Opal Creek funds still lacking

Five years later, $15 million in funds for Canyon still missing

BY TERESA WILLIAMS
The Stayton Mail
October 20

OPAL CREEK -- During the 1980s, Opal Creek became the symbol of the fight between the logging industry and environmentalists.

Sen. Mark Hatfield blocked logging in the forest for good in 1996. Last February, he reminisced about the fight at a luncheon celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Opal Creek Scenic Recreation Area.

"As we all know, Opal Creek represents one of Western Oregon's last remaining intact low elevation old growth areas," he said. "But it is much more than that. It is a powerful symbol to so many, to so many of you. It is an inspiration."

Beginning in 1984, Hatfield introduced several bills trying to protect Opal Creek, but in 1996 he announced his retirement.

He recalled a meeting with senators Trent Lott and Newt Gingrich and with President Bill Clinton's chief of staff, Leon Panetta.

"At that point in time, a man named Dick Armey, who was the majority leader of the House, Republican majority leader, had left the scene because he had already accomplished all of his activities that he was interested in," Hatfield said. "And he had successfully up to this time far blocked anything, any action on a parks bill of which Opal Creek was then a part."

The bill in question was an omnibus bill; it had many parts, and if one failed, everything failed. Panetta said the parks legislation should be removed, and Gingrich and Lott agreed.

"And I felt that timing in politics is everything," Hatfield said. "And I had waited. ... And I said, 'May I speak to that motion? If that motion passes, I can assure you that I'll bring the entire bill down.'"

"And they knew that I had announced my retirement. They knew I had nothing to lose. And so there was silence. Not often had I been in that kind of company and had silence, believe me," he said.

"And finally Newt Gingrich -- and I want you all to understand this: there are good things that some people do in spite of what you may think of them -- Newt Gingrich said, 'I think that we have your message, and it stays,'" Hatfield said. "Well, that ended the whole cabal, and we signed off and we had Opal Creek at that point."

The legislation, which went into effect in 1999, prohibited timer sales in the 35,000 acres of old growth forest, and to offset the impact to the Santiam Canyon's economy, it authorized $15 million for economic development. That money has yet to appear.

"I don't think the promise was ever kept," said Rob Freres of Freres Lumber Co. "We got sold an empty bag of goods."

While the money has been authorized through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development fund, it has never been appropriated.

A task force of citizens and elected officials formed in April of 1999 and met with the Oregon Economic Development Department to create an economic opportunity study required by the legislation.

The Opal Creek Economic Investment Board was created through the North Santiam Canyon Economic Development Corp., and Mia Mohr served as its staff member.

Things looked promising, she said, and Oregon's delegation in Congress supported the appropriation. Then the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and requests that weren't connected to homeland security received lower priority.

The board hasn't given up, and neither have the state's representatives in Washington, D.C.

Caroline Espinosa from Sen. Gordon Smith's office said Smith is continuing to request the money and is confident the money will be granted eventually. She said he is doing everything he can and is working with the other legislators from Oregon.

Travis Brouwer is district co-director for Congresswoman Darlene Hooley's office, and he said Hooley has helped get priority status for the funding, although it has not been specifically appropriated. She is also encouraging Oregon's Department of Agriculture office to give special consideration to projects in the Canyon.

"We will continue working on it," Brouwer said.

Both Espinosa and Brouwer encourage residents to keep writing letters to their legislators, reminding them that the funds are important.

The investment board has a list of needs that the money could help fund, though it is tentative. They include a new regional sewer system, water system and plant improvements, street improvements, bridge maintenance, pedestrian and bicycle paths, park development, and tourism, industrial and business development.

The battle for Opal Creek started long before Hatfield got involved, and even now, not everyone is happy with the legislation Hatfield pushed through.

Freres sees the Clinton administration's Northwest Forest Plan as an "abysmal failure." He said fires in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness area are a clear indication of what the future will bring.

"We're going to have massive fires in these wilderness areas," he said. By not thinning out the forest or building roads, the forest will see "a very sad end."

Freres said having a "light touch over the entire landscape," as opposed to clear-cuts, could be a solution everyone could live with.

"You can have your wood products and you can have wildlife habitat and water quality all at the same time," he said.

Aaron Courtney, president of the board of Friends of Opal Creek, said fire is not more of a concern in protected areas than it is in those that have logging operations.

"Fire is a concern anywhere in the woods," he said, but Congress studied the Opal Creek area in depth before it decided to prohibit logging. Courtney said the organization would not want to put campers or others at risk of fire danger, and the protected area is surrounded by areas where logging occurs.

Friends of Opal Creek is no longer an advocacy organization, so it has no official position on how to balance the need for wood products with forest protection, but Courtney has his own ideas.

"We need protected areas, and we need areas that we can sustainably log," he said. Part of the organization's mission is education, and he said visitors to Jawbone Flats often talk with staff about the balance. He said that's healthy, and he hopes it will continue to be a place where the issues can be debated.

But when George Atiyeh first started Friends of Opal Creek, the fight over logging and protection was heated. He gained national attention by flying journalists and politicians over the forests of the Santiam Canyon. David Seideman describes one such trip in his book Showdown at Opal Creek.

"The federal government has already allowed the forest to be chopped to pieces. As far as the eye can see, clear-cuts checkerboard the land like Midwestern farm fields, giving lie to the premise of sustainable forestry. ... A plane ride exposes 'scenic corridors' or 'view-sheds,' those thin curtain of trees the Forest Service leaves standing along busy roads to shield the harsh truth from passersby," Seideman wrote in 1993.

Atiyeh moved to the mining town of Jawbone Flats in 1970, determined to protect the area by whatever means necessary. He soon learned that working through the system was more effective than lawlessness.

Using an 1879 mining claim, Atiyeh and his cousin Tom built Starvation Mill and resumed mining operations. That gave them a priority claim to the land, which allowed them to prohibit the Forest Service from logging. They later sold their mining company to the Persis Corp. and convinced the new owners to keep mining and save the trees.

In 1992, Persis Corp. donated the land to Friends of Opal Creek. Persis Corp. got a large tax write-off, and the environmental organization had greater stakes in the negotiations for protection since it was now a private owner of forest land. Jawbone Flats is now the only privately-owned area in the Opal Creek area.

Today staff at Jawbone Flats focus on education and restoring the forest at mining sites. On the 3-mile hike in, staff tell visitors about the area and its history. Development director Steve Wise said the long-term plans include a world-class environmental center. Now the staff works with youth projects, teaching them about forest ecology.

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Reprinted with permission of the Statesman Journal