Speech: Cooperative Conservation

Remarks prepared for delivery by Crook County Judge Scott R. Cooper
at a federal “Listening Session” on Cooperative Conservation
Deschutes County Fairgrounds, Redmond, Oregon
August 22, 2006; The remarks were prepared for the
Honorable Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior,
Mark Rey, Undersecretary for Agriculture,
Rick Otis, Deputy Environmental Protection Agency Associate Administrator
and Mr. Bob Lohn, NOAA Fisheries Regional Administrator. Ultimately,
the remarks were not delivered due to the crowds seeking access to the
microphones at the event and the resulting time limitation imposed on speakers.

One County Already Approaches Conservation With Collaboration

Secretary Kempthorne, Undersecretary Rey, Mr. Otis, Mr.Lohn, other distinguished guests. On behalf of the citizens of Crook County Oregon, the historically original seat of government for the entire Central Oregon, I welcome you to God’s country. As chief elected official for my nearly 3000 square mile county, I am pleased to convey to you on behalf of my citizens our longstanding belief that it IS possible for a thoughtful and deliberative community of caring and resourceful people to enjoy the benefits of commerce, agriculture and recreation while still protecting wildlife, water quality and resources. My citizens reject the idea that these goals are mutually exclusive, and they reject the politics of polarization which now characterize the natural resources debate in this country.

Forests which are choking on their own fuel load have value to forest managers or to commercial timber operators or to weekend recreationalists. Lands which are denuded of forage due to overgrazing, will not over time return value to lessees or to the public which seeks to enjoy them. Use of OHVs in a manner which damages sensitive watersheds is as offensive to the suburban householder reliant on forest springs to recharge his community water system as it is to the most ardent Sierra Club member.

In my community, we are committed to the principle that we can through rational conversation and a shared commitment to dialogue find solutions which will satisfy both sides of the current debate about what to do with the West. For the past three years, we have been pursuing an extraordinary strategy based on this strategy, and I am here to report to you today that the approach is working.

In 2002, at the urging of a local citizen, the Crook County Court, (or board of commissioners as it is sometimes called) formed a group called the Crook County Natural Resources Planning Committee. The board consists of approximately 26 members at any given time, who meet monthly or more often as needed to debate and recommend to the County Court positions on natural resource management from the community perspective. The stakeholders who sit on this group are broadly representative of the historical factions of the community and they include timber interests, agricultural interests, local business, community and government, environmental groups and key agency decision makers. The county provides a facilitator for the group, whose main job is to keep everyone talking to each other, even when the dialogue starts to get a little rough.

All recommendations of the committee are ultimately transmitted to the County Court which decides whether to send them on or not to natural-resource policy decision-makers as county-endorsed recommendations. Although not always, generally speaking, the Court members have found that once an idea has gained enough momentum to be tested and found worthy in the purifying heat of a Natural Resource Committee debate, it is an idea of sufficient merit that it will generally pass through the screen of any reviewing federal agency without too much further debate.

So what kinds of topics is the committee taking positions on?

The committee has engaged in serious soul-searching about the value and impact of salvage logging. The rough and tumble of debate between environmental activists and timber interests has helped educate both sides, and has had the happy result of causing agencies to redefine the boundaries of proposed salvage sales in ways that minimize or eliminate ecological stress while at the same time convincing local environmental groups not to pursue knee jerk appeals of every sale.

In another heated discussion, the committee was able to come up with a consensus recommendation on how to minimize damage to ranchers and farmers if wolf reintroduction were to be allowed and expanded in Oregon. That policy debate brought realization to all sides that the plight of the wolf is real and the heritage of our region is threatened by the potential loss of those species while also helping wildlife advocates come to realize the grave economic damage that Most recently, the committee has become passionate on the subject of riparian protection. Single-handedly, the committee has become a champion for intelligent land-use and natural resource policies necessary to preserve water quality and to protect floodways in our rapidly growing communities. Committee-sponsored educational seminars were notable for the turnout of elected officials, planning staff, farmers, creekside homeowners, realtors and developers, all of whom sought to learn what part they might play in protecting their community’s riparian assets. Although such seminars are commonly produced by interest groups and governments, I am convinced that it was the non-biased, non-judgmental, educational impact of a seminar organized and endorsed by peers which set this effort apart as truly successful.

Most recently, the community has taken up a discussion with our local school district about how to use a combination of federal land-management agency resources, school partnerships and community involvement to improve natural resources education in our public schools. The committee and school district in undertaking this effort are acting in farsighted way intended to ensure that the good groundwork in environmental ethics laid by the committee today will continue through future generations.

Those are just a few of the ways our community, the community of Prineville and Crook County, is committed to and has been pursuing the strategy you are calling “Cooperative Conservation.” We believe in this model of shared decision-making between federal agencies, concerned citizens, local communities and diverse interest groups. We hope you do too.

For too long, the debate about natural resources policy has been dominated by too few clumsily trying to disguise decisions made to quiet the clamoring voices as good decisions satisfying the wishes of the many. In fact, every pollster or political strategist in this country who knows what’s he’s talking will tell you that the majority of residents and citizens of this country are solid centrists, distrustful of the claims of both the right and the left.

Somehow, in this out-of-way-corner of the nation and the world, Crook County has found a solution that is working for us. The keys have been:
a continuous effort to keep all points of view at the table and talking,
recognition by senior federal land managers in our area that flexibility in political position is a worthwhile prices to pay for the valuable benefit of endorsement by community and constituency, and
a clear preference by local stakeholders for engage and remain engaged in a constant search for points of agreement rather than the creation of an endless catalogue of points of disagreement.

The Cooperative Conservation philosophy and movement is a step in the right direction. My community is living proof that the concept can and will work. Our encouragement to you is not to be discouraged by the bumps in the road you will inevitably hit as you seek the path to compromise, but to stay the course. From our perspective, the end is definitely worth the journey.

Thank you for hearing me out today.