A Resolution Regarding The Bureau of Land Management’s
Western Oregon Plan Revision
Draft Environmental Impact Statement
For Consideration By The Oregon Logging Conference

WHEREAS, the Bureau of Land Management has published a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for revising a management plan for approximately 2.5 million acres of forest land in western Oregon, and

WHEREAS, these lands fall under the legal jurisdiction of the O&C Act, a law consistently interpreted by the courts to place the sustainable production of timber to support the financial interests of communities surrounded by federal lands as the “dominate use” of these forest lands, and

WHEREAS, for decades counties in western Oregon relied on revenue produced from these lands through the sustainable harvest of timber to fund important local government functions up until the imposition of the Northwest Forest Plan which largely ignored the O&C Act and reduced timber harvest levels dramatically, and

WHEREAS, while the preferred alternative described in the DEIS is a significant improvement over the current management direction prescribed by the Northwest Forest Plan in fulfilling the O&C Act’s commitment to timber dependent communities, it still would propose a timber management emphasis on less than half of the suitable forest land, and

WHEREAS, the Western Oregon Plan Revision presents a historic opportunity to restore the financial pipeline from the forests to the communities that were once told they could rely on this source of funding.

NOW, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Oregon Logging Conference (OLC) go on record in support of the Bureau of Land Management’s intent to fulfill the O&C Act’s commitment to communities by managing forest lands to produce a sustainable volume of timber and revenue to counties where the bureau’s lands are located.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, in order to fulfill its legal responsibilities under the O&C Act, the OLC urges the Bureau of Land Management to develop a new alternative that would maximize the amount of O&C lands in timber production and receipts to local county governments.