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.
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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