By Ron Wyden

In every nook and cranny of our state, I have heard from people eager for solutions to achieve the goal shared by rural and urban Oregon: To generate jobs in rural Oregon while protecting our timeless treasures.

Based on what I've heard from Oregonians and others working toward that shared objective, here's my four-step roadmap of how we get there.

1. Increasing the logging harvest in a sustainable way and restoring long-standing timber payments to counties in Oregon and nationwide aren't mutually exclusive. We must do both.

In hearings at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, my colleagues and I hear time and again that support for counties with the Secure Rural Schools program is a must. That's because we have heard directly from the United States Forest Service's non-partisan analysis how the harvest would have to increase by 600 percent to replace the schools program payments fully.

A six-fold increase is obviously unrealistic and unsustainable. But I have introduced legislation that would double the harvest in a sustainable manner, creating more jobs in the woods for rural Oregonians.

That legislation is in addition to bipartisan legislation I have introduced to reauthorize the rural schools program, which has generated more than $3 billion for Oregon's schools, roads and law enforcement since I wrote the original bipartisan bill with former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig in 1999. Those resources supporting rural infrastructure also provide a huge boost to our state's recreation economy, which offers more than 111,000 miles of streams, about 3,400 trails and more than 30 million acres of forests.

2. Our nation's method of funding firefighting must be updated.

Heading into the warmer summer months, Oregonians know the danger to lives and property that lies ahead from large forest fires.

That's why I have worked to co-sponsor bipartisan legislation with Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo that would provide a long-overdue fix to the broken-down system of budgeting for forest fires in Oregon and the entire country.

Simply put, our bill would prevent federal agencies from funding firefighting by draining accounts dedicated to forest restoration, hazardous fuels reduction and other essential work that reduces the odds of major wildfires in the first place.

Our bill has earned support from more than 250 groups representing hunters and fishers, timber companies and conservationists. This must be the year this common-sense fix gets done permanently.

3. Oregon stands at the precipice of pioneering new purposes for timber.

Oregon leads the way in cross-laminated timber. That should not surprise anybody given the focus by the University of Oregon, Oregon State University and the state's forest products industry on tapping the product's tremendous potential.

Because I see the job of Congress as creating the climate for entrepreneurship to flourish, I've worked to help the cross-laminated timber industry build upon its strengths by co-sponsoring the Timber Innovation Act.

That act drives research and funding for the advancement of tall wood building construction used on some of Portland's newest high-rises. In addition to supporting jobs in Oregon's timber counties, cross-laminated timber also carries the added benefits of lowering construction costs while maintaining safety standards.

4. Fighting Against Unfair Trade

I have been proud to lead the "smart trade" fight working with 25 senators from both parties defending U.S. lumber from unfair Canadian imports.

For decades, Canadian lumber subsidies have prevented Oregon's lumber industry from reaching its fullest potential to create jobs in our state's 30 softwood lumber mills.

With a new trade case to stop that unfair Canadian lumber trade, I am all in with the fight to save mill jobs. America must continue our tough trade enforcement and insist upon a lasting solution to Canadian policies that distort trade.

All told, I believe these four steps add up to a winning formula for all of Oregon.

Democrat Ron Wyden represents Oregon in the U.S. Senate.