ENHS Nature Trails May 2003 Article 2

Kentucky Falls Forest Concerns

ONRC (Oregon Natural Resources Council) asks for your input. Below is a condensation of their research explaining and commenting on Senator Gordon Smith's proposal to transfer over 62,000 acres of Siuslaw National Forest land to the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw. (Written as a letter to Senators Wyden and Smith).

March 24, 2003: While we support efforts to redress the many wrongs done to America’s native peoples, including the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw, we oppose this remedy for the following reasons. Background: The Oregon Coast Range is largely under private industrial forest ownership. Because these private lands are so aggressively managed, the survival of several threatened and endangered species (coho salmon, spotted owls and marbled murrelets) depends on strong conservation of federal lands. The forests the Confederated Tribes seek to acquire constitute most of the federal lands in the Coast Range between the Umpqua River and the Siuslaw River. This is some of the most productive forestland in the western United States and represents vital habitat for Pacific salmon, spotted owls, marbled murrelets and hundreds of other species associated with mature and old-growth forests. Ten roadless areas suitable for wilderness designation are located within these public forests. Approximately 25,000 acres of old growth grace the landscape. Waterfalls abound. Pure water supports winter steelhead, chum, fall chinook and coho here.

America's Siuslaw National Forest belongs to all Americans. These public lands are appreciated for their scenic beauty, recreational opportunities and their invaluable ecological role in conserving wildlife. Currently Americans have the right to visit, traverse, hunt and fish in and enjoy their National Forests except under very specific circumstances related to fire, safety, etc. This legislation would transfer huge acreage of the Siuslaw National Forest lands to the Confederated Tribes. Over 62,000 acres and timber, worth billions of dollars, would be held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for the use and benefit of approximately 680 tribal members.

Once lands pass out of the National Forest system, there will be no unalterable rights of access to these forests. A change in tribal leadership could suspend or abrogate access to particular forests and citizens may or may not have legal standing to challenge that suspension through Bureau of Indian Affairs administrative courts.

Additionally, current legislative language would allow a separate land exchange involving up to 15% of the total acreage transferred to the Tribes. While the Tribes maintain that there will be no loss of public access, they certainly cannot make that claim for forests that they will trade into private hands.

Loss of Federal Environmental Laws and Policies: As citizen-owners of the National Forests, all Americans can now participate in the management of their forests, comment on National Forest operations and utilize all branches of government to ensure that the National Forests are managed in accordance with long standing environmental safeguards. These rights would be undermined by this transfer of lands.

While the Forest Service is an agency with an imperfect history, it is charged by Congress to manage public lands with conservation values as part of its mandate. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has no such mandate. It is the responsibility of the BIA to "develop forest land and lease assets on this land" for the economic benefit of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

While the Tribes maintain that they intend to maintain existing environmental laws and policies, legislative text as currently written does not support this assertion. Indeed, the timber industry and certain county commissioners actively support this proposal only because legislative loopholes remove land from management under the Northwest Forest Plan and allow for the cutting of big trees, while prohibiting Tribes from building their own mill or exporting logs. A main beneficiary of this legislation, as written, will be the timber industry.

Destabilizing Current Forest Management Plans on Public, Private and State Lands: This legislation will undercut the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP), the federal government’s attempt to provide a framework of sustainable forest management. Most of the Siuslaw National Forest is sheltered in a system of Late Successional Reserves, Riparian Reserves and in Tier 1 Key Watersheds. Removal of these lands from the protections of the NWFP will jeopardize the reserve system as well as the viability of terrestrial and aquatic species.

While much of this National Forest is currently managed to protect endangered species like coho salmon, spotted owl, and marbled murrelet, adjacent state and private lands are granted exemptions from many constraints imposed by the NWFP. The transfer of over 62,000 acres to the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Tribes and the removal of these lands from the NWFP framework will seriously undermine the NWFP and several related efforts.

Conservationists' recent experience with other tribal forest land acquisitions shows that the public can lose a lot in these transfers. The nearby Coquille Tribe acquired 5,400 acres of public forests in 1996. The BIA failed to follow the Northwest Forest Plan as promised in the authorizing legislation, claiming that the Tribe's sovereignty outweighed the need to follow sound forest management requirements. Citizens were asked to post burdensome bonds and were ultimately refused standing to challenge the illegal logging plans in BIA administrative courts. In 2001 and 2002, the BIA clearcut ancient forests in critical salmon watersheds in violation of the Endangered Species Act before they were held accountable by the public in the courts at great effort and expense. In this case, the Tribes have not even established through legislative language that they would manage the forest in accordance with standards and guidelines of the Northwest Forest Plan.

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