Document Actions
Bear Pen timber sale
Document Actions
Medford BLM, Glendale Resource Area
Dozens of concerned citizens visited active logging at Bear Pen in Fall
2003 as part of Back to the WALL (Witness Against Lawless Logging). Thumbs
down is demonstrating how they feel about what they saw.
28 units containing 409 acres
CONTRACT HOLDER
Swanson-Superior
MEDFORD BLM CONTACT
Lynda Boody (618-2279); 3040 Biddle Road, Medford, Oregon 97504
Active logging in Fall 2003. The sale has not been completely cut.
Logging began again in spring 2004.
Douglas County, northwest of Grants Pass in the west fork of the Cow Creek watershed.
STATUS
Approved, awarded, logged.
BACKGROUND
The Bear Pen timber sale includes more than 4oo acres of commercial logging. 311 acres of that is regeneration cutting, essentially clearcutting. The sale also includes 60 acres of tractor logging, the most egregious logging method. Unfortunately, the restoration and fuel reduction component of this sale has been postponed. KS Wild did not legally protest the restoration or fuels reduction components of this timber sale. Located in the Glendale Resource Area of the Medford BLM, Bear Pen is a fragment of habitat in the midst of heavily degraded areas in the west fork of the Cow Creek watershed. This old growth logging will only further degrade an already suffering watershed, affecting Coho salmon and other stream bearing species.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Visit the Bear Pen timber sale and other publicly owned BLM forests near you. Contact the Medford BLM and let them know that tractor logging is archaic and severely damaging to precious soil resources. Remind them that authentic fuels reduction can, and should be separated from any commercial component of timber projects on public lands. Real restoration projects can be implemented, while mature and old-growth logging will continue to be protested.