County ready for federal payment.

Byline: TIM CHRISTIE The Register-Guard

Lane County officials are eagerly awaiting the first installment of federal money intended to ease the loss of timber revenues that used to sweeten the pot of Oregon's rural counties.

Anna Morrison, chairwoman of the county Board of Commissioners, said she's been told the first check, for $4.4 million, "is in the mail."

The money, the first of three payments that will total $20.7 million, will go to restore funding for programs hurt by declining timber sales on federal land.

Congress authorized the payments to help counties with high percentages of federal timberland, which is exempt from property taxes. Lane County is 54 percent federal land.

"The first federal payments come at a good time," Morrison said. "Even though we will still be below historic funding levels, we're projecting a measure of financial stability for the county during the next few years."

Commissioners announced Wednesday how they planned to distribute the money:

$1.72 million will be used to expand the Forest Work Camp in southwest Lane County from 30 to 95 beds for nonviolent offenders. That, in turn, will free up beds in the county jail to house more serious offenders. Most work crews will perform restoration work on federal lands. A juvenile work crew also will be established.

$1.45 million will supplement the existing sheriff's search and rescue program (last year, 86 percent of search and rescue expenses were for missions on federal lands), and restore a full-time sheriff's deputy to patrol and handle emergencies in the dunes recreation areas, federal recreation areas and rural federal lands.

$750,000 will go to buy easements to protect riparian wetland habitat near Short Mountain and provide public access to the McKenzie River near Goodpasture Bridge.

$185,000 will go to fire prevention programs, specifically planning that reduces forest fire hazards for rural homeowners and protects habitat.

$160,000 will be used to establish a fund for local students to study at the Oregon Gardens program in Silverton.

Lane County also expects to receive additional payments of $11.8 million for roads, schools and its general fund, and $4.4 million for federal projects, as determined by resource advisory committees.

Morrison said she didn't know when the second and third payments would be made.

Historically, Lane County relied on revenues derived from timber harvested on U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands within its borders. But over the past 10 years, as federal policies reduced the amount of timber harvested in Lane County, timber revenue dropped sharply, leaving a hole in the county budget but with no decline in demand for services.

Congress approved a bill in October 2000 that authorizes a guaranteed, inflation-adjusted funding formula for timber counties across the country. The funding replaces annual payments historically derived from logging on national forests and on former Oregon & California Railroad land.

The bill allocates $20.7 million to Lane County annually, adjusted for inflation, through 2006.