Battle set pitting tax vs. timber
From our weekly issue dated October 31, 2007
Panelists included (from left) Marilyn Kittleman, Tim Reuwsaat, and Jim Raffenburg. (Photo by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News)
Battle lines are being drawn in what’s been framed as a debate over “timber vs. taxes” and the future of county funding.
Advocating “good stewardship” of timberlands, and laying the blame for reduced timber receipts squarely at the feet of environmentalist groups, the nonprofit Southern Oregon Resource Alliance (SORA) has threatened a lawsuit against the federal government for “breach of contract” with Western Oregon counties under the 1937 O&C Act.
Some 40 people attended an informational meeting Wednesday evening, Oct. 24 in Anne Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass. Following a summary of the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, delivered by Tim Reuwsaat, of Medford BLM, those who would like to see a return to the hey-day of timber revenues in Oregon spoke of the need to force the federal government to “obey the law” with respect to O&C lands management.
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Commissioner Jim Raffenburg, chairman of the Josephine County Board of Commissioners, said that the federal government must be compelled, through lawsuits if necessary, to produce more timber or turn the 2.1 million acres of O&C land over to counties to manage. The “do-nothing” alternative, Raffenburg said, would require counties to increase property taxes and leave unmanaged forests susceptible to catastrophic wildfire.
“I don’t want to raise taxes,” Raffenburg said. “Harvesting timber is the next best thing to money growing on trees.”
Raffenburg is adamant that a U.S. Supreme Court victory will be necessary to wrest control of O&C lands from the federal government.
(Photos by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News)
Douglas County Commissioner Marilyn Kittleman recalled a time when timber counties were self-sufficient. They even returned money to federal land agencies to manage the timber, she said.
Since 1953, revenues generated from the sale of forest products, mainly timber, from the O&C lands, have been divided among the U.S. Treasury, the county within which the revenue was generated, and the administering federal agency. Of the money received, 25 percent is returned to the U.S. Treasury, another 25 percent is retained by BLM or U.S. Forest Service, and the remaining 50 percent is given directly to the counties within which the revenue-generating activities occurred.
The 25 percent retained by the federal agencies, referred to as the “plowback” fund, is used to manage the O&C lands. This management includes projects such as reforestation, road construction, recreation improvements, and fish and wildlife enhancement.
Kittleman asserts that the federal government is in breach of contract by not allowing the counties to see a full return on some $2 billion invested in the O&C forest management since the “plowback” fund was established.
Timber-revenue proponents say that by law the O&C lands must be managed differently from other forest lands, with an emphasis on sustainable yields in timber production.
“We’re not talking about clear-cutting everything,” Kittleman said, but she insisted that O&C lands “shouldn’t have old trees on them.
“We know what the answers are. They’re standing in the forest,” she said “We’re reasonable; (environmentalists) are not.”
Congressionally approved transitional “Safety Net” funding, Kittleman maintains, “was a safety net for county governments only,” but not for the citizens of the 18 O&C counties.
National Forest Communities Transition Act Legislation, designed to extend the Safety Net and eliminate it after four years, is currently in limbo in the House Agriculture Committee, Raffenburg said. He said he was informed that if the bill doesn’t pass before Christmas, it will likely be an entire year before legislators address the idea of county payments again, making reinstating county funding more difficult.
“Once they let it go for a year,” Raffenburg said, “they’ll find it easier to let it go altogether.”
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