Amid protest, Oregon Board of Forestry approves controversial Habitat Conservation Plan

Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal

The Oregon Board of Forestry voted Thursday to move forward with a controversial plan that would scale back logging on 640,000 acres of state forests while seeking to protect endangered wildlife.

Surrounded by a protest that included lines of logging trucks parked in downtown Salem, a divided board voted 4-3 to send the Western Oregon State Forests Habitat Conservation Plan to federal officials for approval.

The final vote came after three different motions to delay failed, and many members of the public implored the board to take a different course.

What the Habitat Conservation Plan would do

The HCP is designed to bring western Oregon’s forests into alignment with the federal Endangered Species Act, preserving habitat for at least 17 threatened or endangered species.

But the plan also means reducing the amount of timber harvest on state forests, which means less revenue for local county services, including schools, and less jobs in rural areas already hard-hit by the decline in logging.

The plan would scale back logging to an estimated 185 million board feet of timber on western Oregon state forests. Over the last decade, the same forests have produced about 225 million board feet, officials said.

Multiple members of the public testified the move would devastate local economies and contribute to additional sawmills closing, following three that have closed in the past two months.

Board members, who have been considering the plan for years, appeared to agonize over the the final vote.

“I see the real and hard consequences of this action,” said Ben Deumling, who manages Zena Forest in the Willamette Valley and voted in favor of the HCP. “I just don’t see a better path. A lot of people have told me there is one, and I wish from the bottom of my heart that that were true. But I don’t see that.”

Board chair Jim Kelly, who also voted in favor of the HCP, noted the board was constrained by the Endangered Species Act.

“We’re here because of the ESA which, like it or not, is the law of the land,” Kelly said. “People on both sides today made totally legit points. Our job means we have to look at big picture.”

Plan moves to federal agencies for approval

The meeting opened with Oregon state forester Cal Mukumoto, head of the Oregon Department of Forestry, recommending the board approve the HCP.

He noted despite lower harvest levels, the plan was important because it provides a more “stable environment to operate” free from lawsuits and legal risk. Currently, ODF complies with the ESA through a process called “take avoidance” that requires costly species surveys and creates uncertainty around logging projects, the agency said.

By creating an HCP, the department becomes insulated from lawsuits and can harvest a more reliable — although smaller — amount of timber.

The plan will now be sent for approval from federal agencies, including NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Opponents blast Habitat Conservation Plan

Opponents of the plan protested the HCP’s passage. Logging trucks encircled the ODF building where the meeting was held. In public testimony, speakers said the decision would lead to jobs lost and fewer community services. In addition, they said, it would lead to ODF losing money that would eventually need to come from taxpayers.

“Your vote to adopt this plan would be a catastrophic miscalculation,” former state lawmaker and 2022 gubernatorial candidate Betsy Johnson said. “The state’s general fund cannot sustain the hole that you’re digging. Schools will close. Roads will deteriorate. Economies in northwest Oregon will suffer. Oregonians will remember you, and not favorably.”

Jen Hamaker, president of Oregon Natural Resource Industries, said the HCP would lead to a loss of over $30 million annually in revenue, which might have gone to the counties and smaller taxing districts to pay for fundamental public services. A percentage of the revenue generated by timber sales on state lands goes to counties.

“Our communities will not be the same," Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar said in a news release. "More mills will close, and counties will have increased expenses that frankly, we do not know how we will fund.”

Environmental groups applaud passage

Environmental groups applauded passage of the plan. They said Oregon’s state forests have been overharvested for years and the HCP was the bare minimum the agency could do to stop the extinction of numerous species including northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets, salmon and steelhead, martens, red tree voles, torrent salamanders, and others.

“The HCP will allow forest management to move forward in a more balanced manner for habitat, clean water, and recreation, alongside sustainable timber harvest,” said Michael Lang, senior policy manager with the Wild Salmon Center.

Kelly appeared to agree that Oregon's state forests were overharvested. He noted that of Oregon's total forest, 60% is owned by the federal government but only contributes 12% of the total timber harvested. By contrast, state forests includes only 3% of the state's total forest but makes up 10% of the timber harvested.

“At the end of the day, most Oregonians don’t want state forests to be managed like commercial tree farms,” he said.

Gov. Tina Kotek looks to 'alleviate fiscal impact'

Gov. Tina Kotek said in a letter her office was investigating "whether and how we might alleviate the fiscal impact" to counties impacted by the loss of timber revenue.

"I want you to know that I see a viable pathway forward to address the estimated reduction in timber receipts," the governor wrote. "I am committed to continuing this work with the expectation of bringing a proposal to the 2025 legislative session to permanently address the estimated shortfall."
Motions to delay narrowly fail

In the final vote, Kelly, Deumling, Chandra Ferrari and Brenda McComb all voted in favor of approving the HCP. Joe Justice, Karla Chambers and Liz Agpaoa voted against it.

In the lead up to the final vote, Justice, Chambers and Agpaoa each put forward motions that would have delayed the approval. The motions called for additional study or finding ways to increase harvest level, but all three failed along the same lines.


Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. Urness is the author of “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.