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Wolf Creek angry over logging By VICKI GUARINO WOLF CREEK -- Neighbors are upset, but loggers say they're doing nothing wrong in cutting down trees on timber company ground above Interstate 5. "In fact, we're exceeding the requirements of the Oregon Forest Practices Act," says Jennifer Phillippi of Rough and Ready Lumber Co., referring to rules that govern timber cutting on private land. Rough and Ready's land-owning company, Indian Hill, obtained the acreage in 1996 from the former Medite Co. The sale was part of a much larger sell-off of the former Medford company's properties, Phillippi says. The Oregon Department of Transportation had traded the property to Medite in exchange for a piece of that corporation's land in Medford. But logging site neighbor Pam Stublefield says the hillside above her wooded home should never be logged because it is too steep and is damaging a spring. She is staging a protest today at her Wolf Creek home on Bridge Lane for the community and the public. "I would just like people to know what is going on," Stublefield says. "It's irreversible damage. It will never be the same." Beyond her environmental concerns, however, is the feeling that the logging is going on because the state of Oregon has violated a trust. For 20 years, Stublefield says, the next-door property was posted with park signs. "It said `Oregon State Park.' Not one sign. Many, many signs all around the property," she says. So when Stublefield moved in, she assumed that because the land was a state park, it would be preserved. "How state parkland can be clear cut is just beyond me," she says. She says she can't get a clear answer from state officials. At the moment, that particular portion of the property's history is unclear, says John Vial of the Oregon Department of Transportation. ODOT is tied to the parcel because about five years ago the department traded it and some other ODOT properties to get a highly sought piece of Medite ground. ODOT obtained the company's private road that runs from the north Medford freeway interchange to Vilas Road, and plans call for it to be part of the massive project that will help relieve traffic congestion on Highway 62. Construction on that $20 million project is set to begin in 2000. History of the land beyond that trade is a matter of searching through state archives in Salem. Vial said the results of that search may be known later today . Meanwhile, Vial can only speculate. At one time ODOT and state parks were parts of a single department. Transportation managers wound up supervising lots of natural areas. Park signs could have gone up in some cases as part of that work. So Vial is trying to determine if the land next to Stublefield had ever truly been a dedicated park. If so, a park decommissioning process might be required -- or was already done -- to permit logging. Meanwhile, Phillippi notes, the logging isn't all clearcutting. Crews are thinning and removing some large trees as well. And next spring, she says, the logged-over land will be replanted. She regrets neighbors' hard feelings, but says the company needs logs for its mill. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA