Environmental Assessment

AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT & ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES CHAPTER 3
2 and 3 may or may not be provided to the local economy as it depends on the feasibility of substituting
and implementing other ongoing planned projects.
Civil Rights and Environmental Justice
Civil Rights legislation and Executive Order 12898 (Environmental Justice) direct an analysis of the
proposed alternatives as they relate to specific subsets of the American population. The subsets of the
general population include ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and low-income groups.
Environmental Justice is defined as the pursuit of equal justice and protection under the law for all
environmental statutes and regulations, without discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic
status. The minority and low income populations groups living in counties surrounding the fire area work
in diverse occupations. Some minorities, low income residents, and Native Americans may rely on forest
products or related forest activities for their livelihood. This is especially true for those individuals that
most likely reside in the rural Central Oregon communities.
Direct and Indirect Effects
Alternative 1 – No Action
This alternative would continue the local economic situation as described above.
Common to all Action Alternatives
Within the social context presented above, the action alternatives developed for this project have the
potential to bring in workers from the outside to perform logging, pre-commercial thinning, mushroom
harvesting, and related activities. The primary services needed by the workers would be food and shelter.
Local businesses that can supply food (grocery stores and restaurants) and other services would capture
most of the money being spent by the workers in the area. Some businesses may need to increase their
employment, either by temporarily adding employees, or giving present employees more hours. This
would likely result in increased local household incomes during implementation of project activities.
Since these businesses have supported similar workforces in the past, capitol expansion would probably
not be required.
Since pre-commercial activities are expected to span a period of several years and it is reasonable to
expect a good proportion of the work will go to minority-based small businesses, as they have in the past.
The vast majority of these businesses and their employees are based along the I-5 corridor, so again most
of the disposable income from these activities would not flow into local communities.
Resources gathered for subsistence or of cultural importance are not likely affected by any federal action
proposed within the fire area. Reducing the amount of dispersed, non-fee camping available in the project
area may have a larger impact on lower income families; however, there are numerous other available
locations in and near the Opine Vegetation Planning area for free camping.
Recent research by the Center for Watershed and Community Health outline both the direct and indirect
effects of wildfire on the health and welfare of impoverished individuals, families, and communities.
Beside the direct impacts of the fire on potential jobs and income, there are also negative impacts to the
value of property and other assets created by the public perception of risk created by local wildfires. The
long-term effect of a decrease in a sustainable local timber supply for local mills combined with a shortterm
decrease in recreational opportunities can also affect major local employers and taxpayers. This
means that the tax base decreases and the costs of sustaining local services cost more. Thus poor
householders in local communities are especially vulnerable to the fallout of a wildfire on their local
economy. They have limited financial ability to cope with the disruptive effects this may have on local
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