[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 192 (Thursday, December 17, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13385-S13386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WYDEN:
  S. 2895. A bill to restore forest landscapes, protect old growth 
forests, and manage national forests in the eastside forests of the 
State of Oregon, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce critical forest 
legislation for my home State of Oregon.
  For too many decades, Oregon has been at war with itself over the 
fate of one of our most abundant--and most threatened--resources, our 
forests.
  Nowhere has the negative impact of this battle been greater than in 
Oregon's eastside forests.
  Over-logging and disastrous fire suppression policies of the past 
gave way over time to excessive litigation and gridlock.
  With each passing month, our inability to take action, our inability 
to address the needs of Oregon's declining forests means that they are 
growing more at risk of preventable fire and disease.
  With each passing month and each attempted timber sale and threatened 
lawsuit, the relationship between the environmental community and the 
timber industry has grown increasingly bitter.
  Each side in these disputes has thoroughly armed itself politically 
enough to survive, but never enough to succeed.
  The end result is that today, across Oregon's Federal forest 
landscape, we have around 9.5 million acres of choked, at-risk forest 
in desperate need of management, and millions of acres of old growth, 
species habitat, and watersheds face an uncertain future.
  Unless something fundamental changes, that number and that peril will 
grow, not shrink, in coming years.
  Today, good and decent people on both sides of these difficult issues 
have come together with me to craft legislation that will bring peace, 
jobs, and a healthier tomorrow to 8.3 million acres of Federal forest 
in eastern and central Oregon.
  Today, for the first time in memory, timber executives are standing 
shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders of the Oregon environmental community 
to take shared responsibility for saving our endangered forests.
  These folks have been a part of negotiations with my office for over 
8 months, and have made difficult concessions in order to save our 
threatened Eastside forests.
  Today in eastern Oregon we are down to only a small handful of 
surviving mills. Without far greater certainty of supply and an 
immediate increase in merchantable timber, more mills will close.
  If that happens our Eastside forests will pay the price.
  Without mills to process saw logs and other merchantable material 
from forest restoration projects, there will be no restoration of our 
Eastside forests.
  The folks my office worked with to come to an agreement set aside 
their differences and found common ground that will prevent that from 
happening.
  The legislation that we are rolling out today, the Oregon Eastside 
Forests Restoration, Old Growth Protection and Jobs Act of 2009, will 
provide an immediate supply of logs in the short term to jump-start 
restoration efforts and keep our timber mills alive.
  Job One must be saving our remaining forest management infrastructure 
in central and eastern Oregon while preserving our old growth and 
watersheds.
  Over the long term--in 3 years from its passage to be precise--this 
legislation will also provide the long-term certainty required to 
restore each of the six Eastside national forests, protect our most 
sensitive environmental assets, and restore countless jobs to rural 
communities.
  I want to make clear that the road ahead is likely to see some 
challenges. Our coalition will be tested. But I have great faith that 
the decent people who helped to put this bill together will honor the 
components of this agreement and will fight to preserve its many 
elements as we move through the process.
  I also want to point out that none of our efforts will succeed unless 
Oregon Federal forests are also adequately funded to properly manage 
and restore these valuable Federal assets.
  Together, we have entered a partnership that goes beyond the four 
corners of this legislation. Together, as a team, we will fight for the 
funding to put our people back to work and restore the health of our 
forests.
  Together, we have demonstrated something that I think my colleagues 
here in the Senate will appreciate: working together on a difficult 
issue is not only possible, it yields far greater results than working 
apart.
  Later today, and tomorrow, I will be sitting down with key members of 
the Obama administration and the timber industry so that the 
administration can better understand the peril and opportunity in 
Oregon's Eastside forests. This is a united front that has not been 
witnessed by a White House since the onset of the timber wars.
  It is my hope we will learn to work together, we will develop real 
trust, and that we will use these new experiences to tackle the 
difficult issues that await us on the west side of the Cascades.
  I also want to single out a few individuals who have endured 
thousands, of hours of difficult work and negotiations to reach this 
point: John Shelk, president of Ochoco Lumber; Andy Kerr; the American 
Forest Resource Council, represented by Heath Heikkila and Tom Partin, 
who spearheaded negotiations.
  I also want to recognize others that joined me earlier today to 
rollout this legislation Tim Lillebo with Oregon Wild; Tom Insko with 
Boise Cascade;

[[Page S13386]]

Mary Scurlock, with Pacific Rivers Council; Randi Spivak, with the 
National Center for Conservation Science and Policy; Ben Bendick with 
the Nature Conservancy; and Bob Irvin with Defenders of Wildlife.
  I also want to recognize back in the State, their colleagues that 
could not join me earlier today; Rick Brown with Defenders of Wildlife, 
Joseph Vaile of Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Steve Pedry with 
Oregon Wild, and Michael Powelson with the Nature Conservancy, as well 
as the other members and mill owners of AFRC.
  I want to thank my staff, Michele Miranda, Mary Gautreaux, and Josh 
Kardon, who gave their nights and weekends to get us to this point.
  I am proud to introduce this legislation today, and I am going to 
keep working with all the folks in my State who are willing to talk in 
good faith about restoring our eastside forests.
                                 ______