The Oregonian
February 18, 1998
By Joan Laatz Jewitt of The Oregonian staff
The U.S. government stunned Oregon officials and the timber industry Tuesday by saying the state's logging rules and its much-vaunted plan to save salmon are severely deficient.
The federal government's approval of Oregon's plan, championed by Gov. John Kitzhaber, is necessary to avoid Endangered Species Act listings of coho salmon and steelhead trout and the potentially difficult, expensive regulations those listings would bring. Oregon has invested two years and millions of dollars in creating its plan, viewed nationally as a model of collaboration, volunteerism and consensus-building in the management of natural resources.
But three independent panels of scientists commissioned by the National Marine Fisheries Service said it wasn't enough. The panels examined the salmon plan and forestry rules that apply to private Oregon lands, on which most logging occurs. They found:
Stream protection buffers that are off-limits to logging are insufficient, especially along smaller streams, to restore the cold, clean, nutrient-rich water that salmon need to thrive. The state calls for 50- to 100-foot riparian buffers on each side of fish-bearing streams; federal officials suggest 150- to 200-foot buffers.
An absence of prohibitions against logging on potentially unstable slopes gives fish no protection against landslides that pour sediment into streams, suffocating gravel beds in which salmon spawn.
Fifty-year harvest rotations near streams prevent trees from growing big enough to provide large woody debris and from developing complex root systems that anchor soil and create organism-rich forest floors.
Guidelines for watershed councils -- the working heart of Kitzhaber's salmon plan -- allow them to select project sites butprovide no analysis of watershed health to direct their work or evaluate project results.
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