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BLM Old-Growth Salvage Logging Found Illegal
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Federal Court Admonishes BLM For Repeatedly Violating the Law - Elk Creek Old-Growth Reserve Protected
For Immediate Release: November 15, 2004
Contact:
George Sexton, Conservation Director, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center (541) 488-5789
Susan Jane Brown, Staff Attorney, Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (503) 768-6823
Eugene, OR. – On November 8, 2004, US District Court Judge Ann Aiken held that the Medford BLM violated numerous environmental laws in preparing the Timbered Rock salvage sales in the Elk Creek Watershed. The entire federal portion of the Timbered Rock burn occurred with the Elk Creek Late-Successional Reserve. In addition to being an LSR under the Northwest Forest Plan, the Timbered Rock planning area is also a Tier-1 Key Watershed designed to protect at-risk chinook, coho, and steelhead, and has been designated as habitat critical for the survival of the Northern Spotted Owl by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Elk Creek Watershed was also a “deferred watershed” according to the BLM, a designation that prohibited ground disturbing activity due to high past cumulative impacts.
“The Timbered Rock timber sale violated the most basic environmental protections on the books,” Noted Plaintiffs’ attorney Susan Jane Brown of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center. “The BLM wanted to log big trees in a Late Successional Reserve, log near streams, and punch logging roads into watershed that serves as an important salmon fishery. Every measurable indicator of forest health would have been harmed by this illegal timber sale.”
“The Medford BLM hoped to turn the big trees and salmon streams of the Elk Creek Watershed into an industrial fiber plantation,” said George Sexton, Conservation Director of the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. “Over 6,000 acres of private lands within the fire perimeter were clearcut, and the BLM was salivating at the opportunity to do the same thing to our public lands.”
“The old-growth forests in Elk Creek burned at low severity, while the tree farms burned explosively,” said Sexton. “A Damage Appraisal Report by the Oregon Department of Forestry found that tree farms under 35 years of age burned at 100% mortality, while the old forest over 200 years only burned at 10 % mortality.”
Yet the BLM timber sale targeted the biggest trees while refusing to thin the dense young fiber plantations. Judge Aiken’s decision protects over 800 acres of native forests within the LSR from being turned into fiber plantations.
While many foresters are trying to improve the health of the forests through the thinning of brush and small diameter trees, the Medford BLM continues to log the biggest trees it can find.
“The average tree marked for logging at Timbered Rock was about 26 inches in diameter, over two feet wide. These are huge trees.” Noted Mr. Sexton. “If we want sustainable jobs, and healthy watersheds, the BLM has got to begin the labor-intensive thinning of small diameter plantations.”
Plaintiffs included the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Cascadia Wildlands Center, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Sierra Club, and Umpqua Watersheds.
Contact:
George Sexton, Conservation Director, Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center (541) 488-5789
Susan Jane Brown, Staff Attorney, Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (503) 768-6823
Eugene, OR. – On November 8, 2004, US District Court Judge Ann Aiken held that the Medford BLM violated numerous environmental laws in preparing the Timbered Rock salvage sales in the Elk Creek Watershed. The entire federal portion of the Timbered Rock burn occurred with the Elk Creek Late-Successional Reserve. In addition to being an LSR under the Northwest Forest Plan, the Timbered Rock planning area is also a Tier-1 Key Watershed designed to protect at-risk chinook, coho, and steelhead, and has been designated as habitat critical for the survival of the Northern Spotted Owl by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Elk Creek Watershed was also a “deferred watershed” according to the BLM, a designation that prohibited ground disturbing activity due to high past cumulative impacts.
“The Timbered Rock timber sale violated the most basic environmental protections on the books,” Noted Plaintiffs’ attorney Susan Jane Brown of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center. “The BLM wanted to log big trees in a Late Successional Reserve, log near streams, and punch logging roads into watershed that serves as an important salmon fishery. Every measurable indicator of forest health would have been harmed by this illegal timber sale.”
“The Medford BLM hoped to turn the big trees and salmon streams of the Elk Creek Watershed into an industrial fiber plantation,” said George Sexton, Conservation Director of the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. “Over 6,000 acres of private lands within the fire perimeter were clearcut, and the BLM was salivating at the opportunity to do the same thing to our public lands.”
“The old-growth forests in Elk Creek burned at low severity, while the tree farms burned explosively,” said Sexton. “A Damage Appraisal Report by the Oregon Department of Forestry found that tree farms under 35 years of age burned at 100% mortality, while the old forest over 200 years only burned at 10 % mortality.”
Yet the BLM timber sale targeted the biggest trees while refusing to thin the dense young fiber plantations. Judge Aiken’s decision protects over 800 acres of native forests within the LSR from being turned into fiber plantations.
While many foresters are trying to improve the health of the forests through the thinning of brush and small diameter trees, the Medford BLM continues to log the biggest trees it can find.
“The average tree marked for logging at Timbered Rock was about 26 inches in diameter, over two feet wide. These are huge trees.” Noted Mr. Sexton. “If we want sustainable jobs, and healthy watersheds, the BLM has got to begin the labor-intensive thinning of small diameter plantations.”
Plaintiffs included the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Cascadia Wildlands Center, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Sierra Club, and Umpqua Watersheds.