Document text
http://www.omniture.com --> Email Story to a Friend June 4, 2006 Salvage sale goes to bid Friday By Paul Fattig Mail Tribune The controversial Mike's Gulch salvage sale, believed to be the first roadless area timber unit in the national forest system to be sold since the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule was repealed last year, will be put up for auction Friday. The 9.36 million-board-foot sale on 251 acres in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is one of two roadless area salvage sales from the 2002 Biscuit fire the U.S. Forest Service plans to offer this year. The other is the larger Blackberry sale, expected to be offered this summer. Both inventoried roadless areas are on the northwest side of the Illinois Valley Ranger District. The auction comes nearly four years after lightning sparked the nearly half-million acre Biscuit fire in July. Both salvage opponents and supporters have questioned how much marketable timber is left, citing wood rot and insect infestation in the fire-killed trees. "Our thought is there is still interest out there," said forest spokesman Paul Galloway of timber industry interest in the auction. "We don't know anything for sure. We'll see who comes in for the auction. Our assumption is there is at least one, if not more, that will come in and bid." Timber firms have until 10 a.m. Friday to submit sealed bids for the sale which must be logged by helicopter. The oral auction will be held immediately following the deadline. John West, president of the Silver Creek Timber Co., which has already harvested Biscuit fire salvage sales, plans to check it out. "I don't know about the rest of the industry but we are going to take a hard look at it," he said. "There is some decay and checking splitting setting in. In some places it will be OK; in other places not so good. "On the small-diameter end, a lot of that won't be any good," he added, then reiterated, "But we're going to take a hard look at it." Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, an industry group, will be watching closely to see how the auction goes. He is not related to John West. "I haven't heard anybody just chomping at the bit on it," Chris West said of the sale. "The problem is we are almost four years out. I don't know how much use you can get out of this wood. "There still may be a little bit of value in the core of the biggest trees," he added. "What you are left with after four years is logging only the biggest of the big." The average diameter of the Douglas fir trees at chest height in the unit is 31.3 inches, according to a Forest Service estimate. While Chris West blamed the environmental movement for the delay which led to the focus on the largest trees, activists fiercely rejected the charge, noting it was the agency, pushed by the industry, which dropped the originally planned 100 million board feet of salvage for some 370 million board feet now proposed. So far, only about 60 million board feet have been harvested. "It would be an understatement to call these logging plans controversial," said Matt Fisher, wildlands advocate for the Oregon Natural Resources Council. "There is simply little to no public support for logging that would destroy some of our last remaining public wild lands." He and other salvage opponents say the dead timber, particularly the large trees, provide vital shade and nutrients to the forest's next generation. In fact, the announcement about the timber sale auction comes just days after an environmental group released a study which found abundant conifer seedlings springing up in the roadless areas burned by the Biscuit fire. Conducted by the Siskiyou Regional Education Project, the study showed 100 conifer seedlings have naturally sprouted up in a majority of the study acres in both the Mike's Gulch and Blackberry salvage sale areas. Noting that polls have repeatedly shown the public, from hikers to hunters, is opposed to logging roadless areas, Fisher said Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has asked the agency twice this year to defer logging until a petition is filed to protect all the of the state's roadless areas. "If they log this, it would be the first time in the nation since the roadless rule was repealed that the Forest Service has logged in a roadless area," he said. "This would set a precedent that it's OK to log a pristine area. And the public has repeatedly said it is not OK." Rolf Skar, campaign director for Southern Oregon's Siskiyou Project, said the agency should wait until the fate of an appeal to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. He was referring to an environmental appeal filed after U.S. District Court Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene dismissed earlier this year consolidated lawsuits to prevent salvage logging in the Biscuit fire's roadless areas. He had upheld a recommendation by U.S. Magistrate John Cooney in Medford to dismiss the legal challenge nearly a year ago. "I'm surprised the Forest Service wanted to charge ahead on this roadless sale — this is the height of hypocrisy," he said, noting it represents a broken promise by the Bush administration not to log a roadless area while a state governor is petitioning against it. "There is an appeal but that appeal doesn't put us in a position where we can't move forward at this time," Galloway said. "If an injunction comes through, we will abide by that." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or at [email protected] Advertisement s Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations --> online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Entertainment Guide --> Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy