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Spur roads are constructed narrower and steeper than the mainlines and are sometimes surfaced. Width varies from 14 to 17 feet. About 800 miles of roads are dirt, including 55 miles of jeep trails.

Approximately 1,100 miles of road are maintained by BLM and timber purchasers. The remaining roads are not maintained on a regular on a regular basis but at periodic intervals as the roads are used for timber harvesting.

Exclusive easements are acquired for roads across private lands not covered by right-of-way agreements. Easement widths are usually 60 feet wide with additional width being acquired if necessary.

Permits and right-of-way agreements with the larger private timber companies allow for BLM road construction or road use across their lands without acquiring easements, and by the same process allows for them to construct across BLM lands or use BLM roads without applying for a permit for every use. The specific lands covered in the agreement are listed in the main file in the District office.

2.16.7 Utilities and Communication Sites

There are over hundred miles of utility rights-of-way on BLM-administered lands within the SYUS. While many of the rights-of-way are adjacent to existing roads, there are also numerous cross-country telephone and electric lines.

The number of individual rights-of-way grants has not been tabulated. The grants vary in size from 0.1 acre to over 6 acres. They necessitate special provisions for timber harvesting in their immediate areas. Additional road rights-of-way over public lands are occasionally required for access and

maintenance of facilities.

There are six communication sites on BLM lands. Some sites have more than one

user.

2.17 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Due to the relationship of the planning areas to county boundaries, log destinations, and trade and service regions, the primary focus of the economic assessment relates to Jackson County.

Between 1974 and 1976, about 75 percent of the logs harvested in the JKS YUS were processed in Jackson County. Over 70 percent (1.3 million acres) of Jackson County's land area is commercial timberland. The lumber and wood products industry is the major industrial/manufacturing employer. Consequently, the county's economy, like the forest products industry, is influenced by cyclic changes in the nation's construction and home building industries. The seasonal nature of the timber industry also results in some seasonal

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

unemployment. In recent years, timber based employment has been declining as a percent of total county employment.

Jackson County's population, particularly its urban population, has been increasing at a faster rate than that of Oregon or the United States. Although the county's per capita income has historically been lower than the State's, the disparity between the two is widening each year. Medford, a long-time center of agricultural processing and lumber and paper manufacturing, is also the county seat. It alone received over 60 percent of the logs harvested in the JKS YUS between 1974 and 1976. Whereas the labor force in southwestern Oregon generally is dominated by blue collar workers, white collar employees-especially businessmen and clerks--make up a significant portion of the labor force in Medford. Its distance from other major urban distribution centers such as Eugene and Portland to the north and Redding and Eureka, California to the south, has caused Medford to become an important secondary distribution

center.

Any noticeable economic effects that would occur outside of the JKS YUS or Jackson County are most likely to appear in Grants Pass, Glendale, or Klamath Falls. Although these locations will be addressed later, a brief overview of each area is presented below.

Grants Pass is the major urban/industrial center in Josephine County, which is immediately west of the JKS YUS. The county seat and a regional service center, it had a 1977 population of about 14,000 people. Wholesale and retail trade, lumber and wood products manufacturing, and service industries provide the major sources of employment. Since the community's economic base relies heavily on the timber industry, timber management on public lands is a major community concern. Between 1974 and 1976, 16 percent of the logs processed in Grants Pass were harvested on public lands in the JKS YUs. A more detailed economic description of Grants Pass and Josephine County in particular, is available in the Josephine Timber Management Environmental Statement (USDI, BLM 1978a).

Glendale, another major log destination outside of Jackson County, received about 5 percent of the logs from the JKS YUS between 1974 and 1976. It had a 1970 population of about 700 people and is largely dependent on the lumber and wood products industry. It is located about 55 miles northwest of Medford on the southern edge of Douglas County.

Klamath Falls, a major urban community east of the Cascades, received about 3 percent of the logs from the JKS YUs from 1974 to 1976. Here also, lumber and wood products are the major the major industry. Ninety-two percent of Klamath County's 1975 manufacturing earnings and 20 percent of its personal income came from lumber and wood products.

Although about one-fifth of the planning area is located in Klamath County, the economic importance of JKS YUs' timber resources to Klamath County's economy is relatively insignificant. For example, from 1973 to 1976, timber harvest from public lands in the JKSYUs averaged only 4 percent of Klamath

County's total harvest and less than 1 percent of the timber processed in the county came from the JKSYUS.

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Covered employment in the lumber and wood products industry between 1974 and 1976 averaged about 16 percent of all industrial employment in Jackson County. Beaton (1978) suggests that the percent of Jackson County's labor force employed in the lumber and wood products industry appears to be decreasing. Although the industry seems to have retained a consistent share of total manufacturing employment employment since the 1940's, manufacturing has declined in

relative employment as the trade and services sectors have expanded.

Short-term employment trends are volatile. As explained by Beaton, the industry depends heavily on fluctuating levels of new residential construction, a very cyclical industry. This was apparent when the nation's housing starts fell during 1975 to 1.17 million units and lumber and wood products employment in Jackson and Josephine Counties averaged 6,610 jobs. In 1976 housing starts increased to about 1.55 million units and lumber and wood products employment increased 13 percent, to an annual average employment of 7,490. The upward trend in lumber employment continued in 1977 and 1978.

The long-term trend for lumber and wood products employment is downward due primarily to a declining timber supply and technological changes within the industry.

According to Beuter et al. (1976), a continuation of present timber management policies on all lands would result in a 22 percent decrease in western Oregon timber harvest by the year 2000. Although Jackson County's decline in harvest probably would not be as severe (approximately 18 percent in the Medford timber shed according to Wall (1977)), long-term supply factors indicate a decline in timber-related employment is likely.

At the same time, technical innovations within the industry are expected to increase productivity per manhour while reducing the number of jobs. (Labor reductions will probably occur in the lower skilled labor-intensive segments of the industry, i.e., sawmill activities.) Even the recent increase in veneer and plywood manufacturing employment may be reversed for technological and market-based reasons.

Table 2-16 summarizes projected changes in employment per million board feet for relevant sectors of the lumber and wood products industry. A detailed explanation of how these projections were derived is available in Appendix K of the Josephine Final Environmental Statement on the Ten-Year Timber Management Plan for the Josephine Sustained Yield Unit (USDI, BLM 1978a). Table 2-17 expands the timber employment analysis by showing projected future timber harvests in the Medford timber shed and the employment supported in logging and primary timber processing by timber harvest. Finally, Table 2-18 displays the estimated numbers of employees per million board feet of timber harvested from the JKSYUS and processed in Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, and Klamath Counties.

Table 2-16

Projected Productivity in Lumber and

Wood Products Industry in the Western Oregon Timbershed

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Employees supported in Oregon by total harvest in Medford Timber shed.

Source:

Wall, Brian R. Impacts in the Medford Timbershed Associated with
Bureau of Land Management Harvesting Alternatives in the Josephine
Sustained Yield Unit. USDA Forest Service, Pac. Northwest For.
and Range Exp. Sta., Portland, Oreg. 1977. In Josephine Sustained
Yield Unit Ten-year Timber Management Plan Final Environmental
Statement. USDI, BLM.

1978.

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