Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Local Scene Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us September 15, 2005 Activists call for logging moratorium Public meeting held over illegal cutting in reserves By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings Environmentalists, angry with the Forest Service for accidentally and illegally logging in the Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area, called for a moratorium on Biscuit fire logging projects and an independent investigation into how such a critical area was so badly damaged at a meeting in Cave Junction on Tuesday night. The public meeting was called by the forest service to discuss how it should proceed now after the damage done in a rare botanical area that contained the largest collection of old growth Brewers’ spruce. At some point during the spring or summer, loggers for Silver Creek Timber Company cleared 17 acres from the 352-acre botanical area because the forest service mis-marked the timber sale area. Residents didn’t discover the damage because the forest service kept the road to Babyfoot Lake closed all summer. “We briefly described how it happened and what we can do to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” Pam Bode, district ranger for the Illinois Valley Ranger District, said. “This error is not tolerable. It’s a big mistake. This botanical area is no longer the best example of old growth Brewers’ spruce.” But, Bode said it is time to move forward and decide how best to repair the botanical area. Environmentalists, however, believe larger questions neeed to be asked. They are calling for an independent investigation into the matter, a moratorium on all logging associated with the Biscuit fire salvage recovery project and continued meetings to discuss how to prevent such erroneous action from ever happening again. “It’s not the first mistake the forest service has made on the Biscuit project,” Dot Fisher-Smith, an Ashland resident who has actively protested this logging project, said. “The forest service is going to have to prove some things to us before they can ever regain our trust.” The 17 acres of permanent damage to the botanical area is just the latest error in the Biscuit fire salvage timber sales. Earlier this year, Silver Creek Timber was fined for illegal logging in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. And Bode confirmed that there have been other mistakes made, such as cutting too close to a riparian corridor, on the project. “This is not the perfect process,” Bode said. Environmentalists have asked the forest service to act slowly and judiciously in regards to these controversial timber sales. However, many say, the government has treated fires as economic disasters and rushed the sales through, even while lawsuits continue in the court system. “How about a little quality control here,” Annette Rasch, the spokesperson for the Biscuiteers, the group of activists who have protested the Biscuit logging, said. “The Forest Service has done everything in its power to rush these sales through. It’s not really surprising that such big mistakes were made.” Rasch said more than apologies are needed to help protect the rest of the Illinois Valley. “We believe enough mistakes have been that all logging should be halted,” she said, and added that at the very least, the forest service should protect all other areas with a substantial population of Brewers’ spruce. “There are other areas of Brewers’ spruce on the chopping block,” she said. “They should be put into protective status.” Brewers’ spruce is one of North America’s rarest species of conifer tree and it is the most recently identified variety in the world. The Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area was created in 1962 to protect and display this rare tree. Bode said the forest service is deliberating whether to replant the 17 acres or allow them to regenerate naturally. “The question that lies before us is should we intervene again or allow the natural processes to take place,” she said. There will be a second meeting concerning this issue on Tuesday, at 1 p.m. This meeting will be attended by the forest service but they have agreed to allow the public to spearhead this effort. There will be a third meeting on Sept. 28. The first meeting will be held at the Illinois Valley Ranger District Butler Building. The second will be held at a neutral location. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Merchant Account Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams