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Evergreen Forest County Group <br />September 20, 2018 OCT - 5 rP°" <br />Dear Commissioner: <br />I am pleased to report on the successful work of our lobbyist, Bob Weidner and <br />urge your support of his efforts on our behalf going forward. Here's why: <br />It was Bob's work lobbying with the National Forest Counties and Schools <br />Coalition throughout 2016, 2017 and 2018 that first devised the plan and then <br />provided the votes from members of Congress in both parties to pass that bill. <br />It was Bob Weidner who first identified the linkage between SRS payments and <br />PILT payments back in 2005. It was he who continued to raise the issue until <br />those in power finally listened and came to understand that failure to fund SRS <br />would result in a dramatic shift in PILT payments west wide simply because of <br />the way the PILT formula is written. That problem still exists. <br />The reality is that timber sales on National Forest lands dropped from a high in <br />1989 of nearly 12 billion board feet (bbf) to only 2 bbf in 2017. The increase in <br />wild fires, which now annually threaten to consume us, is a direct result of <br />Congress's failure to continue those sales and actively manage our National <br />Forests. All credible science validates this reality. <br />Our work now is to persuade Congress to solve the management problem, make <br />sure that increased forest management provides the revenues to counties and <br />jobs for our communities and lest we forget, once again gain Congressional <br />support for Secure Rural Schools (SRS) funding. Bob is already working with <br />the Congress to resolve outstanding issues regarding SRS Title's 1,11, III <br />payments, attempting to stop the ongoing ramp -down of SRS funding and easing <br />the appointment of RAC members under Title II of the SRS Act. Longer term, <br />Bob is working on a plan to determine whether active management alone will <br />actually offset SRS payments to counties in the aggregate and on a state by <br />state, forest by forest, county by county basis. <br />Bob met in early September with House Energy and Commerce Committee <br />Chairman Greg Walden (R -Oregon), Chairman Bishop and others to put this <br />