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 Coastal Forest Caught Between Chainsaw and Endangered Seabird

play audio
Play

Friday, March 14, 2014   

COOS COUNTY, Ore. – The State of Oregon has proposed selling off about 3,000 acres of coastal forestland for logging – and three conservation groups say if that happens, they'll sue the timber companies that try to buy it.

The land in the Elliott State Forest, mostly in Coos County, is supposed to produce revenue for the state, but it's also prime habitat for the marbled murrelet, an endangered bird under federal law.

Josh Laughlin, campaign director of Cascadia Wildlands, one of the groups threatening legal action, says there are other ways to preserve the birds and the coastal forest, and still make money.

"We would ideally find a conservation purchaser of these parcels, where the proceeds would go into supporting the Common School Fund and other state and county services that these lands have a mandate to generate revenue for," he explains.

In 2012, the same groups stopped more than two dozen individual timber sales in the Elliott State Forest, and Laughlin says selling the land now is the state's way of bypassing that court decision.

He says he doesn't know whether the threat of a suit will keep bidders away.

The minimum sale bid is $3 million and the deadline to bid is the end of March.

The state says the timber has an estimated value that tops $12 million and the conservation groups predict Oregon is likely to receive only a fraction of the land's actual value if it is sold.

Laughlin says shifting it into private hands would affect more than just bird watchers.

"It's really a loser for Oregon taxpayers and, for example, hunters that use these public lands,” he points out. “In the fall, it's really a mecca for hunters – the elk-hunting is superb down there. And that's another thing that will be lost if these lands are privatized."

Laughlin maintains the tourism value of the area could be developed by the state to make it a longer term resource, which would include some tree-thinning, trail-building and other activities that would produce local jobs.




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