Letter to the Editor, by Betsy Herbert

Published in the Corvallis Times-Gazette, 04/21/2022

After growing public outcry, the city of Corvallis recently postponed its planned cut of more than a million board feet (350 truckloads) of logs from mature forest stands in the Rock Creek watershed, which supplies city drinking water.

This presents an opportunity for the public to insist that the city rethink its policies.

We are in a climate emergency. We need to act NOW to phase out fossil fuels and to protect mature forests, which store massive amounts of carbon. Where are the efforts to protect old forests? Planting trees is no substitute for preserving old trees, because young saplings take many decades to effectively store carbon.

The same mature forests that store carbon are also invaluable contributors to our drinking water supplies in Oregon. Every large tree preserved for its carbon storage is a tree that also provides natural water filtration, stabilizes soil to hold water and reduce flooding, and supplies fog drip as a priceless summer water source. Drinking water managers know that mature forests provide the most dependable, cleanest water supplies.

Climate change is already exacerbating drought and wildfire risk, which strain and threaten drinking water. Many public drinking water supplies in Oregon flow from privately-owned industrial timberland, where water managers have no control, and where the Oregon Department of Forestry allows massive clear-cutting and pesticide spraying.

Drinking water providers like the City of Corvallis—which are fortunate to own land that supplies their water—must change their management practices NOW to better protect mature forests.