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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2004)
February 2-29 20% OFF ALL HISTORY TITLES No further discounts. UNIVERSITY OF OREGON BOOKSTORE Student Groups Advertise in the Oregon Daily Emerald. Call 346-3712 to speak with a sales rep. We have great University rates. FIRE continued from page 1 network dedicated to education, ad vocacy and protection of the Klamath and Siskiyou National Forests. "There were rumors of one about that big in the 1930s, but that was before envi ronmental laws." What's at stake On March 19, the Forest Service re leased a proposed action letter to the public suggesting 96 million board feet of logging that would stay within areas designated for timber use. The official Draft Environmental Impact Statement, or DEIS, that fol lowed was released in November and included the original proposed action. The statement — required under the guidelines of the Nation al Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA — gives seven possible cours es of action the Forest Service could take regarding the area. Included in these possibilities is one Forest Ser vice "preferred alternative," as well as a "no action" plan that would leave the land untouched. Option No. 7, the Forest Service's preferred alternative, suggests 518 mil lion board feet of logging across 29,090 acres of land, more than five times the amount of its proposed action from March, which is option No. 2. Option No. 6, the most extreme proposal contained in the statement, calls for 1.02 billion board feet of log ging — enough to fill a line of logging trucks 2,700 miles long, according to the Siskiyou Project. Skar said the impact statement was significantly delayed and was origi nally set to be released in July, adding that the statement is full of errors, which may challenge the legality of the proposal. "Right now, I believe (the Forest Service's) proposal is not only ex treme, but illegal," he said. Biscuit Fire Forest Service spokes woman Judy McHugh said the Biscuit impact statement was delayed because a 66-page report about the original pro posed action — released through Ore gon State University after the 30-day public comment period had expired — stated that the agency had not consid ered all possible alternatives. "We recognized that our statement hadn't looked at the full range, so we went back and did so," McHugh said. Activists speak out Some environmental activists still feel the current proposal would have serious repercussions. The Oregon Natural Resources Council released a 200-page DEIS cri tique that was submitted to the Forest Service during the 60-day public com ment period, which expired Jan. 20. ONRC Western Oregon Field Rep resentative Doug Heiken said he au thored a summary of the report that focuses on the Forest Service's pre ferred alternative. The truncated ver sion of the critique claims any sal vage logging would remove the least flammable portion of the trees while leaving behind the most flammable, and more than 10,000 acres of non inventoried roadless areas would not be protected or recognized un der the NEPA process. While McHugh declined to com ment specifically on ONRC's report, she said there may be errors in the DEIS but it contains nothing illegal. "The agency feels their analysis is the best possible effort they can do," she said. The preferred alternative of the Forest Service DEIS calls for 12,179 acres of roadless area log ging, in spite of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule signed into law by President Clinton in January 2000, which protected 58.5 million acres of national forest land from most types of commercial logging and road building. On Dec. 12, the U.S. Court of Ap peals for the 9th Circuit ruled to pro tect the roadless rule after its imple mentation had been blocked by an Idaho judge in May 2001. An U.S. District Court in Wyoming over turned the rule in July 2003, holding it in violation of NEPA and the Wilderness Act. Heiken said the Forest Service is re lying on a state-level ruling for the Siskiyou DEIS. 'They're basically acting like the road less rule doesn't apply when it does," he said. "That's a huge legal problem." However, McHugh said the rule was no longer in effect because of the Wyoming ruling. "They may want to believe that the federal court in Wyoming doesn't have jurisdiction elsewhere," she said. "But the Forest Service's interpretation at this time is that we're back to our standards. And so is every other na tional forest." An uncertain future On Sept. 18, the Bush administra tion announced plans to develop new rules governing the 43 million acres of national forests in the lower 48 states. On Christmas Eve, the admin istration finalized an agreement with Alaska to allow exemptions for log ging in roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest despite 250,000 pub lic comments opposing the plan. Spanning 17 million acres, which in clude 9 million roadless acres, Ton gass is the largest rainforest in the United States. Skar said the Biscuit Fire salvage project is the First in the nation to specifically propose roadless log ging, and he expected it to set a precedent that will echo across the national forest system while the Roadless Area Conservation Rule is tied up in the courts. In 2000, the Siskiyou Project un successfully campaigned to have 1.2 million acres of the Siskiyou National Forest declared a national monument under the name "Siskiyou Wild Rivers." Currently, 183,000 acres of the forest is a federally protected wilderness area. "Once you log in an area, it's not available for that kind of protection," Skar said, adding that logging would fundamentally change the diversity of the ecosystem. Contact the Pulse editor at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com. Measure 30 . Tomorrow is the last day to vote! A yes vote is a vote to keep the state budget the way it is by increasing income taxes for three years. The average taxpayer will see a $36 increase per year. People who make less than $10,000 per year will see no increase. A no vote is a vote to not increase income taxes for three years and cut $575 million from the state budget. $7.5 million of these cuts are cuts to higher education, and $2 million of those cuts are to the University of Or egon. The UO will compensate for the cuts through increased tuition, increased class sizes and/or reduced heating in classrooms. Have your ballot', but don't want to pay postage? Drop it off in the white elections box in the EMU. Don't know where it is? See the map — > as uo executive It's all about the ASUO working for you! Tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 3, is the last day to vote. So get your ballot in by 8 p.m. Can't get to the campus drop-off? Are you registered and didn't get your ballot? The ASUO will drive you to the county elections office tomorrow from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. To get picked up, call (541) 346-0628. It's your money. It's your decision. Vote. Ballot Drop-off Map (EMU) CRAFT WOMENS CENTER CENTER ASUO OFFICE GREEK LIFE OFFICE County Elections Box here CLUB SPORTS ERB ESSENTIALS
