| Judge's logging ruling angers
forest managers
(Note: The tightrope that the self-proclaimed 'environmental community' has placed both judges and federal agencies on (in this case, the USDA Forest Service) is one on which they tiptoe, fearful of the lack of a safety net below. The seemingly unlimited funding that Gang Green has at its disposal, to stop logging, farming, commercial fishing, mining, ranching, and recreational pursuits (including sportfishing) -- wherever and whenever the whim moves it -- is both ironic and a real 'double standard,' since Gang Green groups routinely do as they please with lands that they own. The old 'Do as I say, but don't do as I do' saying is painfully in evidence in this article. If the REAL agenda were about 'saving,' 'protecting,' 'managing,' 'restoring,' or 'preserving habitat,' why would Gang Green's own directives -- that rip out roads in huge blocks of land, thus stymieing efforts to put out catastrophic forest fires, fires whose extent and devastation are directly created by years of Gang Green-directed NON-management of forests -- be responsible for the incineration or other methods of extirpation of flora and fauna? Species that were healthy, just two or three decades ago, have been put in harm's way by these 'anything but environmental experts' and their agenda. Please read this article and consider the incredible collateral damage and carnage that has been wrought at the very hands of those that are 'crying wolf!' now.) February 12, 2003 By Michael Milstein 503-294-7689 michaelmilstein@news.oregonian.com The Oregonian Portland, Oregon To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@news.oregonian.com A federal judge has halted the cutting of thousands of burned and dead trees at risk of falling onto roads in the Malheur National Forest of rural Eastern Oregon, outraging loggers who see it as proof that there is almost no room for them to work on public lands anymore. Forest managers said only trees within reach of roads -- and leaning so they could fall on passing cars -- were to be cut. But the Oregon activist who went to court to block the logging, contends the U.S. Forest Service bypassed the environmental review of the cutting, suggesting the federal agency is so focused on cutting trees it cannot be trusted to protect the forest. The face-off that has stopped the logging of about 15,000 roadside trees charred by last summer's Flagtail Fire southwest of John Day may preview what is to come as federal foresters plan the salvage of thousands of acres more of scorched timber. It also will test a new Bush administration strategy of using a procedural shortcut to bypass lengthy environmental reviews of small logging projects. The shortcut, called a "categorical exclusion," lets land managers approve activities that have minimal environmental impacts -- without seeking public comment, studying the effects or allowing appeals of their decision. Malheur forest officials used a class of exclusion designed to cover road maintenance and repair to authorize seven small timber sales along county and forest roads, totaling about 1.7 million board feet of wood. Although the ponderosa pine and fir are but a tiny slice of the federal timber offered in Oregon recently, it was a welcome helping for loggers who have struggled to find wood for local sawmills lately. Entwined in lawsuits and appeals, the Malheur Forest sold slightly less than 3 million board feet of wood all last year. Timber company D.R. Johnson's sawmill in John Day is importing timber from Native American reservations in Arizona. Frustrated Grant County voters last year approved a ballot measure purporting to give themselves authority to cut burned and hazard trees in the national forest. Forest officials concluded that the roadside logging would help satisfy local demands for wood, while also easing the risk that dying trees would fall onto roads. "Someone's got to understand that it's important to protect the public while they travel public ways," said Grant County Judge Dennis Reynolds. A broader environmental analysis is underway to lay the foundation for salvage logging and forest restoration in the rest of the roughly 5,000 acres burned in the Flagtail Fire. D.R. Johnson purchased three of the roadside timber sales, while an independent local logger bought three others. But the Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project argued in court that the logging was far too extensive to be categorized as a road safety project and should have undergone a full environmental review. Without it, said group co-director Asante Riverwind, the public has no way to hold forest managers accountable. A federal court in 1998 had prohibited the Forest Service from using categorical exclusions to approve logging projects. But new guidance issued in 2000 said the agency could again employ them to cover "activities such as trimming, felling or removing individual hazardous trees." The Bush administration has proposed three new forms of exclusions to cover thinning of flammable forests and cutting of less than 250 acres. Riverwind said Malheur forest officials did not notify activist groups of the logging plans and told him salvage logging would not begin until later in the spring. "I basically don't trust the agency," he said. "They didn't choose to be honest with the public up front, and unfortunately the whole community suffers as a result." U.S. District Judge Ancer L. Haggerty in Portland issued a restraining order last week, halting further logging -- but allowing crews to remove trees that were already cut. A hearing is scheduled Friday, where Haggerty will hear more detailed arguments from both sides and determine whether to impose a lengthier injunction. Haggerty halted at least three other sales of burned federal timber in Central and Eastern Oregon in the last year, all at the urging of the Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project. He ruled in each case the Forest Service had not fully weighed the environmental impacts. "What this says to me is that the preservation community flat doesn't want to see any timber harvested anywhere," said Dan Bishop, timber manager for D.R. Johnson in Prairie City. "There's no common sense left in the environmental community." |