OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY TESTS OREGON COHO PLAN





        The Oregon Department of Forestry is developing a rule to make


timber harvest the primary use of state lands like the vast Tillamook Forest


on the northern Oregon coast.


        During negotiations between NMFS Regional Director Will Stelle and


Governor Kitzhaber over whether to list the coho salmon as a federal


protected species or not to list and let the state of Oregon develop its own


salmon recovery plan spun around state forestry management.  


        The Oregon Department of Forestry has initiated rule making on the


management of state land where the harvest of timber would be the primary


use of the land placing salmon and steelhead habitat protection in second place.


        The Tillamook State Forest is 615,000 acres spaning the watersheds


of six major northern Oregon watersheds where coho salmon are the most


imperiled.  


        During the 1930s this land was consumed in a huge wildfire, but now


the trees are back and the watersheds are among the most healthy in the


Oregon Coast Range.  Following the fire, the state took over ownership of


the land because it was "worthless" and the counties didn't want the tax


burden.  Under state law these lands are to be managed to "secure the


greatest permanent value of such lands to the state."  There is no priority


given to industrial forestry, but now that the trees are reaching


harvestable age, many of them planted by school childern in the 1940s and


1950s, the industrial timber lobby and the counties want this verdent


landscape for tree cutting.


        The timber lobby and the counties want to define the use of these


lands through administrative rule.  The proposed rule states :  "to secure


the greatest permanent value to the state, the Board of Forestry and the


State Forester shall plan and manage these lands...primarily for sustainable


growing and harvest of forest tree species...and...secondarily for other


benefits for the counties and the people of the state of Oregon."  The


proposed rule also states, "any activity by and carried out under the plan


is in the best interest of the state, and secures the greatest permanent


value of the lands to the counties and the whole people of the state of Oregon."


        This means that other values such as salmon, steelhead, and


cutthroat trout protection and recovery are a secondary concern on these


state lands.  This proposed rule appears to compromise the Governor's coho


recovery plan  and represents the worst fears of the National Marine


Fisheries Service.  


        The Department of Forestry has established a task force to present


the Board of Forestry a consensus recommendation on this new rule. 


         A counter measure calls for "coequal consideration of timber,


fish, wildlife, water quality, and recreation " to  define the use of the


Tillamook State Forest.


However, experience on federal lands helps us understand what multiple use


means, where a mix of values are important to the nation, tree cutting was


still dominate because the "Big Timber" corporations made sure Congress saw


multiple use their way.  Coequal consideration is a weak rerun of the


multiple use law that failed on national forests until the listing of the


spotted owl caused a correction.  Which ever version of the proposed rule


the Department of Forestry adopts, the dominate use of the Tillamook State


Forest will be cutting trees.


        It is not unusual for agencies to develop administrative rules to


define state law, and if the Oregon Department of Forestry is successful in


making tree cutting a primary use of state land, will the National Marine


Fisheries Service list the coho salmon under emergency rule less than a


month after agreeing to let the state try its hand at species recovery?