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BLM defends its forestry methods Says it follows Northwest Timber Plan By PAUL FATTIG SELMA -- After 20 years as a Bureau of Land Management forester in the Medford District, John Prendergast is frustrated. But the lead forester for the BLM's Grants Pass Resource Area isn't facing burnout at work. What he is concerned about is what he believes is a misconception by many concerning the agency's forestry methods. "We hear things like we're cutting old growth and decimating the watershed out here," he said. "But none of that is true." Prendergast stressed that point Wednesday during a tour of several BLM sales, including the controversial Deer Mom sale just east of Selma. "We don't expect everyone to agree with us, but we would at least hope that the projects we do today are accurately portrayed," he said. The agency, he said treads lightly on the ground to meet requirements of 1994's Northwest Timber Plan. But members of the environmental community disagree. They point to a decision by U.S. District Judge William Dwyer in Seattle this month to place a temporary restraining order on nine federal timber sales, concluding the government violated the forest plan by failing to properly survey and manage nearly 80 species of threatened plants and animals. The decision included the BLM's North Murphy sale in the Grants Pass resource area. Dwyer will hold a hearing on an additional 12 federal sales on Friday, including Deer Mom and nine others in the Medford District. Dwyer's actions are the result of a 1998 lawsuit brought by 13 environmental groups. Work will continue on the Deer Mom sale unless the court rules otherwise, Prendergast said. "We have no legal basis to stop the work until there is a court decision that tells us differently," he said. But members of the Southern Oregon Forest Coalition who gathered in Medford Wednesday to vent frustrations over continued harvest at the sale say the BLM has the power to stop now. The contract contains a clause which allows the agency to halt the sale if it chooses, said Jay Lininger, a spokesman for the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center. "Deer Mom is illegal," he said. "Dwyer's language two weeks ago implicated Deer Mom as well as other similar sales." Lininger also took exception to comments by 2nd District Congressman Greg Walden, R-Hood River, who has indicated that the administration must change the plan to resolve the legal logjam. "The reason the Forest Service and the BLM have not properly implemented the plan is because all the funding is tied to timber production, not to implementing the plan," he said. "Congress has failed to provide funding that keeps timber sales legal. The onus now is on Congress." But that doesn't take the onus off the BLM, said Mort Mondale, a member of the Deer Creek Valley Natural Resources Conservation Association. "The BLM has demonstrated that they prefer to risk being stopped by a court, instead of simply doing the right thing as permitted in their contract for the protection of sensitive plant and animal species," Mondale said. "The BLM is uncontrollably committed to attacking the health of our communities and forests." Prendergast, however, said work on 570-acre Deer Mom sale is intended to improve forest health by thinning. He held up a section of a Douglas fir about 6 inches in diameter cut on the sale. The tree is 80 to 85 years old, and its stunted growth is an indicator that the stand is unnaturally dense and ripe for fire, he said. "When you have over-dense conditions, this is what happens," he said. The lion's share -- 87 percent -- of the trees being harvested at Deer Mom are 14 inches in diameter or less, he said. Madrone, oak, incense cedar and other trees are being left standing along with the larger Douglas fir and pine, he said. "This is typical of what we do now: maintain the species diversity that would be naturally present on a site," he said. "But to maintain that species mix, we need to open it up so species like madrone and oak and pine have the growing space to survive. "If you look at any of our Northwest Forest Plan sales, they are pretty consistent in this type of harvest," he added. "Our harvest now is concentrated on the smaller-diameter trees." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA