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Umpqua Watersheds Blog

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Opinion: Follow Biden’s lead and protect Oregon’s old-growth on national public lands

Published February 2nd, 2023 in Guest Column, News

This article was published in the Oregonian Jan 15, 2023

https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2023/01/opinion-follow-bidens-lead-and-protect-oregons-old-growth-on-national-public-lands.html

Douglas firs

Old and mature forests clean our water and our air and nurture our spirits and health, the author writes. The U.S. Forest Service’s decision to halt the planned Flat Country timber sale is a step in the right direction that other federal agencies should follow. Photo by Faith Cathcart/Oregonian LC- The Oregonian LC- The Oregonian

Casey Kulla

Kulla, a former Yamhill County commissioner, is state forest policy coordinator for Oregon Wild. He lives near Dayton.

In that most wonderful time between Christmas and New Year’s, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it halted – for now – a controversial plan to auction off land for logging in the Willamette National Forest. Conservation organizations opposed the “Flat Country” sale, east of Eugene, because it allowed for cutting 1,000 acres of mature and old-growth trees across a 4,300 acre swath of the forest.

Flat Country is not the only timber sale in the Pacific Northwest to target old trees for cutting; it is just the most prominent because of the opposition. And the Forest Service is not the only federal agency that should reconsider sales based upon the executive order; it is just the only one that has reconsidered. In Oregon, there are dozens of timber sales that are in planningout for bid or in the cutting stages with the Forest Service and the federal Bureau of Land Management, but the BLM has not announced any stoppages.
These old forests matter to all of us, even if we’re not a spotted owl. Old and mature forests clean our water and our air more effectively than those with younger trees. They make our weather and our place special. We spend time in them; the old forests nurture our spirits and health. Old forests store massive amounts of carbon, and they are much less prone to fire than commercial forests.
Local government budgets don’t lose, either. Most county budgets long ago moved on from federal timber receipts; it is true that some are locked in by property tax limitations and voter resistance to operating levies, while other resource-based counties are reinventing themselves by supporting recreation.

The Siuslaw National Forest in the Coast Range has over 30 years of managing public forests for habitat, drinking water, tree age, and carbon. Each timber sale improves forest health. Other national forests and BLM offices can use this model to manage without cutting mature and old-growth.

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