On Feb. 26, 2019, Oregon State Forester Peter Daugherty sat in front of lawmakers during a budget hearing and reported his agency’s sterling compliance rate with the laws that govern private logging. “The audit showed an overall rule level compliance rate of 98%,” Daugherty told them. Others aren’t so sure about that. “We don’t know if it’s 98, 99 or 50,” said Brenda McComb, a retired Oregon State University professor who serves on the board overseeing Daugherty’s agency, the Department of Forestry. McComb, fellow forestry board member Cindy Deacon Williams and two consultants separately hired by environmental advocates are arguing the department’s work is riddled with biases and analytical flaws. …The effectiveness of Oregon’s Forest Practices Act is at the center of contentious debates about private logging. Thousands of timber harvests take place in Oregon every year, on vast corporate forests and small family-owned woodlots.