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Activists will drop logging appeal Forest Service trims Ashland watershed project to 116 acres By TONY BOOM ASHLAND - An environmental group says it will drop its appeal of logging in the Ashland watershed after Forest Service officials agreed to reduce the number of acres to be logged. The Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center will withdraw its appeal as part of an agreement reached late last week with the Ashland Ranger District to reduce the number of acres to be logged from 145 to 116. Logging is one component of a plan to reduce hazardous fuels on 1,549 acres in the watershed. Director Jay Lininger said the center was concerned about logging on unstable lands. The agreement with the district prevents logging in some areas considered at risk for landslides. "The main thing we were after was to get the landslide areas out (of the logging plan)," he said. A second appeal against the Ashland Watershed Protection Project will continue, however, says its originator, Ashland resident Eric Navickas. "Logging isn't appropriate for fuel-reduction work," he said. "The commercial (logging) units are designed solely to compensate the Forest Service for the cost of doing the authentic, non-commercial fuel-reduction work" (such as using hand tools and prescribed burns). Ashland District Ranger Linda Duffy, however, said removing the logs will cost more than the amount of money they produce as commercial timber. "This project has never been about logging trees for the sake of commercial profit, but (about) reducing vegetation that would result in a high-intensity, large-scale fire," she said. Navickas' appeal will be considered by the Forest Service's regional office in Portland. Navickas could seek court intervention if the appeal is denied. The fuel-reduction plan for the Ashland watershed was finalized in May after five years of public debate. In addition to logging, it includes using hand tools on 1,141 acres and holding prescribed burns on 263 acres. No trees larger than 17 inches in diameter will be removed in the logging, which is scheduled to start in 2003. The fuel-reduction project is scheduled to take up to eight years. A total of 400 acres will be treated in the current fiscal year by hand cutting, piling and burning. National Fire Plan appropriations, approved by Congress last year, will pay for the work. The total cost of reduction is estimated at $1.8 million. Neither Lininger nor Navickas said they wanted to interrupt manual efforts to reduce fire hazards. But Navickas said he was concerned commercial logging could increase the possibility of fire in the watershed. "I'm disappointed that the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center has come to an agreement and not come to a firm position that commercial extraction is not a viable way of dealing with fuel reduction," he said. Reach Ashland bureau reporter Tony Boom at 482-4651, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.