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Timber sales slated for partial cuts By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT - More than 34 million board feet of timber - enough to build 3,400 average-size homes - will be offered for sale on the Medford District of the Bureau of Land Management today. The oral auction, which begins at 9 a.m. in the Padgham Pavilion of the Jackson County Exposition Park, will be the district's first timber sale in more than a year. The auction includes six large timber sales on 3,900 acres and three salvage-timber sales harvesting 400,000 board feet on 36 acres. The latter is restricted to small businesses with 25 or fewer employees. Oral auction set today The six major timber sales being auctioned off today include: Bieber Wasson timber sale, 11 million board feet, 888 acres, Butte Falls Resource Area. Poole Hill timber sale, 6.9 million, 609 acres, Ashland Resource Area. Mister Wilson timber sale, 6.4 million, 203 acres, Glendale Resource Area. Conde Shell timber sale, 6 million, 1,680 acres, Ashland Resource Area. Soukow timber sale, 2 million, 236 acres, Glendale Resource Area. Free and Easy II, 1.7 million, 290 acres, Grants Pass Resource Area. All of the sales are slated for partial cutting, meaning they will not be clear-cut. Harvesting methods will include density management, commercial thinning, single-tree selection and regeneration. The auction is good news for the local timber industry, which in recent years has suffered from slowdowns in timber sales brought on by tightening federal regulations. "We're real pleased the BLM is ready to auction them off," said Dave Hill, executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association. "It's a big improvement over (fiscal year) 2001. They didn't offer any." Although a timber auction had been scheduled for September, before the federal fiscal year 2001 ended Oct. 31, it had been held off until today because of delayed biological opinions from other agencies. The sale is being chided by environmentalists who plan to protest during the auction. "(The) BLM should join the 21st century and get out of the old-growth logging business," said Jay Lininger, an activist with the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands environmental group in Ashland. "We don't need to cut old trees for wood fiber any more than we need to harpoon whales for lamp oil," he added in a prepared statement. Lininger and others opposed to the proposed logging say it will harm species threatened with extinction, including coho salmon and the northern spotted owl. But Hill said thinning the forest in areas will make it healthier and less prone to fire, adding that he disagrees with those who believe logging is decimating the salmon fishery. "The fish runs have been fantastic this year," Hill said. "There is no fish problem." The agency has found no significant environmental impact from the planned logging, said district spokeswoman Karen Gillespie. "We followed the NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) process very closely," she said. "We are buffering the critical habitat for fish." The district also has received letters of concurrence on the action from the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, she said. The logging does include cutting some old-growth timber, she said, noting that description includes trees that are more than 100 years old. "The ones being cut are either diseased or have mistletoe in them," she said. "They are being cut to remove the threat of disease or the spread of mistletoe." While there is a commercial component to the timber sales, the logging also will reduce the threat of a catastrophic fire, she said. All of the slash will be treated immediately after harvesting to reduce fire hazard, she said. Although the auction is oral, participants also were allowed to submit written bids. About 30 firms and individuals are expected to bid. The auction marks the second timber sale in nearly three years on the BLM's Medford District. The last timber auction, for 28 million board feet, was held in September 2000. The target cut for the district each year is 57 million board feet. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.