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Sierra Nevada Framework Update
June 6, 2003 The Sacramento Bee
Sierra plan calls for more logging Critics decry a loss of owl habitat, but Forest Service says the impact will be minimal and short-term. By Stuart Leavenworth Putting some flesh on a proposal that has triggered months of rhetoric but few hard details, the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday released a 372-page management plan for the Sierra Nevada that would nearly triple logging, with most of it coming in the Plumas and Lassen national forests near Quincy. The plan, a revision of a Clinton-era blueprint for the Sierra, proposes to reduce habitat for the California spotted owl so the Forest Service can more aggressively thin forests to reduce wildfires. Forest Service officials say the revisions will save taxpayers $27 million yearly, because they can use revenues from logging 20-to 30-inch-thick trees to offset costs of removing brush and unmarketable timber. But the extra logging would come at the expense of the spotted owl and other wildlife, which would lose habitat under the Bush administration plan, according to the Forest Service's own analysis. Environmentalists say the administration is risking a legal showdown over the owl, which could be added to the nation's endangered species list if its habitat is significantly compromised. Such a listing could lead to court-ordered logging restrictions on both public and private land, as happened in the Pacific Northwest during the early 1990s when the northern spotted owl received federal protection. "It is looking pretty ugly," said Craig Thomas, director of the Sierra Nevada Protection Campaign. "The revenues (from extra logging) come at the price of very intense, short-term impacts on wildlife. The Forest Service thinks that is acceptable. We do not." Forest Service officials, however, say that only about 6 percent of spotted owl nesting habitat will be hurt by the proposed logging and thinning. After 20 or 30 years, they say, the forests will be much more resilient to fires, and owl habitat will increase. "We are predicting there will be short-term effects (on the owl), but they will not be significant," said Steve Eubanks, supervisor of the Tahoe National Forest who helped draft the 372-page supplemental environmental impact statement. "We are trying to prevent the higher-intensity fires that can replace stands of trees. No one can argue those fires aren't a threat." At issue are 11 million acres of the Sierra, California's largest mountain range and the source of three-fourths of its drinking water. Decades of fire suppression and intermittent drought have left portions of the Sierra thick with spindly trees that are vulnerable to big blazes. At the same time, decades of intensive logging -- which reached its peak in the early 1980s -- have removed many of the big trees and dense forestry canopy that are favored by owls for nesting. Before leaving office, the Clinton administration approved a plan that slashed commercial logging in the Sierra to rebuild old-growth forests. Sawmill owners and some rural residents protested the plan, prompting the incoming Bush administration to order a review of the framework, which has lasted more than two years at a cost of $3 million. Under a preferred alternative the Forest Service is touting, timber sales would be increased to 448 million board feet from 157 million yearly, enough to build 45,000 homes. Nearly two-thirds of that logging would occur in the Plumas, Lassen and Tahoe forests. The Plumas is the location of the disputed and stalled Quincy Library Group project, a pilot program that aimed to help local sawmills and reduce fire threats. In addition, the Forest Service proposes giving district rangers more latitude in salvaging fire-scorched trees, a change that could allow companies to harvest several million more board feet each year. Because of expected timber revenues, the Forest Service projects that it can thin more than 100,000 acres yearly at a cost to the U.S. Treasury of $19 million, compared with $46 million under the original framework. "This would allow us to stretch our budget dollars," Regional Forester Jack Blackwell said in a statement. In a concession to environmentalists, Blackwell wants 75 percent of all thinning to occur around communities. Environmentalists say the Forest Service currently has the ability to cut down 30-inch trees and thin smaller ones near Sierra towns, but has dragged its feet to undermine the original Sierra framework. "Instead of doing that work, they have spent $3 million to revamp the plan," said Barbara Boyle, senior regional representative of the Sierra Club. Boyle said she is also flabbergasted the Forest Service plans to allow additional salvage logging for fire restoration. "What is being restored here?" she asked. "Is it the forest ecosystem, or it the local timber industry?" According to the Forest Service, its revamp of the Sierra framework will generate $57 million for the timber industry, about $19 million more than the original plan. Logging employment would double to 1,894 jobs and the wood chips available for biomass-fueled electricity plants would increase by 43 percent. Timber harvests, however, aren't the only focus of the framework revision. The agency also wants to revise the document to allow more cattle grazing, even in meadows that are habitat for threatened amphibians. But logging remains the core point of contention, as it has for decades. David Bischel, president of the California Forestry Association, says the revisions provide some encouragement for the state's shrinking timber industry. He says threats to the spotted owls are exaggerated, and claims the Forest Service could easily allow more logging. He said he'd like to see the agency designate specific parts of the Sierra for timber production, something it doesn't do now. Providing that designation, he said, "would provide us come certainty about the future." The Forest Service report can be found at www.fs.fed.us/r5/snfpa/. Comment by poster: If wild areas are called wilderness, couldn't timber production areas be called "timberness"? G When the revisions take effect, shouldn't the Bush Administration take action to break up timber monopolies and immediately make Federal timber more valuable? Larry, forest sculptor |
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