Salvage-logging plan aired: Big operation targets Oregon timber

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter

	DOLORIS LLOYD / AP Glen Lloyd, of Selma, Ore., looks over the site of his home, which was destroyed last year by the Florence fire, a part of the Biscuit fire. In the center are the remains of a 1964 MG he was restoring.
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The U.S. Forest Service next month will propose one of the largest salvage-logging operations of the past quarter-century to harvest timber scorched in a 2002 fire in Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest.

The "preferred alternative" calls for logging in 29,000 acres of the nearly 500,000 acres that were at least partially burned in the 2002 Biscuit fire, according to Judy McHugh, a Forest Service official in southern Oregon. The logging is expected to produce about 518 million board feet of timber, which is more than the entire 2002 Forest Service harvest in all of Western Washington and western Oregon.

The Biscuit fire of 2002 was the largest in Oregon of the past century, and it drew President Bush to southern Oregon in August of that year as he touted a new "Healthy Forests" plan aimed at speeding up thinning of forests at risk of burning.

The plan is expected to be made final by next spring, with initial logging expected to start next summer and continuing for a year or more. The new logging plan represents a more than five-fold increase from an earlier Forest Service proposal for cutting in the Biscuit-fire zone. It comes as the Bush administration has launched a broader effort to boost the timber cut on federal lands across the West.

The harvest would unfold in a rugged area that is one of the most biologically diverse forests in the Northwest. It would including logging burned-over old-growth trees, and more than 12,000 acres of the cut-zone would be in roadless areas. In any one area, up to 80 percent of the trees would be removed.

And the prospect of such large-scale logging appears certain to be challenged by conservationists.

"I think we are seeing the administration set a precedent that once an area is struck by fire, no-hold barred logging can take place," said Rolf Skar of the Siskiyou Project, a conservation group based in Cave Junction, Ore.

Conservation groups have long sought increased protection for the Siskiyou forest, which describes as a biological crossroads, where the Coast Range, Cascade Mountains and Klamath-Siskiyou mountains come together.

Forest Service officials say they will work to minimize the environmental effects of the logging. They would require the use of helicopters to reach much of the timber, with the preferred alternative building only about 2.3 miles of new roads. Those roads would be temporary

Timber officials say the harvest still represents only a small fraction of the timber scorched by the fire and that many of the dead logs may have diminished in value by the time the cutting begins. But they welcome the prospect of a surge in federal timber sales.

"We are likely to see mills from Oregon, Northern California and maybe even southern Washington bidding on the timber if it was offered at an economical price," said Chris West of the Portland-based American Forest Resource Council.

Forest Service officials say the new preferred alternative for Biscuit-fire logging reflects new information gathered in recent months, including a study by John Sessions, an Oregon State University professor who called for salvage of more than 2 billion board feet. The best way to quicken the forest's recovery and reduce risk of recurring, large-scale fires is reforestation, vegetation control and removal of many dead and dying trees, Sessions concluded.

"He did provide us with significant new information," McHugh said.

The largest Pacific Northwest salvage effort of the past quarter-century occurred after the eruption of Mount St. Helens, when loggers over a period of years cut more than 1 billion board feet of timber affected by the 1980 blast.

Times staff researchers Gene Balk and Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report. Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com

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