This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE   11-10-05

                Better late than never.

                I’m referring to the Proposal by the Bureau of Land Management to reopen our forests to logging.

                Our County Commissioners have begun looking ahead to 2007 when the act which permits the Federal government to continue paying them a proportionate share of their former O and C lands logging funds…will expire.

                While Douglas County is the largest recipient of these funds…Klamath County comes in for its share.  Klamath has also given a portion of their O and C receipts to the county school system.

                The Act came about a few years back when the environmentalists were able to get logging stopped on almost all forests in the state, including those of the Winema and Fremont forests.  The Endangered Species Act was used in the case of the Spotted Owl to virtually end logging in our local forests.

                The Bush Administration has promised to do something about the situation and the new proposal appears to do that.  Under it, Logging will become the prime use of the forests with recreation and other uses getting a lower priority.

                Unfortunately the new proposal is aimed at getting underway in 2008.

                Fortunately the current funding ends in 2007.

                The current directs BLM to abide by a 1990 decision of the courts that timber production should be the highest priority for the forests…higher than such uses as wildlife habitat and old growth reserves.

                The O and C lands got their status and name from an 1866 situation in which the Federal government gave the land adjacent to the areas needed to build a rail line through some counties…in order that the railroad company could sell the land and thus recoup a portion of the costs of constructing the railroad line.

                When the Southern Pacific held on to the land the government reclaimed it and Congress then said that these O and C lands…named after the Oregon and California Railroad…..would be reserved and managed for permanent forest production with trees logged at a sustainable rate for the purpose of providing a permanent source of timber supply, protecting watersheds, regulating stream flows and contributing to the economic stability of local communities and industries and providing recreational facilities.

                Under that plan BLM sold about 1.6 billion board feet of timber each year.  Half the revenue went to the counties involved and half to the  BLM and the Federal Treasury.  As I said, the county, in turn, gave part of their funds to the schools.

                When environmental activists went to court on the issue, the O and C counties joined the government. 

                The appeals court ruled that “Congress never intended that wildlife habit conservation or conservation of old growth timber is a goal on a par with timber production and that there was no room to reserve any areas from logging just to protect wildlife.

                Then came the Endangered Species Act…the spotted owl…and the virtual end of logging in not only local forests, but virtually across the state.  This action decimated logging and has left the forests clogged with underbrush and open to devastating fires.  Even now….environmentalists are still protesting even cutting the burned timber.

                Well will it free up the forests for selective logging and cleanup.  We’ll have to wait and see.  Klamath County, among other O and C counties, have a great deal hanging on the plan.

                You can bet the environmentalists are already girding for this battle…one which for our county’s sake we hope they lose….and our forests began to have a new lease on life.  

                It apparently won’t be until 2008….but better late than never.

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