Bill would leave intact tax by Forest Resources Institute
Senate changes skirt controversy, but House also has to approve forest products harvest tax rates.
The Oregon Senate has passed a bill that skirts a controversy about the Oregon Forest Research Institute, a quasi-governmental agency that has come under criticism from some lawmakers and drawn scrutiny from news accounts.
The Senate voted 19-10 on Wednesday, June 23, to approve new rates for forest products harvest taxes for various programs. But the bill leaves untouched the maximum rate of $1.12 per thousand board feet that the institute can levy under state law.
It attached the rates to House Bill 2434, relating to revenue, which also makes permanent what had been temporary increases in aviation and jet fuel. Those rates would drop automatically on Jan. 1, 2022, without legislative action.
Kevin Bladon/OSU
Kevin Bladon of the OSU College of Forestry has been studying wildfires effect on streams since the early 2000s. Pictured is Stouts Creek southeast of Roseburg
CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) – Oregon wildfires threatened several communities late last summer, destroyed more than 4,000 homes, filled the air with thick smoke for days and burned more than 1 million acres, the second-highest one-year total in state history.
Six months later, more than a dozen Oregon State University College of Forestry researchers are probing the blazes’ aftermath in a range of ways, including stream studies in several western and southern Oregon watersheds and a look at fire’s ramifications for biodiversity in a collection of southwestern Oregon forests.
Originally published on December 30, 2020 4:06 pm
Both regulatory changes are the result of amendments made to the state’s Forest Practices Act, and were supported by both conservation and timber industry groups, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry.
Starting January 1, 2021, the buffers for helicopter pesticide spraying must be increased to 300 feet around school campuses and inhabited dwellings. Sprayers must maintain a 75-foot buffer from streams containing fish or which have domestic uses, and 50 feet from other surface water sources. The pesticide buffer changes came from SB 1602, which the state legislature passed during their June, 2020 special session.
“Most landowners opt for some form of chemical application to control vegetation,” says Jim Gersbach, a spokesperson with the Oregon Department of Forestry. He says herbicides are sprayed on recently harvested timber land with newly planted trees to allow conifers to out-compete other species. SB 1602 appl