Oregon Public Broadcasting

Just days before the public comment closes on a federal plan to increase logging in western Oregon, environmental groups say the agency's numbers don’t pencil out. Rob Manning reports.

Bureau of Land Management officials contend they have to follow a 70 year-old federal law that prioritizes logging on two and a half million acres of Oregon forest.

The agency’s draft plan could as much as triple the amount of logging, offering millions of dollars in economic development.

Bob Freimark is with the environmental group, the Wilderness Society. A new study his group commissioned argues that the draft plan ignores economic benefits other than logging.

Bob Freimark: “There are watershed values there, you know, providing clean and plentiful water. There’s endangered species’ habitat values. There’s incredible recreation opportunities on these lands. And there are real economic values there.”

The new study also contends that BLM has misjudged the timber economics. BLM calls its own analysis “rock solid.”