Feb. 5-7 - Western Forest Activists Conference - Ashland, Oregon - Register by Jan. 22 - see article below and call 385-6271 for information
FOREST CONFERENCE
The group Headwaters announces: "As efforts to save western forests become increasingly complex and urgent, it is ever more crucial that forest activists take every opportunity to gather together, to connect and network, to critique and strategize, to be informed and gain new skills, to be empowered and look ahead.
"To be successful, activist movements to protect forests, clean water, salmon, and wildlife habitat must draw on the knowledge of science, politics, and spirit."
There a few events on Thursday, and the conference swings into high gear on Friday and Saturday. Session titles include: State of the Movement: Forest Protection Campaigns; Bioregionalism as an Organizing Tool; Science and Activism; and Strategies for Education and Organizing around Key Biodiversity Issues.
Breakout sessions include presentations on monitoring for various management activities; strategizing about various issues; and ecopsychology. Presenters and facilitators include scientists, educators and activists.
Registration, on a sliding scale from $75 to $150, includes breakfast on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and lunch on Friday and Saturday. Nearby lodging information and some help in arranging transportation is available.
This annual conference is always worthwhile for everyone working on West Coast forest issues.
NEW OLYMPIC SUPERVISOR CHOSEN
A Forest Service press release announces, "Dale Hom, a native of Puget Sound, has been selected as the new Forest Supervisor for the Olympic National Forest.
"A graduate of the University of Washington, Dale Hom has spent 19 years in the Forest Service in such diverse settings as Alaska, Idaho, D.C., and Washington state. "Dale will bring considerable experience in the areas of recreation management and community development," said Regional Forester Bob Williams.
"Hom was most recently involved as project leader for the Great Western Trail Project. Prior to that time, he was Operations Staff Officer on the Sawtooth National Forest in southern Idaho where he managed programs in recreation, engineering, fire, mining, wilderness and heritage resources. Previous jobs have included District Ranger on the Okanogan National Forest and a number of positions in Alaska and the Ochoco National Forest.
"Born in Seattle, Hom received a B.S. degree in forestry from the University of Washington in 1976. He is currently chair of the Asian Pacific American Employees Association, a Forest Service employee group."
We look forward to meeting Mr. Hom at the next Provincial Advisory Committee meeting on January 15. We'll also will meet with him soon to introduce ourselves and our issues.
ANOTHER CHANGE...
Due to our intermittent publication recently (sorry about that) we hadn't mentioned that Mike Bagley, Rep. Norm Dicks' aide, got a new job last August. Mike received a presidential appointment to Director for Governmental Affairs at the National Endowment for Humanities. We wish Mike well on his new job. It was not always easy to work with Mike, but it was never dull. Leslie Turner has filled the position with the congressman.
THE COUNTY CONNECTION
Mike Leahy of National Audubon Society writes, "The Forest Service has proposed a very positive reform: paying counties which have National Forest land in them a fixed annual fee rather than a portion of the revenue from timber sales within their county (the current system). This reform should reduce pressure from counties to log nearby National Forests.
"If successful, this could result in major improvements in National Forest management. Unfortunately, the proposal has run into many stumbling blocks, particularly from the usual opponents of Forest Service reform in Congress, and from county commissioners who feel they benefit more from the current system for one reason or other.
"However, recently a number of county commissioners have begun to call for the end to a program that has linked county budgets with timber revenues from the national forests. These officials want to identify other county commissioners in national forest areas who sup-port an Administration proposal to decouple these budgets from timber receipts.
"Since 1908, counties with national forests have been forced to depend upon the success of the local timber cut to supplement county budgets for roads and schools. The fund entitles counties to 25% of the revenue from Forest Service timber sales within county boundaries.
"This provision has given the counties a vested interest in more local timber cutting, and has subjected important budgets to the boom and bust cycle of the timber industry. When local timber sales have flourished, so have the county budgets, but when the timber cut has fallen, coun-ties have found themselves scrambling.
"Decoupling the county payments from timber receipts, and standardizing payments so they are not based on timber volume, is the right answer. It will allow counties stable budgets for roads and schools, and will stop turning local governments into timber-cutting advocates.
"A pending Administration measure would do just this by standardizing payments to counties, while a similar proposal in Congress offered by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) would allow counties to choose between standardized payments or timber revenue. According to a Forest Service proposal submitted last February, standardized payments are likely to increase county revenue nationally by close to $37 million.
"Recently in Oregon and California, commissioners have written persuasive opinion pieces calling for decoupling. These officials need help in finding others who can do the same in other national forest counties."
We'll check with the local Jefferson County commissioners to see what they think of the idea. If you have a chance to check with your county commissioners, please let us know their response by phone, mail or e-mail (please note new address of abradley@olympus.net)
TIME FOR STREAMS
The 12/12/98 edition of Science News summarizes a 12/8/98 article from Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences in "Mountain Streams: Still Living in the '50s".
"Even half a century may not be long enough to restore biodiversity to streams with a traumatic past, according to a study in the southern Appalachians.
"Years of flowing through farmlands, swallowing sediment that erodes off slopes or gets kicked up by cattle, can leave a stream ecologically impoverished long after a forest has regrown on its banks, reports Fred Benfield, of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, and his colleagues. Analyzing watersheds in North Carolina, the researchers found that the best pre-dictor of animal diversity in a stream during the 1990s is land use back in the '50s.
"They warn that healing a river may take more time, and in some cases, more land, then current practices acknowledge. Agricultural streams lagged behind most of the forested ones in diversity of invertebrates and had few of the fish species that thrive on sediment free stream beds.
"Stream ecologist J. David Alla of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor says that the new study 'reverses the way we've been thinking' about stream management. 'We're kidding ourselves, hoping that protecting the margins will balance off adverse effects throughout the landscape. It's important, but we need to look beyond the margins.'
"Stream ecologist Stanley V. Gregor of Oregon State University said 'There could be layers of effects that go back 200 or 300 years, ' he speculates."
COMPANIES SEEK
OLD GROWTH PROTECTION
A group of 27 companies including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Kinko's has pledged to stop buying paper and wood products from old-growth trees. The pledge is the result of a campaign, by the Coastal Rainforest Coalition, to protect rainforests in British Columbia by reducing markets for old growth products.
To publicize the corporate action, CRC ran a full page advertisement Dec. 8 in the New York Times. The ad mentioned several companies who have refused to take a pledge to avoid old growth, including Home Depot, AT&T, Wal-Mart and Home Base.
SURVEY & MANAGE EIS
Oregon Natural Resources Council states that "The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are already in the midst of an Environmental Assessment which proposes to amend the Northwest Forest Plan to avoid doing required surveys for 'at-risk' species. Now they are proposing another separate Environmental Impact Statement to weaken the plan even further.
"...please send comments by January 22, 1999 telling the government to keep their promises to protect forest species." Addresses will follow below.
"These agencies are failing to implement the 'survey and manage' requirements of the Northwest Forest Plan which are intended to help protect species associated with old-growth forests. The Northwest Forest Plan calls for surveys of at-risk species and protection of the species' habitat when conducting timber sales or other destructive projects on our public lands. Because the required surveys are not being done, the survival of hundreds of species is in question. For more information on the problems with the survey and manage program see: http://www.eskimo.com/~andy/Op9suit/S&Mfacts.html
Portions of their sample comment letter are: Dear EIS Team: I am writing to comment on the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement being proposed to amend the Northwest Forest Plan and weaken protection for species. This proposal undermines a core purpose of the Northwest Forest Plan, which is to manage the forest sustainably and protect biodiversity. I strongly object to any amendment to the plan that would weaken protection for at-risk forest species which depend on ancient forests for their survival. The species surveys required under the Northwest Forest Plan have not been fully implemented and the effectiveness and validity of the surveys have not been monitored. Therefore, it is premature to be proposing plan amendments until these important tasks are done. Make sure that you are using sound scientific information to make any adjustments to the Northwest Forest Plan. Please be sure to use experimental studies with random sampling and adequate sample sizes. You have a legal obligation to collect information to answer core management questions such as how at-risk species will be affected by the proposal to avoid species surveys. Consider an environmentally preferred alternative that includes providing physical connectivity between reserves in order to provide for genetic diversity over time for species which are not believed to disperse well in younger and/or less dense forests. E-mail comments: mailto:orchgmb@or.blm.gov Put "November 30, 1998, EIS Scoping Comments" in the subject field. You can also mail comments to: Bill Torgersen, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office, PO Box 2965, Portland, OR 97208
QUAFCO News January 1999
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