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Groups appeal Prospect log sales By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Environmental groups are stepping up their efforts to limit new logging on federal forests near Prospect by appealing a series of planned Forest Service timber sales. Four groups filed an administrative appeal against portions of the Rogue River National Forest's plan to sell nearly 40 million board feet of timber in Rogue forests around Mill Creek over the next 10 years. The groups support some of the rehabilitation projects, such as brush-burning and clearing to reduce wildfire dangers and even some logging of smaller trees within the 4,800-acre Mill Creek Timber Sales. Those projects could start as early as this spring. But the groups object to higher-intensity commercial logging on about 3,500 acres of previously logged forest that environmentalists say would lead to soil erosion, harmed habitat for protected Pacific fishers and threatened spotted owls, and degrade water quality in the upper Rogue watershed. "That watershed is over-cut and doesn't need to be slapped like that," said Jay Lininger, conservation director for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland. "We support restoration forestry on public lands," Lininger said, "but not corporate forestry." Joel King, the forest's Prospect ranger, said he was not surprised by the appeal and said he believes the timber sale fits environmental laws. "I think everyone's concerned about the woods," King said. "But we all have different feelings about how to manage the forest." The Mill Creek project seeks to cut 39.9 million board feet of timber using everything from tractors to helicopters working 209 different units in several individual sales scattered across 4,841 acres. While the project calls for re-opening 2.5 miles of old roads and building less than a mile of temporary roads, it calls for no large clearcuts nor new building of permanent roads in the upper Rogue watershed, which already sports about 4 miles of roads for every square mile of forest. King said the sales are primarily on younger tree plantations now growing on previously logged lands. The Rogue Forest had initially preferred Mill Creek logging to include 65.4 million board feet of timber, but foresters pared that down to the current level in response to criticism over impacts to water and soil. The appeal, filed at Monday's deadline, is the first step on the path toward sending the Mill Creek sale from the foresters' table to the federal courts. It sets up a formal meeting later this month with Tom Reilly, the Rogue Forest's acting supervisor, to hammer out any compromises or changes to the sale that resolve issues for both sides. Anything left unresolved could then be forwarded to Harv Forsgren, the Forest Service's regional forester in Portland. Both are procedural precursors to filing suit in federal court, a move Lininger called a "last resort" that the center's attorneys are willing to use. Lininger said his group and federal foresters likely can find some common ground to settle a few issues within the appeal. A switch from tractor logging to helicopter logging on a 657-acre tract of previously logged ground with erosion-prone soils, for example, likely would lift the Wildlands Center's objection, Lininger said. Similarly, environmentalists would drop their appeal of some commercial-logging proposals provided the logging was less intensive, Lininger said. Lininger fears the planned logging cuts too many larger trees needed for spotted owl habitat, and decimates snag areas used by a colony of Pacific fishers, which are candidates for federal Endangered Species Act protection. "The question is whether it's done in a heavy-handed way, or a light-touch way," Lininger said. But he said the group won't budge on its objection to logging in roadless areas or along unstable slopes where it would create erosion that would dirty creeks. "The logging in sensitive soil areas and unroaded areas are really big (issues)," Lininger said. "Clearcutting is off the table." King said he hoped federal foresters and environmental groups could put these kinds of forest-management conflicts behind them. Bigger-picture issues, such as global warming, wildfire threats and the threats of development on forestlands, are on the region's doorstep, King said. "We face some bigger challenges than just arguing over what trees we need to do some density-management on," King said. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.