After the BLM’s Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR) was withdrawn because it was “legally indefensible”, Douglas Timber Operators, Carpenters Industrial Council, C & D Lumber, Seneca Jones Timber Company, and Swanson Group Manufacturers filed suit against the BLM challenging their withdrawal of WOPR. Industry lobbyists and local politicians continue to pressure our congressional delegation to increase logging. This has led our legislators to enlist the services of Dr. Norm Johnson from the College of Forestry at OSU and Dr. Jerry Franklin from School of Forest Resources at the Univ. of Washington to develop a plan to log in a more ecologically appropriate way.

For this effort, Drs. Johnson and Franklin produced a document entitled, Applying Restoration Principles on BLM O&C Forests in Southwest Oregon, 30 November, 2010. In it they state that the BLM forests must conserve and restore ecological conditions while at the same time sustaining local communities. The rationale presented is that a sustained community is one that supports the current mills and skilled infrastructure.

We appreciate Drs. Johnson and Franklin’s willingness to get out there into the reality of science on the ground and into the social-political landscape. We believe they are sincere when they say that their primary goal is forest restoration and not timber extraction. However, UW believes that before starting to “restore” our forests, we must have dialogue on what a restored forest should look like, and ensure that all of the ecosystem components and functions are present in their historic abundance.

The history of involvement in “collaborative” groups by representatives of Umpqua Watersheds began in the early 1980s and continues to the present. We have invariably chosen to be at the table, no matter how badly tilted, rather than to sit on the sidelines have no influence on the outcome of the deliberations at that table.

There have been successes and shipwrecks, but we’ve learned from both, and remain committed to engaging the broader community to further scientifically sound management of our public lands. What follows is a brief record of the trials and errors or that journey.

In the early 1990s, we were involved in an informal group that included the 2 biggest timber companies in the Umpqua, a USFS District Ranger and Susan Morgan, now a Douglas County commissioner. Although we met for a year, this effort failed to produce any breakthroughs.

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For the past year Umpqua Watersheds participated in a collaborative effort with Roseburg BLM. It was based on a post WOPR push by Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Peter DeFazio to “break the log jam” on BLM and other federal lands. Wyden and DeFazio asked Dr. Norm Johnson and Dr. Jerry Franklin to come up with a reason to get more timber to the mills. Norm and Jerry then produced a proposal that lumped mature forests into wet and dry with timber harvest proposals.

The Roseburg BLM set up the process to look at a few stands in “wet” forest and a few in “dry” forest and give alternatives that would: 1) develop spotted owl and marbled murrelet habitat, 2) reduce likelihood of catastrophic fires, 3) provide timber volume to support the local economy through employment, income and public services.

This week UW hosted a very successful second, 2 day meeting with our science advisory council. Look for a summary in a future article and on the web page. We asked the assistance of Umpqua Watersheds newly formed Scientific Advisory Council , an unpaid interdisciplinary group of well known and highly respected scientists to educate us on the assumptions, level of certainty, accuracy, and level of science review in regard to Norm and Jerry’s proposal and the BLM applications. Our Science Council includes Dr. Eric Forsman, Dr. Robert Anthony, Dr. Dennis Odion, Dr. David Perry, Dr. Richard Waring, Dr. Christopher Frissell, Dr. Ken Carloni and soon will include Dr. Phillip Mote, Nobel Peace Prize winner as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Umpqua Watersheds respects and appreciates the efforts of Dr. Norm Johnson and Dr. Jerry Franklin. However, they are getting paid by the government under the pressure of the timber industry to justify an increased timber harvest in ecologically sensitive areas. This should have been and still should be approached with a team of independent interdisciplinary forest scientists.