverting millions of dollars in restoration funding away from projects to protect homes from fire.

“We’ve barely made a dent in the urgent forest restoration work needed around communities like Sisters, to protect homes and property from fire resulting from decades of abusive logging practices,” said Steve Pedery, Conservation Director with Oregon Wild. “Draining what little money and resources we have for those programs and diverting them to this plan to log in the backcountry just doesn’t make any sense.”

In 2003, the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) was signed into law. It was promoted as a plan to expedite thinning activities on National Forest lands near homes and communities, and to prevent fires from destroying private property. To do so, HFRA imposed significant restrictions on the American public’s ability to hold the Forest Service accountable by shortening public comment periods and limiting the public’s ability to appeal bad projects.

Though unable to support the controversial HFRA legislation, Oregon Wild and other conservation groups have supported numerous projects to protect homes and communities from fire. In fact, Oregon Wild designed the Black Butte Restoration Project, near Sisters, OR, as a model for such activities.

The legislation announced today by Rep. Greg Walden and others is a shift away from forest management that would benefit communities at risk from forest fire. The bill, the Healthy Forests Restoration Amendments Act of 2009, would refocus management activity in remote forests, far from communities at a time when the Forest Service has barely made a dent in restoring forests closer to the Wildland Urban Interface. It also ignores the best available science today regarding climate change and the role of forest conservation in reducing carbon emissions.

“This legislation is a throw-back to the Bush era,” concluded Pedery.  “Rather than working with communities, conservation groups, and timber interests to find consensus and move forward with forest restoration, Rep. Walden appears more interested in picking fights.”

####