Wyden Draft Bill

On April 16, Senator Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) Chief of Staff Josh Kardon unveiled a discussion draft of the Oregon Forest Restoration and Old Growth Protection Act while addressing AFRC’s Annual Meeting.
The bill would permanently protect Oregon’s remaining old growth and restore forest health by mandating that each national forest and BLM district design a large scale (up to 25,000 acres) forest restoration project through a collaborative process, which would protect the project from NEPA based appeals. The bill is a 62-page overlay of existing statutory and regulatory requirements, including the National Forest Management Act, the O&C Counties Act, the Northwest Forest Plan, the Eastside Screens, and the BLM’s Western Oregon Resource Management Plans.

The bill’s principal mechanism for old growth protection is prohibiting harvesting of the following:

• Trees 120 years and older on moist sites under the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP.)
• Any trees in stands currently “dominated by” trees over 120 years on moist sites under the NWFP.
• Trees 150 years and older on dry sites under the NWFP.
• The same restrictions would apply to the BLM’s O&C lands, although the harvest of trees up to 160 years would be permitted in lands formerly designated as matrix under the NWFP.
• Trees greater than 21 inches diameter breast height, and pine trees under 21” that have Keen class 3 or 4 crowns for the forests of eastern Oregon outside of the NWFP area.

Under the bill, old growth is defined by the age of individual trees not by stand characteristics. This would make forest management nearly impossible because it would require the accurate determination of the age of individual trees, by increment boring at ground level. Although the bill is aimed at improving forest health, it is likely to have the opposite result due to the widespread restrictions on stands that can be managed, confusing terminology and overlapping requirements on top of the one-size fits all age restrictions. The bill would also mandate an untested hypothetical silvicultural system on federal lands (ecological forestry) and relies on subjective and varied plant association groups to differentiate between dry and moist forest sites.

Existing timber sale contracts would also be affected by the bill. Purchasers would have 120 days after the passage of the legislation to elect whether to fulfill the contract under the terms of the bill or seek contract termination.

AFRC submitted formal comments that outlined our belief that the overlapping and subjective nature of the restrictions included in the bill render it unimplementable. We also expressed our concerns about the impact the legislation could have on the BLM’s new management plans. Under the proposed bill, that harvest level is likely to fall from 502 million board feet (mmbf) to
between 100 and 150 mmbf annually.

AFRC’s comments also indicated a strong desire to work with the Senator’s office to promote policies that protect old growth forests and improve forest health conditions across Oregon. /Tom Partin

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AFRC Newsletter: 5/6/09