Oregon Logging Conference Resolution 2005-6

The Calling For The Full Implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan And
The Achievement of Timber Sale Objectives.

The Oregon Logging Conference urges that the Administration and Congress allocate sufficient funds to fully fund the implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan.

Whereas, President Clinton announced the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994 as the solution to the legal gridlock that had brought most management activities on the federal forest in the Pacific Northwest to an abrupt halt;

Whereas, under the plan approximately 20 million acres of the 24 million acres addressed by the plan would be designated for environmental protection where timber management would not normally be allowed;

Whereas the timber sale volumes were reduced by 80 percent to a level of approximately 1 billion board feet of saw logs per year;

And whereas, after eleven years the agencies have failed to deliver this promised volume and, instead, the gridlock continues; mills continue to close, and communities continue to suffer;

Whereas the volume actually harvested has only been 28% of what was promised;

Whereas the budget for the Forest Service in Region 6 is half of what is was in 1997 leading to massive reductions in staffing;

Whereas the government is bound by a Settlement Agreement to fully fund a 1.1 billion per year timber sale program for the Northwest Forest Plan area;

Whereas the plan has been described by Senator Gordon Smith as a cruel hoax;

It is hereby resolved that the Oregon Logging Conference urges that the Administration and Congress allocate sufficient funds to fully fund the implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan, the Forest Service and BLM hire sufficient personnel to efficiently use this money to sell the promised volume and these same agencies put in place enforceable targets for their administrative units so that the promised volume actually reaches the mills.