August 7, 2003 Salem Statesman Journal, OR

Logging proposals may delay fire recovery

Timber harvest plans could hold up an environmental impact report.

JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press


GRANTS PASS — The draft plan for restoring the area burned by
the massive Biscuit Fire last summer would be delayed for months if
the Siskiyou National Forest fully considers suggestions to vastly
increase the harvest of burned timber.

Siskiyou National Forest Supervisor Scott Conroy is to meet early next
week with Forest Service regional officials to consider whether to
develop new alternatives for the draft environmental impact statement
that had been expected this month, said forest spokesman Tom
Lavagnino.

The draft, due to be released for comment by the end of August, could
be delayed by months if the report from a group of Oregon State
University foresters is fully incorporated, Lavagnino said.

The draft already includes five alternatives that range up to 450
million board feet of salvage timber. The OSU report suggests logging
as much as 2.5 billion board feet.

The Forest Service plan must go through a series of public comment
periods and revisions stretching more than two months before foresters
reach a final decision.

The OSU report, commissioned by neighboring Douglas County, urged a
much more aggressive approach than the Forest Service, such as using
herbicides to control brush and logging within roadless areas and old
growth reserves. The Forest Service stayed away from those practices,
which have drawn lawsuits from environmentalists.

Timber that has already stood dead for a year will further deteriorate
from insect infestation and rot, reducing its commercial value, as
time goes on, the report warned.

The Biscuit fire burned 500,000 acres last summer, primarily on the
Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon, making it the biggest
in the nation for 2002 and the biggest in Oregon’s recorded
history.

Rep. Peter DeFazio sent a letter to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth
and Northwest Regional Forester Linda Goodman urging them not to take
on new work that would delay the start of salvage logging and
reforestation from this fall into sometime next year.

“I am extremely disturbed that at this late date, the Forest
Service is considering adding a sixth alternative,” DeFazio
wrote.

Douglas County Commissioner Doug Robertson, one of those who
commissioned the report, did not immediately return a phone call for
comment.


Comment by poster: There's no room for greed in our National Forests.
Plans drawn up using science to restore areas is the way to go. That
means "micro-managing" very small plots of land and doing the right
thing.

Larry