The citizens of Clatsop County should be assured that the impact of the habitat conservation plan on the fiscal health of the county is being taken very seriously by the members of the Board of Forestry, as anyone who Zoomed the board’s Feb. 15 meeting can attest.

Besides fending off one member’s proposal to scrap the current habitat conservation plan, and craft one including more logging on state land, board members called for working with the Oregon Senate’s natural resource committee to look for alternate ways of funding county services, and presumably compensate workers who suffer job loss due to the habitat conservation plan, though that was not explicitly called for.

Shouldn’t the Clatsop County commission be investigating ways, beyond joining the timber industry in calling for more logging on our public land, to maintain funding levels for services, given the likelihood of some form of the habitat conservation plan going forward and producing revenue loss for the counties?

Cutting down trees on the scant 3% of Oregon forests that are state public land in order to fund county services is an antiquated idea from another era. Complaining about the unfairness of the habitat conservation plan plan simply perpetuates the old ways, and fuels the prospect of Timber Wars redux.

The timber industry will continue complaining about the habitat conservation plan because it puts their profit margin at stake. Our county commission needs to support the habitat conservation plan and work with the state to remedy shortfalls in services.

ROGER DORBAND

Astoria