Main was quoted in the local paper as saying he would reach out to commissioner candidate Randy Sanne’s voting bloc. Which voting bloc was he speaking to today when he made the same error that interim commissioner Fred Messerle made weeks back about how much land in the county is controlled by the federal government? Coos County Assessor, Steve Jansen, confirmed that the federal government controls 20%, not “more than 50%”, as Messerle had claimed and now Main has repeated the falsehood. Main went on to blame federal policies for the loss of thousands of jobs in part because federal forests operate under the Northwest Forest Plan rather than Oregon Forest Practices Act that allows clearcutting in riparian areas affecting water temperature in fish spawning streams as well as herbicidal spraying near streams.
Not sure which bloc he was courting there but he may as well have moved a fish bearing stream without a permit from the local environmentalist’s point of view.
There is certainly a lot of faulty information floating about regarding the amounts of Federal lands in Coos County which, in turn, leads to faulty assumptions regarding the role that could be played by Federal timber in solving our current fiscal problems. I would like to shed some light on this situation. My primary source for the following discussion is “Timber Resource Statistics for Oregon”, Resource Bulletin PNW-RB-242, November, 2004, USFS, Pacific Northwest Research Station.
First off, Coos County contains approx. 1,024,000 acres. Mary is correct – about 20 % of this total is controlled by the Federal Government.
About 85% of this total, or 873,000 acres, is classified as commercial forest land. This forest land is distributed by ownership class as follows:
Ownership Acreage % of Total Forest Land
__________________________________________________________
US Forest Service 72,000 8%
BLM 158,000 18%
State of Oregon 72,000 8%
County/Municipal 9,000 1%
Forest Industry 403,000 46%
Private Landowners 159,000 19%
For decades, Coos County, and the other O&C Counties in like manner, relied on the golden torrent of funding generated by the 18% of its forest lands being managed by the BLM, and failed to maintain or institute a reasonable tax structure to insure the industrial forest lands contributed their fair share to the county coffers.
Now our elected officials are seeking new and inventive ways by which to squeeze yet more funds from the O&C lands. Their efforts along these lines display an abject lack of knowledge of and disregard for silvicultural and ecological realities as well as for existing legal mandates.
It’s time to let the 18% alone and require the 46% to pay its fair share.
“The Coos Bay District of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages 325,000 acres of public lands in the Coast Range of southwestern Oregon.” The district area includes Curry, Douglas, as well as Coos. Your figure above is wrong by approximately three times. The county assessor has confirmed that federal lands which include BLM, USFS and Army Corps accounts for 20% of the total land area in Coos County and state and local government ownership brings that total to approximately 24%
I have been doing some searches on the land ownership in Coos County. Today I found a document: “Coos County Post-Diseaster Recovery Framework, June 2011.” On Page A-22 there is a Table A.10. under “Land Use and Development” that is titled, “Coos County Land Ownership by Acreage”. The source of the information at the bottom of the table is “University of Oregon Press, Atlas of Oregon.”
The stats provided are as follows:
Private Ownership 675,000 acres
Bureau of Land Management 593,000 acres
US Forest Service 79,000 acres
State of Oregon 80,000 acres
Other 23,000 acres
Total County Acreage 1,008,000 acres
Are these the most current and accurate statistics? I don’t know. I would like to know what the USFW acreage is in Coos County and how much is agriculture land converted to wetlands. I also wish I knew how much productive agriculture land in the Coos River and Coquille Valley have been converted to permanent wetlands by NGO’s, state and federal entities. What affect has these conversions have had on our tax rolls and Coos County’s economy?
Here are some stats on the forest lands in the County. “Approximately 900,000 acres, 87.4% of the total land area is considered commercial forestland. The majority of the standing saw timber in the county (55%) is located on public lands as oppossed to 29% on forest industry lands and 16% on small private lots.”
I hope this gives some perspective on this issue.
sharon
Fred and Bob, two peas in a pod