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Going ... going ... tim-berrr Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Protesters peer into the windows of the Jackson County Expo Center on Thursday during a timber auction held by the Bureau of Land Management's Medford District office. BLM's auction draws bidders and protesters, who argue against old-growth logging By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune When the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Medford District offered its first timber auction in more than a year on Thursday, it was to the beat of different drummers. The auction at the Jackson County Exposition Park in Central Point drew about 50 protesters, many of whom beat drums and chanted outside the Padgham Pavilion. Inside, about two dozen timber industry representatives were present for the oral bidding. When it was over, the district had sold 26 million board feet of timber for $4.7 million, and one protester was arrested for vandalizing a woman's restroom. The agency offered nine sales totaling 34 million board feet in its Butte Falls, Ashland, Glendale and Grants Pass resource areas. Two of the nine did not sell. While the timber includes some old growth, the average diameter of the trees to be cut in the six major sales offered is 13.8 inches, said district spokeswoman Karen Gillespie. In those units, 94 percent would be cut for density management or commercial thinning, she said. The remaining 6 percent would be cut in a regeneration harvest method which leaves six to eight trees per acre, she said. "We got through the auction just fine, but some of the protesters were banging the doors and walls," Gillespie said, adding that the protest temporarily stopped the auction. "We see protesting as a part of people's right to free speech," she said. One man was arrested on a criminal mischief charge after setting off fire sprinklers in a bathroom, according to Lt. Dewey Patten of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department. Two other protesters were detained but released without being cited after allegedly blocking traffic entering the parking lot, he said. The arrested protester, Eric Navickas, 31, of Ashland, caused between $750 and $1,000 damage to the restroom, according to Expo manager Chris Borovansky. Navickas was issued a citation to appear in court on a charge of second-degree criminal mischief. "He busted the toilet and set two sprinklers off," Borovansky said. "There was a lot of water on dry walls. There will be quite a bit of cleanup and repair." David Hill, executive vice president of Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association, was also upset with the protest. "It was analogous to a bunch of small children throwing temper tantrums who didn't get their way," he said. The district had offered 257 million board feet of timber for sale annually in the years leading up to former President Clinton's Northwest Forest Conference of 1993, he said. "Today's practices are very benign compared to practices of the '80s and early '90s," he said. "But we still have folks who don't want to see any harvesting. They would rather see the forest burn, trees die and the local economy wither and blow away." But Jay Lininger, an activist with the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, an environmental group with offices in Ashland and Williams, described the protest as "mellow." He was one of the temporarily detained protesters. "It was a quiet expression of opinion that the federal government should get out of the old-growth logging business forever," he said. As for the destruction in the restroom, Lininger said the action did not represent the majority of demonstrators. "That individual acted alone without the support of the other protesters," he stressed. Mac Sutherlin, who was also detained but not arrested, agreed. "I felt it was peaceful and upbeat with a very clear message," Sutherlin said of the protest. "We stood with the majority. They strongly favor an end to old-growth logging on public lands." He was referring to a poll that indicates 75 percent of people in Oregon and Washington want old-growth timber preserved. Those opposed to the planned logging believe it would damage habitat for northern spotted owls and coho salmon, both threatened species, and increase fire hazards. "There is very little habitat left for endangered species," Lininger said. "These timber sales would cut a lot of the old growth that is left." 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.