By Mark Haggerty, Headwaters Economics— …Oregon’s public lands, some of America’s most spectacular, provide tremendous economic value through timber, salmon, and recreation, while providing a high quality of life that attracts people and businesses to the state.
To provide for sustained long-term growth, Oregon must take advantage of all of the integrated economic and fiscal benefits — timber but also the water, wildlife and scenery — provided by its federal lands.
One key component of leveraging these diverse forest values into growth is to ensure that federal payments (PDF) to the state’s counties for nontaxable lands continue to provide stable benefits for local schools and governments
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