The Associated Press
Posted in The Seattle Times
and Capital Press

SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Board of Forestry has voted unanimously to keep moving forward on developing rules to making sure logging sites leave enough trees standing along salmon streams to keep the water shaded and cool.

The vote Wednesday in Salem directs the Department of Forestry to finish developing various alternatives – including voluntary and mandatory measures — to assure the cool- water standard set by the state Environmental Quality Commission is met.

The board decided not to ask the Environmental Quality Commission to consider setting a more lenient standard — a direction that had been favored by some in the timber industry, and opposed by salmon advocates.

The issue was raised by a 2011 study that found temperatures were getting warmer in salmon streams on state-regulated timberlands in the Coast Range.