Tillamook Needs Our Help

A good friend asked me to post some information about something going on north of here that we should all know about...

Dear Friends,

All of us who care about the rivers of Tillamook County need to get pumped up for a fight. We need to act, and we need to prepare ourselves for more action in the future. Here's the deal: A handful of county politicians, backed by the timber industry, are using the current recession as an opportunity to attack Oregon's State Forests. They have been effective at pushing the Oregon Department of Forestry to drastically increase harvest levels since 2001. But last November, ODF came out strongly against further increases, and recommended that harvest levels be scaled back based on their best science. The timber industry and Oregon's rural counties were outraged and moved to cut ODF off at the knees.

This week they introduced legislation that would redefine ODF's mandate for forest management by defining the value of state forests as only timber revenue. Their bill also includes a declaration of emergency upon passage, giving them an express lane to their goal of 90% harvest in 40 years.

Attached is the first in a series of articles designed to inform the public and call for action to help us kill this bill. I ask you to read it and distribute it to everyone you can. Post it on your blogs, print it in your mags. If you disagree with what I've written, or if you find errors, let me know. I'm happy to work on it until you are satisfied. And there will be more to come--more stories, more details, more photos. The next piece will focus on the positive, by showing off the world-class steelheading that Tillamook County offers, and emphasizing the need to protect her rivers. If the attached word file is not a format that works for you, let me know what you need. And lots more photos are available.

Also attached is a map showing current plans for logging the Wilson River watershed. It is this sickening sight that was the catalyst for this effort. House Bill 3072 came a few days later.

Thanks to Bob Van Dyk at the Wild Salmon Center for starting this dialog, to Jeff Mishler for stoking the fire and providing photography, to Dave Moscowitz for consulting on the house bill and political system, and to Guido Rahr, Jay Nicholas and Ivan Maluski for their commitment to the Tillamook.

Let's kick some ass