Oregon Public Broadcasting

Eight environmental groups asked the Oregon Board of Forestry Friday to reconsider its plan to increase logging in state forests.

Board members voted 4-to-2 at their June meeting to update management plans for the Clatsop and Tillamook forests in Northwest Oregon.

Environmentalists complained at the time that the stepped-up logging would threaten endangered species.

Bob Van Dyk with the Wild Salmon Center handed a formal petition to board members Friday morning.

Bob Van Dyk: “We think that it’s quite clear that they acted contrary to state law and we hope that that will bind them in a way that brings them into a conversation about how to modify their decision.”

A larger coalition of environmental groups sent a similar message to Governor Ted Kulongoski.

The governor’s natural resource advisor says the governor is “comfortable” with the new plans. And he notes that wildlife studies are still to come, before anything happens on the ground.