Biscuit Logging

The Bush Administration's Biscuit Fire "Preferred Alternative" is an Extreme Answer to a Natural Event

Largest Forest Service Timber Sale in Modern Times:

• Logs 370 Million Board Feet of trees on about 19,500 acres (30.41 sq. miles) of National Forest.
  
• Over 70,000 log trucks would still be needed to haul the trees to the mills. Positioned end-to-end, they would almost stretch along the Pacific Coast from the Mexican border to the Canadian border.

Politics push the Envelope:

• The Siskiyou National Forest went from a reasonable proposal to an extreme roadless area logging plan after a Logging Study financed by Douglas County Commissioners (Oregon) was submitted to the Forest Service.
  
• The Forest Service took the unprecedented step of accepting this "old school" log, plant and spray plan as new information, slowing the time-sensitive DEIS process by months.

Massive attack on Northwest Forest Plan's Old Growth Reserves

• Logs about 6,303 acres (173 million Board Feet) from Late-Successional Reserves which are designated for the protection of old-growth forests, wildlife habitat and biological diversity.

• A 36,000 acre study area under the guise of a scientific experiment ("Logging for Learning" research project).

Biggest Assault on the Roadless Rule:

• The Biscuit Project is the spearhead for the Bush administration's attempt to dismantle the Roadless Rule which protects pristine National Forests lands from roading and logging.

• Logs 8,173 acres (12.77 sq. miles) largely in Oregon's largest unprotected roadless forests: the North and South Kalmiopsis.

• 48,000 acres (75 sq. miles) of roadless areas would be disqualified from Wilderness eligibility.

Logging at the Taxpayers Expense:

• Independent analysis has shown this logging would cost taxpayers well over $40 million, wasting taxpayer money on logging the backcountry instead of protecting homes and communities from wildfire