BY CYNTHIA MOYER - Tillamook Headlight Herald Staff

TILLAMOOK COUNTY — A two-day tour of the forests and wetlands throughout Tillamook County and the North Coast was held Sept. 27 and 28, as a way to open a dialogue between environmental, industry, labor and community leaders.

The group spent time touring both the Siuslaw National Forest and the Tillamook Bay watershed, beginning in the Hebo Ranger District, through private dairy lands and ending in the Tillamook estuary where the Tillamook Performance Partnership is doing much of its work.

“We wanted to bring together different stakeholders. There’s a wide range of views here,” said Chris van Daalen.

Forest and wildland restoration was a central topic of discussion for the group. Jasmine Minbashain of Bellingham, Wash., who works with Pacific Crest Biodiversity Project and other groups protecting old growth and late-successional forests, added that they wanted to “bring more restoration job opportunities to rural counties. We recognize a lot of problems have to be worked at on the regional level.

“Millions of dollars of restoration work needs to be done, but we still have obstacles. One of them is logging old-growth and mature forests.”

The three main points of the tour were to look at ways “to develop new industry, restore damaged ecosystems and to encourage better stewardship,” according to Tim Sullivan of E&S Environmental Restoration of Corvallis.

“We want better ways to manage the forest and farming practices, and in use, those land-use activities will have less impact on streams,” he said. “On the ground, in the Siuslaw National Forest, we were looking at the kind of work people are doing there.”

“The Siuslaw has been a pioneer in silviculture practices,” said van Daalen.

“I would also add that the work we’re doing in partnership with water councils is a model. We want to do more. We want to be a player. Funding is always an issue. I’m hoping this coalition of diverse individuals will be an advocacy to work through those opportunities to restore
watersheds,” said Gloria D. Brown, forest supervisor of the Siuslaw National Forest.

“If we are to move into the 21st Century under the umbrella of healing our watersheds, it will take the effort of us all. To see a group like this come together, it really encourages me.”

Forest labor groups were represented by labor manager Juan Mendoza. “One of the things we’ve been asking for is for them (the federal government) to tell us what the forest work force will look like 10 years from now,” he said. “If we knew what kind of work force they want, we
could use it as a tool. Then we could have a plan, and train highly experienced labor, so we know what we need to do. Then we can convince the public to invest in their forests.”

The group agreed the tour was a positive experience and a step in the right direction for forest and land-use management.

“There was some honest discussion — but very little disagreement. Everyone had diverse interests, but it was really good,” said Susan Jane Brown of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force.  The event was organized by a coalition of Northwest environmental groups, such as the Oregon
Natural Resource Council from Portland, Cascadia Wildlands Project from Eugene, Pacific Crest Biodiversity Project from Seattle, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance from Bellingham, Wash., and many others.

(C) 2001 Tillamook Headlight Herald  Reprinted by permission.