Timber harvests near communities like this one in Rockaway Beach have some residents demanding better notification for when and where aerial spraying. will take place.
Tony Schick
The Oregon Department of Forestry is set to unveil an overhaul of how it tracks what happens on forests within the state.
Gone is the archaic system of timber owners filing paper permits and notifications before they log a stand of trees or spray weed killer. It’s being replaced by a state-of-the-art web application. Timber owners can use it to draw maps of their harvests. State foresters can access it from an iPad deep in the woods.
The site, called FERNS (Forestry activity Electronic Notfication System), is now in testing mode.
“Folks are very pleased with the ease of use, how streamlined it is,” said said Lena Tucker, the deputy chief of the agency’s private forests division. “It’s really a success story. It brings our agency right into the 21st century.”
Not everyone shares her enthusiasm.
“I’m very disappointed that they didn’t prioritize public access,” Lisa Arkin, director of the Eugene-based Beyond Toxics, said. She and other advocates against pesticide use were among the harshest critics of the old system and remain disappointed in the new one.
The issue is first on the agenda Monday at a meeting of the state Senate Interim Committee On Environment and Natural Resources. The committee will hear from foresters in Oregon and Washington on how to notify the public.
Advocates for transparency want faster, more reliable and free notifications for aerial spraying. The website launch won't provide those, despite early indications from the state.
Starting in October, timber owners can file electronic notices and receive automatic alerts about permits and inspections. But members of the public who want to know about nearby spraying will have to continue to subscribe for $25 to receive notifications via mail. Email is also an option, Tucker said, which could cut down on costs.
At a Sept. 4 meeting in Rockaway Beach, Garibaldi resident Jane Anderson drew whistles and applause when she questioned the current practice in front of a crowd gathered to learn about aerial spraying.
“How, in a democratic society, can a public agency, funded by our tax dollars, tell us we have to pay to find out when an out-of-state commercial timber conglomerate plans to spray toxins just outside our community?” Anderson said to a crowd of roughly 120. Among those in attendence were state Sens. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, and Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose.
“I understand some of our public agencies are underfunded," Anderson added. "But shouldn’t we be passing those costs on to the sprayers, rather than the sprayees?”
Anderson is not the first to take aim at the state over forest pesticide notifications. It has drawn criticism for rules that are too lax and too vague in requiring timber companies to say when and what they will spray.
After a controversy over aerial pesticides in the Triangle Lake area of the Coast Range near Eugene, the governor's office promised improved notification for residents near forest pesticide applications.
The Department of Forestry’s original plan was to make notifications available to the public online for free. A year ago, the department was emailing various stakeholders stating the first phase of the site would allow users to choose instant or daily alerts for their area, and that another priority was to allow users to browse a map of planned sprays.
Now, the Forestry Department says subscription service won’t change without more time for development and an additional $1 million in the forestry budget, which it has already requested. It has spent just under $1 million so far on the project.
The department says its first priorities, prescribed by the Legislature, were to streamline its own process for enforcing the Forest Practices Act and to “get in the right century,” Public Affairs Program Director Dan Postrel said.
-- Tony Schick