Email address:
Thanks for signing up. If you like our stories, mind sharing this with a friend?
https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/the-big-story?source=www.propublica.org&placement=share®ion=nationalCopy link
For more ways to keep up, be sure to check out the rest of our newsletters.See All
Fact-based, independent journalism is needed now more than ever.Donate
At a hearing last Tuesday, a timber lobbyist set aside his prepared remarks and told lawmakers that the investigation was “full of half-truths,” “absolutely inaccurate” and “completely bogus.”
The lobbyist, Jim James, representing the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, told lawmakers we “took a segment of an email, interpreted it for [ourselves] . and came up with some conclusions that were absolutely inaccurate.”
A timber lobbyist called our investigation ‘completely bogus.’ We have the receipts to show it’s not
Updated Mar 08, 2021;
Facebook Share
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive as soon as they’re published.
This article was produced in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting and The Oregonian/OregonLive. You can sign up for The Oregonian/OregonLive
.
With the Oregon Legislature taking up bills to overhaul or eliminate the Oregon Forest Resources Institute after a news investigation last August, lobbyists have repeatedly attacked the reporting as incorrect.
The institute is a quasi-governmental agency meant to promote forestry education. The joint investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica found that the institute had acted as a de facto lobbying arm of the timber industry, in some cases skirting legal constraints that forbid it from doing so.