Top Line: The Oregon Legislature is taking up a bill to establish the Elliott State Research Forest. It is vital that the legislation become law in early 2022.
Figure 1. Before large-scale clear-cutting, most of the Elliott State Forest was mature forest. Pockets of old-growth forest and individual old-growth trees are still found scattered through the Elliott. Source: Francis Eatherington.
In November 2020, in a Public Lands Blog post entitled “An Elliott State Research Forest?,” I examined the good, the bad, and the ugly of an Elliott State Research Forest as it was then being proposed by the Oregon State University College of Forestry. At the time, I was generally supportive in concept but still wanted many important details to be worked out. Since then, the proposal has been significantly refined in terms of the extent of conservation, the kinds of research, the ownership, the administration, and other factors.
Today, I am recommending that you support SB 1546, a bill that would establish a ~92,000-acre Elliott State Research Forest. (If you click on SB 1546 and then the Text tab, you can get a pdf of the “Introduced” version of the bill. This introduced version will soon be supplemented with a “-1 Amendments” version that includes important last-minute improvements.)
Broad and Deep Support from the Conservation Community
The Oregon conservation community is strongly united behind the bill. These organizations have signed a joint letter of support (“conservation community letter”): Audubon Society of Portland, Benton Forest Coalition, Cape Arago Audubon Society, Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Coast Range Forest Watch, Corvallis Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Forest Web, Kalmiopsis Audubon Society, Lane County Audubon Society, Lincoln City Audubon Society, Oregon Coast Alliance, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Oregon Conservation Network, Oregon Wild, Salem Audubon Society, Sustainable Northwest, The Larch Company, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited. Umpqua Valley Audubon Society, and Wild Salmon Center.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a case in which the Center for Biological Diversity and The Nature Conservancy both signed the same letter. Powerful evidence of broad and deep support from the conservation community.
Figure 2. An Act of the Oregon Legislative Assembly can protect the Elliott State Forest for present and future generations of Oregonians. Source: Oregon Legislative Assembly.
What SB 1546-1 Would Do
According to the conservation community letter, the legislation would:
Retain the Forest in public ownership.
Create a new Elliott State Research Forest Authority as an agency within the State overseen by an independent stakeholder advisory board appointed by the State Land Board (Governor, Secretary of State and Treasurer) and subject to relevant state public record (transparency and accountability) laws.
Appoint Oregon State University to lead the research-driven management of the Forest on behalf of the public and with a commitment to public access and use.
Advance collaborative partnerships, including notably with relevant Oregon Tribes and incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge.
Vest oversight authority in the State Land Board, including approval of and/or changes to Elliott State Research Forest foundational management documents and/or response to emergency situations.
Provide at least $121 million to complete the decoupling of the Elliott from the Common School Fund.
Very good conservation is built into an Elliot State Research Forest. Again, according to the conservation community letter:
Creation of a contiguous 34,000+-acre, permanent reserve on the west side of the Elliott State Forest, and smaller reserves across the rest of the Forest. Within the reserves, previously logged stands will be allowed to become older forest again, thereby increasing the amount of mature and old-growth forest over time.
Protection of over 90% of the remaining mature and old-growth forests on the Elliott, including all trees that survived the 1868 Coos Bay fire (153 years old in 2022), and protection of all known spotted owl activity centers on the Forest.
Approval of a Habitat Conservation Plan for endangered species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries (anticipated in 2023).
Approval of a Forest Management Plan that further specifies agreed upon species, watershed, scenic and other protection measures (anticipated in 2023).
Improved streamside protections for salmon and other species.
Sideboards minimizing the aerial application of herbicides, which may be used only as a last resort.
A plan which will ensure that the Elliott increases in both age and complexity over time.
The conservation community letter closes with:
It has become increasingly evident that a lasting policy solution for the Elliott must be found that keeps this outstanding temperate rainforest in public ownership, embraces the forest’s carbon storage value to mitigate climate change, protects its mature and old-growth forest habitat for threatened wildlife, safeguards its waterways that harbor imperiled salmonids, meaningfully incorporates Tribal input, and delinks the Forest from the Common School Fund.
We believe that the Elliott State Research Forest agreement achieves these outcomes and offers a new way forward for forest management in western Oregon.
Figure 3. Quite a lot of magnificent older forest was clear-cut before laws were enforced and public opinion changed ca. 2016. The good news is that very significant areas of older (mature and old-growth) forest still remain on the Elliott. The great news is that almost all of it will be protected for the benefit of this and future generations and that those mature forest stands will age into old-growth forests. Source: Francis Eatherington.
The legislation is not perfect, but few things in life ever are. The conservation community letter notes:
To reach a negotiated Elliott State Research Forest agreement, there have been compromises made, including allowing commercial logging in some of the Forest’s previously managed tree farms and thinning within a limited amount of mature forest.
While the bill has several aspects I do not particularly care for (listed in my earlier Public Lands Blog post, “An Elliott State Research Forest?”), on the whole SB 1546-1 is a piece of legislation that I fully support. I urge you to do the same.
The Legislative Maze Ahead for the Bill
Two hearings will be held during the first week of the 2022 regular session of the Oregon Legislative Assembly before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire Recovery:
February 1 at 1 p.m., an informational hearing. Witnesses will include Jason Miner (Governor’s Office), Tom DeLuca (Dean of OSU School of Forestry), Melissa Cribbins (Coos County Commissioner), Paul Beck (representing timber interests), Mary Paulson (Oregon School Boards Association), and Bob Sallinger (Audubon Society of Portland). There may be others as well.
February 3 at 1 p.m., a public hearing. Both oral and written testimony can be submitted (including yours; see below).
Information about the hearings and sign-ups will be posted here when available.
Thanks are due to Senator Lee Beyer (D-6-Springfield) for introducing the bill. (Senators get to introduce only two bills during this session.) Committee chair Senator Jeff Golden is serving a critical role in moving the bill through the legislative process. Three votes are necessary for the bill to clear the committee and continue in the legislative process. Golden, along with Senators Floyd Prozanski (D-4-Eugene [and parts east and south]) and Deb Patterson (D-10-Salem) are the most likely votes. Given the disparate stakeholders supporting the bill, we hope that Senators Bill Kennemer (R-20-Canby) and Dallas Heard (R-1-Roseburg) will also vote for the bill.
If the bill clears Golden’s committee, it is off to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, which must approve ~$121 million to buy the forest out of the Common School Fund and into public ownership. The money ask will be in the governor’s budget request to the legislature. The leadership of Ways and Means co-chair Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D-17-NW Portland and Beaverton) will be critical to attain the funding. It also never hurts if the Senate president is supportive, so we hope Senator Peter Courtney (D-11-Salem) makes sure things go smoothly.
Then it would be off to floor votes in the House and Senate and then to the governor for her signature. All of this must happen before March 7, 2022. After Governor Brown signs the bill, it’s time to party!
Political Leaders Who Deserve Credit for Getting to Where We Are
The action now is in the Oregon Legislature, but it has been a long slog since the State Land Board (SLB—the governor, secretary of state, and state treasurer) reversed course in 2017 and decided not to sell the Elliott to private timber interests and instead retain it in conservation ownership. At the prompting of the SLB, the Oregon Department of State Lands convened a diverse group of stakeholders (including conservation, timber, recreation and education interests, Tribes, and counties). Over the course of countless meetings, this group came to general agreement on what an Elliott State Research Forest would be.
Success has many parents, but most members of the State Land Board have been crucial in moving the Elliott State Forest to a far better place. Governor Kate Brown has exercised steady leadership since the land board reversed its disastrous course. So too has State Treasurer Tobias Read. In the world of politics one is supposed to limit one’s praise to the elected official, but I nonetheless want to give a shout-out to Read’s chief of staff, Dmitri Palmateer. Dmitri has deftly worked with all interests and put in the countless hours and sustained interest to see things through.
Since the Elliott hit the fan in 2017, three people have served as Oregon’s secretary of state. Republican Dennis Richardson was freshly elected and quickly learned the Elliott issue and strongly came out on the righteous side of being for the Elliott State Forest becoming a public forest, decoupled from the Common School Fund, and generally managed for conservation. Before his untimely death from brain cancer in early 2019, Richardson was walking the path of a former Republican secretary of state and later governor by the name of Tom McCall. He was succeeded by another Republican, Beth Clarno, who just as strongly came down on the wicked side on the Elliott issue. Fortunately, she had but one vote of three. Serving now is Shemia Fagan, who has been quite supportive of efforts to save the Elliott.
Figure 4. While Douglas-fir trees dominate the Elliott State Forest, other major species include western hemlock, Sitka spruce, red alder, and vine maple (shown here). Source: Francis Eatherington.
Others Who Deserve to Take a Bow
The Elliott State Forest would not be poised for permanent protection if not for all of those who
• demonstrated in Salem at the State Land Board meetings,
• testified before the State Land Board,
• surveyed the Elliott for marbled murrelets,
• engaged in civil disobedience on behalf of Elliott’s old forests,
• sat on advisory committees,
• wrote and called their elected officials, and/or
• spoke up and spoke out.
All of you, stand up and take a bow.
Some employees of state government and state universities, in their own quiet (and by necessity, anonymous) way, did the right thing. I must also note that some of the same have been less than helpful if not downright hostile to conserving the Elliott. (I took names.)
What You Can Do to Help
Your state senator and state representative both need to know that you support SB 1546-1. It is important to urge your elected representatives to support the “dash one” version, which contains the agreed-upon language. Ask them to please support SB 1546-1, a bill to establish the Elliott State Research Forest. If you want to elaborate about the importance of the Elliott in particular or of older forests in general, go for it. However, you don’t have to.
Figure 5. According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) “is the smallest and most commonly seen and heard frog in Oregon.” Enigmatic microfauna are as ecologically important as charismatic megafauna. Source: Francis Eatherington.
Bottom Line: The perfect must not be the enemy of the pretty great. You should support this legislation and let your elected officials know of your support.