Press Releases
Ken Salazar, President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior, was in Medford, Oregon today to tour the “Pilot Joe” demonstration project and hold a Town Hall meeting where he sought to downplay the impact of a new Northern Spotted Owl critical habitat designation and announced yet another lengthy administrative forest planning process for 2.5 million acres of western Oregon forests managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), including the Oregon & California (O&C) Grant lands.
Today, Oregon U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio, Greg Walden and Kurt Schrader released a discussion draft of bipartisan legislation aimed at resolving the forest management and county revenue crisis facing much of western Oregon. The legislative proposal comes after months of effort by the offices to consider the needs of the forests, communities and local governments in 18 western Oregon counties that include the Oregon & California Grant Lands (O&C Lands).
The National Forest Planning process has a significant impact on the members of AFRC and their employees who live and work in the remote communities of the West where timber jobs and forest health are important to everyday life.
