Over the past 25 years, Eastern Oregon's National Forests have become overstocked, fire-prone and insect infested. The lack of active forest management has hurt our economy and decreased access to public lands.

Presently, the Forest Service has decided to fix one of the greatest obstacles to forest management in Eastern Oregon by amending the Clinton-era “Wildlife Standard of the Eastside Screens,” also known as the “Eastside Screens.” The Forest Service have released their Environmental Assessment with proposed action alternatives. Public comments are due September 10.

The Eastside Screens was originally adopted as a “temporary” rule prohibiting the removal of trees larger than 21 inches in diameter on national forests east of the Cascades, including the Malheur, Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman, Deschutes, Ochoco, Fremont-Winema. With little public involvement or scientific justification, this temporary rule became permanent.

In recent years, a growing body of science supports the removal of some trees greater than 21 inches in forest restoration projects. In overstocked forests, for example, removing some large fir trees can help pine trees grow larger and make them more resilient to fire.

Restoring forests with the Eastside Screens is an expensive and time-consuming process, and anti-forestry groups have exploited it to stop projects they don't like. This policy has also significantly reduced timber harvests on regional national forests, which has resulted in reduced forest infrastructure, jobs losses, reduced revenues to county governments and reduced capacity to perform needed restoration treatments.

Among the alternatives, the "Adaptive Management Alternative" is the most attractive because it:

• Allows land managers to use the best available science to implement the most effective forest health treatments.
• Increases opportunities for proactive forest management, timber harvests and public access.
• Ensures some stability for the region’s forest infrastructure, and increase capacity for forest management.

Those who wish to comment on the process can do so at Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-08-19 18:11:00