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Biscuit Fire Report Triggers Argument

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 03:03 CST

By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER, Associated Press writer

PORTLAND Losses from unsalvaged timber from the 2002 Biscuit fire in southwest Oregon stand to approach $140 million if nothing is done to harvest it, according to a report from the U.S. Forest Service.

Some Biscuit sales were logged in 2004 and 2005. The report said data "shows clearly that 42 percent of the volume per acre has been lost since late 2002," largely from decay.

However, the thought of logging the area is anathema to many scientists and environmentalists who say the best way to help the area recover is to leave it alone.

The report, released by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., placed the value of the timber that could be legally and profitably cut immediately after the fire at about $171.8 million. It said about $32.3 million of that has been recovered to date.

'Political operatives'

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said the report is misleading.

"The Forest Service's 'lost' revenue claim is dramatically exaggerated because it uses wood values that are five times higher than what they actually get for these sales," DeFazio said.

He said the Siskiyou National Forest had a salvage plan in place by August of 2003 but that it was "hijacked by political operatives at the White House who delayed the process and delivered an exaggerated, controversial and unrealistic salvage plan."

"It's difficult to take this report too seriously," DeFazio said.

The report said 10,200 acres believed salvageable at the time of a draft environmental impact statement in July of 2003 were lost by the time the final statement was issued a year later. By 2004 and 2005, it said, commercial-size small-diameter trees lost most of their value in areas where they were dominant.

The final environmental impact statement listed not quite 20,000 acres authorized for logging, about 4 percent of the area burned. The report issued Thursday said the fate of 8,147 of those acres are tied up in courts. It said 3,657 acres have been sold for logging.

The Biscuit fire, which burned 500,000 acres, has become a legal and political battleground over how best to restore the forest and habitat critical to the northern spotted owl and salmon.

Efforts to salvage trees killed by the fire have been met with large protests and roadblocks by environmentalists who contend leaving the area alone is the best path to forest recovery.

'Because of lawsuits'

On the other side of the argument is Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who is sponsoring a bill to fast-track the assessments of larger areas burned by forest fires.

He said of the Forest Service report: "It confirms what we believed to be the case. If you wait a long period of time the value of the trees declines, they rot and lose value."

"Most of (the loss) is because of lawsuits," he said. "Even when the Forest Service prevails it's three and a half years later and the projects they proposed to do have lost most of their value."

Rolf Skar, with the Cave Junction-based Siskiyou Project conservation group, disagreed.

"There has never been a single injunction on a single roadless area in Biscuit," he said.

He said the report is top-heavy with economic concerns and does not address such costs as maintaining replanted areas, fire risk and recreation loss. "We need a full cost accounting on this project," he said.

The Bush administration last year opened roadless areas to logging under certain conditions after they had been put off-limits by the Clinton administration.

Four Western states and several environmental groups are challenging the new roadless policy in federal court.

The Forest Service said this month it will soon auction timber from undeveloped roadless areas burned by the fire.

Environmental activists prize the roadless lands because they are considered the highest quality fish and quality habitat, with potential to become protected wilderness.

Source: Columbian

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