The AOCC's Efforts to Log Protected Public Land
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The AOCC’s Efforts to Log Protected Public Land The Association of O&C Counties (AOCC) has supported and lobbied in favor of a controversial logging bill known as the Resilient Federal Forests Act (HR 2936), which would remove protections for public lands and waterways in Clackamas County and throughout Oregon. The AOCC has done media work to promote the legislation and in June of 2017, the President of the Association actually traveled to DC to testify before a Congressional Committee in support of this legislation. I. Threats to protected public lands in Clackamas County posed by HR 2936* Sec. 913 of the AOCC-supported bill would require all BLM forestlands, including 2.1 million acres of O&C lands, to be managed for the primary purpose of timber production. This provision would rescind conservation protections for the following public lands in Clackamas County and open these lands to logging: • Table Rock Wilderness • Salmon Wild & Scenic River • Clackamas Wild and Scenic River • South Fork Clackamas Wild & Scenic River • Sandy River State Scenic Waterway • Molalla State Scenic Waterway and recreation corridor • Wildwood Recreation Site • The Congressionally-protected Mount Hood Corridor (Clackamas County supported this legislation) • Sandy River Gorge Area of Critical Environmental Concern • Williams Lake Area of Critical Environmental Concern • Soosap Meadows Area of Critical Environmental Concern • Wilhoit Springs Area of Critical Environmental Concern • Areas designated as reserves for threatened species and to protect streams in the 2016 BLM Resource Management Plan Table Rock Wilderness *Note: Days before the bill passed the House, HR 2936 was amended to exclude Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers from this logging mandate; however, the AOCC supported the original bill that would have removed protections for these areas. II. Threats to protected public lands elsewhere in Oregon posed by HR 2936* Here is an abbreviated list of protected areas in Oregon that would be mandated for logging under the AOCC-supported bill: • Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (lands in both Clinton’s 2000 designation as well as Obama’s 2017 expansion) • The Wild Rogue and Soda Mountain Wilderness Areas • Wild & Scenic Rivers: Rogue River, North Umpqua River, Upper Klamath River, Sandy River, Quartzville Creek, and Elkhorn Creek • Parts of Silver Falls State Park • Crabtree Valley, home to some of the oldest trees in Oregon • BLM Backcountry Byways: Cow Creek, Galice to Hellgate, Grave Creek to Marial, Nestucca River, Quartzville Road, South Fork Alsea River • Scenic Byways: Rogue-Umpqua, Volcanic Legacy, Pacific Coast • Official Oregon Tour Routes: Cottage Grove Covered Bridge, Myrtle Creek- Canyonville, Cow Creek, Charleston to Bandon, Silver Falls • 126 Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (including Research Natural Areas) Soda Mountain Wilderness • ~250 Recreation Management Areas III. Comprehensive Forest Management Changes HR 2936 (as supported by AOCC) would create logging loopholes known as “categorical exclusions” intended to expedite logging projects on public lands. These loopholes would exempt logging projects up to 30,000 acres (45 sq miles) from the environmental review and public input requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). For context, that's larger than the combined area of the following cities: Oregon City, West Linn, Lake Oswego, Canby, Sandy, Molalla, Estacada, and Milwaukie. Another provision allows the Forest Service and BLM to unilaterally determine if logging projects would adversely affect threatened or endangered animals or their habitat – without ever consulting experts at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, as required by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The bill also sets a logging mandate for O&C lands to produce half a billion board feet per year. This new minimum requirement is triple the current logging levels in these forests, or the equivalent of 200,000 logging trucks per year. This goal that can only be met by ignoring environmental laws and targeting the last of our old-growth forests. By gutting our environmental laws, the bill would facilitate aggressive logging projects on our public lands and elevate timber production over other values such as clean water and air, outdoor recreation, and carbon storage on several million acres of Oregon’s public land. The bill would not only undermine our current environmental safeguards, but also erode decades of conservation gains for Oregon’s vulnerable public forests. This type of systematic “reform” is exactly what the AOCC and the timber interests they align with are after, as demonstrated by Rogue Wild & Scenic River their various lobbying and litigation efforts. Put simply, if Clackamas County opposes logging old-growth forests in our Wilderness Areas, National Monuments, and other public lands, Commissioners should vote to fully withdraw from the AOCC. AOCC Supported Logging of Protected Areas µ ^ Sandy River (WSR, SSW, ACEC) Mount Hood Sandy Corridor^ ^ Wild and Scenic ^ Oregon City Salmon River Wildwood Wilsonville Recreation Site Estacada Wild and Scenic ^Wild and Scenic S Fk Clackamas R^ Clackamas R Molalla Williams Lake Area of Critical Soosap Meadow Wilhoit Springs Environmental^ Area of Critical Area of Critical Concern ^Environmental Environmental ^ ^ Concern Concern Molalla State Scenic Waterway ^Table Rock Wilderness 0 5 10 Miles Data sources include ESRI, USFS, and Oregon Wild .