The Fight Over Oregon's Logging Industry ft. Ashli Blow

So the Bureau of Land Management, that's, like, a federal organization, correct?

Yes.

Um, and, uh, can you talk about, like, the tension between maybe, like, state and federal here? Like, what is the local reaction to this shift in policy?

Yeah.

Thank you for mentioning that.

The Bureau of Land Management is part of the Department of Interior, which also has the Parks Department.

Mm.

I've been reporting on Land Management issues a long time, and I frankly still don't understand the division of some of these agencies.

I think it's just kinda speaks to the construct of what we have kinda created here.

So the Bureau of Land Management really has a lot of power.

They don't have to answer to people in Oregon State largely because it's federal land.

Half of the land in Lane County is federal land, and that is up to the federal government to really...

It's at their discretion of what they want to do with it.

Um, I don't know how much power, like, uh, the governor may have to be able to do something.

Um, the biggest power, what it seems like, is through public comment, um, which I think for some has been a bit demoralizing because when you see other things like the roadless rule, which is kind of a similar...

It, it, that's the Forest Service, but the public process is very similar to what's going on with this BLM plan, where it's just we're not getting enough time to read these documents, to understand what they mean, and they really heavily side with what the timber industry w- wants.

Which, you know, to be very fair, there is an economy that's almost 100 years old here that has been meant to support these certain communities.

Mm.

And those communities, I reported in this last story, this one town of Drain that is about an hour from Eugene, it's really small, um, that is a town that was really supposed to thrive off of these timber receipts, and now one in five people live in poverty.

Mm.

And those are not necessarily people aging in place.

Those are child- there are children there.

Those are families.

And so we do have, you know, in policy what we call a wicked problem, where we have, like, these two existential things happening in tandem, where it's how are we gonna fund these communities if we don't find another revenue stream, and what is gonna happen to these, these forests that might not come back depending on what, how they're managed.

So the Bureau of Land Management, that's, like, a federal organization, correct?

Yes.

Um, and, uh, can you talk about, like, the tension between maybe, like, state and federal here? Like, what is the local reaction to this shift in policy?

Yeah.

Thank you for mentioning that.

The Bureau of Land Management is part of the Department of Interior, which also has the Parks Department.

Mm.

I've been reporting on Land Management issues a long time, and I frankly still don't understand the division of some of these agencies.

I think it's just kinda speaks to the construct of what we have kinda created here.

So the Bureau of Land Management really has a lot of power.

They don't have to answer to people in Oregon State largely because it's federal land.

Half of the land in Lane County is federal land, and that is up to the federal government to really...

It's at their discretion of what they want to do with it.

Um, I don't know how much power, like, uh, the governor may have to be able to do something.

Um, the biggest power, what it seems like, is through public comment, um, which I think for some has been a bit demoralizing because when you see other things like the roadless rule, which is kind of a similar...

It, it, that's the Forest Service, but the public process is very similar to what's going on with this BLM plan, where it's just we're not getting enough time to read these documents, to understand what they mean, and they really heavily side with what the timber industry w- wants.

Which, you know, to be very fair, there is an economy that's almost 100 years old here that has been meant to support these certain communities.

Mm.

And those communities, I reported in this last story, this one town of Drain that is about an hour from Eugene, it's really small, um, that is a town that was really supposed to thrive off of these timber receipts, and now one in five people live in poverty.

Mm.

And those are not necessarily people aging in place.

Those are child- there are children there.

Those are families.

And so we do have, you know, in policy what we call a wicked problem, where we have, like, these two existential things happening in tandem, where it's how are we gonna fund these communities if we don't find another revenue stream, and what is gonna happen to these, these forests that might not come back depending on what, how they're managed.