Fishing and Conservation Groups Challenge State Forester Marvin Brown’s Proposal to Increase Clearcutting on Your Coastal Rainforests.
Damage to Salmon, Lack of Science
On April 22, 2010, the Board of Forestry voted 5 to 2 to open your Tillamook and Clatsop State 
Forests to increased clear cut logging, risking harm to fish and wildlife in your public rain forests. Board member Peter Hayes called the change “too much, too fast, too risky” because the board had not ensured that it had obtained an scientific review before going forward with the change.
A coalition of eleven fishing and conservation groups petitioned the Board of Forestry to reconsider the decision to allow up to 75% of your Tillamook and Clatsop state forests to be clear cut, leaving no trees after logging on the vast majority of the landscape.
The Crag Law Center worked with experts to prepare and file the petition with the Board of Forestry and the Oregon Attorney General’s Office and included maps showing how extensive the cutting would be in the future through an extensive set of maps using the Board’s data. You can click on the map to see an overview of the cutting by 2030.
The Oregon Board of Forestry decision allows up to 75% of publicly owned land in the watershed to be clearcut and access roads for logging to be build in your Tillamook and Clatsop Rainforests threatening coastal rivers and streams and fish like the Oregon Coast Coho that depend on them.
The Wild Salmon Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, Oregon Wild, Native Fish Society, Coast Range Association, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society of Portland, Trout Unlimited, Northwest Guides and Anglers Association, Pacific Rivers Council and the Association of Northwest Steelheader are asking the Board of Forestry to reconsider their decision and take action in compliance with state law by considering available scientific information and prohibited extensive intensive clear cutting that is likely to harm salmon habitat.
State law requires the forest plan to “maintain, enhance, and restore” salmon habitat.
The petitioners point out how state scientists’ analysis of the changes found that increased clear cutting would result in not provide the assurances required to protect watersheds and salmon.
“Their own scientists raised concerns about the effects of this intensive logging on salmon and many other species,” said Noah Greenwald endangered species program director with the Center for Biological Diversity. €œYet the Board of Forestry moved ahead with a dramatic increase in logging before completing the promised independent scientific review.”
Click here to read the full Petition to Protect Your Coastal Rainforest.
Click here to see a map in 40 years — 2050 Tillamook and Clatsop State Forest Recent Clearcuts
Click here to read the story in the Daily Astorian