The Regional Dialogue Participants love the Oregon landscape and appreciate its natural resources. The natural resources are an opportunity and part of the overall economic plan for Oregon and, with that, prioritize sustainable use and management. If all of the Participants got together, they may not collectively agree on how sustainability plays out but a sense exists of wanting to better understand natural systems, how they change overtime, and how to sustainably use them.
That's one of our other huge issues: balancing economic opportunity with environmental protections. That's what makes Oregon the beautiful state it is. But we have lots of trees and we have lots of natural resources that are renewable and I don't think we're utilizing our opportunities as well as we could be economically. (Medford Dialogues)
I so love Oregon for the natural resources that it has, the beauty, the people. I would hope that we would have more empathy for people of different circumstances, different parts of the state. Understand better about how it is to live in places other than where we live. (Medford Regional Dialogues)
The Lincoln City Participants expressed deep appreciation for the beauty of the Oregon coast and their connection to the natural environment. Loving the rich, diverse landscape and the associated lifestyle was a theme in the small groups there. “It [living on the coast] helps us learn how to be flexible and adaptive and resourceful. We know how to do a lot with a little and, most important, we know how to be in relationships with each other and this place.” Another remarked, “Oregon is a pretty magical place to work when you're in ocean issues.”
The Lincoln City Participants differentiated themselves from the urban perspective around the role of natural resources in the local and state economy. A number of Participants shared how urban dwellers have a naiveté around protection of natural resources, having little sense of the demand and need for these resources, the reliance that the state and country have on them, nor the conservation practices in place now. There was a strong sense in multiple conversations that rural residents are more connected to the outdoor environment, understanding the rhythms and resilience of nature. Further, rural residents see themselves as simultaneously appreciating natural resources, getting economic value out of them and managing them so the resources will be available in perpetuity. A resounding perspective exists that urban dwellers react against forestry, fishing, and other natural resource industries because their understanding does not extend beyond the picturesque views from their car, second-home, or weekend rental. Urban dwellers link any deterioration of the natural environment to these industries without notion to the demand for them and significance they play in entire communities.
I continue to be frustrated with the lack of information or the misinformation about logging and the whole industry. It’s central to the urban rural conversation. (Lincoln CIty Dialogues)
Every time a sale of forest land goes up, there's a lawsuit that stops it. Quite frankly, if we're really concerned and if we can agree on global warming, then what we're all concerned about is carbon. Trees are the finest carbon eating machines on earth. They eat carbon. They sequester carbon. The only way that they release carbon is if it burns or rots which is exactly what's happening in our federal forests. We are not managing our forests. And if you don't manage them, God will. That's what he does in the form of forest fire. We're releasing more carbon now than 10 times more and all of the power generation plants, coal fired in the nation. This is what I mean by the lack of understanding. We're creating huge amounts of carbon by mismanagement, which again is lack of activity. It's a real problem. (Lincoln City Dialogues)
In the coastal community, we harvest fish. We harvest lumber and we harvest milk. That's the economic base and there are regulations already in place. Yes, the regulations make it more difficult, but it also balances the environmental friendliness part. We have to watch out for this bird. At the same time, we can't shut down one site in the name of the bird. You have to reach that balance and I think you get unbalanced when nobody knows who you are. (Lincoln City Dialogues)
There's a philosophical divide. Urban, rural… you'll often hear fishermen and farmers and foresters are say that we're the original conservationists… we've been here on this land or on the ocean for so long and we want to claim that as ours. We care and we all want to see our natural resources thrive and succeed. (Lincoln City Dialogues)
The last part of the last quote, “I think you get unbalanced when nobody knows who you are” is worth noting. In this Dialogue and others, Regional Participants expressed frustration that rural Oregon does not have a strong voice with decision makers and policymakers came up many times. Generally speaking, rural was named as anywhere outside of Greater Portland and the Willamette Valley
The conversations out of Baker City – the other Regional Dialogue where the conversations consisted of significant discussion around farming and natural resources – were somewhat similar. Participants there saw a disconnection that residents of west side of Oregon have with the land and, in particular, farming. People don’t know where their food comes from. This is the reason why statewide policies don’t connect with their economy. They may want to understand, a Participant shared, but it’s not all about buying organic.
Participants compare the current number of farms, the size of farms, and the people that farmed with just two or three generations ago. “Everybody used to know somebody that lived on a farm and now they don't.” A few Baker City Participants felt like people have little connection to the land now.
At the time of the American civil war, about 75% of the American population was involved directly in agriculture, today that's about 2%. So my issue is that most of the people in America have no idea where their food comes and don't relate with it. (Baker City Dialogues)
One of the things that really comes to mind when we talk about rural urban divide has to do with understanding kind of how the other lives… one of the places I really see that show up is that the rural areas are responsible for the food production for the state, for the nation. (Baker City Dialogues)
I look at an agricultural community in which I'm directly based. There's a declining connection directly to agriculture… There's a vision of this pastoral landscape that is very different from the reality. (Warm Springs Dialogue)
In a state like Oregon, this lack of connection means that the concerns and issues of farming communities are not always understood or addressed. New policies take on a different challenge because so many people don’t understand not just the day-to-day of farming but the year-to-year cycles. For example, farmers will borrow funds at the beginning of their season for the funds to plant. They don’t get paid until they sell their crops and, meanwhile, they have the concern of paying that loan back. Once crops are ready, farmers work to get it all to market, which channels are governed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the midst of any this, state legislation may come up, such as banning an herbicide, and urban legislators and their constituencies have no idea of the impact on natural resource production and farmers cannot get to Salem make their points.
“The battle is continuous,” a Participant shared, “We're dying out here.” The above challenges may be why kids today are not interested in taking over family farms. The average age of the rancher is 64 years old. Many farms do not have succession plans, which is a plan for their farmland to remain in farming when they die. This results in corporate, out-of-state interests already purchasing forest and other lands in Oregon. A former planning director talked to a John Hancock Insurance spokesperson when they purchased timberland in their community. “I talked to John Hancock Insurance when they bought it. They said that they are bundling it and selling it to foreign investors. They are selling it as an investment portfolio, to whoever that is.”
Eastern Oregon, described a Participant, is a natural resource based economy, whether it’s agriculture, livestock, or timber. The women and men working these lands understand how their efforts feed people, contribute to the statewide economy, and provide communities across the state.
Right now, currently in Baker County our primary economic driver is agriculture, which is about $90 million. It isn't going to be able to continue because we're aging out. And if that's of value, if having people connected with the land on sustainable ranching and farms is an important value to the people of Oregon, there has to be recognition of that… the west side of Oregon will have to contribute to succession planning. Or we will just fade out. (Baker City Dialogues)