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67 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, September 16, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 4, 2004 Foresters likely to draw notice Environmental groups plan protests; two people with opposing views will debate By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune ASHLAND — Like a tree falling in the forest when no one is around, the annual meeting of the Siskiyou Chapter of the Society of American Foresters often goes unnoticed beyond the forestry profession. But the three-day 2004 conference which begins Wednesday at Southern Oregon University likely will be different. Members of the National Forest Protection Alliance, Greenpeace and local environmental groups plan to protest Friday morning’s conference speech by Mark Rey, undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment. And a public debate is planned Thursday morning between conference presenter John Sessions, an Oregon State University professor who supports a Biscuit fire timber salvage proposal in the Siskiyou National Forest, and Dominick DellaSala, a World Wildlife Fund forest ecologist opposed to salvage on a large scale. The debate, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in Room 118 of SOU’s Science Building, is being organized by the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and SOU’s Ecology Center of the Siskiyous. It is not part of the conference, according to organizers. Advertisement The format includes allowing Sessions and DellaSala each to make a 20-minute presentation and then ask each other one question, followed by questions being taken from the floor. Both confirmed Monday they would participate in the debate. As for the planned protests, conference organizers say they have no objection, providing it stays legal. "I would pretty much expect someone would take advantage of this opportunity to protest," said Don Ferguson, a spokesman for the conference. "They could disrupt the flow of information. "But they are welcome to their space out there," he added. According to a flier distributed by protest organizers, the protesters plan to rally outside SOU’s Stevenson Union. The conference will be held inside. The theme of this year’s conference is "Strong Roots — Strong Future." The Siskiyou Chapter membership includes foresters from throughout Southwestern Oregon. About 135 foresters from government agencies and the private sector are expected to attend. The conference will feature presentations on past, present and future forestry perspectives from leading scientists, land managers and forest product experts. Rey’s address, scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday, is titled "Looking Back, Moving Forward." He has bachelor’s degrees in forestry and wildlife management and a master’s degree in natural resource policy and administration, all from the University of Michigan. Other speakers who have drawn the ire of the environmental community include Hal Salwasser, dean of OSU’s College of Forestry and a former regional forester for the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Region; and Sessions, the OSU forest engineering professor whose salvage report on the Biscuit Fire indicated that some 500 million board feet of fire-killed timber could be harvested from the fire that burned a half-million acres in 2002. All three speakers — Rey, Salwasser and Session — have used their government or academic positions to push for salvage logging the national forestland burned by the Biscuit fire, said Missoula, Mont., resident Jake Kreilick, endangered forests project coordinator for the National Forest Protection Alliance. Although Kreilick, who has a master’s degree in environmental studies, is helping organize the protests, he stressed he hopes there will be dialogue between environmental activists and conference participants. "We definitely are going to try to voice our displeasure over the Biscuit salvage project," he said in a telephone interview. "We intend to take this opportunity to get our message out before the Forest Service makes its record of decision." The agency is expected to make a final decision on Biscuit fire salvage this spring. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities