"Oregon Timber Counties Struggle As Federal Support Dries Up"

"ROSEBURG, Ore. — So much timber money once flowed into this rural Oregon county that its leaders set up committees to find ways to spend it.

Today, Douglas County's library system is on life support, and its sheriff's department is on track to lose funding.

Nearly 30 years after environmental protections slashed logging in federal forests, Oregon counties like this one that thrived on timber revenues for decades are struggling to provide basic services. These so-called timber counties received hundreds of millions of dollars during logging's long heyday, and since then the federal government has continued to pour money in to make up for timber's downfall.

Now the money has dried up and people are reluctant to tax themselves, leaving leaders scrambling and public institutions in free fall."

Gillian Flaccus reports for the Associated Press May. 9, 2017.