skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

OR Forests: Cut or Conserve?

play audio
Play

Friday, October 10, 2008   

Eugene, OR - The "Western Oregon Plan Revision" (WOPR) is just that - a "whopper" of a plan. It's hundreds of pages long and contains details about how the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) intends to manage the almost 2.6 million acres it controls in Western Oregon.

The final plan was released on Thursday, and conservation groups are already calling it a step backward, because it more than doubles the allowable timber harvest on the land and reduces buffer zones that prevent logging damage around streams. It also defers logging of some old-growth areas for 15 years, rather than making them strictly off-limits.

Doug Heiken, conservation and restoration coordinator for the group Oregon Wild, says there are ways to yield a decent timber harvest without compromising the environment - but they're not included in the plan.

"That's the win-win solution that the Bush Aministration is ignoring. They want to go back, reignite the 'timber wars' and fight over old-growth forests, when everyone else wants to work on commonsense solutions."

The next step in the process, Heiken explains, is an examination of the WOPR by the governor's staff to see if it complies with Oregon law. He predicts it will be in violation of the air quality targets to fight climate change, which were set last year by the legislature.

"If we adopt the WOPR, it's going to make it more difficult to meet those targets. However, if we adopted a more commonsense approach, we would be much more successful in reaching air quality goals, because we would be storing more carbon in growing trees."

The plan has 500 million board feet of timber per year being harvested off BLM land in 18 Oregon counties. The BLM says some rural Oregon communities, long dependent on the timber industry, need the revenue.

The draft version of the WOPR received about 30,000 comments this summer. While there's no public comment period for this report, Governor Kulongoski has 60 days to respond to it. The entire plan can be viewed online, at get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021