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Tree-falling irks Applegate residents Mail Tribune / Paul Fattig David Calahan shows a felled tree in the Long Gulch area that was marked "riparian management zone." He and other Applegate residents hoping to protect some 11,200 acres in the area are concerned that loggers are cutting outside the limits of an approved timber sale. Neighbors move to protect a riparian zone they feel is threatened by timber sales, but the BLM says contractors follow marked boundaries By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune RUCH - The fir tree, some 14 inches in diameter at the base, is prominently marked with a bright pink sign and a long pink ribbon. The sign reads "RB," meaning riparian boundary. The ribbon is marked "RMZ" for riparian management zone. But the tree marking the riparian area at the head of Long Gulch is down, cut recently by a timber faller. Other trees within the riparian area also have been felled. Protection sought for two sites Long Gulch runs through the Wellington Wildlands area, which is the heart of a proposed 11,200-acre area of critical environmental concern on BLM forestland. In addition to that acreage, which includes a contiguous tract on the east side of Humbug Creek, local residents want to protect a 4,900-acre site on the west side of the stream. The objective of a critical-environmental-concern designation is to protect and preserve special characteristics, including everything from significant cultural sites to areas of rare plants and wildlife. The proposal was submitted to the BLM on Oct. 1. No decision has been made on the nomination. "There is a lot of miscommunication here, at the very least," said David Calahan, an Applegate Valley resident who has been leading an effort to protect 6,300 acres known as the Wellington Wildlands in the area. "I had been led to believe that inside a riparian management zone they do not fall timber. But look at this," he said, his sweeping gesture pointing to the trees that have been cut. "I feel that all of us have been misled," he added. "I don't understand why they cut these trees. I'm sure the BLM has some excuse why it happened." There is no need for excuses, said Kenny McDaniel, a Bureau of Land Management forester working on the controversial 1,000-acre Isabelle timber sale, which cuts into a portion of the roadless area high in the drainage. "It's not a problem at all," McDaniel said. "The problem would be if they started falling outside the orange posted painted lines." The contractors did not go beyond those lines that mark the limit of the sale, he said. High bidder on the sale is Superior Lumber Co. of Glendale. The trees posted with riparian markers are meant to be buffers, McDaniel said. "We have contractors who go through and put in the boundaries," he explained. "Our BLM layout crew will follow them and also mark the boundary. "They follow those riparian boundaries pretty close, but sometimes the contractors don't always mark the boundaries that are best for the area," he added. "Those boundaries are a rough outline." Adjustments are sometimes made on the ground, said McDaniel, who has worked for more than 20 years for the agency. "We follow the boundary we think is best for the area," he said. McDaniel also noted that contractors will knock over another tree while falling a larger one, adding that could be the case with the marked tree. "If you destroy the boundary, that's a problem," McDaniel said. "That would create the potential for going outside the boundary. "But what I have observed is that the timber sale contractor did everything right," he added. The Wellington Wildlands area is part of a proposed 11,200-acre area of critical environmental concern on the BLM forestland. Those supporting the designation hope to stop the BLM from building roads into the tracts as part of the Ferris-Bugman timber sale scheduled for the region. The environmental assessment on that sale could be released this week, sources say. A 30-day comment period will begin upon its release. BLM officials say the project, which includes nearly 11,000 acres of federal forestlands, meets environmental guidelines. They say the roads - some nine miles - are a necessary part of what they describe as a planned fire reduction and forest health project which includes logging. But Calahan, who retired from the Medford fire department after 25 years, questions that conclusion, particularly after finding the trees felled at the head of Long Gulch. "Why would you go this far into the headwaters and wildlife connectivity corridor of Long Gulch?" he asked. "This is incredible. I was definitely told there would be no trees fallen inside Long Gulch." Applegate Valley resident Chris Bratt, a building contractor and a longtime environmental activist, was also concerned. "That's crazy to shave the whole hillside off," he said, citing potential erosion problems as well as the threat to wildlife using the corridor between the Rogue and Applegate river drainages. Cutting along the top of Long Gulch also paves the way for BLM plans to widen an old mining road that runs through the Wellington Wildlands, opponents say. "If you look at any literature about the degradation of watersheds, it concludes one of the worst things you can do to it is build roads," said Jim Clover, a retired entomologist who lives in the Slagle Creek drainage on the west side of the proposed area of critical environmental concern. In addition to erosion problems, roads introduce noxious weeds, such as yellow star thistle, he said. "The BLM will try to manage the roads, but they won't be able to," he said. "They don't have the money to manage them. Budgets come and go. They mostly go." 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.