This article by Elon Glucklich appeared in the Register-Guard, February 11th, 2018.
TRIANGLE LAKE — Jenn and James Ruppert raise rabbits, goats and bees on their 3-acre farm. Most of their neighbors are small-farmers, too, or retirees living on acreage along Highway 36 as it winds through the rural Lake Creek Valley.
With a few major exceptions.
Weyerhaeuser Co. owns thousands of acres of forestland around the valley and frequently carries out clear-cuts. Seneca Jones Timber Co., Roseburg Forest Products, Giustina Resources and numerous smaller operators log across the county, too, harvesting some of the 2 to 3 billion board feet of wood cut from Oregon’s private timberlands each year.
The timber companies’ intermittent use of helicopters to spray herbicides onto clear-cuts to kill brush and let planted Douglas fir seedlings survive has long been a flash point in this community, and in other parts of rural Lane County where homes abut large private forests. MORE…