Document text
--> --> Eagle Creek sales to be reviewed PORTLAND (AP) - The U.S. Forest Service has asked four Northwest scientists to review the 1996 Eagle Creek timber sale to determine whether further logging should be canceled. The review requested by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was to have been completed by April 15 but is only now getting under way. Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman promised the independent review last fall. The Forest Service wants the team to answer three questions: Was blowdown anticipated and desired, inside and outside the sales' boundaries? Were the effects of blowdown on the nearby Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness Area considered? Have there been or are there expected to be any adverse environmental effects resulting from blowdown? No new deadline for the review was set, but the Forest Service asked the scientists to complete the review as soon as possible. The timber harvest season begins about June 1; the panel's first meeting is scheduled for May 29. Environmental activists, who want the sales canceled, are unhappy that the agency asked that the scientists focus on blown-down trees. "That's totally unacceptable to us," said Donald Fontenot, spokesman for the Cascadia Forest Alliance. "They should be looking at roadless area policy, watershed concerns, old-growth concerns." The review team could decide to widen the study to other issues, said Heidi Valetkevitch, a Forest Service spokeswoman based in Washington. Two years ago, Alliance activists began to occupy the Mount Hood forest in protest of the Eagle Creek sales. Members have held protest vigils and occupied trees to keep loggers from a harvest site near Estacada. Wyden and other political leaders in Oregon have raised questions about the Eagle Creek sales since Vanport Manufacturing of Boring won a $10.4 million contract to log 1,030 acres, more than half of which lies within roadless areas. Recently, the mayors of West Linn and Lake Oswego sent letters to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman raising concerns about the effects of logging on drinking water and critical fish habitat. Vanport has cut about 40 percent of the timber covered by the contract. But Adolf Hertrich, the company's president, said he's been unable to find a buyer willing to contract for the rest. The review team will be led by Jerry Franklin, a forest ecologist with the University of Washington. It also will include Chuck Meslow, Oregon State University wildlife ecologist; Gordie Reeves, a fishery biologist; and Bernard Bormann, a plant physiologist. Reeves and Bormann are with the Forest Services' Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing