GRANTS PASS — Oregon’s state Board of Forestry is working on balancing a healthy timber industry with healthy salmon runs.

The board will vote today on taking the next step in developing rules governing how many trees must be left standing along streams to keep the water shaded and cool enough for salmon to survive.

It would be the first change to the riparian protections of the Oregon Forest Practices Act since 1994.

The question was raised by a 2011 study that found temperatures were getting warmer in salmon streams on state-regulated timberlands in the Coast Range.

The Department of Forestry is recommending the board go forward with analyzing the different logging prescriptions that would be needed to meet the cool water protection standards for small- and medium-sized streams with salmon, steelhead and bull trout, and their economic impact.

A final decision is months away and will take into account whether the changes create too much of a hardship on the timber industry.

Read the full story at the Bend Bulletin>>

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