22 Arrests to Stop Controversial Logging in Biscuit

The public movement to stop the largest logging project in modern history is entering a critical new phase as logging within federally designated old growth reserves proceeds. Nonviolent civil disobedience actions, aimed at keeping chainsaws out of the fragile post-burn recovery area have already resulted in 22 arrests. Citizens have vowed to redouble their efforts to stop this destructive incursion into previously protected public lands.

"This broad coalition -- of local woodsmen, business owners, teachers, retirees, sportsmen, students and Earth First! -- is united in a historic confrontation. The outcome of this struggle will impact national forest policy for decades to come," says Laurel Sutherlin of the Oxygen Collective.

On Monday, March 7th an injunction issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals expired. The court had previously ruled that the US Forest Service broke its own laws while preparing the sale. The Ninth Circuit will hear the case on March 22, but the Forest Service has refused to halt the sale until then. This weeks actions occur after a broad-based, multi-year campaign by local and national organizations failed to stop the US Forest Service from moving forward with this extreme logging plan.

The US Forest Service has systematically undermined the public process for participating in land management decisions related to this project. When the USFS first proposed the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project, they received over 23,000 comments from the public, more than 95% of them expressing opposition and outrage. In response, the Bush Administration gave the USFS unprecedented new powers to declare "emergency exemptions" and deny the citizens who commented their legal right to appeal the final decision.

The Siskiyou Mountains of Southwest Oregon contain the largest expanse of Wildlands left on the West Coast of the US and are internationally recognized for the extraordinary biodiversity they support. The Siskiyou National Forest is the most botanically diverse in the nation, and the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area contains the highest concentration of federally-designated Wild and Scenic Rivers in the lower 48.

The areas threatened with logging lie within the 500,000-acre perimeter of the 2002 Biscuit Fire Area. This steep and rugged landscape has an ancient relationship with fire and the fire-adapted ecosystems here depend on fire to sustain their habitat diversity. The Biscuit Fire burned in a natural mosaic pattern across the mountains and according to the Pacific Biodiversity Institute, sixty-four percent of the area within the fire boundary either did not burn at all or burned at cool temperatures along the forest floor.

"What some people don't understand is that a burned forest is not dead. It is a living, regenerating forest. It is habitat. In fact, naturally recovering fire-affected forests are among the most rare ecosystems on earth," says Shelley Elkovich of Ashland.

The forest is indeed currently undergoing a natural regeneration process that would be retarded by industrial logging and the accompanying heavy equipment. Logging in a post-burn landscape removes the future nutrient potential stored in the dead snags, causes soil compaction and erosion, and introduces invasive, nonnative species into the area. The resulting runoff threatens the salmon-bearing streams below with unhealthy sediment loads.

"This project will cause massive erosion and run-off, further degrading one the most valuable resources we all share - water. The high quality watershed of the Illinois River Valley, the region's last free-flowing river, is already stressed by historically rock-bottom snowpack levels and a century of unsustainable resource extraction. It can't take any more abuse," said Kerul Dyer with the Biscuit Alliance.

Posted by Oso at March 12, 2005 03:40 PM | Category(s): Biscuit Fire Campaign