The Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program was supposed to be a temporary source of money for counties, including Baker, that suffered when logging in federal forests plummeted starting in early 1990s.

Counties receive 25 percent of revenue from timber sales on federal land within their borders.

Fourteen years after it started, SRS still exists, but barely. A pending federal budget bill doesn’t include SRS payments for 2015.

Baker County likely will fare better than most counties should SRS end. That’s because another federal program – Payment In Lieu of Taxes – will make up most of the difference.

But the problem persists – relatively little logging is being done on public land in Eastern Oregon despite a growing need to thin overcrowded forests that are vulnerable to insects, disease and fire.

This is due in part to Congress’ failure to pass bills such as Rep. Greg Walden’s Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities act.

We’re not talking about clearcutting the region’s few remaining stands of old growth ponderosa pines. These days loggers mainly cut relatively small fir trees.

This kind of work helps counties, local economies and, unlike programs such as SRS, the environment.