September 26, 2007

Portland, Ore-Oregon Wild today celebrated the passage of important “County Payments” legislation by the US House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee.  The Public Land Communities Transition Act will restore critical funding for rural county governments in Oregon.  

“Rural communities throughout Oregon need help finding a stable funding source for education and other critical services,” noted Steve Pedery, Conservation Director of Oregon Wild.  “We applaud the hard work of Representative Peter DeFazio, Senator Ron Wyden, and others to help counties make the transition to a more sustainable future.”

The bill comes at a crucial time as the logging industry and Bush Administration have recently pushed for a new plan to re-link county funding to widespread clear-cutting on hundreds of thousands of acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) forestlands.  Known as the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR), this reckless scheme would result in a 700% increase in old-growth logging.

“The Bush administration and the logging industry are offering a devil’s bargain-buy a few years of funding in exchange for a return to widespread clear-cutting of old growth forest,” added Pedery.  “Oregonians should not have to choose between funding rural programs and protecting salmon and clean drinking water.”

Counties throughout Oregon are facing serious budget shortfalls this year due to the expiration of the Secure Rural School and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (often referred to as “county payments”.  This important legislation de-linked funding for rural schools and other programs from funds generated by reckless logging levels on federal public lands, and from the boom and bust cycles of the logging industry.

The new legislation provides funding to counties where federal lands are located based on historical timber receipts, the concentration of public land within the county and the current economic condition of the county.

This balanced federal payment formula stands in stark contrast to the current BLM logging plan aimed at generating funding for rural counties by logging Oregon’s forest heritage.  The Western Oregon Plan Revision would increase the logging of old-growth trees by 700%, stripping the protections of the Northwest Forest Plan and tumbling Oregon’s forest communities back into a boom and bust cycle.  With the passage of the Public Land Communities Transition Act, this dangerous logging plan is now not only illegal and harmful, but also completely unnecessary.

Contact: Steve Pedery (503) 283-6343 x212