ALBANY, Ore. — Oregon wants a court to dismiss a lawsuit from Linn County that alleges the state has failed to live up to decades-old contracts allowing counties to receive payments based on annual timber harvests from state-managed lands.
The county asserts that it and other timber-rich counties have been deprived of more than $1.4 billion because a forest management plan adopted more than a decade ago emphasized improvements to fish and wildlife habitat and other conservation measures, which reduced logging and slashed timber revenue in half.
Sarah Weston, an attorney for Oregon, argued Monday in Linn County that the case should be tossed because the forests are meant to be managed for the greatest permanent value, which includes factors beyond timber production.
“The statute does not require revenue maximization,” she said, according to the Capital Press newspaper. “The statutes have always provided for multiple values and multiple uses.”