Revisions of the "Western Oregon Plan Revisions" plan are being sought by the new administration.
Check out the full article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/04/01/01greenwire-obama-admin-rethinking-bushs-spotted-owl-plan-10419.html
Basically WOPR removed Spotted Owl (Which in western Oregon would be almost certainly be everything west of the Coast Range from Astoria to Gold Beach?...I don't know how far their habitat goes inland) protections and opened 23% of 1.6 million acres (~60,000,000 acres in Oregon and the coast range is a small fraction of that ~8 million acres) designated as critical habitat in Oregon for increased logging. The WOPR (if left in place) allows for increased logging on 1/8 of the Oregon coast (all federal BLM lands). These habitats represent the last remaining (certainly in Oregon maybe on the West Coast) old growth habitats on the coast. What is even more important is that as lumber has become increasingly smaller (DBH of 60 cm or less vs. DBH of 5 meters!!!) mills have had to retool their lines in order to make use of the smaller trees. Large wood, while impressive, is less valuable by linear foot for this reason. Transportation costs and the increased cost from cutting through something so massive also reduce the profit from larger trees. Most of the forestry on the coast is through either the Oregon Department of Forestry or managed by Private Timber companies. This is where most of Oregons wood comes from.
Should federal managers only manage lands for habitat and let ODF produce the board feet?
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