EUGENE - April 22 - This Earth Day, the sounds of logging in the Willamette National Forest herald a renewed battle over the Pacific Northwest’s remaining ancient forests. Old-growth logging has begun around many parts of Oregon, including at the Blue River Face timber sale located in the MacKenzie River Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest. Much of the forest being logged predates the US Constitution – some are as old as 400 years.

These sales are being cut just days after new Bush Administration rule changes go into effect that make it easier to log mature and old-growth forests. Under new rules, federal agencies are no longer required to conduct wildlife and plant survey for rare species in old-growth forests. It is now up to volunteer citizen surveyors to locate and document rare and threatened wildlife and plants in these forests. Citizens surveying the Blue River Face Timber Sale found what is possibly the largest known population of the rare old-growth specklebelly lichen in the Pacific Northwest. Under previous rules, the Forest Service would have been required to protect this rare habitat. Under the new rules, logging can now proceed in areas where rare species are found.

Forest activists are not taking the rule changes and subsequent logging lightly.

James Johnston, the director of the Cascadia Wildlands Project, a group that monitors timber sales on the Willamette National Forest, explains. “In contrast to most people who are out helping the earth on Earth Day,” said Johnston, “the Bush Administration and the US Forest Service are out expediting the logging of our last big old trees."

Jasmine Minbashian, campaign coordinator for the Northwest Old-Growth Campaign, added, “People all over the country are taking notice that this Administration is destroying our natural heritage. The public will not stand by and allow this to continue.”

The Blue River timber sales is just one example of more than 150 planned timber sales that collectively target more than 80,000 acres of mature and old-growth in western Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. Other old-growth sales currently being logged include: Cowcatcher Timber Sale (Roseburg Bureau of Land Management), Mr. Wilson Timber Sale (Medford BLM), Bear Penn (Medford BLM), Soukow Timber Sale (Medford BLM), East Five Mile Timber Sale (Mt. Hood National Forest), and Papa Cow (Medford BLM).

To view the complete list of sales visit: http://www.nwoldgrowth.org/InfoStation/infostation.htm

More about Blue River Face:

Blue River Face is approximately an hour east of Eugene in the MacKenzie River Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest. This area is a classic old-growth stand rich with mosses, lichens, and tall trees. It is nearly contiguous with 10,000 acres of Andrews/Lookout Creek ancient forest and is located on slopes leading down to the cold clear Blue River.

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