Living With Clearcuts and the Future of O&C Lands

I live on a 17-acre farm in Lobster Valley, near Alsea in Benton County. Our property lies along Lobster Creek, a tributary of the Alsea River and a haven for fly fisherman and angling enthusiasts. Our farm borders the Siuslaw National Forest and some private land, including a Christmas tree farm, and the O&C lands in our area are located about a mile up the Lobster Creek drainage.

I am no stranger to clearcuts. In fact, in our rural setting, we live with clearcuts. They are our neighbors, so much so that whenever I have leave the area I have to steel myself to contend with landslides and fallen trees. Our soils are steep and saturated in the Coast Range, with 110 inches of rain a year (compared to Portland, which only receives about 40 inches of rain per year), and landslides are common. These slides often block roads and cut power lines, so beginning with the first fall storm of the year we make it a point to carry a chainsaw in the trunk to increase our chances of leaving the valley.

 

Reed_WilsonAfter nine years in Lobster Valley, there is no doubt in my mind that clearcuts cause landslides. In early 2012, my husband Garth and our daughter were on their way to Corvallis on Highway 34 outside of Alsea. As they began to climb Mary's Peak, they came across a tree blocking the road.

As usual, Garth had the chainsaw, and as he was walking from the car to cut a path through the tree, another tree snapped just up the hill from him, sending an enormous slide of muddy water across the road. Garth trotted back to the car and backed it up 50 yards moments before the entire hillside slid down onto the roadway. The landslide ended up blocking Highway 34 for 10 days. Care to guess what lies above the newly-named Yew Wood mudslide? A giant clearcut.

If you increase industrial clearcutting on the O&C lands, what will be the effect? From Lobster Valley, I can report we will feel the impact immediately. More silt in the rivers and creeks means less gravel bars for spawning salmon, more road closures, more landslides and more flooding.

Common_TreasuryThe goal after clearcutting is to get new trees to grow back as quickly as possible so that they can be logged again. Herbicides are used to kill native shrubs and trees which produce pollen and nectar from competing with the commercially-valuable trees. So in an industrial model, like the kind we see on private and state lands throughout the Coast Range, the more clearcutting there is – the more herbicide use that follows.

As a certified organic operation I'm required by law to disclose any applications of herbicide on property adjacent to my certified land, whether it's on the neighbors' land or forest lands. Organic farmers must maintain buffer strips on all farm borders to protect our crops from herbicide and other chemical contamination.

In addition, we get our irrigation water right out of Lobster Creek. What will these herbicides do to the fertility of my soil and the integrity of my organic crops? Will these herbicides accumulate in my organic meat, milk and eggs? If we're talking about fish, or bears, elk, even our own kids: herbicide spraying impacts everyone.

Common_TreasuryOrganic farmers make up a small percentage of the agricultural land base in the U.S., but even in our prolonged recession, organic food sales still gain ground every year. Sales of organic food grew by 25 percent between 2008 and 2011 around the world, and the U.S. dominates sales with $28 billion in 2011 alone.

Organic farming in Oregon is growing substantially with at least 682 certified organic operations. It is a bright, sustainable spot in our economy, and not an endeavor which should be sold short or threatened by short-sighted, unsustainable policy.

Tommy_HoughSenator Wyden, sir, I challenge you to support rural communities in a way that keeps us all safe, to fund our local schools and services in a way that doesn't require clear cutting more public land to do it.

Charge a severance tax on the trees cut. Prohibit raw log exports by private timber that lease the O&C lands. Don't evade the laws we have in place to protect endangered species. And help create and sustain jobs in our community with selective logging, thereby keeping revenue and investment local.

Angela Wartes-Kahl is Co-Manager of the Common Treasury Farm in Lobster Valley, Benton County, and a student at Oregon State University.