Northwest towns expect new timber jobs under Trump: How that might happen

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By Hal Bernton

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][vc_column_text]HOME VALLEY, Skamania County — The mill is idle now, but 30 workers used to turn logs into softwood veneer here in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge. They held down the kind of family-wage jobs that President-elect Donald Trump talked about reviving in campaign speeches that often included calls for rolling back environmental rules.
“Timber is a crucial industry in Oregon but it is being hammered, why are we surprised, by federal regulations,” Trump declared during a May stopover in Eugene, Ore.

 Such punchlines helped stoke Trump’s support in Skamania, as well as in 56 other Washington and Oregon counties. Meanwhile, 16 of the most populous — and prosperous — counties in the two states went heavily for Democrat Hillary Clinton in an election that left so much of the Northwest — and the nation — on edge and divided.

So in the aftermath, what would it take for Trump to make good on his campaign talk, at least in this sliver of rural America, and bring the Home Valley mill back into operation?

These timber sales call for selective logging rather than stripping all the trees off a harvest site, as often happened in decades past.

 “We don’t need to clear-cut. Those days are gone,” said Ron Schneider, vice president of High Cascade Forest, which owns the shuttered mill as well as a second one in Skamania County that continues to operate with logs from public and private lands.

In well-designed timber sales, this logging can serve a dual purpose. These selective harvests yield wood for mills, and let in more light to increase plant diversity in cutover lands that have regrown thick, tight stands of Douglas fir.
“A lot of these stands were planted as monocultures, and they need thinning,” said Matt Little, executive director of the Cascade Forest Conservancy, which focuses on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

 Schneider and Little are involved in a collaborative approach to these harvests that brings Forest Service staff, environmentalists, county officials and others to the woods to visit proposed sale sites and talk about concerns. This dialogue has helped to curb legal challenges to block timber sales. For the past half decade, there have been no such lawsuits.

James Peña, Pacific Northwest regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service, says collaboration on the Gifford Pinchot is part of a broader effort that has spread across Washington and Oregon forests. The work of some 35 groups involved doesn’t grab headlines, but it has helped to build trust — and a greater consensus — on how to manage these public lands.
“I see this as a way forward,” Peña said. “It doesn’t do us any good to go after (timber sale) projects that were just going to get wrapped up in litigation.”
On the Gifford Pinchot forest, so long as the collaborative process is not short-circuited, Little says he could envision higher numbers of trees each year coming off the forest.
For the mill to reopen, the cutting must include some of the older, bigger-diameter trees — typically around 60 years of age or more — that are needed to run veneer mills.
“Absolutely, I would like to see it open. I prefer the timber that builds our homes to be coming from local, sustainably harvested forests,” Little said. “It’s better for the local communities. And it’s better for the forest.”

Federal lands make up more than 80 percent of the 1,656 square miles of this county in Southwest Washington.

Lost trust

During the last century, Skamania County enjoyed the kind of prosperity that Donald Trump seemed to be summoning up with his slogan “Make America Great Again.”
The economy was keyed to logging federal lands, which occupy about 80 percent of the land within the county of some 11,330 people.
From the middle of the century through the late 1980s, the annual harvests often were more than 10 times the current levels on the Gifford Pinchot.
In addition to all the timber and mill jobs, the county received a share of the federal logging revenue to bolster local government spending for schools and other services.
But the clear-cutting of centuries-old trees in federal forests ignited an epic environmental backlash. And timber sales were blockedby a lawsuit that sought protection for the spotted owl under the federal Endangered Species Act.
In 1994, under the Clinton administration, the Northwest Forest Plan set up major conservation measures that launched a new era of Forest Service management and reduced logging. Early in that decade, Skamania lost 10 percent of its job base, according to a state report, and unemployment reached 22 percent in February 1992.
Skamania County has struggled through a difficult transition away from a timber-based economy, more so than others in the Gorge.
In 2014, nearly 70 percent of earned income came from residents who commuted to jobs, and many of those who opted to stay closer ended up in low-paid work in the service industry.
“This town has definitely become reliant on tourism jobs,” said Heather Shields, 27, a waitress in the county seat of Stevenson. “Logging jobs are few and far between.”
Shields says she and most of her high-school friends voted for Trump, who ended up with 52 percent of the county vote compared with 39 percent for Hillary Clinton.
The shift to tourism also has not done much to make up for the downturn in timber revenue that flowed to the county, where less than 2 percent of its acreage is in a tax base of residential and commercial properties. And that has hit schools hard.
“My grandchildren don’t have the kind of extracurricular activities that there used to be. The schools can’t afford it,” says Lori Cochran, a clerk at the Home Valley Store across the highway from the mill.
To cobble together a budget, the county has become dependent on payments from Congress, which only partially compensate for the lost timber revenues.
As they scramble for money, Skamania’s three county commissioners have emerged as big critics of federal forestland management.
Two years ago, they passed a resolution declaring “a state of emergency” on federal forestlands They stated that they had lost trust in an agency they accused of “improperly avoiding and limiting” timber harvests.
Under a Trump presidency, Skamania Commissioner Chris Brong is hoping the Forest Service will give the county more say in managing the federal lands.
“We need to be on more of an equal footing, that would be my highest priority,” Brong said.

Finding the money

Though Gifford Pinchot logging is not expanding fast enough to suit the county commissioners, it is on the rise.
During the past six years, as the legal challenges have diminished, Gifford Pinchot National Forest timber-sale volumes have more than tripled, to 32.8 million board feet in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
To reopen the veneer mill, High Cascade would need to secure an additional 15 million board feet of federal timber.
“It has very good modern equipment. It’s just idle because we don’t have a supply of logs,” said Schneider, the High Cascade vice president.
That additional timber could come from the Gifford Pinchot without exceeding the conservation restrictions of the Northwest Forest Plan. But even if the collaborative process can fend off new lawsuits, the Forest Service would still need more funding to draw up the sales.
That’s been a big challenge.
Forest Service budgets have been consumed by billions of dollars spent to fight wildfires across the country. U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., helped lead a bipartisan effort to rework the budget so accounts that fund timber sales, recreation and other activities aren’t tapped to pay for putting out wildfires.
So far, there have been stopgap measures to shore up holes in the Forest Service budget. But unless there is action soon, the issue will await a new Congress and President Trump.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_gallery interval=”0″ images=”164,161,145″ img_size=”full” onclick=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”yes” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=”” css=”.vc_custom_1465592094531{background-color: #96d1ae !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=”125px”][latest_post_two number_of_columns=”3″ order_by=”date” order=”ASC” display_featured_images=”yes” number_of_posts=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

KBOO Mine Interview

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KBOO Mine Interview

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][vc_column_text]CFC was on KBOO Community Radio talking about our work to stop the proposed mine near Mt St Helens. Listen to these clips  with our Exec Dir Matt Little and Development Dir Michal Orczyk, interviewed by Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein!


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Sign The Petition

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Press Release: Name Change

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The Gifford Pinchot Task Force is now the Cascade Forest Conservancy

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][vc_column_text]Portland, OR— The Gifford Pinchot Task Force has a new name – the Cascade Forest Conservancy. The organization has also launched a new website:  www.cascadeforest.org.
The Gifford Pinchot Task Force started in 1985, as a group of volunteers and conservation advocates who came together to influence the Gifford Pinchot National Forest’s first forest plan.
After 30 years under this original name, the group decided it was time to for a change.
“Our mission remains the same as it has for three decades,” says Niki Terzieff, Chair of the Board of Directors. “However, we have grown from our early days as a volunteer task force into a fully staffed conservation organization dedicated to the sustainability of Washington’s South Cascades.”
The mission of the Cascade Forest Conservancy is to protect and sustain the forests, streams, wildlife, and communities in the heart of the Cascades through conservation, education, and advocacy. Annually, Cascade Forest Conservancy leads students and volunteers on field trips to the forest to conduct important restoration and survey projects in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and others. They also monitor timber sales and other resource management projects that could impact the sustainability and resilience of the forest ecosystem.
“The Cascade Forest Conservancy is looking forward to the next 30 years under our new name and image,” says Matt Little. “We hope many people in the community will check out our website and join us as a member as we continue our important work to protect local forests, watersheds, and wildlife for our children’s future.”[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_gallery interval=”0″ images=”164,161,145″ img_size=”full” onclick=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”yes” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=”” css=”.vc_custom_1465592094531{background-color: #96d1ae !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=”125px”][latest_post_two number_of_columns=”3″ order_by=”date” order=”ASC” display_featured_images=”yes” number_of_posts=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Cantwell decries exploration near Mount St. Helens

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By Dylan Brown, E&E Reporter

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”94″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][vc_column_text]Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell urged the Forest Service to block the so-called Goat Mountain project in her home state of Washington yesterday, the same day as the agency closed a second comment period on proposed mineral exploration in the shadow of Mount St. Helens.
The ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voiced her objections to Ascot Resources Ltd.’s proposal to explore for copper, gold, molybdenum and silver in the Green River Valley next door to Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in a letter to Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell.
Tidwell’s agency has been at the center of a yearslong dispute between the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company and environmental and recreation groups.
Cantwell and fellow Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray have joined opponents, who are concerned that mining could destroy wildlife and tourism in the popular recreation destination (E&ENews PMFeb. 5).
The Gifford Pinchot Task Force, a conservation group dedicated to blocking the mine, won a federal court decision in 2013 that found deficiencies in the environmental assessment, but Ascot made good on its promise to file an updated permitting application late last year.
The federal government purchased the lands in the Green River Valley in 1986 using dollars from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which puts the Bureau of Land Management in charge of permitting. Still, the Forest Service maintains a right to block development interfering with conservation and recreation.
“The commercial extraction of non-renewable natural resources seems completely at odds with the core principle of the Land Water Conservation Fund,” Cantwell wrote.
Cantwell raised concerns about mining’s impact on the Green River, a municipal drinking water source that advocates say is eligible for a National Wild and Scenic River designation. The state of Washington formally considers the river a wild steelhead gene bank for its concentration of endangered and threatened salmon.
“Condoning exploratory drilling and hardrock mining on LWCF-acquired lands would set a terrible precedent and jeopardize national treasures that were offered to the Forest Service by willing sellers so that land could be conserved and enjoyed by the public,” Cantwell told Tidwell.
Mining companies have said modern extraction practices can coexist with natural resources in sensitive areas. Ascot has also touted potential economic development.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_gallery interval=”0″ images=”164,161,145″ img_size=”full” onclick=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”yes” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=”” css=”.vc_custom_1465592094531{background-color: #96d1ae !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=”125px”][latest_post_two number_of_columns=”3″ order_by=”date” order=”ASC” display_featured_images=”yes” number_of_posts=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Plan for exploratory drilling near Mount St. Helens revived

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By Dameon Pesanti, The Columbian

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Canadian Company Applies for Mining Permissions

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To the chagrin of environmental groups, a Canadian mining company has renewed its efforts to perform exploratory drilling in the Green River valley north of Mount St. Helens.
The U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management on Jan. 6 released a modified environmental assessment for the Ascot Resources Goat Mountain exploratory drilling permit application. The move attracted attention from environmental and conservation groups and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
The Gifford Pinchot Task Force, the group that previously sued to block the drilling, claims the new document is identical to the one struck down in court in July 2014, in which Ascot detailed plans to search for copper, silver, gold and other minerals by drilling 63 holes at 23 different sites just north of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument boundary near the headwaters of the Green River. That proposal had been approved by both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management in 2012.
Gifford Pinchot Task Force Executive Director Matt Little said the group wasn’t surprised to see the permit surface again.
“This is that next round where they are attempting to respond to the judges’ orders, I’m guessing to make a more complete application,” Little said.
He acknowledged that the permits are only for exploratory drilling, not the mine itself, but said the agencies were not seeing the entire picture.
“It seems like the agencies have blinders on when they’re reviewing only one portion with the drilling permit, and not the project overall,” he said.
The task force tried unsuccessfully to stop the drilling with an administrative appeal, then was victorious in U.S. District Court in Oregon when Judge Marco A. Hernandez found a 2012 analysis and approval of the plan to be inadequate and in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The exploratory drilling never happened.
In the fall of 2014, Ascot, the bureau and the Forest Service filed notice to appeal but dropped the motion that December.
Robert Evans, chief financial officer and director of Ascot Resources, said that the bureau and the Forest Service worked methodically for more than a year to address the issues identified by the court, but he still expects pushback from the task force.
“We anticipate that the Gifford Pinchot Task Force will do whatever it can to delay this project, however we continue to be heartened by the strong support we receive from the people of Lewis and Skamania counties,” Evans wrote in an e-mail.
Indeed, Little said the group will rally public opposition to the project, but they won’t stop there.
“If they approve this, then we’ll consider our legal options at that point,” he said.
Public comment
The final day for public comment on the environmental assessment is Feb. 4. However, the task force, 20 other conservation and environmental groups and Murray sent letters to the Oregon and Washington state offices of the Bureau of Land Management asking for an extension to the public comment period.
“An extension of the comment period to the full 90 days allowed by federal regulations would ensure interested stakeholders have ample opportunity to examine potential impacts and generate comprehensive comments regarding the proposal,” Murray wrote in a letter dated Jan. 22.
The Forest Service purchased the land for the proposed project with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife designated the Green River a wild steelhead gene bank in March 2014.

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