Longtime foes cut logging deal

Environmentalists, timber interests, and government officials find common ground in Grant County, Oregon.

JOHN DAY -- It was easy to miss, small and distant as it was, a recent reversal in the rhetoric of warfare that dominates discussions of federal forests.

More impressive is that this detente in a decades-long stretch of lawsuits and protests comes from an unexpected outpost of Oregon.

Grant County is remote from political power, conservative in views and economically isolated. But it was here that old foes in the forest wars found enough common ground to avoid one more trip to the courtroom.

"When I applied for the position it was labeled a hostile community," said Stan Benes, who took over as Malheur National Forest supervisor two years ago. "It was the most unlikely place for this to happen, but it did."

What happened is that a group of environmentalists, mill owners, timber cutters and government officials found a way to allow each party to get a little of what it wanted while avoiding what everyone did not -- costly conflict, suffering communities and declining forest health.

At issue was the U.S. Forest Service's plan to log part of the forest burned in 2006 by the 14,527-acre Shake Table fire about 20 miles southwest of John Day, at population 1,582 the county's largest community.

In March, the Forest Service announced plans for the so-called Thorn salvage sale, and it was appealed by four conservation groups -- Oregon Wild, the Sierra Club, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project and Cascadia Wildlands Project -- and a timber industry group, the Portland-based American Forest Resource Council.

The groups met May 7 with the Forest Service and within two weeks had a deal that:

• Prevents logging in road-free areas and live old-growth stands in the Shake Table burn while allowing logging of pine trees that pose a hazard.
• Restricts conservation groups from appealing an expedited environmental review of a salvage sale for 2007's Egley fire near Burns, provided it meets certain requirements, such as limiting logging to primarily hazard trees and roadless areas smaller than 1,000 acres.
• Makes up for the lost cutting in the Thorn project by allowing another long-disputed timber sale to go forward that would provide enough lumber for 500 single-family homes.
• Provides a framework for the parties to work on a future thinning project under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act.

The deal diverges from the recent history of logging litigation in Grant County, which mirrors much of Oregon, where struggles over old-growth logging have given way to a debate over the merits of post-fire logging, as illustrated by lawsuits and protests that followed 2002's Biscuit fire in southern Oregon or the B&B fire near Sisters in 2003.

Environmentalists generally consider salvage logging detrimental to forest recovery and ecosystem health. Timber interests argue that logging after a fire can speed forest growth while limiting future fires and providing valuable logs for mills.

None of the parties involved in the Thorn and Egley agreement changed the others' minds, but they listened to one another and agreed to give a little in order to each get something, said Rep. Chuck Burley, R-Bend, who is also a consultant for the timber group involved in the agreement.

"I really do think it might mark a turning point," he said. "It was a real eye-opener for all of us."

The timber industry, suffering from the housing downturn, is looking for a steady supply of logs. The amount of timber coming off the Malheur National Forest is a small fraction of what it was a decade ago, a trend matched around the Northwest.

One Grant County mill shut down a year ago. In April, another had to furlough its 75 employees.

"You have a realization among the timber industry that we can't continue to litigate. It's just too expensive and we're losing the fight," said Mark Webb, the county's top elected official who acknowledges that not everyone in the timber industry shares his view.

Mike Billman, operations forester for Malheur Lumber Co., said his mill could reopen as early as next week using logs from other sources. If they successfully bid on the Egley sale and other nonsalvage timber sale included in the agreement, Billman said, his and other local mills could get more logs by the end of summer.

Activists take long view

Environmentalists consider it a victory to save large roadless areas and other crucial habitat zones. And by allowing some logging they help keep local mills and their workers in place to later participate in thinning projects they consider beneficial to overstocked stands.

"We're not always going to agree. I'm not going to kid anybody," said Tim Lillebo, eastern Oregon field representative for Oregon Wild. But "in the long run it will be a lot better for everyone else if we can work together."

It's unlikely either group would have sat down with the other had it not been for meetings that had been going on for two years in Grant County under a collaborative group called the Blue Mountains Forest Partners. Chaired by Lillebo and Billman, the group tries to find forest-thinning projects agreeable to all.

Through the course of their meetings, Lillebo and Billman got to know each other as more than just advocates. They spent days in the woods with Benes, talking about how they like to hunt, fish and hike. Afterward, they maybe had a beer.

So when it came time to meet about the current salvage sales, the two men found they could trust each other. Based on that trust, each worked to bring others to the table.

"I actually call Tim a friend," said Billman.

And, with the help of that nascent friendship, the agreement signed May 23 was praised by the participants as well as by Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

"I hope this agreement will become a model for future forest collaboration," said Kulongoski.