From Arizona to Oregon, states have different tactics to make money off their state trust lands.
Timber
Posted inOctober 30, 2017: The Changing Face of Woods Work
The changing politics of woods work
Cash-strapped agencies use private contractors to the detriment of local communities.
Posted inArticles
The fire season by the numbers
Fire agencies are preparing for the eclipse hordes, in the midst of a large fire season.
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Oregon keeps the Elliott State Forest public
The state reverses course and decides not to sell its first state forest.
Posted inArticles
Oregon may sell a state forest that’s no longer profitable
Elliott State Forest shows the difficult balance between profit and conservation.
Posted inFebruary 20, 2017: Overdosed
Latest: Senators aim to revive rural funding
In the meantime, states tighten their belts.
Posted inOctober 31, 2016: A Monumental Divide
Latest: Oso lawsuit reaches $60 million settlement
The 2014 disaster killed 43 people in one of Washington’s most active slide zones.
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A millennial mayor and his timber town
This young local is trying to transform Aberdeen, Washington, into a city for his generation.
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Oregon’s energy plan offers a glimmer of hope for biomass energy
Advocates hope the timber-rich state’s decision to ditch coal could help revive the struggling industry.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Sugar Pine Mine, the other standoff
How a small-time mining dispute in Oregon readied a network of militias for the Malheur occupation.
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Economic downturns fuel Sagebrush Rebellion events
Natural resource-dependent rural economies help explain why disputes happen where they do.
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For rural Oregonians, protections from herbicides come up short
Aerial spray regs remain the West Coast’s weakest after the death of a key law.
Posted inApril 29, 2013: A New Forest Paradigm
Seeking balance in Oregon’s timber country
“Now, that is an old-growth tree!” shouts Jerry Franklin on a September day in the hills above Roseburg, Ore. A mammoth Douglas fir towers 10 stories above, dwarfing everything around it. Sunlight filters down through the thick canopy to a group of about 20 University of Washington students. “You can really see who the veterans […]
Posted inApril 29, 2013: A New Forest Paradigm
Bigger fires and evolving threats force changes in the Northwest Forest Plan
The summer of 1994 was a nasty one for fires in Washington’s Chelan County, cradled in the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle. Dozens of blazes, including a disastrous one in Icicle Canyon, tore through the drought-stricken forests in late July. Almost a million gallons of fire retardant were dropped on that county, and some of […]
Posted inApril 29, 2013: A New Forest Paradigm
Lawmakers scramble to fix the funding problem in Oregon’s timber counties
State and federal lawmakers are scrambling for solutions to the funding crisis in the southwest Oregon timber counties that have been hard hit by cuts in federal aid. A few of the proposals: The O&C Trust, Conservation and Jobs ActThis controversial proposal would move 1.5 million acres of federal forestland into a timber trust to […]
Posted inApril 29, 2013: A New Forest Paradigm
Northwest Forest Plan timeline
1990 Under court order, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the northern spotted owl as threatened. 1991 U.S. District Court Judge William Dwyer halts Forest Service timber sales in spotted owl habitat across the Northwest. 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) enacted under Clinton. Timber harvest resumes, but at much-reduced levels; safety net of “spotted owl […]
Posted inNovember 26, 2012: Casting for Common Ground
A Washington tribe and a timber company wrestle over a forest’s future
Updated 11/30/12 The Indian chief and the timber agent meet near the shores of Port Gamble Bay. The spring air is cool and breezy along this small and sheltered nook of northwest Washington’s Puget Sound. Inside the room where the two men sit side-by-side, the atmosphere is civil, yet tense, as they discuss their separate […]