EDITOR’S NOTE: Bob and Deb Atiyeh makes some very good points in this email to Representative Javadi, as he again made some comments about the HCP, and was not happy about the Governor’s response that …the North Oreogn Coast’s reliance on timber was an “outdated funding model.” Local government services should not be funded by trees, and the Atiyehs suggest several solutions, like re-instating the severance tax on timber harvests. And call attention to the real values of our forest. Thanks, Bob and Deb for sharing this valuable, accurate information with our elected officials and Pioneer readers.
(Email sent to State Representative Cyrus Javadi; According to the Atiyehs, State Senator Suzanne Weber’s environmental voting record is poor, and she’s been speaking out against the HCP as well, so she’ll be getting a copy.)
State Representative Javadi (and Senator Weber),
We appreciate you taking the time to update the citizens of the North Oregon Coast about the current legislative session in Salem. We always read your “Legislator’s Letter” when it appears in the Cannon Beach Gazette.
We have to question your recent comments concerning the Oregon Department of Forestry Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP.) You describe the plan as “devastating” and claim that “around 300 north coast timber jobs could be lost”, and that “local law enforcement and school budgets would be devastated by decreased timber revenue.”
These statements make us wonder where you are getting these figures; as they sound like unsubstantiated timber industry claims. The HCP if enacted as currently proposed would decrease timber harvest in 2024 and 2025 by an estimated 27% for the first two years of it’s 70-year lifespan. The Department of Forestry has stated that this is a temporary reduction as the plan is initially implemented. Using subjective terms like “devastating” hurts your credibility with some of your constituents.
If you truly care about funding critical public services for rural communities, instead of attacking the HCP, work together with other rural legislators to re-instate the severance tax on timber harvest, which the corporate timber industry successfully lobbied the Oregon legislature to repeal. Since being repealed in 1999, it has deprived rural communities of hundreds of millions of dollars of badly needed funding; a massive windfall for timber corporations at the expense of small communities. Elimination of that severance tax really did “devastate” rural communities.
What truly is devastating is the ongoing and rapidly accelerating climate crisis and biodiversity crisis. Ask the timber industry about the very large percentage of their forest lands affected by Swiss Needle Cast disease in their commercial tree plantations in the north Oregon Coast Range, and the huge loss of young trees in their commercial tree plantations during the unprecedented “heat dome” in June of 2021. The hard reality is that as the climate rapidly warms, there may not be a viable timber industry in the north Oregon Coast Range in the not too distant future. Single-species, even-aged tree plantations are not a “forest”, and lack any semblance of the biodiversity and climate resiliency of an actual forest. We are already witnessing an accelerating die-back and die-off of millions of trees in the Pacific Northwest due to much hotter and drier summers.
You can also ask the timber corporations why they export large volumes of raw logs from our forests, at the expense of local mill jobs. Ask them why the overwhelming majority of these raw logs are shipped directly to the Peoples Republic of China; using Oregon’s natural resources to help build the economy of a brutal, repressive, communist dictatorship whose government is rapidly becoming increasingly hostile to our government and way of life. The reality is that Oregon is faithfully serving as a natural resource colony for China, while leaving Oregonians to deal with the environmental consequences of commercial timber harvesting.
The timber industry employs 3% of Oregon’s work force, produces 2% of the state GDP, while causing at least 30% of it’s CO2 emissions. A 2018 study by Oregon State University researchers found that if the corporate timber industry switched to longer timber harvest rotations (instead of the typical 40-year rotation) that Oregon’s CO2 emissions could be significantly reduced.
The overall economy of the North Oregon Coast relies on more than just corporate timber harvesting. Healthy, intact, bio-diverse ecosystems help the fishing industry and the booming tourist economy of the North Coast, along with providing safe, clean drinking water. It’s too bad that we have a system in place where we feel compelled by economic and political pressure to degrade and negatively impact the integrity of our ecosystems in order to fund education and essential services in rural areas of Oregon. There has to be a much better way than relying on these false choices to fund these critical services.
Your dental training was science-based, and you practice dentistry based on science and the latest medical research. I’m sure you accept the scientific research that poor oral health can lead to cardiovascular disease. So it’s puzzling why you would accept corporate timber industry “facts” while ignoring climatologists and biologists who are all warning of a looming catastrophe if we don’t rapidly change our current way of doing business. The HCP is a step in that direction and is an example of exactly what we need to be doing, so your attacks on it are disappointing. Now is the time for bold leadership and forward-thinking policies that will benefit future generations; whose lives will be affected by the decisions we make today. Not all of your constituents feel the way you do, and some of your recent statements are completely antithetical to their values.
Just thought you’d like to hear a few thoughts from a couple of your constituents. Thank you for your service in the current legislature – it’s never an easy job.
Sincerely,
Bob and Deb Atiyeh
Cannon Beach