Biscuit Timber Sales Information

The Bush salvage plan for Biscuit includes 372 million board-feet of logging over 26,000 acres. It is nearly impossible to comprehend a project of that scope. But the Forest Service has priorities for logging. The Siskiyou National Forest sought emergency exemptions for 15 timber sales. The Regional Forester in Portland granted the exemption for 11 sales (excluding the four in inventoried roadless areas) now set to be autioned on July 14th.

The exemption was granted for sales labeled both Matrix and LSR. Matrix is the term given to sales in the timber base. That is to say, these are areas set aside under the Northwest Forest Plan for eventual logging. Matrix sales have the least legal protection. LSR stands for Late-Successional Reserves. These are ancient forest reserves supposedly protected from logging, but salvage provides a loophole to log and convert these areas into plantations.

LSR and matrix designations do not define the quality of ecosystem. Some LSR has already been logged. Many matrix areas are classic ancient forest.

We have detailed information on the first five sales and expect more information on the other six in mid-July. The five sales are called Fiddler, Flat Top, Berry, Indie and Cedar. Below is a description of each.

Fiddler

This is a 15 mmbf LSR sale just northwest of Cave Junction along the T. J. Howell Botanical Drive on the way to Baby Foot Lake, the Eight Dollar Mountain Road. Ancient forest covering 700 acres would be cut in popular recreation areas surrounded by roadless areas and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The area is part of a vast "Logging for Learning" project that will heavily log ancient forest reserves in the name of science.

The area is very important to the present and future Illinois Valley tourist economy, an issue ignored by the Forest Service in the impact statement. The Siskiyou Project and many Illinois Valley residents will likely make protection of this area their highest priority. There is only one road into the logging units.

Flat Top

This is a 12 mmbf matrix sale on the northeast corner of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. In fact logging units back immediately up to the Wilderness boundary and much of the sale is univentoried roadless area. This remote area includes the road that leads to Bald Mountain, site of Lou Gold's famous summer encampments. It is also the area where Earth First! held its 2003 Rendezvous.

Logging would take place in the upper reaches of the Silver Creek watershed which flows directly into the Wild and Scenic Illinois River just as it leaves the north side of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The 656 acres of logging units are surrounded by Wilderness, roadless and ancient forest reserves and peppered by areas designated as special wildlife areas. As matrix, this is an area with the lowest degree of possible legal protection.

Indie

The Indie timber sale is planned for the virtual center of the greater Rogue-Kalmiopsis wilderness. It is an invaluable north-south connecting corridor between the Klamath-Siskiyou and Coast Ranges. The 8 mmbf would be taken from a matrix area otherwise surrounded by wilderness, roadless and ancient forest reserves. Many of the units in this sale are filled with a preponderance of green trees calling into serious question the government's claim that only dead trees will be cut. Indie trees range to more than five feet in diameter.

The area is extremely remote, accessed easiest perhaps from the coast. It lies more than three hours from Ashland, perhaps four hours from Eugene. Remote and designated matrix, this is perhaps the most vulnerable early sale on the blocks.

Berry

This sale is near the Indie sale described above and shares all of its important ecological characteristics. It is however, 50% larger at 12 mmbf and in ancient forest reserve, LSR. The sale lies closer to the coast and further from southern Oregon population centers, not far from the small outpost of Agness. Like Indie, it lies at the northern edge of the Burn and like most of the sales proposed thus far was burned intentionally by the government as part of the firefighting effort. Forest Service documents claim loggers can take 53,000 board feet per acre from many units in this sale with an average tree diameter greater than 30 inches.

Cedar

This is a small sale on Chrome Ridge on the northeast fire line. The area has been mined and logged before. The proposal calls for less than one mmbf, presumably of cedars that were left behind after the last logging project on this high exposed ridge with remarkably poor soils.

The Next Six

Projected auction date around the end of July.

Horse: 2 mmbf of matrix in the northwest corner.
Steed: 7 mmbf of LSR in the northwest corner.
Chetco: 2 mmbf of LSR scattered around the Westside.
Briggs: 3 mmbf of matrix in the incredible Illinois River valley recreational area.
Hobson: 8mmbf of LSR in the northeast corner.
Lazy: 10 mmbf in the northeast corner.