On Tuesday, the Lane County Board of Commissioners (BOC) bowed to anti-forestry groups and voted to remove funding for the Association of O&C Counties from its adopted budget. This anti-forestry vote was supported by Commissioner Pete Sorensen as well as first-term Commissioners Joe Berney and Heather Buch, both of whom have a significant forest industry presence in their districts. Commissioner Pat Farr also voted in favor, but only as a parliamentary move to revisit the issue during the next Board of Commissioners meeting on June 18.
We sincerely thank Commissioner Farr and and Commissioner Jay Bozievich for fighting for forestry and the truth, and working hard to correct the blatant lies and misleading statements that have been spread by these groups. We thank those who contacted the BOC and especially Lane Families for Farms and Forests (LFFF) for leading the charge locally. Thanks to these efforts, in May, the Lane County Budget Committee had defeated a similar anti-forestry motion by a vote of 7 to 2. Unfortunately, today brought a different outcome.
If you think Lane County forestry is worth fighting for, here are some things you can do:
–Click here to send an email, expressing your disappointment in today’s vote and asking they reconsider. We have a pre-drafted message that you should feel free to customize.
-Call (541) 682-4203 and ask to speak to your commissioner and provide your opinion directly.
-Attend the Board of Commissioners meeting on June 18, starting at 9:00 am.
-If you haven’t already, join Lane Families for Farms and Forests, and get involved as attacks on local forestry will only continue.
Once again, groups want to dismantle AOCC because it has been an effective voice for Oregon forestry. As the only county association that focuses on federal Bureau of Land Management O&C lands, AOCC and its commissioners work proactively with Oregon’s congressional delegation to promote forest management solutions and ensure O&C counties receive the funding they deserve to sustain essential services, such as Sheriff patrols.
If these groups are successful, Lane County will lose an essential voice in O&C land management. So will our communities that have suffered economically and socially from the decline in federal timber harvests starting in the early 1990’s. And so will Lane County’s forest sector, which continues to provide 7,400 family wage jobs within the county. Today’s vote was a bad outcome for Lane County forestry. Whether the fight continues is up to us.
