BLM’s “Wolf-Pup” Timber Sale: Grave Creek and Wolf Creek Watersheds

The Glendale Resource Area of the Medford BLM is currently planning to log over 2,000 acres in the Wolf Creek area. The logging would occur in fire-resilient old-growth forests, within streamside riparian reserves, and within forests designated as critical habitat for the threatened Northern spotted owl. Winter steelhead and coho salmon also call this watershed home.

528 acres of the proposed logging would consist of “regeneration harvest” in which native old-growth forests are removed and converted into dense young fiber plantations.

The BLM proposes 3.2 miles of new road construction, which would further fragment habitat and bleed sediment into creeks.

Putting Rural Communities At-Risk

There is scientific and social consensus that green old-growth forests help dampen the effects of wildfire. Even timber planners in the BLM acknowledge that fire hazard increases when the agency cuts down an ancient forest and replaces it with tightly spaced second-growth. As stated in the BLM’s Grave Creek Watershed Analysis (page 44):

“The high density of small trees and brush may result in increased risk of large, intense fires or increased susceptibility to disease or insect damage.”

Yet the BLM refuses to learn from its past mistakes and continues to propose timber sales that decrease forest resiliency and increase fire hazard. Rather than create new matchstick fiber farms, the BLM should focus on thinning existing plantations near communities to reduce fire risk. Thinning fire-suppressed forests and reintroducing fire through controlled burning would go a long way to making these forests more resilient.

Please Speak Up For Healthy Forests and Safe Communities

You can help protect the humans and critters that rely on the forests of Wolf Creek by writing a quick note to the BLM stating:

1) The BLM should not be increasing fire hazard by replacing old-growth forests with small tree plantations.

2) The BLM should protect the forest canopy of streamside riparian reserves as called for in its Resource Management Plan.

3) The BLM should focus its timber management on thinning out the vast second-growth stands that it has already created in this watershed.

Letters can go to:

Katrina Symons, Field Manager
Glendale Resource Area, Medford BLM
2164 NE Spalding, Grants Pass, OR 97526

Email your comments: Katrina_Symons@blm.gov

Please send a copy of your letter to Governor Kulongoski:

Governor Kulongoski
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, Oregon 97301-4047