Oregon's State Forests Need Your Help! Creating an Enduring Conservation Legacy on the North Coast
05/08/23 • 37 min
Oregon manages over half a million acres of state forest land. That land is every bit as public as national forests, but historically, the state and the timber industry has treated it as just another timber plantation.
But that’s finally changing, and right now, the Oregon Board of Forestry is considering a Habitat Conservation plan which would set aside almost half of that land for long term stream and forest habitat conservation in the most critical areas of the forest.
This would be a huge win for salmon, steelhead, and other endangered species, and provide a major source of temperate rainforest carbon sequestration when we need it the most.
Unsurprisingly, the timber industry has launched an all-out misinformation campaign to stop this habitat conservation plan, even though it would still allow for logging in much of the state forest.
That’s where you come in. Your voice is needed, and there are many ways big and small for you to use it! If you’re inspired by this conversation today, please go to forestlegacy.org to learn more and get involved. And share this episode with your friends!
Ok, to break all of this down, I am so excited to be joined by Bob Rees. Bob is a 6th generation Oregonian who has worked for decades as a professional fishing guide, and serves as the executive director of the Northwest Guides and Anglers Association.
Show Notes:
State Forest Campaign Website: https://forestlegacy.org/
https://wildsalmoncenter.org/2020/10/19/a-70-year-conservation-plan-for-the-tillamook/
Bob Rees: https://nwguidesandanglers.org/contact-us/
Coast Range Association State Forest Page: https://coastrange.org/forests/
Oregon manages over half a million acres of state forest land. That land is every bit as public as national forests, but historically, the state and the timber industry has treated it as just another timber plantation.
But that’s finally changing, and right now, the Oregon Board of Forestry is considering a Habitat Conservation plan which would set aside almost half of that land for long term stream and forest habitat conservation in the most critical areas of the forest.
This would be a huge win for salmon, steelhead, and other endangered species, and provide a major source of temperate rainforest carbon sequestration when we need it the most.
Unsurprisingly, the timber industry has launched an all-out misinformation campaign to stop this habitat conservation plan, even though it would still allow for logging in much of the state forest.
That’s where you come in. Your voice is needed, and there are many ways big and small for you to use it! If you’re inspired by this conversation today, please go to forestlegacy.org to learn more and get involved. And share this episode with your friends!
Ok, to break all of this down, I am so excited to be joined by Bob Rees. Bob is a 6th generation Oregonian who has worked for decades as a professional fishing guide, and serves as the executive director of the Northwest Guides and Anglers Association.
Show Notes:
State Forest Campaign Website: https://forestlegacy.org/
https://wildsalmoncenter.org/2020/10/19/a-70-year-conservation-plan-for-the-tillamook/
Bob Rees: https://nwguidesandanglers.org/contact-us/
Coast Range Association State Forest Page: https://coastrange.org/forests/
Previous Episode
Rebroadcast: A Tale of Two Fires with Tim Ingalsbee
Coast Range Radio’s interview with Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D. We discuss a new messaging guide - Incendiary Rhetoric: Climate Change, Wildfire, and Ecological Fire Management from Tim’s organization, Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics & Ecology. To find the guide and to learn more visit their website, fusee.org.
Tim is a leading expert in fire ecology and provides many insights to the large fires impacting Oregon and the west in 2020. Our conversation reveals several inconvenient truths about fire in Oregon. Tim tells a tale of two fires and offers many solutions to protect our homes and communities while storing large amounts of carbon in our forests, an imperative for our warming planet.
This episode originally aired September, 2020.
Next Episode
Is the Forest Service "Falsifying the Scientific Record" on Wildfires? With Chad Hanson, PhD
Wildfires are a fact of life in the American west. They have played a major role in our western ecosystems for millenia. But as the climate crisis deepens, and more people move into wildfire country, fires loom larger and larger in the public consciousness. Wildfires are reshaping everything from our landscapes to our politics, and the implications of how we respond to them will play a huge role in shaping our future.
In the midst of this, a scientific debate is raging over what the science tells us about how to protect communities and live with fire. At the heart of that debate is the Forest Service. As the manager of almost 200 million acres of land, there is a tremendous amount at stake in how the US Forest Service interprets that science and implements management policy.
So I’m excited to be joined by one of the authors of a new scientific paper alleging that the forest service has been falsifying the scientific record around wildfires in order to justify more logging on federal lands.
Chad Hanson is the director and principal ecologist for the California based John Muir Project, which he co-founded in the 90s.
Show Notes:
Countering Omitted Evidence of Variable Historical Forests and Fire Regime in Western USA Dry Forests: The Low-Severity-Fire Model Rejected
Chad's book, Smokescreen: https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813181073/smokescreen/
https://johnmuirproject.org/
Protect Mature and Old Growth Forests on Federal Land: https://www.climate-forests.org/take-action
Protect Oregon's State Forests: https://coastrange.org/stateforests/
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