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DeFazio: Blame Congress for wildfifirres COOS BAY — More than 10 years after the Biscuit Fire burned half a million acres in southwest Oregon, the region has once again found itself in the middle of one of the worst fire seasons on record. The Douglas Complex fire has burned more than 48,000 acres near Glendale, and wildland firefighters are struggling to contain the Big Windy Complex burning south of the Rogue River. Southwestern Oregon’s man in Congress says Washington has long had the tools to reduce the risk of these kind of fires. The problem, he says, is that they’ve just chosen not to fund them. Rep. Peter DeFazio, DSpringfield, said that making the case for hazardous fuel reduction programs to East Coast politicians is an uphill
In a decade, state’s seafood haul has been worth a billion dollars ■
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
COOS BAY-The Oregon Dungeness Crab fishery plopped tens of millions of dollars on the Oregon coast this year. In a fishery known for its up and down nature, it has contributed enormously to the state’s economy over the past decade. Hugh Link, Executive Director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, recently returned from an economic summit where he touted some staggering numbers. “Last 10 years, Oregon fishermen brought a billion dollars of seafood to the docks,” Link said. “That’s billion with a B.” This season, according to preliminary numbers from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, commercial crab fishermen landed more than 18.1 million pounds of crab. The southern port of Brookings had the highest catch numbers, with landings exceeding 4.8 million pounds, followed closely by Newport with 4.2 million.
STORY BY THOMAS MORIARTY PHOTOS BY ALYSHA BECK The World
battle. “The prevailing attitude by these bureaucrats — many of whom have never been west of the Mississippi River — is that this is a waste of money,” DeFazio said. The congressman was one of the champions of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003, which created and prioritized hazardous fuel reductions programs on federal lands. At the heart of the HFI/HFRA law was the idea that the fuel build-up from human intervention is the primary cause of major forest fires. Since we’ve been suppress-
ing fires for well over 100 years in the west, DeFazio said, we have an unnatural build up of ground and ladder fuels. Ladder fuels are vegetation and smaller diameter trees that can help a fire reach the forest canopy — a scenario known as a “crown fire.” The law included up to $500 million in funding for thinning overcrowded tree stands and thinning underbrush — prime fuel for wildfires. But most of that money never came through. The programs have seen cuts across both of the last two administrations. “The Obama administration just cut the fuel reduction down to Bush levels from levels not much higher,” DeFazio said. SEE DEFAZIO | A8
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Plan to offer carbon offsets to timber owners CORVALLIS (AP) — Older mid-Willamette Valley landowners selling timber from their forest lands to pay for health care could get an alternative soon. An Oregon conservation group has proposed a health initiative linking landowners with carbon offset buyers, getting money to the older owners for health care costs while more effectively managing their timber. The initiative can work for woodlots as small as 20 acres, The Corvallis Gazette Times reported. Catherine Mater of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation says the initiative will conserve forests, reduce the threat of climate change and provide rural landowners with access to health care. “Fir trees are excellent oxygen producers,” Mater said. “Trees are carbon-eating machines.” The Forest Health Human Health program would allow family tree farmers to sell carbon credits based on the amount of carbon estimated to be digested by their trees each year. Under the plan, timber harvesting could continue in the form of tree thinning or underbrush removal. The program is already in place in Columbia County.
Paul Galloway, right, and Howard Hunter, public information officers, examine a fire operations map while overlooking the Big Windy Complex, a 22,000-acre wildfire burning in southwestern Oregon near Galice on Thursday. The wildfire was initially started by lighting in three different locations on July 26 and is currently 30 percent contained. Fire crews are creating fire lines using drip and helitorches, which ignite controlled burns on the edges along steep terrain.
SEE OFFSETS | A8
US overhauls process for recognizing tribes
Ready to ride Analise McCord, 6, (left) Max Ainsworth, 3, (center) and Ella McCord, 2, watch the Coos Bay Rail Link locomotive arrive at the Coos Bay Boardwalk to give passenger rides to the public on Saturday. The event marked the renewal of freight rail service between Coquille and Eugene.
BY MICHAEL MELIA The Associated Press
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Stock Exchange pioneer
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By Alysha Beck, The World
Muriel Siebert, the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, died at the age of 80 over the weekend.
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KENT, Conn. — His tribe once controlled huge swaths of what is now New York and Connecticut, but the shrunken reservation presided over by Alan Russell today hosts little more than four mostly dilapidated homes and a pair of rattlesnake dens. The Schaghticoke Indian Tribe leader believes its fortunes may soon be improving. As the U.S. Interior Department overhauls its rules for recognizing American Indian tribes, a nod from the federal government appears within reach, potentially bolstering its claims to surrounding land
and opening the door to a tribalowned casino. “It’s the future generations we’re fighting for,” Russell said. The rules floated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, intended to streamline the approval process, are seen by some as lowering the bar through changes such as one requiring that tribes demonstrate political continuity since 1934 and not “first contact” with European settlers. Across the country, the push is setting up battles with host communities and already recognized tribes who fear upheaval. In Kent, a small Berkshires MounSEE TRIBES | A8
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