Posted on 04/04/2004 11:18:00 AM PDT by farmfriend
Wyden asks to split plans for logging Biscuit fire
The senator tries to speed salvage in areas facing little opposition and to give Oregon loggers and mills first shot at the work
04/03/04
MICHAEL MILSTEIN
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is pressing the Bush administration to split its logging plans in the Biscuit fire zone so anticipated battles over cutting in sensitive areas do not hold up the harvest.
If the zone is broken up, he said, parts with little opposition might proceed if other elements face lengthy appeals and lawsuits from activist groups.
Wyden also wants the administration to give preference to loggers, truck drivers and others in Oregon communities most affected by the vast 2002 burn, he said in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Friday.
Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees national forests, called it "a constructive letter" and said local forest officials will look into the suggestions. He said he's confident the wood will stay in Oregon because of the costs of moving it elsewhere.
Wyden's demand comes as salvage logging in the 500,000 acres affected by the Southern Oregon fire faces new delays. A U.S. Forest Service decision planned for April will not come until May, said Judy McHugh, a Siskiyou National Forest spokeswoman.
She said officials are considering issuing the decision under special emergency provisions that would let logging begin quickly even if citizen appeals are filed.
Normally, logging cannot start until appeals are decided, which could take months.
Either way, the decision will include cutting about 25 percent to 35 percent less timber than the 518 million board feet that forest managers proposed in November, McHugh said. The reason is that wetland and habitat protections applied to more trees than expected, and some trees have deteriorated before the decision could be made.
Logging would take place on about 5 percent of the land affected by the fire, Oregon's largest in a century.
Wyden said the Forest Service should give Oregon loggers and sawmills precedence for the timber to keep from being trucked out of the state.
"I believe the people of my state, who bore the burden and fears of the Biscuit fire, and who now bear the burden of a half-million-acre burn area, should have a strong preference in receiving the benefits of any job creation coming out of this disaster," he wrote.
Rey predicted wood will stay in the vicinity of the burn or go to the Willamette Valley because of the high cost of shipping to California. He said forest officials will try to give locals preference in hiring for services such as replanting burned slopes.
"Obviously, where we can do that, we will," Rey said.
A single logging decision for Biscuit and the many jobs it might bring could be stopped if activist groups oppose even one part of it, Wyden said. Breaking it into pieces could reduce the extent of such holdups.
He said separate decisions could be issued for logging planned in roadless areas and mature forest reserves, already the focus of criticism.
Cutting on remaining lands could be included in another decision less likely to encounter opposition, Wyden said.
"By producing separate records of decision, areas that are less controversial are likely to receive quicker approval and salvage, and won't be held back by the proposed salvage areas where the legal issues are in greater doubt," he wrote.
Although Rey called it "an interesting idea," he said he's unsure whether a late change would require extra analysis and cause more delays. He also said he did not know whether the form of the decision could be altered without a new round of public comments, which would take more time.
Josh Kardon, Wyden's chief of staff, said delays might be a small price to pay.
"What is the preferred choice? Taking another two months to make some changes or watching the entire proposal get held up for years in court?" Kardon said.
Michael Milstein: 503-294-7689; michaelmilstein@news.oregonian.com
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The enviro's can now rightly claim that the salvage is cutting green trees and old growth, a judge will side with them, and the USFS will study it for another year and a half. Most people in southern Oregon/Northern California have already written this off. I seriously doubt there will ever be any trees harvested from this burn.
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
I agree. After re-reading the article, it may be that Wyden and the Democrats are worried that there may be absolutely no timber recovered from this fire. Although they and there constituents secretly desire this, it makes the existing regulatory process look unworkable. It also calls into question of why the Congress should continue to fund an agency that no longer produces anything.
BTW, my friend had two cats and skidder on that fire...he said the waste and incompetence was beyond anything he had ever seen. Picture heli-torch operations in the middle of the afternoon in order to burn out islands of unburned timber. Picture logging ridgetops to create a fire line. All the logs dragged to the road. Then going back after the fire, and dragging the logs back into the burned over forest in the name of erosion control. Unbelievable.
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