Oregon’s Siuslaw National Forest has emerged as a model for the way timber companies, environmentalists, and local communities can cooperate to manage forests. It is one of the few national forests in the state exceeding U.S. Forest Service logging goals. It’s also the site of substantial ecological restoration, with streams boasting seven times the levels of coho salmon as those in surrounding areas. Money from timber sales is being funneled back into communities hurt by the sharp decline in federal logging of the past two decades. Logging goals are met in the Siuslaw without any clearcutting or harvesting of old-growth trees; instead, the majority of timber comes from thinning previously planted, fast-growing plantations, opening them up to wildlife use. “It makes some people very nervous to see us talking with environmentalists and timber companies at the same time,” said the Forest Service’s Dan Karnes. “But when we have environmentalists saying, ‘Don’t hold up this work,’ that’s a huge strength. We’d be doing well to hold onto that.”
