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Environmental Groups Say It Will Take 20 Years To Thin Northwest Forests

by Amelia Templeton, Oregon Public Broadcasting

EUGENE — A coalition of environmental groups has released a report on the potential for restoration thinning in overcrowded northwest forests. The groups say thinning alone could generate a steady supply of timber for 20 years and allow federal forests to increase logging yields.

Four Northwest environmental groups commissioned the study: Conservation Northwest, The Geos Institute, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and Oregon Wild.

The groups say they wanted to put a number on how much non-controversial logging could take place on the federal forests in the range of the spotted owl. The bird is protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The report examines the potential for thinning out young Douglas fir plantations and other types of young dense stands on 17 national forests and on a handful of Bureau of Land Management forest lands in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California.  read more>

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