---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1999 20:05:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: FISH1IFR at AOL.COM
Cc: afs-l at wyoming.com, fishhabitat at mail.orst.edu
Subject: CA and OR Scientific Assessments of Forest Practices
To Whom it May Concern:
Under the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, the Independent
Multi-discipinary Scientific Team (IMST) was appointed by the Oregon State
Legislature to review and comment on scientific issues related to salmon
restoration. One of those issues put to the IMST was the sufficiency of the
Oregon Forest Practices Act to prevent salmon extinction.
After working on it for well over a year, the IMST issued its analysis
of the sufficiency of Oregon Forest Practices Act on September 14, 1999, to
the Governor and State Legislature (IMST Technical Report 1999-1). The IMST
concluded that Oregon's laws are seriously deficient in several respects,
including lack of riparian protections for many streams (including small
non-fish bearing streams), lack of cumulative impacts assessments, and
inadequate protections on steep slope or high risk areas. Though they did
not make specific policy recommendations as to the width of buffer zones or
other specific changes, and also did not deal with 'east-side' forests in
this report, given the high-caliber nature of the Scientific Team, their
status as a Legislatively appointed body, and their central role in Oregon's
salmon recovery efforts, as well as the Report's fairly scathing conclusions,
this report will be the basis for Oregon forestry reform efforts for several
years to come, and will also likely impact similar efforts in other states,
particularly in Washington State (which has a very similar forest ecosystem).
The IMST Report 1999-1 (Recovery of Wild Salmonids in Western Oregon
Forests: Oregon Forest Practices Act Rule and the Measures in the Oregon Plan
for Salmon and Watersheds) is NOW ON THE INTERNET AT:
<http://www.oregon-plan.org/reports.html>