Oregon is uniquely situated to be a leader in new energy, particularly biofuels and wave energy. Oregon State University, in conjunction with a number of other private interests, is a leader in wave energy research. Likewise, Oregon State has the foremost forestry school in the country.

Oregonians have seen many counties reliance on O & C timber payments cause huge hardships, closure of libraries, laying off of law enforcement personnel, and economic uncertainty that has prevented those counties from adequate planning. While Senator Wyden's attempts to extend the O & C payments for another five years is a necessary band-aid, the ultimate solution to the problem lies in rethinking how the federal lands (both the U.S. Forest Service and BLM) are utilized by Oregonians. My suggestion is that we try some new approaches. One might be putting some of this land in a public trust to be managed by the communities or counties most closely associated with those forests. The federal government would deed the land in trust and the trustees would be drawn from the local community, including representatives of the forest products industry, environmental activists, elected representatives and civic leaders. The terms of the trust would require sustainability so that the county or city couldn't simply up the cut if times got tough. By putting the forests in a trust relationship with the community, we would have local control and wouldn't have to beg Washington to send back the money produced by these lands. Forest health would improve and citizen involvement would lead to real stewardship of the land.

Oregon, particularly on the western slopes of the Cascades and the Coast range, grows trees better than almost anywhere else on earth. We can preserve old growth forests and their wildlife and ecosystems and still have areas where a sustainable cut will produce family wage jobs for Oregon. Part of the solution may be in swapping the checkerboard pattern of lands to consolidate federal holdings. I've seen this done in other states and it has made management easier, more effective and less costly.

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