COTW: Blaming the Spotted Owl

Oregon's rural communities in the Coast Range are hurting financially, like a lot of other local governments and communities across the nation.  Their story is somewhat unique because their economic life and public infrastructure depended on timber. Demise of the timber industry is often blamed on "tree hugging" environmentalists and spotted owl enthusiasts by former loggers and local politicians alike. The federal government did restrict logging on federal land in order to preserve an important ecosystem. Coast range counties lost federal tax revenue as a result; those losses are less than loss of state severance tax revenue. Half of the eighteen counties in Oregon timber country lost more money from tax cuts on private forests than from the reduction of logging on federal lands. For example, Lincoln County lost $108 million in federal timber payments, but $122 million in state severance tax revenue for the same period.  Lincoln received an average of $7.5 million a year in severance payments, but that has shrunk over the years to just $25,000 last year as tax reduction measures were signed into law.

A recent article by Pro Publica shows the old growth forests in the Coastal Range are rapidly being replaced by tree plantations owned by giant investment trusts like Weyerhaeuser and Hancock Forest Management whose investors receive advantageous tax treatment as REITS (real estate investment trusts)  These entities, outside of local control, clear-cut trees at a faster rate to increase profits. Douglas firs can live centuries; the average age of a plantation tree in the Coast Range is 50 years and declining.  The environmental impacts of such practices on other species like salmon and song birds are devastating. The amount of forest these companies own has more than doubled since 2006:  Look at the chart:

 

 yellow: Weyerhaeuser

red: Hancock

Economic impacts on villages and towns of the new business model are also devastating. Companies lobbied for elimination of the severance tax the state imposed on logging companies during the long tenure of former governor Ted Kitzhaber, who was forced to resign over an ethics scandal in 2015. Timber severance tax was used to fund local governments.  This chart shows what has happened to severance tax revenue over the years:

Timber severance tax is now only paid by the smallest forest owners, who can continue to pay it to reduce their property taxes. Logging trusts also pay property taxes, but those are at greatly reduced rates since timber is treated as a crop, not a depleting natural resource.  If Oregon had not phased out its severance tax in response to timber interest lobbying, it would have generated an estimated $130 million for local governments in 2018.  California and Washington still tax the value of logs harvested by the same companies that operate in Oregon.  The state would have received an estimated $59 million under California’s tax system and $91 million under Washington’s system, an investigation by OPB, The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica found*.

Short term profitability is what is important to these companies, not ecological sustainability.  Concern for profits is what caused timber companies to ship raw logs to Japan for milling, and small milling towns like Valsetz to become ghosts. Pro Publica points out: When trees are cut down before reaching the peak of their ability to absorb carbon, it stunts one of the state’s biggest assets in combating climate change. The use of herbicide on clear-cuts and the lack of mature trees have deteriorated habitat...

Ironically there is a small, fifty-one acre remnant of old growth forest protected by the federal government named Valley of the Giants near Falls City, Oregon, a once vibrant logging village. The valley contains moss covered giants older than the Republic. It's rarity has made it a tourist attraction, but the village cannot benefit from proximity to the reserve because timber corporations control the only access roads, and they are often closed, especially during fire season. Yes, there is crushing poverty and social disintegration in rural Oregon, but blame the state's politicians, not the spotted owl.

Strix occidentalis

*Study methodology can be reviewed in the 06/14/2020 edition of the Oregonian.