What is the WOPR and what can you do to stop it?

Greed, political influence, shortsightedness and fear mongering are on the agenda for the Bureau of Land Management in Oregon. Big timber wants the last surviving stands of Oregon old growth and the bureaucratic systems that are supposed to manage our resources are stonewalling public opinion while our biodiversity circles the drain.

The Bush administration and its lackey Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne have pushed through bad science and appointed stooges in underhanded dealings. What do we have on our side? Something worth fighting for. Please tell the BLM how you feel about its Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR).

WHAT IS THE WOPR?
Here is a summary from Oregon Wild’s Doug Heiken:
WOPR Summary:

•Seven-fold increase in old-growth clearcutting. 58,000 acres of old-growth clearcut in the first ten years.
•Fewer, smaller old-growth reserves. Reserves are 48% smaller than the minimum needed for legal compliance and recovery of threatened species.
•Dramatically reduced protection for streams. Stream buffers reduced by 75%. Small streams get only one small tree every 175 feet along streams.
•Degraded water quality. More clearcutting and roads will make it harder to fix 600 miles of already polluted streams on BLM land.
•Worst case clearcutting. Even less retention than the 2 trees per acre required by the Oregon Forest Practices Act. Owl nest stands left unprotected.
•40% reduction in marbled murrelet nesting habitat and spotted owl dispersal habitat after 100 years.
•Communities threatened by fire. Logging will convert fire-resilient old forests into dense young forests that are prone to high severity fire.

 WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Start by sending a letter to the BLM through The Cascadia Widlands Project’s action site. Email every single person you know that cares about hunting, fishing or preventing the extinction of species in Oregon.