By Peter Sachs / The Bulletin
WASHINGTON - A proposal that would make it easier for timber companies to salvage wood after forest fires and other catastrophes passed a U.S. House committee Wednesday by a strong majority, bringing it one step closer to a vote before the full House.
Rep. Greg Walden's Forest Emergency Restoration and Research Act, which passed the House Resources Committee on a vote of 25-13, would also allow replanting and restoration efforts to begin sooner. The impact in Oregon could be significant, since the U.S. Forest Service oversees more than 15 million acres in the state.
Under current laws, forest managers must generate a restoration plan after a catastrophe, a process that frequently takes up to two years. But that's too long to wait, Walden, the Republican from Hood River said.
"At the end of the day, the faster the Forest Service can move after a fire, the sooner they can do forest restoration," he said.
He added that Oregon state forest officials typically move in a matter of weeks following fires on state land.
Walden's proposal would allow forest managers to draw up response plans to deal with a variety of disasters before they happen, from forest fires and blow-downs to severe storms and hurricanes.
After the event, a team would have 30 days to evaluate the best ways to restore the forest. Salvage timber operations could start as soon as 120 days after a catastrophic event.
Several committee Democrats, including Rep. Peter DeFazio, who represents Oregon's 4th district, opposed Walden's legislation. A Democrat-sponsored amendment to preserve snags - trees left standing after a catastrophe - passed.
"There is a way to do this with more certainty, with less controversy," DeFazio said during the committee's session.
"This legislation arose for a good purpose," added DeFazio, who unsuccessfully offered three amendments. "Unfortunately, I don't believe this is quite the solution to the problem."
Several environmental groups also opposed the proposal.
Sean Cosgrove, a spokesman for the Sierra Club in Washington, D.C., said Walden's proposal lacked any incentive for contractors to remove temporary roads after their work was done.
"The roads are going to be in place," he said. "You can't drag someone out there to remove them."
But Walden contested that claim, saying contractors who failed to fulfill their obligations, including removing temporary roads, would not get back the bonds they pay before starting work.
"The language we've put in this proposal is the first time there has been federal language that requires obliteration of those roads," he said.
Chuck Burley, a consultant for the American Forest Resource Council in Bend and also a state representative, said Walden's proposal would speed up salvage efforts and boost the value of recovered timber. The group represents timber and paper companies across the nation.
"The more expediently we can get in there and restore these areas to healthy forests, we think the better off we can be in the long run," he said.
Burley said the response after the Davis Fire in July 2003, which took about 14 months to begin implementing, was the fastest he had seen.
With other fires, such as the 90,000-acre B & B Complex that raged on the Santiam Pass in 2003, the response can take two years or more, he noted.
According to Burley, only about 6,800 of the 90,000 burned acres in the B & B Complex Fire were marked for restoration efforts. Teams won't evaluate those areas until this spring, and the soonest seedlings could be planted is spring 2007.
"Every year you wait, you lose a significant amount of value in the trees that are going to be removed," Burley said.
Walden's proposal now moves on to the House Agriculture Committee, which could happen as soon as next week. After that, it will likely move to a vote in the full House. Walden said he hopes the House vote will come by the end of May.