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June 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels June 2, 2004 A Line in the Forest Staff Reports GALICE - Deep in the woods, Greenpeace opened its newest front in the fight against old-growth logging. Twenty miles west of Galice, on the edge of the Bureau of Land Management's proposed Kelsey Whiskey timber sales, Greenpeace members have set up several tents, a fire truck and a satellite communications system powered by solar energy. Jim Craven | Mail Tribune Jay Lininger, formerly of Ashland and a graduate student of forest ecology and fire science at the University of Montana in Missoula talks to reporters at Greenpeace's first U.S. Forest Rescue Station, at the site of the proposed Kelsey Whiskey timber sale in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of southern Oregon. The forest rescue station, which opened Tuesday, provides a place for Greenpeace to monitor "crimes" against the forest and for visitors to learn about the ecological importance of the region. The station is the group's first such place in the United States. "If the American people don't draw a line in the sand, then the Bush administration is going to leave us with a tragic legacy a graveyard of stumps," Ginger Cassady, a member of the "Forest Crime Unit," said in an interview with the (Medford) Mail-Tribune. "Greenpeace has come to southern Oregon because this is a place of international significance," she said. "We are here to support the local efforts trying to save these forests." Greenpeace campaign director Bill Richardson, a 16-year veteran of actions in both forests and aboard ships, said the group has a history of protecting forests worldwide. "Oregon has one of the most biologically diverse old-growth ecosystems in the country," he said. "It is the perfect place from which to address an issue which has incredible significance for our entire country." He declined to discuss what actions the group, which has a history of peaceful protests, would do to stop logging on Kelsey Whiskey. "Whatever is required," he said. Mary Smelcer, associate manager of the BLM's Medford District, said she hopes a representative of the group contacts the agency. "They haven't communicated with us," she said. "At this point, we'll spend some time making contact with them and talking to them. People have a right to camp on public lands." She declined to predict what could happen if the group stays beyond the 14-day camping limitation on district land per 90-day period. The first Kelsey Whiskey timber sale, which includes about 9 million board feet being logged on some 800 acres, is expected to be sold this summer, she said. Smelcer said the sales are in full compliance with environmental laws. Jay Lininger disagrees. The fourth-generation southern Oregon native and a graduate student of forest ecology and fire science at the University of Montana at Missoula said he thinks logging the area threatens the environment. "The Kelsey Whiskey sale is emblematic of an addiction by BLM foresters to log the largest, most ecological valuable trees on public land," he said. The Rescue Station's official opening coicided with the U.S. Forest Service's release of its final proposal for salvage logging within the massive 2002 Biscuit fire, which calls for logging 370 million board feet of dead trees. Greenpeace has promised protests if logging moves forward on the Biscuit fire. Many others from the local environmental community took issue with Forest Service claims that the 30 percent reduction from its preferred alternative is a good compromise. Dominick DellaSala, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Klamath-Siskiyou Regional Program in Ashland, said the decision reflects an extreme and irresponsible alternative that entails the uneccessary logging of forest reserves and roadless areas. "We need to put people on the ground to reconstruct the forest," he said, "not deconstruct it. Logging projects should be limited to areas close to developments and in existing timber plantations. These are the areas where people live and work and where they are more likely to be exposed to the risk of wildfire." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams