Dear Friends of the McDonald-Dunn Forests,
I started this email update at 1 a.m., after spending the evening running around the forest near Peavy Arboretum, photographing majestic old trees that will soon be destroyed. Starting Monday morning, loggers will begin cutting scores of big, old trees near Cronemiller Lake and the popular 'Section 36 Trail' - unless we act to stop this senseless destruction. OSU has described the ~64-acre stand as 108 year-old forest, but I believe some of the trees are considerably older.
There is NO scientific or research basis for the destruction of these old trees. The dean and his "research forest" staff are simply "milking their cash cow" and following their outdated "working forest" ideology. I have no doubt they want to cut the big trees before public pressure and a new forest plan force them to protect the older stands of these public forests. For more details and pictures check out my latest blog piece: OSU’s ‘Woodpecker Thin’ Reveals Greed and Arrogance of College Leaders
Please take a couple of minutes to share your frustrations and outrage over the destruction of these century-old trees.
You can click here to compose an email to the OSU President. Please call on her to immediately halt the destruction of this ecologically-rich older forest.
You can also call the president's office and leave a message at: 541-737-4133
Please also consider submitting a "Letter to the Editor" at the Corvallis Gazette Times using this link: https://gazettetimes.com/forms/online_services/letter/
Public Meeting a Huge Disgrace for College Leaders: If you missed the recent public meeting for OSU's emerging forest plan for the McDonald-Dunn, be sure to check out my article published in the Corvallis Advocate: OSU Feels the Heat of Forest Planning Ire. A shorter version of my article was also published on times.org (an environmental news site that reaches ~10,000 people across the Pacific Northwest). I anticipate the Corvallis Gazette Times will also publish an article soon.
This media coverage means we now have an unprecedented opportunity to change both OSU's destructive management of these public forests, and their biased forest planning process. But creating that change is going to take your support.
Please take a few minutes to send an email to president Murthy and the OSU Trustees to share your concerns about their stewardship of these public forests and the flawed planning process.
What we witnessed at the June 5th meeting was a remarkable rebuke of OSU's planning team. OSU's forest modeling and metrics were eviscerated, one after the other, by citizens and OSU experts alike. Their "wildfire resistance" metric was shown to be at odds with common sense and OSU's own research. Their "biodiversity metric" (developed by undisclosed "experts") was based on only six taxa and was heavily skewed in favor of industrial forestry scenarios. The "recreation acceptability" metric was based on showing pictures of various forest management practices to unknown respondents. No wonder it supported the false conclusion that there's little difference in public attitudes between recreation within clearcuts and old forest reserves! OSU's "carbon storage" metric conveniently ignored carbon stored in the soil (more than half the total amount). One of the world's foremost forest scientists, Dr. Beverly E. Law (OSU Professor Emeritus) criticized the underlying assumptions and called one of the models OSU's planning team relied on, "crappy".
A chorus of angry citizens also condemned OSU's outdated management of the forests, leaving the associate deans looking sad and defeated. OSU's recently-retired forest director, stephen fitzgerald (the man who is largely responsible for OSU's regressive forestry practices in the Mac-Dunn, including the 2019 old growth cutting) sat up front looking busy and avoiding eye contact with the audience. For those of us who recognized him, his presence was a toxic cloud filling the room and tainting the process. Despite repeated questions about important planning details and their so-called "panel of experts", College leaders were largely unwilling and unable to provide substantive answers. The meeting lasted for nearly three hours, and nearly all of the comments were critical of OSU. It was really quite a remarkable experience.
Thank you all for being a part of this community that cares for our forests! Let's keep the momentum building - together, we can create lasting, positive change!
With Gratitude for Your Support,
Doug (& Friends of OSU Old Growth - "We speak for the trees!")
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