Letter: Duty

Published 12:15 am Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Jim Kelly, chairman of the Oregon Board of Forestry, recently said in a meeting with other board members that he had approved a visit and OK’d a per diem requested by board member Bob Van Dyk in order for him to come to Clatsop County in June.

Local citizens asked him to come because of their concerns about the lack of notification and transparency on the part of the ODF, which was planning clearcuts on state land abutting their property on Mothball Hill. When challenged on the legitimacy of the visit, Kelly said in retrospect that visit was not a duty of the board.

Kelly, and Van Dyk’s local detractors, may want to reread the board’s mission statement. It clearly says the board is to provide oversight of forest management practices. The practices that currently need the most oversight are precisely the annual operations plan of the ODF which, absent the board’s supervision, has no oversight with the possible exception of the governor, who defers to the board.

For years, the ODF has done what they wanted with little regard for public opinion. Their announcement of the pending Mothball Hill sale was not made directly to residents living in the area. When asked, the ODF agreed to meet with residents only after the annual operations plan had been finalized and approved, according to reports from North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection, which assisted residents with making their voices heard.

ROGER DORBAND

Astoria