] Dubya Administration Finalizes Plans for Destructive Logging in Oregon

[JoseCuervo]

Bush Administration Finalizes Plans for Destructive Logging in Oregon

One of the Largest Timber Sales in Modern History Slated for Spectacular Wild Forests

Medford, OR – The Bush administration today announced its final plan to implement one of the largest commercial timber sales in modern history in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of southern Oregon, one of America’s wildest, most pristine places. The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project calls for logging 370 million board feet of trees while largely ignoring the immense values of recreation, wildlife habitat and clean water and the need to help protect communities from future fires.

“Instead of focusing resources near Oregon communities that are threatened by wildfire, the Bush Administration is pushing a divisive and harmful policy that drastically increases logging in the backcountry far from people’s homes and businesses,” said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director. “There is a better way. We can responsibly manage Oregon and America’s National Forests and protect communities and our nation’s wild heritage.”

The Bush administration plan would:

· Log 370 million board feet making this the largest timber sale in modern U.S. history.

· Log 150 million board feet in more than 8,000 acres of inventoried roadless areas.

· Log 170 million board feet out of old growth reserves (this does not count the old growth reserves found in roadless areas)

Planning a massive logging project in the Klamath-Siskiyou region to date has cost the US Treasury at least $5.8 million. According to a recent study by the non-partisan group Taxpayers for Common Sense, logging in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area will cost taxpayers anywhere from $3 million to $100 million depending on how many trees are actually cut. As an example, a logging plan that cuts 300 million board feet of timber, less than what the Bush administration originally proposed, will cost taxpayers $36 million.

Despite spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money on planning and implementing a destructive and controversial timber sale that will reap benefits for the timber industry, the Bush administration’s plan fails to provide funds and resources for communities threatened by fire,” said Pope. “That money would be better spent helping people protect their homes and businesses.”

Out of 22,856 public comments received on the Forest Service’s Preferred Alternative, 95 percent opposed an extreme amount of commercial logging. However, their final plan released today represents one of the largest timber sales in modern history and will mean more than 90,000 logging trucks leaving this spectacular area. The Forest Service also largely ignored suggestions by conservation groups and concerned citizens that would begin important restoration work, create jobs and help protect communities from future wildfires.

“The Bush Administration’s vision for Oregon’s National Forests is one where we log across the landscape before, during and after wildfires no matter the costs and impacts,” said Pope.

The Klamath-Siskiyou region is home to remarkable biological diversity, making it one of the most unique regions in North America, and richest temperate regions in the world. A high concentration of wild and scenic rivers – including the renown Illinois and Rogue Rivers – and their tributaries contain some of the most valuable salmon and steelhead runs in the contiguous United States, providing a critical refuge for wild fish populations at risk of extinction. The area is part of the larger Klamath-Siskiyou Region and the proposed Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Monument.

There is considerable scientific evidence that “salvage logging” increases erosion, impairs streams and other wildlife habitat, causes additional damage to forests made more fragile by fires, and can actually increase fire risk due to the buildup of hazardous fuel and slash left by logging operations. In fact, trees downed by forest fires provide habitat for wildlife and nutrients needed to help keep forests healthy.

 

[Ithaca 37]

Another Bush environmental disaster that's going to cost the taxpayers millions in subsidies given to the timber extraction industries.

 

[ELKCHSR]

The children will make out like bandits...
Some of the taxes that come from timber goes to schools... There is alway's pro's and cons no matter what. The timber also doesn't just get cut and left to lay, or all the money's brought in from its sale don't just go to line one persons pockets...
Logging has been practicaly shut down compaired to what it formally was, it is just time to do a little catch up before I get to go over there and do more work also...

 

[BuzzH]

Elkchsr said, "Logging has been practicaly shut down compaired to what it formally was, it is just time to do a little catch up before I get to go over there and do more work also.."

Really?

That is BS, and nothing but BS.

You been waiting in any lines to buy 2x4's lately? How about paper? How about plywood?

If logging had been "shut down" as you say, I'd guess there would be a shortage or two, yet I havent heard of a single school kid not having paper to write on, contractors being unable to buy 2x4's to build houses, or any other wood products shortages...

But, you say logging has been "shut down"????

I need to see some proof.

 

[RockyDog]

Buzzh, around here people building their 2nd, 3rd, whatever montana starter castels are having to limit themselves to only 15,000 to 20,000 square feet of living space. And then they have to scrounge for natural gas year round to heat those homes with noone in them.

Now thats a resource shortage.

 

[ELKCHSR]

I suppose I should have stated logging in the United States has been almost halted. I won't have time right now to look it up, but the board footage is what one wants to look at, and it isn't any thing what it used to be. How many mills were going full blast 30 years ago. How many are there even in existance now? One used to see clear cuts all over the place there was timber 30 years ago, you are old enough to remember that. How many do you actually see going on. You grew up in logging country, a large percentage of people in the Bitteroot at one time was in or associated with logging, now you are hard pressed to run into any one that knows some one that is actively working in the woods.
Your right, logging hasn't slowed down on a world scale, but in the U.S. it has ground to almost a stop.
I have also noticed a lot of the building materials now day's arn't made from solid wood as they once were, pressboard/chipboard are more of what you see. The houses that go up, except for the the actual stick work, for the most part are processed wood, not much diffent than the processed meats one buy's any more.
The numbers will come shortly, as I start to look them up, but if one remembers what it was like and what it is like now, this is a very easy one to prove just by opening ones eyes.
I know Rocky is to young to remember what all of this is about, but you aren't Buzz...

 

[Bambistew]

Chaser... Logging on public lands has dropped dramatically, but production from private stands has filled the void. From what I've seen (I could be wrong) timber harvest is higher now than it has ever been...

The engineered "chip boards" are cheaper and stronger than regular matierials of he same dimentions. For example engineered 2x10 "I" beam floor joists can be made much longer and stonger, not to mention waaaaay more inexpensivly than the same in solid wood. What it has effectivly done is create a market for the smaller logs that we are using today. Here on the east coast all most all logging is done on private land, some stands mature in as little as 30 years...

 

[RockyDog]

No ElkChsr, logging in the US has not ground to halt. Drive anywhere in the country and you will see developments booming and a large percentage of that lumber is not imported. We get about 80% of our lumber from the southeast now. Have you been to georgia? I worked in a lumber year for a few years, my dad worked there for over 10 years, my mom worked there for 5, and several uncles worked in the same mill. I can tell you without batting an eye that none of them miss the days of unsustainable logging. They all got trained for new and better careers. Its only the few hardheaded types holding on to the gypsy logging lifestyle that miss it.

One thing i know for sure, I definitely dont miss driving out to check out my hunting area and finding a new road punched through it and a clearcut. That was the 70s and 80s, may they never come back.

 

[RockyDog]

Here you go ElkChsr. Read these and then tell us that lumber production has ground to a halt. Its gone up, up and away.


http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/FPLGTR/fplgtr116.pdf

http://www.woodtruss.com/projects/woodtruss/images/random/990924.pdf