Salem-News.com Logging articles

Loaded Log Truck Crashes off Highway 204 west of Elgin into Phillips Creek

As the truck and trailer came out of a right curve, it traveled onto the shoulder and continued down the embankment into the river where it came to rest on its right side.

(PORTLAND) - A log truck driver received minor injuries Monday after losing control resulting in the truck and trailer loaded with logs coming to rest on their side in Phillips Creek along Highway 204 about a mile west of Elgin.

Oregon State Police the driver freed himself from the truck and got out on his own. He had minor injuries and was cited for Fail to Drive Within a Lane.

The Man that was Blue

In 1949 working in an isolated logging camp in Northern Idaho near the Montana border, when there arrived a very tall and thin blue man assigned to sleep in the same bunk house as I.

(THE DALLES) - I once met a man who's skin was blue. To say, I knew, is wrong, for no one probably ever knew him.

Georgia-Pacific Responds To Supreme Court Decision In Forest Roads Case

"The court's ruling is a significant victory for the 2.5 million people and thousands of local economies that depend on forest products for their livelihood" - Mike Adams, Georgia-Pacific

(WASHINGTON DC) - The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court's decision in the case of Georgia-Pacific West, Inc. v. NEDC, Sup. Ct. No. 11-347, commonly referred to as the "forest roads" case.

The decision overturns a 2011 ruling that reversed 35 years of regulation governing management of rainwater runoff from forest roads.

Oregon Timber Industry Comments on Senate County Payments Hearing

Group outlines what they describe as real solutions.

(PORTLAND, OR) - The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is holding a hearing in Washington, DC today entitled “Keeping the Commitment to Rural Communities”.

They're reviewing the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act and Payments in Lieu of Taxes county payment programs.

Cascadia Forest Defender Climbs Flagpole at State Capitol

"Cascadia Forest Defenders want good schools for Oregon's children and vibrant, intact ecosystems."

(SALEM) - At 7:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 10th a member of the Cascadia Forest Defenders climbed the flagpole in front of the State Capitol, demanding that Governor Kitzhaber and the State Land Board decouple public school funding from state forest management.

The activist hung a large banner reading “Schools vs. Trees? We want both!”

Seeing the Forest

Northeast Oregon Survey Looks at Community and Environment.

(DURHAM, NH) - This brief reports on a survey conducted in Fall 2011 as one component of the ongoing Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) project.

The CAFOR project focuses on the people and landscapes of three counties in northeast Oregon (Baker, Union, and Wallowa), where landscapes and communities are changing in interconnected ways.

Merkley, DeFazio Introduce Bill to Ensure Americans Get Hired for Forest Work

Legislation Will Reform Temporary Visa Program.

(WASHINGTON DC) - Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley and Rep. Peter DeFazio introduced The American Jobs in American Forests Act to tighten restrictions on a visa program that was used to hire foreign workers at the expense of Oregon forest workers.

A Dept. of Labor investigation last year found federal stimulus funds were awarded to contractors in Oregon who underbid competition by using foreign laborers under the H-2B visa program.

Oregon Lumber Mill Cited for Toxic Chemical Leaks and Violations

PCBs are known carcinogens and can harm the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.

(SEATTLE) - Sanders Wood Products Company in Liberal, Oregon was found to have a series of PCB leaks and other violations of federal PCB laws at its lumber mill, according to a settlement reached with the EPA.

The company will pay over $108,000 in penalties.

Secretary Salazar`s Failed Timber Policies Bad for Rural Oregon

Industry news release decries Salazar's visit to Oregon today.

(PORTLAND, OR) - Ken Salazar, President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior, was in Medford, Oregon to tour the “Pilot Joe” demonstration project and hold a Town Hall meeting.

Downplaying the impact of a new Northern Spotted Owl critical habitat designation, he announced yet another forest planning process for 2.5 million acres of western Oregon forests.

Merkley: `Unconscionable` if Americans not Hired for Local Forest Jobs

Senator demands that Forest Service chief prevent repeat of foreign hiring debacle.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley is urging Tom Tidwell, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, to take steps to ensure Americans will be hired with the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program projects announced on February 2, 2012.

In particular, Merkley urged the Chief not to repeat the debacle in 2009 when unemployed Oregonians were passed over for forest thinning work in favor of foreign workers on H-2B visas.