Tillamook State Forest
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a long-awaited decision on the Oregon Department of Forestry’s management of logging roads and stormwater in the Tillamook State Forest. In the western United States, logging roads are one of the worst sources of sediment pollution, which smothers salmon spawning beds and harms water quality. On the Tillamook State Forest, ODF has for years designed their roads to channel and discharge polluted stormwater from logging roads into coastal rivers and streams in the Tillamook State Forest, often times directly on top of or close to salmon spawning grounds.
The Oregon Department of Forestry and the timber industry have for years argued that its logging activities are exempt from the Clean Water Act’s permit program. Today, the Ninth Circuit firmly rejected that argument and held that ODF must have a permit before it discharges polluted stormwater into Oregon’s rivers and streams.
Chris Winter, Staff Attorney and Co-Executive Director of the Crag Law Center, hailed the decision. “Logging roads kill salmon, plain and simple. The timber industry and ODF have tried to evad
e the Clean Water Act for years, and this decision will hopefully bring an end to the ‘stick your head in the sand’ approach to management.”
The decision comes at a particularly inopportune time for ODF. The Oregon Board of Forestry, upon ODF’s recommendation, recently decided to increase the level of clearcutting on the Tillamook State Forest. Winter said the revised plan is misguided. “ODF first needs to get its house in order before dramatically increasing the level of clearcutting. ODF doesn’t even have permits for its existing road network. Increasing harvest should be the last priority at this point. This is not how Oregonians expect the State to manage one of their natural treasures.”
Crag has partnered on this case for many years with its long-standing client Northwest Environmental Defense Center and its co-counsel Paul Kampmeier of the Washington Forest Law Center, who argued the case before the Ninth Circuit. Big thanks go out to WFLC and NEDC for their tireless efforts and excellent work.
More Information:
9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision — 9th Circuit Clean Water Act – Forest Roads Decision
August 17, 2010 Press Release — August 17, 2010 Press Release
Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) Story – Logging Road Runoff Decision Could Have Huge Implications
OPB_News_0817forestrunoff (Audio File from OPB News)
Associated Press – Mud from Logging Roads is Pollution
Congratulations –
Best news for naturally spawning salmonids in the last 30 years. Bedload routing-delivery of eroded sediment as well as suspended sediment must be a major consideration, and bedload is tough to monitor.
Let’s hope the decision holds.
Congratulations for a job well done! This is excellent news for those of us dedicated to equitable practices on lands heavily impacting watersheds. May this decision set a precedent for the entire State with powerful momentum to do what’s right far and wide. Kudos to you!!!!!
Stan
Native Fish Society South Umpqua River Steward for the Native Fish Society
Never does Nature say one thing and Wisdom another.
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Stanley Petrowski
President
South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership
34620 Tiller trail Hwy.
Tiller, Oregon 97484
stanley@surcp.org
The Tillamook Forest and it’s streams were one of my top priorities when I lived in Hillsboro. I served on the TRAC Committee which was supposed to promote recreation and conservation but nothing other than a few trails (in non critical habitat) and a big propaganda center near the North Fork Wilson ever really occured. We worked hard to get the last small remnant of old growth in the Tillamook along the Little North Fork Wilson into public hands so it might not be cut (It was transferred to BLM as a successional reserve but they have had plans on the west side which may put it in a status that might allow logging) ODf made claims after the 96 floods that important streams like the North Fork Trask would have roads moved away from the river and culverts replaced with bridges but that never happened. Anyway, enough of my rambling and Kudos for you in getting the lawsuit through challanging logging road runoff.
Here’s a great example of road decommissioning work creating jobs and improving watershed conditions.
https://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/08/25/1313738/road-building-busting.html
Pattie Mee writes to us that she agrees with our efforts and applaud the results we have achieved but that she was troubled by one article on this subject in your Fall 2010 newsletter.
Pattie Mee writes: “In it, you stated: ‘These forests burned as a result of extensive logging operations, and a massive reforestation effort followed.’ Extensive logging does not cause fires. If there was such massive logging, there would be no trees to burn. In addition, my research has indicated the 2 fires in the 1930s are purported to be started from one careless logging operation each, not because of extensive logging.”
Pattie expressed concern that we “let the reader believe this was the Tillamook State Forest that burned when in fact it was mostly private timber land. In the Great Depression, the owners lost the land to the counties for back taxes, and in order to use state money to reforest, the counties turned over the land the the State of Oregon who did fund reforestation.”
Pattie suggests we “keep your articles true to the facts. The truth is enough.”
Dear Patty,
Thanks for your note. Perhaps a more thorough statement would have been – “the forests were extensively logged over, leaving slash piles and removing the canopy and drying out the forest floor. One logging operation continued late into the day, and starting a fire the ran through the logged over land with great speed.”
Have you ever read Epitaph for the Giants? The book lays out how the forests were logged extensively and large brush piles and slash were left everywhere. There was not one fire, but many fires (4-5 every 4-5 years) over many years. I am willing to provide citations to you that I learned about the true history of these forests from fire scientists at OSU. These coastal forests rarely burn (on average about every 400 years), and experts have pointed to the logging not only as the cause of the ignition but also as the reason for the extensive nature of the fires.
Managed forests burn too, and in many cases far hotter because the canopy is even-aged and all the same height. Today’s Tillamook and Clatsop State forests used to be private timber land and now they are public land. The companies logged them extensively, then they burn 4-5 times, and then they defaulted. The counties then took them over and when they could not handle the responsibility – the lands went to the public.
Regards,
Ralph Bloemers
Kevin, Crag is willing to post messages that actually say something. If you have a proposed solution without being personally insulting then it may get posted. Thanks, Crag Law Center Crew