New West Network

White House to Investigate Situation Around OSU Logging Report

By Matthew Koehler, New West Unfiltered 2-16-06

Yesterday, the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy agreed to a demand by Congressman David Wu (D-OR) to investigate continued reports of scientific manipulations and censorship by the Bush Administration.

One of the examples cited by Congressman Wu involves the on-going controversies surrounding a new report (PDF) from researchers at Oregon State University, which found that post-fire logging may actually hinder forest regeneration and increase fire risk, something that conservation groups have argued for years based on their own monitoring and reports, as well as the best available science.

This is just the latest in a string of twists and developments about the OSU report(PDF), which looked at the impacts of post-fire logging following the 2002 Biscuit Fire. Shortly after the report was made public, some of the more outspoken pro-logging professors at OSU's College of Forestry (which receives 10% of its funding directly from a tax on logging) wanted the nation's top scientific journal, Science, towithhold publishing the study.

Later, it was revealed that the Bush Administration suspended funding for the OSU research. The funding was quickly returned once the move became public.

Meanwhile, despite the new OSU research, some members of Congress are busy looking to greatly expand logging following wildfires and other natural disturbances by trying to pass what would essentially be phase two of the Bush Administration's so-called "Healthy Forest Initiative."

Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR), who has received $643,363 in campaign contributions from the logging industry during his senate career, and Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR) ($358,004 in logging industry campaign contributions since 1998) have introduced the Forests for Future Generations Act in the senate and the House equivalent Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act.

Things aren't about to get any less interesting as Congressman Walden announced earlier in the week that he was holding a congressional field hearing of the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health to review findings of the OSU study on February 24 in Medford, Oregon.

Matthew Koehler is director of the Native Forest Network in Missoula, MT.