ASHLAND, Oregon - July 25 - Yesterday marked the end of public commenting for the proposed Westside Timber Sale in western Oregon. The Westside sale typifies Bush administration policy to dramatically increase old-growth logging on public lands, reigniting controversies and protests that embroiled the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s and 1990s.

The enormous Westside logging sale, being proposed in the middle of fire season, has nothing to do with fuels reduction or protecting communities. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to log 3,374 acres in the Cow Creek Watershed, a tributary of the salmon-bearing South Umpqua River. More than two square miles of old-growth forests, which all serve as Spotted Owl Suitable Habitat, would be clearcut, leaving only 6-8 trees per acre.

“Timber sales like Westside mark a return to an old-growth logging program the likes of which we have not seen since the 1980s,” said Sean Cosgrove forest policy specialist for the Sierra Club. “We had hoped destructive logging like this was a thing of the past – but the Bush administration is planning to make old logging projects like this commonplace.”

After cutting down these magnificent stands of old growth, the BLM will create fire-prone industrial tree plantations, resulting in increased fire risk and harm to fish and wildlife. Over ten miles of new logging road would be punched into the Middle Fork Cow Creek watershed threatening water quality and fishing tourism in the area.

The direction of Bush administration forest management is to eliminate the protections of the Northwest Forest Plan. Under a sweetheart out-of-court lawsuit settlement in 2003 between the timber industry and the administration, federal forests managed by the BLM in southern Oregon may soon lose environmental protections ­– sparking a new fight over currently protected old-growth forests.

”The Bush administration previewed plans earlier this year that would liquidate the old growth reserves and drastically weaken protections for old growth forests managed by the BLM,” said Randi Spivak Executive Director of the American Lands Alliance. “This is a bankrupt strategy that will leave a diminished legacy for the next generation.”

BLM detailed for the public some of the alternatives it might consider in an upcoming Environmental Impact Statement, which all call for increased logging. Most notably, the BLM document includes a new interpretation of the law that prioritizes logging over all other values and uses of these publicly owned forests.

According to documents obtained from the administration by the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, the Medford BLM plans on removing thousands of acres of habitat for the spotted owl over the next few years pushing that imperiled species closer to extinction. Spotted owl numbers are rapidly declining across the Northwest.

In other areas of the Pacific Northwest mature and old growth forests are not being logged, because forester managers focus on thinning existing tree plantations and reducing hazardous fuels around communities.

“Most federal managers of old-growth forests are focused on fire hazard projects, but the BLM is moving in the opposite direction to cut down the most fire-resistant and ecologically rich part of the landscape,” said Lesley Adams, spokeswoman for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, a forest conservation organization located in southwest Oregon.

The President’s FY 2007 budget would have doubled logging in the Pacific Northwest and the administration has proposed weakening rules designed to protect salmon and clean water. Most recently the BLM and Forest Service reissued plans to eliminate protection for over 600 old growth dependent species by eliminating the Survey and Manage requirements of the Northwest Forest Plan. The administration’s first attempt to gut these important wildlife protections was ruled illegal by a federal court.

Old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest are habitat for a number of threatened species, most notably pacific salmon and the northern spotted owl. Recent polls in Oregon and Washington found that a vast majority (75%) of residents want to see these forests protected.

For more information on the Westside logging project see http://www.kswild.org/westside or contact Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, 541-488-5789. Photos of the sale area can be viewed at http://www.kswild.org/KSNews/westsidephotos and photos of other BLM logging projects are available at http://www.oregonheritageforests.org/photo_tour Please see a Nov. 2005 article by The Oregonian for additional background on the BLM’s plans to increase old growth logging at http://www.oregonheritageforests.org/pressroom/oregonian.

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