We are working to preserve and promote native ecosystem values in the Blue Mountain Province and other eastside forests with an emphasis on information sharing, education and communication. And to serve as a voice for the forest, grassland, air, water and native species within the Blue Mountains Province and other eastside forests.

Approximately 63% of Oregon's National Forest lands are east of the Cascades yet less than 13% of Oregon's population lives on the eastside. Though our economic base is no longer dominated by extractive industries, most people on the eastside still believe that we are dependent on timber extraction, cattle grazing and mining. These activities on the eastside devastate the watersheds where salmon spawn. Our lives are all connected by the air we breathe and the water we drink.

THE NEED FOR EASTSIDE PROTECTION

The population of Eastern Oregon is much less environmentally inclined than that of Western Oregon. Support for Eastern Oregon environmental groups is less than proportional to our small percentage of Oregon's population. We are working within the larger context of the Columbia River Bioregion Campaign to build a sub-regional forest monitoring presence. Since we don't have the people to do all the necessary work, we must maximize the effectiveness of those people we have. We cannot afford to duplicate effort but we must make an effort to make sure that high priority areas get covered.

OUR STRATEGY

In developing our strategy we considered three main items.

1. What needs to be done?
2. Who is in the best position to do it?
3. Does it fit within the context of a larger regional strategy.

To discover what needs to be done we looked for bottle-necks in the flow of energy and information and we determined that we are in the best position to accomplish three main tasks. These tasks are:

1. Forest Watch on public land in Eastern Oregon.
2. Project tracking database coordination and analysis.
3. Forest Health or Salvage Logging Web page.

There is an information flow here. It flows from the people walking the sales on the ground to a collection point. From the collection point it is moved into the hands of the public, the media, and our representatives.

Current Projects:

• Public education in the areas of forest management, wildlife habitat conservation and the changing economic realities in Eastern Oregon.
• Monitoring Forest Service and BLM projects in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon.
• Support for grassroots volunteers across eastern Oregon.
• Workshops on monitoring timber sales.
• Maintaining a project tracking database for eastside forest activists.
• Educating federal and state agencies and the public regarding the dangers of uncontrolled timber harvesting practices and working to find common solutions.
• Maintaining an electronic library of current forest-related research papers and other files.

SUMMARY

Eastern Oregon enviros are few and far between but we support each other. We cover a critical area of Oregon. The far eastern portion of Oregon has traditionally been considered by the agencies to be the furthest from unfavorable scrutiny and hence the most appropriate for industrial forestry.

Perhaps the most significant problem that we are dealing with on the eastside is the lack of locally generated funding and local people to deal with Forest Service and BLM agencies that are much further outside of legal and environmental parameters than their counterparts on westside forests. We need serious investment in support of the people over here who are risking their lives and livelihoods to promote responsible management of eastside forests.

The Blue Mountain Native Forest Alliance depends on support from people outside of our area. If you find the information we have provided to be useful, please take a moment to write us a check in support of our work. We are a tax exempt charitable organization and donations to us are tax deductable.