Report faults OSU dean over logging dispute

PORTLAND – A report he commissioned says the dean of Oregon State University’s College of Forestry showed poor judgment in handling a dispute over the impact of logging burned forests and in advocating a salvage logging bill.

Dean Hal Salwasser violated OSU policies by lending college support to legislation advanced by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., that would speed logging of burned forests, according to the preliminary findings of 13 professors and others.

The House passed the legislation Wednesday.

College policies caution that the university and college should not take sides in policy debates, the report says.

Salwasser appointed the panel after a dispute touched off by research that concluded logging sets back the recovery of burned forests.

The research was led by Daniel Donato, a graduate student, and co-authored by his professor. It was published on one page of the journal Science.

Professors who argue for logging and replanting after wildfires tried to thwart the publication. Their move raised questions at Oregon State about erosion of academic freedom and about the school’s ties to the timber industry, which is taxed to furnish part of its budget.