FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Conservationists, Timber Interests, Community Leaders Strike Landmark Agreement on Eastern Oregon Projects

Agreement Will Protect Roadless Wildlands and over 30,000 Acres of Old Growth and Allow Limited Post-fire (Salvage) Logging That Focuses on Hazard Trees near Existing Roads and Campgrounds

Negotiations by a diverse set of conservation groups, mill owners, logging interests, and community leaders in eastern Oregon has produced an agreement that will protect tens of thousands of acres of sensitive forest lands recovering from two large fires in the Malheur National Forest.

Negotiations by a diverse set of conservation groups, mill owners, logging interests, and community leaders in eastern Oregon has produced an agreement that will protect tens of thousands of acres of sensitive forest lands recovering from two large fires in the Malheur National Forest.  The proposed settlement for the Thorn and Egley timber sales will keep bulldozers and chainsaws out of wilderness-quality roadless areas and over 30,000 acres of old-growth, while allowing limited logging in less ecologically sensitive areas that can help local jobs and economics in Grant and Harney Counties. 

      “This agreement protects thousands of acres of roadless wildlands and old-growth forests that are in a fragile state as they recover from fire,” said Tim Lillebo who helped to broker the accord for the conservation group Oregon Wild. “This common-sense agreement has changed the original, excessive post-fire (salvage) logging plan and now only removes “safety hazard” trees along roads on 99% of the fire areas, while post fire cutting will occur on 1% of the fire areas. This landmark agreement protects sensitive areas for fish, wildlife and clean water.” 

      Increasingly, scientists are finding that the practice of post-fire “salvage” logging—using logging equipment to remove large live and dead trees left after a forest fire—delays forest recovery and makes forests more prone to fire in the future.  Initially, the U.S. Forest Service proposal for the Thorn and Egley timber sales included massive amounts of post-fire “salvage” logging in roadless areas and wilderness quality lands spreading out over the combined 155,000-acres affected by fires. 

      Conservation groups struck the deal to protect key roadless areas that have been proposed for Wilderness (all areas 1,000 acres and larger) from logging.  The 33,000 acre Murderers Creek Wilderness Proposal has been proposed for thirty years and will remain intact because of the agreement.  Core wildlife old growth and travel corridors will not be impacted by roads and logging. 

      “The settlement protects rare ecologically intact areas that have never been logged. Forests here have historically burned and naturally recovered in unbroken cycles spanning thousands of years, and support a wealth of native species biodiversity found in few places in the Blue Mountains.” said Asante Riverwind of the Sierra Club. “Protecting this area from logging harm allows for eventual wilderness designation, protecting species of concern including wolverine, pine marten, goshawk, woodpeckers, migrant and native birds, steelhead and salmonid habitat, rare forest flowers, and many others.” 

      “We have long past the day when massive timber sales are considered to be a sensible or acceptable response to wildfires,” said Dan Kruse, the Legal Director of the Cascadia Wildlands Project and an attorney for the conservation groups who helped broker the deal. “These post-fire landscapes embody many of the most compelling reasons to keep bulldozers out and to allow natural recovery to take its course. Fires have always burned in the forests here and are likely to do so now with more frequency because of climate change, so what we do to these post-fire landscapes will play an increasingly pivotal role in shaping the future of our public lands and waters.”

      Under the agreement, the Egley project will move forward with only the removal of trees that may pose a safety threat along already existing roads. The Thorn project includes some logging in areas already impacted by previous road building. In addition to protecting live old-growth trees and snags (dead trees), the accord also specifies that no new roads will be built into Wilderness-quality roadless backcountry areas to carry out logging—safeguarding habitat for wildlife including deer, elk, and endangered steelhead. The agreement also prevents logging activity in wildlife corridors, streamside corridors, potential Wild and Scenic River corridors and Research Natural Areas. 

      “This agreement is one-of-a-kind, one of those rare times when people with very different opinions and backgrounds come together and find common ground,” noted Karen Coulter. “It points out the need for Congress to step in and give the Forest Service direction to stay out of roadless backcountry areas and old-growth, so that we can avoid these conflicts in the future.” 

      The conservation groups also agreed to support a project that allows for small tree thinning in second growth and they agreed to participate in good faith in a collaborative process to review a fuels reduction project in a Wildland Urban Interface to protect homes and property.  

      This agreement represents a shift away from unsustainable post-fire logging proposal towards collaborative efforts to build trust and cooperation among participants.  The idea is to move forest management toward restoring old growth across the landscape and limiting reactive post-fire management.  The Forest Service and all stakeholders can achieve the most gains if they focus on science-based thinning of small trees and brush to help Oregon’s dry forests recover from harmful past management practices, while curtailing those practices, like post-fire (salvage) logging that decrease the forest’s resiliency to natural disturbances.

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Contacts

Tim Lillebo, Oregon Wild (Bend)
 (541) 382-2616 (office), (503) 709-5685 (cell)

tl@oregonwild.org

(541) 870-0605 (cell)
dkruse@cascwild.org

Karen Coulter, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project (Fossil)
(541) 468-2028 (office), (541) 385-9167 (message)

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