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Timber industry appeals closures of logging roads By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press GRANTS PASS -- Using the same arguments environmentalists used to block logging, the timber industry is trying to stop the U.S. Forest Service from ripping up an old logging road, and questions the legality of 600 others. The Northwest Forestry Association, a timber industry group, and Rough & Ready Lumber Co., a Josephine County sawmill, cited a failure to fully survey for rare salamanders, plants and fungi as a reason for blocking plans to close down a logging road in the Sucker Creek drainage of the Siskiyou National Forest. "There's a real double-standard, both on the part of environmentalists and this administration," said Chris West, vice president of the Northwest Forestry Association. The argument was the same one environmentalists used in a lawsuit that put on hold 34 timber sales amounting to 217 million board feet -- a quarter of the annual output for Northwest national forests. Environmentalists had argued the Forest Service violated the Northwest Forest Plan -- which reduced logging in national forests by 80 percent to protect fish and wildlife -- by failing to survey for 77 rare plants, fungi and animals before embarking on any activities that disturb the ground. U.S. District Judge William Dwyer issued an injunction last month postponing the timber sales. Forest Service records show a total of 632 projects worth a total of $40 million that should also come under Dwyer's ruling, West said. The projects include restoring fish habitat, fixing bad road culverts, building trails, and prescribed burning. West said the timber industry was assuming the surveys were not completed, because the Forest Service had told Dwyer that it had not figured out how to do some of them. Some of the rare species can only be found at certain times of year under very specific conditions. "We're not calling for them to be halted," he said of the projects. "But I think it's ironic that 34 timber sales plus untold others are being halted for the exact same reason." Environmentalists countered that closing a road is far less destructive to habitat than logging. "Logging is the most destructive activity in the forest," said Doug Heiken of the Oregon Natural Resources Council. "It alters habitat over wide areas for a long period of time. If you are rebuilding a trail or moving a picnic table in a campground, you are not changing habitat for an old growth species." The Forest Service decided to close 3.3 miles of a 20-year-old road that suffered extensive damage from the Jan. 1, 1997 flood, said Rochelle Desser, environmental coordinator for the Illinois Valley Ranger District. Culverts plugged up with debris, causing blowouts that sent landslides into streams. "We believe we followed the rules on this," Desser said. A district biologist and botanist did field reviews that found no likely habitat for the rare species named in the Northwest Forest Plan, so no surveys were done, she said. The road was rebuilt to serve the China Left timber sale, which drew heavy protest activity from environmentalists. Part of the sale was withdrawn in 1997 to protect fish habitat after coho salmon were listed as a threatened species. To prevent future damage to fish habitat, the Forest Service wants to remove 13 road culverts, replacing them with ditches across the road, Desser said. Closing the road would block access to 100 acres of land open to logging. The project was also appealed by the Headwaters environmental group, which argued even more road should be decommissioned. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA