BY ALETA RAPHAEL-BROCK
Environmentalists react to gigantic timber sale.
T
his is no ordinary timber sale: With a
final proposed extraction of 372 mil-
lion board feet (that’s the equivalent to
70,000 loaded logging trucks), the Biscuit fire
salvage project is the largest timber sale in re-
cent national history. Three of the first five sales
sold last week to Oregon timber companies,
meaning that logging could already be under
way in the Siskiyou National Forest in south-
west Oregon, an area that was proposed as a na-
tional monument in 2000.
The sales are located within the area of the
Biscuit fire that burned in 2002 and surround
the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and several impor-
tant salmon rivers, such as the Rogue, the
Illinois and the Chetco. In such a biologically
diverse and sensitive area, “This is the last
place you want to do logging,” said Dominick
DellaSala of the Klamath-Siskiyou branch of
the World Wildlife Fund.
With cutting planned in 6,750 acres of land
designated under the Northwest Forest Plan as
late successional reserves (LSR), much of
which are old-growth forests, and 8,150 acres
of inventoried roadless areas, the sale plows
straight through logging regulations left intact
from the Clinton administration. Judy McHugh
of the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project says that
the Forest Service plan meets the 13 standards
and guidelines that allow for cutting in the LSR.
The other 4,500 acres of land are within matrix
lands, open to logging under the Northwest
Forest Plan.
Environmentalists at state and national lev-
els are outraged by the Bush administration’s
manipulation of intact and highly supported en-
vironmental policies, such as the roadless area
rule, which prohibits logging in certain areas
with a high environmental value. Members of
Greenpeace International as well as local or-
ganizations have conducted onsite protests and
have petitioned Oregon representatives to stop
the logging.
Josh Laughlin of the Cascadia Wildlands
Project says that justification for the salvage
sale relies on bogus scientific reports, such as
the Session’s Report released last year claiming
the need to log as much as possible as fast as
possible in order to prevent future fires and to
effectively rebuild future owl habitat.
“Basically what we’re seeing is a payback
to the over $1 million the (timber) industry
tucked in George Bush’s back pocket,” he
claims. “This is science for sale and nothing
else.”
Representatives from several southern
Oregon conservation groups requested a tem-
porary restraining order July 16 from a federal
court in Medford in order to protect the old
growth reserves in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers
Area. They claim that the sale will extract more
than 50 million board feet of old growth reserve
logs. The Forest Service bypassed the custom-
ary citizen review process and approved the
sales under an “emergency exemption” to sal-
vage the burned timber and recreate habitats.
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However, wildfires naturally help to shape
area as well as replanting and reconstruction of
lost habitat. “We feel like we’re making an in-
diversity and are important in evolving ecosys-
tems, said DellaSala.
vestment,” she said.
And Laughlin says,
The Bush adminis-
tration’s recent an-
“It’s absurd to say that
nouncement of termi-
the spotted owl habitat
was decimated.” He
nation of the roadless
claims that owls still
area rule provides a
utilize burned habitat.
timely open door to
timber companies, al-
Then why pay money
— a March 2004 Eco
lowing cutting to go
ahead while state gov-
Northwest report finds
that extraction of over
ernments scramble to
set up comprehensive
300 million board feet
will cost the U.S
policies. Even though
Gov. Kulongoski re-
Treasury more than
$34 million — to de-
cently declared the
stroy habitat that still
Siskiyou Wild Rivers
exists, then try to re-
Area “a natural re-
source jewel — not
build it as though it
were natural?
only to Oregon but to
the nation,” there may
This is without
mention of the poten-
not be time for him to
petition the Forest
tial erosion and other
damage to sensitive
Service. “That’s prob-
lematic because road-
ecosystems that is
caused by logging in OLD-GROWTH FOREST MARKED FOR
less areas are on the
watershed areas. “Our LOGGING IN THE CHETCO WATERSHED
chopping block now,”
AS PART OF THE BISCUIT SALE.
concerns have to do
said Laughlin.
Environmentalists
with impacts on wild
salmon and degrading streams,” explains Don
agree that the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project
will devastate old growth reserves, harm im-
Smith of the Siskiyou Project, one of the organ-
izations that requested the restraining order.
portant habitats and ruin recreation in the area.
“People go to the Siskiyou rivers area for
Healthy streams and rivers are crucial to wild
salmon survival.
beauty and solitude, not for clear-cuts and
muddy rivers,” said Laughlin. “It takes decades
McHugh claims that the Biscuit Fire
Recovery Project includes the logging of the
to recreate habitat that we already have.” ew
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