USFS C.O. county timber payments top $4 million

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., welcomed the news Monday that Oregon’s rural communities will receive about $60.8 million this year in initial Secure Rural Schools funding for roads and schools, including over $4 million for Central Oregon counties.

The funding announcement by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack follows Wyden’s successful work earlier this month to win passage in the Senate of a two-year renewal for the SRS program.

“Renewing county payments for two years provides the time rural Oregon deserves to fund immediate education and safety needs and that Congress needs to build support for longer-term economic solutions that help rural America,” Wyden said.

The breakdown of funding includes $1.67 million for Crook County , $1.81 million for Deschutes County and over $521,000 for Jefferson County.

Wyden co-wrote the original SRS program in 2000 with then-Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. Since then, it has brought almost $3 billion to rural Oregon counties.

The funding announced Monday is from the U.S. Forest Service, with additional funds to be announced in the future from the Bureau of Land Management, the senator said.

Wyden said he is also continuing to work on his O&C (former Oregon & California Railroad lands) forestry legislation, which gained bipartisan support last year and would have increased the harvest for 50 years, according to federal land management agencies.

“The safety net of SRS, working in tandem with my legislation to get the harvest up, marks the kind of comprehensive long-term economic solution that can and should earn bipartisan support,” Wyden said.

All told, 41 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico will receive $285 million this year in support of local schools and roads as part of the congressional two-year reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, Secretary Vilsack said.