forest voice spring 2008

8/9/2019 Forest Voice Spring 2008

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Forest VoiceDefending Nature, Saving Life since 1988 www.forestcouncil.org

Spring 2008Volume 20Number 2

The Native Forest Councils

Logging, Lies and Landslides


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2 Forest Voice Spring 2008

America Betrayed Into Tyranny

Anyone who has been even marginally awake must realize

by now that the betrayal o our nation is almost complete.Seven years ago, our democracy, already reeling romdecades o corporate dominance, was hijacked by a lawlesscabal whose reliance on secrecy, violence and cronyismis reminiscent o a criminal enterprise. Meanwhile, theDemocrats, with impeachment o the table rom day oneand with the exception o the occasional rhetorical lourish,have done little or nothing to prevent our reedoms rombeing systematically and deliberately abridged. The threat opermanently repressive governance, as we were warned bythe ounding athers, has come not rom oreign enemies, butrom within. Experience hath shown, wrote Jeerson, thateven under the best orms o government those entrustedwith power have, in time, and by slow operations, pervertedit into tyranny.

And tyranny is close upon us. The current administration isarguably the most unenlightened and morally bankrupt in thenations history; an allegation airmed by the two strategies itemploys to urther its military and political agendas: wagingwar on its enemies and lying about its intentions. In anabsurdly brie period o time, it has managed to destabilizethe Middle East, dismantle the underpinnings o the middleclass; disassemble the regulatory agencies established to keepAmericans sae and corporations accountable; shred theConstitution and the Bill o Rights; drain the economy; anddespoil the environment with a rapacious indierence thatthreatens the entire planet. The lies designed to obscure theiragenda are too numerous to enumerate; The Center or PublicIntegrity counted 935 lies related to Iraq alone.

The Democrats, who many in the environmental communitylook to or redemption, have compliantly yielded and

authorized the wars and the wiretapping, the torture andthe trade agreements and, by their silence [voting or it isnot silence], attested to the bogus patriotism o the PatriotAct. Having oered little meaningul opposition to the Bushagenda, the democrats once again hold out the temptation othe ballot like Lucy holding the ootball or the ever-gullibleCharlie Brown.

In the absence o publicly unded elections, the 35,000lobbyists who troll the halls o Congress will continue toensure the corruption o elected oicials. The changeour presidential candidates so vehemently advocate will,once again, prove delusory. Ironically, Alexander Hamiltonand John Adams counseled against political parties, arguingthat they would be divisive. But divisiveness may not be theworst possible outcome. Tacit agreement masked by empty

rhetoric is much worse. Distinguishing political parties bywhich special interests und them is much worse. Mouthingopposition while cooperatively betraying the interests o thepeople is much worse.

The election looms, and we are enamored by a choice ocandidates who can speak in complete sentences. Meanwhilethe puzzle pieces o tyranny are in place rom privatearmies to concentration camps; rom the suspension ohabeas corpus to wide-scale domestic spying and noneo our would-be presidents are talking about restoringConstitutional checks and balances, reestablishing the ruleo law, enorcing the Bill o Rights, eliminating personhoodor corporations, de-linking money rom ree speech, andscaling back the power o the executive. In a larger sense,the Bush administration is not the issue. When Bush leaves,voluntarily or otherwise, someone will inherit staggering

supra-constitutional powers, and in a democratic, honest, airand just America no one should have that kind o power, nota Democrat, not a Republican, not an Independent.

With the unprecedented consolidation o executive-branchpower, America has been marched to the edge o the abyss.An abyss capable o devouring our humanity and compassionand thrusting us into a long, dark, terrible night. An abyss

ruled by violence, suspicion and ear, where unimaginablehorrors are inlicted by brother upon brother. An abyss wheredissidents become enemies, and dissent becomes treason.The abyss o thuggery and threat, o death camps and torturecells. The abyss o 1930s Germany; the abyss o Stalin andMao and Pol Pot.

Something mean has taken hold o our politics; somethingvile and uncaring that rewards deception, incompetence andabuse. The belie that it cant happen here is not one that ishistorically supported. What transpires over the next year willtell us i and how ar we can step back rom the abyss.

We have already lost so much: our moral authority, therespect o the world community, the health o our globalenvironment, and many o the vital constitutional protections

designed to orestall the rise o tyranny. As John F. Kennedysaid, Those who make peaceul revolution impossible willmake violent revolution inevitable. I this coming electionis again rigged or postponed or cancelled; or i those intenton delivering the promise o change are rewarded withan assassins bullet, or i the newly elected administrationcontinues the betrayal o We the People, the alternativeslet to us will signiicantly narrow.

As responsible citizens working or the betterment o the worldand the protection o the environment, our challenge will beto apply the ull orce o our hearts and minds to creatingthe world we want, beore our only alternative is to becomethat which we resist. What is needed are Americans who arewilling to do their partthrough protests and struggle, on thestreets and in the courts, through civil disobedience and, inecessary, civil war, and always at great risk to narrow the

gap between the promise o our ideals and the reality o ourtime.

It would be well or all o us to remember what our countrysounders so powerully asserted in the Declaration oIndependence as they realized they were living under anunjust and repressive government: All men are created equaland there are certain unalienable rights that governmentsshould never violate. These rights include the right to lie,liberty and the pursuit o happiness. When a governmentails to protect those rights, it is not only the right, but alsothe duty o the people to overthrow that government. Inits place, the people should establish a government that isdesigned to protect those rights.

The gap is growing. The clock is running. Its up to us.

Blessings,

Victor Rozek andTim Hermach

Forest Voice 1988-2008ISSN 1069-2002Native Forest CouncilPO Box 2190Eugene, OR 97402541.688.2600Fax [email protected]

Forest Voice is sent ree tomembers o the Native Forest

Council. The cost o U.S.membership is $35 annually.Bulk orders o theForest Voiceare available or $50 per 100.A complimentary copy isavailable on request.

All rights to publication oarticles appearing in ForestVoiceare reserved.

Publisher/EditorTim Hermach

Managing EditorDavid Porter

Research EditorJosh Schlossberg

Prooreading and EditsJim Flynn

Special ThanksBrett Cole

Jim FlynnFunk/Levis & Associates:

Chris Berner, David FunkMarriner OrumSarah WiltzMatt WuerkerCharlotte TalberthMarcia Hanscom

John JonikDeborah Ortuno

No ThanksAll those who eel its OK to

cut deals that leave us withless native orests, soil, air,and clean water.

Submission GuidelinesWe welcome unsolicitedsubmissions that addressissues relevant to publiclands protection and supportthe Native Forest Councilsmission. I you would like usto return your work, pleaseinclude a SASE or send ane-mail to [email protected].

Inspired? Incensed? Impressed?Please write:Native Forest Council

PO Box 2190Eugene, OR 97402

Cover PhotosSteve RingmanSeattle TimesKerry KallunkiClatskanie People'sUtility District

This publication containscopyrighted material the useo which may not be specii-cally authorized by the copy-right owner. We are makingsuch material available inour eorts to advance under-

standing o environmental,political, human rights, eco-nomic, democracy, scientiic,and social justice issues, etc.We believe this constitutes aair use o any such copy-righted material as providedor in section 107 o the U.S.Copyright Law. In accordancewith Title 17 U.S.C. Section107, the material in this pub-lication is distributed with-out proit to those who haveexpressed a prior interest inreceiving the included inor-mation or research and edu-cational purposes. For moreinormation, go to www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.


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USDA Awards $4.1 Million for WoodyBiomass Projects

USDA has announced grants totaling $4.1 million to help17 small businesses and community groups ind innovativeuses or woody biomass rom national orests, including newproducts and renewable energy.

The Native Forest Council is strongly opposed to any projectthat ties creation o energy with destruction o our orests.

Climate Target Is Not Radical Enough

One o the worlds leading climate scientists warns that theEU and its international partners must urgently rethinktargets or cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere becauseo ears they have grossly underestimated the scale o theproblem.

In a startling reappraisal o the threat, James Hansen, heado the Nasa Goddard Institute or Space Studies in NewYork, says the EU target o 550 parts per million o C02 the most stringent in the world should be slashedto 350ppm. He argues the cut is needed i humanity

wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on whichcivilisation developed.

Plug-in cars could actually increase airpollution

The expected introduction o plug-in hybrid electric vehiclescould cut U.S. gasoline use but could increase deadly airpollution in some areas.

That's because a plug-in's lower tailpipe emissions may beoset by smokestack emissions rom the utility generatingplants supplying electricity to recharge its batteries. Plug-insare partly powered, in eect, by the uel used to generate theelectricity.

About 49% o U.S. electricity is generated using coal.

Interior Department Seeks Comment OnPossible Bering Sea Drilling

The Interior Department recently asked or public and oilindustry comment on possible drilling in an area o Alaska'sBering Sea, where energy exploration was banned ollowingthe Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

More inormation can be ound at the Interior Department'sMinerals Management Service Website: www.mms.gov/ooc/

press/2008/press0408.htm

18 States Sue EPA Over Greenhouse GasPollution

Eighteen states sued the Environmental Protection Agencyor ailing to limit greenhouse gas emissions rom new carsand trucks, one year ater the Supreme Court ruled that the

agency had the power to do so.

The suit seeks EPA's response to the highcourt's April 2, 2007, ruling, a landmarkdecision seen as a sharp deeat or the

Bush administration's policy on climatechange.

The cost of corn-based ethanol

The U.S. Agriculture Department sent shudders throughmuch o the ood industry at the end o March when itreleased estimates that showed armers would plant 8% lesscorn this year.

With corn prices already pushing up ood prices, a spokesmanor the Grocery Manuacturers Assn. called the projectionalarming and warned that the estimate bodes ill orconsumers at the supermarket.

In particular, the association is protesting ederal energy

policies that have created increased competition between thenations ood producers and energy companies or corn.

Forest Voice Spring 2008 3

Native ForestCouncil

The Native Forest Council isa nonproit, tax-deductibleorganization ounded bybusiness and proessionalpeople alarmed by thewanton destruction o ournational orests. We believe

a sound economy and asound environment mustnot be incompatible and thatcurrent public-land manage-ment practices are probablycatastrophic to both.

The mission o the NativeForest Council is to protect andpreserve every acre o publiclyowned land in the UnitedStates.

Board o DirectorsAllan BranscombCalvin HecoctaTim Hermach

Advisory BoardEd Begley, Jr.

Je DeBonisLarry DeckmanErika FinstadDavid FunkRev. James Parks MortonFraser ShillingEd Dorsch

PresidentTimothy Hermach

StaJosh SchlossbergRachel Barton-RussellBill BartonMonica Morrison

InternsLuke Pruen

VolunteersRick GormanMichelle DAmicoSamantha Chirillo

John BorowskiJeanie MyklandDavid PeltierMick DodgeMichael RiegertMichael Lang

Johny VanHerwaardenSteve Sandberg

ForesterRoy Keene

Seattle OiceSeattle, WA206.783.0728

[email protected] DivelbissSuzanne Pardee

Eugene CanvassDaniel Evano

Jeramy Vallianos

Seattle CanvassIlira Walker

Regional Representatives

Margaret Hays YoungBrooklyn, NY718.789.0038718.789.8157 ax

Wayne NortonGainesville, FL352.373.8733

Jason TamblynDuluth, GA770.851.4181

Kris MoormanAmes, IA515.232.1316

Linda MarinaBurlington, VT802.540.0196

News and Views

Printed on 100% Post-

Consumer Recycled

Paper with

Soy-based Ink

Green Scare Continues in WABriana Waters is a devoted and loving mother o a 3-year-old

daughter. She's a proessional musician and violin teacherbased in Oakland, Caliornia. In March 2006 she was indictedin ederal court or her alleged role as a lookout during theire at the UW Center or Urban Horticluture in Seattle,Washington.

The case was built on the testimony o two inormants, Jennier Kolar and Lacey Phillabaum, both rom Spokane,Washington. Ms. Waters' attorneys, Robert Bloom andNeil Fox, iled a motion establishing that the governmentconcealed important inormation helpul to her deenseand created a raudulent FBI report. Judge Burgess deniedthe motion and closed the pretrial hearing to the public.Numerous other legal problems cropped up during the trialthat will orm the basis o Ms. Waters' appeal to the NinthCircuit Court o Appeals.

Ater a 3-week-long trial in Tacoma, Washington, and a

week o jury deliberation, on March 6, 2008, Waters wasound guilty o arson. The charge carries a minimum o iveto 20 years in ederal prison. The jury did not ind enoughevidence to convict her o conspiracy and possession oan incendiary device, which carried a 30-year mandatoryminimum sentence. In a shocking move by the court at herdetention hearing, Waters was deemed a light risk (evenater making every court appearance to date) and was sent tojail to await her sentencing. This has had a traumatic eecton her daughter.

Sentencing or Ms. Waters is currently scheduled or May30, 2008, in Tacoma. Her ederal appeal has been iled in theNinth Circuit Court o Appeals, and the U.S. Attorneys Oicehas publicly stated they will not prosecute Waters again orthe charges they were unable to prove against her.

On March 11, 2008, our people were indicted on chargesstemming rom a 1999 arson at Michigan State University(MSU) in East Lansing. The our Marie Mason, FrankAmbrose, Aren Burthwick and Stephanie Fultz wereindicted on multiple counts or the December 31, 1999, irethat destroyed an agricultural research oice and a ire thatdestroyed commercial logging equipment the next day nearMesick, Michigan. The charges could result in up to 20 yearsin prison.

The mainstream media quickly labeled these as "terrorist"acts, despite the act that these ires caused no harm tohuman or animal lie. Two o the accused, Frank Ambroseand Marie Mason, have been repeatedly harassed by ederalauthorities pertaining to a ailed arson at an Ice Mountainbottling acility in Michigan. Ambrose was also indictedseveral years ago over anti-logging activities in Indiana andwas portrayed as a "terrorist" or nine months beore thegovernment dropped the charges.

The government has portrayed these indictments as beingcritical arrests in the so-called war on "domestic terrorism."US Attorney Charles Gross, based in Grand Rapids, said:"This was an act o domestic terrorism, plain and simple...There's no two ways about it. The use o violence and thedestruction o property to make a political statement cannotbe tolerated in a civilized society." Rather than attempting tounderstand why the acility at Michigan State University andthe logging operation in Mesick were targeted, the media

seems more interested in ocusing on the "terrorist" angleand has entirely downplayed the reasons why the actionswere undertaken which were explained in the comminiquesissued ater the actions.

Ater their arrest, Ambose was released quickly, and it becameknown that he was cooperating with the government andinorming on his ellow deendants.

Green Scare Arrests in MI


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by Roy Keene

Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon12 February, 2008

By causing a train wreck or ederal timberpayments, the Bush administration schemes againto urther corporate capital.

The administrations proposed ix or this wreck,instead o a earul name such as security or

terrorism, is called balance. In this scenario,ederal Bureau o Land Managements managers

are budgeted to log more old growth to createbalance between species protection and timberproduction.

Why produce more timber or a glutted log market?Because the corporations that raid our orests arebeing paid back or their political contributions.In this market they can buy cheap, hold timbercontracts or a decade, then resell our trees or a

double scoop when log prices r ise again.

More ederal logging also will provide a modestincrease in county unding. Why should our orestsalways be the ones held hostage? Why not recallsome o the inequitable tax subsidies granted toindustrial orest owners?

In seeking balanced budgets, county commissionershave yet to challenge these huge and unearnedproperty tax breaks and other privileges. Theirsilence condones more corporate plundering othe publics orest when there should be a call orcorporations to pay air taxes.

The BLMs latest orest plan, the Western OregonPlan Revision, mirrors the 1994 Northwest ForestPlan in which President Clinton, under the guise o

balance, ignored science and chose Option Nine,which divided remnant ancient orests in hal. Theirst timber sales o this devious plan, approved bythe very conservation groups that iled the spottedowl lawsuit, continued to log old growth.

Long beore politically tilted orest plans, Oregonstruly ancient orest was logged out by tidewatermills. Cedars and irs 1,000 years old and 20 eetin diameter were ignominiously elled, whipsawedinto planks and split into shakes. Not a single groveo these giants was let or uture generations.

Where was the balance?

Ater the timber industry inished cutting oldgrowth rom its own lands in the 1960s, it pressured

Scales Tilted In Balanced Forest Plan

Lets Face The Real Costs Of Loggingby Bill BartonNative Forest Council

Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon28 January, 2008

The endless discussion o the right way to careor our public lands in Western Oregon has takenon the attributes o a scratched vinyl record. Wekeep hearing the same tired industry lines. Despite

endless clear-cuts, destruction, massive subsidies,and the Third-World-colony behavior involvedin exporting our raw materials and jobs, the onlysolution we hear is more logging, with or with-out the Bureau o Land Managements WesternOregon Plan Revision.

Is anyone as saddened and tired o this as I am?

I was born in Lane County 49 years ago, and I can-not remember a time when subsidized and dishon-est over-cutting has not been an issue. Even whenmy ather was born in 1916, trashing and liquidat-ing lands was a point o contention. That was theyear that the Oregon & Caliornia Railroad landswere turned back to public ownership because o

corporate treachery and raud. Teddy Rooseveltrecognized these atrocities even earlier.

The O&C Act in 1937 that tied logging o theselands to the counties general unds, while perhapswell intentioned, did not oresee the divisive anddestructive path ahead. Today, the timber industryhas the technical capability to log any tree, any-where, anytime. That was not the case in 1937.

We have two distinct goals mixed up in this con-versation. First, we are committed to providingthe community services that make our lives work.Second, we are committed to caring or our publicorests, the lungs o the planet, in a prudent andsustainable way. Our production must be restrictedto spending the interest rather than liquidating

our capital.

The Government Accountability Oice has saidthat almost all ederal logging sales lose money.The oice calculates that the Forest Service lost inexcess o $2 billion in cash low alone, not count-ing the ull replacement cost o goods sold, ontimber sales between 1992 and 1997. Citizens andtaxpayers lost $2 billion over and above the moneythat logging interests paid to the agency or yourtrees.

Yet in any agency accounting,no value is assigned to the stand-ing orest. Nature is consideredree goods. There are no naturalresource capital accounts, no nat-ural resource capital replacementaccounts, no accounts or the ullreplacement cost o goods sold,nothing. We are being orced togrossly subsidize the liquidation

and destruction o our ancientcathedral orests.

We depend on orests or our livesand survival. Lie, even the qual-ity o lie, cannot be measured indollars.

The tax structure is also stackedagainst the little guy. Big timberinterests own about 600,000 acreso timberland in Lane County.These are taxed at an average rateo $3.40 per acre, yielding around $2.04 millionper year or the county. Federal taxpayers are beingasked to provide $47 million a year to replace lostcounty revenue rom timber sales, an amount

based on sales during the unsustainable boomyears o the 1980s.

Taxpayers are asked to pay $47 million, whileindustry pays only $2 million? Remember, thepublic lands tend to be the less productive, higherelevation lands.

It does not add up. Generating $47 million incounty revenue by logging takes $94 million insales, because the county gets only hal o therevenue rom sales on BLM-managed O&C lands.We get the least money or the most wood. In mostcases, that money doesnt even cover the cost indamage to the countys roads by log trucks.

The wood products market is way down, so we willhave to liquidate a huge swath o orest to gener-ate $94 million urther depressing prices in analready looded market. The cost o logging-causedlooding and landslides and the loss o clean drink-ing water also is picked up by the taxpayer. Andmore o our vital ancient orests will be gone or-ever.

At the same time, the multinational logginginterests are exporting 40 percent o the trees o o

their own orests (and ours too, as chips, pulp andminimally processed logs). With those trees go themill jobs and income taxes they could generate.

Enough o the problem already. It is time or all o

us to rethink the equation. Whats the highest andbest use o our orests and watersheds? Should theybe valued as mere iber arms or industry, or as theirreplaceable and priceless lungs o the planet?

Lets get some honest accounting on the table andind a way to support the services we need whileproviding the orests the care they deserve. Nowis the time to separate dishonest and destructivecorporate greed rom counties community servicesso that we can deal with both with integrity.

Our state is ull o intelligent and compassionatepeople. Lets move orward into an equitable andsustainable uture.

Teddy Roosevelt tried to do it a hundred years agowhen he created our national orests. His dreamhas been sold out by the greedy corporate interestsand their political lackeys. Lets be the ones whosolve this problem and create a model or others toollow. Our grandchildren will be glad we did.

Bill Barton of Vida, Oregon, is a geologist and generalconstruction contractor for sustainable logging andenvironmental projects. He is director of f ield operationsfor the Native Forest Council.


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politicians to increase logging in public orests. Ourorest managers sold billions o eet o the worldsinest timber at a net loss to taxpayers and the U.S.Treasury. Most o this timber wound up overseas,not in domestic housing. No balance here!

This corporate eeding renzy has let our orestswith degraded water and soil, massive speciesdeclines, millions o ecologically dysunctionalacres, billions o dollars in deerred roadmaintenance and a disproportionately smallremnant o old trees. Were passing on a orest touture generations that is tragically out o balance.

Rebalancing this legacy should begin with nomore road building or clear-cut logging, especiallyo old trees. This is critically important in thecheckerboard landscape, where sections o BLMand privately owned land alternate.

Capital has been taken rom our orests or acentury, devaluing and weakening them in the

process. In Oregons ederallymanaged orests, there arethousands o miles o roadsto ix, hundreds o streams torestore, and millions o acres odense monoculture plantationsto interplant and thin. This kindo work could provide longerlasting jobs and a wider range oeconomic stimuli than loggingwhat little old growth remains.

But what about the ew

remaining mills that depend onederal old growth to saw exportproducts? It would be wiserecologically and economicallyto provide their workers withederal orest jobs instead omore old growth. Thered be no need to worryabout the owners theyve already made millionso our timber.

Where is the balance in urther impoverishing ourorests to atten the rich?

Roy Keene is the Native Forest Council's forester, areal estate broker and forestry consultant, received theWilderness Societys Environmental Hero Award for hisrole in passing Oregons 1984 Wilderness Act.

Do they have any?

by Tim HermachNative Forest Council

Crimes against nature are, by extention, crimesagainst humanity. The Register-Guardhas recentlypublished a couple o opinion pieces authored bylogging industry supporters that have taken verypersonal shots at a couple o community minded

local proessionals.

Unable to reute their acts, big timber continuallyattacks those who dare to expose the industrysrecord o plunder and destruction o the publicslands and watersheds. Sadly, these industryspokespeople resort to name calling and personalattacks on olks whose only intention is to bring thetruth to the table so we can make rational choiceson how to deal with our orests and the mono-crop plantations created by years o destructive,dishonest and heavily subsidized over-cutting oour public orests.

The logging industry resorts to these tactics or avery simple reason. I the truth were known, thesame olks rom whom they have been extracting

huge subsidies or decades would run them out oour orests and watersheds i not hang them romthe nearest tree. It is much easier to personallyattack a couple o honest and intelligent olksthan it is to explain away more than 100 years odeception and parasitic destruction.

Roy Keene has walked a distinguished path as aorester, advocate or honest, sustainable orestpractices and proessional businessman. Hispast is one illed with honor and integrity. Hisop/ed o February 12 oered a productive and clearalternative to improve current logging practices.His knowledge is current and his honesty is widelyknown. The logging industry chose to slam himpersonally instead o constructively responding to

his concerns and the issues he raised.

The industrys record on the other hand, showsthey have continually lied and deceived the public.Here are just a ew examples o that deceit:

In the 1960s the logging companies said that theyonly needed to cut trees o the public lands oranother 20 years. They said growth on their landswould catch up and ill the demand or timber romthat point on. Yet today, they are still screaming ora greatly increased cut rom the public lands.

The logging companies said they would not cutand run. They did.

They said they would cut in a sustainable way.

They did not. They are still cutting their lands atever younger ages and much aster than they aregrowing.

They said they would renew the orest. Theydegraded the orest.

They said they would never log the steep, landslide-prone backcountry. They have logged most o it.

They never take responsibility or the damage theiregregious practices do. Landslides, near extinctions,climate change, whatever the damage, they alwayssay: It was an act o nature.

They said i they were not allowed to burn sawdustand wood debris in wig-wam burners it woulddestroy the industry. It created one. Think charcoalbriquettes.

They say they care about jobs. They do not. Theyexport whole logs, pulp, and chips. With thoseresources go our local amily wage mill jobs andtax base. I they could strip our public orestswith computers and robots they would do it.Technology has drastically reduced the number oworkers needed to plunder the orest. They blamethe spotted owl or the workorce reduction.

They say they care about America and then depositmuch o the ill-gotten plunder rom the Third-World style export policy in oshore accountswhere our communities never see a dime. Theyhave successully lobbied to have all severancetaxes removed rom industrial orest tracts over5,000 acres. They pay almost no property taxes.They certainly do not pay their share.

This is one o the most heavily subsidized industriesin our nation. Citizen taxpayers subsidize theremoval o each precious tree rom our publicorests. These trees are not just about a Sundayaternoon hike. They are crucial to the survival othe human race. They clean our water and supportspawning beds critical to the survival o the ishingindustry. They hold and enrich the soil uponwhich we depend. The orests constitute a potentweapon in the battle to stabilize our climate. Theyare the lungs o the planet and without them wewill not survive. Yet we pay the logging companiesto liquidate them.

This is what they do not want you to know. Everywell-intentioned and honest orest products workeris tangled in industrys web o deceit and dishonestPR that in eect makes them perhaps the largestgroup o welare recipients in the nation. Thetaxpaying citizens are supporting them just assurely as we support those on social security or anyother entitlement program. But this entitlementis a double-edged sword. First it robs the ederaltreasury o dollars, and then it robs our childrenand grandchildren o their uture, the ancientorests that provide the soil, air, and water socritical or human survival.

Although they have never been honest about it,their plan has always been the same. They havealways intended to convert as much o our complexancient native orest as possible into industrialiber arms. That is why even though over 90%o Oregons native orests are gone, this pig inthe trough and destructive industry continues todemand more o the last remaining native andancient orests.

They have even developed a whole new set odishonest programs and institutions with which tocontinue the destruction, three o which are:

1. Fuels reduction based on ear and scientiicperjury. The real goal is to eliminate nutrientcompetition or their monocrop iber plantations.

2. Collaborative orestry, stewardship. These aredeceptive and covert ways o re-naming logging toavoid litigation. The stewardship authorities havebeen eective in seducing environmental groupsinto becoming plantation managers.

3. Biomass, cellulosic ethanol, new and destructiveways to mine the nutrients o the soil. This practicewill lead to depletion o the soil to the point it willnot grow orest.

The list goes on. The subsidized conversion o yourpublic orests into their private wealth is alive andwell.

So the next time you hear the shills o the loggingindustry come out swinging at people o honorand conscience, go look at whats let o yourorests. Glance out the window on your next lightover the Northwest. It does not take long to seewhy personal attacks are their preerred game.They cannot speak to the real issues without thetruth being shown. And the truth will orce themto change, or it will destroy them. Crimes againstnature are crimes against humanity. Help us stopthem, and help start us on a path to rebuild ournation instead o tearing it down and destroyingit.


Never separate the life youlive from the words you

speak.

Paul Wellstone

This is one o the most heavilysubsidized industries in our

nation. Taxpayers subsidize theremoval o each precious tree

rom our public orests

Check Industrys Record for Honesty & Integrity

Our orest managers soldbillions o eet o the worldsinest timber at a net loss to

taxpayers and the U.S. Treasury


6/16


by Peter J. GoldmarkSeattle Times

While images o Decembers Lewis County loodsrecede like the waters o the Chehalis River, theimpacts o the devastation to local amilies,

Washington state taxpayers helping rebuilda community, and the blow to our economy,continue.

Homes are damaged or destroyed. Many arms andbusinesses are threatened or lost. Cleanup willcontinue or months. Economic recovery or manywill take years.

While some in government and the timber indus-try have reerred to the record loods as an act oGod, clearly there was a human hand involvedthat made a bad situation worse. In this case, thebuck stops at the Department o Natural Resources,tasked with permitting timber sales even onprivate land, in this case Weyerhaeuser on slide-prone, steep slopes.

As stark photos o the clear-cut hillside illustrate,the agency permitted a clear-cut on a slope thatshould never have been logged in this manner, i

at all. Led by Public Lands Commissioner DougSutherland, agency personnel acted against staterules designed to balance harvest goals with pro-tecting property, public saety and the environ-ment. In short, they ailed to exercise appropri-ate proessional distance between a public agencywith a broad public mission and the industry theyare tasked to oversee.

Unortunately, this is not an isolated case o laxoversight and too-cozy relationships with indus-try, whether timber or large developers. From landswaps that result in orests lost to strip malls andvacation homes to similar land-damaging clear-cuts, the department and its leadership are ailingto protect both public health and the long-termvalue o our public land.

At a state Senate hearing on the loods held onJan. 10, agency personnel deended their actions,and predictably placed responsibility on the severeweather. Yet, independent scientists conirmedthat while the rain was abnormally intense, thelooding itsel was indeed made catastrophic as aresult o human action, in this case logging theslopes and development on the loodplain.

Its time to move orward with two initial steps thatcan help restore balance and accountability.

First, an independent audit o how logging permits

are prioritized and approved is critical to helpingtoo-oten-overworked land managers, biologistsand other on-the-ground workers better assess theimpacts o risky timber harvests. Part o this is alsoto determine where the agency needs to provide amore critical review o permits, and better relectthe goals o promoting local economic growth,maintenance o rural school trusts, and saeguard-

ing environmental and community values.

The Legislature passed in 2006 and voters rea-irmed that same year perormance audits orstate agencies. This is a perect opportunity or thestate auditor or Forest Practices Board to initiatesuch an overview o DNR perormance.

Second, the state Forest Practices Board should,at its February meeting, take action to review andstrengthen steep-slope logging regulations. Thedamage to Lewis County clearly was made worseby mudslides rom the clear-cuts, building up atthe base o the hills, bursting rom pressure, andsending torrents o dirt, trees and water across aloodplain already stressed rom years o develop-ment and pavement.

There are lessons to be learned rom every tragedywhich, i we do not heed, we risk seeing over andover again. In this case, it may only be a matter otime beore another lood, initiated by another ill-advised clear-cut.

But, with proper oversight and accountability, wecan prevent any new clear-cuts on steep terrainthat only damage our communities, our environ-ment and our economy.

Peter J. Goldmark is an Okanogan rancher and candi-date for Washington commissioner of public lands.

While some in governmentand the timber industry have

reerred to the record loods asan act o God, clearly therewas a human hand involved

that made a bad situationworse.

Risky Timber PracticesWorsened December Flooding

Photo: Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times

More VoicesAter Steve Ringman's photo was publishedin the Seattle Times [see cover and centerspread this issue], the public was outraged.Here is just a sampling o the responsespublished in the Seattle Times.

Steve Ringman's photograph o Weyerhaeuser'sclear-cut at Stillman Creek is one o the mostpowerul and elegant examples o the old expres-

sion "a picture is worth a thousand words" thatI have ever seen ["Mudslide photo spurs look atlogging practices," Local News, Dec. 16].

The photo captures in an instant the oul obscen-ity that is perpetrated on our planet every day sothat the bottom line will look just a little betterat the end o the next quarter.

Even more sickening is that this activity is allperectly legal and approved by corporate-ownedstooges in the government.

The photo also illustrates the axiom "watchwhat they do, not what they say."

Look at Ringman's photograph. Now look at

Weyerhaeuser's "Values" statement on their cor-porate Web page where they proclaim we "holdourselves to the highest standards o ethical con-duct and environmental responsibility."

Tragically, most people believe this public-rela-tions raud because they want to. Corporate rapeo the landscape is acceptable. Just show me themoney and show it to me now.

Pete Wolfsehr, Ellensburg

Well, I or one eel so much better about utureloods now that I've read that Weyerhaeuserspokesman Frank Mendizabal says that they'lllook to "see i we need to make any changes inour practices." I mean, we've all seen their slickadvertisements telling us what gentle care theexperts at Weyerhaeuser take with our publiclands. Bambi and all his orest riends are sograteul.

Here's an idea: How about you stop clear-cuttingon steep slopes. And does that geologist whosaid there were "no potentially unstable slopes"above Stillman Creek still have his job? I not,perhaps he could ind work selling real estate inthe wetlands near Chehalis.

Phil Cochran, Seattle

I appreciate your photographer Steve Ringmanliting a corner o the shroud, and giving us asnapshot o the dirty secrets o industrial log-ging in our state. The subsequent whining and

hollow mea culpas rom Weyerhaeuser and thestate Department o Natural Resources (DNR)are as predictable as the landslides ollowing theclear-cut, discussed in the article.

Who are they kidding? To believe WeyCo's claimo "natural disaster," I have to evoke a harshgod with chainsaws and corks. And or DNR("Department o Nothing Remaining") to blind-ly rely on Weyerhaeuser's geologist to do DNR'sjob, is like letting Blackhawk investigate its ownshenanigans in Iraq totally irresponsible.

It is clear that Weyerhaeuser is only "green"during their interminable TV inomercials, andDNR is a responsible agency solely on paper. Idon't know i it is incompetence, corruption or

both, but the net result is corporate and regula-tory malpractice o the highest order. The goodpeople o the Boistort Valley, and the state oWashington, deserve ar better. I challenge Gov.Christine Gregoire to vigorously enorce statelaws, and clean agency house.

Paul Kennard, Seattle

Ater seeing the photo on the ront page oSunday's Local News, I have a couple o observa-tions to oer:

One, the mudslides were triggered by a cataclys-mic rainall; 20 inches in a 24-hour period wouldbe hazardous in almost any environment.


7/16

Register-GuardEugene, Oregon25 January, 2008

The massive landslide blocking Union Paciicsrailroad line between Eugene and Klamath Falls

has severed the primary rail link between theNorthwest and Caliornia. It could have beenmuch worse i the slide had happened whilean Amtrak passenger train was coming through,Oregon would have had a world-class disaster onits hands.

Its bad enough as it is. The Cascade Main Linecarries 33 million gross tons o reight each year.The American Association o Railroads reportsthat the annual volume o reight moved by railin Oregon was 73.6 million tons in 2005, so morethan 40 percent o the states total moves over thatone line.

Daily traic averages about 15 trains with 85carloads apiece. It takes 3tractor-trailers to haul

one rail carload o reight. Some o the rail cars areempty, but even so the rail alternative diverts a loto trucks rom Interstate 5. Indeed, the CascadeMain Line is the I-5 o the rail system.

Freight still can move between Northwest andCaliornia destinations by rail, but long detoursare involved. The best option is to send trains upthe Columbia Gorge and then along the OregonTrunk Line that roughly parallels Highway 97 toChemult.

There, the trunk line connects to Union Paciictrack and continues to Klamath Falls and Redding,Cali. For southern Willamette Valley shippers,this adds several hundred miles to the trip andthe trunk lines capacity is limited, so some reightmoving between Caliornia and the Northwest isbeing diverted as ar east as Salt Lake City.

The only other option or southbound reightis the Central Oregon and Paciic Railroad line,which runs rom Eugene to Caliornia over theSiskiyou Pass. This route is steep, with grades o

up to 3.5 percent, and some o its tunnels are toolow to permit passage o modern high cubereight containers. The Cascade Main Line, wheretrack curvature is designed to compensate ormaximum grades o 1.8 percent, opened in 1926as an improvement upon the diicult Siskiyouroute.

From that standpoint, the slide sets shippers back82 years.

The slide itsel covers two sections o track atboth ends o a long hairpin turn as the rail lineclimbs toward Pengra Pass (not nearby Willamette

Pass, amiliar to travelers on Highway 58) in thevicinity o Salt Creek Falls. A slurry o mud, rockand logs slumped across 0.2 miles o track at aboutthe 3,700-oot level, then continued downhill tobury another 0.2 miles o nearly track 1,000 eetbelow. The two sections, while close enough to bedamaged by a single slide, are 10 rail miles apart.Union Paciic and government oicials say theyhave not determined the cause o the slide, andthey are prudent to avoid premature judgments.But the slide started in a 15-year-old clear-cut,and it takes about 15 years or the soil-grippingroots o logged trees to decompose. The timberedslopes on either side o the clear-cut did not ail.

While landslides are common on steep pitchesin the Coast and Cascade ranges, the biggestones usually are associated with logging or roadconstruction. This one is big. The Oregon ForestPractices Act and the timber sale policies o ederalland management agencies need to be revised totake landslide risks into better account.

Restrictions on logging practices to limit the dangero landslides are resisted on the basis o their cost.But landslides can be costly as well. The economicconsequences o the Cascade Main Lines closurewill be widespread, and are continuing to mount.Its ortunate that no human costs, in deaths orinjuries, must be added to the tally but that wasa matter o pure luck.

Did Logging-Caused LandslideDestroy The I-5 Of Rail Transport?

I the slide had happened whilean Amtrak passenger train wascoming through, Oregon wouldhave had a world-class disaster

on its hands


The Oregon Forest Practices

Act and the timber sale policieso ederal land management

agencies need to be revised totake landslide risks into better

account.

Two, can anyone, looking at the steeps o thatdenuded slope, believe that normal rainallwouldn't cause severe runo and impact StillmanCreek below? The ringe o buer-zone timberlet at creekside may adhere to the letter o thelaw, but is obviously inadequate given that ter-rain.

The law should be amended to relect the severityo the slope when calculating buers. Plus, look-ing at all the denuded ridgelines in the backdropo the photo, I can only say that the era o suchmassive clear-cuts should be declared over.

What an ugly legacy to leave our children.

Geoff Tudor, Sequim

I just read about the photo that caused someWeyerhaeuser oicials to consider changes totheir logging practices. Huh? I'm not in thelogging industry and am not a scientist, butI've known or 30 years now that clear-cutting,especially on steep slopes, screws up the drainagebasins and the lood plains.

Is there really anyone in the Paciic Northwestwho doesn't know that? I suppose it's nice thatsome changes are being contemplated, but itwould be nicer i these decisions were being

made by people who had the intelligence (orintegrity?) to know these decisions were neededa long time ago.

The article also states that the state gave approvalor the clear-cutting based on a report preparedby a Weyerhaeuser employee. Huh?

How do I get that kind o deal? It would be so coolto be the one who provides the inormation thatdetermines how the government regulates me.

Wow, I could do pretty much anything I wanted.Without the Weyerhaeuser geologist's report,according to the article, the state would have hadto send out a geologist who actually works or thestate.

John Peekstok, Seattle

Say it ain't so. The DNR [Department o NaturalResources] saved taxpayer money by relying on aWeyerhaeuser geologist instead o using one otheir own. What a stroke o genius.

Isn't there a story about a ox and a henhouse inthere somewhere?

Robert E. Gardner, Renton

Thank you or ollowing up on Weyerhaeuser'sStillman Creek orest practices, highlighted bythe photo accompanying Lynda Mapes' Dec. 9article on the Chehalis River lood ["Did devel-

opment, logging set the stage or disaster?" pageone].

Weyerhaeuser's spokesman claims the StillmanCreek landslides are the result o "a catastrophicevent, a natural disaster." The politest word orthis dissembling is "greenwashing."

The storm itsel may have been a natural event(although climate-change science indicatesthat the severity and requency o such eventsis directly related to anthropogenic warmingo the ocean). But the damage caused by theorest practices has only one proximate cause Weyerhaeuser's state-permitted roads and clear-cuts on steep, unstable slopes.

Weyerhaeuser has known or decades that clear-cut logging on such terrain inevitably leads to"catastrophic events." On the Chehalis Riveritsel, the USGS long ago determined thatsuch orest practices are a major contributor osediment to Grays Harbor (where tax dollars arespent to dredge the shipping channel).

During the negotiations or the Forests andFish rules in 1998, Weyerhaeuser and the resto the timber industry reused to stop thesehigh-risk logging practices. Stillman Creekrunning chocolate, rats o logging debris in theloodplain, and heavily damaged aquatic habitatare the direct results.

Toby Thaler, Seattle

What now remainscompared with what then

existed is like the skeleton ofa sick man, all the fat andsoft earth having wasted

away, and only the bareframework of the land being

left.

Plato


8/16

by Tim HermachAnimal Welare Quarterly

This winter, the seasonal storms came as theyalways do to the northwestern region o the UnitedStates. In early December 2007, heavy rains andwind bueted the ragmented orest landscapesand clear-cuts that now make up our public andprivate lands, snapping o the weak, ast growing,genetically altered trees that have replaced our

once-great orests. Landslides and debris lowscascaded down the steep, barren slopes.

Further downstream, the mud, trees, stumps andother debris plowed into bridges and pluggedculverts creating temporary dams, which thenburst, wiping out houses and roads. Some o thedebris dams did not break, and those remainingheld back millions o cubic yards o mud anddebris, choking streambeds, looding armlands,killing livestock, and destroying inrastructure,businesses, houses and barns.

Over the last century, logging has been an ongo-ing activity on the heavily orested lands thatmake up the Paciic Northwest rainorests and thedryer inter-mountain regions. Logging interests,in an endless pursuit o money, and with a callousdisregard or the harm to others, have engaged inextreme logging practices and a orm o asset strip-ping. This practice has let the land looking likea war zone and has stripped its protections romboth the sun and rains that regularly all in theNorthwest. Strip-mine logging, when combinedwith the steep slopes common in the region,causes the number and severity o landslides andmudlows to skyrocket.

The clearcutting also disturbs and compacts thesoils, and the water runs o into the streams and

rivers much aster and muddier than i the orest

canopy was still in place. Erosion o roadbeds andlogged areas sends millions o cubic yards o mudand sediment into our streams and rivers, wreckingdrinking water sources, choking spawning beds,and illing reservoirs while reducing their mitiga-tion and lood control capacity. This accelerationo the runo creates a rapid spiking o river levelsand hence does not allow much time or the arm-ers, residents and businesses in its path to prepareor evacuate.

Some preliminary estimates o monetary dam-ages in ive western Washington counties this yearexceed $175 million. However, the igure is just araction o the total dollar value o damages doneby the most recent storm alone. Estimates o the

damage just to the Tillamook railroad bed, locatedin northwest Oregon, were thought to be as muchas $30 million. Losses included hundreds o armanimals and amily pets. One dairy lost over 50 oits specially bred milking goats. The tragedy o asituation like this is surreal.

Nature has a way o sculpting our lives and orcingthe growth o our compassion and empathy towardothers. There are many stories o tragic situations inwhich no amount o valor could stand in the aceo the destructive torrents washing downstream.Numerous acts o heroism were successul. Manypeople, some holding small children in their arms,were rescued rom their rootops by helicoptersand boats during the rapid rise o the loodwater.

There was something other than the orce o natureat work during the tragic events that unolded dur-ing that storm in December. The destructive aspectso logging have been well-known or centuries. Wehave known that clear-cuts dramatically increasethe number and severity o landslides. No oneshould be surprised that areas downstream romheavily logged lands will be adversely impacted ina storm event like this. These orest practices havebeen destroying complex ecosystems and creatinghuge swaths o semi-sterile orest ever since theywere implemented.

In the 1990s, the near-extinction o wildlie andish stocks inally resulted in enough litigationto slow down the logging on the public lands.

Unortunately, private logging interests bribedpoliticians, mounted enormousadvertising and propagandacampaigns, and providedanti-environmental sciencecurriculum to our publicschools. They continued to striptheir lands o trees much asterthan they are able to grow back,setting the stage or events likethe ones that wreaked havocin Washington and Oregon.The logging industry counts oncommunities pulling togetherwith goodwill and aith in thesetimes o disaster. It tries to delectits culpability by saying that

these are natural events, and t he public should notoverstate the impact o corporate practices.

The question is how can we possibly overstate thedamage that the logging companies have doneand continue to do? They have slashed and burnedhundreds o millions o acres o land, public andprivate, nationwide. They are putting humanityssurvival at risk and driving many species to thebrink o extinction. They have devastated thecommercial salmon ishing industry by wipingout the spawning beds where the salmon lay theireggs. They have raked in billions, i not trillions,o our tax dollars and wealth as hidden subsidieswhile they strip our country o its assets.

They want more. The Bureau o Land Managementand the United States Forest Service both haveplans in the works that would increase logging onour public lands by 200 to 300 percent. At a timewhen our orests are more important than ever ortheir lie-support system attributes, the corporateinterests and their political lackeys are pushinghard to clear-cut the last o our irreplaceableancient rainorests into genetically improvedmonoculture iber arms that amount to nothingmore than row crops in a orm o soil mining.

The time has come to say enough. We can takea stand or our public orests and the wild beingsthat live inside o them. Our orests are the lungs othe planet, supporting all terrestrial lie. It is timeto stop all logging on our public lands and createstrict rules banning export and regulating the prac-tice on private lands, eliminating the damage thatit does to our orests and watersheds. By doing thisnow, we will also lessen the damage to our armsand cities when the inevitable winter storms rollacross these landscapes. We will never stop all the

damage done by extreme weather, but we can beresponsible or and minimize the sel-inlicted parto the destruction.

No corporation or person has the right to makemoney by stripping the commons and puttingothers in harms way downhill, downstream,downwind or even downtime. The loggers haveknown or hundreds o years about the tragicdamages they inlict. But with 95 percent o thenation's native orests strip-mined and clear-cut,it is obvious that not many o them care. TeddyRoosevelt gave them an earul when he set up theForest Reserves, saying that there is no more dead-ly, destructive or dishonest industry in America.Logging companies lie, cheat, steal and worse and they will take our very last tree i we let them.

Mans Folly Magnifies Natures Power

Nature has a way of sculpting our

lives and forcing the growth of ourcompassion and empathy toward

others

These forest practices have beendestroying complex ecosystems

and creating huge swaths ofsemi-sterile forest ever since they

were implemented

Photos:SteveRingman


9/16

Only 5% Remains. Saving Lie is Not Extreme.

Zerocut on Public Lands Native Forest Council

Presently, since there is no vegetation to retainrain-water and the snow lies exposed to the sun,in an instant after a storm, water will precipi-tiously swoop down from the mountains to the

rivers mouth and will carry such enormousquantities of debris as to break pasture land,devastate the country-side, destroy buildings,sometimes entire towns

Giuseppe Paulini, orest owner, on thedeorestation o Venice, Rome, 1601.

Common sense tells you that roots holdsoil in place and prevent erosion, andtrees suck up a huge amount of water. If youeliminate those trees when the runoff comes,then the earth just can't hold that much,and what you have is severe erosion andeventually mudslides.

Alan Siporin, KLCC [Eugene, Oregon]commentator, on 1996 slide that killed 4people.

"Timber harvest in sensitiveareas has also been associatedwith increased incidence of massmovement. Clearcut harvest and/or slash burning on steep slopesmay increase failure rates fromtwo to forty times over rates onundisturbed sites."

Cumulative Eects o ForestPractices in Oregon, OregonDepartment o Forestry, 1995.

"A crucial factor in the stability of steep

forested slopes is the role of plant rootsin maintaining the shear strength of soilmantles... Once the covering vegetationis removed, these roots deteriorate andmuch of the soil strength is lost."

R.R. Ziemer and D.N. Swanston,USDA Forest Service, 1977.

Photos:KerryKallunki

ClatskaniePeople'sUtilityDistrict


10/16


Mudfow hazard maps go unseenby homeowners over developmentand property value concerns

by Michael MilsteinThe Oregonian20 January, 2008

State geologists predicted the landslide thatcrushed homes and severed U.S. 30 west oClatskanie, but the state shelved the inormationpartly because o concerns it would interere withland development.

The prediction was spelled out in the orm olandslide hazard maps that state geologists drewup or all o western Oregon ater landslides killedve people in 1996. The maps labeled most o thearea involved in last month's U.S. 30 slide as posing"very high" or "extreme" landslide hazard thehighest possible categories o risk.

They showed the danger extending rom OregonState University clear-cuts where the destructive

chain o events began, downhill to an old earthenrailroad crossing that allowed mud and debris tocollect or more than a week, orming a lake. Thedebris nally broke loose Dec. 11, releasing a muddytorrent into homes that sat in the danger zone.

But people living in those homes never knew themaps existed even though the state spent nearly$250,000 developing them to help protect lie andproperty.

State oresters who reviewed logging more than amile above the homes knew about the maps butdid not reer to them, they said.

And other homeowners in a state ull o riskyterrain Portland's West Hills, the Coast Range,parts o southwestern Oregon and more don'tknow whether they ace the same risk as those westo Clatskanie.

That's because a little-known state board quietlywithdrew the maps rom ocial use in 2003 atercity and county ocials complained that theylabeled too much area as hazardous and mightrestrict development and hurt property values,according to state documents and interviews withpeople involved. The state law that called or themaps included mandates that made local ocialssee it all as a regulatory headache.

The state never supplied money to rene the maps which cover 19 western Oregon counties theway cities and counties wanted.

The result is that the maps showing areas at highestrisk o landslides remain unknown to the people inthe most danger.

"I bought it a year and a hal ago," Mike Roubalsaid o his amily's home west o Clatskanie,buried almost to its eaves by the Dec. 11 landslide.He evacuated shortly beore the mud hit but lostseveral uninsured vehicles, including a classic 1955Chevy, and is now struggling with paperwork toseek state and ederal assistance. "I wouldn't havebought it i I would have known there was this kindo risk."

State ocials estimate cleanup and repair costs orU.S. 30 at $1.3 million.

A ew cities and counties reer to the landslide mapswhen permitting new development, but many donot. That leaves some Oregonians to build newhomes where they may sit in the bull's-eye o a

coming landslide, experts say."The inormation is out there it's just not beingused," said Scott Burns, a Portland State Universityproessor and authority on landslides. "It's a pity,because i we get more o these big storms, we'regoing to have more debris fows and more peoplein danger."

The lack o action refects widespread reluctanceby local governments to control developmentor take other action to reduce risk rom hazardssuch as landslides, foods and tsunamis, saidGail Achterman, chairwoman o the OregonTransportation Commission, who also headed atask orce on landslide risk.

"The hard policy decisions have simply not beenmade," she said. "It's easier to do nothing and waitor FEMA to bail you out."

The landslide maps were among the most advancedo their kind at the time they were produced, Burnsand other geologists said. When scientists checkedthe maps against evidence o historic landslides,they ound that the maps correctly identied morethan 90 percent o the areas buried in slide debris.

Geologists who worked on the maps said they'reespecially rustrated that what could have beena tool to protect people rom disaster has beenall but orgotten. The area west o Clatskanie,around Woodson, was one o the areas geologistsspecically checked to veriy the accuracy o themaps, said Jon Homeister, who led the mapping

"It's easier to do nothing andwait or FEMA to bail you out."

State Keeps Slide Risks to Itself

People living in those homesnever knew the maps existed

Photo: Frazier Landslide outside Oakridge, OR Native Forest Council

The result is that the maps

showing areas at highest risk olandslides remain unknown tothe people in the most danger.


11/16

or the state Department o Geology and MineralIndustries.

A 1933 landslide killed our people about a hal milerom where the slide struck last month. Heavy rainsin 1996 produced small fows o rocks and debris inthe area, residents said, but nothing like the majorbarrage compounded by the lake o debris thatcollected that struck last month.

"I gured it would happen there again, and it did,"Homeister said. The mapping was so complexhe tied together the department's computers on

weekends or a month to sit through terraindata or clues about where slides might strike andhow they would rush downhill.

"It really pulls at my gut" that the inormationisn't widely available, said Homeister, who letthe department ater nishing the maps and nowruns a startup energy company. "It's not a goodallocation o resources to have things like this getdeveloped and get dropped or political reasons."

Response to '96 slides

The maps emerged rom statewide concern aboutlandslide danger ater the atal slides o 1996. Theslides didn't kill anyone in Portland but destroyed17 homes and damaged 64 others with coststotaling more than $40 million.

Gov. John Kitzhaber in early 1997 issued an actionplan to reduce the likelihood o slides, and the riskto lie and property when slides happen.

Some o his direction dealt with controlling logging

o steep slopes, which can add to landslide risk. Healso told the Oregon Department o Forestry andOregon State University to map landslide hazards,giving local governments and property owners apicture o the risk.

A task orce ollowed, and in 1999 the Legislaturepassed a bill outlining a state strategy on landslides.It gave the Department o Forestry authority tolimit logging that could increase the risk o slides,but gave the mapping job to the state Departmento Geology.

The job originally was to be done by our peopleover a couple o years, Homeister said. Instead, itturned out to be "me, mysel and I" working onit, he said, with unpaid help rom other landslideexperts he consulted around the world.

The maps were meant to show cities and countieswhere they should more careully review newdevelopment to make sure it wasn't in danger romlandslides.

Former state geologist John Beaulieu, who headedthe Department o Geology at the time, calledHomeister's maps "a brilliant piece o work."He said "the technical part that he had to do wasbigger and tougher and more cutting-edge thananyone realized."

The maps outlined areas with landslide risk, andthen rated land inside those areas through colors

rom "extreme" to "low" hazard.

But the Legislature attached a mandate to themaps: Cities and counties had to adopt regulationsrequiring extra scrutiny o development in landslidezones. So the Department o Geology presented itto local ocials in 2002 only as the broad outline

o the hazard zones withoutthe colored ratings, Homeistersaid.

That made it look like vastamounts o land aced landslidehazards, without providing localocials a way to distinguishareas o low hazard rom thoseo extreme hazard such asWoodson.

"It's like taking away the

painting and only leaving therame," Homeister said. "Allyou're going to see is this bigballoon."

Cities and counties complainedthe maps were too generaland included too much area.They quickly came to view themaps as a regulatory burdenthat could anger landownersand hurt property values. Thatwas compounded by growingconcern later embodied inthe Measure 37 property rightsdebate that governmentsmight have to compensatelandowners i regulations tookaway use o their land.

"Do we really want to throw uelon the takings compensationre?" state Rep. Susan Morgan,R-Myrtle Creek, wrote in a letterto Beaulieu at the time. She saidlandslide rules "will be placinga substantial nancial burden on Oregon's citizensat a time when we are trying to encourage economicdevelopment."

"There was a very, very strong bias then that, 'Idon't want to regulate development,' " Homeisterrecalls.

Shortly aterward, the commission that overseesthe Department o Geology ormally withdrew themaps rom use. The department had a plan to renethe maps, but there was never any money or it.

State wants new maps

The maps are now available only on an obscure stateWeb site www.coastalatlas.net that Homeisterand another state employee worked on at night andon weekends.

"Even geotechnical engineers don't know it'sthere," he said.

The state now hopes cities and counties will helppay or a new generation o maps based on lasermeasurements that provide a detailed picture othe land surace. That will probably take ve years,at the earliest, said Vicki McConnell, the stategeologist.

"Having that (earlier) map out there could in some

cases be quite useul," she said. "However, we nowhave an opportunity to get even better inormationout there."

In landslide-prone Douglas County, PlanningDirector Keith Cubic said the county has tried tohighlight the danger o slides or residents, but that

only goes so ar.

"We have heightened awareness, but we don't havethe tool we were supposed to have," he said. "It'sa rustration, because I think we could be doing abetter job i we had the maps."

Columbia County, where Woodson is, might be

one o the ew counties that reers to the mapswhen considering new development. But GlenHiggins, the planning director, said there has beenno drive to alert people whose homes may alreadybe in danger.

"The general population kind o knows there's arisk out there," he said. "Whether the individualhomeowner knows, I don't know."

Michael Milstein:michaelmilstein@ news.oregonian.com


They quickly came to view themaps as a regulatory burdenthat could anger landowners

and hurt property values.

The maps emerged romstatewide concern about

landslide danger ater the atalslides o 1996.

Photo: Frazier Landslide outside Oakridge, OR Native Forest Council

Too much logging has

definitely made theconditions worse in thisarea. There is very little

forest there anymore, andthat has contributed tocausing the landslides.

Tabrani, director oNational Coordinating

Agency or DisasterManagement, Java,Indonesia, on 2007

mudslide that killed80 people.


12/16

by Bill Schneiderwww.newwest.net

I you ollow the Wilderness issue like I do, youknow that Congress is currently consideringthe Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act

(NREPA), which would designate as Wildernessbasically all o the remaining roadless land in Idahoand Montana, and most o northwestern Wyomingas well as smaller tracts in eastern Oregon and east-ern Washington 22.7 million acres in all, includ-ing 3 million already-protected as national parks, achunk o real estate about the size o Delaware andRhode Island combined.

That might be too big o a bite or anybody tochew, but it seems like something a pro-Wildernessgroup could support, don't you think?

And sure enough, the Wilderness Society andSierra Club support NREPA, as does the IdahoConservation League, the major pro-Wildernessgroup in the Gem State. But you might be surprisedto learn that the major nonproit we depend on toprotect wild land in the Big Sky State, the MontanaWilderness Association (MWA), not only won'tsupport NREPA, but opposes it.

When I started asking around about why MWAwouldn't support a bill that protects roadlessMontana, I ound an embarrassing state o aairs

where dissension and a nasty, back-biting, powerstruggle have created such gridlock within theranks o Wilderness advocates that I'm sad to saythere's little hope o ending 25 years o Wildernessdrought in Montana.

I was on the MWA Council back in 1983 when wepassed the Lee Metcal Wilderness Bill, but no con-gressional designationshave been made since then.In recent years, we've seen no visible attempts byMWA to even have a Wilderness bill introduced.

Over the past two months, I've talked to severalkey players in both the MWA and the Alliance orthe Wild Rockies (AWR), the primary architect andlag-carrier o the NREPA. Because so much wasgiven to me in conidence, I'm not putting names

in this column, and besides, I doubt it would addmuch to this distressing story.

Beore I get started, I want to be clear on this point.This column isn't about a journalist trying to cre-ate bickering where there is none, like the mediadreaming up a eud between Barack and Hillary.This eud is real, perplexing and clearly counter-productive to attempts to protect roadless land.

At the core o the debate is a dramatic split inphilosophy among the people who want moreWilderness. This disagreement goes back at least15 years and has worsened to the point o outrightanger. Both groups believe they have the rightapproach and basically reuse to even talk about

common ground or to each other. Each sideblames the other or lack o progress in preservingour roadless heritage.

And, o course, i you're among those who neverwant to see another Wilderness, rejoice. The oppo-sition is playing your game. This is your perectstorm.

In the meantime, an entire generation oMontanans has gone by without a chance to ightor the concept o Wilderness. As I write this, it'shard not to predict at least one more generationwill slip away beore we see another Wildernessdesignation in Montana i we ever see one.

Here's the rub. The MWA worships the collabora-

tive or quid pro quo approach where "stakeholders"such as timber companies, ATVers, mountain bik-ers, backcountry horsemen and hikers sit down andhammer out a compromise. Politicians at leastthe breed we have in Idaho and Montana preerthis so-called "bottom up" approach because theycan jump in a thorny issue like Wilderness designa-

tion without getting pricked.

In past "Wild Bill" columns, incidentally, I havesupported this something-or-something strategy,including MWA projects such as the ContinentalDivide Quiet Trails Proposal and the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership (BDP).

The AWR has the "do the right thing," ecologicalapproach and opposes the quid pro quo conceptin general and the BDP in particular. They disagreewith the continuous process o "balancing" ourwild land until it's gone. By this, I mean therequent messages we hear rom politicians i.e."I'm in avor o Wilderness, but we need somebalance." The "balance" philosophy is why we'reso out o balance. Depending on which igures you

use, something north o 90 percent o the Lower48 has been transormed into non-wilderness, andnow we have to keep splitting up the last o therest? In other words, when we're down to the last1 percent, will politicos still want "balance," i.e.compromising down to 0.5 percent?

No way, says AWR, which wants to save all othe small percentage we have let. This has ledto the repeated introduction o NREPA. Today'sversion, H.R. 1975, carried by CongresswomanCarolyn Maloney (D-NY) with 122 co-sponsors,including nine representatives rom Colorado,Oregon and Washington, but none rom Idaho,Montana or Wyoming, actually had a hearinglast year on October 18, the irst or any version

o this legislation. Nonetheless, most politiciansin the New West continue to pan this "top down"approach, i.e. letting some evil eastern liberal tellus what to do with "our land," keeping in mindthat only ederal lands owned by all Americans,most o whom don't live in the northern Rockies,qualiy or inclusion into the National WildernessPreservation System.

The Wilderness Society and Sierra Club and theIdaho Conservation League sent in lukewarmletters o support or the NREPA hearing record,but no national alerts or aggressive eorts to turnout a lot o support or the bill. And nothing butsilence rom the MWA. In act, MWA and AWRhaven't even met ormally to discuss the bill.

Even with a ourth o the U.S. House oRepresentatives sponsoring NREPA, it has littlechance o getting a House vote, and even i it did,and even i the House passed the bill, which isunlikely but conceivable, it aces a lonely death inthe Senate and certain veto in The White House at least until next year when it might become TheBlue House.

I believe one reason or NREPA's dim prospects,one o those unspoken "elephants in the room,"is that members o Congress can see that evenWilderness groups like the MWA don't supportprotecting all our roadless lands. In suggesting thisto MWA oicials, I received stern denials o anysuch thinking. The group's cover story or oppos-

ing NREPA, albeit unoicially, is that the bill isso "socially divisive" that the MWA leadershipears a massive "blowback" in public support orWilderness and or MWA collaborative eorts withtimber companies.

MWA may be correct about public reaction toNREPA, but an invisible letter o support in thehearing record would have no impact on thecurrent nonchalant attitude toward the bill, butwould be a little peace oering or AWR. Peopleknowledgeable in the realities o western politics,including timber company lobbyists, don't takeNREPA seriously, but they most likely expectWilderness groups to represent their membershipsand support Wilderness bills, which is why they alldo except MWA.

Later this year, the MWA will likely convince theMontana delegation to take a chance on a quid

pro quo Wilderness bill based on the BDP compro-mise with timber companies. I so, the bill woulddesignate about 570,000 acres o new Wildernessin southwestern Montana, mostly high-elevationcountry with minimal timber-growing potential,

in exchange or dedicating 730,000 acres to "low-impact" logging (i.e. no new permanent roads)including the sacriice o 200,000 acres o low-elevation roadless timberland, much o it in theWest Pioneer Mountains.

(The West Pioneers, incidentally, were grantedinterim protection by the passage o S. 393, theMontana Wilderness Study Act, back in 1973 whenMontana had Lee Metcal and Mike Mansield assenators. Interim protection means agencies mustmanage the land to preserve Wilderness valuesuntil Congress decides whether or not it shouldoicially be designated as Wilderness.)

What goes around comes around. I can assureyou that the AWR and other NREPA backers will

passionately oppose legislation based on the BDP.That's the level we've sunk to here in Montana you oppose our bill; well oppose your bill.

I wonder how many members o each group real-ize how this spiteul polarization among their

leadership plays into the hands o those who hateWilderness.

Call me an idealist, but it seems to me that instead oignoring each other, the leaders o our Wildernessorganizations should shed past ill will, shel theiregos, sit down, decide on legislation that they canall support, and go or it. Deining a baseline orthe Wilderness component o proposed legislationand having uniied support among Wildernessadvocates or that number seems like a logical irststep. Ater that's done, try to develop support,above the baseline, rom the timber industry andother detractors, hopeully enough to convince atleast one member o the Montana delegation tointroduce a bill. And then work together to end theWilderness drought!

That sure sounds like a more eective approachto me, but I'm not going to try to hold my breathuntil it happens.

Bill Schneider is a former book publisher who for 30 years has been filling in the spaces between fishingtrips, hikes and bike rides by writing books and articlesabout the great outdoors.


Keeping in mind that onlyederal lands owned by all

Americans... qualiy orinclusion into the National

Wilderness Preservation System.

I youre among those whonever want to see another

Wilderness, rejoice. This is yourperect storm.

Green Feud Stifles Efforts to Protect Forestsand Roadless Lands


13/16


by Patt MorrisonLos Angeles Times28 February, 2008

I things had gone according to plan, this yearo grace 2008 would have been the year that thelast privately owned virgin, old-growth Caliorniaredwoods those older-than-Shakespeare, older-than-Jesus trees got axed. That they haventbeen turned into decking is thanks to stubbornlawmakers, environmental nags such as JuliaButterly Hill the most amous tree-sittersince the Cheshire Cat and corporate gluttonythat backired.

Thats how we came to todays hearing in a Texascourtroom. Thats where Paciic Lumber theCaliornia timber company that had been runastutely since the Battle o Gettysburg until it wasoverrun and then run to the edge o ruin by cor-porate raiders will explain how it wants to saveitsel rom bankruptcy.

When John D. Rockeeller visited the redwoodsnearly 80 years ago, he saw a natural treasure. He

put up $2 million to spare 10,000 acres. Wheeler-dealer Charles Hurwitz saw a dierent kind otreasure. In a 1986 hostile takeover inancial-speak or date rape his irm, Maxxam, got PaciicLumber or nearly $900 million, inanced by junkbonds. Just to make interest payments, he had tocut down twice as many trees. Redwoods ormerlychosen one by one or the chain saw were mea-sured by computer coordinates and elled by theswath.

The thunder o clear-cutting roused enviros andpoliticians. Twelve years o wrangling ended in1999 with the Headwaters orest 7,500 acres oancient redwood cathedrals in public hands new rules on logging the other 210,000 acres and agovernment check or nearly hal a billion bucks inHurwitzs corporate wallet.

Did he use it to pay down Paciic Lumbers humon-

gous debt? No. He still owes almost as much on itas he did 22 years ago.

Back in 1981, according to David Harris book,The Last Stand, Paciic Lumber told shareholdersthat companies have a duty to use [their] resourc-es wisely. In 1986, the new owner, Hurwitz, wasjoking with employees that his golden rule is:He who has the gold, rules.

When the rules dont suit him, hes ound waysaround them. When Rancho Mirage didnt cot-ton to his development plan in the area FrankSinatra wrote an ad denouncing it Hurwitzslawyers sued the city, then threatened to sue citycouncil members personally. Paciic Lumber triedand ailed to recall the Humboldt County district

attorney or alleging that the company used akedata to get a better deal in the Headwaters negotia-tions.

The Headwaters deal evidently wasnt goodenough. Paciic Lumber went crying to Gov. ArnoldSchwarzenegger that i Caliornia didnt lighten upon logging rules r ules Paciic Lumber had brokenso oten that its timber license was briely yanked the company would go bust. Sure enough, lastyear, Paciic Lumber iled or Chapter 11.

John Driscoll writes about Paciic Lumber orEurekas Times-Standard. Virtually nothing, he toldme, could be more rooted in a community than[Paciic Lumber] is in Humboldt County. Its rootedin the land, rooted in the economy, rooted in thesociety here, and the outcome o this bankruptcymay determine whether [Paciic Lumber] weak-ened over two decades lives or dies.

Todays court date is in the Texas Gul Coast and notCaliornias North Coast because Paciic Lumber,now calling itsel Palco, opened a snug little oicein Corpus Christi a phone booth, Caliorniaoicials called it. That planted the lag or jurisdic-tion in Hurwitzs home state, not the home o theredwoods.

Thats how big, bad business plays. Put the loop-holes and ine print and asterisks into law. And

when you cant make the rules, break them orbreak the rule makers.

In 2001, the eds were trying to get back some o the$1.6 billion that taxpayers paid to bail out Hurwitzand his pals when their S & L went belly-up in1988. (Put it on Hurwitzs tab; he didnt just cleartrees, he raided $55 million rom Paciic Lumberspension und and replaced it with annuities roma Hurwitz company whose parent is now broke.Who could wind up paying those pensions? Us.)

Three GOP congressmen hammered investigatorsto lay o o Hurwitz. They subpoenaed conidentialdocuments, putting them into the CongressionalRecord so Hurwitzs attorneys could get them.The upshot? No investigation, no payback romHurwitz.

What could bankruptcy change? Options run romselling land or McMansions to an environmentalbuyout. The most plausible plan would save jobsand trees by restoring the careul logging practiceso old.

Once upon a time, thrit, responsibility and debt-ree proits were sound business. Now its Las Vegasrules run amok and look where thats gottenus: a landscape littered with sub-prime mortgagecatastrophes, leveraged debt, securities raud andimperiled pension unds.

And redwood stumps.

Thats how big, bad businessplays. Put the loopholes and

ine print and asterisks into law.And when you cant make therules, break them or break

the rule makers.

Once upon a time, thrit,responsibility and debt-reeproits were sound business.Now its Las Vegas rules run

amok

If a Trees Owner Falls Maxxam's Corruption


14/16


by Josh SchlossbergCascadia's Ecosystem Advocates

It may have taken decades, but could it be thatthe environmental movement has inally gottenthe mainstream media, politicians and theAmerican public to understand that protecting theenvironment doesnt just mean saving a avoritehiking trail or even some uzzy critters, but is

actually about the survival o lie as we know it onplanet Earth?

Or maybe it has more to do with the unanimousclimate change science rom the likes o JamesHansen, James Lovelock, Steven Hawking andothers. Or unprecedented natural disasters suchas Hurricane Katrina and southern Caliornia'swildires. Or possibly even Al Gores simplisticmovie.

Whatever the reason or the consciousness shit,one thing is certain: the time to act is now!

Now that the very real possibility o planetarydestruction rom the Climate Crisis has inallybegun to register, the concern is no longer whetheror not politicians, media or industry will keepignoring the issue. Killer storms, ravaging droughts,raging wildires, and rising sea levels have a way okeeping the topic in the public eye.

No, todays challenge is not that climate change willbe let out o the dialogue in act, everyone romthe Bush Gang to Fortune 500 CEOs are proposingall sorts o minor tweaks they claim will addressclimate change, while coincidentally allowingthem to continue business as usual. So theresplenty o talk the problem is that ew genuine,comprehensive plans o action are in the worksto veer us o our collision course with biosphericcollapse. The dragon the environmental movementmust now slay has a name and it is: greenwash.

For example:

We have Walmart finally responding to publicpressure by agreeing to waste a raction less energywhen peddling their products but no plans toencourage the local production and sale o goodsby banning the construction o new box stores.

We have Congressional bills that would mandatea slight increase in vehicle uel eiciency but noplans to rearrange cities and oer incentives orwalking, biking and light rail, while making citiesgreener and more livable.

We have programs to plant tree seedlings toabsorb carbon rom the atmosphere but no plansto stop (or even to scale back) logging the planet'sraction o remaining native orests.

With the United Nations Food and AgricultureOrganization attributing 25-30% o human causedcarbon emissions to logging the worlds orests(the second largest source o emissions ater ossiluels), clearly one o the simplest, quickest andmost eective steps we can take to cut back carbonemissions is to stop logging our nation's 5%remaining native orests.

Seizing the opportunity to connect intact orestsand a livable climate,Native Forest Council,Cascadias

Ecosystem Advocates and GreenwashEugene.comorganized Clearcutting the Climate: a conerenceo science and action, this past January at theUniversity o Oregon.

The concept o Clearcutting the Climate was toprovide the latest science on orests, logging andclimate change, expose raudulent solutions tothe climate crisis, as well as to acilitate collabora-tion between citizens and activist groups workingon the issues o climate and orest protection.

200 concerned citizens rom around the countryattended the daylong conerence to glean wisdomrom the presentations o nearly a dozen scientists,educators, activists and environmental leadersrom across the Paciic Northwest.

Dr. Olga Krankina, Proessor o Forest Managementand Forest Ecology at Oregon State, discussed thenewest objective or orest management:" carbonstorage. Dr. Krankina reminded conerence-goersthat the orests o the Paciic Northwest containsome o the greatest stores o carbon on the planetand that the most signiicant impact the regioncould have in reducing its carbon ootprint wouldbe to keep its orests alive and standing.

According to Krankina, orest carbon is notjust in the trees, but in the roots, soil, and deadplant material, while National Forests which

encompass most o the remaining native orests inthe U.S. contain three times the carbon storeso cutover private land (much o which should, ocourse, also be protected and allowed to recover).

[Even though he and his organization supportincreased logging (thinning) on National Forests"to save the old growth,"] Doug Heiken oOregonWilddid an excellent job presenting his Myths andFacts about Forests and Global Warming, (www.tinyurl.com/2n96m5) which exposed several mythsand outright lies perpetuated by Big Timber.

One myth Heiken dispelled was the lumberjackantasy that all o a cut trees carbon can be saelystored in two-by-ours. Heiken explained that aterlogging, milling, processing and transportation,only 15% o a cut tree's carbon is stored in short-lived wood products.

Heiken also tackled the wildiremyth that all o a orest's carbon

is released to the atmosphere atera ire. Heiken demonstrated, tothe contrary, that most carbonremains onsite ater wildire (olddead trees can last centuries),that wildires emit ar less carbonthan logging and that post-ire salvage logging creates acarbon desert.

While not physically present atthe conerence, Lance Olsen,ormer President o the GreatBear Foundation in Montanadiscussed in video orm whathe calls climate-driven habitatragmentation and deorestation

and also how deorestation can alter rainallpatterns, leading to regional desertiication anddrought.

Dr. Alder Fuller o Eugenes Euglena Academy (www.euglena-academy.net) minced no words in explain-ing how the planet is probably past the tippingpoint or catastrophic climate change. The uture,

as he sees it, holds planetary changes which hepredicts will be "rapid, violent and chaotic," onesthat may "end civilization as we know it, such as:heating oceans, large scale ecosystem destruction,and oh yes the eradication o all but a

forest voice spring 2008

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