Bad business for Oregon

Feburary 14, not only marks Oregon's birthday, it is the last day for bills to have a work session in the chamber of origin.This means if a bill does not receive a work session by the end of the day tomorrow, the bill is most likley dead for this session.

There are some bills that the Oregon Conservation Network is tracking that we hope don't make it past tomorrow's deadline. 

They are:

HB 4101: Creates the Columbia River Task Force and directs its members to aggressively pursue additional development of Columbia River Basin water resources without regard to the effect of this development on rivers and native fish and wildlife resources. This bill requires the task force to develop recommendations for the allocation of up to 450,000 acre feet of new water uses anywhere within the Columbia River Basin. Take Action Now!

HB 4098: This bill would drastically change management on more than 500,000 acres of state owned forest to make timber production the dominant use. This would have significant negative impacts to water quality, recreation, and salmon recovery on publicly owned state forest and mark a significant rollback of current state forest management plans which require a more balanced approach between logging and other uses of state lands like the Tillamook, Clatsop, and Santiam State Forests. The bill specifically mandates that annual logging levels on state forest lands be 95 percent of the annual amount of harvestable timber expected to be grown on state forest lands’ upsetting current management plans which assume roughly 50% of harvestable growth be cut in a given year. It would also run directly counter to an initiative announced by Governor Kitzhaber in November 2011 to create long-term protected areas on state lands designed to prevent logging on high conservation value lands in the state forests.

To learn about these bills please contact Meredith Shield. You can also pledge to act and add your name to the list of those who have already pledged to take one OCN advocacy action between now and the end of the legislative session.