CORRECTION: The TSAC meeting will be held at 6 p.m., June 5, at the
Development Services Building in Oregon City.

Clackamas County’s Timber Sale Advisory Committee (TSAC) is expected to
make a recommendation regarding the Boulder Timber Sale, a potential 180-
acre clear cut harvest of trees south of Hwy. 26 off Country Club Road.

A meeting will be held at 6 p.m., Thursday, June 5, at the Development
Services Building, 150 Beavercreek Road in Oregon City. Public testimony will
be accepted at the meeting.

Dan Green, County Forester, said the sale has been in the works for
approximately a year, including six public meetings, and the harvest should
yield approximately 6.4 million board feet. The property is part of a larger 340
acre lot owned by the county.

Green noted the trees on the acreage for the proposed cutting include ones
approximately 100 years old on the south end and younger ones on the north
end.

He added the county’s harvesting plan for all its properties includes cutting
approximately two percent each year, resulting in a 50-year cycle of cutting,
replanting and growing the forests.

“We’ve tended to stay away from the Mountain community as much as
possible because harvests there are controversial,” Green said, adding that
other county lands have been cut and the pattern “requires to move on to the
next.”

The cutting would represent approximately three years of harvest, according
to Green, who noted no other harvest on county property would happen for
approximately three years. Harvested trees would be transported to the
highway via Country Club Road.

The proposed cutting has drawn criticism from some Mountain residents,
including those worried about issues such as impact on the viewshed (the
property is at least partly visible by some residents at the Mt. Hood Village RV
Resort), erosion, and impact on fish habitat.

Don Mench would like greater details about how close the cut area is to a
restored side channel project on the Salmon River, pointing out the “bulk” of
the cutting is a ways from the river and that Green has already agreed to
adjust the buffer to twice as large as planned.

“It’s the Salmon River ... any impact on that is a negative one,” Mench said.
“We are also worried about the steepness, erosion and landslides,” Janine
Bertram added. “They really aren’t addressing that.”

The county’s harvest of timber is done under the Oregon Forest Practices Act,
which covers state and private land, but not federal property. Federal entities,
including the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service,
operate under different guidelines and requirements.

Steve Wilent, a resident of the Mountain and a member of the TSAC (which
looks at harvesting plans and advises the county forester on methods,
equipment and more), attended a couple of the public meetings, toured
residential areas where the view will potentially be impacted and said Green
has done a good job of finding compromises, including preserving
approximately 12 acres as a partial cut to preserve the view from the Mt.
Hood RV Village Resort.

“My personal opinion is that the sale is very well designed, that it
accomplishes the goal of the county forest management plan and that it
should proceed,” said Wilent, who also teaches forestry at Mount Hood
Community College and is the editor of “The Forestry Source,” the monthly
newspaper of the Society of American Foresters. “I think it is very unlikely
there will be any significant adverse conditions on water quality issues related
to the sale.”

The money from the sale will go into a county fund used to run its parks and
forest programs. Green noted the only other funding sources for these
programs are taxes on recreational vehicles, a very small amount of money
from the general fund and entry fees from forest activities.

Green added this sale is not related to the county paying off a bond for the
Stone Creek Golf Course, which was paid off from a harvesting performed
more than a year ago.

Whatever money is collected for the Boulder Timber Sale, Mench would prefer
to see more of it returned to the Mountain. He cited the Dorman Center,
which the county closed in September 2012, as one of the few facilities the
county has in the area, but currently doesn’t offer anything to the community.

“I don’t see it as equitable between areas of the county,” Mench said of the
distribution of funds. “But we also aren’t packed with voters like we are down
in Oregon City.”

Two other possibilities exist for at least part of the property slated for harvest:
a land exchange with the BLM or a sale of part of the land to the Western
Rivers Conservancy (WRC). Green noted an exchange is not likely due to the
amount of time needed to pass any proposal through Congress, but he is
expecting the WRC to submit an offer to purchase part of the land by the end
of May.

Green added that any proposal would need to include a good price and
certainty for the transaction. If it does, the county could then withdraw that
portion of the property from the timber sale.

“That action is very doable if they come up with a proposal that is attractive,”
Green said.

WRC and Mt. Hood RV Village did not respond to calls for comments.