Bureau of Land Management



As a retired game warden and now a sportsman  and naturalist  in western Oregon, I am deeply concerned with your recently released draft version of the Western Oregon Plan Revisions. The plans outlined in the document would dramatically alter public lands management in western Oregon to the detriment of fish and wildlife and, by extension, all activities related to the enjoyment of these resources.

I often visit Bureau of Land Management land in western Oregon, and I’m worried that your proposed plan will have a significant impact on my ability to hunt and fish and otherwise enjoy these precious resources in this region, and, more importantly, my ability to pass down my sporting heritage to the next generation of hunter ,anglers and nature lovers in western Oregon.

For example, reduction of streamside buffers to 25 feet would most certainly have a negative impact and absolutely have no positive impact on our trout and salmon fisheries throughout the region. Timber harvest in  such close vicinity to fish-bearing or fish-spawning waters will contribute sediment to the systems, with the potential to smother fish eggs and spawning gravel and destroy natural insect production- the food upon which these fish depend. Additionally, removing streamside vegetation within this new zone will reduce cover and likely result in temperature increases that could prove fatal to our fisheries.

What’s more, plans to construct about 1,000 miles of new roads over the next decade, and to allow 14,000 acres of clear-cut logging annually could have drastic impacts on the region’s struggling, but recovering, fisheries.  Also the cost(ability) to adequately maintain these new roads and control the associated damage caused by improper public use of these new roads and the immediate  forest area is beyond your capability(funding) as indicated by the condition of current roads and adjacent forest  areas.

With the proposed  conversion of our low-elevation oak savanna forests to conifer plantations and the creation of new off-highway-vehicle emphasis areas,  the plan becomes detrimental to our big-game herds and upland game bird populations and all other species which depend upon this natural ecosystem.

In short, your Western Oregon Plan Revisions are unacceptable from a hunting, angling  and wildlife enjoyment standpoint. Ideally, you will offer a full range of alternatives when it comes to the plan revisions, with all of those alternatives providing increased measures for fish and wildlife protection.

Finally, off-highway vehicle management should not be addressed at the region-wide level, but rather by individual BLM districts, and with a generous opportunity for public comment at the local level.