Free Republic

<p>As firefighters battle wildfires throughout Oregon, another war is smoldering over what will become of the burned trees.</p> <p>Environmentalists have been pressuring the U.S. Forest Service to commit to keeping the burned areas off limits to cutting.</p> <p>Timber industry representatives want the agency to offer logging sales ? known as post-fire salvage sales ? in areas that burned. They say that will underscore the Forest Service's commitment to continuing to harvest trees and extract economic value from forest products.</p>

RUCH - Salvage logging on Forest Service land scorched by the Quartz Fire last summer will have to wait. The Forest Service - which lost 3,466 acres to the blaze last August - had originally planned to salvage some of the burned trees to help the local economy while at the same time helping Mother Nature heal with restoration work. But that changed when the Forest Service received more than $1 million in federal funds earmarked specifically for restoration that must be spent by Sept. 30. Because of the looming deadline, the agency will focus exclusively on restoration this summer,...