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Conservationists Issue Report Card on Proposed BLM Timber Sales

Group hopes to steer Obama administration toward non-controversial projects

Communication aimed at avoiding conflict-inducing timber sales, steer agency action towards positive projects.

In a move aimed at preventing conflict in future forest management decisions, conservationists today sent a letter to the Obama administration outlining the pluses and minuses of ten proposed timber sales. The analysis comes less than a month after the Department of Interior announced the cancellation of the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR), a Bureau of Land Management logging plan developed under the Bush administration. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the decision after coming to the conclusion that the WOPR was legally indefensible.

“Secretary Salazar and his team are on the right track with many of the projects they have identified,” said Steve Pedery, Conservation Director with Oregon Wild, the organization that sent the letter. “The Obama administration has said they want to protect old growth and focus on restoration thinning projects in younger stands, and we want to help them do that.”

The letter, and attached “report card,” was sent along to Salazar and his staff, many of whom recently toured western Oregon BLM forests in June. The report card evaluated ten logging projects identified as “ecologically sound” by the Interior Department. The timber sales were examined to see how well they met the goals of restoring past mismanagement, reducing negative impacts, and protecting threatened species. Ultimately, 7 of the 10 projects received passing grades, with five scoring a “B” or better.

Unfortunately, three of the sales (all in the Roseburg BLM District) scored flunking grades. These three sales—Class of ’98, Sweet Pea, and Major Glasco—all include extensive clear-cutting of older forests. Two of the sales (Class of ’98 and Sweet Pea) were previously found illegal by a judge.

“After wasting several years planning to go back to unsustainable logging of our oldest forests, the BLM should be looking to pursue non-controversial forest projects,” added Chandra LeGue, forest advocate with Oregon Wild. “With this report, we wanted to take a proactive step and let the administration know the sort of things we could throw our support behind. Hopefully, they take it as the positive feedback it is intended to be and we can move forward with some projects that provide wood products and jobs along with forest restoration.”

In recent years, Oregon Wild has championed restoration-based forest thinning as a way to preserve mature and old-growth forests while providing jobs and wood products in rural communities. Through efforts like the Siuslaw National Forest Stewardship program, the award-winning Clackamas Stewardship Partners, and other collaborative groups across the state, Oregon Wild has worked to shift the focus of federal management agencies toward a restoration paradigm.

“After 8 years of reckless proposals to log some of our last old-growth forests and roadless backcountry areas, most Oregonians believe it is time to move on,” concluded Pedery.  “There is a tremendous need for Congress to produce legislation to guide the Forest Service and BLM, focusing on restoration thinning and ending old-growth logging once and for all.”

View the letter and report card.

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