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Court Halts Timber Sale on Klamath National Forest
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Beaver Creek Watershed Protected from Mature and Old-Growth Logging
For Immediate Release – October 15, 2004
Contact: George Sexton, KS Wild (541) 488-5789
Scott Greacen, EPIC (707) 923-2931
Yreka, Ca – A Federal District Court found that the Klamath National Forest repeatedly violated the law in its preparation of the Beaver Creek old-growth Timber Sale. The Beaver Creek Timber Sale on the Scott River Ranger District, Klamath National Forest proposed to log 975 acres of old-growth forests within the Beaver Creek watershed, a tributary to the mid/upper Klamath River. The timber sale contained a variety of logging prescriptions, including selecting large areas where all the trees would be removed.
In KS Wild v. USFS, the court found that old-growth habitat would be harmed in the project. It also held for environmentalists that the project would harm the Beaver Creek Watershed, in violation of the Northwest Forest Plan. While the Forest Service contends that this project is restoration, the court had a different opinion:
“The court has found that the Forest Service violated NEPA by arbitrarily and capriciously disregarding and discounting short term impacts to the Hungry Creek Watershed.” Stated US District Court Judge Frank Damrell, JR.
KS Wild Conservation Director George Sexton noted, "The only people who would have the audacity to describe old-growth logging in critical habitat for salmon as 'watershed restoration' are the timber sale planners in the Klamath National Forest. This decision ensures that the last, best, cold water refuge for salmon on the Klamath River will not become the latest victim of the Forest Service's addiction to old-growth logging."
Much of the Beaver Creek watershed has been logged in the past, and is "checkerboard" with private industrial timberlands interspersed with National Forest lands. Chinook, steelhead, and coho salmon are present in Beaver Creek and some of its tributaries. The logging would occur within subwatersheds that have been identified as over CWE thresholds, which the sale will exacerbate. The sale will have logged some of the last mature and old-growth fragments left in the watershed.
“Protecting the remaining salmon habitat and ancient forests in the Klamath river watershed is not only the right thing to do, it is what is required by the law of the land.” Noted Scott Greacen, National Forest Program Coordinator for EPIC.
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Contact: George Sexton, KS Wild (541) 488-5789
Scott Greacen, EPIC (707) 923-2931
Yreka, Ca – A Federal District Court found that the Klamath National Forest repeatedly violated the law in its preparation of the Beaver Creek old-growth Timber Sale. The Beaver Creek Timber Sale on the Scott River Ranger District, Klamath National Forest proposed to log 975 acres of old-growth forests within the Beaver Creek watershed, a tributary to the mid/upper Klamath River. The timber sale contained a variety of logging prescriptions, including selecting large areas where all the trees would be removed.
In KS Wild v. USFS, the court found that old-growth habitat would be harmed in the project. It also held for environmentalists that the project would harm the Beaver Creek Watershed, in violation of the Northwest Forest Plan. While the Forest Service contends that this project is restoration, the court had a different opinion:
“The court has found that the Forest Service violated NEPA by arbitrarily and capriciously disregarding and discounting short term impacts to the Hungry Creek Watershed.” Stated US District Court Judge Frank Damrell, JR.
KS Wild Conservation Director George Sexton noted, "The only people who would have the audacity to describe old-growth logging in critical habitat for salmon as 'watershed restoration' are the timber sale planners in the Klamath National Forest. This decision ensures that the last, best, cold water refuge for salmon on the Klamath River will not become the latest victim of the Forest Service's addiction to old-growth logging."
Much of the Beaver Creek watershed has been logged in the past, and is "checkerboard" with private industrial timberlands interspersed with National Forest lands. Chinook, steelhead, and coho salmon are present in Beaver Creek and some of its tributaries. The logging would occur within subwatersheds that have been identified as over CWE thresholds, which the sale will exacerbate. The sale will have logged some of the last mature and old-growth fragments left in the watershed.
“Protecting the remaining salmon habitat and ancient forests in the Klamath river watershed is not only the right thing to do, it is what is required by the law of the land.” Noted Scott Greacen, National Forest Program Coordinator for EPIC.
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