WOPR Gets Whacked

Jamie Francis/The OregonianThe Oregon Caves National Monument in Southwestern Oregon has 480 acres of old growth forest, including "The Big Tree'' (right), a Douglas fir that is more than 41 feet in circumference and estimated to be about 800 years old. [Image and caption from OregonLive, and more old growth photos here... though photos cannot do these settings justice.]

Today only about 12 percent, or 2.4 million acres, of true old growth forest is left. Nearly all that remains, moreover, is to be found in a crazy quilt of fragmented patches (the result of previous logging, road building, and land divisions) on federal and state lands, with only about a third currently protected in parks and wilderness areas. In the 1980s this remaining primeval forest was being cut at a rate of 70,000 acres a year. If cutting continues at this rate, the unprotected regions of the old growth forest in the Pacific Northwest will be gone in less than twenty-five years.

As best as I can tell, that article, written in 1991, is referring to the PNW as a whole. The number for the Oregon Coast Range is much lower; I have seen claims ranging from 2 to 5% original old growth remaining- I'm not finding a good on-line reference though. Extrapolating from the figures in the quote above, we would now have about 4% of our original old growth coverage- even more badly fragmented. However, old growth cutting was curtailed somewhat under Clinton, and I suspect the actual number is somewhat higher.

Forestry companies love to show you pictures of mid-age forests (shortly before they harvest them) and talk about how many trees there are; streams and cute animals are always part of the stock footage. What they don't show you what actual old growth looks like. They don't show you the diversity of different trees, the richness of the understory, nor the incredible diversity of small fauna and micro-organisms.

Because those things are largely absent, or at least controlled, in tree plantations.

Now I strongly support tree plantations, tracts of land maintained and controlled for optimal commercial wood production. But when we are approaching a complete shattering and obliteration of our original forest ecosystems, I don't think expanding the mining of old growth trees is a very smart idea. For many reasons- scientific, ecological, and not least, esthetic public access, I'd really like to see old growth logging brought to a complete halt. That may not be practical, but that's what I'd like.

BushCo., of course, had different ideas. They tried to implement a plan called the "Western Oregon Plan Revision," or WOPR, which basically was an attempt to side-step Clinton-era restrictions on old growth logging, and roughly double the rate at which that resource could be removed. Surprise, surprise. Also, surprise, surprise, environmental groups were infuriated, and launched a thousand legal ships to challenge the plan.

At any rate, I'm very pleased to read that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has reversed WOPR, and none too delicately:

Veering between swipes at “indefensible” moves by the Bush administration and pledges to step up noncontroversial timber sales, Mr. Salazar said in a conference call with reporters that he was reinstating a compromise reached 15 years ago to limit logging with the goal of protecting watersheds, trout and salmon fisheries and endangered birds like the spotted owl.

“Today we are taking action to reform Department of Interior and correct mistakes by correcting legal shortcuts the late administration made at the end of its tenure,” Mr. Salazar said.

Looks like our ecosystem may have a fighting chance.