OREGON
Keep on
cutting
By a margin of 878,000 to 208,000,
voters defeated a ban on clear-cutting forests on public and
private lands in Oregon. Popular Gov. John Kitzhaber spoke out
against the ban, and mainstream groups such as Oregon Trout
Unlimited refused to support the measure’s backer, Oregonians for
Labor Intensive Forest Economics. Opposition was led by the timber
industry’s Healthy Forest Alliance.
“The voters were very clear.
The initiative process is not the place to write forest management
rules,” says Bill Wynkoop of the Healthy Forest Alliance in Lane
County. “It’s too complex.”
Oregonians did
approve Measure 66, by a margin of 723,000 to 355,000, which allows
the state to spend some lottery funds on parks and the protection
of wildlife habitat and
beaches.
” Dustin
Solberg
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Keep on cutting.
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