A 14 member panel created by the Governor to solve the O & C timber issue has not found a solution, but Kitzhaber indicates the panel’s 94 page report does provide options to both protect the environment while producing more than $70 million annually for the 18 O & C counties.

That would double the last timber payment from a safety net that ends this year, but is still $110 million short of the 18 county’s targets.

Jospehine and Jackson counties are among the 18 counties that have been receiving timber receipts since 1937 in lieu of taxes from former Oregon and California Railroad lands now under the control of BLM.

The panel’s report was released the same week BLM said it was holding back ten percent of a special $38 million payment scheduled to be given to the timber counties today.