Oregon timber counties brace for potential budget cuts

The big picture: Rural counties like Clatsop and Tillamook have traditionally gotten a share of the revenue timber generated on federal lands.

• Earlier this year, 18 counties in western Oregon got $28 million from the Bureau of Land Management alone.
• Counties have also had the option to instead receive funding from the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, which was created to offset falling timber funding and often offers larger payments than revenue sharing.

State of play: Changes to both of those programs have left many counties wondering how they'll pay the bills, even as the federal government works to incentivize increased timber production on federal land, sources told OPB.

• Congress has failed to reauthorize funds for SRS since 2023, leaving counties with just timber revenue sharing to fill budget gaps for things like education, sheriff's offices and 911 response.
• But provisions in the recently passed budget reconciliation bill require all timber revenue to flow solely to the federal government.

What they're saying: "It's real basic stuff for safety and people's quality of life," Mindy Crandall, Oregon State University forest policy professor, told OPB.

• "It's shocking to me, quite frankly, that they're proposing keeping all that revenue."

Officials in timber counties told OPB they are lobbying to reverse the revenue-sharing provision.

The latest: U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden introduced an amendment to the budget bill that would have continued sharing of timber revenue, but it failed to make it into the final bill.

• In letters to the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, Wyden called on agency leaders to reverse the revenue-sharing decision.

The bottom line: Without revenue sharing or new SRS funds, rural counties face painful cuts.

• "Those are the receipts that allow us to tread water," Jay Trost, a Curry County commissioner, told OPB. "The removal of those means we are sinking."