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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 15, 2022)
A5 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2022 Group sounds alarm on plan to cut old trees By BRADLEY W. PARKS Oregon Public Broadcasting Just steps oû the popular Pine Drops mountain bike trail west of Bend, some of the larger, older pines in the surrounding forest could soon be dropping. Blue rings of paint mark the puzzle-piece bark of the trees slated for removal in a timber sale that9s part of the years-old West Bend Project, a forest restoration eû ort that aims to guard the city from catastrophic wildû re through selective logging, mow- ing and prescribed burning on 26,000 acres of adjacent national forestland. The sale has stoked the û ames of a long-running debate in Oregon: Which trees are too big to cut? Two key stakeholders in the proj- ect 4 the U.S. Forest Ser- vice and the conservation group Oregon Wild 4 are at odds over the answer. Oregon Wild is raising concerns that several of the trees marked for removal are old growth ponderosa pine, a rarity in the project area, and that cutting them down violates guidelines laid out when the project began in 2010. <The project is actually logging some of the most û re-resistant trees and call- ing it û re risk reduction,= said Erik Fernandez, Oregon Wild9s wilderness program coordinator. <There9s just no logic to that.= The Forest Service, on the other hand, says that while a small number of trees are pretty old and pretty large, none of them are old growth and all of them are eligible for thinning. <These trees aren9t inap- propriately marked,= said Jean Nelson-Dean, pub- lic aû airs oû cer for the Deschutes National Forest. <They are not old growth. They are not demonstrating old-growth characteristics.= The sides disagree on how many of the marked trees are too big to cut and whether the timber sale meets the goals laid out when the West Bend Project began in 2010. The project9s forestland provides vital wildlife hab- itat. Mountain bike trails in the renowned Phil9s Trail system weave throughout. ‘THE PROJECT IS ACTUALLY LOGGING SOME OF THE MOST FIRE-RESISTANT TREES AND CALLING IT FIRE RISK REDUCTION. THERE’S JUST NO LOGIC TO THAT.’ Erik Fernandez | Oregon Wild9s wilderness program coordinator Photos by Bradley W. Parks/Oregon Public Broadcasting TOP: Jamie Dawson with the conservation group Oregon Wild measures a ponderosa pine marked for cutting west of Bend. ABOVE: Dawson uses a special tape measure to determine a tree’s diameter at breast height, a common measure of a tree’s size. Bend homes, schools and businesses are also close by. Heavy logging in the early to mid-1900s and years of û re suppression in this forest created the con- ditions for severe wildû re. The West Bend Project was designed to make the forest more resilient to defend the growing city from encroach- ing blazes. <Without those treat- ments, this forest on the edge of Bend is much more vulnerable to high-severity û re,= said Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang, who has had a hand in the project from the beginning. Chang co-chairs the steering committee of the Deschutes Collaborative Forest Project with Bend Mayor Sally Russell. The collaborative advises the Forest Service in its man- agement of the West Bend Project and other restoration work on the forest. Chang said one of the collaborative9s goals for the project was to preserve the largest, oldest trees and give them room to thrive in open stands by reducing the den- sity of mid-sized trees and undergrowth. He said that of the thousands of acres of selectively logged for- est he9s reviewed across the West Bend Project, he thinks the vast majority of it aligns with that intention. But Chang added that, in his opinion, the marked trees Oregon Wild has drawn attention to are diû erent 4 not quite old growth, but deû nitely older than most of the trees on the landscape. <I don9t think this mark really aligns that well with the purpose and need for the West Bend Project overall,= Chang said. Chang, Russell and col- laborative vice chair Ed Keith issued a statement last week saying that <if 99% of the acres commercially thinned are moving our for- est in the right direction then we don9t think it is appropri- ate to vilify the Forest Ser- vice for the 10 acres which could be inconsistent with the overall intent and vision of the (Deschutes Collabora- tive Forest Project).= There is no hard-and-fast rule in the West Bend Proj- ect area dictating which trees are too big to cut. Oregon Wild has started a petition urging the Forest Service to adopt strict size limits on which trees can be cut in all active projects. For ponderosa pines, the group says the limit should be 21 inches in diameter at breast height, a common measure of a tree9s size, and 24 inches for û rs and other large spe- cies. The 21-inch rule was previously applied across 8 million acres of Eastern Ore- gon for decades to safeguard bigger, older trees, but those rules changed under the Trump administration. Oregon Wild9s Fernan- dez said he9s documented at least three dozen trees in the timber sale that would be oû limits if those rules existed in the West Bend Project area. He said that just because leaders of the collaborative agree the rest of the forest is being treated properly, that doesn9t mean these trees aren9t worthy of protection. The marked trees are still standing for now. The Deschutes National Forest announced Wednesday the Pine Drops and other moun- tain bike trails as well as for- est roads in the timber sale area were to temporarily close for timber harvesting and forest restoration work. <I fear the chainsaws and bulldozers are gonna be on their way very soon,= Fer- nandez said. The trees are under con- tract to be cut and have been marked for about two years, Chang said. Keep- ing the trees standing would require a renegotiation of the contract with the timber operator. SAVE THIS AD January and February have been busy months My inventory revealed a total of about 16,000 coins. In the last 30 days, I have bought over $10,000 in coins from local collections. Currently I have 130 Morgan dollars. APPLIANCE Historical event: April 5th 1856 Booker T Washington was born. Come on in to see his Early Commemorative Half Dollar. (Personally my favorite series of coins) PACKAGE DEALS Homeschoolers welcome - appointment encouraged. APPLIANCE AND HOME FURNISHINGS I BUY COIN COLLECTIONS CLATSOP COIN 529 SE MARLIN, WARRENTON 503-861-0929 Over 30 Y E A R S IN C L AT S O P COUNT Y Mattresses, Furniture & More! SEVENþDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA TODAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY HOURS OPEN: MON-FRI 8-6 * SATURDAY * SUNDAY 10-4 205 12th Street, Astoria, OR 97103 " 503.298.3898 www.ClatsopCoin.com We Service What We Sell FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY REGIONAL FORECAST Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. Seattle 51 42 54 42 51 44 54 43 Cloudy with a Rain tapering A little morning Periods of rain shower off rain 51 39 51 41 51 44 Cloudy, rain possible Cloudy, rain possible Showers possible Aberdeen Olympia 51/44 50/42 Wenatchee Tacoma Moses Lake 51/39 ALMANAC UNDER THE SKY TODAY'S TIDES Astoria through Sunday Tonight’s Sky: Albert Einstein’s birthday (1879). Astoria / Port Docks Temperatures High/low ................................ 50/42 Normal high/low .................. 53/39 Record high .................. 73 in 1979 Record low .................... 25 in 1969 Precipitation Sunday ..................................... 0.98” Month to date ........................ 2.26” Normal month to date ......... 3.43” Year to date .......................... 21.29” Normal year to date ........... 21.20” Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022 Time 12:46 a.m. 6.9 6:20 a.m. 12:02 p.m. 7.7 7:02 p.m. Cape Disappointment 12:33 a.m. 6.6 5:42 a.m. 11:40 a.m. 7.8 6:18 p.m. Source: Jim Todd, OMSI Hammond SUN AND MOON Sunrise today .................. 7:29 a.m. Sunset tonight ............... 7:21 p.m. Moonrise today ............. 4:32 p.m. Moonset today ............... 6:51 a.m. Full Last New First 12:39 a.m. 6.9 5:59 a.m. 11:52 a.m. 8.0 6:33 p.m. Warrenton 12:41 a.m. 7.3 6:04 a.m. 11:57 a.m. 8.1 6:46 p.m. Knappa 1:23 a.m. 7.2 7:21 a.m. 12:39 p.m. 7.9 8:03 p.m. Depoe Bay Mar 17 Mar 24 Mar 31 Apr 8 10:56 a.m. 7.9 5:07 a.m. none 5:46 p.m. 3.0 0.0 3.4 0.1 3.1 0.0 3.1 0.1 2.6 0.0 3.4 0.1 City Atlanta Boston Chicago Dallas Denver Honolulu Houston Los Angeles Miami New York City Phoenix San Francisco Wash., DC Today Hi/Lo/W Wed. Hi/Lo/W 65/52/r 54/41/c 53/43/pc 67/45/s 67/38/s 84/71/c 70/49/s 79/55/pc 82/74/t 60/45/pc 86/59/s 63/47/pc 69/45/pc 61/51/r 54/40/s 65/48/pc 78/53/s 54/29/c 84/71/c 78/53/s 81/55/s 84/69/t 63/45/s 85/58/s 63/46/s 69/51/s Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice. 57/41 Hermiston The Dalles 62/40 Enterprise Pendleton 46/32 57/37 59/44 La Grande 50/36 55/42 NATIONAL CITIES High (ft.) Time Low (ft.) 49/35 Kennewick Walla Walla 56/40 Lewiston 64/41 52/44 Salem Pullman 59/32 Longview 51/42 Portland 54/43 51/35 Yakima 59/36 52/40 Astoria Spokane 53/36 Corvallis 53/39 Albany 53/41 John Day Eugene Bend 55/42 52/34 52/32 Ontario 62/35 Caldwell Burns 53/27 58/34 Medford 60/38 Klamath Falls 52/26 City Baker City Brookings Ilwaco Newberg Newport Today Hi/Lo/W 50/29/r 52/41/sh 51/44/r 53/41/pc 50/41/sh Wed. Hi/Lo/W 46/23/sn 56/43/c 53/45/r 55/39/c 52/40/c City North Bend Roseburg Seaside Springfi eld Vancouver Today Hi/Lo/W 53/42/sh 59/42/pc 51/44/r 54/43/sh 54/44/c Wed. Hi/Lo/W 55/43/c 60/41/c 54/41/r 60/39/c 55/41/c