This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE 7/15/04

It’s about time!

President Bush has issued a new directive that countermands to some extent the roadless measure that President Clinton signed as one of his last acts before leaving office.

The Clinton measure greatly appeased the environmentalists because it practically denied just about all logging in any of the federal forests. There could be no new roads built in any of them.

The Bush measure now overturns that directive, but adds another touch. It would be up to the Governors in the states where the federal forests are located to petition the federal government to retain the roadless status on some or all of the forests within their state.

Up to now, the environmentalists have been able to go to court, cite the Clinton measure and stop virtually all logging.

The move affects some 58 million acres of federal forests. Of this amount about two million acres are in Oregon.

The terrible Biscuit fire is a case in point. Environmentalists have gone to court and even used physical protests as a means of preventing logging of the burned timber. Over two billion board feet of timber is still salvageable, enough to construct some 24,000 homes.

Not only would the logging be financially an improvement, but the forest itself would greatly benefit from the logging of the burned trees and the replanting of new ones.

During the period going back to the late 1970s logging in Oregon was decimated, first by the listing of the spotted own on the endangered specie list....and later by other claims that logging endangered birds and fish among other things. Logging, which had been a very important part of our local economy was dealt an almost knockout blow. The Clinton roadless directive not only strengthened the environmentalists hold, but also effectively killed the efforts of Jeld-Wen to establish a winter ski resort on Pelican Butte.

Of course, you can expect Governor Kulongoski to be one of the governors petitioning the federal government to keep the roadless rule in effect in all federal forests in the state.

One saving grace is the fact that such petition is subject to review by the Agriculture Department which would then conduct public hearings in the area affected....and could turn down the Governors plea.

The one feature of the new directive that is being overlooked is the fact that for about the first time the Federal government is giving the states some say as to what happens to the federal lands in those states.

We doubt very much that this will open the way for a renewed effort to secure Pelican Butte as a ski resort since the company has already invcsted some four million dollars plus in meeting all the requirements that had been put in its way. Such a resort would certainly add to the winter activities in this area and could prove a big boost to the local economy.

However, we’re glad to see some common sense being injected into the use of our forests since they have simply become overgrown and a target for large forest fires as we have seen in the past.

It will be interesting to see what action our Governor takes on the issue.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE. .