SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES, AGRICULTURE, SALMON AND WATER

January 24, 2001 Hearing Room B

8:00 am Tapes 14 - 15

MEMBERS PRESENT: Sen. Ken Messerle, Chair

Sen. Frank Shields, Vice-Chair

Sen. Bill Fisher

Sen. Ginny Burdick

Sen. Jason Atkinson

Sen. Ryan Deckert

MEMBER EXCUSED: Sen. Roger Beyer

STAFF PRESENT: Jennifer Solomon, Committee Administrator

Cheryl Young, Committee Assistant

MEASURE/ISSUES HEARD: SB 315 Public Hearing

SB 412 Public Hearing

SB 313 Public Hearing and Work Session

SB 308 Work Session

SB 309 Work Session

These minutes are in compliance with Senate and House Rules. Only text enclosed in quotation marks reports a speaker’s exact words. For complete contents, please refer to the tapes.

TAPE/#	Speaker	Comments
TAPE 15, A
006	Chair Messerle	Opens as sub-committee, Public Hearing of SB 315 at 8:05.
SB 315- PUBLIC HEARING
		Staff summarizes SB 315.
012	Charlie Stone	Assistant State Forester for Department of Forestry Protection Division. Introduces Gregg Cline, Forest Practices Policy Manager. Describes goals for this bill to cover. Describes intent of the bill and the Forestry Practice Act. Recommends removal of the word ‘commercial’ from the definition of operation. States that Sen. Beyer raised concerns that they may have inadvertently changed some other things in the law, through shifting the definition of forestry species to operation of the bulk of those exemptions. Will do more research to get back to committee administrator. Submits written testimony. (EXHIBIT A).
095	Chair Messerle	Announces they are now in full committee. Asks to be informed when ready to bring the bill back to work session. Asks for clarification of the procedure for an operator between Juniper being under the Forestry Practices Act and being exempt.
102	Gregg Cline	Clarifies for committee. Submits report. (EXHIBIT B).
128	Ray Wilkensen	Oregon Forest Industries Council. Speaks in support of bill for OFIC. Also notes support of the next two bills on the agenda as well.
142	Pete Test	Associate Director of Governmental Affairs for the Oregon Farm Bureau. Participated as an advisor in the task group that worked with 1115 related to the change in Juniper definition. Support efforts made. Concern with it being more of a management activity than a commercial activity. Supports all sections of the bill.
161	Chair Messerle	For the record: Sen. R. Beyer is excused for the day Closes Public Hearing on SB 315. Open Public Hearing SB 412.
SB 412 – PUBLIC HEARING
		Staff distributes and summarizes SB 412.
180	Charlie Stone	Assistant State Forester for Protection. Testifies on SB 412. Discusses the past three amendments to the Forest Practices Act. Requests the addition of language to clarify the conflicts without changing the overall policy goal of the 1991 legislation. Instead of “solely, may prohibit”; add language “but not regulate” to make clear there is not an in-between area. Submits written testimony. (EXHIBIT C).
314	Sen. Fisher	On page 1 line 27, referring to growth boundaries asks why and under what circumstances would a county want to prohibit forest practice.
323	Stone	May be some geologic or cultural feature within the county that feels so strongly about, under goal 5, if that’s the case, act provides they can develop an exemption for Goal 4 under their County Land Use Plan and restrict the activity to FPA.
342	Sen. Fisher	Notes that it seems that if several county commissioners are elected that did not like logging, they can prohibit, just out of hand. Questions if he reads that correctly.
351	Stone	Concern, but doing it through goal 4 exemption would be the check on that. State that they would have to demonstrate and have acknowledged by LCDC that there is a separate purpose that would make sense to restrict forestry use.
363	Sen. Fisher	Asks if he feels there should be some kind of definition further in bill, that they cannot unreasonably withhold it.
367	Stone	Disagrees and gives examples.
379	Chair	Comments that the threat of Ballot Measure 7, might have a dampening effect on that.
383	Sen. Burdick	Questions the county’s ability to prohibit under this bill would only apply to exception lands not to land that is zoned for forest use.
389	Stone	Agrees. States that they would already have to have an exemption or apply for an exception for forest use in order to do that.
398	Sen. Burdict	Questions the resource land inside the urban growth boundaries Curious as to what situations he knows of on the ground where this has been an issue and how it’s been resolved.
404	Stone	Gives examples of instances of trying to apply regulations that were not adopted for that purpose.
464	Sen. Burdick	Asks that Mr. Stone explain how this approach will ensure the protection of streams, especially salmon streams, where there might be forest operations within urban growth boundaries.
470	Stone	Replies that he cannot assure that, because not the department’s intention of being the arbiter of what is and isn’t allowable by the city. Expands on comments
Tape 15, A
029	Linda Ludwig	League of Oregon Cities. Comments on SB 412. Supports the intent of the bill, but, recognizes there are unintended consequences to the existing law as it now stands. Feels more defining language needs to be added to the bill to make it more helpful for the cities to more fully understand the intent of the bill.
050	Sen. Burdict	Comments that attention be paid to not imposing extra barriers to developing inside the UGB, as well as, the forest operations wherever they are. The real intent for land inside UBG is for development, so as policies are made, don’t form any new barriers toward that land moving into the development.
058	Chair Messerle	Submits written testimony. (EXHIBIT D). E-mail in support of SB 412, submitted by Chair Messerle. (EXHIBIT E). Closes public hearing on SB 412. Opens public hearing on SB 313.
SB 313 – PUBLIC HEARING
066		Staff distributes SB 313 and amendment. And summarizes. Submits proposed –1 amendment. EXHIBIT F).
076	Sen. Fisher	Asks for clarification of ‘extends sunset’ or does the statement mean do away with it.
078	Staff	Clarifies that bill eliminates the sunset, and the amendment extends it.
080	Sean Miller	PNW Christmas Tree. Association. States that the bill, as drafted was supported last session, new program implemented civil penalty authority. Found that many Christmas Tree growers were violating quarantine orders. Explains why the program was not implemented. Asks to be extended another two years. Would support bill with the amendment.
118	Sen. Fisher	Asks if the bill was no more important than that, does this mean that the growers are going to have another two years to fool around with it before it starts to take effect. Questions what good is the law, if it’s not done?

121	Miller	Thought it would be implemented immediately. States that the law did go into effect in 99 and not used to this date.
128	Sen. Fisher	Asks if it hasn’t been used to date, do we need it?
129	Miller	States that yes, and they support the idea of giving civil penalty authority. Now that the rules have been put in place, they are now going to be able to use it. Cannot explain why it took so long to implement.
154	Chuck Craig	Deputy Director, Department of Agriculture. Asks for the committee to extend the authority that last session granted to do civil penalties on people who violate our laws. Responds to earlier question regarding why it took so long: two reasons, 1) key staff turnover and 2) spent much time with industries who would be affected by this regulation and took this amount of time to work through this. Supports the amendment. Submits written testimony. (EXHIBIT G).
189	Chair Messerle	Asks who were the other groups he worked with.
189	Craig	Lists committees.
192	Sen. Deckert	Asks when were rules adopted.
193	Craig	Responds, December 2000.
195	Sen. Deckert	Asks that if dash 1 is adopted, will it mean that you will be back in two years asking for another extension? There is frustration in knowing the cost of printing a bill, and moving it through the legislature. My question is similar to Sen. Fisher’s, why does it take so long to adopt rules?
204	Craig	Responds. Gives examples of time requirements and procedural requirements.
225	Sen. Shields	Questions, why bother with a two year sunset, if it’s going to take two years too implement; why not do a four year sunset.
232	Craig	Answers that the proposed bill has some reservations about giving authority permanently, A compromise was proposed and accepted, did not think about period of time.
246	Sen Fisher	States that he has problem understanding the time line it takes to implement these rules when there are people out there doing criminal activities.
267	Chair Messerle	Asks if there are actually people out there doing these things?
268	Craig	Responds in the affirmative and elaborates further on his answer.
282	Chair Messerle	Comments that threats do have some effect on people. Closes public hearing. Open work session.
SB 313 -WORK SESSION
293	Sen. Fisher	Makes motion. Amendment –1 SB 313.
302	Sen. Atkinson	Move SB 313 as amended.
293	Sen. Fisher	MOTION: Moves SB 313-1 to the floor with a DO PASS AS AMENDED recommendation.
		VOTE: 6-0 EXCUSED: 1 - Sen. R. Beyer
	Chair	Hearing no objection, declares the motion CARRIED. SEN. ATKINSON will lead discussion on the floor.
316	Chair Messerle	Closes work session of SB 313. Opens work session on SB 308.
SB-308 WORK SESSION
319		Staff summarizes SB 308.
330	Chair Messerle	Asks for any discussion of the bill
343	Sen. Burdick	MOTION: Moves SB 308 to the floor with a DO PASS recommendation.
		VOTE: 6-0 EXCUSED: 1 - Sen. R. Beyer
	Chair	Hearing no objection, declares the motion CARRIED. SEN. DECKERT will lead discussion on the floor.
349	Chair Messerle	Closes work session on SB 308. Opens work session on SB 309.
SB-309 WORK SESSION
370		Staff summarizes SB 309.
388	Chair Messerle	Asks for motion.
392	Sen. Fisher	MOTION: Moves SB 309 to the floor with a DO PASS recommendation.
		VOTE: 6-0 EXCUSED: 1 - Sen. R. Beyer
	Chair	Hearing no objection, declares the motion CARRIED. SEN. FISHER will lead discussion on the floor.
408	Chair Messerle	Meeting adjourned 8:57.

Submitted By, Reviewed By,

Cheryl Young, Jennifer Solomon,

Committee Assistant Committee Administrator

EXHIBIT SUMMARY

A – SB 315, written testimony, Charlie Stone, 3 pp

B -- SB 315, written report, Charlie Stone, 5 pp

C -- SB 412, written testimony, Charlie Stone, 2 pp

D -- SB 412, booklet, Charlie Stone, oversized

E – SB 412, written testimony, Jim Myron, 1 p

F -- SB 313, proposed –1 amendment, staff, 1p

G – SB 313, written testimony, Chuck Craig. 1 p