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Biscuit Timber Sale One of Most Extreme by Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service proposes an immense salvage logging proposal, 518 million board feet over 45 square miles, that would severely damage one of America's premier natural landscapes: the Siskiyou National Forest of southern Oregon. This is the first significant logging proposed within an inventoried National Forest roadless area in the lower 48 states since the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was promulgated nearly three years ago. In fact, it is also one of the largest, most extreme logging projects EVER proposed by the Forest Service anywhere in the nation. Please send your comments now -- the comment deadline has been extended to January 20, 2004.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Biscuit Fire Recovery Project
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project.
I adamantly oppose your extreme proposal to salvage log in roadless areas and other environmentally sensitive lands of the Siskiyou National Forest.
The exceptional roadless lands and wild rivers of the Siskiyou National Forest are very important to me and many other Americans. The Siskiyou wildlands have nationally significant ecological and recreational values; salvage logging would harm those values irreparably.
Your proposal would destroy 88 square miles of potential wilderness and would rob future generations of an outstanding part of their natural heritage. Post-fire logging will damage the world-class rivers and streams in the Siskiyou and the wild salmon and trout that depend on them.
I strongly urge you to drop your current proposal and instead choose the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Conservation Alternative. Above all, no salvage logging should be allowed in any of the roadless areas or in other environmentally sensitive areas.
Thank you again for the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
December 05, 2003
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The Forest Service has extended its deadline for accepting public comment on the outrageous and destructive Biscuit Fire logging proposal through Tuesday, January 20, 2004. Please take a moment today to tell the agency that you adamantly oppose its proposed Biscuit Fire Salvage Logging Project.
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BACKGROUND: Wild Lands, Wild Rivers, Wild Creatures
The Siskiyou National Forest in southern Oregon is internationally renowned for its wilderness, wild rivers, and biological diversity. The rugged area has the most complex soils, geology, landscape, and plant communities in the Pacific Northwest. At the heart of this fabulous wildland treasure is the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area. Several large roadless areas surround the Kalmiopsis. Conservationists have sought designation of a Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Conservation Area to recognize and protect the area's unique qualities.
During the summer of 2002, the Biscuit Fire burned much of the Siskiyou National Forest, fulfilling a crucial natural role in this wilderness ecosystem. The Biscuit fire was a natural, weather-driven event that burned in a mixed mosaic pattern, helping to maintain the area's phenomenal ecological diversity. Natural rejuvenation is taking place already, with many fire-adapted plants and trees reemerging.
FIRE SALE, WITH A VENGEANCE
For us, this is a remarkable natural event in a forest system of which fire is historically an essential part. But it is quite something else for the Forest Service. The agency views the Biscuit fire mostly as an opportunity to benefit the timber industry. To that end and no other, it has proposed one of the largest logging projects in the history of our National Forests. The plan is to cut a phenomenal 518 million board feet of timber from 45 square miles of forest land.
The proposed salvage logging would have devastating impacts on the Siskiyou's unmatched roadless areas. According to the draft environmental impact statement (EIS), the agency's preferred alternative would log 20 square miles of inventoried roadless areas. The result would be destruction of wilderness potential on 88 square miles of land on the forest, some because of adjacency to logged areas, some because logging would reduce them to a size too small for future wilderness consideration.
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, adopted in 2001 after the largest outpouring of public support in the history of federal rulemaking, does not allow salvage logging within inventoried roadless areas. However, the Forest Service claims that it need not abide by the rule because of a court decision last summer by a federal judge in Wyoming. Conservationists dispute that interpretation and note that the Wyoming ruling is under appeal. The Biscuit salvage logging project is the first time that the agency has proposed large-scale logging in roadless areas anywhere in the lower 48 states since 2001.
If the agency succeeds here on the Siskiyou with this destructive scheme, it is certain to adopt the same logging-at-any-cost rationale on other National Forests elsewhere.
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PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW!
Go back to the previous page and send the letter. Or if you wish to write your own letter and send it by regular mail, email or fax, you can draw from the draft below for the most important points.
ADDRESSES
Regular mail:
Scott Conroy, Forest Supervisor
c/o ACT2, PO Box 377
Happy Camp, CA 96039-0377
FAX: (530)493-1775 and (530)493-1776
EMAIL: r6_biscuit@fs.fed.us
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