Sorenson Letter re WOPR

November 14, 2008

Governor Ted Kulongoski
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047

Dear Governor Kulongoski:

I urge you, as Governor of the great State of Oregon, to reject the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM's) Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR). The scale and severity of WOPR’s negative impacts will overwhelm our efforts to ensure a viable environmental and economic future for our citizens. You are the only decision-maker standing between the Bush Administration and our public forests, which contain some of the last centuries-old growth stands in the United States that act as buffers against climate catastrophe.

The WOPR clearly undermines a multitude of federal and state policies and plans, including the following:

Water Quality Management Plans and Total Maximum Daily Loads developed under the Clean Water Act.

Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, which relies on the Aquatic Conservation Strategy of the Northwest Forest Plan.

Native Fish Policy by removing the Aquatic Conservation Strategy and Riparian Reserves, which help recover fish populations.

Forestry Program for Oregon, which embodies the agreement that the BLM made to carry more of the conservation burden so that non-federal lands could enjoy less regulatory uncertainty under the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act.

Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

Oregon’s Statewide Land-Use Policies because they exceed the "carrying capacity" of Oregon’s atmosphere and oceans. Our atmosphere is over-saturated with CO₂ and our oceans are becoming acidified with carbonic acid.

State Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Policy.

Coastal Zone Management Act through logging-related carbon emissions that exceed the carrying capacity of our air and oceans.

Many of these were designed to create a minimum level of environmental protection. Other agencies are not prepared, or have been charged, with picking up the slack that the BLM is dropping with the WOPR. Amidst the private-BLM patchwork, waterways compromised by the WOPR upstream will not be able to recover when they face even more destruction from private land managers downstream. Part of the bargain of the Northwest Forest Plan was that federal forests would carry most of the conservation burden and that would reduce the need to regulate activities on non-federal lands. If the BLM reneges on its commitment to fulfilling this vital conservation role, a cloud of regulatory uncertainty over non-federal forests will exist. Regardless of who owns the lands surrounding them, waterways and wildlife are legally in the public domain.

Moreover, the WOPR punishes sustainable forest owners who are responsible land managers while rewarding unsustainable practices. Sustainable foresters who typically own smaller parcels will not be able to compete as WOPR gluts the market with old growth. The BLM has ignored alternatives that these sustainable foresters and other rural citizens proposed during the public comment period. As a local elected official, I favor keeping money in the local economy via incentives for good forest stewardship rather than for the greed of industry managers who are glad to move wherever there is cheaper labor and weaker environmental laws. WOPR would also further hurt salmon fishers, as well as the tourism and recreation industries, which contribute more than twice as much money as the timber industry to the Oregon economy annually.

About 40,000 households live within one-half mile of BLM land in Western Oregon. Citizens, including citizens in Lane County, are fearful of clearcuts that will mar and destabilize the hillsides, of new plantations that will increase fire risk, and of domestic water supplies that will dwindle. Roughly 95% of the over 30,000 comments received on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) supported protecting older forests and keeping BLM in the scientific framework of the Northwest Forest Plan.

Senator Ron Wyden, Representative Peter DeFazio, Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, Eugene and Corvallis City Councils, and other elected officials have publicly criticized this unscientific, profit-driven Bush forest plan, the WOPR. You have are a proven leader in defending Oregon’s roadless forests from salvage logging and among U.S. governors in taking measures to reduce climate change. You have taken a stand against other plans which threaten Oregonians and do nothing to enhance climate security, like Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) projects. I urge you to leave a most positive legacy by opposing the WOPR which would steal our climate and economic security.

Very truly yours,

Pete Sorenson
Lane County Commissioner