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A Multnomah County judge has rejected a request from environmental groups to halt post-fire logging in the Santiam Canyon, but that doesn t mean controversy surrounding how Oregon manages the forests burned in the Labor Day fires is going away.
Last Friday, circuit court judge Jerry Hodson ruled that the Oregon Department of Forestry could move forward with plans to harvest and remove hazard trees on 3,000 acres of fire-burned Santiam State Forest.
Hodson found the lawsuit filed by seven conservation groups last month was unlikely to prevail in court, so he denied a requested injunction to stop the plan.
In the wake of the wildfires that have devastated communities throughout Oregon, Washington and California in recent years, one idea has emerged: Preventing a wildfire before it begins is easier than putting one out.
Young people have perspectives to share from working with Northwest Youth Corps on the front lines of that prevention effort. They were given the opportunity to share their opinions during a visit with U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden last week.
“Prior preparation prevents poor performance,” crew lead Jordan Fernandez quipped, during a break from clearing woody debris from a residential hillside off Willamette Street in Eugene’s south hills.
Wildfire recovery plan for Santiam State Forest garners blowback from all corners
Updated Feb 02, 2021;
Posted Jan 15, 2021
An aerial view over the Beachie Creek Fire looking west from Mt. Jefferson on Oct. 6, 2020. Photo courtesy of @TripJenningsVideo@tripjenningsvideo
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Oregon’s historic Labor Day fires were barely out when the state’s Department of Forestry unveiled its plan to log and replant the Santiam State Forest, which comprises nearly 50,000 acres of state-owned land spread like a disjointed jigsaw puzzle over Clackamas, Marion and Linn counties.
The state land sits amid a patchwork of private forestland, national forest and land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. The Riverside and Beachie Creek fires burned through about one-third of the Santiam with roughly a quarter – 12,900 acres – experiencing the most intense fires.