GUEST VIEWPOINT: Eastern Oregon forest compromise deserves to be passed

Jun 29, 2010

And not a moment too soon. For eight long years, the Bush administration pushed forward one misguided forest proposal after another — giving conservationists and the timber industry plenty to fight over.

The federal Bureau of Land Management’s Western Oregon Plan Revision, or WOPR, was the most egregious of these schemes. Rather than embracing consensus- based restoration efforts, the Bush team pursued the largest ramp-up in old growth logging since the clear-cutting heydays of the late 1980s. In the end, the WOPR couldn’t pass legal or scientific muster, but it did serve to waste a lot of time and precious taxpayer dollars.

In the WOPR’s wake, conservation groups and the timber industry did the unthinkable — we sat down and tried to figure out where we could agree. Over here on the moist west side of the Cascades, there is unfortunately still disagreement over the fate of the last old growth forests, which filter our drinking water and stabilize our climate. But on the dry side of the Cascades, we found a surprising amount of common ground.

With the help of Sen. Wyden, a solid coalition of diverse interests has hammered out a compromise that would protect old growth trees and streams across 8.3 million acres of national forest east of the mountains. Under the legislation, scientifically guided restoration thinning would supply a reliable supply of small wood to the region’s remaining timber mills.