For Immediate Release: January 27, 2005

For more information, contact Rolf Skar with the Siskiyou Project at 503.222.6101

Forest Service Rushing Ahead to Log Old Growth Reserves
Members of Local Community See Loss of Value and Opportunity in Rush to Log

The Forest Service is rushing to cut down ancient trees in old growth reserves on Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest before a federal court can determine if the logging is legal. Citizens monitoring the sale areas and statements by the agency indicate that snow is being cleared from logging roads to several timber sales and the sites are being prepared for logging.

"Giving the timber industry the green light to log these ancient trees will result in tons of soil washing into Oregon’s wild rivers, and there is no way this will be good for endangered salmon or the local people who rely on, or enjoy, these endangered fish," said Elaine Wood, a retired school teacher who lives near the fire area.

"Wild, old growth forests are endangered here in the Northwest. The Forest Service doesn’t have to rush in and cut these special places," said Ivan Maluski of the Sierra Club. "It must respect the public’s overwhelming desire to protect old growth forests and the irreplaceable Siskiyou Wild Rivers area."

The court will consider the merits of case brought by a coalition of conservation organizations claiming the project will harm water quality and destroy wildlife habitat in a March 22 hearing. If the court rules the sale illegal, trees that have already been cut down will be lost forever and cannot be replaced.

One of the first Old Growth Reserve sales that could be logged is the 697 acre, 14.68 million board foot Fiddler timber sale with logging units as large as 225 acres in the headwaters of Babyfoot Creek and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. In total, the Forest Service is proposing to log 6,806 acres of the Briggs Old Growth Reserve, which contains approximately 16,000 acres of old growth. Another old growth reserve is threatened by the 339 acre Berry timber sale which would log 12.8 million board feet of trees.

The Forest Service is using a strategy to make the logging of Roadless Areas and Old Growth Forest Reserves in the Biscuit Fire palatable to the public by claiming that the logging will occur on only four percent of the area burned in the Biscuit fire and be dispersed across a large landscape. A Forest Service document outlining this media strategy for minimizing the appearance of logging impacts is available from the Siskiyou Project.

"What they don’t tell the public is that the logging is highly concentrated in areas such as the Briggs Old Growth Reserve and the watershed of the National Wild & Scenic Illinois River," said Barbara Ullian, conservation director of the Siskiyou Project. "The Forest Service proposal will log 42 percent of the old growth found in the Briggs Old Growth Reserve and 53 percent and 28 percent of two watersheds feeding into a Wild and Scenic River."

The Briggs Old Growth Reserve is adjacent to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness and includes important botanical features and recreation areas such as the Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area, the 16-mile T.J. Howell Memorial Botanical Drive, Onion Camp, Fiddler Mountain, Fall & Rancherie Creeks, Pearsoll Peak and one of the most scenic trails in the area, the Kalmiopsis Rim Trail.