February 24, 2004

Protesters: Extinctions likely

By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings

Protesters dressed in black mourned the expected loss of a Northwest environmental law as they walked past the U.S. Forest Service Supervisor's Office in Medford and set up a miniature graveyard in Ashland's Lithia Park.

The Monday events were part of protests in nine cities from Eureka, Calif., to Bellingham,

	Mary Lynn Fitton of Ashland discusses plants that are in danger of extinction with her children, 4-year-old Jack and 2-year-old Ellie. Satsuki Doi | Ashland Daily Tidings

Wash., designed to draw attention to the proposed elimination of requirements that the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management survey for certain rare species before logging.

Currently, buffer zones must be set up if the species are found, and many logging projects have been reduced or blocked.

In Ashland, protesters set up a tombstone for each of dozens of species that they say face extinction without the survey and manage requirements.

"We as a community are mourning the loss of biodiversity," said Lesley Adams, outreach coordinator for the Ashland- and Williams-based Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center.

The requirements are viewed as a key component of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, which covers the western areas of Oregon, Washington and northern California and was meant to protect rare species and old growth forests while allowing sustainable timber harvest.

"I was really upset when I heard about this survey and manage portion of the Northwest Forest Plan being eliminated," said Dot Fisher-Smith, an Ashland resident and veteran activist. "It's very distressing. This was part of the Northwest Forest Plan, which was crafted over a long period of time with input from lots and lots of people. When you eliminate a portion of it, it's a slap in the face of democracy."

The Forest Service and BLM jointly released a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement a month ago that named the elimination of the survey and manage requirements as the preferred alternative.

Monday was the earliest day the agencies could have released a final decision document on the issue. However, Forest Service officials expect the decision will not be issued for another two or three weeks.

"The lawyers are going through making sure the language is correct and (legally) defensible," said Rex Holloway, spokesperson in the Forest Service's regional office in Portland, where protesters also gathered Monday.

Holloway said he expects the final decision will eliminate the survey and manage requirements.

There will be no Forest Service or BLM administrative appeals process for those opposed to the change because the change covers two Forest Service regions and BLM land in two states, according to Holloway.

The decision will be signed by the secretary of Agriculture and the secretary of the Interior, or their designated staff, leaving no higher level for an administrative appeal, he said.

The Forest Service is within the Department of Agriculture and the BLM is part of the Department of the Interior.

Opponents will need to take their arguments to the courts, according to Holloway.

"If people are opposed, they will go directly to litigation," he said.

While regional Forest Service officials said logging levels could as much as double under the change, they also said rare species and old growth still will be protected.

More than 80 percent of Forest Service and BLM land covered by the Northwest Forest Plan is set aside in old growth reserves and other special areas, and 86 percent of remaining old growth trees are protected by the plan, Holloway said.

"We feel those basic building blocks for the Northwest Forest Plan are sufficient for the persistence of most species," he said. "Some of the species we do have concerns about will be put in our Sensitive Species program. We don't believe we are putting any species at risk because of the network of reserves and other requirements."

The BLM and Forest Service have a goal under the Northwest Forest Plan to harvest 805 million board feet of timber annually, but repeatedly fall short of that level. The agencies offered 400 million board feet during the 2002 fiscal year, according to Forest Service officials.

The agencies estimate logging levels could rise to 770 million board feet, although lawsuits and other factors could prevent harvest of that amount, officials said.

The planned changes are the result of a settlement after Douglas Timber Operators charged the survey and manage requirements violate a federal sustained yield law and exceed the authority of several federal environmental laws.

Environmentalists charged that the planned elimination of the requirements is part of a larger Bush administration pattern of ignoring science in order to appease logging and industry groups.

"The Bush administration is censoring and distorting science," Adams said. "Survey and manage is a perfect example of that. The science and data is making it more difficult for the BLM and Forest Service to carry out timber sales."

However, representatives of timber companies said elimination of survey and manage rules will not lead to the destruction of old growth forests or the loss of rare species, but will increase the agencies' ability to thin second growth stands and increase forest health.

Nearly all sawmills have converted their operations and now handle only small and medium diameter trees, leaving little incentive to target old growth, they said.