Mcguire timber sale, located along the National Wild and Scenic Illinois River was purchased today by John West of Silver Creek timber co. inviting further controversy over the logging of Old Growth Reserves. Read the news story here.
May 26th, 2005
An AP report May 24, titled "New claim seeks halt to Biscuit salvage logging. "The Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics sent out a formal notice Monday to the Forest Service and NOAA Fisheries. The group warned it would file a lawsuit after 60 days seeking a halt to further timber sales unless the Forest Service consults NOAA Fisheries over the effect that changes in the logging plan will have on salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act.
Andy Stahl, executive director of the group based in Eugene, said that eliminating secondary buffer zones — designed to leave large trees along perennial and intermittent streams — after telling NOAA Fisheries that they would be created amounted to a “bait and switch.” Read the full news story here.
May 17th, 2005
Unsalvageable by Kathie Durbin, May 16, 2005
With environmentalists fuming, logging companies grousing, and timber rotting, the Bush administration tries to save face and a sliver of its grand plans to log the Northwest’s forest sanctuaries. News story by High Country News. Go to the article here.
May 16th
Over 75 people protested the logging of Old Growth Reserves and planned roadless area logging on Redwood Hwy and Eight Dollar Mountain Road leading to the Fiddler Timber sale bordering the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. 5 women were arrested. See photos and more details here.
April 14th
The Associate Press news story below regards a letter from Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski to the Forest Service. In the letter the governor requested the agency hold off on auctioning the Biscuit roadless timber sales until after the courts render a decision on whether it is legal or not.
At this point the Forest Service has not agreed to wait till after a final court decision on the legality of roadless logging before auctioning any roadless timber sales. For now the government has decided to wait until 21 days after the release of the Bush Administration's revised Roadless Rule, expected in May or June.
The Bush Roadless Rule will revise the Clinton Administration's Roadless Rule - which protected roadless areass in the lower 48 states from logging. The Bush rule is expected to allow state governors to petition the federal government to keep the Clinton rule in place. If a governor does not submit such a petition, the revised rule goes into place, allowing logging in roadless areas.
As proposed by the Forest Service, the Biscuit Project would log 13 square miles and very likely remove 48,200 acres from future Wilderness designation. It will almost certainly be the first legal test of Bush's revised roadless rule. Should logging be allowed to go forward, it would have very significant implications, setting a national precedent.Read the news article here...
March, 18th
Biscuit Roadless Logging Imminent
The Forest Service has put together the first Biscuit roadless timber sale, called Mike's Gulch. The press has reported that the Forest Service says it will auction the sale at the end of March. The Biscuit logging project is being used as a way to rollback forest protections such as the Roadless Rule. Logging Mike's Gulch will set a precedent with implications for roadless areas on our nation's unprotected wilderness areas. Go here for more information.
March 14th, 2005
From news article: USFS closes area to public
By Jeff Barnard
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"I don't know what else to do to stop this destruction to our forests, so I'm going to sit down in front of the trucks again." - Joan Norman, 72, of Cave Junction
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - After a third day of arrests, the Siskiyou National Forest closed public access Monday to an area where protesters have been blocking loggers from harvesting trees in an old growth forest reserve burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire. Read the full news report here.
Old Growth Reserve Logging has begun on Fiddler timber sale unit 11 about 1 3/4 miles above the National Wild & Scenic Illinois River on the road to Babyfoot Lake (also known as the T.J. Howell Memorial Botanical Drive). The old growth forest making up unit 11 was burned by the Forest Service in fire suppression efforts during the Biscuit Fire.
Note - Unit 11 is an 18 acre logging unit, directly adjacent to the 335 contiguous acre Inventoried Roadless Area timber sale the Forest Service has laid out in the Mikes Gulch watershed/South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area and Briggs Late-Successional Reserve.
About 11 people were arrested this morning, in a peaceful blockade of the Babyfoot Lake/Fiddler timber sale road. There is heavy law enforcement presence. In addition, law enforcement drew a big line around the road blockade, called it a crime scene and threatened to arrest anyone, including media, within the line.
TV crews and newspaper reporters are on the scene including the AP, Oregonian, Ashland Daily Tidings and Medford Mail Tribune. A photographer from the NY Times is reported to be on the scene and the Washington Post is also said to be covering the story.
The Fiddler Timber Sale is entirely in the Briggs Late-Successional Reserve. It includes 440 acres of contiguous logging units in the Babyfoot Lake/Onion Camp Fiddler Mountain Area, 170 acres of contiguous logging units in the Days Gulch watershed and scattered units in Fall Creek and Mikes Gulch - all totaling 697 acres - 14.68 million board feet. The Fiddler sale will log on soil-types where Forest Service documentation reveals its taken the agency 20 years to re-establish conifers on previously logged areas, due to the rocky, dry soils.
While the Northwest Forest Plan allows for a "conservative" amount of post-fire logging in Late-Successional Reserves, it must be neutral or beneficial to recovery of old growth habitat. The logging proposed in Biscuit Late-Successional Reserve timber sales is not conservative, nor is it restorative. For example, the Forest Service's selected alternative proposes to log approximately 42.5 percent of the pre-fire late-successional (old growth) habitat in the Northwest Forest Plan's Briggs Late-Successional (Old Growth) Reserve.The Briggs LSR makes up much of the watershed of the first 17 miles of the National Wild & Scenic Illinois River.
March 2,
Siskiyou Wild Rivers: Feb. 5th Rally Video This fun and yet very serious video documents a creative rally held Feb. 5th on the T.J. Howell BOTANICAL Drive, passionate speakers, and most importantly a call to action.
Speakers passionately describe the amazing biodiversity, local economy, and old growth forests which would be irreplably harmed from the Biscuit logging plan, the largest in modern history.
PORTLAND, OR 2005-02-08 (Oregon Considered) - About 40 people gathered today in downtown Portland to protest the Biscuit Fire logging plan. As Ley Garnett reports, the demonstrators focused on one of the many Biscuit's logging projects known as the Fiddler timber sale.
Demonstrators: "Public lands, not private profit!"
Many of the protestors took note of Fat Tuesday and wore Mardi Gras outfits as they picketed the regional Forest Service headquarters building. Two people walked the sidewalks on stilts, costumes flapping in the breeze.
Rolf Skar of the Siskiyou Project said the Fiddler timber sale is the first one in the Biscuit burn to involve old growth trees.
Rolf Skar: "These are areas that are set aside as safety nets of habitat for sensitive species under the Northwest Forest Plan. Now nowhere since the Plan was created has there been massive logging of this type in those protected reserves. So this is a precedent setting action." Read more here.
February 6, 2005
"SELMA - About 150 people, some from as far away as Portland, carried signs and packed guitars near the Fiddler Timber Sale on Saturday to protest impending logging on old-growth reserves burned in the Biscuit Fire of 2002.
"I'm here expressing my moral values, standing up for the environment God created for all of us to enjoy," said Judy Reynolds of Grants Pass.
Fiddler, located along the most popular road leading into the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and popular Babyfoot Lake, would be the first old-growth Biscuit sale to move forward.
It awaits a written order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which last week lifted an injunction blocking logging on two old-growth sales, including Fiddler. The court will hear the lawsuit challenging logging on March 22". Read more of the story here...
January 28, 2005
A timber company plans to start logging next week in an old growth forest reserve burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire, setting up a confrontation with environmentalists who believe leaving the dead trees standing is better for fish, wildlife and the forest. Read the full news report here.
Rally planned for Saturday Feb. 5th at 10:00am Selma Center, Selma, OR. More information can be found here...
January 25th
1. Old-Growth Forest Reserves at Risk!
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted a temporary restriction on logging old-growth reserves in the Biscuit timber sale. With some logging ongoing, this decision opens the floodgates for seven more timber sales, threatening thousands of acres of wild forests surrounding the world class Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area.
The Biscuit fire burned through many reserves that are home to ancient trees that have experienced fire for millennia. In total, the Bush Forest Service is planning to log 6,300 acres of these old-growth reserves as part of the ironically named "Biscuit Fire Recovery Project." Old-growth reserves are special places normally set aside from logging to provide a safety net of habitat for sensitive wildlife like the Northern Spotted Owl.Read the news story here.
Because of the thousands of calls, emails, faxes and letters sent by people like you, we have STOPPED Senator Gordon Smith’s lawless logging rider.
On Saturday (Nov. 20th), the House and Senate approved a 3,016 page omnibus spending bill without including Gordon Smith’s extreme Biscuit logging rider. Although this is not the end of our efforts to protect the wild Siskiyou, this is a victory worth celebrating. Equally as important, this win is a demonstration that grassroots advocacy can still trump big money and dirty politics.
Congratulations -- you made the difference!
MORE INFO
For nearly a year, the Siskiyou Project and our allies have helped generate thousands of phone calls, emails, faxes and letters in favor of protecting the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area and opposing Senator Gordon Smith’s lawless logging rider. At the same time, we coordinated lobbying trips to Washington DC, press events, rallies and slideshow presentations across the West Coast.
Gordon Smith’s lawless logging rider would have pushed chainsaws through thousands of acres of old-growth reserves, roadless forests and Wild & Scenic River watersheds – all at huge taxpayer expense, and without enforceable environmental safeguards. It would have locked courthouse doors so that the government could violate environmental protection laws without accountability.
CHALLENGES AHEAD
While we celebrate this victory, we need to prepare for the challenges ahead. When the 109th Congress comes into session in January, it will likely begin a series of anti-environmental attacks on our wild forests, our rights and our taxpayer dollars, including the potential for a Biscuit Rider.
Stay in touch with the Siskiyou Project to learn what you can do to continue to protect wild forests in the Siskiyou and across the country.
Until then, we give thanks for dedicated Siskiyou Project members, volunteers and advocates like you for taking time out of your busy lives to make a difference for the world-class Siskiyou Wild Rivers area.
Nov. 12th
We spoke with John Williams of the Gold Beach Forest Service Office today about current status of the Biscuit Logging Plan. He informed us of updates at the Horse Timber Sale and the Indi Timber Sale.
All units at the Horse Timber Sale are done being cut. There are no longer helicopters operating in this nook of the woods. Workers will be continuing to haul logs from log decks at the Horse timber sale area by truck and road and to the lumber mill through next week.
The Indi Timber Sale is currently active. While there are no helicopters opperating at the Indi TImber Sale, loggers are actively felling trees on the ground. The Indi Timber Sale is slowly progressing along. We do not have an update as to which units exactly are active and which are not.
Oct. 28th
A Black Backed Woodpecker was seen from about 20 or 30 feet on a burnt Port Orford Cedar snag in Horse Timber Sale unit 33; part of the Biscuit Logging Plan. Black Backed Woodpeckers have become a rare scene in the Siskiyou Mountians. Some predict that these fire dependent birds will become more abundant now that fire has returned to the landscape. Click to see the photo here.
Sept. 14th
Today, Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) is attempting to make our worst dream come true. He has
attached a Biscuit Rider to his legislation now in committee. His Rider would allow all logging proposed by the Forest Service to go forward by ending our attempts now well underway to seek resolution in the courts, ending our efforts to ensure that the logging is legal and that it safeguards our forests and streams.
According to a draft supplied by Smith's office, the final environmental impact statement issued by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management "shall not be subject to judicial review by any court of the United States." This is as extreme as it gets - mandating logging of 19,000 acres on what constitutes the largest public lands logging project in modern history.
Senator Smith doesn't want logging of old-growth reserves and roadless forests to be impeded by our constitutional right to rights wrongs in the third branch of government, the judiciary. He doesn't respect the democratic process.
Please call Senator Smith's office and Senator Ron Wyden's office to let them know in no uncertain terms that you do not and will not accept a Rider. You can send an instant fax or learn more here. Read a news report here.
Senator Gordon Smith DC 202-224-3753 Portland503-326-3386 Medford541-608-9102 Eugene541-465-6750 Bend541-318-1298 Pendleton541-278-1129
Senator Ron Wyden DC202-224-5244 Portland503-326-7525 Medford541-330-9142 Eugene541-431-0229 Salem541-589-4555 La Grande541-967-7691
September 7th
Victory! The Ninth Circuit has issued an order granting our emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal, halting any ground disturbing activities (logging) on any of the LSR (old growth reserves) timber sales on Biscuit.
This prevents any LSR logging from taking place until next Spring, unless we win our arguments that logging on old growth reserves is illegal, preventing all LSR logging.
The injunction barring logging from the Biscuit area has been lifted and according to the Forest Service, logging could begin at any time. The Siskiyou Project and others have filed an appeal in regards to the injunction on the need for the FS to do the marking (as opposed to the purchaser) but also the LSR challenge that we made before Judge Hogan, which he previously denied. To see the news report go here.
August 11th
On August 11, the Forest Service held its third auction on Biscuit timber sales. The Steed timber sale was purchased by CLR Timber Holdings, of Brookings for $39.70mbf ($241,139).
Chetco and Lazy will be re-advertised. Apparently there was some "conflict" during the auction that lead the FS to reject the bidding for these two sales, due to the fact that the purchasers were talking with one another, which is illegal.
At present, the average price paid per mbf for all sales sold combined is $84.70/mbf, significantly less than what the Forest Service projected in the final EIS.
August 4th
Results are in on a July 26 court hearing in which conservation organizations requested a preliminary injunction on Biscuit timber sales sold under an emergency exemption by the Forest Service.
Applied towards Late Successional Reserves (old growth) timber sales, the judge ruled against our claim that the emergency exemption should be completely rejected. However, he did place an injunction on the logging until the Forest Service has properly marked trees for cutting in riaprian areas, which the agency had previously said would be done by loggers. The judge ruled that allowing loggers to mark the trees was illegal. The need to go back and properly mark the trees by Forest Service personnel will likely delay logging for a number of weeks.
Also, a court ordered mediation planned for Thursday and Friday of this week has been delayed until Sept. 16 & 17. The Forest Service requested a delay until it received all appeals and see who else might litigate so that additional group(s) can be included in the mediation. The judge agreed.
July 31st
Two Biscuit fire timber salvage sales on the Siskiyou National Forest were sold Friday in Medford at auction.
The Horse sale in the Gold Beach Ranger District, which includes 2.5 million board feet of timber on 125 acres, was sold to the Silver Creek Timber Co. of Merlin for $313,950. The high bid was $130 per thousand board feet. It had been advertised at $19.78 per thousand.
The Hobson sale in the Galice Ranger District, including 7.3 million board feet on 577 acres, went to Greg Liles Logging of Medford for $112,786. The firm was the sole bidder on that sale. It had been advertised at $15 per thousand. The next salvage sale auction will be Aug. 11.
July 29, 2004
OREGON TIMBER INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTIONS TO
PRESIDENT BUSH AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: Common Cause Report mentions the Biscuit logging threat. (Research performed by George Draffan) This report released July 22nd documents individual and collective contributions by the Oregon timber industry to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign over the last four years. Since 2000, the Oregon timber industry has contributed steadily to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign and the Republican Party, and stands to profit from the Bush administration’s rollbacks of federal forest protections and the resulting increased logging on federal forests in the state. For its part, the Bush administration has clearly delivered for the industry, including:
• Repeal of the roadless rule, which protected 1.9 million acres of roadless federal forests in Oregon.
• Enactment of the Healthy Forests Initiative, which allows logging of large healthy trees in the backcountry to pay for less lucrative forest thinning efforts in other parts of the forest.
• Repeal of old growth habitat protection rules in the Northwest Forest Plan.
• Rollback of stream and watershed protections in the Northwest Forest Plan.
• Advancement of the largest federal timber sale in modern history, the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area of southwest Oregon.
Siskiyou Project and seven other conservation groups made our case in court requesting a Preliminary Injunction on those old growth reserve (LSR) timber sales to be sold under an emergency exemption. Judge Hogan said he would rule on the case in the next few days. He has called for a mediation session on Aug. 5th and 6th, to include ourselves, the Forest Service and the timber industry. It is not clear whether this will pertain to the case before him only or whether it will go beyond that to encompass mediation on the entire project. Also, Hogan will be the mediator. Go to the news story here.
July 20th-
On Friday, July 9, the U.S. Forest Service sold the first round of Biscuit logging project timber sales. A total of five timber sales were put up for auction, all under an emergency exemption. The exemption fast forwards the logging by allowing the sales to be sold and logging to begin before the appeal review process is completed, which is completed 90 days after the release of the Record of Decision. (Three RODs have been made for the matrix, LSR and roadless areas.) Logging could be underway by the time you read this. In total, 11 emergency exempted timber sales will be auctioned.
Of the five timber sales, two went without a bidder. Two of the three that did sell had only one bidder, sold at the minimum bid price, a price that was significantly less than what was projected in the final EIS. Consequently, the cost to taxpayers is significantly more than was determined in the economic report by ECONorthwest and endorsed by Taxpayers for Common Sense and the National Taxpayers Union. (See www.taxpayer.net)
Of the three timber sales sold, two are located in the Late Successional Reserves (land designations allocated by the Northwest Forest Plan as areas set aside for current and future old growth). The other is in the "Matrix" area, designated for limited logging. Of the 41.6 million board feet up for sell, 33.6 sold. On July 30, the remaining six emergency exemption timber sales will be auctioned.
The Siskiyou Project and seven other organizations are legally challenging the emergency exemption as it applies to the old growth reserve timber sales. We have also appealed and are legally challenging the LSR ROD.
