The Lane County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to withdraw membership from a timber lobbying group. A new majority on the board has reversed a past trend.
In one recent fiscal year, the Association of O & C Counties, received nearly $100,000 from Lane County coffers. Newly elected Commissioner Heather Buch brought the motion to stop using taxpayer money to fund lobby group.
Josh Laughlin is Executive Director of the Cascadia Wildlands. He says the AOCC has lobbied to shrink the popular Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon.
“And this shadowy group has also been litigating to try to ramp up clear cutting on public forest lands here in western Oregon,” Laughlin. “So this was an incredible step in the right direction by the new make-up of the Lane County Commission.”
The vote was 4 to 1 with Commissioner Jay Bozievich opposing the withdrawal.
