Forest for the Trees

As a coalition urges the expansion of the wilderness area by 58,340 acres to protect a natural resource, others wonder if too much of a good thing will create economic hardship

Lew Nash grins when asked about the roll of duct tape stored in the back of the four-seater Cessna, vintage 1956.

"That's what holds the wings together," quips the veteran pilot for LightHawk, the largest volunteer-based environmental aviation organization on the continent.

Nash is about to launch an aerial survey of a proposed 58,340-acre addition to the Wild Rogue Wilderness, which now blankets some 36,500 acres on both sides of the lower Rogue River.

The proposal by environmental groups, river users and businesses also calls for adding nearly 98 miles of mountain streams to the lower Rogue Wild and Scenic River system to protect salmon and steelhead habitat.

The largest chunk of additional wilderness would include the roughly 46,000-acre Zane Grey Roadless Area on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Medford District.

A portion of the roadless area is slated for logging, although those plans, which include thinning the forest as well as harvesting old-growth timber, have been held up in court.

"We obviously want to have a sustainable and predictable timber program in southwestern Oregon," observes George Sexton, conservation director for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland, which is leading the push for the additional protection.

"But we also have to recognize other values forests provide for our economy, our recreation and our fisheries," he adds before climbing into the high-wing plane with a reporter and photographer. "The Rogue River is a worldwide attraction."

The Zane Grey Roadless Area, named after the famed author who fished the lower reaches nearly a century ago, is the largest block of intact roadless ancient forest administered by the BLM, Sexton says.

Nash, 75, a pilot with 45 years under his wings who began volunteering for LightHawk in 1985, knows the lay of the land, having flown over the rugged river canyon on several occasions.

The Ashland resident also has faith in the aircraft he bought in 1979.

"This is a venerable old bird, a trusty old station wagon of an airplane," he says. "It may look not so hot but mechanically it's very good."

Before lifting off from the Ashland airport, Nash pores over a map of the existing wilderness and the proposed expansion with Sexton.

"Let's go down along the river over the wilderness, then do a couple of turns so we can contrast the intact roadless blocks with the more classic checkerboard logging areas," suggests Sexton, who has hiked into much of the proposed wilderness area.

"We can make a couple of passes — let's start out high and go from there," Nash agrees.

With that, the pilot cranks up the engine, rolls out on the tarmac and roars into the air, bound for the lower Rogue canyon.

Just before the plane approaches the western end of the river's wild section at the mouth of Grave Creek, Sexton points out past clearcuts below.

"You can see the classic old style of federal timber management — clearcut after clearcut with mid-slope logging road after mid-slope logging road," Sexton says. "But you can also see the world-class wild and scenic river with intact ancient forests surrounding it. It still has wild steelhead and salmon in it.

"The recreation and wildlife values are off the charts," he adds. "If the BLM logs it, those values are gone for the remainder of our lifetimes."

Down on the ground, Katrina Symons, timber sales manager for the BLM's Glendale Resource Area, says the agency already has sold two timber sales in the roadless areas included in the proposed wilderness expansion.

That includes the Upper East Kelsey timber sale, containing 10.7 million board feet on 514 acres, and the 2.9 million-board-foot Mari Kelsey sale on 231 acres, she says. A third sale — the 260-acre West Whiskey — in the roadless tracts currently is being laid out and is expected to be offered next year, she says, noting the board footage of that sale has not yet been determined.

But a lawsuit by environmental groups over the Upper East Kelsey and Mari Kelsey sales and subsequent appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco have halted the sales. In order to comply with the Endangered Species Act, the court decreed the BLM must conduct a second biological opinion regarding the impact on northern spotted owls in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which had withdrawn its earlier biological opinion. The earliest the two sales could move forward is late this year, she says.

"From where the BLM is sitting, we believe these sales are implementing our resource management plan and carrying out that intent," Symons says, noting the plan calls for sustainable forestry. "We believe they are good sales."

She says that 78 percent of the land within the roughly 800,000-acre district is under some level of protection from logging, leaving 22 percent allocated for timber production. The annual timber target sale for the district is 57 million board feet.

As for the proposal, Symons offers no opinion.

"We work at the pleasure of Congress," she says, referring to the fact that Congress will ultimately decide the proposal's fate.

Dave Schott, executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association, has an opinion, however.

"I think we have to tread lightly in devoting more and more lands to wilderness from our timber base," he says. "This is one way the environmentalists can potentially negate logging in areas proposed for timber production according to the Northwest Forest Plan."

He is referring to the 1994 plan that allocated federal forestlands for timber harvest while protecting others.

"We already have millions of acres set aside for wilderness," he says. "This would do nothing more than erode from the base that can go to county funding. When is enough enough?"

The proposal is supported by more than 40 business owners, counters Beverly Moore, who, along with her husband, Marshall Dixon, owns the Rogue Forest Bed & Breakfast in Galice.

"This is a national treasure," says Moore, who has spent nearly 30 years along the lower river, doing everything from river guiding to managing a river lodge.

"Our counties are facing some very serious economic challenges," she says, referring to cuts in timber receipts from public lands. "I'm not against logging. There are places where we can log. But I would like tourism to have an equal say in how we generate dollars. If we protect these areas, tourism will continue to be an economic base for us."

She estimates tourists drawn to the region by the wild Rogue spend millions of dollars each year in the area. Although the BLM has no estimate of the economic impact, about 15,000 people float the lower Rogue during the annual permit season from May 15 through Oct. 15, according to Chris Dent, the BLM's river manager. Another 2,500 hike the historic Rogue River Trail each year, he says.

David Moryc, an associate director for American Rivers, a national group promoting the protection of the nation's rivers, says the fact the lower section of the river was one of the eight originally named in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 reflects its national stature.

"But a river is only as good as the health of its tributaries," he says. "These creeks are so important for cold water, fish refuge and spawning and rearing habitat. We need to protect that watershed."

Buffeted by turbulence, the Cessna soars over the wild section to Big Bend, then heads back upriver to Mount Bolivar, rising to 4,319 feet above sea level on the eastern edge of the wilderness.

Nash banks the plane in a wide circle over Mule Creek Canyon, making a long, slow turn.

"You can see the mosaic effects left by the Blossom fire," Sexton says, referring to the 2005 wildfire that burned nearly 15,000 acres. "Very healthy effect. It did a lot to reduce the fuel loading."

The airborne station wagon rumbles smoothly over a ridge into the airspace above the west fork of Cow Creek, a tributary of the Umpqua River. Old and new clearcuts can be seen below on the checkerboard of BLM and private timber lands.

"I don't hear anyone from the conservation community saying, 'We want to stop all logging,'" Sexton stresses as the plane lumbers on. "That's not where the debate is these days."

Most folks in the environmental camps want the agency to focus its timber management on lands already logged, he says. Small-diameter thinning and fuel-reduction projects provide a long-term income for local communities, he says.

Farther upriver, Nash flies his passengers over the Kelsey Creek watershed.

"Look at the size of those trees down there — real lunkers," Sexton says, using a sports fishing term. "The conifer diversity never ceases to astound me, everything from sugar pine, which does well with dry climates, to Pacific yew trees, which are rain forest-like trees. And you have hardwoods scattered throughout.

"To see a watershed like this intact from the river to its headwaters is amazing," he adds.

Proponents of the wilderness expansion and wild and scenic river additions had presented members of the Oregon delegation with letters supporting it late this past week.

"I don't anticipate any problems getting legislation introduced," Sexton says as Nash points the Cessna back to its home base. "There is a strong desire from both the Oregon delegation and Oregonians in general to leave a healthy, lasting legacy for the Rogue."

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.