[freecast]

Oregons Sen. Wyden is pressing a bill that would double logging on Oregon O & C lands. You can go to his website and see how much of your local waters will be affected. My primary concern is the Siletz River System which hold a large amount of O & C Lands, especially on the N. Fork. My feeling is that the Siletz has already been abused and this will make matters worse. This is a beautiful system with still some semblance of wild runs and it deserves our support. Our local chapter of Trout Unlimited (Bluebacks) is having a speaker on this regard; Dean Finnerty will speak to our club on Wednesday, Nov. 19 from 7-9 PM at the Old World Deli in Corvallis. Open invitation and may even include a free round of local brew! Ya'll Come! Doc

 

[kloan]

Hard to imagine any more damage to the Siletz than has already occured on Plum Creeks watch. Last wild run of coastal range summer steelhead really deserve better.

 

[lsteinb]

logging

Worst I ever saw was Weyerhauser on the "fly fishing"
stretch of the Kalama in the late '70's.
Criminal!
Best,
lsteinb

 

[spfd jason]

Just sent my letter to Mr. Wyden via his website.

 

[fredaevans]

Now here's one hell of an understatement.

Worst I ever saw was Weyerhauser on the "fly fishing"
stretch of the Kalama in the late '70's.
Criminal!
Best,
lsteinb

Toutle and Kalama were my 'go to rivers,' with some exception, the 'S Rivers' in the Seattle area were already getting pounded to death. On those two, other than the odd place, was unusual to see another fisherman. Then Weyerhauser brought in the chain saws!

Well credit where credit is due, they really did 'selective cutting' but the whole top of a mountain could be taken down to bare dirt. The credit due is replanting started almost immediately, weather permitting. "And there in hangs the rub," weather permitting. Major storm rolled through (think that just might just happen in Washington State?) and there could be hell to pay with run off.

Heavy storm and Mom Nature will blow out a river on Her own, add clear cutting and things just got a hell of a lot worse. Real quick.:saevilw:

fae

 

[CULVERSPEY]

Great to see a few Siletz folks weighing in. I hope someone can get to the meeting in Corvallis on Wednesday and report back. Over the generations, this river, its forests, and its fish have sustained historic levels of abuse, which have ramped up alarmingly in the past two or three years--with little or no public response or pushback from fishermen. A unique river with historically great fish runs that are now in a lot of trouble. I'd really like to hear from anyone concerned or alarmed about what's recently been going on along the Siletz and what it means for the long term picture. Here's a link to a Siletz discussion on Westfly.com for anyone interested.

http://www.west-fly-fishing.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/735438/1.html

 

[freecast]

I will be at the meeting and will do a follow up. Thanks for all of your support!
Doc

 

[freecast]

Again, Thanks for all the support! The meeting presentation by Dean Finnerty was positive, constructive, and very informative. We are a new and small chapter and had over 25 people show up for this meeting! Also attended the Wild Steelhead Initiative by TU in Portland which launched on November 20. Dwayne Meadows ran the presentation and the Q & A session and did a great job keeping things on track and tempers subdued. We have been and still are working on the Siletz issue, more to come, will keep you posted. Doc

 

[CULVERSPEY]

Doc, Please keep us posted, especially on the Siletz.

 

[Keystoner]

Someone whom I consider reliable mentioned to me that Canton Creek could potentially be logged right down to the confluence. If you know where that is, then you know why that is unacceptable.

 

[SSPey]

you can stitch things together yourself, if interested. Here are some coarse resolution maps: http://www.wyden.senate.gov/priorities/oc/maps, not great, but triangulate Township/Range/Section locations with better maps. I have also attached the Wyden Bill as it passed through committee (for riparian regs, see p 18-25).

general bottom line for streams with anadromous fish: current Northwest Forest Plan riparian reserves of 300' will remain under the Wyden Plan at 300' in Conservation areas but drop to 150' in Forestry areas.

specifically for waters mentioned here: the Wyden maps show a blend of Conservation and Forestry emphases for the Canton Creek watershed (mostly Conservation for mainstem creek sections) and continued Conservation for Steamboat Creek. This compared to a stronger Forestry emphasis on the NF Siletz.

 

[papenfus]

Here is the aforementioned Canton Creek.
Green::Forestry emphasis
Beige::Conservation emphasis

Edit: see map posted below by sspey for a more authoritative and up-to-date map.

As you can see, there is quite a bit of Forestry emphasis bordering Canton Creek, especially down low in the watershed. Not sure how cells get categorized but seems like one could imagine a swap of some conservation emphasis cells in other areas for proposed forestry emphasis cells that would provide more protection of Canton Creek.

I agree with sspey that heavy forestry emphasis on the NF Siletz (critical habitat for that other native run of summer steelhead) is of concern.

 

[SSPey]

the Canton Creek map above doesn't match the one on Wyden's website - his shows more conservation lands downstream - is yours above more recent or the earlier DeFazio plan?

http://www.wyden.senate.gov/download/?id=F5648D63-1369-4BF6-A709-1FF524C487E1&download=1

 

[papenfus]

I don't know the original source of the data :tsk_tsk:, but I would trust the one from Wyden's website since its his plan and dated Nov 3. Indeed, it looks like Canton Cr. is better protected than the map I posted indicates. That's a good thing.

 

[freecast]

Just got a message from the Chapter President...looks like the Wyden bill is dead for this session but some semblance will be back on deck soon. We need to be ready to support sensitive areas.

 

[WesS]

First, a bit of a contrarian view to how I read the OP
Based on Gov. Kitz. report, harvest on O&C timberlands are DOWN 88% from the 30 year average up to 1990. Historic average was 1.2 billion, now it is 144 million. If we are talking abut a doubling in Wyden's bill, we are still at about 25% of the historic harvest level.

If you are completely, philosophically opposed to logging on public lands, then I understand. I believe we have to balance and while the Pre-1990 represented an imbalance in favor of timber harvest and jobs at any expense, I would argue that post-1990 had represented the opposite in favor of preservation. Parts of the Preservation community are now behaving with the same "gotta have it all" attitude that Big Timber showed in the 80s. I believe we have to consider the conservation values and the economic values.

We need to be deeply concerned about poverty in the O&C counties - they are not a playground for Portland, Eugene, and San Francisco. You should only need to look at yesterday's report on child abuse in Oregon to understand. I have yet to see any conservation organization take a stand and act on poverty or education in S. Oregon. My moral compass doesn't allow me to restrict my concerns to steelhead no matter how much they mean to me.

 

[Parera]

First, a bit of a contrarian view to how I read the OP
Based on Gov. Kitz. report, harvest on O&C timberlands are DOWN 88% from the 30 year average up to 1990. Historic average was 1.2 billion, now it is 144 million. If we are talking abut a doubling in Wyden's bill, we are still at about 25% of the historic harvest level.

If you are completely, philosophically opposed to logging on public lands, then I understand. I believe we have to balance and while the Pre-1990 represented an imbalance in favor of timber harvest and jobs at any expense, I would argue that post-1990 had represented the opposite in favor of preservation. Parts of the Preservation community are now behaving with the same "gotta have it all" attitude that Big Timber showed in the 80s. I believe we have to consider the conservation values and the economic values.

We need to be deeply concerned about poverty in the O&C counties - they are not a playground for Portland, Eugene, and San Francisco. You should only need to look at yesterday's report on child abuse in Oregon to understand. I have yet to see any conservation organization take a stand and act on poverty or education in S. Oregon. My moral compass doesn't allow me to restrict my concerns to steelhead no matter how much they mean to me.

I could have powered a small engine from the energy of my eye-rolling as I read that last paragraph.