Street roots., October 23, 2015, Page 9, Image 9

Page 10
Foray into Mount Hood National For
FOREST, from page 9
In 2012, under the Freedom of
Information Act, Bark requested the results
of the Forest Services previous five years of
best management practices monitoring.
Bark’s staff, expecting a mountain of
documents, was surprised when it received
monitoring reports on just four units in two
timber sales, all contracted Interior.
Three of those four reports showed best
management practices were not followed
properly.
Groce, the Forest Service ranger, said,
“There are a whole host of monitoring
practices and efforts that occur, but they are
not necessarily consolidated.”
Bell said this creates a lack of
transparency in the agency’s monitoring.
Krochta reminded the group of an incident
two years ago, when an Estacada-based
company, Jon Greenup Logging, failed to get
required permission from the Forest Service
before logging, nearby, in the rain. Wet
conditions make soil especially susceptible to
erosion and ruts.
Goodwyne said if she sees timber
companies breaking the rules when she’s out
in the field, she notifies the Forest Service
sale administrator overseeing the contract
But, she said, “we don’t have enough sale
administrators to go around.”
The three sale administrators who work in
Mount Hood National Forest oversee
anywhere from one to six timber sales during
logging season, spending two to three days a
week out in the field.
“It’s one of the major reasons we (Bark
opinion. Because we don’t have enough
people to meet all those criteria that need to
be met,” Goodwyne said.
“We have all these people on the land, all
these people on the trucks, all these people
bringing logs to the landing, and you’ve got a
sale administrator that’s probably tied to one
sale that’s maybe 1,800 acres, and they’ve
got to get to all these places.”
Bell said that once it discovered the Forest
Service didn’t have the capacity to conduct
thorough monitoring, Bark stepped in.
Since 2011, about 90 Bark volunteers have
spent more than 1,000 hours conducting
post-logging monitoring.
Bell said Bark has documented logging
operators taking logs they weren’t supposed
to; running machines up slopes designated as
too steep, increasing chances of erosion and
accidents; and logging too close to riparian
features.
But once a sale administrator signs off on
a contract, the timber company is off the
hook.
When loggers are caught breaking rules
while the contract is still active, the Forest
Service can shut them down for a few days,
or terminate the contract. Fines are not
issued, but the timber company may be
charged for damages, such as a stumpage fee
for scarred trees.
“We do have excellent operators, as well,”
Goodwyne said. “I can take you to places
where there are no nicks and things are well
cared for, but other operators, especially
when you get new operators - wow. You have
to be behind them like children.”
he trees in the unit of Jazz we visited
were removed to bring in light In some
cases, Goodwyne prescribes thinning
T
M
thriving stands.”
There are 15 additional thinning projects
- recent, current or planned - within the
138-square-mile expanse containing the -
Grove Thin, which,encompasses
approximately 70 square miles. Those
projects account for more than 2,000 acres
that wiU also be logged, and Bark is worried
about the cumulative effects.
The Forest Service found the combination
of projects will have a “relatively minor
impact on the spotted owl.” But Bark isn t
convinced. In its objection, Bark said effects
the Forest Service calls temporary are
actuahy long term because if left alone, the
forest would transform into habitat suitable
for owl nesting, roosting and foraging over
the next 50 to 60 years. Now, it’s believed
owls merely pass through this area.
But no thorough survey of the spotted owl
has been conducted in the Mount Hood
National Forest in more than 20 years.
PHOTO BY JUt
“These are stark assumptions,” according
A m old logging road, now overgrown, leads into the planned Grove Thin project. This road will
to Bark’s objection, “and the Forest Service
be rebuilt to access this 69-acre section of forest destined for thinning.
should be more upfront about their lack of
outright but did object to several units where
logging would take place in riparian reserves
and critical habitat for old-growth-dependent
species.
Also objecting to this sale was American
Forest Resource Council, which represents
logging interests. While Bark argued agamst
heavy thinning in critical habitat, AFRC
argued a greater volume of logging was
needed to meet the Forest Service’s
restoration goals.
The Forest Service dropped 120 acres of
spotted-owl habitat from heavy thinning to
moderate thinning - a small victory for Bark.
We arrived at a 69-acre plot of the 1,756-
acre Grove Thin, which is broken up into
more than 100 isolated units. An overgrown
logging road served as our pathway into the
forest. The logging operator that wins the
contract will rebuild it
This patch of forest appeared more diverse
than the stands of trees surrounding the
clearing in Jazz we had just visited. Trees
weren’t as tightly packed together; there
were more deciduous trees, and patches of
light shone through in scattered openings.
Vine maple was everywhere, serving as the
understory.
While Jazz had only 9 acres of timber­
emphasis land, Grove contains 192.
“It wouldn’t be illegal to eome in here and
clear-cut,” Bell said. “The Forest Service (in
Mount Hood National Forest) isn’t doing it
right now, but it could be. And it is in other
parts of Oregon. I know there are discussions
within Mount Hood National Forest about
doing it again.”
What she’s referring to is called
“regeneration harvest,” and Goodwyne
agreed this method can equate to clear-
cutting.
Notes from a June 9 Clackamas
Stewardship Partners collaborative meeting
indicate there are discussions about clear-
cutting a 9Oacre plot in the Upper
Clackamas Watershed. That’s an area about
the size of 68 football fields.
he Grove Thin is still in the bidding
Goodwyne said she couldn’t prescribe
process, so logging won’t start until
regeneration harvest without good rationale.
2016 or later. The Forest Service
estimates the project will create or maintain “The area has to be ready for clear-cutting,
about 116 jobs in the local economy - from
and that means that these trees need to have
logging and mills to. road building and
culminated; they’re not growing anymore.
maintenance.
These aren’t ready,” she said, surveying the
Bark did not object to the Grove Thin
scenery. “These are still young, growing,
when changes in composition - more snags
or downed wood - or variance tree size and
structure are needed for the forest’s health.
Bark agreed these desired results from
thinning are important, but Bell said it’s
proved that forests will get there naturally
and damage caused by logging isn’t worth it
“In the Jazz Environmental Assessment, it
says the likelihood of invasive species
moving into the area is high,” Bell said, “and
the project still moves forward. And the
roads create a disturbed area with light,
which is what a lot of the invasives loVe.”
Invasive species, such as bull thistle and
in some areas, infamously suffocating
English ivy, have taken root along logging
roads, Bell said. The seeds travel in with
loggers and the public, often hiding in wheel
wells. For this reason, logging equipment is
washed before coming into a new area, but
the Forest Service admits those precautions
aren’t always effective.
Additionally, Bell said soil compacted from
road building can take a long time to
revegetate, and when a road and stream
cross paths, sediment from the road pollutes
the stream, which can affect the health and
nature of the watershed and, in some cases,
salmon spawning.
The Jazz Thin is located in the Clackamas
Watershed, which feeds the Clackamas River
- a drinking water source to more than
200,000 people in Clackamas County.
“I’m a firm believer in the ability of trees
to self-manage,” Bell said. “There were a lot
of mistakes made by clear-cutting. I don’t *
think the same agency that made the
mistakes is the best one to trust in
recalibrating that.”
Bell said the disruption logging brings to
the wilderness can often outweigh any
benefits from restoration or timber sales.
Especially in riparian reserves and critical
habitat - which was where we were headed
next.
T
data.”
But Goodwyne said a Forest Service
biologist surveys for spotted owls and other
threatened species in areas where logging is
planned.
In addition to being within critical habitat,
Bark had several other reasons for objecting
to logging in the grove we were hiking
through.
For one, Krochta said, “this is an area
Barkers have gone on numerous hikes, held
trainings, and have a personal connection to
how fr is. ”
;;
From an ecological standpoint, he said
Bark was concerned because a third of the
project area was also in riparian reserves.
“We thin in riparian reserves all the time,”
Goodwyne said, “and one of the reasons we
do is because that’s where some of your
uplands lie, and that’s where trees are thick.
We’re trying to open them up and trying to
offer a little more light in there to get
different species in.”
Krochta said Bark values that sentiment,
but it’s against the rules.
“A lot of scientists that have worked on
the Northwest Forest Plan, and in writing
the ACS (Aquatic Conservation Study), say
there’s way too much logging in riparian
reserves these days.”
These guidelines, Krochta said, were “not
written to allow commercial logging in
riparian reserves,” and, he added, there are
other factors to consider that are either
“equally important if not more important for
the majority of species that use those
aquatic areas.”
Additionally, Bark points out that thinning
in riparian reserves allows sunlight to warm
the waters flowing through the watershed -
and in Oregon, rising waterway temperatures
were a sizeable concern this summer.
In this section of the Grove Thin, Unit
180, Krochta explained Bark didn’t see a
need for thinning because “there was
enough structural diversity, natural gaps and
plant diversity in areas.”
Goodwyne said the woodland we were
perusing would be moderately thinned,
slightly lighter than the degree of thinning
we had just seen at Jazz, although many
parts of the Grove Thin will be more heavily
thinned, with* about 40 trees per acre left
See FOREST page 11