Oregon needs a permanent solution to the decades-long fight over managing the Oregon & California Railroad lands that run like a crazed checkerboard across the state. That solution must increase timber harvests and economic activity on some lands while permanently conserving others. It must guarantee funding for schools, law enforcement and roads. And it must lay the foundation so rural communities can strengthen their private economies and rely less on the federal government. In the 1980s, years of unsustainable timber harvests collided with renewed public concern over clean air and water and endangered species. This collision left our state with …