CONSERVATION VICTORIES

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

To provide protection for Oregon’s old growth and natural treasures the O&C TRUST, CONSERVATION, AND JOBS ACT

Provides legislative protection for old growth on 2.6 million acres of public forests in western Oregon for the first time in history.

Adds nearly 150 miles of Oregon rivers to the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, including:

93 miles of the iconic Rogue River and its tributaries;
21 miles of the Molalla River;
19 miles of the threatened Chetco River; and
15 miles of Wasson and Franklin Creeks, tributaries of the Umpqua River

Protects 90,000 acres of Oregon forests as wilderness, including:

58,000 acres to be added to the existing Wild Rogue Wideness
32,000 acres of some of the last remaining old growth in Oregon’s Coast Range and permanent protection for Devil’s Staircase

Transfers more than 1,000,000 acres of mature and old growth forests from the Bureau of Land Management to the Forest Service to be managed as National Forest Lands.

Requires thousands of miles of legacy roads and logging roads in disrepair to be brought up to federal and state standards.

Repeals the contentious O&C Act of 1937 that led to the Western Oregon Plan Revisions.

Includes management restrictions on O&C Trust lands to protect clean water, terrestrial, and aquatics values, including:

Prohibition on aerial application of herbicides and pesticides and a requirement for a public process for the development of an integrated Pest Management Plan;
Long and short timber rotation ages to provide diversification and to encourage the recruitment of complex, early serial habitat; and
A sustained yield requirement to prevent overcutting

Expedites land exchanges between the federal government, the O&C Trust lands, and private landowners to create larger contiguous blocks of forested land in western Oregon and to improve the conservation values of such lands.

Ensures the scientific community and general public are represented on the O&C Board of Trustees

Maintains federal ownership of all O&C lands and public access privileges.

Comments are closed.