Just to balance things out: Obama administration drops Bush logging plan for western Oregon

[depakid]

The Obama administration is withdrawing a controversial Bush-era logging plan for millions of acres of federal forests in western Oregon. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today the plan, put forward last December in the final days of the Bush administration, violates federal law.

The plan, called the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, "is based on a legally-indefensible process. It will not stand up in court," he said. Secretary Salazar's announcement won't silence any chainsaws currently cutting in Oregon forests because no timber sales based on the logging plan have actually gone forward.

And now perhaps none will. That's a victory for conservationists and gives pause to rural Oregon counties who were hoping stepped-up logging would mean more revenue for them from federal timber receipts. The secretary said the administration would also review the recovery plan for the northern spotted owl, and they will ask a federal court to throw out the Bush administration's revisions to habitat set aside for the endangered bird.

Today's announcement is the most recent of many Obama rollbacks of Bush-era natural resource rulings. Getting special attention are those decisions that were influenced by Julie MacDonald, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

A Department of the Interior Inspector General's report found MacDonald was "heavily involved" with editing and reshaping reports from the department's scientists, including those working in Oregon. Salazar referenced that report multiple times in his announcement, which comes as the Obama administration is facing upcoming court deadlines on conservationists' court challenges to both the logging plan and owl habitat rules.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/07/obama_adminstration_drops_bush.html

Julie MacDonald, as some might remember, was one of the Bush administration's premier science manipulators.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_MacDonald

[LWolf]

1. That's good news.

:thumbsup:

Despite the fact that I live in a semi-rural county in Oregon.

[PufPuf23]

2. Goods news

Western forests need more science than emotion and politics.

I found Vilsack a terrible appointment.

Forests that have not been touched by modern man need to be preserved and protected.

Most forests that have been touched by modern man can be moved back to a more steady and sustainable state; caveat: there are many lands that would be useful by restoration and then preservation on harsh and low productivity and/or inaccessible sites.

[ZombieHorde]

3. K&R nt

[Cha]

4. Thank you,

depakid!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. Wow!

[Arkana]

6. Even Steven.

[Oregone]

7. Not good news for everyone

The truth is, logging and mill jobs are among the best blue collar jobs in Oregon and a lot of small (and larger) towns do well with em. And a lot of towns recently have not done well in their absence. In lieu of these jobs, able bodied men flocked to the housing sector in places with positive migration, and well, we all know how that turned out (and now there are a lot of unemployed). Small towns used to really depend on this activity. Some of these places are just stagnated messes for the last decade or two with no real hope to shift their economies elsewhere.

And it isn't like outlawing these practices have helped the environment long term. The US just imports timber from Canada and outsources environmental destruction elsewhere beyond eyesight. Thats a dishonest way to deal with it.

Its all really a tough thing to approach, and clinging to extremes (which breed each other) doesn't help anyone. I wish people can find balance. A middle ground to harvest lumber responsibly that provides jobs and minimal environmental damage. Outsourcing it kills jobs locally and doesn't do a thing about eliminating the environmental degradation

I don't have an answer. But live in these towns, work in the schools, meet the children and the parents of the generation that had so much opportunity when their towns were viable...and it leaves you confused/ambivalent. How to balance that social imapact with responsible forest management? Probably not a question the extreme free marketers will answer, but sometimes something the adamant anti-loggers can't solve either.

[Arugula Latte]

8. But doesn't the U.S. get paid less for the lumber it exports than it costs to produce the lumber?

I know that went on extensively in the 90s. I'm not sure if/how that has changed.

[Oregone]

9. Its the US's fault for outsourcing lumber production

In the 90's, 60% of US timber exports comprised of raw logs headed for Asia. They were milled there into lumber products for little cost. So, that lowered the market price of lumber so much that domestically produced lumber could not possibly compete in price. Somewhere, someone up top scooped up profits as more good jobs were lost.

So while you can say, on one hand, these mill jobs cannot compete on the global scale and were basically obsolete, they most certainly could have if trade policies were different in the US. Why? Because the US controls the global market of softwood. Almost half of the exports of softwood logs in the 90's was from the US alone. No one could have competed with domestic lumber production if trade mechanisms didn't allow this to happen.

This isn't the same as China being able to produce toys cheaper than the US. This is worse. Imagine 100% of the raws needed for those toys were in America, and it was shipped to China first, and then domestic production couldn't compete with Chinese production. Well, it most certainly could if those raws weren't sold so low, and if not so much of them were sold.

Someone got greedy. A lot of people suffered.

Now, when you add that situation with the fact that a lot of actual logging is shutting down, and it just spells bad news for towns that depended on it. Who knows where to start to create both health forests and healthy towns, but the free market is probably the last place to look. Some people just aren't interested in looking at all, and just want their extreme to win at any cost.